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[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (CNN) -- Attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq with bombs believed linked to Iran -- known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) -- have risen sharply in January after several months of decline, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Explosively formed penetrators are more sophisticated and deadlier than typical improvised explosive devices. Iraqi and U.S. officials indicated just a month ago that Iran was using its influence to improve security in Iraq by restraining cross-border weapons flow and militia activity. The U.S. military had said in recent months that the number of EFP attacks had gone down. Gen. David Petraeus disclosed the reversal to reporters after a meeting with President Bush who was visiting troops in Kuwait. \"In this year, EFPs have gone up, actually, over the last 10 days by a factor of two or three, and frankly we're trying to determine why that might be,\" Petraeus said. Petraeus did not say how many American troops have been killed or wounded by EFPs in recent days. The U.S. military announced nine troop deaths from bombings in the first 11 days of January, but the death announcements did not specify if EFPs were involved. EFPs are more sophisticated and deadlier than the typical improvised explosive devices (IED) used by insurgents as roadside bombs to attack convoys and foot patrols until last year. EFPs use components manufactured in Iran and militants are trained in Iran to use them, the U.S. military has said. President Bush, in remarks to reporters in Kuwait, said: \"Iran must stop supporting the militia special groups that attack Iraqi and coalition forces, and kidnap and kill Iraqi officials.\" The Bush administration and the military have long maintained that Iranian agents, particularly the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- have been arming and training Iraqi insurgents. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Emily Schultz contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. military says January increase in bombs believed linked to Iran .\nDevices are known as EFPs (explosively formed penetrators)\nGen. Petraeus: EFPs increased by a factor of two or three over last 10 days .\nBush administration, military say Iran arming, training Iraqi insurgents ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed an eight-point peace agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday at a summit in Pyongyang, North Korea. The leaders pledged to work toward forging a permanent peace treaty between their nations, which ended the 1950-1953 war with a cease-fire. The Koreas have remained technically at war for 54 years. The armistice was signed July 27, 1953. \"South and North Korea agree on [the] need to end the current armistice and establish permanent peace,\" the fourth point of the agreement says. In addition, the two sides will push \"for a declaration of the ending of the Korean War in cooperation with neighboring nations.\" \"If there is nuclear disarmament, and if the peace treaty moves forward, I believe that the Cold War era will end and there will really be reunification and peace between the two countries,\" Roh said in a speech to government officials that was nationally televised on his return home. \"Any conflicting issues, we said we would talk about it. And we said that we would work together,\" Roh said. \"I don't think there will be problems in the future.\" U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement \"a major step forward to enhance inter-Korean cooperation as well as peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.\" \"The United Nations stands ready to provide assistance as may be required, in cooperation with the international community,\" Ban said in a statement issued by his office. Roh admitted that after arriving in the North Korean capital and meeting Kim, he was so worried that he couldn't sleep that night. \"I can say simply [that] we were able to communicate. Things went better,\" said Roh. On Tuesday, Roh became the first South Korean leader to walk across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone between the two countries. His predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, flew to Pyongyang for the first Korean leader summit in 2000. Roh said one of the most important aspects of the talks was an agreement to designate a joint fishing area and economic zone along the disputed western sea border, where there were bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. \"We believe the north-south summit went a step further and confirmed what is happening in the six-nation talks,\" Roh said. The United States, North Korea, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea are involved in nuclear agreements made earlier in the year that will lead to the disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities. On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said that a U.S. team, including technical experts, will head to North Korea next week, after the communist country agreed to begin the process. The experts will make it difficult to restart a nuclear program by sealing North Korea's main nuclear facility and removing certain components that would not be easy to replace. The goal in the next phase, Hill said, is complete dismantlement, but that could take up to five years. The reconciliation pact also calls for North and South Korean leaders to meet often for discussions on \"pending issues.\" That pact stipulates that there will be a meeting between Korean prime ministers in Seoul in November. Military ministers for the two Koreas will meet in Pyongyang on Friday. Among the long list of agreements made during the summit are expanded economic cooperation and a proposed exchange of video letters between families separated by the divided Korean peninsula. Roh and Kim opened formal talks Wednesday at the first summit between the divided countries in seven years. Hundreds of North Koreans cheered Roh's arrival at the April 25 Hall of Culture in downtown Pyongyang on Tuesday, waving large spikes of KimJongilia, the brilliant pink flower named for North Korea's reclusive leader. The two leaders shook hands during a short opening ceremony. The meeting with Kim Jong Il, announced in early August, was initially scheduled for the end of that month but was postponed after massive flooding in Pyongyang. The Koreas summit also comes in the final months of Roh's scandal-ridden term, and some analysts suspect the South Korean leader is hoping the Pyongyang meeting will boost his sagging approval ratings and help position his party in the upcoming elections against the conservative opposition. The 2000 summit, part of Kim Dae-jung's policy of engagement with North Korea, paved the way for his Nobel Peace Prize awarded that same year. But South Korean investigators later revealed that Kim Dae-jung paid hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the meeting, the first between Stalinist North Korea and capitalist South Korea. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-ae contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "North, South Korea agree on need to \"establish permanent peace\"\nPact calls for North, South Korean leaders to meet often on \"pending issues\"\nAlso discussed was an exchange of video letters between separated families .\nMilitary ministers for the two Koreas will meet in Pyongyang on Friday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- \"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.\" -- Mark Twain . Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, whose expeditions have inspired others to seek adventure . Adventure comes to those who seek it. Some are born with an adventurous streak, an insatiable curiosity that can only be quelled through discovery, while others seek out adventures as a means of conquering the demons within: fear, boredom, stagnation, a sort of dry rot of the soul. We see adventurous people as being somehow different from ourselves: stronger, braver, tougher, fitter. They are versions of our best selves: the doers in life, the fearless, those who go over the mountain and come back to tell us what's on the other side. While we may think the true adventurers are a species apart, we are all adventurers at heart -- yet sometimes the urge is stifled by modern life. The lust for adventure is planted in childhood. How many of us sat enthralled under the blankets as our parents read us the adventures of the Famous Five, \"Treasure Island,\" \"Where the Wild Things Are,\" \"The Swiss Family Robinson,\" \"Tarzan\" and \"Peter Pan\"? Children weaned on such stories may be forgiven for assuming adulthood is one long adventure that swings wildly between jungles, swamps, deserted islands and alpine heights. Yet modern life is increasingly sedentary and safety-conscious. The desire for comfort and convenience ameliorates our contradictory urge to explore. A few have it thrust upon them: stranded in an inhospitable place, lost in a jungle or called up for combat -- and they find themselves dropped in an adventure that they may not have chosen; but for the main part, adventure comes to those who seek it. Dr. James Thompson, a senior lecturer in psychology at University College London, says seeking adventure is more common \"amongst people who are extroverted, who are outgoing, who are sociable, because one of the things they need -- apart from the excitement of people -- is excitement generally.\" But if you think adventure is something that only happens to other people; that you are too unfit to climb a mountain, too scared to sail across the open sea, too nervous to travel through a country where you can't speak the language; perhaps you should rethink. After all, having an adventure could be good for you. Psychologists have linked adventure-seeking with a range of positive qualities. Adventure can: . Following the stories of this age's greatest adventurers such as polar explorer Douglas Mawson, Everest climber Edmund Hillary and mountaineer Reinhold Messner, we are encouraged not just to follow their paths up mountains or along rock faces -- they also inspire us to take more risks, to seize more from each day. Who could fail to be inspired after watching CNN interview the world's greatest living mountaineer, Reinhold Messner? In 1980, Messner was the first person to ascend Mount Everest alone without supplementary oxygen. Later, he crossed Antarctica on skis. He tells CNN anchor Becky Anderson: \"I'm a normal person, a totally normal person, and I was really lucky in my life to have to have the opportunity to follow my dreams. So in the beginning I was a rock climber, and all my enthusiasm, my energy and my willpower went into rock climbing.\" Many young people are naturally adventurous -- throwing their energy and enthusiasm behind sport, hobbies and travel. Witness the explosion of school leavers taking gap years (a year off in between school and university or the workforce), with the destinations becoming more and more exotic and activities accompanying the travel designed to expand their mind as well as their horizons. But later in life, we can wake up and find our lives leeched of adventure. We may be loaded down with a mortgage, kids or a demanding job. Adventure then becomes something we prefer to read about rather than live. We fall into the trap of the armchair traveler and become transfixed by all the journeys we didn't make. Instead of setting out on our own expeditions, we read Joe Simpson's account of his near-death mountaineering experiences in \"Touching the Void.\" Or we follow Sebastian Junger's account of wild sea adventures in \"The Perfect Storm.\" But while we are great armchair adventurers, a craving for the real thing can stir in us when we feel the need to change and shake things up. Women in their 40s are leading the charge towards adventure. A survey released by the Adventure Travel Trade Association in March 2007 said today's typical adventure traveler was \"female and fortyish.\" \"Women make up the majority of adventure travelers (52 percent) worldwide, with the most common destination being South America,\" said the trade association. The survey of travelers from 35 countries also found that people aged 41 to 60 are the highest participating age group in adventure travel. A survey by YouGov in the UK has identified a new subset of British -- the Nifty Fifties. They've had the responsible jobs and raised their children -- and now they want adventure. Tesco Life Insurance has noticed: \"They've decided to take the five star version of the student gap year, encompassing all of the adventure with none of the discomforts. Neither burgeoning waistlines nor graying hair is going to hold them back.\" Some older people are inspired to seek adventure by their children's gap year experiences. Others just want to spend their kids' inheritances. In a survey of older people carried out by Tesco Life Insurance they compiled the Nifty Fifty wish list. Adventure is a common component to their aspirations, the most popular of which are noted below: . Tony Wheeler, one of the founders of guidebook giant \"Lonely Planet,\" is now an aging baby-boomer, yet he still pops up in Iran, a place that has recently dominated headlines the world over for all the wrong reasons. In a recent piece in UK newspaper The Observer, he also recommends holidays in North Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. Messner now is 63 years old and although he no longer has the strength of his youth, he is still setting himself challenges. \"So my challenge today is this one (setting up a museum), I will finish this one and afterwards I will invent a new challenge and it will be not on Everest and not in Antarctica it will be probably in a mental dimension because mentally we can go very far also in later years,\" he told CNN. But the yearning for adventure can strike at all ages. Dave Wroe, 33, and Penny Bradfield, 28, both gave up exciting jobs in the Australian media to travel. They are spending April and May in Iran and have already braved trekking in the Amazon, train travel across India, diving in Syria and traveling in Columbia. \"I see adventure as going beyond something you feel comfortable with. If you are uncomfortable going to the end of your street and you go beyond this, then you are being adventurous,\" said Wroe. Wroe has a point. You don't have to emulate the deeds of Messner to be an adventurer. The spirit of adventure can infiltrate all areas of your life. You can infuse life's \"ordinariness\" with an adventure: cooking a meal that you may not have tried before, walking to work on a different route, striking up conversation with someone at the office whom you perceive to be intimidating. Successfully pushing your natural boundaries can lead to increased confidence. \"The general things which determine whether you start being adventurous is your personality and your youth. But once you start noticing that you have been able to overcome a challenge, it becomes a reward in its own right,\" said Dr. Thompson. For Messner, adventure now takes place on the ground, with establishing a climbing museum and being elected a member of the European Parliament. Speaking to CNN with the mighty mountains behind him, there was a restless but playful look in his eyes. He said he wasn't the type to sit around, drink beer and collect his pension in his old age. Adventure is so much a part of his life, it seems, that it is an urge that can only be extinguished by death. And so while the strength in his body diminishes, the adventures will take place in his mind. Messner is an extraordinary man, and while most of us would struggle to climb Everest with or without oxygen, we can still emulate his spirit of adventure in our daily lives." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner has inspired others to seek adventure .\nPsychologist Dr. James Thompson says adventurers tend to be more extroverted .\nWomen in their 40s are leading the charge towards adventure .\nInsurers say \"Nifty Fifties\" are seeking adventures once the kids have left home ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy released nine of the 16 suspected pirates it was holding on a ship for the last few weeks, according to defense officials. The U.S. Navy apprehends suspected pirates February 12 in the Gulf of Arden. The pirates were released because the Navy did not have enough evidence to hand them over to Kenya for prosecution in court, in accordance with a recent agreement between the United States and Kenya, the officials explained. The nine were brought into Somali waters and then handed over to the Puntland coast guard. Puntland is the self-proclaimed Somali state that includes the point of the horn of Africa. The suspected pirates were detained by the Navy after the captain of the Indian-flagged ship Premdivya broadcast a distress call to all ships in the area that it had come under attack by a small boat. The Navy saw a small boat meeting the description given by the Premdivya, and the occupants were detained and moved to the nearby USS Vella Gulf, where they were held." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Navy didn't have evidence to hand suspected pirates to Kenya for prosecution .\nNine people were brought into Somali waters, handed to coast guard .\nSuspected pirates were detained after a captain broadcast a distress call .\nCaptain said he was under attack by pirates in small boat ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Although President-elect Barack Obama will become the next commander-in-chief in just two weeks, several key issues remain to be resolved regarding the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq and the buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A U.S. soldier patrols in a village north of Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. A closed-door meeting Monday at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. David Petraeus -- who is in charge of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- ended with no consensus on troop plans for either country, several top U.S. military officials told CNN. The officials, who did not want to be identified because the meeting was private, all offered CNN similar accounts of the discussions. In addition, a review of the Afghanistan war strategy being conducted by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen is also incomplete and has not been approved by the Joint Chiefs. That review, according to one official, will not be finished until the Obama administration is in office. The Monday meeting was polite, one official said, but also interesting and intense. A second official described the discussion as lively and said it ranged further than originally anticipated. The session was held in the \"tank,\" a secure meeting room inside the Pentagon reserved for some of the most sensitive and classified conversations by top officials. It was called to discuss yet again how the drawdown of troops in Iraq could be scheduled so that more troops could be sent to Afghanistan -- an issue that the chiefs have struggled to resolve for months. According to the officials, a 10-page plan from the U.S. Central Command calls for a very gradual drawdown between now and the end of 2011, when all U.S. troops are supposed to be out of Iraq under the terms of a recent agreement between the two countries. But Petraeus and other top U.S. commanders in Iraq are reluctant to agree to any specific drawdowns of units more than six months ahead of time because of the uncertain security situation and the upcoming elections in Iraq, according to a second official. \"The real debate is over the timing and risk of drawing down troops in Iraq,\" the second official said. That decision is considered a vital first step. Military officials have long said the Pentagon needs to have some assurance of drawdowns over the next year in order to free up enough troops to send more units to Afghanistan, where commanders are asking for up to 30,000 additional troops. The Marine Corps is continuing to press its position that several thousand Marines could be withdrawn from Iraq in the coming months, with their replacements going to Afghanistan instead. The current calculation is that the full complement of troops for Afghanistan could not be completely sent until sometime next year or in 2011. Some commanders in Afghanistan say that's too late, given the deteriorating security situation there. Once in office, Obama is expected to ask commanders to develop a plan for a 16-month drawdown, as he promised during his campaign for the White House. It's not clear if the Joint Chiefs and Petraeus will recommend that there is unacceptable risk in the quicker drawdown option. The second official also emphasized that even though Washington and Baghdad have agreed that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by 2011, there is a general private understanding by both sides that some U.S. troops could remain there or in neighboring Kuwait to provide help in key areas such as training, securing borders and providing airlift capabilities. Obama has also said he wants a residual force to remain in Iraq." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Petraeus hold closed-door meeting .\nOfficials say meeting ended with no consensus on troop plans .\nDiscussions deal with pulling troops out of Iraq, beefing up forces in Afghanistan .\nObama, once in office, is expected to ask for plan on Iraq troop drawdown ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people and injured 70 -- many of them women -- during a Shia pilgrimage in northwestern Baghdad Sunday, Iraqi officials told CNN. Pilgrims, pictured above, have gathered to celebrate the Shia holy period of Ashura. The dead included at least 16 Iranians who had come to mark the Shia holy period of Ashura, which commemorates a central event in the history of the movement. At least 32 Iranians were among the wounded. The other casualties were Iraqi, an Interior Ministry official said. The bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, military spokesman for Fardh al-Qanoon, an interagency domestic security body. She seems to have been targeting women, Atta and an interior ministry source said. The Interior Ministry official declined to be identified. The attack appears to be the single deadliest suicide bombing in Iraq since a bomber killed 47 people in Kirkuk in December 11. It took place in Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood, not far from the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim holy shrine. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Karbala for Ashura, which falls on January 7 this year. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He was killed in battle in Karbala in 680, one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suicide bomber kills at least 40 people and injures 70 in Baghdad .\nDead included many Iranians who were marking Shia holy period of Ashura .\nThe bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, official says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of militants, believed to be foreign fighters, launched attacks on various military check posts in Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Saturday night and early Sunday morning, military officials said. A Pakistan soldier on patrol last fall against militants on the border of the Mohmand agency district. The ensuing fighting left 40 militants and six Pakistan soldiers dead, said military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas. \"This is one of the largest attacks we have seen,\" Abbas said. The attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency, part of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Abbas said the fighters crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, and used rocket launchers and machine guns in their attacks. They have since been repelled, he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a porous 1,500-mile border. In recent months, Afghan officials have blamed militants operating from havens in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan of sneaking into their country and attacking security personnel. Pakistan has repeatedly denied involvement and bristled at the accusation, saying that Afghan lawmakers were making allegations without proof. Abbas' Sunday comments reverse those allegations, with Pakistan now blaming militants from Afghanistan attacking inside its soil." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency .\n40 militants, six Pakistani soldiers killed in fighting, Pakistan says .\nMilitants crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, official says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mumia Abu-Jamal sits on Pennsylvania's death row, perhaps the most recognized of the 228 condemned inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility, an hour south of Pittsburgh. Former radio host and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal during a 1994 interview . Abu-Jamal, inmate AM8335, awaits three milestones. His new book, \"Jailhouse Lawyers,\" will be released next month. He's also awaiting a pair of Supreme Court decisions, which could come in the next two weeks. The former Black Panther was sentenced to die for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago. The high court will decide whether he deserves a new hearing to determine whether his execution should go forward. The state is appealing a federal appeals court ruling on the sentencing question that went in Abu-Jamal's favor last year. The case has attracted international attention. Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed a separate appeal claiming that racism led to his 1982 conviction. That petition is scheduled for consideration by the Supreme Court on April 3. If either case is accepted by the justices for review, oral arguments would be held in the fall. The former radio reporter and cab driver has been a divisive figure, with many prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial. Others counter that Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility for his actions. They say he has divided the community for years with his provocative writing and activism. He was convicted for the December 9, 1981, murder of officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, in Philadelphia. Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a late-night traffic stop. Witnesses said Abu-Jamal, who was nearby, ran over and shot the police officer in the back and in the head. Abu-Jamal, once known as Wesley Cook, was also wounded in the confrontation and later admitted to the killing, according to other witnesses' testimony. Abu-Jamal is black, and the police officer was white. Incarcerated for nearly three decades, Abu-Jamal has been an active critic of the criminal justice system. On a Web site created by friends to promote his release, the prisoner-turned-author writes about his fight. \"This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America.\" His chief defense attorney, Robert Bryan, has filed appeals asking for a new criminal trial. \"The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection,\" he wrote to supporters last month. \"We are in an epic struggle in which his life hangs in the balance. What occurs now in the Supreme Court will determine whether Mumia will have a new jury trial or die at the hands of the executioner,\" Bryan said. Ten whites and two blacks made up the original jury panel that sentenced him to death. A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals kept the murder conviction in place a year ago but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing. \"The jury instructions and the verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from finding a mitigating circumstance that had not been unanimously agreed upon,\" Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote in the 77-page opinion. The federal appeals court ultimately concluded that the jury was improperly instructed on how to weigh \"mitigating factors\" offered by the defense that might have kept Abu-Jamal off death row. Pennsylvania law at the time said jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance, such as the fact that Abu-Jamal had no prior criminal record. Months before that ruling, oral arguments on the issue were contentious. Faulkner's widow and Abu-Jamal's brother attended, and demonstrations on both sides were held outside the courtroom in downtown Philadelphia. If the Supreme Court refuses now to intervene on the sentencing issue, the city's prosecutor would have to decide within six months whether to conduct a new death penalty sentencing hearing or allow Abu-Jamal to spend the rest of his life in state prison. Many prominent groups and individuals, including singer Harry Belafonte, the NAACP and the European Parliament, are cited on his Web site as supporters. Prosecutors have insisted that Abu-Jamal pay the price for his crimes and have aggressively resisted efforts to take him off death row for Faulkner's murder. \"This assassination has been made a circus by those people in the world and this city who believe falsely that Mumia Abu-Jamal is some kind of a folk hero,\" Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said last year, when the federal appeals court upheld the conviction. \"He is nothing short of an assassin.\" The city has honored the fallen police officer with a street designation and a commemorative plaque placed at the spot where he was shot and killed. The officer's widow, Maureen Faulkner, wrote a book two years ago about her husband and the case: \"Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice.\" She writes that she was trying to \"definitively lay out the case against Mumia Abu-Jamal and those who've elevated him to the status of political prisoner.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mumia Abu-Jamal's case has become an international cause .\nHe has two appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court .\nRacism responsible for his conviction, death sentence, appeal says .\nAbu-Jamal convicted in 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A string of bombings around Iraq's capital has killed eight people, including three Iraqi soldiers who died when their weapons truck was hit, and wounded at least 32, the country's Interior Ministry said. Blood stains the ground following the explosion of an IED on Kahramana Square in Baghdad on January 12. The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad about 10:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) on Monday. The blast also set off small arms ammunition loaded on the truck. Four civilians were wounded in the attack. Separately, three civilians died when a car bomb went off outside a bakery in the eastern district of New Baghdad, followed shortly by another car bomb. Ten people were wounded, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. In central Baghdad, two civilians died in roadside bomb attacks -- one near Kahramana Square and the other targeting a police patrol in the Sheikh-Omar commercial area. A total of seven people, including three police officers, were wounded in those incidents. Two other roadside bombs went off near police patrols in neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city -- the Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad and the Zayuna district on the city's east side. There were no fatalities in either attack, but 11 people -- including one police officer in Ghazaliya and three in Zayuna -- were wounded. The attacks came as U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden on Monday met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad. Biden -- who had been the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- has been on a foreign visit that included stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Barack Obama, the incoming U.S. president, is planning to shift the military focus in the region to fighting militants in Afghanistan, while withdrawing all but a residual force of troops from Iraq. The U.S. military said two of its troops died as a result of non-combat-related injuries on Sunday. One soldier died in northern Iraq and a U.S. Marine in western Iraq. Five U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, and 4,225 since the war started. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Monday .\nSeparately, three civilians died when a car bomb went off in the city's east .\nAttacks came as U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden met with Iraq's president .\nU.S. military says two troops have died as a result of non-combat-related injuries ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The heady days of New York epitomized by Wall Street excess and rampant wealth may seem a far-flung memory, but the city still retains its buzz, its high-octane spirit that is the essence of its magical personality as a place where anything can happen. The original 24 hour city, but still the best? You can turn a trip to NYC into anything you want it to be. New York remains firmly in first place as the world's 24 hour city, with nearly anything accessible at any hour. There is a frustratingly vast number of sights to see, places to eat, shopping, partying and serious cultural gems dotted throughout the place. So many films, books, television shows and musicians have personified New York that it's hard not to feel you already know it before you arrive. While many of those stereotypes ring true, entering the city -- whether the first or twentieth time -- with an open mind will make each visit seem an adventure. At first, the glittering, noisy and even rude aspect of the city may send timid visitors running. Look below the surface and you may see more than just shimmering skyscrapers and neatly manicured inhabitants but a multifarious bunch of people somehow co-existing astonishing well within the city's grid structure. Despite their sometimes alarming candor, New Yorkers are as much a part of the city's entertainment as catching a Broadway show. A starting point for 24 hours in the city should begin with breakfast or brunch New York style: eggs (however you'd like) and some good strong coffee to charge you up for the day. Almost every corner of Manhattan has a local diner, otherwise head downtown to breakfast stalwarts Bubby's or Kitchenette in Tribeca, or more recent favorite New French in the West Village. Continue south to Lower Manhattan, with an excursion on the free, 25-minute (each way) Staten Island ferry. The views of downtown, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island give a closer glimpse of what it must have been like to arrive in the city as an immigrant in days past. Next head up to lively Chinatown to shop and bargain for knock-off designer handbags and various tat around Canal Street. If feeling peckish, have dim sum at New Green Bo Restaurant, known for its no-frills decor and delicious dumplings. Or continue on to Nolita (via Little Italy) to lunch at cool, low-key Café Gitane, or in SoHo at the beautiful French restaurant Balthazar (often a hangout of celebs). Shoppers will want to save time for the boutiques of Nolita and the higher-end designer shops in SoHo. If strolling is your thing, don't miss the opportunity to wander the leafy, village-like streets of the West Village. Loads of tiny boutiques (many of which have gone high-end in years past), inviting sidewalk cafes and the general laid-back style of the place seem the perfect antidote to otherwise hectic areas of town. Art enthusiasts should head straight to West Chelsea next, where there are enough galleries to spend several days. The Chelsea Gallery District is home to New York's contemporary art scene and sits over near the Hudson River, spanning several streets going north. Outdoor lovers will also be enticed to the West Chelsea neighborhood as the New York High Line is opening in June 2009. The former elevated railroad has been converted into a park including floating ponds, sundecks and lookout spots over the Hudson River and Manhattan. One of the city's most exciting recent projects, the public park will span 22 blocks (once it's all open in 2010), a huge accomplishment after many locals fought for years to turn it into green space. After a rest in the park, take in Midtown for its neck-wrenching skyscrapers. Admire the Chrysler Building, the city's homage to art deco, and gape up at the city's tallest building, the Empire State Building. Stop in Grand Central Terminal, taking note of its Beaux Arts beauty and its constellation-inspired ceiling, where you may have time to sneak a drink in the tucked away, wood-paneled Campbell Apartment bar. Then admire the nineteen buildings comprising Rockefeller Center, before glimpsing at St. Patrick's Cathedral across the street. (Shoppers beware: the temptations of Fifth Avenue shops and department stores may pull you off schedule here). If your feet can still keep up the pace, stroll up to Central Park, for a glimpse of New Yorkers oasis of green. A variety of activities in the park will amuse you, from sporty rollerbladers dancing around to the peaceful Conservatory Gardens where you can rest. Cultural buffs should head up the park's east side to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It could easily command several hours if not days, but if short on time choose one section. All nearby, the Frick Collection, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum are each possible on their own in an hour or two. Time for a tea or coffee break? Visit the pretty Viennese Café Sabarsky inside the Neue Galerie, or stop in for a chi-chi cocktail at the Carlyle Hotel nearby. For a classic New York dining experience in an elegant setting, end the perfect New York day at Gramercy Tavern before retiring to a nearby bar for a nightcap. Otherwise, if a Broadway show is on the agenda, visit Times Square by night, taking in the dazzling lights and mayhem of New York's entertainment district. For cheap theater tickets, visit either the TKTS booth in Times Square at 47th Street and Broadway, or call ahead to the selected theater to see if last-minute \"rush\" tickets are available. Another option, head downtown to hear some jazz in Greenwich Village at the Village Vanguard or the Blue Note, or take in some drinks in one of many of New York's watering holes. A few favorites include Simone Martini Bar in the East Village, Sunita in the Lower East Side or Epistrophy in Nolita." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The original 24-hour city has plenty of offer for first- or tenth-time visitors .\nFuel up for the day with a typical NYC breakfast and head to lower Manhattan .\nMid-town sights and shopping can provide plenty to delight and distract .\nIt remains an international city where you can make your own adventures ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Law enforcement officials in southern California searched urgently Wednesday for a 3-year-old boy who was kidnapped at gunpoint during a weekend home invasion. Briant Rodriguez, 3, was taken by armed men during a home invasion in San Bernardino, Caifornia, police say. Two men broke into a house in the San Bernardino area on Sunday and tied up the boy, Briant Rodriguez, his mother and other siblings. They ransacked the house and fled with the boy, authorities said. One of the children freed himself and untied the rest of the family, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. The boy's father was at work at the time, KTLA said. An Amber Alert was issued late Sunday. Sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino County released composite sketches of the suspects during a news conference on Tuesday. Watch how the boy was taken at gunpoint » . Sheriff's officials said they placed the boy's picture on billboards along the U.S.-Mexican border and have followed up on half of 80 or so leads from the Amber Alert tip-line. Federal, state and local authorities are working the investigation, which is sparing no expense, Sgt. Doug Hubbard. said. \"Every type of known technology is working on this case,\" he added. Officials said the kidnappers have not contacted authorities or the parents. At the news conference, the boy's mother, Maria Millan, held her son's T-shirt and begged that he be released. \"My son, my son, my pretty son,\" she said. Millan said she told the kidnappers \"I don't owe you a thing\" and has said she didn't know the men. There has been speculation that the boy's abduction was a case of mistaken identity or carried out by people involved with organized crime. Authorities say they have found no motive in the case, and they are not ruling out any possibility. They said the parents are not suspects. Hubbard, the sheriff's department's lead investigator in the case, said \"the family obviously has been very distraught.\" \"Every second that goes by for us is critical,\" Hubbard said of the round-the-clock and robust investigation. He also added that in his 20-year career he has never experienced a case where a home-invasion robbery resulted in a kidnapping. Briant is described in the Amber Alert as a Hispanic male who was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with blue sleeves and blue-striped shorts with two different colors of blue. The boy's hair is longer than shoulder length. Both suspected kidnappers are Hispanic males -- one 5-feet, 5 inches tall, between the ages of 18 and 20 with a thin build, unknown hair and eye color, last seen wearing a black baseball hat, blue jeans and green T-shirt. The other is 5-foot-10, around age 24 with a thin build, black boots, a black shirt and a bandanna." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police say the boy's abductors haven't contacted his family .\nBriant Rodriguez taken during home invasion in San Bernardino, California .\nAuthorities have posted billboards along U.S.-Mexico border ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The family of a woman who faces charges of killing an 8-year-old playmate of her daughter's said Sunday the accusations are \"completely out of character.\" The Tracy, California, family offered their prayers to the victim's family. Melissa Huckaby was charged with kidnapping and murder in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. \"We are deeply saddened by the loss of this beautiful girl,\" said a man who would not give his name, identifying himself only as a relative of suspect Melissa Huckaby, 28. He was referring to Sandra Cantu, who was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family -- the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her own 5-year-old daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said. Sandra's body was found Monday, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested late Friday after she was questioned by police. She faces kidnapping and murder charges in Sandra's death. Watch police discuss the arrest » . Sheneman told reporters Saturday he \"couldn't begin to theorize\" a motive. Family members went to visit Huckaby in jail Sunday, but were told they could not see her, the relative told reporters. \"We do know that the information we've been given regarding the charges against Melissa Huckaby are completely out of character for her,\" he said. Relatives are in \"absolute shock\" at Huckaby's arrest, he said. Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police have said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death. Lawless was at the press conference, but declined to speak. \"We are distressed at the possibility that such a tragedy might have happened in a place of worship,\" the relative said Sunday, adding that the family asks the press and the community to \"understand the church's desire to continue their worship and ministry outreach.\" Watch neighbors remember slain girl » . The church \"is a community of loving people,\" he said. \"They love God. They love their community and they have ministered to the people of this community for many, many years.\" Huckaby's family expressed appreciation for the support and prayers received from other churches. Although it has been difficult, the church has \"done everything that we can to be cooperative\" with the investigation, the man said. The family thanked law enforcement for what the man said was \"gracious treatment.\" \"Our prayers are with Sandra's family and the community for God's comfort and mercy as we work through the process of healing for such a tragic event,\" the man said. \"We trust in God's peace.\" The church was planning to hold Easter services at noon Sunday, he said. \"We're very shocked,\" said a woman, who also identified herself only as a family member. \"It's very out of character for Melissa. We love her dearly.\" She described Huckaby as \"a fantastic mother, very loving. ... This is a very difficult time for us and it's very difficult to express to you right now how we're feeling.\" Huckaby's relatives know no more on the investigation than what has been reported by the media, the relatives said, and were not told why police were searching the church. \"The only reason why our family is making it through this at all is because of our faith in God and because of his mercy,\" the woman said. Asked whether she believes Huckaby is innocent, she declined comment. In a Friday interview with the Tracy Press newspaper, Huckaby acknowledged owning the black rolling suitcase in which Sandra's body was found, but said she reported it missing the day before the child's body was found. She said the suitcase disappeared at about the same time Sandra did. Sheneman told reporters Saturday that \"inconsistencies\" between that interview and statements Huckaby had made to police were one reason police asked to re-interview her Friday night. He would not say whether police believe Sandra's death was planned. Police said earlier Saturday that they believe Sandra was already dead by the time she was reported missing. The day Sandra was last seen, she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, she left to go to another friend's home, a family spokeswoman has said. Huckaby told the Tracy Press that Sandra came by her home to see if she could play with Huckaby's daughter, but Huckaby would not let her daughter play because she wanted her daughter to pick up her toys. Sandra left for another friend's house, Huckaby told the newspaper. The girl was last seen wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings. Police later used that clothing description to identify her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Relatives are in \"absolute shock\" at arrest of Melissa Huckaby, they say .\nHuckaby faces murder charges in death of Sandra Cantu, 8, her daughter's friend .\nPolice sergeant says he \"couldn't begin to theorize\" about a motive .\nSandra disappeared March 27 after going out to play; body found Monday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin flew to China as part of an economic development trip, his office said. Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as the swine flu virus, the mayor's office said in a statement. Nagin, his wife and a member of his security detail have been quarantined in Shanghai, China, though all three are symptom free, the statement said. \"The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials,\" the statement said. Ceeon Quiett, the mayor's director of communications, told CNN that Nagin had been sitting beside a passenger who \"exhibited the symptoms of H1N1,\" but Nagin showed no signs of illness. \"We have talked with him and he is in good spirits,\" Quiett said, adding that there was no indication how long the quarantine would last. While not confirming identities, the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention said three Americans are being quarantined in a hotel called the Jinjiang Inn in the Nanhui district of Shanghai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Passenger on Mayor Ray Nagin's plane has possible H1N1 symptoms .\nNagin's office: Nagin, his wife and an associate are symptom-free but quarantined .\nNagin was on economic development trip in China .\nMayor is \"being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials,\" his office says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The woman who received the first-ever near-total face transplant in the United States told her doctor she has regained her self-confidence, said Dr. Maria Siemionow, head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic and leader of the transplant team. This illustration represents the transformation of a patient who underwent a near-total face transplant in December. The patient, who prefers to be anonymous, is finally able to breathe through her nose, smell, eat solid foods and drink out of a cup, Siemionow told participants of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago over the weekend. The complex surgery, a 22-hour procedure, took place in December at the Cleveland Clinic. The patient received her new face in one graft from a donor cadaver. \"I believe this procedure is justified because you need a face to face the world,\" Siemionow said. Watch an animation of the face transplant » . The patient had previously \"suffered severe facial trauma,\" the Cleveland Clinic said. She had no nose, right eye or upper jaw before the procedure, and could not smell or eat normally. People would call her names on the street, Siemionow said. The surgery gave the patient a nose with nasal lining, as well as a palate. This, combined with the olfactory receptors in the brain, gave the patient the ability to smell, Siemionow said. Social reincorporation is as important as the face transplant itself, Siemionow said. At this point, the patient doesn't want to face the \"common world,\" but she is facing her family, the surgeon said. The patient said she is happy because when she puts her hands on her face, she feels a nose, Siemionow said. She can also taste a hamburger and pizza, and drink coffee from a cup, the \"things we take for granted every day,\" Siemionow said. The patient also received lower eyelids, upper lip, skin, muscles, bone, hard palate, arteries, veins and nerves. As for the aesthetics of the new face, Siemionow suggested that restoring function was more important. \"At this point, no one is really looking at beautification,\" she said. Siemionow, who has been working on face transplant research for 20 years, received approval from the Institutional Review Board in 2004 to conduct a full facial transplant. Only patients who had already exhausted all possible options for conventional repair were considered for the transplant, Siemionow said. Currently, cancer patients are not candidates for face transplants because transplant recipients must take immunosuppression drugs for life so that the body does not reject the donated tissue, Siemionow said. In the future, however, lifelong immunosuppression may not be required, she said. While burn damage is normally patched with pieces of excess skin from a person's own body, this does not work if the whole face needs to be covered -- the skin of the entire back is less than half of what would be needed to cover the full face and scalp, Siemionow said. Previously, three facial transplants had been completed -- two in France and one in China. The Chinese recipient, Li Guoxing, died in July of unknown causes, Guo Shuzhong, a doctor involved in the case, confirmed to CNN. One of the French face transplant recipients was a man who had a genetic disorder that created large tumors on his face. The other French patient had been bitten by a dog. The Chinese patient had been attacked by a bear. European news media recently reported that a surgeon in Spain received approval for another face transplant, which would be the fifth in the world. Researchers are also making headway into treatments for disorders that give rise to facial abnormalities, experts say. They are identifying genes that become mutated and cause the skull and facial features to become distorted. \"We're moving into the arena where we can do medical treatment,\" Dr. Ethylin Jabs, professor of developmental and regenerative biology at Mount Sinai Medical School, said at the conference. One example is Treacher Collins syndrome, a condition found in one in every 50,000 births, which affects the development of bones and other tissues in the face. Scientists have determined that the gene TCOF1 is involved in the disorder, and research is ongoing into the precise function of this protein. By looking at the genetic underpinnings of disorders that lead to facial deformities, scientists can also understand what accounts for the normal differences in face and skull types. \"These are going to be some of the genes that cause some of that variation,\" Jabs said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Face transplant recipient can now eat solid foods, smell, breathe out of nose .\nThe patient received her new face in one graft from a donor cadaver in December .\nSkin on surface of a person's back is not large enough to cover a face and scalp .\nDoctor: Social reincorporation is as important as the face transplant itself ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Pam Biggers, a 52-year-old woman from Hueytown, Alabama, disappeared while on a business trip to the Florida Panhandle. Pam Biggers disappeared while on a business trip to the Florida Panhandle in January 2008. She drove to the La Quinta Inn at Panama City Beach on January 27, 2008, a Sunday. She checked in and talked with her husband over the phone about 5:30 p.m. She told him she was going out to eat with a colleague who was staying across the hall. After an early dinner, the two women returned to their rooms about 7 p.m., police said. And then Pamela Biggers simply disappeared. \"It's completely baffling,\" said her husband, Don Biggers. \"All of her belongings, clothes, purse, cell phone, were left in her room.\" Biggers' bed did not look slept in, police said, but it appeared that she had been reading in bed. Her open book and glasses were on the bedside table, and the pillows were propped up against the headboard. She had not changed into her pajamas, and her hotel room key and car keys were in the room. There was no sign of struggle, police said. Watch Rupa's report on this baffling cold case » . Biggers' family believes that she left the hotel and either lost her way or became the victim of foul play. \"We think she may have initially wandered off on her own,\" Don Biggers said. \"She had some episodes ... complaining of voices in her head and paranoia.\" She'd been on medication but had decided to stop taking it, he added. Biggers said he was concerned about his wife's health and urged her to not go on the business trip. Police searched for Biggers for weeks. Her family brought in Texas Equusearch, a specialized search and rescue operation. The group conducted ground and air searches and used cadaver dogs but was unable to find any clues. The hotel did not have surveillance cameras, so it is not known when Biggers left or whether she was alone. Hotel staffers did not recall seeing Biggers leave. She had driven to Florida in the family car, which was in the hotel parking lot. According to her family, Biggers had never wandered off before, nor had she suffered from memory loss. She had just learned that her son, Jacob, was to be dispatched for a tour of duty in the military to Afghanistan and may have been stressed about that, her husband said. Police and the Biggers family are asking the public for help. Anyone who has seen Pam Biggers or has more information leading to the person or people responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the Bay County Sheriff's Office tip line at 850-747-4700. A $20,000 reward is offered. Biggers was last seen wearing a white sweater, black pants with white pinstripes, a wedding band and an aquamarine ring. She is a white female who stands 5'8\" tall, weighs 135 pounds and has green eyes and gray hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pamela Biggers was last seen in Panama City, Florida, on January 27, 2008 .\nThe 52-year-old from Huey, Alabama, was on a business trip .\nShe talked to husband on phone, went to dinner with colleague before vanishing .\nKnow something? Call 850-747-4700. A $20,000 reward is offered ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A fire that claimed the lives of 44 children at a day-care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, started Friday in an air-conditioning unit in an adjacent warehouse, the attorney general of Sonora said Monday. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla, 2, on Sunday. Investigators have not determined whether the fire was caused by an overheated motor or deficiencies in its installation, said Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, according to the state-run news agency Notimex. However it started, there's no doubt it moved toward papers in bookshelves on the wall shared with the building housing ABC Day Care, where 141 children and day-care workers were, he said. The two buildings also shared a roof, which contained a false bottom made of polyurethane, which overheated, emitting highly toxic fumes, he said. He blamed all 44 of the deaths on the fumes. The general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security vowed investigators will pursue the case wherever the evidence takes them. Daniel Karam Toumeh had said Sunday that the building had passed an inspection on May 26. \"Here, I want to be very emphatic, in the sense that in Social Security we don't cover for anyone, don't defend anyone, we are the most interested in finding out what it was that happened,\" he said. As of Monday morning, 20 children ages 1-5 were hospitalized in Hermosillo, and 13 had been taken to other hospitals, including three to Sacramento Shriners Hospital in California, where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty. Watch parents gather at the site of the fire » . Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora, is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border in northwestern Mexico. On a radio show, a firefighter said Monday that many of the children were napping at the time of the fire and died in their sleep. Jose Jesus Diaz, the first firefighter to enter the day-care center, told Radio Los Cheros that he arrived to find some people ramming the building with their vehicles in an effort to reach the children. Inside, Diaz said, he saw children in sleeping positions on the floor. \"They never knew what happened,\" Diaz told the radio station. The scene was one of people crying, calling out names and running with babies, he said. \"There's an image that I will carry for the rest of my life: a shirtless man walking outside holding a young boy, yelling 'fireman, fireman, save my son,' but the boy was already dead,\" Diaz said. Watch a town in deep shock » . Of the 20 children hospitalized in Hermosillo, 12 were in serious condition. The children taken to Children's Hospital in Sacramento are a 2-year-old boy in serious condition with burns over 20 percent of his body, a 3-year-old boy in critical condition with burns over 50 percent of his body, and a 3-year-old girl in critical condition with burns over 80 percent of her body, a hospital spokeswoman said. CNN's Mariano Castillo in Atlanta and CNN en Español's Rey Rodriguez in Hermosillo contributed to this story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Deadly fire at Mexican day-care center began at nearby warehouse, state official says .\n44 children killed in blaze; 30-plus kids hospitalized, some in serious condition .\nOfficial: Fire started with air conditioner; warehouse, day care shared wall .\nFirefighter found children in sleeping positions: \"They never knew what happened\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Eighteen people, including two soldiers, were killed Saturday in a gunbattle between the Mexican army and organized-crime suspects in the Mexican resort town of Acapulco, the Mexican Ministry of Defense said Sunday. Mexican soldiers hold rifles Saturday during a clash with organized-crime suspects in Acapulco. The incident began about 7 p.m., when the soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco \"to exploit information obtained through an anonymous tip,\" the ministry said in a statement. The soldiers were met by gunfire, it said. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Two soldiers and 16 gunmen were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. The gunmen were not identified, but the statement called them \"members of organized crime.\" Authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said. CNN's Arthur Brice and CNN en Español's Luisa Calad contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mexican soldiers, organized-crime suspects fight in Acapulco, authorities say .\nTwo soldiers, 16 \"members of organized crime\" killed; nine other soldiers wounded .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nSoldiers were investigating anonymous tip, says Mexican Defense Ministry ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- This week, Giyen Kim, 34, reached a personal milestone: She has lost 10 pounds since the beginning of the year. Giyen Kim, 34, has lost 10 pounds since January 1. She said she feels like it will be easier to lose more weight. This progress feels slow, she said, in comparison with her previous weight loss attempts, which consisted of crash dieting. But she found that those diets weren't sustainable. This time, she's looking to find a lifestyle she can keep. CNN asked viewers to talk about their New Year's resolutions on iReport.com and upload photos and videos during their journeys of change. Kim, who lives in Seattle, Washington, is one participant who frequently updates the iReport community with video updates on her progress. iReport.com: Watch Giyen talk about losing weight . Reaching this 10-pound milestone, from 190 to 180 pounds, makes her feel as if it will be easier to lose more weight, she said. \"You feel definitely more motivated when you actually quantify it in a number that feels good,\" she said. Visit CNNhealth, your connection for better living . She doesn't feel physically different, but she does notice a change from previous pictures of herself, she said. Her original goal for the year was to get closer to her pre-pregnancy weight of 120 pounds. Kim has had a hard time exercising recently because her uncle, 90, passed away, and the grieving process has been difficult. But she plans to resume working out soon and wants to take classes at her gym. She also eats one vegan meal every day. Kim felt frustrated earlier this month because her progress felt slow, losing a pound a week. Read about her weight loss journey . Often, the initial weight loss will seem the easiest, and then the loss slows somewhat over time, said Tara Gidus, dietician for the Orlando Magic NBA team and owner of Tara Gidus Nutrition Consulting in Orlando, Florida. Exercise is key in speeding things up when you've reached a plateau, she said. It's important to find a physical activity that you enjoy doing and to vary the exercise routine -- for example, raising the incline on a treadmill to step up the intensity, she said. Gidus usually recommends losing about 2 pounds a week, or about 5 to 8 pounds a month. At that rate, someone like Kim could lose 50 pounds in six months, she said. A pace faster than that -- such as 10 pounds per month -- would be hard to keep up, Gidus said. People with on weight-loss journeys should have encouragement from friends, family or people in support groups or online communities, she said. Kim certainly has people supporting her in the virtual world: A video she posted a few weeks ago after she'd lost 4 pounds had more than a dozen motivational comments from others on iReport.com. Watch her video . Her next goal is to lose 15 more pounds -- for a total of 25 -- by her birthday, March 24, and reward herself with a digital single-lens reflex camera, which professional photographers use. \"That's basically 2 pounds a week, plus 3 more,\" she said. \"It's ambitious, but I really want that camera.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Giyen Kim, 34, has lost 10 pounds since January 1 .\nReaching this milestone makes losing more weight look easier, she said .\nDietitian: Often, speed of weight loss slows down over time .\nShare your journey to change with iReport.com ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- Stephen Colbert left no doubt about his solidarity with American troops when he taped the first of four Comedy Central shows he'll produce in Iraq this week. Stephen Colbert high-fives a serviceman after submitting to a military-style haircut in Iraq on Sunday. Colbert, wearing a business suit made of the same camouflaged material used for soldiers' desert uniforms, submitted to a regulation military haircut as hundreds of U.S. troops cheered wildly Sunday. The comedian, who satirizes conservative TV pundits on his \"Colbert Report,\" began his \"Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando\" USO tour Sunday in the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq. \"It must be nice in Iraq, because some of you keep coming back again and again,\" Colbert said, joking about the multiple tours many troops have had in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Some troops had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to earn them a free ticket to Afghanistan, he joked. Colbert told his guest, Gen. Ray Odierno, he felt \"a little intimidated\" by him, not because he was he top U.S. commander in Iraq, but because it felt like he was \"interviewing Shrek.\" Odierno is an imposing bald figure at 6-feet, 5-inches tall. Odierno said the military is \"not yet ready to declare victory\" in Iraq and that there was a little more work to be done for long-term stability. \"I, Stephen Colbert, by the power invested in me by basic cable, officially declare we won the Iraq war,\" Colbert said, as his audience broke out into applause. The interview was interrupted when President Obama appeared on large television screens. The commander-in-chief told his general it was time to \"cut that man's hair.\" With white electric hair clippers in his hand, Odierno stood up and began shaving Colbert's trademark thick dark hair. The troops stood and cheered as a female member of Colbert's staff finished the job. After the haircut, Colbert ran through the audience, high-fiving the troops as he showed off his new military look. One Army major said that \"shaving of the hair is an amazing show of support\" that was \"very touching.\" Former Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain also made a pre-taped appearance on the show, jokingly reminding the troops to \"take time to clean your muskets.\" Lt. Col. Debra Shoemaker, a native of Colbert's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, said the show was a \"nice break\" from the monotony of service in Iraq. USO Senior Vice President John Hanson said the shows are an important diversion for the troops. Colbert's USO tour is unusual because it's the first time a show taped in a combat zone has been edited and aired so quickly. The Sunday show will be televised on the Comedy Central network Monday night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stephen Colbert tapes first of four shows he'll produce in Iraq this week .\nComedian tells guest, the imposing Gen. Ray Odierno, it's like \"interviewing Shrek\"\nAt President Obama's taped orders, Odierno cuts Colbert's hair to wild cheering .\nSunday show to be televised on the Comedy Central network Monday night ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds says it will repair the wax figure of Adolf Hitler beheaded by a visitor over the weekend and return it to its Berlin exhibition space as soon as possible. A wax likeness of Adolf Hitler sits in Berlin's Madame Tussaud's wax museum before Saturday's attack. German police said that a 41-year-old man entered the exhibit shortly after the museum doors opened Saturday and \"made for the Hitler figure,\" scuffling with a guard and the manager before tearing the head off the life-size statue. A police spokesman confirmed to CNN that the man was a former policeman, having spent three years in police training between 1984 and 1987. He did not finish that police training, for personal reasons. The man was released from police custody late afternoon on Saturday. Watch a museum official describe the attack » . Despite the incident, Madame Tussauds officials said they will show the waxwork of Adolf Hitler in the exhibition again. In a statement the Museum said: \"Madame Tussauds is non-political and makes no comment or value-judgement either on the persons who are exhibited in the Museum or on what they have done during their lifetime. \"Figures are chosen for their popularity or for their influence on the path of history -- for better or for worse. Adolf Hitler stands for a decisive part of Berlin's history, which cannot be denied.\" Saturday was the opening day of the Berlin branch of the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum. The presence of the waxwork, which depicted the Nazi dictator sitting at his desk in his bunker shortly before he committed suicide in 1945, in the new museum led to criticism in German media over recent weeks. But the museum's defenders argued Hitler's role in German history must not be ignored. Hitler was shown with a sullen expression, his head slightly down, and one hand on the desk. Berlin is the eighth wax museum for London-based Madame Tussauds, known for its lifelike waxworks depicting famous people including celebrities, politicians, sports stars, artists, and scientists. Famous Germans included in the exhibits are Chancellor Angela Merkel, scientist Albert Einstein, composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and tennis champion Boris Becker. CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hitler waxwork damaged by a man in Berlin's Madame Tussauds to be repaired .\nMuseum: \"Hitler stands for decisive part of Berlin's history, which cannot be denied\"\n41-year-old said he wanted to protest the figure being included among exhibits .\nPolice said man being investigated for causing damages and injury to a guard ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A nervous calm settled over northwest Peru on Monday night, three days after clashes between indigenous citizens and national police left more than 30 dead and 50 wounded. Alberto Pizango, a leader of the protesters, says his followers did not kill police officers. A 3 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew seemed to be holding, and both sides in the bloody episode said they wanted dialogue, not bullets. \"The situation is much more tranquil,\" foreign minister Jose Andres Garcia Belaunde told CNN. \"There's the possibility of entering into a dialogue.\" The violence started Friday when national police attacked a roadblock near the city of Bagua in the Amazonian part of northwestern Peru. About 2,500 indigenous people had blocked the main road to protest measures the government has taken to sell land to energy companies and other businesses. Indians native to the area say that it is their land even though they don't have formal property titles. When it was over, many lay dead and wounded. How many -- and what happened -- depends on who's telling the story. Belaunde said 24 police were killed and nine Amazonian natives lost their lives. He said he did not know the number of wounded. Amnesty International, however, said more than 30 demonstrators and 22 police have been killed since Friday. The Web sites for RPP radio and El Comercio newspaper said at least 33 people died, including 22 police. More than 50 people have been injured, various reports said. Indian rights advocates put the number of dead and missing as much higher, with some groups saying more than 100 were killed or are missing. The Amazon Watch advocacy group accused the government of ditching bodies in rivers and the jungle to suppress the death count. \"There seems to be a concerted government effort to cover up the number of indigenous deaths,\" said Gregor MacLennan, Peru program coordinator for Amazon Watch. Belaunde emphatically denied the accusation. \"That is a lie,\" he said. \"Part of the great lies that have been told about Bagua -- that a massacre occurred, but more police than indigenous were killed. If this is true, let the family members come forth and tell us this happened.\" Amazon Watch and indigenous supporters say the police -- some in helicopters -- opened fire indiscriminately and without provocation on the roadblock about 450 miles (730 kilometers) north of Lima, the capital. \"Police began in the morning by firing tear gas,\" MacLennan told CNN. \"When people did not move and were standing strong, they began firing shots.\" Belaunde said the helicopters fired tear gas and police were fired upon, too. \"The police did not want to use their arms,\" he said, noting that many of the dead officers were killed with weapons protesters had taken from authorities. Ten police were killed after they were taken hostage when they arrived to help other officers and were surrounded by protesters, Belaunde said. More than 70 suspects have been arrested, Belaunde said. MacLennan placed the count at 150 and said 900 others are in hiding. \"Eight to 10 police officers had their throat slit,\" Belaunde said. \"Somebody must be held accountable for that, don't you think?\" MacLennan agreed that if \"indigenous people tortured and killed police, they should be brought to justice.\" Authorities had been searching for Alberto Pizango, leader of the indigenous rights group behind the Bagua demonstrations, but he sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Lima, Peruvian Prime Minister Yehude Simon said Monday night. Officials said Monday they will remove a roadblock within the next two days in the main highway between the cities of Yurimaguas and Tarapoto. Yurimaguas officials met with indigenous leaders Monday to negotiate dismantling the roadblock, the state-run Andina news agency said. The roadblocks have been hurting Peru's economy, since export shipments of oil and other resources have not been able to get through. Peruvian President Alan Garcia vowed to put down the demonstrations, some of which have been going on since early April. \"We will not give in to violence or blackmail,\" he said in a speech Sunday. Garcia blamed unnamed foreign governments for influencing the indigenous uprising. Belaunde pointed to Venezuela and Bolivia, which have held demonstrations in favor of indigenous rights. \"They are badly informed, accusing the government of Peru of genocide,\" he said. He called statements by high-level Venezuelan and Bolivian officials \"an act of intervention into Peru's internal affairs.\" Regardless of the cause, analysts agree this is the worst violence in Peru since the brutal Marxist Shining Path guerrilla insurgency died down in the 1990s. \"That's a lot of violence,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy group. \"There's no question the government is in a very difficult period.\" Bernard Aronson, who was U.S. President George H.W. Bush's assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989 to 1993, sees a danger that the violence could escalate. \"When there are that many people in a clash, that's very bad regardless of the specifics,\" he said. \"That's worrisome. ... It obviously raises fears and concerns that you could have some kind of rekindling of violence.\" The crux of the issue concerns Peru's economy and how the indigenous population fit in a 21st-century world. \"Garcia has committed to rapid growth, rapid development,\" Hakim said. That means Garcia has opened up vast parts of undeveloped land to companies that want to extract natural resources. The indigenous populations feel they are being displaced and are pushing back. \"This is very different from what happened with the Shining Path because these are indigenous people. They are not political people,\" MacLennan said. \"All they are asking for is their rights.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than 30 people have died, 50 have been injured since Friday, reports say .\nIndigenous people protest government plan to sell land to energy companies .\nPeruvian President Alan Garcia vows to put down the demonstrations ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Gunmen killed three police officers in Acapulco, Mexico, early Monday morning in attacks on two police stations, the state news agency Notimex reported. Suspected gang members are handcuffed after a gunbattle in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday. The attacks came two days after a ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead, including two soldiers. Mexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over the resort town Monday. Along with swine flu fears, the uptick in violence threatens the tourist economy of Acapulco and other popular resort areas. Witnesses told police that just before 6 a.m., gunmen armed with AK-47s stepped out of two luxury vehicles, walked toward the police station in the Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood and began shooting. Acapulco officers Gilberto Reducindo Salazar and Arturo Tonala Aguilar were killed in that incident, according to Notimex. Shortly afterward, at a second local police station, attackers fatally wounded officer Andres Guzman Casiano, Notimex said. A fourth officer was injured. The Guerrero attorney general's office said the attacks could have been conducted by the same people, as there was a 30-minute gap between them, the state agency reported. It was unknown whether the attacks were connected with Saturday's shootout, which started when soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco on an anonymous tip. They were met by gunfire, according to a statement from Mexico's Ministry of Defense. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Sixteen gunmen and two soldiers were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. After that incident, authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Attacks came 2 days after ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead .\n2 soldiers, 16 suspected gang members killed; 9 soldiers wounded Saturday .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nMexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over Acapulco on Monday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Matt Aldridge would have trouble contemplating life without the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina. Maddie Aldridge has received extensive care at South Carolina's Shriners Hospital, including leg amputation. Aldridge, 28, and his 21-month-old daughter, Maddie, were born without shinbones. Both had their legs amputated at Shriners near their first birthdays. Like all care given to youths admitted to any of North America's 22 Shriners Hospitals, their surgeries and follow-up treatments were free to them. Aldridge estimates the care he received through his teens in the Shriners' system -- which admits children irrespective of their parents' income -- cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, approaching the lifetime limits of some insurance policies. Now, he and his wife, Renee, take Maddie to Greenville -- about a 90-minute drive from their South Carolina home -- at least every six weeks, partly for treatment of a hip condition. Without Shriners' cover-all-costs policy, the family would be in serious trouble, said Aldridge, who works at a Wal-Mart cell phone connection center. Renee is a stay-at-home mother, and the family doesn't have private medical insurance. \"If it weren't for Shriners, we'd be financially devastated,\" Matt Aldridge said. \"With just the care Maddie has received already, we probably would be bankrupt.\" For the Aldridges and many other families, accessing care from Shriners may get a lot more difficult. The system's board says it may ask the fraternity's membership in July for authority to close six hospitals -- including the one in Greenville -- largely because the endowment fund that supports the hospitals dropped from $8.5 billion to $5.2 billion over the last year as the stock market plummeted. The others that could close are in Erie, Pennsylvania; Shreveport, Louisiana; Spokane, Washington; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Galveston, Texas. The Galveston hospital's operations have been suspended since Hurricane Ike flooded it last year. See map of where all 22 Shriners hospitals are » . Deflated investments aren't the only reason the fund has dropped. The hospitals normally operate with donations and the fund's interest, but the system's $856 million 2009 budget is outpacing both, causing the hospitals to take about $1 million per day from the fund, said Ralph Semb, president and CEO of Shriners Hospitals. Other proposals from the system's board would close just one hospital or none, but slash spending systemwide. Leaders also are exploring other options, such as partnering with non-Shriners hospitals. But one way or another, the system must cut spending by about 30 percent to survive, Semb said. \"If we do nothing, every hospital would have to cut 25 to 30 percent from their budgets, which in effect would shut about six of them anyway, because they couldn't give the services they've been giving,\" Semb said. Still, the hospitals can't close without consent of the fraternity's membership. Two-thirds of the roughly 1,400 representatives at the group's July 6-8 Imperial Council Session in San Antonio, Texas, would have to vote for it. Learn about the Shriners fraternity » . History shows that might be difficult. Members, some of whom transport children to hospitals themselves, killed a 2003 proposal to close the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a similar market downturn. \"I don't think it will happen. I don't think it should happen,\" said Carl V. Nielsen, a 40-year Shriner and a board member for the Minneapolis hospital, which is not on the current possible-closure list. \"That would leave large areas of the country without a Shriners hospital, and the cost of transportation of the patients back and forth [to the remaining hospitals] would be too great.\" Shriners Hospitals, which deals with certain specialties up to age 18, have treated hundreds of thousands of children free of charge since the first facility opened in Shreveport in 1922. Most offer orthopedic care. Four, including the Galveston hospital, care for children who are burned. One of those facilities, in Sacramento, California, is treating a few children burned in Friday's day care center fire in northern Mexico. The Greenville hospital, which generally draws children from six states, gets about 900 inpatients and about 1,100 outpatient visits yearly, according to Rod Brown, the chairman of that hospital's board of governors. Since news of the possible closures broke, many -- including some Shriners and people who've used the hospitals -- have spoken out in hopes of keeping the facilities open. Hundreds have turned out for rallies in some of the cities. Several \"save Shriners Hospital\" pages on Facebook call on readers to support fundraisers. Families who lose a nearby Shriners hospital -- even those who have insurance -- would be in trouble, said Nielsen, an Iowa resident, retired attorney and former state legislator. \"Say you've got a series of operations to do on the child, and it's going to cost $100,000. Even with the good insurance policies, the families still have to pay 20 percent on that, and that's more money than most have stashed away,\" he said. The Aldridges have more surgeries in their future. In addition to being born without her shinbones, Maddie has only eight fingers. She will need operations to make her hands more efficient. Watch how hospital's closure would affect the Aldridges » . If the Greenville facility were to close, the family would think about moving to Kentucky, where the next nearest Shriners hospital is. Or, they would stay and drive eight hours to the Kentucky facility. Option No. 1 would take the lifelong South Carolina residents from friends and relatives. The other would mean more missed days at work and school for the family, which also includes Maddie's 3-year-old sister. In any event, the family says it won't consider taking Maddie out of the Shriners system. Matt Aldridge, who took up competitive power-lifting thanks in part to encouragement from Shriners staff and competed in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Greece, said the system gives top-notch care. \"Not only is it a financial thing, but it's also quality of care,\" said Aldridge, who became a Shriner himself in part because of the care he received. \"Shriners doctors are considered to be the foremost experts in what they treat.\" Semb said some of the six hospitals -- which he said were chosen because they were relatively underutilized -- could stay open if they strike a partnership with non-Shriners facilities. In such a deal, Shriners doctors would perform major surgery at the partner hospital, and the partner would bill the patients' insurance if they have it. Follow-up care would be done at the Shriners facility, still free of charge. Nielsen and other Shriners are proposing an alternative for the July meeting: Let Shriners hospitals themselves accept insurance or Medicaid from the families who have it, but cover the co-pays and deductibles. Semb said the idea has some merit, but he cautioned that to accept insurance and Medicaid, the hospitals would subject themselves to more federal oversight and possibly curtail their ability to treat patients as they see fit. Meanwhile, Renee Aldridge is circulating petitions against the closures and intends to deliver them to the San Antonio meeting. Wide swaths of the country shouldn't be deprived of the expertise and the free treatment that Shriners doctors give, she said. \"Some may be able to go to another place, but a lot of doctors won't put the time and care in that Shriners does,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hospitals' leaders seek savings after endowment fund shrinks in stock market .\nOne solution could be closing six of 22 hospitals .\nFraternity representatives would have to approve closures in July meeting .\nSouth Carolina family: We'd be devastated without Shriners' free, expert care ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- A U.S. company is offering a rare chance to holiday on a mega-yacht once used by a Hollywood star and her husband -- and thanks to the recession it's actually affordable. The 100-foot Katania normally would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. The 100-foot Katania was chartered by Hollywood star Hilary Swank and her husband, Chad Lowe. Seattle, Washington-based mega-yacht rental business CEO Expeditions usually charges around $100,000 a week to charter their 100-plus-foot yachts, but they have introduced a deal waiving the charter fees -- meaning guests will only need to pay for the running of the vessel. The move to make such vessels more affordable comes as the recession continues to put pressure on the luxury holiday and mega-yacht industries. Although the costs of crew and luxury food aren't extremely cheap, it is expected this move will open up the recession-strained market to many more potential holiday-makers. The Katania now costs less than $3,000 per day. Normally it would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. At the $2,950-per-day special rate, four people can stay on the Katania -- but with the maximum six on board ($450 extra per person) the cost per person is a slightly better $642. The price includes full crew, premium wines, gourmet food prepared by a private chef, amenities such as kayaks, hot tub, fishing/crabbing/shrimping equipment, and even a 30-foot whaler for guest use. According to the company, Swank said of her charter holiday: \"We had an absolutely enchanted time aboard the Katania. A more beautiful yacht does not exist.\" There is one small catch with the deal -- the boat is based in the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, and any cruises to other destinations will attract an additional charge to cover fuel costs. The company's owner, Bruce Milne, released a statement saying the deal was largely a result of the impact of the recession. \"Travel is down, agents and brokers need deals, so rather than just a few full-price charters, we decided to stay busy, put more people to work, and help island tourism by doing charters at cost. \"Since we started chartering 10 years ago, we have been looking for a chance to provide our 'Expeditions to the Extraordinary' in the San Juan Islands at a price any luxury traveler can afford -- this recession provides that opportunity,\" he said. Tim Wiltshire, director and sales broker at international yacht company Burgess Yachts, said the charter market isn't a complete disaster, so he was surprised to see such a discount. \"I wouldn't have expected to see that,\" he said. \"We are seeing discounts on average of about 25 percent. Although some people are trying interesting gimmicks to inspire new business.\" Wiltshire said CEO Expedition's fleet isn't among the biggest or most luxurious on the market, and this deal appears to be clever marketing stunt. His opinion is that other larger vessels still warrant their greater price tags." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. mega-yacht charter company waives massive $50,000 charter fees .\nThe impact of the recession is reason given for the discounted deal .\nA yacht chartered by Hilary Swank can now be rented for less than $3,000 a day ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- \"American Idol\" runner-up Adam Lambert confirmed publicly what he assumed everyone already knew: He is gay. Adam Lambert talks about his sexuality and his \"Idol\" experience in the new Rolling Stone. \"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I am gay,\" Lambert told Rolling Stone magazine. He said he is \"proud of my sexuality\" and never sought to hide it during the \"Idol\" competition. \"I embrace it,\" he said. \"It's just another part of me.\" Still, he stayed silent when, in March, a picture of him, dressed in drag and kissing an ex-boyfriend, emerged online. Lambert told Rolling Stone he was worried coming out would \"be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing.\" The photo was taken on one of the three or four times he's dressed in drag, Lambert said, \"but 'sucking my boy's face? Yes, that I will own.' \" He took down all of the pictures on his Facebook and MySpace pages before the \"Idol\" season, but he forgot about another Web site profile that included the drag photo, he said. Watch Lambert pose with a snake for the cover » . With the competition over, Lambert's public confirmation of his homosexuality is in preparation for the \"American Idol\" national tour, which starts next month. He said he wanted to avoid \"the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bulls--t.\" \"I find it very important to be in control of this situation,\" he said. \"I feel like everyone has an opinion of me, and I want a chance to say, 'Well, do you want to hear how I really feel about all this?'\" Aiken, the runner-up on \"Idol's\" second season, dodged questions about his sexuality until coming out in People magazine last year. Lambert said his coming out is not a political statement. \"I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,\" he said. The Rolling Stone article revealed some \"bi-curious\" ambiguity for Lambert, whose tall, dark and handsome looks appealed to the female audience. \"I loved it this season when girls went crazy for me,\" he said. \"As far as I'm concerned, it's all hot.\" He said he is \"kind of interested\" in girls. Lambert made another revelation to Rolling Stone that might not be expected. His decision to audition for \"American Idol\" came after a week at Burning Man -- an annual festival held in a Nevada desert -- where he experimented with \"certain funguses.\" \"I had a psychedelic experience where I looked up at the clouds and went, 'Oh!' \" he said. \"I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen.\" And what he wanted to do was be on \"American Idol,\" he said. \"I knew it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it's fast and broad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Adam Lambert subject of cover story in Rolling Stone; says he is gay .\nLambert said he never sought to hide sexuality, but didn't want it sensationalized .\nDecision to try out for \"American Idol\" came after psychedelic experience ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Members of the Screen Actors Guild overwhelmingly voted to approve a new two-year contract with studios and producers, the union announced Tuesday. Alan Rosenberg, national president of SAG, calls the terms of the contract \"devastatingly unsatisfactory.\" \"This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future,\" said David White, the group's interim national executive director. The union endorsed the package 78 percent to 22 percent. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hailed the vote, after a two-year-long negotiating process. \"The ratification vote by SAG members is good news for the entertainment industry,\" the alliance's Web site said. \"We look forward to working with SAG members ... to emerge from today's significant economic challenges with a strong and growing business.\" The actors had been working without a contract for nearly a year and the new contract did not immediately clear away the bad feelings. \"The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory,\" said Alan Rosenberg, the Screen Actors Guild national president. \"I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead.\" Before the agreement, the two sides had been at odds mainly over the amount actors should be paid when their movies or TV shows are distributed on discs or through new media, such as mobile phones and the Internet. The talks were tumultuous for Hollywood's biggest actors union. During the drawn-out process, SAG fired its executive director and named a new chief negotiator amid a bitter division among the actors over the question of calling a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Screen Actors Guild endorses package with studios and producers 78% to 22% .\nAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hails the vote .\nSAG National President Alan Rosenberg thinks union settled for bad deal .\nMain sticking point had been how actors get paid in new-media distributions ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Fewer Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, but those who are taking to the roads and skies may still face congestion. Travelers gather their luggage before checking in for a flight at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday. About 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home around the holiday, according to AAA auto club. That figure is down 1.4 percent from last year, meaning 600,000 fewer travelers. The dip represents the first decline in travelers since 2002. \"I think with the economy going downward, people are holding off on traveling,\" AAA spokeswoman Christie Hyde said, noting that the largest drop this Thanksgiving is in flying. The Air Transport Association of American is projecting a 10 percent decrease in the number of air passengers flying over a 12-day period around the holiday, but airline capacity cuts prompted by record-high fuel prices over the summer mean planes will remain crowded. Travel in the skies appeared to be off to a good start Wednesday afternoon. Only a few major airports were experiencing delays by mid-afternoon, and most delays were well under an hour. The ATA expects planes to be close to 90 percent full, on average, on the busiest travel days. \"You'll see plenty of people on airplanes that are full,\" ATA spokesman David Castelveter said. He urges air travelers to arrive at the airport early, be prepared to go through security checkpoints and travel light, as space in overhead compartments and underneath seats will be limited. iReport: Share your travel experiences . Ball State University student Katie Dorsey, 21, planned to fly out of Indianapolis' new airport for the first time. She usually makes the trip to Orlando, Florida, to visit her father a couple times a year. \"I know they have more TSA checkpoint lanes, so it should be faster getting through security, but I'm not sure as far as lines,\" Dorsey said of the new airport. \"I'm going to try to get there at least two hours before my flight this time.\" Last week the TSA expanded its family lane program to every security checkpoint. Families, individuals who are unfamiliar with security procedures, travelers with special needs and those carrying medically necessary liquids in amounts exceeding the TSA's allowances can use these lanes to get through security at their own pace. Dorsey planned to check a bag on her AirTran flight because her travel dates dodge the carrier's fee for a first checked bag, going into effect December 5. Many major carriers have instituted fees on passengers' first checked bags, with higher fees for additional bags. In addition to mounting airline fees, Thanksgiving holiday travelers are paying on average 8 percent more for tickets this year, according to AAA's Leisure Travel Index. iReporter Bart Wible, 28, couldn't afford to pay the fares he found to fly from West Palm Beach, Florida, with his son and fiancee to visit family in Indiana. He looked for tickets online four or five times a week for several months, but the lowest fare he could find was $348 per ticket. Wible said he drives to Indiana when he has time to make the 16½-hour trip. \"Lately, it's turned into a trip that I have to drive. Even whenever gas prices were at almost $4 a gallon, I had to drive it, because it's still less expensive than flying when you look at three people traveling,\" Wible said. Driving isn't an option for the long weekend, he said, even with average gas prices dipping below $1.90 a gallon. Wible won't be among the 33.2 million Americans AAA expects to travel by car this year. The projected number of holiday drivers is down 1.2 percent from last year's 33.6 million drivers. AAA expects to assist five million stranded motorists during the holiday season. AAA's Hyde urges motorists to get their vehicles checked out before hitting the road. \"Even though people might be trying to tighten their purse strings right now, it's not the time to let your maintenance lapse on your car, especially if you live in a cold-weather environment,\" Hyde said. Have your antifreeze checked, check your windshield cleaning fluid, replace your wiper blades and monitor your tire pressure, she advised. As with any travel, the weather will be a big factor in how smoothly drivers are able to get to their destinations. To ease congestion in the sky that may be compounded by weather, President Bush has authorized the use of military airspace for Thanksgiving \"express lanes.\" Corridors along the East Coast, in the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast will be opened to commercial airliners. \"Every little bit helps, no question about that,\" said the ATA's Castelveter. \"When we run into congestion in the airspace, having those extra lanes is a benefit. It's not a solution to delays. It's one of a number of solutions to reducing delays.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving .\nA slight dip in the number of travelers is the first decline since 2002 .\nThe largest predicted decline is among air travelers ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- The Atlanta lawyer with tuberculosis who caused an international health scare after traveling to Europe and back underwent surgery Tuesday to remove the diseased portion of one of his lungs. TB patient Andrew Speaker set off an international health scare when he traveled to Europe for his wedding in May. Andrew Speaker, 31, had the roughly two-hour operation to remove the upper lobe of his right lung at the University of Colorado Hospital. He's been under treatment at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver since the end of May. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who observed the surgery for about an hour, explained that the unusual procedure consisted of inserting a video camera in a tube in one small incision in the right side of Speaker's chest, and putting instruments through another incision. When the infected portion of the lung was cut out, it was placed inside a bag while still inside the attorney's chest cavity and the bag was sealed inside a tube before being removed. The main reason for sealing the infected tissue was to prevent it from re-infecting Speaker as it was removed, Gupta said after the operation. Doctors also wanted to make sure they didn't \"release any of that tuberculosis bacteria into the operating room, into the rest of the hospital,\" Gupta said before the surgery on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Watch Andrew Speaker discuss his reasons for having surgery with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta » . Doctors said the operation went well and there was not much bleeding, Gupta said. The portion of the lung that was removed showed the effects of the disease, Gupta said. \"A regular lung is very pink with a smooth, glistening surface,\" he said. \"This had a lot of bumps on it, and the areas that were diseased were very dark with white nodules.\" Speaker will most likely recover at the University of Colorado Hospital for another couple of days, and will return to National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver to finish his antibiotic course. He will still have to continue taking the medications prescribed by his doctors to fight the tuberculosis until cultures taken from him are negative for tuberculosis bacteria for eight weeks. At that point, he will be considered non-infectious, but he will still be monitored by health care professionals. Speaker said it was his decision to have the surgery, which is just one of his treatment options. \"With the amount of treatment I'm going to be on, the doctors said if you go ahead and have this surgery, you don't have to worry 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, or 30 years from now if it's ever going to come back, so it's worth the peace of mind to me,\" the attorney said. Speaker was originally found to have an extremely drug resistant strain (XDR-TB) of the respiratory disease earlier this year, but on July 3 doctors said he had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is treatable with less toxic drugs. Speaker and his fiancee had gone to Europe on May 12 for their wedding in Greece, despite warnings from the Fulton County Health Department in Georgia that he should not fly because he risked infecting fellow passengers. Since then, eight people who shared a flight with Speaker have filed a lawsuit against him, seeking $1.3 million in damages. Rosalind Yee -- an attorney for the plaintiffs who said her clients include a ninth person related to one of the passengers but who was not on the flight -- said all eight passengers have undergone TB tests since they returned home. One of them, a 72-year-old man, tested positive for TB on a skin test, though it was not clear that Speaker was the source. The man's X-rays were normal, she said, and he is awaiting results of further tests. In the past year, there have been about 124 cases of MDR-TB in the United States. About half of those patients have elected to undergo the surgery to remove the diseased portion of their lungs, Gupta said. E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Doctors remove TB-infected lung tissue from Andrew Speaker .\nHe said decided to have surgery so he won't have to worry about TB in future .\nSpeaker sparked health scare after flying with disease .\nEight people on flight with Andrew Speaker sue him for $1.3 million ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Manchester United have accepted a world-record $130 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Ronaldo is set to smash the world record transfer fee if he agrees to move to Real Madrid. The English champions have given the big-spending Spanish giants permission to talk to the World Player of the Year, according to the official United Web site. United said on Thursday that the Portugal winger had again expressed his desire to leave Old Trafford, and the club now expect the deal to be concluded by June 30. Madrid confirmed on the club's Web site that it hoped to seal an agreement with Ronaldo \"in the coming days.\" Real, who have fallen behind bitter rivals Barcelona, have swooped to follow up the $92 million signing of Brazil star Kaka from AC Milan earlier this week. What's your view? Tell us what you think about Ronaldo joining Real. Real also held the previous record when they paid €77 million (now worth $108 million) for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. The club's president Florentino Perez said after the Kaka deal was concluded that he would do \"everything possible\" to sign the 24-year-old Ronaldo, as he sought to build a new empire that would match his first stint at the Bernabeu. The 20 most wanted players in the world. United held off Real's advances last summer, with manager Alex Ferguson traveling to the Portugal camp during the Euro 2008 finals to hold crisis talks with Ronaldo. The player committed himself to another season in Manchester, but was affected by injuries early on and -- despite a sizzling end to the campaign -- was unable to help United retain the UEFA Champions League title, losing to Barcelona in last month's final. Perez is seeking to rebuild a team which finished second in the Primera Liga last season, nine points behind Barcelona, and again failed to progress past the first knockout stage of Europe's premier club competition. He failed in his first bid for the presidency in 1995, but won the 2000 elections on a promise to sign Luis Figo from Barca. Perez duly brought in the Portuguese forward and followed it up with a series of budget-busting transfers, including that of Zidane and David Beckham, as he created a team dubbed the \"Galacticos.\" United have been linked with moves to sign Bayern Munich's France star Franck Ribery and Wigan's Ecuador winger Antonio Valencia as Ferguson seeks to replace Ronaldo. Check out the latest transfer rumors and gossip. Perez has also expressed an interest in bringing Ribery to Spain from Germany. Ronaldo moved to Old Trafford in August 2003 in a $20 million transfer from Sporting Lisbon just days after scoring against United in a pre-season friendly. He made his first senior outing for the national side that November and helped Manchester United win the FA Cup in May before suffering heartache as Portugal lost to underdogs Greece in the final of Euro 2004 on home soil. In November 2005, he agreed a two-year extension to his contract until 2010. He was vilified in England in the summer of 2006 after his antics helped get United clubmate Wayne Rooney sent off as Portugal progressed to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Germany. After the tournament, Ronaldo revealed that he would like to leave United, but at the end of the 2006-07 season the forward agreed a new five-year contract. Watch CNN on why Ronaldo moved » . The next campaign he beat George Best's 40-year-old club record for goals scored by a winger in a single season, with 33 in the Premier League and 42 overall. Ronaldo suffered an ankle injury as Portugal lost 3-2 to Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, and told Portuguese newspaper Publico he would remain with United \"for at least another year\". In December he was named Europe's top player, then the next month he escaped uninjured after writing off his Ferrari sports car when crashing into a roadside barrier under a tunnel near Manchester Airport on his way to training. Read about it here. Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on January 12 and went on to held United retain the Premier League title, but the club failed to become the first to retain the Champions League since its inception in 1992." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Real Madrid given permission to talk with Cristiano Ronaldo after record offer .\nSpanish club offer a world-record $130 million for Manchester United winger .\nThe World Player of the Year is expected to conclude his transfer by June 30 .\nReal have been seeking to sign the Portugal international for the last two years ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Fawaz A. Gerges holds the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. His most recent book is \"The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global.\" This is the first of two pieces by Gerges on the Iranian election. Fawaz Gerges says Iran's president is vulnerable on the economy and broken promises of women's rights. (CNN) -- In Iran, as in every country, all politics is local. While there exist few substantive differences among leading presidential contenders over foreign and nuclear policy, there are divisions over the economy. With uncertain and declining oil revenues and a global financial crisis, Iran has fallen on hard times. The nation suffers from high inflation and an unemployment rate that tops 30 percent (according to unofficial figures) -- one of the highest in the region, despite the country's huge oil exports. Public discontent over the faltering economy has seen President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad become increasingly unpopular. His reformist and conservative opponents alike have criticized him publicly for spending too much time agitating the U.S. and Israel and not enough trying to fix the crumbling economy. Regardless of which candidate wins on June 12 or in a potential runoff, he will inherit a grave economic crisis and a restive population. Dealing with foreign affairs is likely to be some way down his list of priorities. At his first press conference after announcing his presidential candidacy, Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's main opponent, pledged to increase freedoms for Iranians and curb controversial restrictions that require women to cover their hair in public. \"Can a security patrol save our youths?\" Mousavi said of the increase in the moral police operations to prevent women from allowing their hair to show in public. \"Or can they be saved by the words of a grandfather who talks to his granddaughter?\" he asked rhetorically. The patrols began after Ahmadinejad became president, though his government denies responsibility; many women claim that his administration has institutionalized discrimination against them. Criticizing the president's rhetoric and the strictures he has imposed on daily life and public discourse, Mousavi, who appeals to the youth vote and women, said social controls are the domain of the people, not the government -- a radical departure from the dominant orthodoxy of the ruling mullahs. Mousavi frames his reforms as an affirmation of Iran's constitution, which he says has been \"violated and undermined\" by Ahmadinejad. The reason for his rhetoric is that women and young voters could tip the balance of power in his favor. Half of the 46 million eligible voters are women. In 1997, more than 60 percent of the votes that brought former President Mohammad Khatami to power were cast by women, and in 2000 women voters were instrumental in giving reformists a sweeping majority in the parliament. Promising greater individual freedoms to Iran's young people was instrumental in the two landslide victories by Khatami in 1997 and 2001. Ironically, during the 2005 presidential election, candidate Ahmadinejad said he would loosen state control over people's personal affairs. Trying to garner support among women and young voters, in one of his pre-election television interviews he questioned the role of the morality police: \"Let our children arrange their hair any way they wish. It does not concern you and me. ... The government should fix the economy of the nation and improve its atmosphere. ... People have variegated tastes.\" His broken promises to women voters could cost him the presidency on June 12. A reformist woman and a former member of parliament said in a newspaper article that the president's days are numbered: \"The women's movement in Iran is gaining momentum and these elections may be the first step towards Ahmadinejad [being] forced out.\" Indeed, women have become critical players in Iran's electoral map. More women activists are making their voices and demands heard and have formed coalitions to defeat the incumbent. Almost 600 women have registered for the forthcoming 290-seat Majlis (parliamentary) election, which will be crucial in determining the future of the ultra-conservatives who broadly back Ahmadinejad. There are currently only two women in secondary Cabinet positions and 11 in parliament, but these numbers seem certain to rise. It is no wonder then that leading reformist contenders have appealed to women by pledging to give them a greater say in the political and social order. Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker, said he has always supported women's rights and that if elected, he would appoint a female minister to his Cabinet: \"Having a female minister will make no major changes, but it will be a major step toward removing the obstacles to the active participation of women in Iran's politics.\" So although this month's presidential election is unlikely to cause a rupture internationally, either for better or worse, the result could have a critical impact on the domestic arena in Iran, particularly in terms of the empowerment of women. As such, the election will provide a glimpse of how far Iran has evolved and how far it has to travel. Regardless of who emerges victorious, neither Iran's foreign policy nor its geostrategic posture will dramatically change. Although the president is the human face and representative of the Islamic-based regime in Tehran, he is not the top executive decision-maker or commander-in-chief. He does not make decisions of war and peace. Rather, his authority lies in the domestic arena, particularly in managing the economy and framing the moral debate, and communicating Iran's message(s) to the world. iReport.com: Human chain in support of Mousavi . The most powerful and influential man in today's Iran is the unelected Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assisted by a National Security Council that includes dozens of political leaders. Together they are responsible for constructing the country's regional and foreign policies, including the nuclear portfolio and relations with Western powers. They set the broad parameters of Iranian foreign policy and strategy, leaving the president with a limited ability to maneuver in determining the country's international relations. Nevertheless, the president's personality and discourse play an important role in Iran's foreign relations, either heightening tensions with the world or presenting a more accommodating stance -- as clearly shown by the contrasting styles of President Ahmadinejad and his predecessor Mohammad Khatami. While Ahmadinejad's aggressive rhetoric has caused a further rupture with Western states, Khatami's stress on civilizational dialogue and co-existence was warmly welcomed in European capitals and many U.S. circles. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz Gerges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fawaz Gerges: Iranian election likely to turn on local issues, not foreign policy .\nIran's economy in trouble due to lower oil prices, inflation, joblessness, he says .\nWomen think Ahmadinejad has broken his promises to them, Gerges says .\nGerges: Women and young people have been key factors in past votes ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Ted Epperly, M.D., a family physician in Boise, Idaho, is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. He spent 21 years in the U.S. Army, including service as a family physician, chief of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital emergency room during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and deputy commander of an Army medical center. Ted Epperly says recruiting more primary care doctors would improve access to quality health care. (CNN) -- Clayton Christensen, Jason Hwang and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan are right about one thing in their CNN commentary titled \"We don't need more doctors.\" America's health care system is broken. It requires significant reform if patients are to have access to convenient, affordable and -- most importantly -- high-quality care that results in good outcomes. But they have missed a central point. We need more primary care physicians now and we will need even more in the future as the baby boom generation ages. If Americans are to see meaningful health care reform, they must have a primary care doctor to whom they can turn for everyday problems: annual physicals and preventive care, diagnosis and treatment for common illness, and diagnosis and treatment of complex, chronic conditions, referral to subspecialists, and coordination of care provided by a team of professionals. Our current system has a serious and growing shortage of these primary care physicians. Today, only 30 percent of physicians provide primary care and 70 percent subspecialize in a single organ system or disease. We need a system in which patients get the right kind of care at the right time in the right place by the right type of provider. They need health services that provide not just convenient hours for minor health problems, but also medical expertise that ensures consistent, ongoing care; accurate diagnoses of symptoms; coordination with pharmacists, other specialists and allied health professionals such as physical therapists; consistent follow-up; and convenience. All at an affordable cost. Several health reform proposals set forth by President Obama and Congress would move federal policy in that direction. How? They incorporate convenience, efficiency, continuity of care and access to a system that relies on the patient-centered medical home -- a concept in which physicians coordinate care with a team of health professionals, offer evening and weekend office hours, and use electronic communication with patients and members of the health care team. But this concept won't be fulfilled unless we have health reform that increases the number of primary care physicians. Right now, America has a current and worsening shortage of primary medical care. Christensen, Hwang and Vijayaraghavan contend that increasing the number of physicians also leads to \"greater intensity of care, but not better health outcomes.\" But their argument leaves out a major caveat. Although a greater number of subspecialists does increase the intensity, number and cost of services, research by Barbara Starfield at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health consistently demonstrates the opposite occurs in communities with more primary care physicians, particularly family physicians. Starfield concludes that an increase of one primary care physician per 10,000 population resulted in a reduction of 34.6 deaths per 100,000 population at the state level. Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, and Amitabh Chandra at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government confirm these findings. Their research shows that increasing the number of primary care physicians results in a significant increase in the quality of health care and a reduction of cost to patients. However, increasing the number of subspecialists was associated with higher costs and poorer quality. At issue, then, is not the total number of physicians, but the number of family physicians and their primary care colleagues. Demographics, an aging population and resulting increased demand for services will require a significant increase in the number of these physicians. Given the long-term process required to train primary care physicians, we will continue to struggle with a shortage of primary care physicians, and that shortage will affect patients' access to care. Family physicians now are working to fill some of those gaps, according to a 2008 survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The survey found 42 percent of respondents offer extended office hours and 29 percent provide open access or same-day scheduling. Moreover, 36 percent offer Web-based health information, 32 percent (up from 10 percent two years ago) prescribe medications by e-mail, and 21 percent (up from 18 percent two years ago) offer e-mail interactions. In short, despite the financial disincentives and other barriers in the current system, family physicians are working to meet patients' needs for convenience and access. They are improving this convenience and access with the help of nurses and nurse practitioners, who are excellent sources of care when patients have a known set of conditions and diagnoses that are amenable to treatment protocols. Likewise, walk-in clinics can fill the access gap when patients have an acute problem that requires a treatment that can be spelled out by an accepted protocol. However, even these clinics rely on an adequate number of primary care physicians. Most walk-in clinic staff realize that convenience should not trump quality or continuity, and most will refer patients to a primary care physician for follow-up and ongoing care. Again, without an adequate number of primary care physicians, these patients will have only partial access to the care they need. Family physicians and other primary care providers are part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is important at this critical time of restructuring the health care system to understand clearly what we are trying to accomplish. What we are building is a high-quality, accessible health care system that increases patient satisfaction and health care outcomes while we decrease cost and ethnic disparities. This is what a primary-care based health system will deliver. This is why President Obama and Congress aim to rebuild the U.S. health care system around primary care. This is why we need more primary care physicians. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Ted Epperly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Ted Epperly: America needs more primary care doctors to expand access .\nHe says studies show primary care doctors improve health-care outcomes .\nEpperly: Doctors are seeking to make services more easily available ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Scottish woman who became an Internet singing sensation after her performance on a British talent show said Friday she doesn't want fame to change her. Susan Boyle at home with her piano. Susan Boyle, 47, has said she's still the same humble girl next door despite her knockout singing on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" She shocked and inspired the audience, judges, and Web watchers with her rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Misérables\" in the first round of the show. \"I wouldn't want to change myself too much because that would really make things a bit false,\" she told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. \"I want to receive people as the real me, a real person.\" Boyle's appearance belied her talent, but in the end it was the very reason she won over the audience. There is speculation TV producers might give Boyle a makeover for the rest of the show, but she refused to say whether she'd accept one. iReport.com: Have you been judged on looks? \"I can't make a comment on that,\" she said. Watch Boyle sing a new song for CNN's Larry King » . A clip of Boyle's performance on the talent show had more than 15 million views on YouTube by Friday, and the world's media have beaten a path to her door in Blackburn, Scotland. Watch Boyle's singing wow the world » . While she said she's the same person -- the shy girl who has never been kissed -- it's clear that Boyle's life already is changing. In her home are heaps of fan mail and cards from well-wishers. Throngs of fans have been shrieking at her doorstep begging for her autograph. Boyle said she's still in shock and overwhelmed by her overnight stardom. Watch how Boyle sees herself » . \"I'm gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked,\" she told CNN on Friday morning. During an earlier interview with CNN's Atika Shubert, Boyle expressed amazement at people's reaction to her -- \"the way everyone seems to have embraced me, the way they seem to have apparently fallen in love with me,\" she said. Watch young fans flock to Boyle's home » . The singer acknowledged she noticed the initial sniggers when she got onstage for her performance on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" But she said she didn't let it get to her. If nothing else, it fueled her motivation. \"I just thought mentally, I'll show them, so I did,\" she said. \"If people are cynical, you try and win them 'round and it worked. It must have been a miracle, but it worked.\" Boyle still has a long way to go -- having just gotten through to the second round of \"Britain's Got Talent\" after judge Simon Cowell described her first performance as \"extraordinary.\" If she can make her way through the show's final rounds, she will get to sing for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show. Boyle has promised to be on her best behavior if she gets that far. \"Whatever comes my way, I am ready. It would be lovely to sing for the queen. There would be less of the carry-on from me and more of the singing. \"She is a very regal lady, very nice, so I would be nice, too, and just get up there and give it a bit of wellie [try],\" Boyle told the show's Web site. Boyle began singing in school productions at 12. She had private lessons and won local competitions, but a professional career never took hold partly because of circumstances at home. Boyle said she cared for her aging parents, both of whom have died. Thoughts of her mother led Boyle to apply to be on the talent show, she said. \"She was my inspiration, and she was the driving force behind my application,\" Boyle told CNN. \"I felt it was a tribute to her. She was a wonderful lady.\" Watch Boyle say, \"It must have been a miracle\" » . Boyle said she was trying to take her newfound fame in stride. \"It's a challenge. Life is a challenge sometimes, but this is different. And I like to test myself. \"If it all gets too much and they lock me up, I want a great big straitjacket with spots on it -- a pink one ... and a big zip on the back so I can escape.\" Cowell reportedly is trying to piece together a record deal for Boyle, an unemployed charity worker who lives with her cat, Pebbles. But Boyle said she's not focusing on any of that yet -- she still spends her time concentrating on the current competition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: YouTube sensation credits late mother for inspiration to perform .\nSusan Boyle wowed audience, judges on \"Britain's Got Talent\"\nBoyle says, \"I wouldn't want to change myself too much\"\nUnexpected star grabs spotlight with more than 15 million Web views ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States will allow Americans to send mobile phones to relatives in Cuba under a change in policy that President Bush announced Wednesday. President Bush announces the U.S. policy allowing cell phones to Cuba at the White House on Wednesday. Bush said he is making the change since President Raúl Castro \"is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time.\" \"If he is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people,\" Bush said. Bush urged the Cuban government to loosen restrictions further, saying if Cubans can be allowed to own mobile phones, \"they should be trusted to speak freely in public.\" They should be allowed to watch uncensored movies and have free access to the Internet, he said. And he called for the government to implement major free-market reforms. Relations between the United States and Cuba remain tense nearly 50 years after Fidel Castro overthrew the pro-American government in Havana. The United States has maintained an embargo against Cuba for decades. Cuban officials on Monday accused the top U.S. diplomat in Havana of delivering money from private anti-Castro groups in Florida to dissidents in Cuba. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that \"the U.S. government has programs to provide humanitarian assistance to people that are essentially forgotten by the Cuban government and that we ... do not stand in the way of private groups doing that as well.\" As to how that is done, he said, \"I'm not aware of the mechanics; I don't steep myself in these things.\" Fidel Castro, beset with health problems, handed day-to-day governing power over to Raúl, his younger brother, earlier this year. After being elected president in February, Raúl Castro announced that Cubans who can afford them could buy cell phones and DVD players and stay in hotels previously reserved for foreign tourists -- overturning bans from the Fidel era. The goods and services remain out of reach for most people on the island, where $120 cell phones plus $10.80 calling cards cost about six times the average monthly salary. Bush said Wednesday it is \"the height of hypocrisy to claim credit to allow Cubans to purchase appliances that virtually none of them can afford.\" Though the price may put mobile phones out of the reach of most Cubans, they are affordable for many of those who have access to U.S. dollars -- typically either sent from relatives abroad or earned internally by tourist workers. Bush on Wednesday marked what the White House called a Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People, which the president said he hopes will be an annual event." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Bush: Cubans also \"should be trusted to speak freely in public\"\nBush calls for Cuba to implement major free-market reforms .\nU.S. has maintained an embargo against Cuba for decades .\nNew leader Raúl Castro allowing Cubans to buy cell phones, DVD players ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The Chinese women's gymnastics team did not use underage competitors during this year's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Gymnastics Federation said Wednesday. Widespread reports claimed that gold medal winner He Kexin was only 14 years old. The federation said it has concluded its inquiry into the matter after it confirmed the gymnasts' ages through official documents that the Chinese Gymnasts Association provided. The documents included passports, identity cards and household registers. However, the organization intends to further investigate the ages of two gymnasts, Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, who participated in the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia. The federation said it did not consider the explanations and evidence that Chinese authorities provided in regard to those athletes as satisfactory. The International Olympic Committee had asked gymnastics officials to clarify the situation after numerous commentators, bloggers and others questioned whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete. Watch tiny gymnasts work out » . Athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place. In women's gymnastics, younger girls can have an advantage over older competitors on account of their often smaller, lighter and more agile bodies. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Beijing games, and five members won individual medals. One of the challenges came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claimed to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. CNN was not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appeared to back up the claim. Other bloggers joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct. Chinese gymnastics coaches also defended their team. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Athletes met age requirements, international commission concludes .\nSome writers, others suspected girls were younger than rules allowed .\nChinese team won gold medal in Summer Olympics at Beijing .\nPassports, identity cards, household records examined ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- One of Africa's most successful footballers, Nwankwo Kanu, has had a glittering career on the pitch. The 6 ft 5 in Nigerian footballer has used his sizable stature in the game to help many others. Winning a gold medal with Nigeria in the 1996 Olympic Games he has also won the European Cup with Ajax; the English Premier League Title and FA Cup with Arsenal in 2002, and in 2008 scored the winning goal for Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. But off the pitch, Kanu has worked just as hard to improve the lives of others. He set up the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000 that raises money to help children with hearth defects. It's an issue that Kanu is particularly connected to. In 1995, when he was already a double-European Cup finalist, Kanu was told by a doctor for Inter Milan, the club he had just signed for, that he a faulty value in his heart. He was told he could never play football again. However he spent 14 months rehabilitating and then moved to Arsenal in England and arguably had the most successful years of his career. Now nearing the end of his career, Kanu has set up another foundation. Founded in 2008, The Kanu Football Foundation aims to help advise young African footballer who can face all sorts of pressures when trying to become a professional football and avoid being exploited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nigerian footballer is European Cup and English Premier League winner .\nAge 19, told he could never play football again after hole was found in his heart .\nA UNICEF ambassador has also set up two charitable foundations ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- British police Wednesday arrested 12 people in a counterterrorism operation, and locations were being searched, authorities said. A Scotland Yard official's papers show details of the raid, which have been obscured in this photo. Arrests were carried out in a series of raids in northwest England, police said. Participating agencies included Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police and the Lancashire Constabulary, according to a statement from Greater Manchester Police. The men arrested were involved in a \"very serious\" plot closely associated with al Qaeda and escaped al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf, whom British intelligence have linked to the 2006 plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners, according to a security source with knowledge of the investigation. The new plot was not believed to be targeting national infrastructure, such as rail lines, airports or utilities, nor was it clear if the plot was to involved bombs or an assault involving gunmen, the source said. Details, the source said, were speculative at this point in the investigation. The source also said authorities don't believe the targets would have been in the north of England, where the arrests took place, and that at least some of those arrested were Pakistanis in the United Kingdom on student visas. Several hundred officers were involved in the raids, according to a later Greater Manchester Police statement. The men arrested range in age from a youth in his mid- to late teens to a 41-year-old, the statement said. No further information was available, police said. \"Today's action is part of an ongoing investigation and we have acted on intelligence received,\" said Steve Ashley, chief superintendent of Merseyside police. \"We understand that this kind of police activity can cause concerns to people living in nearby communities. The extra patrols, cordons and measures we have in place have been implemented to make sure we are doing everything we can to reassure the public and maintain public safety.\" Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, in a written statement, congratulated police for the \"successful anti-terrorism operation which has resulted in 12 arrests at a number of locations.\" She said the actions were an operational decision by police and Security Services, but she and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were kept apprised. Police rushed to make the arrests after press photographers on Tuesday snapped images of the U.K.'s chief terrorism officer as he got out of a car at the prime minister's residence, according to the security source. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick was carrying a document containing the names of those to be arrested, the source said, and the photographers were able to easily read the names when they enlarged the photographs. But, the source said, the arrests would probably have taken place Thursday, and preparations for the arrests were the reason for Quick's visit to see Brown. \"Tonight, the focus is the ongoing operation. That's my priority,\" Smith said. Scotland Yard issued a statement regarding the incident. \"Quick accepts he made a mistake on leaving a sensitive document on open view and deeply regrets it. He has apologized to the commissioner and the colleagues.\" CNN's Andrew Carey and Laura Perez-Maestro contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Men involved in plot associated with escaped al Qaeda operative, source says .\nNEW: Some of those arrested were Pakistanis in the U.K. on student visas .\nNEW: U.K.'s chief terrorism officer apologizes for pictures of him with documents .\nPolice from Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire Constabulary involved ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "FAIRBURN, Georgia (CNN) -- In a south Atlanta neighborhood lined with palatial homes and manicured lots, the Hicks family was living out its American dream. Breylan and Terese Hicks play with their sons Bryce, 3, and Jordan, 2. But like many Americans, that dream was interrupted when they almost lost their home to foreclosure. Terese, a firefighter, and her husband Breylan, a police sergeant, had always dreamed about owning a spacious house in the suburbs. When they began their search, the young family was living in a south Atlanta neighborhood. They grew concerned and decided to move when crime in the area started to pick up. Although they didn't think they could afford their 'dream home,' they started searching in an affluent area just south of the airport and across the street from the 190-room estate owned by famed heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield. \"I've always been looking in this subdivision, but never thought we could afford a home here,\" Terese Hicks said. After discussing their financials with a mortgage broker, the family was presented with a deal and payments they could afford. The interest-only, adjustable rate loan sounded good at the time. And since they were not first-time homebuyers, they thought they knew what they were getting into. Terese Hicks figured they could always refinance before the interest rates were adjusted. Soon, the family settled in their seven-bedroom, five-bathroom plantation-style home with a pool. It all seemed like a dream come true, until the couple learned the interest rate on their loan would readjust in just six months, making the loan a short three-year ARM. The mother of two, who handles the family's finances, had wrongly assumed that their loan was a five-year ARM. The news couldn't have come at a worse time. Breylan was unable to work because of a serious back injury, and the family's income took a hit. They were also paying mortgages on vacant rental properties when they couldn't find tenants because of the housing crisis. To make matters worse, Terese Hicks, a city employee, had to take a 10-percent pay cut in her salary, and the family was burdened with a mountain of medical bills for numerous surgeries their 6-month-old son Jordan underwent to treat a birth-related medical condition. Struggling to pay the new adjusted mortgage, Terese Hicks appealed to their mortgage company, Homecomings which is owned by GMAC, for help. \"They said there was nothing they could do about the rate readjusting, so I said let's weather the storm and see what we can do,\" she said. She continued to make regular payments for all of their mortgages in order to maintain their good credit. But within a year, they were in the eye of the storm and their savings dropped to around $75. Desperate, the Hickses asked their mortgage company again for help. But they were told there was nothing they could do because they were current on all their payments. The Hickses decided they had no other choice but to \"play the game\" and stop paying their mortgage, even if it meant damaging their hard-earned credit. Homecomings acknowledges that the guidelines for modification at that time made little sense, but they were caught in the middle of a \"symptomatic\" relationship between working with third-party investors and homeowners. \"In order for us to have been able to modify the loan we needed to get permission on the investor on whose behalf we are servicing the loan,\" said Jeanine Bruin of GMAC. \"It's a balancing act, what's in the best interest of the customer and the investor.\" At the time of the Hickses request for a loan modification, investors backing the loans required some proof of financial difficulty. Things have changed since then, including new government concessions geared towards helping homeowners, explained Bruin. \"The proof was in the pudding,\" said Bruin, \"You had to be late in your payment to prove hardship.\" The Hicks family's story is one that Marcia Griffin, founder of HomeFree-USA, has heard all too often. \"We advise homebuyers not to talk to a realtor or lender before we can meet with them for a Mortgage Profile Meeting,\" said Griffin. \"Within 30 minutes the client will know if they can fly, run, walk or crawl.\" HomeFree-USA is a nonprofit organization devoted to homeownership development and financial empowerment. It's one of several national nonprofit organizations that offer mortgage assistance and home ownership counseling. The Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America and the National Urban League offer community advocacy programs geared toward counseling lower- and middle-income families who are purchasing or refinancing their homes. With offices in Washington and Atlanta, HomeFree-USA's clientele is mostly minority borrowers. During the recent housing crisis, Griffin says people of color have become \"easy prey\" because they often don't know the right questions to ask about subprime and ARM loans. Some may find her no-nonsense attitude a bit difficult to swallow. \"You cannot buy a house without any money, and you cannot buy a house with poor credit,\" cautioned Griffin. As an African-American, Griffin believes she's the right messenger to help financially empower the African-American community. Griffin believes families like the Hicks could have qualified for a better, less risky loan and should have been better informed about the terms of their loan. If the Hicks family had known sooner about HomeFree-USA's program they might have been able to save their good credit rating and a lot of aggravation. It was only after receiving notice that their home was going up for auction that Terese Hicks learned about HomeFree-USA. She contacted the Atlanta office and within a few days there was a resolution. The Hicks family learned that they qualified for President Obama's new homeownership assistance program. The program offered institutionalized loan modifications for people who could prove they were suffering economic hardship. With a low interest rate locked in for the next five years, the family was able to keep the home and pay an affordable monthly mortgage. Griffin hopes other homebuyers can learn from the Hickses' situation and seek out an advocate early in the process of refinancing or modifying a loan -- before they are caught in a financial storm. \"People don't know where to go and who to talk to,\" says Griffin. \"They are suffering in silence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Hicks family purchased a \"dream home\" just south of Atlanta, Georgia .\nThe couple struggled to pay the interest-only mortgage after it adjusted .\nThey suffered a series of financial blows from health issues to loss of income .\nHomeFree-USA consulted with their lender to avoid foreclosure ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI visited Jerusalem's holiest sites Tuesday, touring areas sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians and stressing the common threads of the three faiths. Pope Benedict XVI prays at the Old City's Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. After visiting the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, the pontiff prayed at the Old City's Western Wall. Also known as the Wailing Wall, it was once part of Judaism's Second Temple, which was destroyed. Later, the pope was scheduled to celebrate Mass at Gethsemane, the site where the Bible says Jesus prayed to God for guidance the night before his crucifixion. \"The Dome of the Rock draws our hearts and minds to reflect upon the mystery of creation and the faith of Abraham. Here the paths of the world's three great monotheistic religions meet, reminding us what they share in common,\" the pope said at the Islamic shrine after a meeting with the grand mufti of Jerusalem, the city's top Muslim religious leader. \"Each believes in one God, creator and ruler of all. Each recognizes Abraham as a forefather, a man of faith upon whom God bestowed a special blessing,\" the pontiff said. Muslims believe that the Dome of the Rock is where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, while Jews believe that it is where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. A short distance away in the Old City is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be located on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. The visit took place under extremely tight security. Security personnel with machine guns could be seen across the Temple Mount." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Visits Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, before meeting city's top Muslim leader .\nIn Islam Dome of the Rock is where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven .\nPope: \"Here the paths of the world's three great monotheistic religions meet\"\nVisit takes place under extremely tight security ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) -- After earning a reputation as a killer in Haiti, Tropical Storm Hanna amounted to little more than a windy rainstorm along the Atlantic Coast on Saturday. Water almost covers the dock at the Marine Corps Air Station marina near the New River in North Carolina. No states have \"expressed any damage that they couldn't handle,\" said Glenn Cannon, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistant administrator for disaster operations. He said there were some concerns about flooding near rivers and in low-lying areas. \"We're monitoring Hanna, but it seems to be a heavy rain event,\" he said. According to the Associated Press, Hanna did cause one death in a traffic accident on Interstate 95 in Maryland. Many people in Huntington, Virginia, about 8 miles northwest of Virginia Beach, voluntarily evacuated Saturday afternoon because of concerns about flooding, Fairfax County public information officer Merni Fitzgerald said. The area, which has flooded in the past, was receiving heavy rain, she said. She could not provide an exact number of people who had evacuated. The storm drenched the Carolinas and Virginia with heavy rain pushed by 55-mph winds as it zipped northward near 30 mph (48 kph), the National Hurricane Center reported at 11 p.m. ET Saturday. At that hour, the center of the storm was 90 miles (145 kilometers) west-southwest of Long Island, New York, and about 135 miles (220 kilometers) southwest of Providence, Rhode Island. Hanna would travel the coast all the way up to Canada's Maritime Provinces by Sunday night, forecasters said. Hanna came ashore at 3:20 a.m. ET near the North Carolina-South Carolina state line. It caused a surge of 1 to 2 feet of water along the shore and was expected to deliver 4 to 6 inches of rain, with some areas getting more. Flooding, wind damage and power outages were minor across the Carolinas, according to emergency officials. View a map of Hanna's projected path » . \"It's actually going fairly well, with some reports of minor flooding,\" said South Carolina Emergency Management spokesman Derrec Becker. About 10,000 South Carolina homes were without power Saturday morning, mostly in the Myrtle Beach area, Becker said. He also said 444 South Carolina residents were staying in 15 shelters. In North Carolina, nearly 12,000 homes had no electricity, mostly in the counties near where Hanna came in, said State Emergency Management spokesman Mark Van Sciver. See what impact Hanna had on Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina » . No deaths were reported, flooding was limited, and no highways were closed, Van Sciver said. Nearly 1,500 residents sought refuge Saturday in 49 emergency shelters in North Carolina, Van Sciver said. The storm snarled some travel plans. It triggered delays for arrivals to Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania and departures from Newark International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Delays at JFK airport averaged about four hours, the FAA said. Hanna's eye made landfall near Little River Inlet at the South Carolina-North Carolina line, according to CNN meteorologists. Watch wind whip a South Carolina beach » . Pounding waves flattened some sand dunes on the beaches at Oak Island, North Carolina, just east of the storm's landfall. The island's Ocean Crest pier, rebuilt after Hurricane Floyd destroyed it nine years ago, held up under Hanna, but the American flag flying above it was in tatters and barely attached to its pole by sunrise. By Saturday afternoon, the hurricane center had discontinued a tropical storm warning southward from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A tropical storm warning covered much of the East Coast from Cape Hatteras to Merrimack River, Massachusetts, about 31 miles north of Boston. The warning included all of Chesapeake Bay, Washington, New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, as well as popular vacation islands Martha's Vineyard, Block Island and Nantucket. The warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours. iReport.com: Are you getting soaked? Hanna caused severe flooding and killed at least 137 as it lingered for several days over and just off the coast of Haiti. U.N. relief supplies started arriving in the beleaguered country Friday, even as Hurricane Ike threatens to do even more damage. Ike will pass near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands, just north of Haiti, and the southeastern Bahamas in the next day, the hurricane center said. Ike's impact on the United States is less certain, but it could brush South Florida and hit the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane next week. iReport.com: \"There's now a pond in my car\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Residents in Huntington, Virginia, voluntarily evacuating because of flooding .\nFEMA says no states have requested help with damage from storm .\nLittle damage reported from storm in U.S. after at least 137 deaths in Haiti .\n4 to 6 inches of rain expected all along Atlantic Coast ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Lighthouse keeper J.A. Eckerman was the last person to see World War II Soviet submarine S-2 before it sank in January 1940 between Sweden and Finland. A team of Swedish and Finnish divers had been searching for the Soviet submarine S-2 since 1999. As the submarine dove near the island of Market, northwest of Aland, Eckerman heard a loud explosion and saw smoke rise from the water. The long-lost wreck was missing for 69 years until a team of Swedish and Finnish divers -- including Eckerman's grandson Ingvald -- discovered it this year. What remains of the sub was found between the Swedish coast and the Finnish island of Aland, northeast of Stockholm, in late February, the divers announced Tuesday. The submarine was very badly damaged by the explosion, said Marten Zetterstrom, one of the divers. The front gun is still there, and a torpedo is still in one of the tubes, but about 20 meters (about 65 feet) of the vessel is missing. The search had been going on for nearly 10 years, the divers said in a news release. The sub had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank. Sweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines. Russia has contacted Swedish and Finnish authorities to clarify what caused the submarine to sink, the divers said. Finland was at war with the Soviet Union at the time the sub sank. A deal between Germany and the Soviets had put the Nordic nation within the Soviet \"sphere of influence,\" and Soviet troops had invaded Finland late in 1939. The fighting was mostly confined to Finland's eastern border. Just two months after the submarine's sinking, a temporary peace agreement was reached. Sweden remained neutral in World War II. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lighthouse watchman last saw it 69 years ago before it sank near island of Market .\nThe Soviet submarine S-2 had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank .\nRemains found between Swedish coast and Finnish island of Aland in February .\nSweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- London commuters crammed onto buses, scrambled for taxis, cycled or simply walked on Wednesday as a strike by Tube workers shut down most of the subway network. Commuters queue for packed buses in London on Wednesday morning. The strike began Tuesday at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) but the first full effects were felt during Wednesday's morning commute. The strike was set to last for 48 hours with a normal service resuming Friday morning, according to Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city's transportation network. The RMT trade union called the strike after talks with management over pay, job cuts, and disciplinary issues broke down. \"RMT doesn't resort to industrial action lightly,\" General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement. \"The fact is that Tube workers have been driven into walking out today.\" Transport Commissioner Peter Hardy said the talks had been making progress on all issues and he urged the RMT to return to the table. \"The RMT leadership says we were close to a deal,\" Hardy said in a statement. \"If that is the case, then they should call off the strike, return to talks ... and resolve this issue without any more disruption to Londoners.\" TfL was running extra buses and free shuttle services across the River Thames during the strike. Electronic travel cards used for the TfL network were temporarily being allowed on all train lines in greater London, it said. While most services on the Tube were shut because of the strike, one line -- the Northern line -- was running normally and five others were running on a reduced schedule, TfL said. \"It's been really good,\" a girl on Oxford Street told CNN about her commute. \"The Northern line is running perfectly.\" Still, some bus services were packed with commuters who normally ride the underground trains or who failed to find a taxi. \"I think we'd all like to strike for more money, but unfortunately we can't,\" said one woman at Oxford Circus, where the Tube is closed. Others hit the pavement and walked. \"It's OK -- quite refreshing,\" said a man on Regent Street. He said he had just walked from Liverpool Street Station, a train station as well as a Tube stop that is more than 2.5 miles away. The RMT represents about half of the 20,000 employees on the Tube, a TfL spokeswoman said. Other unions including Unite and TSSA represent the rest, she said, and were not on strike." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "London transport system crippled as Tube workers go on strike .\nNormal service not due to resume until Friday morning .\nBuses crammed with commuters; many chose to cycle, walk to work .\nRMT trade union called strike in dispute over pay, job cuts, disciplinary issues ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PARIS, France (CNN) -- A Pablo Picasso sketchbook with 33 pencil drawings disappeared from a locked glass case in a museum in Paris overnight, the French Ministry of Culture announced Tuesday. The sketchbook was discovered missing from the Picasso Museum in Paris overnight. The police were immediately alerted, as was a special unit that combats the trade in stolen cultural artifacts. The sketchbook has a red varnished cover with the word \"Album\" inscribed on it in gold lettering, and measures 16 centimeters by 24 centimeters (6 inches by 9 inches). Picasso used the sketchbook between 1917 and 1924 when he was in his late 30s and early 40s. The period was extraordinarily eventful for the artist, including collaborations and tours with the Ballets Russes, his marriage to Olga Khokhlova, a dancer from the company, and the birth of his son Paul. Picasso was shifting from the famous Cubist style he helped create to his neo-Classical phase during the years covered by the sketchbook, according a biography on his official Web site. CNN's Niki Cook contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sketchbook of Pablo Picasso drawings missing from Paris museum, officials say .\nSpecial unit that combats the trade in stolen cultural artifacts was notified .\nThe artist used the sketchbook between 1917 and 1924 .\nDescription: Red varnished cover with \"Album\" inscription, 6-by-9 inches ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- He was black and white, the perfect gift for the 6-year-old daughter of Donna and Ronald Gleason. His name was Tommy. The death and mutilation of Tommy the cat has been linked to a serial pet killer, say police in Miami, Florida. The black and white tuxedo cat was one of a dozen pets that have been killed and mutilated recently by someone in the Miami area, police said. On Thursday, the list of confirmed cat deaths and mutiliations grew to 19 pets, police said. They are looking into another 14 feline fatalities. The Gleasons do not want their daughter's name to be published. Donna Gleason asked the child to leave the room before telling CNN the gruesome details of what happened to their cat. \"Part of his skin was missing underneath ... and part of his legs,\" Gleason said. \"He was partially skinned.\" Miami-Dade County police say Tommy's demise is part of a string of sadistic feline fatalities that have occurred recently in the Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay areas of southern Miami-Dade County, south of Miami. Miami-Dade Police spokesman Bobby Williams said two of the cat carcasses were \"posed.\" He said that anyone capable of such cruelty toward and torture of an animal \"is disturbed at some sort of level.\" The crimes began May 13. A reward of up to $10,000 has been offered for any information leading to an arrest. Police have been inundated with dozens of phone calls from people who have discovered dead cats throughout the community. Investigators have determined that most of the cases are not related to the string of cat killings. The number grew from 12 to 15 to 19 in just the past two days. Ronald Gleason found Tommy lying in their yard May 25. At first, he thought his family's pet had been killed by a dog, but a closer look revealed the cruelty behind his death. Tommy was a gift for the Gleasons' little girl. She desperately wanted a cat, Donna Gleason said. She searched for a cat that could get along with their dog, but none of the shelter cats they brought home was compatible. \"We prayed that we would find a nice cat that liked our dog, and a few days later, he just showed up at our front door,\" Donna Gleason said. Tommy was adopting them. The Gleasons put signs up in the neighborhood, and when no one claimed him, they kept Tommy. \"It's disturbing to know that this happened right in front of your house, while you're sleeping inside,\" Donna Gleason said. \"I'm not terrified, but I'm not sleeping as well as I used to.\" Others in south Miami-Dade County are telling similar stories. A woman whose Siamese mix cat, Caesar, was killed and mutilated didn't want her name published. \"This person killed my cat. He doesn't need to know anything else about me,\" she said. \"I don't know if it's a gang initiation thing or a satanic ritual thing, but to do what he's doing, he has to be extremely sick.\" The month-long cat-killing spree has police concerned. \"We're telling people to be aware where their cats are at. Keep your pets inside,\" said Williams, the police spokesman. \"If anyone looks or acts suspicious, call police,\" he added. \"Have us come out there and check them out. This could be the missing link we're looking for.\" For the Gleasons and 11 other cat owners, it's too late. All they can do is break the news gently to a little girl who always wanted a kitty. \"She loved him and played with him every morning. ... She just misses him,\" Donna Gleason said. \"We told her that Tommy was killed by an animal,\" she said. Then she added, \"Well, an animal did kill him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tommy the cat showed up one day on the Gleason family's doorstep .\nFlorida couple was looking for a pet for their 6-year-old daughter .\nTommy was found dead and mutilated in his family's yard south of Miami .\nPolice believe that he was one of 19 victims of a serial pet killer ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- What are reigning world champions Italy, European champions Spain, and football giants Brazil doing taking on teams like New Zealand and Iraq this month? Robinho (left) and Ronaldinho (right) celebrate Brazil winning the Confederations Cup in 2005. It sounds like a complete mismatch, but the eight-team FIFA Confederations Cup which starts in South Africa on Sunday, will see these teams pitted against one another in what is a dress-rehearsal of sorts for next year's World Cup. Dubbed by FIFA, world football's governing body, the \"festival of champions\", the tournament involves primarily the winning teams from regional competitions in each of the world's six football federations -- Spain from Europe (UEFA), Brazil from South America (CONMEBOL), Iraq from Asia (AFC), U.S. from the Americas (CONCACAF), New Zealand from Oceania (OFC), and Egypt from Africa (CAF). These sides qualified for the tournament by winning their respective regional competitions, while South Africa gained automatic entry as the tournament hosts, and Italy as World Cup holders. The tournament format sees the eight teams split into two groups of four for a round-robin stage, before the top two teams from each group progress to knock-out semi-finals and then the final on June 28. In-form Spain head to the tournament as favorites, while a resurgent Brazil side and World Cup holders Italy also can't be discounted. Egypt could be the dark horses of the event -- but they do have a tough group with games against both Brazil and Italy. The scrap for second in Spain's pool could well be the other interesting storyline from the competition, as South Africa, Iraq and New Zealand fight it out for a place in the final four. • See profiles of the eight teams involved in the 2009 Confederations Cup. » . While the tournament doesn't carry with it the same prestige as a World Cup, it is essentially a trial run of the main event for the host nation, and for the lower-ranked countries involved it offers invaluable experience playing against the world's best. Ricky Herbert, coach of New Zealand's national team the \"All Whites\", told the NZ Soccer Web site the tournament is always hugely attractive to the South Pacific nation as it offers a great opportunity for the national team. Herbert's side narrowly lost 4-3 to World Cup holders Italy in a friendly on Wednesday, and he said the big-game experience is excellent. \"It's a fantastic opportunity. It may be mammoth gap between where they are and where we are but it gives a chance on that world stage to put a good foot forward, and I think we can.\" \"Whilst it'll be great for the players on the pitch to play the best players and the best teams in the world, football fans can switch that on and watch their own team play the likes of Fabio Cannavaro or Fernando Torres or whoever,\" Herbert said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Confederations Cup tournament takes place in South Africa this month .\nEight teams are involved in the tournament including Spain, Italy and Brazil .\nEntry is limited to regional champions, the World Cup holders and the hosts ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WATERLOO, Illinois (CNN) -- A southwestern Illinois man accused of strangling his wife and two young sons did not ask how his family was killed or see their bodies after he learned of the deaths, a police official said at a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. Christopher Coleman, 32, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Garett, 11, Gavin, 9, and his wife, Sheri Coleman, 31. The victims were strangled in their beds last month. A pathologist will testify during the trial that the time of deaths May 5 was between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., hours before Coleman said he drove to a gym, said Chief Joe Edwards of the Columbia Police Department. Coleman, a security supervisor, was arrested May 19. The chief also said that a handwriting expert has concluded that the profanity-laced messages scrawled in red spray paint throughout the house match Coleman's handwriting. Spray-painted messages were also found on Gavin's bed sheets, he said. Watch more on the profane messages » . Threatening letters left in the family's mailbox and an e-mail allegedly sent to Coleman before the killings were traced back to the suspect's laptop, he said. The letters had no envelopes and no postage, according to Edwards. Testifying at a hearing at the Monroe County Courthouse, the chief said that a police chaplain noticed an abrasion on Coleman's right arm as he was escorted to an ambulance after the bodies were discovered. Coleman then repeatedly punched the gurney with the arm, Edwards said, adding that when the suspect's father asked him about the abrasion, he said it was from punching the gurney. The suspect was having an affair with a friend of his wife who lives in Florida, according to prosecutors. Computer forensics found videos, photos and messages between the two, Edwards said. Coleman pleaded not guilty to all charges. The next court date is set for August 26." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police chief testifies at preliminary hearing for man accused of slayings .\nSheri Coleman, 2 sons killed in Columbia, Illinois, home .\nChristopher Coleman, husband and father, is accused in the deaths .\nGraffiti, threats against family tied to Coleman at hearing ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to its highest level, saying the H1N1 virus has spread to enough countries to be considered a global pandemic. Kindergarten students, some wearing masks, attend school in a residential estate in Hong Kong on Thursday. Increasing the alert to Phase 6 does not mean that the disease is deadlier or more dangerous than before, just that it has spread to more countries, the WHO said. \"This is an important and challenging day for all of us,\" WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a briefing with reporters. \"We are moving into the early days of the first flu pandemic of the 21st century.\" The last previous pandemic occurred in 1968. As of Thursday, the virus had spread to 74 countries, the health agency said. There were 28,774 confirmed cases and 144 deaths. The United States had 13,217 cases and 27 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said June 5 in its weekly update. Cases have been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. See where H1N1 flu cases are in the U.S. » . The U.S. death toll is expected be higher when the CDC releases its latest figures Friday, said Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. New England -- particularly Massachusetts -- and the New York and New Jersey areas have been hit the hardest, Schuchat said Thursday at a CDC news conference. The Phase 6 pandemic designation had been widely expected for weeks. \"Further spread is considered inevitable,\" Chan said at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. \"The scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.\" The announcement came after a meeting of the WHO's Emergency Committee, which has debated since April whether the spread of a novel H1N1 flu virus was fast and widespread enough to warrant a Phase 6 designation. Phase 6, Chan said, is meant as a signal to countries to recalibrate their strategies to minimize the harm from swine flu. In countries where the virus and the response to it are already widespread, it is not likely to mean significant changes, but Chan urged countries that have not seen cases, or seen only limited cases, to get ready. \"The virus is not stoppable,\" she said. \"I would advise them to maintain vigilance, enhance surveillance and be prepared for the arrival of the novel H1N1 in their country.\" The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security said those agencies have been acting for weeks as if Phase 6 were already in effect and no additional measures would be put into effect. The United States declared a public health emergency April 26. \"WHO continues to recommend no restriction on travel and on border closures,\" Chan said. Discussions about shifting to Phase 6 have been under way for weeks. Chan indicated that a major factor in the decision was surveillance from countries in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is under way. In Chile and Australia, two countries with many flu cases, she said H1N1 appears to be the dominant strain, \"crowding out\" the seasonal influenza virus. Chan said she would recommend that vaccine manufacturers proceed with mass production of an inoculation against the new swine flu strain as soon as they finish production of seasonal vaccine, which she estimated would be complete in about two weeks. HHS spokesman Bill Hall said Thursday that no decision has been made on full-scale production because there is no need yet to make that decision. It is a step-by-step process that is moving forward. \"We're doing as much as we can now,\" he said. The agency awarded a contract several weeks ago to five manufacturers to develop an H1N1 antigen. The companies are producing pilot lots. Clinical testing will take place over the summer, Hall said. At the end of the summer, HHS will decide whether to go into production. \"There's no specific date on the calendar,\" Hall said. If officials decide to produce a vaccine, the first doses would be ready early in the fall. Hall noted that even full-scale production doesn't mean there will be an immunization campaign. Federal officials may have a vaccine and decide not to use it, he said. Also Thursday, authorities in Hong Kong ordered the closure of all elementary schools, kindergartens and day care centers in the city after 12 students were found to be infected with the virus. Authorities have not determined the source of the infection, said Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang. This makes it the first cluster of swine flu cases in the city without a link to someone who had traveled overseas. The schools and day care centers were told to close for 14 days as investigators tried to identify the source of the infection, said Tsang, the chief executive. The health department will decide after two weeks whether to continue the shutdown. Also on Thursday, Israel's health ministry announced that the number of people diagnosed with swine flu there was 68. Health officials use the virus' clinical name -- H1N1 -- to reflect that it's actually a combination of several different types of flu and to reduce confusion about whether eating pork can spread the virus. It cannot. CNN's David S. Martin, Roya Shadravan in Hong Kong, and Michal Zippori in Jerusalem contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Further spread of swine flu inevitable, World Health Organization says .\nWHO calls H1N1 a global pandemic, raises alert to highest level .\nU.N. agency says that doesn't mean disease is worse, but that it's in more countries .\nHong Kong orders closure of all elementary schools, kindergartens, day care centers ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Brazil's highest court said Wednesday it does not have jurisdiction over who should have custody of a U.S.-born 9-year-old boy -- his Brazilian stepfather or his father in the United States. David Goldman is seeking custody of his son, Sean, who is living with relatives of his deceased mother in Brazil. The high court's ruling sends the ongoing case back to an appeals court in Rio de Janeiro. In the unanimous vote, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court said it could not rule over The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, of which Brazil is a signatory. Brazil is undergoing constitutional reforms and has recently voted on a law that would make all international human rights conventions part of its constitution. Last week, Judge Marco Aurelio, who sits on the Supreme Federal Court, suspended a lower court ruling that custody of Sean Richard Goldman be turned over to the U.S. consulate, which was to have then handed him over to the boy's father, David Goldman, who is a U.S. citizen. Aurelio's decision was based on a conservative party's petition that said the boy's removal from Brazil would cause him psychological harm. But the father responded that his son was suffering psychological harm simply by remaining with his Brazilian relatives, whom Goldman -- a part-time model who captains boats -- accused of turning Sean against him. The case now goes to the Federal Appeals Court in Rio de Janeiro and does not mean the boy will return to his father without further rulings. Goldman said that he and his lawyers would have to study the high court decision, but he expressed optimism about what he had learned. \"There seemed to be a lot of good remarks that they want to honor the Hague Convention; they believe in the Hague Convention and they want to return children. Hopefully, they sent that message to the lower federal courts, and they'll hear that message.\" Watch CNN's Campbell Brown talk with Goldman before latest ruling » . He said, \"It's not over.\" The incident began in June 2004, when Goldman's then-wife, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro, took Sean from the family's New Jersey home for what was to have been a two-week vacation in her native Brazil. But instead of returning, she divorced Goldman, married a Brazilian lawyer, and remained in Brazil with the boy. She died there last September giving birth to a daughter. In Rio, Sean attends a private school and lives in a sprawling home with his half-sister and his stepfather. In March, a spokesman for the boy's Brazilian relatives said he did not dispute the father's biological rights, but said other matters needed to be weighed. \"The fact of the matter is that, in order to be a parent, you have to be more than a DNA donor,\" said Helvecio Ribeiro. \"Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures. It's about sacrifice; it's about providing support for your child; it's about being there even when you are not there.\" He said Goldman had failed to do that and accused him of having \"paid not a dime of child support\" and made allegations \"all over the place about us not allowing him to visit the child that are completely untrue.\" Goldman responded, \"Can you take someone's child to another country and then expect the parent to support you in the abduction of the child?\" He said he had been making tireless efforts since his son was \"abducted\" to have him repatriated, \"never, ever stopping.\" The case has attracted attention from politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has discussed the matter with Brazil's foreign minister. According to the U.S. State Department, some 66 American-born children have been taken by a parent to Brazil, in violation of international treaties. Journalist Helena DeMoura contributed to this story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Brazil's highest court says it doesn't have jurisdiction in custody case of U.S.-born boy .\nDavid Goldman expresses new hope: \"There seemed to be a lot of good remarks\"\nGoldman's wife took son Sean to Brazil in 2004; she filed for divorce, later died .\nCustody case has attracted attention of U.S. politicians, including Hillary Clinton ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three of five Americans contractors detained in Baghdad have been ordered released by an Iraqi judge, because of insufficient evidence, a court spokesman said Thursday. In a CNN exclusive, video shows U.S. contractors taken into custody by Iraqi authorities. The other two other contractors remain in custody, according to Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Higher Judicial Council. One of the men has been released on bond, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed Thursday. The embassy did not identify the man, who was released Wednesday. However, a spokesman for his employer, Corporate Training Unlimited, said it was Donald Feeney. Judy Feeney, Donald's wife, also confirmed his release. The contracting company said the release of the others has been delayed because of a procedural issue. Judy Feeney said her son, Donald Feeney III, and Mark Bridges were to be released Thursday morning, but it may take more time to release the other two, Jason Jones and Micah Milligan. But al-Beeraqdar said, without naming names, that two contractors were being held on charges involving \"illegal substances\" found on the men when they were taken into custody. Those who have been released are not allowed to leave the country because of an ongoing investigation and the judge may want to question them again, according to al-Beeraqdar. Except for Jones, the detained contractors work for the Fayetteville, North Carolina-based CTU, a security firm headed by the elder Feeney. An Iraqi judge decided earlier on Wednesday that charges against the five contractors were not warranted and that they could be released, according to an Iraqi security source and a source close to the five. The sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, in which the contractors have been detained since last week for reasons that remain unclear. The contractors initially had been told they were being held in connection with the May death of another contractor, James Kitterman, said the source close to the five. But on Monday, according to a judicial source, the men were told they were being held on suspicion of having unregistered weapons. Still, they were asked about their activities around the time Kitterman was killed, and Iraqi government officials told CNN Monday the five were detained as suspects in connection with Kitterman's slaying. Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in Baghdad's Green Zone on May 22. The 60-year-old Houston, Texas, resident owned a construction company that operated in Iraq. The Green Zone is the high-security area in central Baghdad that contains the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government buildings. Access to the area, formally known as the International Zone, is tightly controlled. The five contractors were taken into custody on June 3 in a pre-dawn Green Zone raid by Iraqi and U.S. personnel, the security source told CNN on Sunday. During the raid, troops also confiscated weapons, the Iraqi security source said. Three of the contractors were suspected of being directly involved in Kitterman's death, the Iraqi source said. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the search was an Iraqi operation, but FBI representatives were present at the request of Iraqi authorities. The five were transferred to a prison within the Green Zone on Friday. \"After this murder inside the Green Zone, a joint investigation committee from U.S. and Iraq sides has been formed to investigate this incident,\" Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf told CNN, \"and this committee managed to collect a number of indications that those five are linked to this murder.\" Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said the men were detained based on information linking them to the Kitterman slaying. Under Iraqi law, after a person is detained, an investigative judge questions the accused and assesses the evidence. The judge then decides whether there is sufficient evidence, and either refers the case to trial or dismisses it. The Iraqi source said the five had been held in a separate holding area and not with other Iraqi detainees, but spent time in a courtyard with other Iraqi detainees. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said consular officials had visited with them and \"they appeared well.\" The source close to the suspects said Sunday that each of the five men insisted they had alibis that will clear them and they were eager to tell their stories to a judge. The Feeneys had known Kitterman for six years from their time in the Green Zone and \"respected him,\" Corporate Training Unlimited spokeswoman Sarah Smith told CNN. CNN's Alan Duke in Los Angeles and Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Judge orders three of five U.S. contractors held in Iraq to be freed .\nTwo others remain in custody on charges involving \"illegal substances\"\nContractor already released on bond; wife, employer identify him as Donald Feeney .\nMen detained in connection with slaying of another U.S. contractor, sources say ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Chastity Bono, gay-rights activist and child of performer Cher and the late entertainer and politician Sonny Bono, is in the early stages of transitioning from a female to a male and will be known as Chaz, his spokesman said Thursday. Activist Chastity Bono is transitioning from female to male and will be known as Chaz. \"Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity,\" Howard Bragman said in a written statement. \"He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his 'coming out' did nearly 20 years ago.\" Someone's decision to transition does not necessarily mean they are undergoing gender reassignment surgery, and in many cases they do not, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality. \"The whole media fixation on surgery is kind of misplaced,\" she said. \"Almost no transgender people ever have surgery. We don't have any idea how many do.\" iReport.com: Do you have a transgender story? An estimated one-quarter to one-half percent of the American population is transsexual, however, Keisling said. \"It's sort of a general term that encompasses both or either a social transition or a medical transition.\" Keisling said she was unaware of the specifics in Bono's case, but speaking generally, a transition means that he will now want to be \"known, seen, viewed\" as a male. \"The actual details depend on his needs and wants and his doctor's needs and wants,\" she said. Bragman asked that the media \"respect Chaz's privacy during this long process, as he will not be doing any interviews at this time.\" Now 40, Bono as a little girl made regular appearances on her parents' show, \"The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.\" As an adult, he has been a longtime gay-rights advocate and been closely associated with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. See more photos from Chastity Bono's life » . Bono's father, Sonny Bono, was a U.S. representative from California when he was killed in a skiing accident in January 1998." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chastity Bono transitioning to male, will be known as Chaz .\nBono is longtime gay-rights activist .\n\"Transitioning\" is either social or medical transition, how person wants to be viewed ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Barack Obama is a married man but there's another woman with a hold on him that his wife can never match: she runs the House. Nancy Pelosi has been an easy target for Republican ire. She is Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful woman in Washington and lately, a target for Republicans. Pelosi is easy to spot in any crowd of U.S. politicians; she's the small brown-haired woman in the smartly tailored suit. Conservatives like to stereotype some Democrats as rich, isolated and out-of-touch. As the wife of an affluent investment banker, the always expertly coiffed Pelosi looks like exactly the kind of \"Limousine Liberal\" they're talking about. Ironically, it's money that makes her powerful. Under the U.S. constitution, the president can't spend a penny without the permission of Congress. Within the Congress, the Senate has its own powers but the House is the place where taxes and spending start. So almost every one of Obama's plans needs a push from Pelosi. Maybe that's part of the reason she's in trouble right now. The issue isn't really part of her daily duties: \"waterboarding\" and other extreme interrogation tactics used against prisoners in the Bush era. Obama ordered an end to the harsh methods, but Republicans are asking why Democrats who knew about them years ago didn't try to stop them then. Pelosi was one of a handful of lawmakers who was briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, but she now accuses the agency of lying to her and hiding what it was doing. Republicans have been attacking Pelosi for making unsubstantiated and damaging accusations against a crucial national security agency. The man who once had her job, former Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, says Pelosi is lying in a way that is \"despicable, dishonest and vicious.\" Whether or not he's right, it's smart politics. Obama is still remarkably popular. Most of the country hopes that he'll succeed in rebuilding the economy and ending the war in Iraq. If the president is immune to most easy attacks from the opposition, it needs to find someone who isn't. Pelosi is a crucial part of his plans. As potential targets go, with her nearly perfect hair and nearly perfect clothes, Pelosi is nearly perfect." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nancy Pelosi, speaker in House, is most powerful woman in Washington .\nU.S. President Obama needs Pelosi to ensure his plans get House approval .\nPelosi under attack over Democrats' failure to challenge CIA over waterboarding .\nTactic is smart move by Republicans as Pelosi an easier target than Obama ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, is seen in an earlier al Qaeda video. In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January. \"Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson,\" Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for \"our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere.\" \"Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather,\" he says. Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan and has appeared in al Qaeda videos before. He was indicted in the United States in 2006 on charges of treason and material support to al Qaeda, according to the FBI. Gadahn is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million leading to his capture. FBI records show Gadahn's date of birth as September 1, 1978. The video -- in which Gadahn speaks Arabic, with English subtitles -- surfaced on Saturday. This account is based on an English transcript provided by As-Sahab Media, the media production company used by al Qaeda. Gadahn's Jewish ancestry has been reported in the news media. But terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield says it is the first time Gadahn acknowledged his Jewish ancestry in an official al Qaeda message. Gadahn says his grandfather was a \"Zionist\" and \"a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations.\" \"He used to repeat to me what he claimed are the virtues of this entity and encouraged me to visit it, specifically the city of Tel Aviv, where relatives of ours live,\" says Gadahn, referring to Israel. He says his grandfather gave him a book by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called \"A Place Among the Nations\" -- in which the \"rabid Zionist\" sets out \"feeble arguments and unmasked lies to justify the Jews' rape of Muslim Palestine.\" But Gadahn says that despite his youth at the time, he didn't heed his grandfather's words. \"How can a person with an ounce of self-respect possibly stand in the ranks of criminals and killers who have no morals, no mercy, no humanity and indeed, no honor?\" he says in reference to Zionists and Israel. \"Isn't it shameful enough for a person to carry the citizenship of America, the symbol of oppression and tyranny and advocate of terror in the world?\" Mansfield thinks the video may have been made between late April and mid-May, before President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt, addressing U.S. relations with Muslims. Gadahn notes Obama's inauguration, Netanyahu's election in February, and Obama's speech in Turkey in April. Specifically mentioning the Gaza offensive and citing other hot spots such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia, where the \"Zio-Crusader alliance\" is fighting his \"brothers,\" he says \"this open-faced aggression\" comes as Obama has risen to power. He scorns Obama's statements in his inaugural address and in Turkey that America isn't and won't be at war with Islam, and \"other deceptive, false and sugarcoated words of endearment and respect.\" He says Obama's language is similar to words Netanyahu uttered in the Knesset in 1996. Gadahn also backs the idea of targeting \"Zio-Crusader\" interests anywhere in the world, not just \"within Palestine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Californian convert to Islam castigates U.S., Israel in al Qaeda video .\nAdam Yahiye Gadahn says grandfather was a member of \"Zionist hate organizations\"\nGadahn criticizes Obama's \"deceptive, false and sugarcoated words\"\nSpeaker refers to his American citizenship as \"shameful\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Coastal Living) -- Visitors love driving Oregon's coast, but it's a shame not to get out and hike the stunning landscape, too. Here are several trails to get you started. Explore forested headlands, tour tide pools or stroll the beach barefoot on some of the Pacific Northwest's best coastal trails. Ecola State Park area, near Cannon Beach . Novice explorers can trek along the Pacific on Clatsop Loop Trail, a two-mile historical interpretive route in Ecola State Park that leads travelers in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. More seasoned hikers might want to drive the extra miles to Tillamook State Forest for the Kings Mountain Trail, known for panoramic views and wildflower meadows. But be warned: Hikers must endure a 2,546-foot elevation gain in two and a half miles to enjoy the stunning mountain scenes. Devil's Punch Bowl, near Depoe Bay . Formed by the collapsed roof of two sea caves, this \"punch bowl\" features dramatic water displays that are definitely worth the hike. An easy walk down Beverly Beach and a cliff-climbing staircase leads to the nature-carved basin. Spend the day exploring extensive tide pools, then amble back over to the bowl to witness the wildly churning waves that accompany high tide. The area also promises whale watching and birding. Seaside accommodations are within walking distance at The Inn at Otter Crest. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and environs, near North Bend . Wind-sculpted dunes, a sparkling blue freshwater lake, and a historic lighthouse all await visitors here. Set aside a day for roaming the path at William M. Tugman State Park, which circles Eel Lake and its many inlets, and expect a few wildlife encounters along the way. The nearby Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area contains the largest coastal sand piles in North America and offers an array of arduous hiking opportunities. Travelers looking for a more laid-back excursion, however, can make their way to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park for relaxing walks and a glimpse of the 65-foot tower known for its distinctive red-and-white flash. CoastalLiving.com: Oregon's Perpetual Appeal . Columbia River Bar and Fort Stevens State Park, near Astoria . The Columbia River Bar has always been a navigational nightmare for sailors, and a hike beside the \"Graveyard of the Pacific\" will show you why. Pass by the shipwrecked remains of Peter Iredale, one of 2,000 ships that have sunk in this area, on your way to the viewing platform overlooking the jetty. For another slice of history, take a walking tour of Fort Stevens, or enjoy a scenic two-mile jaunt around the fort's Coffenbury Lake. Humbug Mountain State Park, near Port Orford . Rising 1,756 feet over the Pacific, the forested peak of Humbug Mountain provides visitors with switchback trails and magnificent coastal vistas. Family-friendly paths, such as the paved Old Highway 101 Trail, wind through old-growth Douglas fir, Oregon myrtle, and Western red cedar and yield striking seaside views. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright © Coastal Living, 2009 ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Devil's Punch Bowl, near Depoe Bay, features dramatic water displays .\nEnjoy a scenic two-mile jaunt around Fort Stevens' Coffenbury Lake .\nHumbug Mountain, near Port Oxford, rises 1,756 feet over the Pacific ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Expressing hope that the future of Tibet and China will move beyond mistrust, the Dalai Lama accepted the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush Wednesday during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. \"I am deeply touched that this great honor has been given to me, a Buddhist monk born of a simple family,\" he said. Earlier, China slammed the United States for bestowing the nation's highest civilian honor on the Dalai Lama, calling the ceremony an affront to the budding relations between the countries. But the Dalai Lama repeated his stance that he's seeking a \"meaningful autonomy\" for the Tibetan people, not independence from China. \"Despite all this, Beijing continues to allege that my hidden agenda is a separation and restoration [of] Tibet's old social political system. Such a notion is unfounded and untrue,\" he said. \"Much of the world is waiting to see how China's concepts of harmonious society and peaceful rights would unfold.\" Though Bush said the ceremony was not meant to antagonize the Chinese, he made repeated references to religious oppression. \"Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away,\" Bush said. Calling the Dalai Lama a \"universal symbol of peace and tolerance, a shepherd to the faithful and a keeper of the flame for his people,\" Bush presented the medallion to the Dalai Lama. Watch actor Richard Gere explain the importance of the ceremony » . The spiritual leader grinned broadly, pulling the award from its case and showing it to the lawmakers with whom he shared the stage. Democratic and Republican leaders praised the Dalai Lama's record of promoting peace and urged China to allow the return of the exiled leader. Bush also lauded the spiritual leader who as a boy kept a model of the Statue of Liberty by his bedside. The president met privately Tuesday with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th dalai lama, in the White House. Before the Wednesday honor, Bush said he was attending the ceremony because he admires the Dalai Lama, the two of them both support religious freedom and because \"I like going to the gold medal ceremonies.\" He further said fostering religious freedom was in China's best interests and that Beijing should meet with the Dalai Lama. \"If they were to sit down with the Dalai Lama, they would find him to be a man of peace and reconciliation,\" Bush said. China saw the ceremony as a political statement and believes the honor represents U.S. acquiescence to the Dalai Lama's calls for Tibetan autonomy. Tibet, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, is \"an inalienable part of China\" and Chinese-Tibetan affairs are strictly a matter of Chinese domestic policy. \"U.S. leaders meeting the Dalai [Lama] seriously violate the basic principles of international relations,\" Liu said. The Dalai Lama laughed off Chinese criticism of his visit, saying Tuesday in Washington, \"That always happens.\" The Congressional Gold Medal -- one of four honors Congress is doling out Wednesday -- is presented \"both for singular acts of exceptional service and for lifetime achievement.\" Past recipients include Mother Teresa, former South African President Nelson Mandela, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson. White House spokesman Dana Perino said Bush considered the Dalai Lama \"a great spiritual leader.\" Bush, who has met with the Dalai Lama four times, told Chinese President Hu Jintao at a summit in Australia last month that he would be attending Wednesday's ceremony, Perino said. She quickly dismissed the notion that the president was trying to make a statement by attending the ceremony. The White House is generally measured in its criticism of China as it seeks to manage a booming trade relationship and a desire to enlist Chinese cooperation on nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran. Beijing has claimed to be the legitimate and rightful government of Tibet since 1951, the year after China invaded the then-independent state. Some say the claim doesn't jibe with international law. Allegations abound that China has stifled Tibetans' religious and other fundamental freedoms, sometimes violently. The Dalai Lama has led a government in exile from neighboring India for decades. In 1959, the then-24-year-old Buddhist leader fled Tibet during a failed uprising against the Chinese. Perino said she did not think the meeting -- which the administration had worked to downplay -- would seriously affect U.S.-China relations. Added Bush on Wednesday, \"I don't think it ever damages relations when an American president talks about that religious tolerance and religious freedom is good for a nation. I do this every time I meet with [Chinese leaders].\" The promise of good intentions did not seem to assuage the Chinese government, who labeled the Dalai Lama's work \"separatist activities.\" \"The words and deeds of the Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee engaging in secessionist activities under the cloak of religion,\" the Foreign Ministry's Liu said. Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, had even harsher words for the Tibetan spiritual leader. \"He is a person who has tried to split the motherland, who lacks love for his home country,\" Zhang told reporters in Beijing. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has said he advocates autonomy for Tibet and is not calling for it to be a separate country. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jaime FlorCruz and Lesa Jansen contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Dalai Lama: China's allegation of a hidden agenda is unfounded, untrue .\nPresident Bush encourages China to sit down with \"man of peace\"\nWhite House says it isn't \"poking a stick\" in China's eye with Dalai Lama honor .\nChina: U.S. leaders \"violate the basic principles of international relations\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Anita Dunham's first heart attack started with a mysterious pain in her arm -- and, suddenly, the 34-year-old felt as if she couldn't breathe. After she got dressed, she could barely speak because the pain was so great in her arms and chest. Jolen Johnson took this photo of co-workers wearing red Friday in Cedar Park, Texas. Dunham, who had a second heart attack in 2002, wore red Friday to spread awareness about heart disease. Now 64 years old, she said she wants women everywhere to know that heart disease, the No. 1 killer for women, can affect women in all walks of life. She and others shared their stories with CNN's iReport.com. Read more about Dunham . The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, promoted the red clothing day to spread the message that \"Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear -- It's the #1 Killer of Women,\" according to its Web site. Others who wore red have family members who succumbed to heart disease. Robin Savage, 42, of San Juan Capistrano, California, said her grandfather, father and mother all had heart disease. Besides wearing red herself, she goes to heart events and takes pictures of them for a local Web site. See more from iReporters on National Wear Red Day » . Savage has to take beta blockers because her heart sometimes races when she eats certain things, particularly foods containing the preservative MSG. She watches her diet closely and exercises 30 minutes a day to keep herself healthy. iReport.com: Heart Disease runs in my family . For her sons, 9 and 12, she monitors their diet closely, but fears that she will die while they are young. \"It's such a huge void in your life, especially when you have your own kids and you don't have your mom around to, say, ask questions,\" she said. \"I was completely lost when I had kids.\" Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection to better living . Peggy Roesch, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Cincinnati, Ohio, said her grandfather had a heart attack five years ago. She was recently inspired by her mother, who runs marathons, to start running more herself. iReport.com: Seeing red . Eileen Velez from West Palm Beach, Florida, has been organizing her co-workers to wear red to show heart awareness every year since 2007. \"If everyone is wearing red at the same time, somebody is going to notice,\" she said. iReport.com: Kimley-Horn and Associates . Despite the nationwide movement, Dunham said she hadn't noticed anyone else in her town of Earlimart, California, wearing red on Friday. Her message to others at risk for heart disease is to watch their weight. \"I tell [my daughter] every day, 'You know you need to start watching your diet or you're going to be in the hospital with a heart attack,'\" she said. CNN's Cristina Martin contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NIH promotes National Wear Red Day on February 6 .\nThe event is intended to spread awareness of heart disease, especially for women .\niReport.com: Share your National Wear Red Day experience ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday stressed the need for a two-state solution in the quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace, a position out of step with the current Israeli government. U.S. envoy George Mitchell says Israel and the United States will remain close allies. It was one of several key issues both sides must emphasize if they are to take advantage of the current \"historic period\" and achieve peace, Peres told visiting U.S. envoy George Mitchell. \"Nobody knows whether it will recur and nobody will forgive himself if we miss the opportunity to make peace,\" Peres said, according to a release from his office. In their meeting, Mitchell said U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking a prompt resumption of the stalled Mideast peace talks and played down tensions that have arisen between the U.S. and Israel in recent days -- particularly over Israel's recent settlement expansion. \"Israelis and Palestinians have a responsibility to meet their obligations under the road map,\" Mitchell said. \"And we all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations.\" The 2003 road map is a peace plan that calls for an independent Palestinian state with a secure border with Israel, and the implementation of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office in March, has stated his opposition to an independent Palestinian state, and his opposition has cast doubt on the future of the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process. Peres was elected president during the term of Netanyahu's predecessor, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who supported a two-state solution to achieve peace. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts as foreign minister to secure peace, along with Israeli President Yitzak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But in his discussions with Mitchell, the 85-year-old president stood firm on Israel's current settlement policy, despite the road map's provision for Israel to halt building settlements in occupied territories. \"There is agreement in Israel regarding the evacuation of illegal outposts and not to build new settlements,\" Peres told Mitchell. \"However, the issue of natural growth in the settlement blocs must continue to be discussed intensively in order to reach agreement.\" In recent days, the Obama administration has repeatedly called on Israel to stop construction of settlements. In a speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Egypt, Obama said his country \"does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.\" So far, Netanyahu has refused U.S. calls to stop them, and said he will deliver a major speech Sunday in which he will lay out his plan for the country's peace and security. \"Let me be clear. These are not disagreements among adversaries,\" said Mitchell, who was dispatched to the region to try and kick-start the negotiating process. \"The United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends.\" Peres, too, tried to calm the diplomatic waters. \"I think (Obama's) address was extremely sensitive, touching, concerning all sides without trying to play one against the other, paying compliments when it was justified, criticizing when it was necessary in the most honest way,\" he said after last week's speech. Watch a review of Obama's visit to the Mideast, Europe » . He told Mitchell that the Obama administration's focus on \"a single issue ill-serves the wider diplomatic process which is supposed to set the agenda for Israel and its neighbors.\" Mitchell also met Tuesday with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and is expected to meet with Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Meanwhile, the State Department announced that Mitchell will spend two days in Syria this weekend as part of the Obama administration's vision for comprehensive peace in the region. Before heading to Damascus, Mitchell plans to visit Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington. \"This is a very high priority,\" Kelly said. U.S.-Syrian ties have been strained in recent years over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the ongoing political struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions in Lebanon. The United States has not had an ambassador in Damascus since 2005. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Israeli President Shimon Peres says this is an \"opportunity to make peace\"\nPeres meets with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who urges resumption of peace talks .\nIsraeli prime minister to give major speech Sunday on his plan for peace, security .\nNEW: Mitchell will travel to Syria this weekend, State Department announces ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Thanks to dedicated people like Bob and Katherine Rude, many homeless animals in Maryland will have a warm home this winter. Bob and Katherine Rude run an animal shelter out of their home in Harwood, Maryland. The Maryland couple currently cares for 116 cats and six dogs at Rude Ranch Animal Rescue, which they run out of their home in Harwood. \"We take in a lot of abused and neglected animals; animals that for whatever reason find themselves down on their luck,\" Katherine said. It all started a decade ago when the couple found a group of cats in an alley behind a restaurant. They began working with other organizations to help place the cats, but quickly realized that they could do more. See how 100 cats live in one house » . \"The more we got involved, and the more we found out about the world of animal rescue, the more we found out there was a lot more need. ...We felt we could fill a void,\" Katherine said. A few years later, they bought a ranch house in Harwood and converted it into a shelter. Eventually, Bob and Katherine left their government jobs to work at the shelter full time. They now work seven days a week, morning through night, caring for their cats and dogs. \"Now we're doing adoptions, we're doing search and rescue, we're helping people out with spay and neuters, and we're helping out other animal controls with animals that they can't place, but think deserve a shot at a life,\" Katherine said. The Rudes originally planned on keeping the shelter on one floor, and living in the rest of the house. But they quickly found that many of the cats required full-time care, so they expanded the shelter throughout their home. \"We still have a bedroom that's sort of ours, but we share it with a bunch of special-needs animals. We have anywhere from two or three dogs and 10 to 12 cats that share a bed with us,\" Bob says. The extra space has allowed the Rudes to take in cats that most shelters cannot. Cats that require special attention or medical care -- those that have been abused or are suffering from feline immunodeficiency virus, for example -- all have a place at the ranch. Katherine says this was one reason they started their own shelter. \"It was for ... the ones that maybe don't have an alternative, don't have somewhere else to go. We figured they had as much of a chance at a life as someone else,\" she said. Working with the animals is incredibly rewarding, Bob says, but expanding the shelter has also increased the number of mouths to feed. \"For the evening meal, we go through about 25 cans of cat food. For the whole day, we go through about 40-50. ...We go through about 100 pounds of dry food a week for the cats, [and] 10,000 pounds of cat litter a year,\" Bob said. Even buying in bulk hasn't helped the Rudes escape the financial woes that have begun to plague most business owners. Katherine says that so far, they have been able to support themselves but are concerned about rising costs and falling donations. At the same time, demand for the Rudes' help is increasing. Higher costs of food and supplies, as well as the foreclosure crisis, have affected people's ability to care for their pets, Katherine says. \"[Pet] adoptions have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth right now, but people are calling more and more to turn animals in,\" Bob said. And as more people turn to them to care for their pets, the Rudes have no plans to change their tune. Since 1997, they have helped rescue or place more than 3,000 cats. Katherine estimates that they have helped make 2,500 to 2,700 adoptions to families or individuals. \"They're getting a home, they're going to have individual people doting on them, and that's what we want for all of the residents here,\" Katherine says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maryland couple operates Rude Ranch Animal Rescue out of their home .\nBob and Katherine Rude currently care for 116 cats and six dogs .\nThe pair is concerned about rising costs, falling donations and more pets in need ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A woman who survived last week's Spanair airline crash in Madrid left the hospital Tuesday, saying she was \"born again\" by the disaster. Beatriz Reyes has been released from hospital after surviving the plane crash which killed 154 people. Beatriz Reyes, 41, has been credited with saving two of the three children who survived the crash which killed 154 people. She is the second survivor to be sent home, while 16 others remained hospitalized Tuesday. The first to leave the hospital was a 6-year-old boy, apparently one of the children Reyes helped in the moments after the Spanair MD-82 airliner crashed on takeoff from Madrid's Bajaras airport Wednesday. \"I saw some kids and I got them out,\" Reyes said. \"I think anyone would have done it.\" All 18 who survived were seated in the front section of the plane, the only part not to catch fire. Reyes was in seat 5-D. She said she remained conscious throughout the crash. \"I felt a strong blow and then my stomach went up and down,\" she said. \"That's when I knew there was an accident.\" She said it was ironic that she was treated in the maternity ward at Hospital Infanta Sofia in the Madrid suburb of San Sebastian de los Reyes. \"On the 20th of August, I have been born again,\" she said. She was returning home from a vacation in Germany when she boarded the flight to the city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Reyes said she will continue to fly, a necessity for her job as a bank executive in the Canary Islands. Going home to the Canary Islands, she said, will be hard since the bodies of many of the dead will be arriving there with her. Initially, there were indications an engine might have caught fire as the plane was taking off, but a source familiar with the investigation said that an airport video showed the plane lifting off, veering sharply right, and then dragging or skidding down the right side of the runway. There is a cloud of dust, the source said, followed by a fireball. The crash remains under investigation. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Woman who survived Spanair crash in Madrid says she has been \"born again\"\nBeatriz Reyes, 41, saved two of the three children who survived the crash .\nReyes remained conscious throughout the crash which killed 154 people ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Second seed Andy Roddick is forced to retire with an ankle injury during the first set of his Queen's Club semifinal against fellow-American James Blake, meaning he misses out on a final showdown against British top seed Andy Murray. Andy Roddick feels his ankle injury before retiring from his semifinal against fellow-American James Blake. Roddick, who was bidding for a record fifth title at the London grass-court tournament, injured his right ankle when he slipped at the back of the court in the fourth game of the first set. He eventually called for treatment three games later and resumed only after having his ankle and foot heavily bandaged. However, Roddick was clearly still in some discomfort as he served in the next game and decided to take the safety-first option with Wimbledon starting in just nine days. \"I'm going to do everything I can to play at Wimbledon,\" Roddick told Press Association Sport. \"We're scheduled to get it looked at again on Monday and do some scans on it, then we'll see where we're at. \"Initial tests have shown the stability and strength is OK. We're looking at days, not weeks. My trainer and doctors don't think anything is torn.\" Blake, beaten in the 2006 Queen's final by Lleyton Hewitt, admitted he did not take much pleasure from this victory. Speaking after the match, Blake said: \"It was unfortunate but Andy is such a great player and he doesn't want to endanger the injury anymore. He normally moves so well and you could tell this wasn't the same Andy Roddick.\" Meanwhile, Murray swept into his first-ever Queen's final with a ruthless 6-2 6-4 win over unseeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero. Murray is bidding to become the first Briton to win the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event since Bunny Austin in 1938. The world number three has not dropped a set in four matches and, in reaching his fifth ATP Tour final this year, he also becomes the first British finalist here since Tim Henman in 2002. \"I felt it was a good match. I started well but the second set was very close,\" Murray said in a courtside interview after the match. \"I'm obviously happy to win in two sets. I was very happy with the way I played all round. \"I didn't have the easiest draw so it's been a good week all around and hopefully I can finish it off on Sunday,\" added the Scot. In the other men's grass-court tournament being played, second seed Novak Djokovic is through to the final in Halle after a 7-6 6-4 victory over Belgian Olivier Rochus. The Serb will now face unseeded German Tommy Haas, who defeated compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6 7-6 7-6 in an epic encounter. Meanwhile, in women's action, Maria Sharapova crashed out in the semifinals of the Birmingham grass-court event, beaten in straight sets by China's Li Na. Russian Sharapova had been bidding for a third victory in the tournament, after winning in both 2004 and 2005, but went out 6-4 6-4 in a match lasting 90 minutes. Fourth seed Li, the highest-ranked player left in the competition, will face Magdalena Rybarikova in the final, after the 13th-seeded Slovakian beat Indian Sania Mirza 3-6 6-0 6-3." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Andy Roddick forced to retire from his Queen's Club semifinal with ankle injury .\nThe injury means fellow-American James Blake will face Andy Murray in final .\nMurray secures his place with a straight sets victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Tami Farrell, who became Miss California USA last week when Donald Trump dumped Carrie Prejean, promises to avoid controversy during the five months of her reign. Tami Farrell became Miss California USA last week and is set to reign for five months. \"I'm trying my best to kind of calm the waters,\" Farrell said in an interview Sunday at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Prejean's same-sex marriage comments, semi-nude photos and personal feud with state pageant officials contributed to a storm of controversy that brought unusual attention to the title Farrell now carries. \"I think that everything in life happens for a reason, and I'm just blessed to have this opportunity,\" Farrell said. Farrell, 24, said, \"it's been a crazy few days\" since Wednesday, when she got the call that Prejean had been ousted. \"I keep stepping into controversy, but hopefully I can avoid it for a while,\" she said. She hopes the extra attention will help launch her show business career. \"A couple of my favorite music groups have called, because I sing, so maybe we could record something together,\" she said. Farrell did not name the groups. She is also a writer and has had meetings in recent days about a screenplay she's written. \"All I can tell you is that it's hilarious and that if (actor) Will Farrell or (director) Adam McCay could give me a call, things would be wonderful,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tami Farrell replaces Carrie Prejean for the next five months .\nFarrell says she hopes to avoid the controversy that plagued Prejean .\n\"I'm just blessed to have this opportunity,\" Farrell says .\nFarrell hopes ascending to title will help launch her show business career ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The company that produced the peanut butter linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak said late Tuesday that it was voluntarily recalling all products made in its Blakely, Georgia, plant. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The Peanut Corporation of America, a peanut processing company, made the peanut butter sold by King Nut company. Health officials in Minnesota have said that salmonella they linked to an open container of King Nut peanut butter was the same strain of bacteria responsible for the apparently ongoing outbreak, which has infected at least 434 people in 43 states. However, the King Nut product is unlikely to be responsible for the entire outbreak, since it distributes its peanut butter only to food service companies in just seven states: Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. So, the Peanut Corporation of America said it was voluntarily recalling all peanut butter produced in its Blakely plant \"out of an abundance of caution.\" Some of it is distributed to another company. What you need to know about food poisoning » . \"We deeply regret that this has happened,\" company president Stewart Parnell said. Over the past few days, Food and Drug Administration inspectors visited the Blakely plant, where they took hundreds of samples for testing, Parnell said. The salmonella outbreak has been spreading across much of the country since September. Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium played a role in the deaths of an elderly person from southwestern Virginia and an adult from northern Virginia. The third death was a nursing home resident in her 70s in Minnesota. All three of the patients who died had underlying illnesses that could have contributed to their deaths, state officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a written statement, has called peanut butter \"a likely source\" of the infections. But it said that no association had been found with common brand names of peanut butter sold in grocery stores. The first cases of salmonella were reported September 3, but most occurred between October 1 and January 6, the CDC said. About 18 percent of cases were hospitalized as a result of their illness, and patients have ranged from 2 months to 98 years of age. CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said a preliminary analysis suggests peanut butter as a likely source of the outbreak. No cases connected to the outbreak have been reported in Montana, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida or Alaska. Very young people, older people and those with compromised immune systems are most vulnerable to severe side effects of salmonella infection, including death, health officials have said. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Peanut Corp. of America recalls all products made in Blakely, Georgia, plant .\nPeanut butter linked to salmonella outbreak has sickened 425 in 43 states .\nThree deaths possibly linked to the outbreak; two in Virginia, one in Minnesota ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The rift between Russia and Western powers over Georgia burst back into full view on the U.N. Security Council when Russia vetoed a resolution that would have extended the U.N. observer mission in Georgia. The observer force had been in existence since 1993, but Russia claims that the mission was invalidated by last year's conflict over breakaway regions in Georgia. \"The U.N. mission's previous mandate has actually ceased to exist in the wake of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia last August,\" said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, who said it was \"unacceptable\" to extend the mission. After the veto Monday night, a statement from the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. would \"take all measures required to cease the operations of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia effective 16 June.\" Ban \"will consult with his senior advisors and his special representative on the immediate next steps,\" the statement said. Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August over the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- the first time Russia sent troops abroad in anger since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both sides blame the other for starting the conflict. Western powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France backed the Georgian government in a conflict that rekindled Cold War sentiments. The European Union launched a probe to determine how the war began that is due to be completed by the end of next month. The crux of the controversy remains Georgia's territorial integrity. As a result of last year's war, Russia now considers South Ossetia and Abkhazia sovereign nations independent from Georgia. Russia has no international support for that position aside from the nation of Nicaragua. The Georgian ambassador to the United Nations, Kakha Lomaia, addressed the Security Council following the vote, saying his nation deeply regrets the apparent end of the mission. He called Russia's position \"unconstructive.\" The statement from Ban's office added, \"the Secretary-General regrets that the Security Council has been unable to reach agreement on the basis of a package of practical and realistic proposals he submitted to the Security Council aimed at contributing to a stabilization of the situation on the ground.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Russia: \"The U.N. mission's previous mandate has actually ceased to exist\"\nRussia considers South Ossetia and Abkhazia independent nations from Georgia .\nOnly Nicaragua supports that position ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- An era in American broadcast television will end Friday as the nation finishes its delayed transition to digital TV. Without a converter box, satellite service or cable hook-up, analog TVs will deliver only static now. By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down their outdated analog transmitters, leaving static to watch for those who are not ready. Stations all over the country will be making the historic switch all day Friday, Federal Communications Commission officials said. American TV viewers were given four extra months to get ready for the switch, when Congress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition. At that time, an estimated 6.5 million homes -- including many elderly, poor and disabled Americans -- weren't prepared for a February 17 switch to digital, supporters argued. \"In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions,\" said Michael Copps, the Federal Communications Commission acting chairman. \"We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we're going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC.\" People who pay for cable or satellite TV service are unaffected by the change. Republicans opposed the delay, saying the government had given people years to prepare. The end of analog television frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses. The federal government raked in $20 billion in auctions by selling licenses for the frequencies vacated by local television stations for other commercial uses. Some of the frequencies also have been reserved for emergency agencies to use for communications. Stations have been broadcasting in digital and analog for the past several years, but the switch puts an end to the transition and a form of broadcasting that's existed since the first regularly scheduled television service began in the United States in 1928." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down outdated transmitters .\nCongress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition by four months .\nHaven't converted yet? Call 1-888-CALL-FCC for help .\nEnd of analog frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave European champions Manchester United for Real Madrid if he wants, says FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Manchester United made a formal complaint to FIFA about Real Madrid's interest in Ronaldo last month. Questioned about the protracted wrangle over the 23-year-old's future, Blatter told Sky News that the practice of binding players to lengthy contracts amounts to \"modern slavery\". Ronaldo himself later agreed with Blatter's assessment of his transfer standoff with Manchester United. United have vowed not to sell their star winger to Real Madrid, but Ronaldo has spoken of his desire to join the Spanish champions -- although he is yet to submit a transfer request. He told Portuguese broadcaster TVI: \"You know what I said, what I want and what I would like. Let's see, I agree completely with the president of FIFA. Now I have to wait and see, but I do not know where I will begin the season.\" Ronaldo also added that he will be sidelined for 10 or 12 weeks while he recovers from Monday's surgery on his right ankle. The Portuguese winger's future at Old Trafford has been the source of heated speculation, with Spanish giants Real making clear they want to sign him at any cost. United made a formal complaint to FIFA about Madrid's interest last month, but football's governing body said that no regulations had been broken. \"I'm always in favor of protecting the player, and if the player wants to leave, let him leave,\" said Blatter. \"If the player wants to play somewhere else, then a solution should be found because if he stays in a club where he does not feel comfortable to play then it's not good for the player and for the club.\" Ronaldo, who hit 42 goals for United last season, has a contract until 2012 and Blatter believes the issue raises concerns about the way transfers and contracts are dealt with in the game. He said he was \"very in sympathy\" with Ronaldo over his current position. \"I think in football there's too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,\" he added. \"We are trying now to intervene in such cases. The reaction to the Bosman law is to make long-lasting contacts in order to keep the players and then if he wants to leave, then there is only one solution, he has to pay his contract.\" A United spokesperson told PA Sport: \"All our players -- like at other clubs -- enter into their contracts after an open and free negotiation. \"Most of whom do after taking advice from a FIFA-registered agent. Many do so on a number of occasions and enjoy long and successful stays at Old Trafford.\" UEFA have warned that players are becoming ever more powerful as a consequence of the Bosman ruling -- and played down Blatter's suggestions they are slaves to clubs. Communications director William Gaillard, who also serves as special advisor to UEFA president Michel Platini, gave a different point of view and claimed salaries are \"spiralling out of control\". \"It would be useful to remind people that slaves in all of the slavery systems never earned a wage,\" Gaillard told Sky Sports News. The Bosman ruling came into effect in 1995, allowing players free transfers at the end of contracts, and those coming to the conclusion of their deals have become prey for other clubs. \"It seems that both clubs and players are trying to negotiate an exit before the player is free,\" said Gaillard. \"It is a consequence of the Bosman ruling -- there is nothing we can do about that. \"It is obvious that today players have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago, undoubtedly, and agents have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago. It is true that salaries are spiralling out of control. Many clubs have pointed that out.\" Blatter went on to dismiss the Premier League's much-criticised '39th step' proposals, insisting plans to play competitive matches overseas -- either in the league or domestic cups -- was doomed to fail. He said: \"The 39th game as presented will never happen. To my knowledge what they (the Premier League) want to do is perhaps to play some of the League Cup matches somewhere outside of England. That's the last information I got.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave Manchester Utd says FIFA chief .\nBinding players to long deals amounts to \"modern slavery\" says Sepp Blatter .\nRonaldo was later quoted as saying: \"I agree completely with FIFA president\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy has checked into an unnamed medical facility for help with his recovery from substance abuse, the Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement Friday. \"I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine,\" Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy says in a statement. In May 2006, Kennedy, the son of Sen. Edward Kennedy, was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a day after slamming his car into a security barricade on Capitol Hill. At the time, Kennedy said he had been suffering from addictions and depression since he was a young man. \"I have always said that recovery is a life-long process and that I will do whatever it takes to preserve my health,\" Kennedy, 41, wrote in Friday's release. \"In consultation with my doctors, I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery. I hope that in some small way my decision to be proactive and public in my efforts to remain healthy can help remove the stigma that has served as a barrier for many Americans reluctant to get the help they need.\" A Democratic aide declined to say what facility is providing treatment or how long Kennedy might be there. Kennedy left for treatment earlier this week, said a close associate who didn't want to be identified. Since the 2006 incident, the associate said, Kennedy often goes to the Mayo Clinic for one- or two-day stints without anyone knowing. This time, Kennedy and his aides realized the stay would be longer and more aggressive and decided to put out a statement. There was no \"culminating event\" this time, the associate said, and he did not think it was related to Edward Kennedy's ongoing battle with brain cancer. \"He's human,\" the source said of Patrick Kennedy. \"He has good days and bad days. This is a part of his effort to make sure there are more good days than bad days.\" CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Congressman from Rhode Island seeks help against substance abuse .\nRep. Patrick Kennedy, 41, acknowledges long struggle with addiction, depression .\n\"I have always said that recovery is a life-long process,\" lawmaker says in statement .\nSon of Sen. Edward Kennedy sought help after 2006 auto accident ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Marcus Schrenker, the financial manager who officials say faked his own death in a plane crash after scamming his customers, has been found after an apparent suicide attempt, Florida and federal authorities said Tuesday. Marcus Schrenker was taken to a hospital after he was found in Quincy, Florida, on Tuesday, authorities said. The man was found in Quincy, Florida, with marks on his body consistent with a suicide attempt, said Lt. Jim Corder, a spokesman for the Gadsden County sheriff's office. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Porter said. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Peter Swaim said late Tuesday the man has been identified as Schrenker. The service was leading the manhunt for Schrenker, who has been missing since Sunday. A Marshals Service source, who asked not to be named because the case is still under investigation, said federal agents found Schrenker inside a tent at a camp site with a cut on his wrist. He was airlifted to the hospital, the source said. The source would not say how marshals knew to look at the camp site. Schrenker was charged in Hamilton County, Indiana, on Tuesday with unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful transaction by an investment adviser. Authorities believe Schrenker defrauded investors through three companies he owns before attempting a bizarre and potentially deadly vanishing act. Schrenker took off alone Sunday night from Anderson, Indiana, in a Piper PA-46 en route to Destin, Florida. Over Alabama, he contacted air traffic controllers, saying the windshield had imploded and he was bleeding profusely, authorities said. Police suspect he then put the aircraft on autopilot and parachuted to the ground. The plane later crashed near the Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida, missing a group of homes by only 50 to 75 yards, said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, sheriff's department. \"We do consider him dangerous,\" U.S. marshals Deputy John Beeman said Thursday. \"He has shown his disregard for life by letting this plane go unmanned until it crashed into the ground in Florida.\" Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Monday, hours after the crash, Schrenker showed up at a residence in Childersburg, Alabama, and said he had been in a canoeing accident, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A resident gave him a ride into Childersburg, and police made contact with him, identifying him through his FAA pilot's license, authorities said. Childersburg is about 35 miles south of Birmingham. Unaware of the crash, the officers took Schrenker to a hotel in nearby Harpersville. After hearing about the crash, they went back to the hotel, where they found that Schrenker had checked in under a fictitious name and was gone, possibly into a wooded area, police said. Officials now believe he fled Harpersville on a 2008 red Yamaha street bike he had stashed at a storage unit earlier, also using an assumed name. Investigators found the unit empty of the motorcycle and with some wet clothes left behind. When leasing the storage facility, Schrenker brought the motorcycle in a brown pickup with a trailer and told the leasing agent he would return for it Monday, according to the Marshals Service. Back in Florida, military aircraft from Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, were dispatched Sunday to intercept the plane after Schrenker reported the emergency. The pilots saw that the plane's door was open, the cockpit was dark and witnessed the plane's crash, according to the Santa Rosa County sheriff's office. Watch what authorities believe happened » . Although Schrenker had said he was bleeding, no blood was found in the downed plane. Before authorities said Tuesday night that Schrenker was found, friends of Schrenker's seemed as mystified as police, who were seeking him in several states. \"Why someone would jump out of a plane and leave it on autopilot with his training and his background is beyond me,\" Tom Britt said. \"There's no reason for him to do it other than trying to stage something.\" Watch Schrenker perform airborne stunts » . Britt said he received an e-mail Monday night from someone who identified himself as Schrenker. The message said Schrenker had been reading accounts of his disappearance on CNN.com and other news outlets and was \"disturbed and wanted to set the record straight,\" Britt told CNN affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis. Britt said the message writer said that he would never abandon a plane and let it crash somewhere but that he \"panicked.\" The writer claimed he blacked out and was disoriented, Britt said. The e-mail also implied that Schrenker might commit suicide, Britt said. The message said, \"By the time you read this, I'll be gone.\" On Monday, a judge in Indiana froze Schrenker's assets at the request of investigators looking into his business dealings, said Jim Gavin, a spokesman for the Indiana secretary of state. The order also applies to Schrenker's wife, who was seeking a divorce, and his three companies, Gavin said. Those companies -- Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services and Icon Wealth Management -- are \"the subjects of an active investigation by the Indiana Securities Division,\" Gavin said. Public documents list Schrenker as president of Heritage Wealth Management in Fishers, Indiana. Court papers contain allegations that Schrenker defrauded several investors. A search warrant related to the inquiry was served December 31, Gavin said. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Kathleen Johnston and Tristan Smith contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Authorities: Marcus Schrenker apparently attempted suicide, taken to hospital .\nNEW: Schrenker found in Florida two days after plane crash, authorities say .\nPolice: Schrenker bailed out of plane before crash, fled on stashed motorcycle .\nAuthorities file charges against Schrenker, accused of defrauding investors ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamison Green is an educator, adviser and advocate on transgender issues, and the author of \"Becoming a Visible Man\" (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004). Jamison Green transitioned from female to male just before his 40th birthday. Welcome, Chaz! Before the word \"transsexual\" had been coined in English, an intrepid young person whose family belonged to the British nobility set out to transform herself from female to male. He received a medical school education, obtained hormones -- relatively new substances that were poorly understood at the time, and independently began living as a man in the early 1940s. Eventually, he found a plastic surgeon to help him, and his physical changes were complete by 1949, but his family rejected him. The British tabloids hounded him. To escape publicity, he was forced to carve out a life for himself virtually alone. He became a Buddhist monk, and died in Tibet in 1962 at the age of 47. His name was Michael Dillon, and he one of the Western world's first transsexual people, that is, someone who changes sex and/or gender by medical means. His extensive writings were suppressed and destroyed by his family -- only fragments survive. By 1988, when I began my transition (just before my 40th birthday), there was scarcely more information about female-to-male transsexualism available than there was in 1949. Even in the early 1990s, doctors told transsexual people that we should not socialize together, because people might notice there were things about us that were different from \"normal\" people. Many transsexual women were tall and some had broad shoulders, large hands and feet. Most transsexual men were on the short side, and had small hands and feet. It's one thing if you mix in with other people where there is a lot of physical diversity, but if you congregate with others like you, you may risk discovery. To be discovered as a transsexual person was a horrible fate. And fitting in, being \"normal,\" was the goal of treatment, after all. I was convinced that having a \"sex change\" was going to be a very straightforward process. I would take the hormones, have some surgery, and then go home and mow my lawn. I expected life to just be ordinary, just the way it was supposed to be. There were a few surprises in store for me, though, not the least of which was that I learned that the fear and shame of being known or discovered to be a transsexual person was probably responsible for a tremendous amount of suffering. I learned that people like me hid themselves from the world, often were under-employed or unemployed, avoided seeing physicians when they were ill, and often expected that they would never have intimate partners. After I began transition, I met more and more transsexual men like myself, and I saw firsthand the fear and shame that limited their lives. These were kind, gentle, thoughtful, serious men, and they did not deserve to live in a state of fear and shame. I knew then that education about who we were, and what our lives were like, would be absolutely necessary to do two things: first to let people like me know we were not alone and we didn't have to be afraid; and second to let other people know we existed, to make the world safe for us, for our difference and our uniqueness. Like a handful of other trans men in North America, Europe, England, and Japan, I began to do public education, to write about our experience, and to educate legislators and policy makers, helping them change the laws, hoping to ease the suffering of others like ourselves who would follow in our footsteps. And now Chaz Bono announces his transition through his publicist. O, brave new world! The words are here, some protective laws have been passed, America has learned that it can no longer simply destroy what it doesn't understand. Not that some people won't try, though. Chaz, here's hoping your transition from female to male will be effortless, but experience tells me you're liable to have (at least) a few surprises and inconveniences along the way. Here's hoping you can maintain the privacy you want, and that you have the ability to experience your transition fully, that you aren't robbed of the experience by the demands of a public life. Your visibility can bring new understanding. Where others of us have run from the spotlight, and still others have been denied a voice by a disinterested public, you have the ear of the media, and you will not be ignored. But don't be tempted to expose yourself when you're not ready. Your life must be your own. For me, the goal of transition was not to become \"normal\" -- whatever that is -- but to become balanced as myself. It's a life goal that non-trans people strive for, too, and we all have different paths to get there. My path worked for me; I hope yours works for you. Good luck, brother! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jamison Green." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jamison Green began his transition from female to male in 1988 .\nChastity Bono is transitioning from female to male and will be known as Chaz .\nGreen hopes Chastity Bono's transition will be filled with less heartache than others'\nGreen says key to easing sex change process is education ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Sports stars seem to have it all -- from seven-figure salaries to big endorsement deals. But lately, what some don't have is a good reputation. The NBA's Dwyane Wade started a foundation to help inspire kids in at-risk situations. With the steroids controversy in baseball and drug allegations against the world's greatest swimmer, many adoring fans may wonder, \"Where are the good guys in sports?\" Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat is one of those good guys. He stays out of the controversy and insists that his fame should be used to help others. CNN's Nicole Lapin talked to the NBA star about the foundation he started and his partnership with National Recess Week. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Nicole Lapin: It feels like you're getting paid for recess now. You're 27 years old. Do you look at your paycheck sometimes and are like, \"I get paid for this? Watch more of Nicole Lapin's interview with Dwyane Wade » . Dwyane Wade: First of all, to do something that you love, and to get compensated for something that you love at a very, very great rate, is unbelievable. And it's something that a lot of kids dream of. They've just got to have somebody who believes in them. And that's something I'm trying to do with being the spokesman for this Recess Week. Y'all need to get back out there. We need to get back out there with the kids and help them believe in themselves. Lapin: Some people see you as the role model. Who was your role model growing up? Wade: You know, I had different role models growing up. Of course, I'm from Chicago, so when it comes to sports and when it comes to basketball, Michael Jordan. No question about it. But, you know, on a personal level, I always looked at people that were close to me that were doing things. My sister was always a role model to me, just because of the way that she always helped kids. And even though we didn't have much, she always helped the ones that were less fortunate than us. And it's something that just stuck with me. And it's something that I'm trying to do now. Lapin: So, as a role model, to take little kids wearing your jerseys and playing video games of you, do you take that seriously? Wade: It's still, you know, crazy to me when I see people wearing my jersey. I mean, just on a regular day. Not a game day. Just on a regular day walking down the street, see somebody with your name on their back. It's like, wow. Or when you see yourself on video games. All that to me is still, you know, mind-blowing. And the main thing, the only thing you can do is try to go out and talk to kids. You try and tell them the importance of being you. You try and tell them the importance of being a certain way. You try and give them the message that a lot of people gave you. Lapin: In 2003, you started Wade's World to help those kids, to talk to those kids. Because you were never talked to when you were growing up. Wade: Yes, yes. I never was. It may have helped me out; helped my drive out. But unfortunately, I've never had anyone come to the community I grew up in and give out that helping hand. And to give us hope, in our community, that we can do something special. I always heard that we couldn't or you know, it's one in a million or something like that. Well, our job and my job at the Wade's World foundation is to go out and let these kids know that we believe in them. And there's more than what you see out your front window or your front door that's in life. And you can do anything you want. Lapin: You said on your bio that you want to leave the world a better place. You think you've done that? Wade: I think I've got a lot more \"doing\" to do. Lapin: What do you want to do? Wade: I think the main thing you think of is to know you can change the whole world, but you can touch many people on the way. And my main thing is like, when I go out and talk to kids or I do different events through my foundation, I just want to change one person's thought in that room. They had a negative thought or belief coming in, I want to make them believe. And if I can change one kid's mind, he can change someone else's mind, and it can be a chain effect that can continue to keep going." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade started foundation to help at-risk kids .\nWade is national spokesperson for National Recess Week .\nNBA star says sense of community and sportsmanship are pivotal for kids .\nSays he wants to leave the world a better place ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Perhaps he should be called Captain Phoenix? Captain America will return in a new comic book series July 1. Its title: \"Captain America Reborn.\" Rising from the dead after being killed off over two years ago, Captain America is being resurrected by Marvel Comics. Though the circumstances of his return are being closely shielded, the star-spangled superhero returns July 1 in a five-comic-book series, \"Captain America Reborn.\" A big-budget movie in development by Marvel is also expected in 2011. After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in 2007, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes, amid a controversial story line. He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of super-villains, but a sniper's bullet cut Captain America down in 2007, a move that shocked many of his fans. \"The reaction was amazing,\" says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. \"It certainly was like the world went crazy for three days. Everybody had a point of view about it, including fans who hadn't read the comic for 30 years.\" In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event. Marvel said the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the war on terror and September 11. Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps. It was a violent and strange end for an American hero and icon. The primary shooter, Crossbones -- working under the orders of Captain America's longtime nemesis, the Red Skull -- was caught. The identity of a second shooter is revealed in issue 600, which goes on sale Monday. Many felt Captain America's death in 2007 was symbolic of the time. And his return now? \"The tenor of the world now is when we're at a point where we want to believe in heroes. Someone who can lead the way,\" said Brevoort. \"It just feels like the right time.\" Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers. As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was born before the Great Depression in a very different America. He disappeared after the war and only reappeared recently in the Marvel timeline. Keeping superheroes dead and buried does not come easy. Even Superman, who was killed off by DC Comics in 1993, came back to life a year later. And what of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes? After taking up the shield and mission of Captain America for the past year, it'll be time to relinquish the mantle. Is there room for two sentinels of liberty? Stay tuned. Glenn Perreia contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain America being resurrected; superhero was killed off over two years ago .\nRecent issues of Marvel comics shed light on plot behind superhero's death .\n\"It just feels like the right time,\" says Marvel Comics editor ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Sri Lanka's quarter-century-long civil war is in its final phase, the government suggested Friday, as its troops pounded Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north. This picture, released by the Sri Lankan defense ministry, is said to be of a dead Tamil Tiger body captured after fighting on May 14, 2009. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the end of the current military push, which is often referred to as a civilian rescue mission, is less than 48 hours away. He spoke from Jordan on Friday, where he's attending an economic summit. \"The Tamil civilians held hostage by the LTTE in small area of land in the north would be rescued, and the Tamils would be saved from the threat of LTTE terrorism,\" Rajapaksa said. In a rapid military push, Sri Lankan forces have squeezed Tamil Tiger fighters into approximately 1.5 square miles (four square kilometers) of coastal land. The United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 civilians are trapped there. CNN's Paula Newton reports on the plight of trapped civilians » . The chunk of land, known as the no-fire zone or civilian safety area, was under siege by government forces Friday, according to Tamilnet.com, a rebel Web site. \"The entire safety zone area is in smoke ... as shelling by the Sri Lanka army was destroying all the structures within a narrow strip of coastal land, which is densely populated with tens of thousands of people,\" Tamilnet said. Humanitarian aid groups have reported mass civilian casualties in the fighting. \"The government is moving forward in extremely difficult circumstances. After all, the ... Tamil Tigers are seeded amidst the middle of all these civilians. It's very difficult to weed out and identify who is a fighter and who is not,\" said Gordon Weiss, a U.N. spokesman. \"It makes it very very dangerous for civilians, and it explains the very large toll on civilian life that we've seen at this point.\" Weiss called the fighting a \"bloodbath\" at the beginning of the week. The situation had worsened by Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. It suspended evacuation and medical rescue operations in the no-fire zone. Aid agencies had been stuck offshore, unable to deliver badly needed relief supplies and evacuate civilians. \"Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,\" said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the Red Cross' director of operations. \"No humanitarian organization can help them in the current circumstances. People are left to their own devices.\" The U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for both sides to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the conflict zone. Watch frustration build at the United Nations » . In a statement at the White House, Obama urged Sri Lankan government troops to halt the \"indiscriminate\" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tigers. He also prodded the rebels to stop using civilians as human shields. Security Council members issued a statement demanding \"that all parties respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.\" A Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday during shelling in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka -- the third aid worker killed in six weeks -- the Red Cross said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sri Lanka president says end of current military push less than 48 hours away .\nU.N. estimates more than 50,000 civilians trapped in area under siege .\nRed Cross: \"Staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe\"\nTamil Tigers have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- For four days, an American sea captain and four Somali pirates rode the waves of the Indian Ocean in an enclosed lifeboat, far out of sight of most of the world. Capt. Richard Phillips, right, stands with U.S. Navy Cmdr. Frank Castellano after Phillips' rescue Sunday. But for those four days, they were on the minds of people around the globe, from the captain's hometown in Vermont, to the White House, to port cities and anywhere that families send their loved ones off to sea. \"I actually was more concerned for his family,\" said Adm. Rick Gurnon, head of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Capt. Richard Phillips had trained. \"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" Gurnon said of Phillips, adding, \"as a captain at sea, in a lifeboat, he was in an environment he was comfortable with even if he was sharing it with four armed Somali pirates. \"I was more worried for his family. They've been going through hell since Wednesday. This is truly a joyous day for them.\" Watch Gurnon praise Phillips' courage, professionalism » . The waiting ended Sunday with news that U.S. Navy snipers had shot and killed three of Phillips' captors, with the fourth pirate in custody onboard the nearby USS Bainbridge, and that Phillips had been rescued uninjured. The expressions of relief and praise flowed. Watch how SEALs took down pirates » . \"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Capt. Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,\" President Obama said. \"His courage is a model for all Americans.\" Phillips offered himself as a hostage after the pirates stormed the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday morning, according to Maersk Line Limited, which owns the ship. The pirates eventually left the Alabama with Phillips that day aboard the lifeboat, where they would stay for four days. In Phillips' hometown of Underhill, Vermont, Maersk spokeswoman Alison McColl said Phillips' wife, Andrea, had spoken to her husband by phone after his rescue. \"She was laughing while she was on the phone with him,\" McColl told reporters. \"She was saying his trademark sense of humor was still very much intact, and he's in great spirits. If you guys could have seen her light up when she talked to him, it was really remarkable.\" McColl said Andrea Phillips and her family \"have felt a tremendous amount of support from the entire nation.\" Watch statement from Andrea Phillips » . \"The thoughts, the prayers, the sentiments, the support you've shown has really helped them endure this very difficult situation,\" McColl said. Still speaking for the captain's wife, McColl added: \"She believes she can feel it, and she believes that her husband felt it out there in the middle of the ocean. So thanks to the entire nation, the local community, the state of Vermont, for all your help there.\" Phillips was being praised for his apparent willingness to put his own life in jeopardy to secure the release of his crew and his ship. But Gurnon, who described the captain as \"the good shepherd who willingly exchanged his life for the lives of his flock,\" cautioned that the end of one hostage situation should not be taken as the end of the growing problem of piracy, especially with scores of other lives in peril from pirates who are holding ships and crews off the expansive Somali coast. \"While this is a great day for Massachusetts Maritime Academy and for all of our alumni and all mariners around the world, we still have more than 200 men and women held hostage in Somalia,\" Gurnon said. \"We should not let the spotlights, the TV cameras, the focus of the world be removed from that problem,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain's family had been \"going through hell,\" head of maritime academy says .\nCapt. Richard Phillips, rescued from pirates Sunday, had been trained at academy .\n\"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" academy leader says .\nWife talked to, laughed with Phillips on phone after rescue, spokeswoman says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Mohsen Rezaie may have little chance of winning Friday's presidential election in Iran, observers say, but they believe he's running with a purpose: getting rid of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mohsen Rezaie could garner enough conservative votes to swing Iran's election, experts say. \"He came there just to defeat Ahmadinejad. He didn't come to win,\" said Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Hardliners disappointed with Ahmadinejad and reformers eager for new leadership are both glad Rezaie is running, Karim Sadjadpour wrote in a recent article for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is an associate. \"Intimidating in appearance and lacking in popular appeal, reformists are happy to have Rezaie in the race, believing he can take some of the votes from Ahmadinejad in the first round,\" Sadjadpour wrote. Khalaji said the incumbent will lose votes at both ends of the political spectrum. Watch how the campaign is a watershed for Iran » . \"Look, everybody in this country wants Ahmadinejad out,\" Khalaji said, \"except the Supreme Leader and his organizations.\" Rezaie, no ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, was a founder of the Revolutionary Guard in 1979 and its leader from 1981 to 1997, a period that included the devastating eight-year war with Iraq. \"Iranian people don't like the military at all, \" Khalaji said. \"He's considered a military man, despite his claims that 'I'm a civilian.' But his image is associated with war, and people don't like it.\" Many people blame Rezaie for prolonging the war and failing to achieve victory, Khalaji said. In an interview this week in the Los Angeles Times, Rezaie said the conflict taught him \"that war is a terrible thing, that we should do everything to avoid war.\" \"Look at what happened to us, the chemical weapons attacks on Iranian cities and Halabja [in Iraq],\" he told the newspaper. \"War is a terrible thing. I saw dead people and crushed children, families destroyed and fleeing from their homes, here in Iran but also there in Iraq. \"I also learned the value of unity,\" he went on. \"The war created a fusion between the population and the state. Everybody was together and everybody was united. I learned the value of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.\" Rezaie has been linked to terrorism. The 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, by Revolutionary Guard client Hezbollah occurred under his watch. The blast killed 241 Americans. Rezaie is one of several people indicted in Argentina for the 1994 bombing of Jewish and Israeli sites in Buenos Aires. He has denied responsibility for those attacks. In the Los Angeles Times interview, Rezaie said he sees an opportunity for improving relations with the United States. \"I propose to put together a package of eight or nine topics that the U.S. and Iran would work toward,\" he told the paper. \"What is important is to just start the talks. It can be on drug trafficking, it can be anything, but the idea is just to start some kind of dialogue. If we solve one or two problems, we're on our way.\" Watch how the campaign has heated up at the end » . Rezaie is a member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, a \"council of elders\" from many parts of government and society whose job is to reconcile the needs of the state with the rulings of the Council of Guardians, the arbiter of Islamic law in Iran. Rezaie was raised in a poor family in southern Iran and founded the Manssouroun, a paramilitary force that resisted the reign of the Shah, Khalaji said. That experience led directly to his role in founding the Revolutionary Guard, a force created by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei to protect against coup attempts by army officers who remained loyal to the Shah. The Revolutionary Guard eventually came to dominate the military. In 1998, Rezaie's son Ahmad fled Iran and sought political asylum in the United States, but eventually was persuaded to return home and now is a wealthy businessman, Khalaji said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie led Revolutionary Guard for 18 years .\nHis only goal in campaign is to undermine incumbent, Iran expert says .\nRezaie led Revolutionary Guard during war with Iraq, Beirut bombing .\nHe tells newspaper he would seek to improve relations with United States ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Mir Hossein Moussavi, Iran's former prime minister, has emerged as a serious contender to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was, for months, considered a shoo-in for re-election to the Iranian presidency. Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi holds up the \"V\" sign after casting his vote on Friday. A painter and architect who withdrew from the political front for two decades, Moussavi has emerged with a platter of promises. He has said he wants to reform Iran into a global communicator that embraces freedom of speech. He's also taken an usual step in politics in Iran by relying heavily on his wife, a college professor. Her public support of his candidacy has underscored his professed support of women's rights. Largely an unknown to the rest of the world when he announced his bid in March, Moussavi has tried to be the foil to Ahmadinejad, who has earned a reputation internationally as a fundamentalist for his Holocaust denials, calls to annihilate Israel, and cat-and-mouse games with the United States and the United Nations over Iran's nuclear activities. \"This anti-Ahmadinejad image is connecting with a lot of Iranians because many feel Ahmadinejad has gone too far, said too many outlandish things and is responsible for a serious financial crisis the country is in,\" said Afshin Molavi, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington. Molavi is also the author of \"The Soul of Iran,\" a book about Iran's middle-class struggling to free itself, under intense economic and cultural restraints, from the control of the state. Moussavi was Iran's prime minister from 1981 to 1989 and oversaw the nation's eight-year war with Iraq. He has been largely praised by analysts across varied political leanings for that. But when the constitution was reformed in the late 1980s, removing the job of prime minister, Moussavi retreated to a life outside the public sphere for two decades. \"Twenty years -- what has he done in that time? No one really knows,\" said Shireen Hunter, a Georgetown University visiting professor and Iranian author of numerous books on the nation's political history who interviewed Moussavi just as he was officially exiting politics. \"What you have is a war and a history that the younger Iranians do not know about or remember, so they know less about him and see him as the reformer he says that he is,\" Hunter said. She spoke with Moussavi for her 1992 book \"Iran and the World.\" \"I quoted Moussavi as saying that Iran did not suffer as much from the Soviet Union as it did from America,\" Hunter said. \"He was very anti-Western. He presided over a lot of nationalism [during his time as prime minister,] and now he is saying that he is a reformer? I don't believe in born-again Democrats. I'm skeptical.\" It's an image or impression the people are being moved by, she and Molavi contend, that may not be based on hard evidence. \"There were still freedoms that were stifled under Moussavi,\" Molavi said. \"[But] what Iranians seem to remember, what is lingering, is that he steered the country relatively well in a time of crisis during the war.\" Now Moussavi has seized on Iran's most pressing problem: its economy. \"There's a sort of overwhelming support now for an opening up of the country to the international community and some access to the free-market economy because, frankly, Iran's own economy is on the verge of utter collapse,\" said Reza Aslan, an analyst for DailyBeast.com and author of the book \"No God But God,\" an analysis of Islam in politics and culture. Last week, tensions between the candidates reached a fever pitch. During a recent fiery television debate, Moussavi accused Ahmadinejad of being a radical and turning Iran into a \"dictatorship.\" He said Ahmadinejad was an \"adventurist\" when it came to foreign policy. The acrimony between the candidates has appeared to help Moussavi. During a June 3 television debate, Ahmadinejad called Moussavi \"corrupt.\" The president then showed a picture of Moussavi's wife, a well-known political science professor, and accused her of skipping university entrance exams. Zahra Rahnavard, who has been touted as a possible first \"first lady\" of Iran, has threatened to sue Ahmadinejad for defamation, according to several reports. The heated tone of the election has translated to the streets. Watch Moussavi's supporters explain why they're backing him » . This week, crowds divided between the candidates are facing off on opposite sides of the street in Tehran. A few fistfights have broken out, but there has been relatively little violence. Signs aloft, some are wearing green headbands and chanting \"Moussavi, Moussavi!\" That crowd has more women, and it's markedly younger. One young woman on the side of Moussavi said, \"This is like a revolution.\" CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mir Hossein Moussavi, Iran's ex-PM, hasn't worked officially in politics in 20 years .\nAnalysts: He is wooing support by portraying himself as the \"anti-Ahmadinejad'\nMoussavi says he's a reformer, believes in more freedoms and an open Iran .\nAuthor who has interviewed him says she is skeptical that he truly feels that way ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ROME, Italy -- Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney scored a goal in each half as Manchester United won 2-0 in Roma's Olympic Stadium to virtually assure the Premier League leaders a place in the Champions League semifinals. Cristiano Ronaldo rises above the Roma defense to power home a superb header. United proved they can still dominate the Italian side, following last season's 8-3 aggregate triumph at the same stage of the competition, with a stylish display. The visitors enjoyed a lot of the ball in the first period as Roma -- missing talismanic striker Francesco Totti -- sat back, seemingly intent on not giving anything away. On 12 minutes, United opened up the Roma defense but after Park Ji-Sung took the ball down on his chest he was crowded out. Christian Panucci headed over the bar from a David Pizarro corner and Mirko Vucinic shot over as he was falling backwards, after Rio Ferdinand had slipped, as Roma briefly threatened. United then suffered a blow as defender Nemanja Vidic was stretchered off with a leg injury, to be replaced by John O'Shea. Chances were few and far between but on 39 minutes United produced a move of majestic quality to take the lead. United switched the ball around the edge of the Roma box before Paul Scholes eventually crossed for Ronaldo to come steaming in to out-jump Marco Cassetti and thump home a header. Just three minutes later Roma had their best chance of the half after a mistake from Ferdinand, but Vucinic dragged his shot from the left just beyond the far post. Roma came out after the break with more purpose and Vucinic played in Max Tonetto, but he lashed his shot wide of the near post, failing even to force Edwin van der Sar into making a save. From a quick throw Panucci had great chance but skied his volley from five meters. Substitute Ludovic Giuly then got behind the United defense but Van der Sar cut out his cross. And the big Dutch keeper then made a stunning one-handed save on 62 minutes from a Vucinic header to keep the scores level. Four minutes later, United scored a crucial second as Park headed a deep cross from Wes Brown back across goal and Rooney mopped up the loose ball after goalkeeper Doni and Panucci impeded each other. Moments later Ronaldo had a shot deflected onto the outside of the post as United threatened to run riot. Rooney had two glorious chances to heap more misery on Roma late on but had one shot blocked and sent the other wide. Ronaldo then almost scored with a stunning late volley from substitute Carlos Tevez's cross but the ball flew over the bar. With Barcelona taking a 1-0 lead over Schalke in the other semifinal, it looks increasingly likely that United will face the Catalan giants for a place in the Moscow final mext month. Ronaldo played down his goal, simply saying his 36th of the season was \"a good header\" and preferred to comment on the team's overall performance. \"That was a very good performance in what was a top game,\" he said. \"We created a few chances,scored twice and deserved the victory. \"The defense were terrific and they played their part. It was a good job overall but we must remember that the Champions League is a different style to the Premier League and this match is not over yet,\" added the Portuguese winger. E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manchester United win 2-0 in Roma in the Champions League quarterfinals .\nGoals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney put the visitors in control .\nThe winners will face Barcelona or Schalke for a place in the final in Moscow ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates off the eastern coast of Africa fired on U.S. sailors Saturday as they tried to reach the lifeboat where an American captain is being held, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, is now at the scene. The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said. Capt. Richard Phillips reportedly offered himself as a hostage to the pirates during an attack Wednesday on the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean. The Alabama was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was hijacked about 350 miles off the Somalia coast. The American crew regained control of the vessel, but the Maersk company would not say how. There are about 20 crew members. The Alabama arrived Saturday in Mombasa, along with an 18-person armed security detail on board. \"For security reasons, the vessel will berth in a restricted area of the port and will not be accessible to the media. FBI agents will debrief members of the crew on board the vessel before they disembark. The crew will not be available to the media in Mombasa,\" Maersk Ltd. said. Watch the latest Maersk briefing » . The U.S. Navy -- which is in charge of the situation -- requested help from the FBI to resolve the standoff. The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said. Phillips lives in Underhill, Vermont, where neighbor and longtime family friend, Tom Walsh, told CNN the captain's wife, Andrea, was surrounded by relatives. \"If they need us to help with anything. That's kind of the way it is in these communities. ... just showing that we're concerned. We want to do whatever she needs,\" Walsh said. \"She has a lot of family there.\" Watch more about the hostage situation » . Earlier Saturday, pirates sailing a hijacked German cargo ship returned to port after failing to reach the area of the standoff with the Bainbridge, a local journalist told CNN. The German ship Hansa Stavanger was among several pirated vessels trying to sail to the area some 300 miles off the Somali coast, a Somali journalist told CNN. The pirate crew had intended to help the pirates holding Phillips but turned back because of the U.S. naval presence, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger is now at the Somali port of Eyl, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger was hijacked April 4 off the Somali coast. Pirates have been searching the waters off Africa's coast for the Alabama's lifeboat, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation said Friday. They are using hijacked vessels and skiffs launched from larger ships, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has joined the Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer -- with a medical facility aboard -- should be there by the end of the day. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on how the pirates are being handled . Phillips is being held by four gunmen in the covered, fiberglass lifeboat. He jumped overboard at one point to try to escape, but one of the pirates jumped into the water after him and brought him back onboard the 28-foot boat. The pirates fired shots, the military official said, without providing further details. Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt, a Defense Department official told CNN. For the U.S. Navy, bringing in more firepower is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. Meanwhile, the acts of piracy were having an effect on tourists disembarking from ships in Mombasa. \"Well, we got the international news stories on television on the ship and everybody's concerned about the route that we were on because there was always the possibility that we would be approached by pirates,\" one male passenger said. CNN's Stephanie Elam, Mohammed Jamjoom and Barbara Starr contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Gunfire from pirates forces sailors, who did not return fire, to turn back .\nNEW: FBI launches criminal investigation into hijacking, hostage-taking .\nMaersk Alabama arrives in Mombasa, Kenya under armed guard .\nCapt. Richard Phillips is being held by four gunmen in covered, fiberglass lifeboat ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(OPRAH.com) -- Attention single ladies! Comedian Steve Harvey, the best-selling author of \"Act Like a Lady, Think Like Man\" and a self-professed expert on manhood, is here to take you inside the male mind. Comedian Steve Harvey says real men like to provide and protect, but some also like to cheat. Whether you're looking for Mr. Right or trying to forget Mr. Wrong, Steve isn't holding anything back. Many women have long lists that describe what they're looking for in a man...but are their standards simply too high? Yinka and Lynell are two 30-something friends who have long lists. They're here to ask Steve if they'll ever find a man who meets all their requirements. Lynell says she's looking for a God-fearing, spontaneous African-American millionaire with straight teeth and nice shoes who wants children...among other things. \"That would be the Lord,\" Steve jokes. \"I'll be trying to meet him the same time you do.\" If a woman is serious about her list, Steve says she should ask herself one question before turning down a date. \"Are you willing to be the same thing to him that you're talking about on that list?\" he says. \"A lot of women are not.\" In general, do women even need a list? Steve says single ladies do need to set standards. \"I think lists are great. You've got to have them. You've got to know what you're looking for,\" he says. \"Without standards, you settle for stuff.\" Before you get discouraged, Steve reminds women to stay patient and remember that real men aren't afraid of standards and requirements. \"You've got to wait on this guy to come along. He's coming. He's out there. He's already created. God has already made him,\" he says. \"He has a job. He's wearing the clothes you like. He's walking around. You're not waiting on him to be born. He exists today. All you've got to do is stay patient.\" Why do many successful, independent women have a hard time finding love? There are millions of smart, beautiful women around the world who can't figure out why they're unlucky in love, including a group of friends from New York. Steve is here to set them straight. Steve says many successful women dated good men but didn't know it at the time. \"You don't know the DNA of a good man,\" he says. Even if you look like a million bucks -- and you have a few million in the bank -- Steve says a woman needs to know how a man shows his love. It's all about the \"three P's.\" Oprah.com: Can a list help you find love? \"We profess, we provide and we protect,\" he says. \"A man has got to see where he fits into the providing and protecting role. If you've got everything, you can do everything, you've got your own car ... you've got a guard dog and a handgun. The guy is thinking, 'Where do I fit in here?' \"You've got to make a space for him to fit in so he can come in and do what men do.\" Steve doesn't advise women to downplay their success or pack up their designer shoes. Instead, he says strong women have to walk a thin line. \"You can't let your independence and your ability to take care of yourself be the dominant factor of who you are,\" he says. \"You know how many times I hear women say: 'I don't need a man. I've got this. Why don't a man just come to me?' Just like you're saying it, you're projecting it. If you're projecting it, where does a man fit in there? Just relax.\" Oprah.com: How to act like a lady, think like a man . After a few dates, some guys just stop returning calls and texts. Even if they aren't interested, don't they want closure? Steve has a simple answer to this question...no. \"Ladies, you're not going to get closure from a man,\" he says. \"We don't do closure. And you know why? Because we don't even know you're having an issue. We're stupid.\" If you're hoping for a courtesy call, Steve says you can forget about that too. \"We're not courteous. Listen, it's not in our DNA as great communicators anyway,\" he says. \"See women keep waiting on closure. Bring it on. If you want closure, close. Move on with your life.\" How important is sex in a relationship? Sex, or \"the cookie\" as Steve calls it in his book, is a major point of contention for many couples. If you don't think it's important to your man, Steve says you're wrong. \"It's critical,\" he says. \"It's one of the three things that a man has to have. A man has to have love, support and the cookie. [If] anyone of those three things is missing in the relationship, he's going to go get it somewhere else.\" If a man is cheating or has the intention to cheat, why pursue commitment with one woman? Michele found out her boyfriend of many years was cheating after he told her he was ready to settle down and get married. The male mind may be a mystery to women, but Steve says there's a simple explanation for this behavior. \"A man having sex outside of his relationship is very different from [a woman],\" he says. \"Once we shower and wash off, we cool. \"Please know that about a man. If he's going to cheat, it has nothing to do with his emotional attachment to you or his feelings for you.\" Steve says cheaters make promises to their significant others because they know that's what women want to hear. \"Michele, there's nothing wrong with you. You haven't done anything,\" he says. \"Please release yourself. Let the baggage go.\" Sadly, many women have dated men who cheat...and most of them don't even know it. Steve says there are a few major reasons why men stray, though none of them excuse the behavior. The top 5 reasons: . • They can . • They think they can get away with it . • The man hasn't become who he wants and needs to be or found who he truly wants to be with. • What's happening at home isn't \"happening\" like it used to. • There's always a woman out there willing to cheat with him. If you're married to a mama's boy, is there anything a wife can do to become the number one woman in his life? Before Jill married her husband of 13 years, she says she knew he was a mama's boy. Over the years, she's grown tired of coming in second. Steve says the first mistake women like Jill make is thinking they can change their men. \"You think if you give him enough cookie, bake it just right, he'll straighten up,\" he says. \"That's not what happens with a mama's boy.\" Men stay in this adolescent mind-set because their mothers set standards when they were boys and upheld those standards throughout their lives, Steve says. Wives must enter into their marriages with their own set of rules to stand a chance. Oprah.com: Get more of Steve's love advice! \"You have to start saying: 'Hey, look, you have to respect me. You have to be here to show your son how a man treats a woman. You have to be here to show your daughter how a man should treat her,'\" he says. \"'You can't do it if you're playing me second to your mama.'\" If that doesn't work, Steve suggests appealing to the \"three Ps\" -- profess, provide and protect. \"If you don't say to your man: 'Okay, look, next time she calls, do not leave us in the middle of the night. We're unprotected,'\" he says. \"Every man has it in his DNA to do these things when we love you. When you call on it and require it, we rise to the occasion.\" From The Oprah Winfrey Show © 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & © 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Looking for a man? Know what you want, Steve Harvey says .\nA man must feel he can provide and protect his woman, he says .\nHarvey's Top 5 reasons men cheat includes other women who are willing .\nOne of Harvey's tips for curing a mama's boy: Demand respect ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov will be free to launch his competitive comeback before the end of next month following a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling in Switzerland on Tuesday. Kazakh rider Vinokourov will be free to resume competitive cycling before the end of next month. Vinokourov was originally suspended for one year by his federation (KCF) after the pre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping. The International Cycling Union (UCI) disputed the length of the ban which should have been for two years under their rules. Parties involved agreed the issue should go to arbitration and Vinokourov, who 'retired' after being banned, has now been told his ban will be for two years. This year's Tour de France runs from July 4-26 while Vinokourov has been told by CAS he can resume competitive action two days before the race ends in Paris. Vinokourov has said he wants to launch a comeback, preferably with Astana alongside Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador. \"My dream would be to win the world championship and wear the rainbow shirt for my last year in 2010,\" he said last month. Swiss-based CAS issued its preliminary decision in the arbitration between the UCI, Vinokourov and the KCF in a Web site statement on Tuesday . CAS said: \"The decision adopted on 5 December 2007 by the Anti-Doping Commission of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation is set aside. \"Mr Vinokurov committed an anti-doping rule violation under Articles 15.2 of the Anti-Doping Regulations of the Union Cycliste Internationale and, according to Articles 261, 268 and 275 of the Anti-Doping Regulations, is declared ineligible for a period of two years commencing on 24 July 2007. \"Mr Vinokurov will be eligible to compete in international competitions as of 24 July 2009.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov is told his doping ban is for two years .\nPre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping .\nBanned for year by Federation, Vinokourov can resume cycling on July 24 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new shoe outfitted with a GPS chip aims to offer peace of mind to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. It's common for people with Alzheimer's or other types of dementia to wander from their homes. The embedded GPS tracking system will allow the wearer of the shoe to be located instantly online and for their whereabouts to be monitored in real time. The shoe may offer hope to the growing number of people with Alzheimer's disease. More than 26 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer's, and the figure is set to exceed 106 million by 2050, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. \"This could not only save lives but potentially save governments billions in search and rescue operations,\" Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University who was an adviser for the project, told CNN. Patients of Alzheimer's, the leading cause of dementia, can easily become confused or disoriented, and it's common for them to wander from their home and not be able to find their way back. The shoe is the latest in a wave of assisted-living devices, from home sensor systems to pill boxes that remind people to take their medication, targeted at keeping Alzheimer's patients safe. Kathi Cordsen, an iReporter from Fullerton, Calif., whose aunt has Alzheimer's, welcomed the development of the shoes. \"It's really sad how this illness creeps up on a person out of the blue,\" she said. \"I think these shoes could help quite a few families to be able to keep [their loved ones home] instead of putting them in a home.\" What do you think about GPS-outfitted shoes? Tell us in the SoundOff below . Carle, an expert in aging and assistive technologies, said businesses are honing in on ways technology can improve the quality of life for older adults. The market for microchip-based technology alone is worth an estimated $5 billion, he said. While tracking devices may help those with dementia live independently, they have also raised ethical concerns about informed consent and personal privacy, according to Gayle Willis of the Alzheimer's Society in the UK. \"As long as people with dementia are involved in the decision-making progress, assisted living technologies can play an important role to help people live well with dementia,\" she told CNN. But, Willis noted, they cannot be a substitute for good quality care and more research needs to be done to see what products work best for people. The shoe is a collaboration between GTX Corp., a firm that specializes in miniaturized GPS tracking devices, and footwear company Aetrex. Details are still being worked out, but GTX Chief Executive Patrick Bertagna expects the shoe to retail for around $200 to $300. For a monthly fee of about $20, caregivers will also have the option to subscribe to a GTX service that automatically alerts them when the wearer of the shoe leaves a designated boundary. Sixty percent of Alzheimer's patients will get lost at least once, said Carle. Because they often will not seek help or respond to assistance, nearly half of them risk death if not found within 24 hours, he said. Electronic wristbands and ankle bracelets have been used to track sufferers of dementia before, but those devices tend to be bulky and uncomfortable. The shoes, on the other hand, are designed to be unobtrusive. Testing of a prototype is expected to be completed by the end of the year and the shoe will likely be rolled out in 2010." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shoe with GPS system aims to improve safety of seniors with dementia .\nAlzheimer's patients often wander from home and can't find their way back .\nDevice would locate them if they get lost and allow caregivers to monitor them ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- For more than a half-century Jerry and Marilyn Damman wondered what happened to their 2-year-old boy, who mysteriously vanished into thin air outside a Long Island bakery. Steven Damman and his sister disappeared from outside a bakery in 1955. His sister was found safe. Now, 54 years later, a Michigan man claims he is the missing child whose name was Steven Damman. Within the last six months, the unidentified man contacted Nassau County, New York, police and said he had credible evidence that would link him to the case of the missing toddler, according to police Detective Lt. Kevin Smith. Nassau County police turned the case over to the FBI in Detroit. So far, authorities will not release the Michigan man's identity and won't say why he believes he is Steven Damman. The FBI is conducting DNA testing, Smith said. Sandra Berchtold, spokeswoman for the FBI Detroit bureau, said only, \"The FBI investigates all leads in kidnapping cases, but cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation in this matter.\" In 1955, Marilyn Damman took her toddler, Steven, and his baby sister, Pamela, to a bakery in East Meadow. The mother went inside to do some quick shopping, leaving her 2-year-old and baby girl in the stroller outside. But when Damman returned, her children were gone. A short time later, blocks away, the baby girl was found unharmed and the stroller was intact, but Steven was missing, Smith said. Thousands of searchers looked for the toddler, but the boy was nowhere to be found. Hitting one dead end after the next, the Dammans packed up and moved from New York back to Iowa, Jerry Damman said. And until now, they thought there was little chance of ever seeing their son again. Jerry Damman, who lives on a farm in Iowa, told CNN, \"You never give up hope, [but] things dim after all those years.\" He said he isn't ready to comment on the latest developments for various reasons. Damman says authorities have contacted him, but he has not yet given DNA samples. A few years back, Steven Damman's sister gave a DNA sample in connection with the 1957 Philadelphia case of a young boy's body found in a box. In that case, all indications were it was not Steven Damman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unnamed Michigan man says he was toddler who went missing in 1955 .\n2-year-old Steven Damman vanished from in front of a Long Island, New York, bakery .\nToddler's father: \"You never give up hope, [but] things dim after all those years\"\nThe FBI is conducting DNA testing, says Nassau County police detective ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Accused terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay complained of abuse that they said led them to tell their CIA interrogators lies, according to sections of U.S. government transcripts made public on Monday. A detainee walks at Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in May. Suspected al Qaeda figure Abu Zubaydah told a military tribunal in 2007 that he was physically and mentally tortured for months. \"They did not care about my injuries,\" said Zubaydah, according to the newly released transcripts, adding, \"doctors told me that I nearly died four times.\" When Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan and badly wounded during a shootout in March 2002, U.S. intelligence officials considered him a major player in al Qaeda. He was treated for his injuries, then later subjected to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques after CIA interrogators said he stopped cooperating with them. According to a Justice Department memo released in April 2009 by the Obama administration, Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times by CIA interrogators in August 2002. See timeline of events » . In the newly released section, Zubaydah said his interrogators discovered \"that I am not number three in al Qaeda.\" The transcripts were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Obama administration reviewed the highly redacted portions of the transcripts that were released shortly after the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held at Guantanamo Bay in the spring of 2007. The sections made public on Monday still remain heavily blacked out. See key players in interrogation policy » . Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, told the military panel he made up stories when tortured. In broken English, Mohammad told of being questioned about the location of Osama bin Laden. \"Where is he? I don't know,\" said Mohammad. \"Then he tortures me. Then I said yes, he is in this area...\" Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 Americans in 2000, said his interrogators \"drown me in water,\" apparently in reference to the times he was subjected to waterboarding. According to the transcripts, he claimed he was able to run 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) before he was detained, \"now, I cannot walk more than 10 minutes.\" ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner said in a statement that the documents \"provide further evidence of brutal torture and abuse in the CIA's interrogation program and demonstrate beyond doubt that this information has been suppressed solely to avoid embarrassment and growing demands for accountability.\" Wizner said the ACLU will go back to court to seek the full release of all of the documents. CNN's Carol Cratty, Mike Ahlers and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sections of U.S. government transcripts on Guantanamo made public Monday .\nReleased sections still remain heavily blacked out; ACLU to seek full disclosure .\nKhalid Sheik Mohammad tells military panel he made up stories when tortured .\nSuspected al Qaeda figure waterboarded at least 83 times by CIA in August 2002 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main political rival attended demonstrations at separate locations in Tehran on Tuesday in the wake of last week's disputed presidential election. Al-Alam footage shows Ahmadinejad supporters rallying Tuesday in central Tehran. While pro-Ahmadinejad crowds descended on Vali Asr Square in central Tehran, Mir Hossein Moussavi urged his own supporters to cancel their plans to rally at the square after mass protests a day earlier in which seven people were reportedly killed. Instead, his supporters gathered at a different location in Tehran, according to video footage of the rally. Iran's government banned international journalists from covering election rallies Tuesday and blocked access to some online communication tools. (Full story) Reporters for international news outlets, including CNN, could talk about the rallies in their live reports but were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms and offices. The decision was an apparent reaction to video showing violence at recent demonstrations in support of Moussavi, who is disputing the results of Friday's presidential election. Watch government coverage of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally » . Iran's government has criticized some of that coverage and the images, describing them as biased. Also Tuesday, Iran's powerful Guardian Council announced a partial vote recount, an apparent U-turn after the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed ultraconservative Ahmadinejad's win. The Guardian Council met with the three opposition candidates -- Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezaie -- and asked them to specify the areas where they wanted a recount, a council spokesman told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Watch how the decision may not satisfy the opposition » . Moussavi rejected the recount, according to an official close to his camp, demanding fresh elections and accusing the country's religious elite of trying to further manipulate the outcome of the original vote. An official close to the opposition leader's camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a recount would provide another opportunity for the government to manipulate the results. He said the council ordered the printing of 53 million ballots for the elections, but only 39 million were used. Fourteen million ballots were missing. Khamenei appealed to Iranians on Tuesday to stand behind the Islamic republic. \"Some people are against the unity of the Iranian nation and the solidarity of the Islamic system,\" Khamenei said in a meeting with representatives of the four presidential candidates, government-funded Press TV reported. \"Such acts and vandalism and some crimes that were committed are not related to the candidates' supporters but to disturbers of peace and all should stand against them,\" Khamenei said. A former Iranian parliamentary speaker, addressing Tuesday's pro-Ahmadinejad rally, called on Moussavi to accept defeat. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel urged Moussavi to \"take the leaders' advice\" so that \"everyone will benefit\" \"I want to remind my brother Mr. Moussavi that we do know that the leadership of the revolution likes you and he has advised you if you have any complaints please refer to the Council of Guardians,\" Adel said. Iranian security forces arrested three reformist politicians Tuesday for their alleged involvement in orchestrating post-election violence, Press TV reported. Mohammed Ali Abtahi, an adviser to presidential candidate and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, was one of the three detained. Abtahi was also Iran's vice president under reformist President Mohammed Khatami. The other two were identified as Behzad Nabavi and Saeed Hajjarian. Ahmadinejad's resounding election win surprised many experts who had expected Moussavi to win or put up a much stronger fight. Moussavi, a former prime minister thought of as a reformist, enjoys tremendous support among youth, who make up almost 60 percent of Iran's population of 70 million. He tapped into their dissatisfaction with the faltering economy under Ahmadinejad and with an unemployment rate that tops 30 percent by some accounts, analysts said. Watch how cyberspace is used by opposition » . But Kaveh Afrasiabi, a political scientist who supports Ahmadinejad, said the incumbent's widespread support in rural areas and small towns was the reason for his win with more than 62 percent of the vote. Since Moussavi contested the results, his supporters have taken to the streets every day, often clashing with police and Ahmadinejad's backers. iReport.com: On the ground in Iran . Seven people were killed on Monday night in the capital, Tehran, after they allegedly attacked a military post near Azadi -- or Freedom -- Square, government-funded Press TV said. The site was the same one where Moussavi had earlier in the day appealed to his supporters, a crowd of at least 10,000. Watch crowds call for change » . Moussavi's presence was his first public appearance since the election. He called on authorities to stop attacks on his supporters and urged his followers to continue demonstrating peacefully. \"You are not breaking glass,\" he said. \"You are breaking tyranny.\" Watch Christiane Amanpour report from rally » . Ahmadinejad was in Russia on Tuesday to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev. He was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran,\" with deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling reporters, \"The issue of elections in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people.\" Reaction from other world leaders to the disputed election has been, for the most part, guarded. In Washington, President Obama reiterated his \"deep concerns\" about the election during a White House Rose Garden appearance Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. \"When I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and of concern to the American people,\" he said. \"My hope is that the Iranian people will take the right steps in order for them to be able to express their voices, express their aspirations.\" He said the initial reaction from Iran's supreme leader indicates that \"he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election.\" \"People want to see debate,\" he said. \"How that plays out is something for the Iranian people to decide.\" Criticism of the Iranian election earned the representatives of several European nations -- France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and the Czech Republic -- a visit to Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where each received a notice of protest for interfering in Iran's internal affairs, according to Press TV. The European Union had expressed concern over the use of force on protesters. CNN's Octavia Nasr, Reza Sayah and Samson Desta contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei urges Iranians to stand behind republic .\nThousands of Ahmadinejad supporters crowd streets of central Tehran .\nSupporters backing Mir Hossein Moussavi protest for fourth day elsewhere in city .\nIran's election authority to recount disputed votes in presidential election ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Fawaz A. Gerges holds the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. His most recent book is \"The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global.\" Fawaz Gerges says the elite running Iran has lost the support of two key groups -- women and young voters. (CNN) -- With an apparent political coup in Iran by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters over the weekend, the ruling mullahs have dispensed with all democratic pretense and joined the ranks of traditional dictators in the Middle East. The hardliners in Tehran, led by the Revolutionary Guards and ultraconservatives, have won the first round against reformist conservatives but at an extravagant cost: loss of public support. Widespread accusations of fraud and manipulation are calling into question the very legitimacy and authority of the mullahs' Islamic-based regime. The electoral crisis has exposed a deepening divide between female and young voters, who represent about 70 percent of the population, and a radical conservative ruling elite out of touch with the hopes, fears and aspirations of young Iranians. The consensus in Iran, particularly among young voters, is that the election was stolen from reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Moussavi, and that the outcome did not reflect the electorate's genuine will. After the Interior Ministry announced the final election results showing a nearly 2-to-1 landslide for Ahmadinejad (62.63 to 33.75 percent), thousands of young protesters took to the streets and clashed with police and set trash bins and tires ablaze. Shock and disbelief turned to anger and rage. What poured gasoline on a simmering fire among the youth was a belief of widespread fraud. \"It's like taking 10 million votes away from Moussavi and giving them to Ahmadinejad,\" said Tehran-based analyst Saeed Leilaz. That is equivalent to more than 30 million votes in the American electorate. \"Death to the dictatorship\" and \"down with the dictator\" shouted the demonstrators while being clubbed by police and anti-riot squads. For the first time, young Iranians showed defiance against their tormentors and overcame their fear. Many young men reportedly roamed Tehran streets looking for a fight with the police. The ruling mullahs face an unprecedentedly serious crisis at home. While it does not threaten their existence, the crisis risks undermining their ability to govern effectively and pursue a successful foreign policy. In his first response to the results of the election, Moussavi nailed it on the head. \"I won't surrender to this manipulation,\" he wrote on his Web site. \"The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny.\" Moussavi's warning to the mullahs that stealing the election would weaken the very foundation of their regime and ultimately bring about its collapse carries weight because he has been part of the political inner circle of the Islamic Republic, not an outsider. Moussavi is a former prime minister admired for the way he managed the country's economy during the prolonged and bloody Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, a conflict which cost Iran over $500 billion. He worked closely with Ali Khamenei, then Iran's president and today supreme leader, and clashed with him over political authority and powers. Moussavi is a member of Iran's Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and the non-elected Guardian Council led by Ayatollah Khamenei. Initially, many reformists were skeptical about Moussavi's reform credentials and feared that he was too conservative for their taste. Throughout the presidential campaign, Moussavi labored hard to portray his proposals on social policy and foreign affairs as an extension of the Islamic system in order to disarm conservative critics, even denying that he is a mainstream reformist candidate in the hope of winning the support of reformers and moderate conservatives. Indeed, as the presidential campaign progressed, Moussavi won the backing not only of an important conservative segment of the electorate but also the formidable youth constituency. His charismatic wife, Zahra Rahnavard, electrified the female vote and won the hearts and minds of women voters who flooded their campaign rallies. In the past two weeks, Moussavi's campaign gained momentum. There was increasing evidence that the tide was turning and that women and young voters would tip the balance of power his way, if they turned out to vote in large numbers. Some important facts: There are 46 million eligible voters in Iran, half of whom are women. In 1997, more than 60 percent of the votes that brought moderate Mohammad Khatami to power were cast by women, and in 2000, women voters were instrumental in giving reformists a sweeping majority in the Parliament. Promising greater individual freedoms to youths was instrumental in the two landslide victories by Khatami in 1997 and 2001. Surely, if the turnout was 85 percent as the Interior Ministry said, Moussavi should have done much better than the mere 33.8 percent he supposedly received. According to many independent media reports from all over Iran, women and young voters turned out in record numbers, especially in cities where Moussavi is very popular. That should have given Moussavi a comfortable lead over the incumbent. Multiple irregularities were reported, including the fact that Moussavi supposedly lost the vote in his home province. There is an alarming discrepancy between the final results and the voting patterns of the Iranian electorate over more than a decade. Lack of transparency in the vote count has reinforced Iranians' suspicion. The weight of evidence is at odds with the final outcome given by the Interior Ministry. Before Moussavi formally appealed the election result, supreme leader Khamenei closed the door for any possible compromise. In a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a \"divine assessment.\" Yet the Guardian Council, not Khamenei, is the authority that either ratifies or annuls the results. It is refreshing that Khamenei has finally ordered an investigation into allegations of ballot fraud. It is a good start. A more reassuring intiative would be for the Guardian Council to order a full recount with the presence of independent observers. That would go a long way to putting to rest Iranians' concerns. In the meantime, trying to divert attention from the mess at home, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have blamed external \"enemies\" and \"foreign media\" for instigating a \"full-fledged fight against our people.\" The truth is that the crisis is internal and has nothing to do with foreign media or the West. The Obama administration has done the right thing by keeping a low profile and not actively interfering in Iran's unfolding domestic crisis. Unlike his predecessor, Obama has defused the minefield of relations between Washington and Tehran, shifting the focus of Iranians to their own society. But the disputed result shows that the ultraconservative mullahs are not only out of touch with a plurality of their citizens but also with reality. Their conduct reflects a deeper crisis of self-confidence and fear of the future. Has the Islamic revolution run out of ideological steam? If the mullahs fear Moussavi, a loyalist, they must be scared of their shadows and uncertain about their authority and power. That speaks volumes about where the Islamic Republic is and where it is heading. The mullahs are swimming against the dominant current of Iranian society. In the next four years, Iran will likely be engulfed in social and political turmoil unless the electoral crisis is resolved in a transparent manner. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz Gerges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fawaz Gerges: Iran's ruling mullahs forfeited their public support in the election .\nGerges: Ruling mullahs are out of step with women and young voters .\nHe says hardliners are swimming against the current of Iranian society ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Nigeria's main militant group issued a veiled threat Monday against an upcoming world football tournament that is tentatively scheduled to take place in the west African nation later this year. Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, pictured September 2008 in the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta warned the international football association FIFA that it should \"rethink\" allowing Nigeria to host the upcoming under-17 World Cup series later this year. \"The safety of international players and visitors can not be guaranteed due to the current unrest,\" MEND said in an e-mail. Only two out of the nine stadiums in Nigeria are close to being ready for the tournament which is scheduled to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA. The association has given the country a grace period to start constructing the remaining venues, FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said. In its e-mail, MEND claimed to have attacked a Chevron oil station in the Niger Delta region Monday as part of its latest offensive against the Nigerian government, dubbed \"Hurricane Piper Alpha.\" \"Hurricane Piper Alpha hit the Abiteye flow station operated by Chevron today, Monday, June 15, 2009 at about 0200 Hrs triggering another 'systems failure' which resulted in a massive fire outbreak that is consuming the entire facility,\" MEND said. It threatened further attacks in other states in the Niger Delta region, as well as offshore oil facilities. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it is investigating the reported attack on its Abiteye flow station. \"We are working to ensure the safety of our people, restore the integrity of our operations as soon as possible and are not speculating on any comment while investigations are being undertaken,\" according to an e-mailed statement from Chevron spokesman Scott Walker. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be reinvested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent. The recent violence -- which has included attacks on pipelines and hostage-taking -- has limited shipment of crude oil supplies out of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, produces 2.4 million barrels of oil per day .\nRecent attacks by MEND have limited shipment of crude oil supplies .\nTournament to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA .\nOnly two out of the nine stadia for under-17s competition close to being ready ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two undocumented workers from Mexico and one from Ecuador have reached court settlements in recent weeks for a total of $3.85 million in damages for New York construction-site accidents, an attorney for the men announced Wednesday. \"All three cases involve construction and terribly unsafe working conditions,\" the attorney, Brian O'Dwyer, said in a news conference. \"We're here today to re-emphasize -- as we have in the past -- to the Latino community and all undocumented workers that they have the same rights once they're on the job as any New York citizen.\" A 33-year-old undocumented plumber from Mexico who was scalded by an exploding pipe at a Wall Street construction site in 2004 settled his damage claim for $2.5 million, according to a statement given to reporters at the news conference. The married father of two, who says he still has nightmares from the accident, hopes to open a restaurant or bar with the settlement money, his cousin told reporters. In a separate statement, owners of the Wall Street site said only that the injured plumber was \"employed directly by [the] contractor and not by the owner of the property nor the managing agent.\" Reached through a public relations firm, a spokesperson for the contractor, Swig Equities, had no comment. Another undocumented Mexican worker suffered severe injuries to his left foot and other parts of his body when a steel beam fell on his lower body at a building site in downtown Manhattan, the news conference statement said. The 52-year-old settled his damage claim against Beway Realty Corp. and F.J. Sciame Construction Co. Inc. for $750,000, according to the statement. David Koeppel, a managing member of Beway Realty, said he was not familiar with the case. F.J. Sciame Construction, the site's contractor, did not respond to inquiries. A 36-year-old Ecuadorian laborer who worked at the Arverne by the Sea community in Queens -- a neighborhood The New York Times has called a \"bright spot\" in the housing market for its strong sales and low foreclosure rates -- settled a damage claim for $600,000, the news conference statement said. He was injured when three large 44x10-foot trusses, each weighing 200 pounds, collapsed onto him in August 2007, fracturing his hip and causing other injuries, according to the statement. The father of three, who had worked in construction for more than a decade and owned his own company at the time of the accident, said he was very sad after the accident because he did not know how he would support his family. His two sons, now 7 and 8, and his 16-year-old daughter were all born in the United States. \"The contractor tried to blame me,\" he said at the news conference, speaking in Spanish. What message would he give other workers? \"Don't be afraid to talk to a lawyer.\" Although he had not yet recovered enough to resume construction work, he hopes to use the settlement money to build a home for his family in New Jersey. Messages left for The Beechwood Organization, developers of Arverne by the Sea, were not returned. Joel Magallan, executive director of Asociacion Tepeyac, an immigrant advocacy group, said that while construction work is often dangerous, undocumented workers are likely to work at sites that lack safety equipment and OSHA regulation compliance. \"This is a great day for the undocumented immigrants,\" Magallan said. \"They have to know today that they have rights -- the same rights as other workers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.\" \"Many workers are threatened by their employers with deportation or discharge if they bring their cases to court,\" O'Dwyer said. \"What we find normally on work sites in New York is that deaths occur to the undocumented far out of proportion to their work in the workplace, and that is because of the fact that they just do not receive the safety protections,\" he said. In 2005, O'Dwyer won a historic $4 million settlement for a 33-year-old Mexican worker who had fallen 30 feet in a scaffolding accident in the Bronx. The injured worker, who was hospitalized for four weeks and underwent seven surgeries after the 2001 accident, told CNN on Wednesday that workers -- documented or undocumented -- should not to be afraid to stand up for their rights. Although it is illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is undocumented, according to the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, if an undocumented worker is hired by an employer, he or she then has the right to be paid minimum wage and overtime, the right to health protection and workplace safety, and the right to organize to improve labor conditions. \"Each of these men was injured in the course of their work on construction sites, and their immigration status was irrelevant to their right to seek redress for those injuries,\" O'Dwyer explained in a statement. \"Enforcing laws requiring a safe workplace serves the interests of all Americans, whether they are citizens or not.\" The men involved in the settlements said they chose to remain anonymous to protect relatives outside of the United States, who could become the target of kidnapping schemes if knowledge of their settlements became public." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two undocumented workers from Mexico, one from Ecuador reach settlements .\nThe three had been injured in different construction accidents around New York .\nAttorney says undocumented workers have same rights once they're on the job .\nAdvocate says undocumented construction workers often have less-safe sites ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 15-year-old girl with a 500-texts-a-day texting habit thumbed her way to the $50,000 grand prize at the L.G. National Texting Championship in New York on Tuesday. Kate Moore, 15, of Des Moines, Iowa, out-texted more than 250,000 participants for the texting title in New York. Over 250,000 participants of all ages entered the competition, whose championship rounds were held in New York on Monday and Tuesday and won by Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa. Some challenges were straightforward tests of speed and accuracy, but others required a little extra texting savvy. In one round, texters had to send texts while blindfolded. Another round quizzed contestants' knowledge of texting acronyms. The only acronym to stump every texter was PAW -- parents are watching. The fourth-place finisher, 21-year-old Jordan Rowe, saw her dreams of texting glory vanish in the \"pressure cooker\" round, where actors dressed as emoticons attempted to distract contestants tasked with texting tongue-twisters. Rowe failed to accurately text \"Which wicked witch wished which more wicked witch in the well?\" while a human emoticon talked trash about her sister. Riffing off texters' sometimes dangerous tendency to text while performing other tasks, another round required contestants to complete an obstacle course while firing off difficult-to-type texts. \"I felt like I was gonna die,\" the eventual champion said of the texting gauntlet, getting a big LOL from the audience. The finals on Tuesday afternoon pitted Dynda Morgan, 14, of Savannah, Georgia, against Moore. The two went head to head in a best-of-three showdown to see who could most quickly pound out lengthy texts predetermined by the judges -- with no errors. Morgan, whose stepsister also made it to the championships, took the first round. Faced with a do-or-die situation in the second round, Moore seemed to bet on accuracy over speed, finishing well behind her opponent but winning the round. In the tiebreaker, the two girls furiously raced to thumb the final text: \"Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy...MY oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin' my way....Zippitty Do Dah Zippity Aay! WondeRful Feeling Wonderful day!\" The pregnant pause before the winner was announced stretched into a seeming eternity because Moore apparently forgot to hit send after finishing her text. But then Moore's phone began to vibrate, signaling that she was the grand champion. Kate's beaming mother, Claire, acknowledged that she has confiscated her daughter's phone on occasion, but said she appreciates that her daughter's texting habit means she's in constant touch. \"I can get ahold of [her] at all times,\" she said. Nor does Moore's mother have to foot an appallingly large phone bill each month, because her daughter is on an unlimited texting plan. She did concede that the texting portion of one of Moore's recent phone bills stretched to 294 pages. Moore's victory was all the more awe-inspiring because she got a phone with text capability less than a year ago. Moments after her victory, Moore agreed to an exclusive text message interview with CNN. CNN: OMG U r ltrlly the wrld's bst txter. How does it feel? Moore: It feels the best! Im so prd of myself & it feels aswm that ive gottn so far! :) CNN: How mny txts do u snd a day? A month? Moore: Uhhh about lyk 400-500 in a day, an avrg of 12014 thousand a month? CNN: Wht r u going to do w the 50 k? Moore: Idk yet! Prlly spend a good amount of the $$$......but ya gotta save some 2 b smart of course! CNN: Do u ever get in trubl in skwl 4 txting 2 much? Moore: haah just once or 2ce, teachers hv seen it and taken it away...lol that sux when that happens tho. CNN: What's ur crzst txting story? Moore: Haha I actually have a scar on my hand from txtingg....i was txting on the top bunk and I sat up cuz it was a cool txt and then I hit it in the ceiling fan . CNN. Do ur thumbs hurt? Moore: Hahah not at all! Ud b surprised they don't get stressed out. CNN: Kthxbi. Moore: cya! :)" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, says \"I felt like I was gonna die\"\nOf the $50,000 prize, Moore texts she'll \"prlly spend a good amount of $$$\"\nText messaging competition includes texting while blindfolded ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Before Jada Pinkett Smith took the role of producer and star of TNT's \"HawthoRNe,\" she made sure her family was fine with her being away from her mother and wife duties during filming. Jada Pinkett Smith's new TV show, \"HawthoRNe,\" premieres Tuesday on TNT. Pinkett Smith plays a single mom and a hospital's chief nurse on the medical show, which debuts Tuesday night on cable's TNT Network, which is owned by the parent company of CNN. \"I sat down with kids and my husband and I really asked their permission,\" she said. \"I said 'Listen, there was this show I'd love to do and it will be three months that you might not see Mommy a lot.' And they're looking at me like 'Really? What does that mean?'\" It meant that on weekdays Will would get Willow, 8, and Jaden, 11, out of bed each morning, tuck them in at night and take care of them in-between. \"So they get to eat chocolate for breakfast and go to bed whenever they feel like it for those three months while I'm working,\" Pinkett Smith said. \"So, it works out, and they know that the rest of the year, I'm off.\" While the show is based on a Richmond, Virginia, hospital, it's produced in a recently closed Inglewood, California, hospital just a few miles from the Smiths' home. \"The great thing is that my kids do know I'm in town,\" she said. It's close enough for Will to spend time on the set with Jada while still taking care of the kids. \"He's an extra in one of the episodes, so just see if you can catch him,\" she said. \"He's walking by, doing a drive-by, and we could hardly afford that. It was a very costly walk-by.\" Smith also works as a \"ghost producer\" helping structure her episodes, she said. \"He's quite a fantastic story structuralist,\" she said. \"So right now, I'm learning from him just how to structure a story in a way that speaks to the universal voice and to understand how to hit those human emotional cords that resonate universally, no matter what country you're from, your economic status.\" Will Smith was also on the set at Paramount Studios last month when daughter Willow taped her TV sitcom debut on Nickelodeon's \"True Jackson, VP.\" His role then was stage dad. Hollywood's highest paid actor, as ranked by Forbes magazine, sat with the other parents through the day-long rehearsals and taping \"like a regular dad,\" according to the parent of a cast member. By the way, Jada reports her daughter came home saying she wanted to do more television acting. When \"HawthoRNe\" production ends later this summer, Jada may have to return the \"supportive spouse\" favor to her husband when he travels to Beijing, China, to work on a \"Karate Kid\" remake. Will Smith will produce, with son Jaden playing the lead role, opposite Jackie Chan. It's not clear if Jada will seek work as a background extra." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jada Pinkett Smith's new TV show, \"HawthoRNe,\" premieres Tuesday on TNT .\nJada's actor-husband Will Smith will appear as extra in an episode .\nActing runs in family: Jada's daughter will appear in TV sitcom, son will be in film ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England -- John Symons lost his wife Jo to a mysterious cancer two years ago. But he isn't done battling the disease. The CUP Foundation was founded in memory of Jo Symons, who died in 2006 of the mysterious disease. Jo suffered from cancer of unknown primary, or CUP, a diagnosis that is given when doctors find cancer in the body but aren't able to identify where it began. That inevitably complicates treatment, as doctors are at a loss as to whether they are dealing with breast, lung or countless other types of cancer. \"Any cancer diagnosis is devastating for patients and loved ones. But not knowing where in the body the cancer has originated and what type of cancer we are dealing with is a double blow, it's double agony,\" Symons told CNN. After his wife died in 2006, Symons abandoned his career as a business school professor to set up the Cancer of Unknown Primary Foundation, also known as \"Jo's friends.\" The charity aims to raise awareness of CUP and campaigns for more research in the hope that it will lead to better treatment. Symons said he also wanted to help others faced with the challenging diagnosis. People from 35 countries visit the foundation's Web site. \"Most of them say there's nowhere else [for them to turn to],\" he said. It is unclear how many people are faced with the cancer of unknown primary worldwide, but according to Symons, 3 to 5 percent of all cancers are CUP. The CUP Foundation estimates that in the UK alone, more than 10,000 people are diagnosed with the mystery disease annually, giving it a higher incidence than pancreatic and ovarian cancers. Find out more about rare conditions » . Cancer needs to be treated by identifying the anatomical location of where the cancer has started, and therapy is always based on where that cancer starts in the body, Symons explained. In the case of CUP, the cells lose their unique features as the cancer spreads. \"So if you don't know where the cancer has started, it is very difficult to treat it,\" he told CNN. Many CUP sufferers have just weeks or months to live after the cancer has spread. Jo died at the age of 46, only eight months after being diagnosed. Jo discovered she had cancer when she developed a lump in her neck, according to Symons. But it was only a secondary tumor, and doctors believed the primary tumor was too small to locate or possibly had already disappeared. At first, the Symons were hopeful: \"We kept thinking it's only a matter of time before someone figures out where this comes from and are able to treat it, that we'd have good news and that while she might not be cured, she would be able to live with the cancer.\" But as time went by, they realized this wasn't going to be possible. Doctors first thought Jo might have ovarian cancer, but ruled that out after several tests. Subsequently they thought it might be breast cancer, so Jo underwent grueling chemotherapy treatment for several months. That didn't help, and further tests were conducted to try and identify the genetic profile of the tumor where the cancer originated. These tests suggested Jo might be suffering from pancreatic cancer. For the last months of her life, Jo was treated for pancreatic cancer. \"But sadly, that was too late, even if it had been the correct diagnosis, to turn the tables,\" Symons recalled. He never found out what cancer his wife had suffered from. \"It has been difficult for me,\" Symons said. But faced with the choice of putting the ordeal behind him or trying to do something about it, he picked the latter. \"In a sense this charity has been therapeutic.\" But at the same time, \"I'm living daily with a reminder of what it is like for people to go through this terrible disease.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Cancer of unknown primary,\" or CUP, is a mystery disease .\nWith CUP, doctors don't know what type of cancer they are dealing with .\nCUP Foundation casts light on the challenging diagnosis ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- An American graduate student who went to Iraq to find ways to help ordinary citizens persevere in a transitioning government was one of two American civilians killed in a Sadr City bombing. Nicole Suveges, a political scientist working toward her doctorate, died in a Sadr City bombing Tuesday. Nicole Suveges, a married political scientist from Illinois, was part of a program that embeds academics into military units to help personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan navigate the local environment, according to her employer, BAE Systems. Suveges, who started her tour with Human Terrain System in April, had been assigned to support the 3rd Brigade Combat Team for the 4th Infantry Division in \"political, cultural, and tribal engagements,\" a statement from the program said. She was one of four Americans to die in the Sadr City bombing Tuesday. Two U.S. soldiers and a State Department employee, Steven Farley, who worked with the provincial reconstruction team, also were killed in the blast. \"Nicole was a leading academic who studied for years on how to improve conditions for others,\" Doug Belair, president of BAE's Technology Solutions & Services, said in a written statement. \"She came to us to give freely of herself in an effort to make a better world.\" Suveges was the second BAE employee to die in a combat zone this year. Michael V. Bhatia, 31, a social scientist from Medway, Massachusetts, died in a roadside bombing May 7 in Afghanistan, BAE said. Scott Fazekas, BAE's director of communications, said Suveges and Bhatia were among three dozen social scientists hired by the company and its subcontractors to support the program. The Johns Hopkins University graduate student was also working toward a doctorate in political science with an emphasis on international relations. The focus of her dissertation was on the transition from an authoritarian regime to democracy and how it affects ordinary citizens, the university said. \"Nicole was committed to using her learning and experience to make the world a better place, especially for people who have suffered through war and conflict,\" William R. Brody, president of the university, said in a message Wednesday to the campus community. \"She exemplifies all that we seek to do at Johns Hopkins: to use knowledge for the good of humanity.\" Mark Blyth, Suveges' primary faculty adviser, said that when Suveges came to Johns Hopkins, she planned to write her Ph.D. dissertation on how ideas move across borders from society to society, exploring how radical Islamic ideas filtered through Western European mosques. After the outbreak of the Iraq war, Suveges decided to shift her focus to the experience of ordinary citizens under a transitional government, said Blyth, a topic that had interested Suveges since her experience in Bosnia with the SFOR/NATO Combined Joint Psychological Operations Task Force. \"She was a very bright, engaging, sweet person, very intellectually curious,\" Blyth said Wednesday. BAE said Suveges' experience, which included a tour in Iraq as a civilian contractor and a stint in Bosnia in the 1990s as an Army reservist, made her especially valuable in efforts to improve the lives of Iraqis. A Human Terrain System statement said Suveges and others were attending a meeting of the District Advisory Council on Tuesday to elect a new chairman. The officials were helping mediate disputes among the Sadr City leadership and \"facilitate the development of a more representative local government,\" the statement said. The attack was blamed on a Shiite insurgent cell. Suveges graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992 and received a master's degree in political science from George Washington University in 1998. She had delivered papers to international relations organizations and served as a graduate teaching assistant, the company said. At Johns Hopkins, she was managing editor for the Review of International Political Economy, the university said. Maj. Mike Kenfield, spokesman for the Army's training and doctrine command, said that the program was credited for \"reductions in non-lethal operations\" and that there had been talk about expanding the purview of the team to outside Iraq and Afghanistan. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nicole Suveges, 38, was part of team of academic embeds advising military in Iraq .\nThe political scientist and Johns Hopkins grad student died in Sadr City bombing .\nSuveges is second Human Terrain System employee to die in combat zone this year .\nShe was also finishing dissertation on citizens in transitioning governments ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban targets in the country's northwestern region Tuesday, part of a wider military crackdown on militants inside its borders. A Pakistan army gunship flies over the troubled Dir region on Monday. The airstrikes killed between 70 and 75 militants in the Dir district and flushed out many more, military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told reporters. It is part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out drone attacks against militant targets in Pakistan, rankling Pakistan. But Pakistan's recent military crackdown has led to an exodus of civilians in the region. Between 15,000 and 30,000 residents have left the Dir district, which is less than 160 km (100 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad, according to an aid agency operating in the region. The Pakistani military on Tuesday completed its operation to eliminate and expel militants in Dir and is now focusing on the Buner district, Abbas said. About 300 militants entered Buner a few days ago in violation of the Taliban's recent agreement to leave the district, he said. Buner is about 60 miles away from Islamabad, but Abbas said the militants posed no threat to the capital city. Fighter jets pounded targets in Buner and the Swat Valley in an effort to block the militants' entry and exit points, he added. The general also released a recording of what he said was a conversation between a regional Taliban commander, Maulana Fazlullah, and some of his lieutenants. On the call, the purported Taliban leaders discuss how to stage an announced retreat from Buner last weekend while remaining in control of the territory. \"Those who will remain there will stay apart, so that the world gets to know that Taliban have left Buner,\" one of the commanders says, according to the transcript. \"Not more than two Taliban should sit on a vehicle. Moulvi Sahib will lead. Other vehicles will follow.\" Showing off for news organizations \"is all right, but we have to implement a permanent plan,\" Fazlullah said. Pakistan's government insists that its military crackdown has growing popular support for taking on the Taliban -- an issue that has divided the Pakistani people, particularly in the Pashtun areas. \"The government has been hesitant and divided in going after these guys, but public opinion -- judging by what I read in the Pakistani newspapers -- may be shifting,\" analyst Michael Krepon told CNN. \"They have thought the Taliban is America's war, \" said Krepon, a co-founder of the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank. \"We led them to that conclusion with our drone attacks on Pakistani soil.\" But he warned that a Pakistani military operation against what is sometimes perceived as \"going after its own people\" will not be an easy task for the government. \"The military will go into the field and reclaim territory, but it's not going to be pretty and it's not going to be easy,\" he said. Amnesty International's Asia Pacific director Sam Zarifi told CNN he thinks the test for Pakistan's government is not a military defeat over the Taliban, but \"whether the schools will once again open, whether the health units will once again operate (in Buner).\" He also warned that a Pakistani military operation could be worse than Taliban rule in Buner and other regions. \"What people are telling us over and over again from Buner, from Swat, and other areas, is that they're very intimidated, very scared about life under the Taliban,\" Zarifi said. \"But what really frightens them is the idea that the Pakistani military will launch operations.\" He said that local residents have told Amnesty in recent months that Pakistani military operations have \"destroyed houses, destroyed markets, without in any way impacting the Taliban.\" \"And that's what really frightens people,\" he said. \"We've seen over 500,000 people are now registered as displaced from areas and most of those are people who are afraid of military operations.\" CNN's Samson Desta, Nic Robertson and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Pakistani military says operation completed against militants in Dir .\nNEW: General releases recording of conversation he says is among Taliban leaders .\nPakistan criticized for not cracking down on militants along Afghan border ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iranian-Americans demonstrated on the streets of Washington on Wednesday evening, marching from Iranian diplomatic offices to the Russian embassy, in protest of both governments' actions. A Tuesday meeting of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, and Dmitry Medvedev has angered Iranian-Americans. The demonstration came in the wake of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Moscow on Tuesday, despite allegations of ballot fraud in Ahmadinejad's re-election last week. \"We're hoping that the world attention does not end from what the Iranians are doing right now, because this is not going to end in the next few days, because this is a long haul, a long battle,\" said Washington protest and group organizer Morteza Ahmady. \"Iranians are very capable of deciding their own destiny.\" The group Whereismyvote.org organized the demonstration of about 100 people and aims to build support for its \"global protest\" this Saturday. \"I think it's a very new thing from a historical point of view; it's a civic movement. People try to keep it as nonviolent and civil as possible,\" said group organizer Negar Mortarzavi. In Russia, Ahmadinejad was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran,\" with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling reporters, \"the issue of elections in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people.\" Eighty-five percent of the country's 46 million eligible voters went to the polls on Friday, an unprecedented turnout, Iran's interior ministry said. When the ballots were counted, the government declared Ahmadinejad the winner, with 62.63 percent of the vote. The man many analysts had widely expected to win, Mir Hossein Moussavi, received 33.75 percent. The speed with which the election results were released -- two hours after polls closed -- insulted the Iranian people, said Ahmady, who cited that as a sign of fraud. Moussavi's camp has demanded new elections. Sarah, a Washington protester who would give only her first name, agreed. \"We're not saying that pro-Ahmadinejad supporters don't exist; they do exist,\" she said. \"And we're saying that, yes, if they indeed did win the vote, then the election should be theirs, because we are a democratic people. But we don't feel comfortable with the numbers that came out of Iran. And we're not saying that we don't accept it altogether. We're just asking for a revote.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They march from Iranian to Russian embassies, protesting both governments .\nRussian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after election .\nD.C. protest organizer: \"This is a long haul, a long battle\"\nIran has been gripped by protests since Ahmadinejad was declared victor in election ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Police are searching for any other alleged victims of a Sunday school teacher accused of raping and killing an 8-year-old girl from Tracy, California. Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was a friend of her own daughter. \"We are asking the public if they have any indication that any of their children may have had inappropriate contact with [the suspect] to contact us,\" Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Tuesday evening. \"There has been no indication that this has happened. But she is a Sunday school teacher and did have contact with children, so that is why we are asking.\" Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested and charged with killing and raping 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, a friend of her 5-year-old daughter. Huckaby, wearing red jail scrubs over a white T-shirt, was in court Tuesday for an arraignment. She was charged with murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 and rape by instrument. If convicted, Huckaby would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett told reporters after the hearing. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made later, he said. Huckaby did not enter a plea or speak during the court hearing, although she flinched when Sandra Cantu's name was spoken, and she cried at times. Sandra's body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested Friday night after questioning by police. Sandra was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family -- the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, police said. Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police have said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death. Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra's body. But Huckaby said the suitcase had been stolen. Willett declined to comment on any of the evidence or allegations in the case, saying evidence would be presented in court. A memorial ceremony is scheduled for Sandra at 1 p.m. Thursday at a high school in Tracy, police said. -- CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police comb community for other possible victims .\nMelissa Huckaby was arrested and charged with killing and raping Sandra Cantu .\nSandra, 8, was friends with Huckaby's 5-year-old daughter ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- On Friday afternoon, Robin Meade, HLN anchor of \"Morning Express with Robin Meade,\" sky-dived just before former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was commemorating his 85th birthday. HLN Anchor Robin Meade chats with former president George H.W. Bush on his 85th birthday. In recent years, Bush's jumps have been about fun and celebration, but he first parachuted out of a plane when he was a naval aviator shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. On Friday, Meade and Bush were each strapped to a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team. They made their jumps over Kennebunkport, Maine. Before the jumps, Meade sat down with Bush to learn more about why he sky-dives. Plus, the former president weighed in on his and his son's legacies, Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and his view on the country's most pressing problems. This is an edited transcript of the interview. Robin Meade: Thank you for making time for us to talk to you today. George H.W. Bush: Oh, no, listen, I'm so glad you're here. Meade: Happy birthday -- 85. Bush: I thought you didn't know. Meade: Everybody knows, right? Bush: I know. It's exciting. It really is wonderful. Meade: What's with your penchant for jumping still? Bush: Well, two reasons. One, it still feels good. You still get a charge out of it. Not easy to do at 85, but ... Meade: I don't think it's easy to do at any age. Watch Bush talk about why he still sky-dives » . Bush: And secondly, just because you're old, that doesn't mean you can't do fun stuff. And you don't want to sit around drooling in the corner. And so it's a wonderful release. And you know, because I was president, it sends a message all around. You can go out and get something going. Old guys can still have fun and still do stuff. And so, those are the two reasons. ... Meade: You know, I'm thinking about, too, last Saturday we had the 65th anniversary of D-Day, and that was the first time, in World War II, that you jumped, because you had to ditch your plane. Bush: Yes. Meade: Being back with service members up in a plane and getting ready to jump, does that kind of rekindle your feelings of connection? Bush: A little bit of deja vu. A little bit, but not that much anymore. But yes, that's one of the reasons I made the first controlled jump, is because I did the first jump -- or had to get out of the plane. And that was kind of ugly. I pulled the ripcord too early and hit my head on the tail of the plane going by. I was just lucky I'm still alive. And the parachute hung up for a minute on the tail of the plane. It's all kind of war stories. If I start telling you that, then you'll tell me about your father's war stories or something, or grandfather's. And so it wouldn't be fair. But I wanted to do it right. And I did it wrong then. It did save my life, but I did it wrong. So then I've been out with the Golden Knights and I made several solo jumps. And now it's tandem. I think they hope the old boy will remember to push. Meade: Did I read somewhere that you asked President Clinton to jump once? And he hasn't jumped with you. Bush: I may have asked him. I can't remember. Maybe I did, but I have a good relationship with him, a very good one. Watch Bush leave plane, land » . Meade: Now that you're 85, are you thinking a little bit more about the \"L\" word, \"legacy?\" Bush: I was thinking of the \"L\" word being \"life.\" Life its own self. But no, I think my view on legacy is let the historians figure out what I screwed up and figure out what I got right. And I'm confident that, you know, we had a good administration and good people. And I think the same thing is true of our son. And you know, he had tough times and all, but he's doing it right. He's laying back there and he's not criticizing the president. And I'm very proud of him. Watch Bush and sons talk after the jump » . And I hope that we both have set examples for how you ought to conduct yourself when you've been president and then go out of office. Let the other guy do it, and support him when you can, and be silent. Don't be out there criticizing all the time. Meade: The one guy at the helm? Bush: Yes. And the \"L\" word, so it doesn't -- I mean, my view is the historians will decide these things, for better or for worse and for right or for wrong. So I'm not doing any biography or anything like that. And I'm confident, because we had such a great team around us, that it will be favorable. Meade: Tell me a little bit about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, she's someone that you appointed to a U.S. District Court. Bush: District Court. Meade: Now she's been nominated for the Supreme Court. What would her impact be on the Supreme Court, do you think? Bush: I think she'd pull a ripcord just at the right time and make a very nice parachutist. I'm going to leave that to others to analyze, but she should be given a fair hearing. She should be accorded every courtesy that goes with her record as a judge and her aspirations to be a Supreme Court justice. And I have a feeling she will be confirmed, but again, I don't go into that day in and day out. ... I think she's had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings. I like the way Sen. John Cornyn said it. I mean, he may vote for her, he may not. But he's been backing away from these -- backing off from those who use radical statements to describe her or to attribute things to her that may or may not be true. I mean, she was called by somebody a \"racist.\" Well, that's not right. I mean, it's not fair. It doesn't help the process to be out there name-calling. So let them decide whether they want to vote for her or not, and get on with it. Meade: There are so many causes and so many problems, so many issues right now. Bush: Right. Right. Meade: What is our most pressing problem, do you think, in the country? Bush: Well, I'd have to say as long as people are hurting, the economy, and those who are out of work, can't find work. I think it will get better. I remain optimistic about our recovery and all of that. But I'd say that's -- and health care. But those -- we've got a lot of people working on those problems. Meade: Oh, by the way, one more question. Is there going to be another jump after this? Bush: I think when I finish this one, I'll say, \"See you on my 90th.\" Whether I do it or not, it gives me a goal. I'm a goal-oriented guy. I really believe in goals. And so -- but we finish this one ... Meade: I hope we do. Bush: ... we'll all be standing there. And they'll say to you, \"What are you going to do?\" And you'll say, \"Five more years, I'm going to do another one.\" And I'll say, \"I'll be there.\" Ninety years old. I'll do it. Meade: Is it a deal? In five years, we'll do it again? Bush: I'm for it. I'm for it. Meade: OK. All right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "HLN Anchor Robin Meade sat down to interview George H.W. Bush .\nLater, the two went sky-diving to celebrate former president's 85th birthday .\nBush talks to Meade about how he stays young, and what his legacy will be .\nSee more at the Morning Express blog and showpage ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Building upon the success of the Green Week franchise, CNN International expands its environmental coverage this year with special Earth Day reports on April 22, and plans additional specials in July and October and a series of comprehensive reports around the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December. On Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, CNN International's special coverage, \"Going Green,\" will showcase the network's extensive global resources with an array of reports and live coverage of Earth Day events around the world. From specific signature newscasts to business shows, the network will focus its attention on everything green and help make sense of what it means to be green today. In addition, CNN International will change the network's signature red logo to green during the coverage. \"CNN International is committed to green coverage,\" said Katherine Green, senior vice president of CNN International. \"It is a topic that resonates with our viewers and with our correspondents. We have reporters all over the world. They find stories no else can. This allows us to give our viewers a true global picture of the environmental issues and solutions.\" The network's business programs, 'World Business Today' and 'Quest Means Business', will focus on the business of going green. From the CEO of an up-and-coming green company to a climate change skeptic, these programs will speak to a variety of people to offer viewers many perspectives on green topics. Throughout the day, CNN International will engage their international audiences asking them what they are doing to be green. iReport correspondent, Errol Barnett, will solicit iReports and ask viewers to describe what they have done to \"go green\" in the past year. He'll also share those iReports throughout the day in special segments across CNN International's programs. On Saturday, April 25 at 1300 BST and Sunday, April 26 at 0100 and 1900 BST, a special programme, 'Your Green World', will focus on the current state of green initiatives around the planet. Correspondents from different parts of the world will report on how the current concern over the state of the environment touches the lives of global citizens. The special will explore many stories, including an initiative in Jakarta, Indonesia that promotes the planting of trees before a couple can get married, and a US recycling plant that tackles financial hurdles brought by the country's financial downturn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN International to broadcast series of reports on Earth Day, April 22 .\nAdditional specials are planned for July and October .\nCNN plans in-depth reporting around Copenhagen Climate Conference ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Should he stay or should he go? Manchester United insist Cristiano Ronaldo will still be wearing a red shirt next season but the Portuguese winger, courted by Real Madrid, has refused to rule out a move to Spain. Cristiano Ronaldo has refused to commit himself to Manchester United. Football Fan Zone presents five reasons why Cristiano Ronaldo should stay at Manchester United and five reasons why he should move to Real Madrid. Let us know what you think below. Stay: . Loyalty: Manchester United took a huge risk when they signed Ronaldo as an unproven 18-year-old for what seemed a vast sum of $25 million in 2003. Since then, under the tutelage of Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, Ronaldo has developed from a raw talent more famous for his stepovers into the most effective and consistent player on the planet. United also stood by Ronaldo when he was widely blamed in England for getting his club mate Wayne Rooney sent off during the 2006 World Cup. At 23, Ronaldo owes his best years to United, the club that has helped him fulfil that potential. He has almost four years left on a contract worth $240,000 a week -- making him United's best paid player -- and he should honor it. Glory: Having dominated the English Premier League for the past two seasons and won last season's Champions League, Manchester United are a club in the ascendancy. With a young team boasting the attacking talents of Ronaldo and Rooney, outstanding young prospects such as Anderson and Nani and a solid defense built around Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, United could be the preeminent force in European football for seasons to come. If football is primarily about winning trophies, rather than money or lifestyle, then Ronaldo should stay where he is. The Premier League: The English Premier League is the most watched football tournament on the planet and increasingly the stage on which the world's best players want to showcase their talents. It was no coincidence that three of last season's four Champions League semifinalists came from the EPL. This week the current world footballer of the year, Kaka, has been linked with a big money move to Chelsea. Real Madrid may be the Spanish champions and one of the world's most famous clubs, but United are currently the biggest club in the biggest league in the world. Continuity: Leaving a club is always a risk and there is no guarantee that a player will settle successfully into a new set-up in a different country, as Thierry Henry has discovered at Barcelona. At Old Trafford, Ronaldo is the undisputed star with a system built around him and teammates working for him. At Real Madrid he would be one ego among many. Real's Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder has already warned that Ronaldo's arrival on a massively inflated salary would not be welcomed by other squad members: \"It would be bad for the dressing room if he gets a much higher salary than the rest of the squad. It's not important to me but I know other teammates would not like that at all.\" Injury: Having been carrying an ankle injury since March, Ronaldo finally went under the knife earlier this month and is expected to be sidelined until at least October -- long after the summer transfer window has closed. Ronaldo should be concentrating on getting back to full fitness as quickly as possible rather than worrying about a possible transfer. A move to a new club would also likely put him under more pressure to play before he has made a full recovery. Go: . A fresh challenge: Ronaldo has achieved everything he can in English football after two near perfect seasons at Old Trafford, winning back-to-back English Premier League titles and player of the year awards and a European Champions League winner's medal. If the 23-year-old is to continue developing he needs to find new challenges; what bigger challenge than joining Real Madrid -- the club of the \"Galacticos\" -- for a world record transfer fee? Carlos Queiroz: The former United assistant manager was a big influence on Ronaldo's career and an important mentor figure. With Queiroz departing to coach the Portuguese national side, will Old Trafford hold the same appeal for his protege? Ronaldo has said he is prepared to \"upset\" Alex Ferguson and admits he has not spoken to the United manager in weeks while apparently taking advice from former national team coach Luis Felipe Scolari -- now managing United's biggest rivals Chelsea. Money: Real Madrid are apparently prepared to make Ronaldo the most expensive and best paid player in the world. A transfer fee of around $140 million would smash the $92 million Real paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. On top of that, Ronaldo could command wages of up to $400,000 a week. By comparison, United have said they are not prepared to renegotiate Ronaldo's current deal worth $240,000 a week. In an industry driven by money, Ronaldo should go where he can command the highest wages. Lifestyle: It's a long way from the sun-drenched beaches of Ronaldo's home island of Maderia to the dreary gray skies of the northwest of England. Madrid may not have any beaches either but at least the weather and the food are more familar and it's a lot closer to home. As a city, Madrid is far better suited to Ronaldo's southern European temperament than Manchester. Real Madrid: Manchester United may be big but Real Madrid are in a league all of their own. With nine European Cups and 31 Spanish titles to their name, Madrid's achievements are unrivalled. Having written himself into Manchester United folklore, Ronaldo has the opportunity to do the same on the Bernabeu pitch once graced by the likes of Francisco Gento, Alfredo di Stefano and Fernec Puskas. Ronaldo may already have done enough to win this year's world footballer of the year award but a move to Madrid would likely seal that honor: in recent years Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Fabio Cannavaro have all won the honor while wearing the most famous white shirt in sport." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cristiano Ronaldo linked with big move from Manchester United to Real Madrid .\nMove would likely make Portuguese forward the world's most expensive player .\nUnited have urged Ronaldo to stay, say moving to Spain would be a mistake .\nLet us know what you think by commenting below ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board and a nationally syndicated columnist. Read his column here. Ruben Navarrette says hate crimes should be punished severely because they're aimed at society as a whole. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- To think there are some people who still argue that the law shouldn't categorize some offenses as hate crimes and allow for enhanced criminal penalties. They claim that all sorts of crimes are motivated by hate, and to separate some from others elevates some victims over others and amounts to the state policing thoughts and feelings. They also fear that politicians and institutions are simply yielding to political correctness, liberal pressure groups and identity politics. My view is that hate crimes deserve special punishment because they don't just victimize whoever they're aimed at; they're intended to send a message, and they terrorize the whole society. That debate might have been settled Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where hate was on display. A shooting left one man dead: Stephen Tyrone Johns, a six-year veteran of the museum's security staff who, according to museum director Sara Bloomfield, \"died heroically in the line of duty.\" The alleged assailant is James von Brunn, a Holocaust denier who created an anti-Semitic Web site. The 88-year-old often challenged the authenticity of \"The Diary of Anne Frank,\" the book about a teenage girl living in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. So it was probably no coincidence that the shooting occurred on the same day the museum had scheduled a play based on a fictional meeting between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, a martyr of the civil rights movement. Von Brunn also had longstanding ties to white supremacist groups, according to authorities. These outfits flourish in bad times because they give underperformers something really valuable: convenient scapegoats for their troubles, failures and shortcomings. Without that, these misfits might actually have to look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own lives. Although these groups are properly categorized as \"hate groups\" by organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, what also fuels them are things like fear and insecurity. Nowadays, their targets are often Latinos, especially immigrants. But, before that and for much of the history of this country, the targets have been African-Americans. And, for much of the history of the world, they have been Jews. And that prejudice hasn't gone away. Consider what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former Chicago, Illinois, pastor whose relationship with Barack Obama became an issue in the presidential election, recently told the Virginia newspaper, the Daily Press, when asked if he speaks to Obama. \"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me,\" Wright said in an apparent reference to some of Obama's aides. Wright later said he misspoke and meant to refer to \"Zionists.\" A researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center has said her group had a thick file on von Brunn going back 20 years and that he had become a \"hardcore neo-Nazi.\" Von Brunn blamed a six-year prison term he once served -- for the attempted kidnapping of Federal Reserve board members in 1981 -- on \"a Negro jury,\" \"Jew/Negro attorneys\" and \"a Jew judge,\" according to his Web site. In documents read at trial, von Brunn wrote that his goal was to \"deport all Jews and blacks from the white nations.\" Also, on his Web site, there's a message lamenting how \"bit by bit government institutions and Congressmen fell into JEW hands -- then U.S. diplomacy, businesses, resources and manpower came under Jew control.\" You get the picture. It's no mystery what this guy is, to anyone but himself. His court-appointed lawyer from the Federal Reserve case said von Brunn, a veteran, considers himself a patriot. He's no such thing. That concept is best defined as love for one's country, not hatred for everyone else. It's also obvious that, while Americans are always in a hurry to close our most unpleasant chapters, anti-Semitism is alive and well in parts of our society. Like its equally vile cousins -- racism and nativism -- it thrives because many people are threatened by change and eager to cast others as villains. Meanwhile, President Obama said the museum shooting \"reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms.\" So true, Mr. President. Here's to vigilance. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette Jr." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ruben Navarrette: Hate crimes should be punished more severely .\nHe says hate crimes terrorize society as a whole .\nNavarrette: Latinos, blacks and Jews have all been targets of haters .\nHe says Obama is right to urge constant vigilance against hate ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Metropolis, Illinois (CNN) -- Superman will not be saving Lois Lane this time, but the residents of Metropolis are hopeful his fans will. Metropolis, Illinois wants a companion statue for Superman, but the economy may block its efforts. The villain is the economy. Despite being about $70,000 shy of the funding needed to cast a figure in the image of the fictional \"Daily Planet\" reporter, this town of 6,000 residents says it's going forward with a ground breaking. Metropolis wants its Lois Lane statue. There are no skyscrapers here. If you search the local telephone book you won't find any familiar names. There's no Lex Luthor or Perry White. The closest Jimmy Olsen lives in Aledo, Illinois. If you call the nearby nuclear plant and ask about kryptonite they won't take you seriously. Most days of the year you can walk about town without seeing anyone in a cape or leotard. Very little about Metropolis, Illinois, resembles the metroplex made famous in \"Action Comics,\" except for the constant presence of Superman. His statue stands 15-feet tall outside the Massac County Courthouse and 50 yards away is the county justice center. In 1972, DC Comics, the current owner of the character, declared the town the official home for Superman. Since then, it's residents have fashioned a monument, a museum, and an annual festival around the superhero. \"We've had groups from as far away as Japan and Australia,\" said Karla Ogle, one of the festival organizers. \"There's a family that comes every year from Canada.\" And each year Noel Neill is honored. She's the original Lois Lane. Neill starred opposite George Reeves in the 1950s \"Adventures of Superman\" television series and it's her image the local chamber of commerce wants to immortalize in a statue. The town first came up with the idea of a companion statue for Superman in 2005. A lot has changed since then, primarily the economy. \"We've been affected pretty heavily because most of our revenue comes from the casino,\" said Mayor Billy McDaniel. The Harrah's Casino is the closest thing this little burgh has to a tall building. \"Their revenue has been down as much as 30 percent,\" noted McDaniel. And the Metropolis budget is not bulletproof either. The town has not been replacing some workers as they retire, because of the lower tax receipts. What about the prospects for Lois Lane? \"If there's any money out there we're going to find it,\" said the mayor. Metropolis has agreed to foot half the statue's bill, if the Illinois Board of Tourism provides a matching grant. Private donations have raised only $9,000 in four years, not even enough to pay for the monument's base. \"They were good initially, but slowed down to a trickle,\" said Clyde Wills with the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce. \"We're committed to the project,\" despite the economy. The city plans to break ground for the statue on June 11, during the opening night of their annual Superman festival, even though the state is months away from a decision on their grant request. Lois Lane's fate, like in most issues of the comic, is \"to be continued ...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Illinois town came up with idea for Lois Lane statue in 2005 .\nSince then, the economy has taken a downturn and the funding is short .\nTown plans to go through with groundbreaking, despite the budget shortfall ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If home is where the heart is, a new survey suggests that most people aren't sure exactly where they live. More than half of people cannot pinpoint the exact location of the human heart on a diagram, and nearly 70 percent can't correctly identify the shape of the lungs, according to the survey. This lack of knowledge isn't just embarrassing -- it could lead to a poorer quality of health care, some experts say. In the study, published in the journal BMC Family Practice, a research team surveyed 722 Britons -- 589 hospital outpatients and 133 people in the general population. They gave the volunteers four diagrams of human figures and asked them to choose the one that showed the correct size and location of a specific organ. (For example, the heart diagrams showed various size organs on the far left side of the chest, directly in the center, anchored on the center/left chest, and on the right side of the chest.) Overall, people knew less basic anatomy than the researchers expected -- even those patients being treated for a specific condition involving that organ. Participants generally answered half the questions correctly, including 46.5 percent who knew which drawing represented their heart. In all, 31.4 percent correctly identified the lungs, 38.4 percent the stomach, 41.8 percent the thyroid, and 42.5 percent the kidneys. The intestines and bladder were the most easily identified, with 85.9 percent and 80.7 percent, respectively, answering the question correctly. Health.com: Are you cholesterol smart? Take this quiz . There was little to no improvement compared with a similar study conducted in 1970, says lead author John Weinman, Ph.D., of King's College London. In that study, subjects correctly identified eight major body parts about half of the time. (The researchers used the same body parts from the 1970 study and added three more: the pancreas, gallbladder, and ovaries.) Given the accessibility of the Internet and the prominence of health stories in the news media today, Weinman's team expected that people would now know more about their body. Weinman says he wouldn't be surprised if a study based in the United States produced similar results -- or worse. \"I imagine they would be similar, but there could well be regional variation, depending on which part of the U.S. the participants were from,\" he says. \"Actually, I asked one of my colleagues, who is from the U.S., and she felt that Americans might be worse because, to quote her, 'Very many Americans don't even know where New Jersey is, so how would they know where their pancreas is?'\" Health.com: Eat Smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . That may sound harsh, but time and again, U.S. studies have shown that doctors overestimate how much their patients understand about their conditions and treatment. Adam Kelly, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas, conducted a 2007 study, that showed that doctors overestimate patient literacy and that a lack of patient knowledge leads to poorer care. Kelly believes the problem could be \"even more profound\" in the United States, although a similar study has not been conducted in America. Still, anatomy may not be the best measure of health literacy, says Sandeep Jauhar, M.D., the director of the heart failure program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the author of \"Intern: A Doctor's Initiation.\" Health.com: Computer games that boost your memory . \"They would like us to draw the conclusion that because the patients can't identify these organs anatomically that that is an indication of low health-care literacy -- and that may or may not be true,\" he says. \"I work with heart failure patients, and whether they can identify where their heart is is not so important to me as long as they know which medicines to take and when.\" Many patients with heart failure, unfortunately, don't know which medicines to take, can't identify their symptoms, and don't follow up with their doctors, Jauhar says. \"So health illiteracy is definitely a big problem,\" he adds. \"I just don't know that this is the best study to show that Americans or Europeans are illiterate when it comes to their health care.\" The study suggests that patients with liver disease and diabetes may be the most health-literate: They were the only two groups to do better than the general population when identifying their affected organ. Overall, 75.3 percent of those with liver disease could find the liver (versus 45.9 percent in the general population) and 53.7 percent of diabetics could locate the pancreas (versus 30.8 percent). Health.com: How I survived a heart attack at 43 . \"It is possible that patient-education material for people with diabetes may help to increase their knowledge [of the pancreas], but it is still only at the 50 percent level,\" Weinman says. \"The same explanation may also be true for liver disease, but it may be a chance finding due to the sampling of patients for this study, and it really needs replicating in other larger studies to be certain it is a robust finding and to search for possible reasons for it.\" Weinman says there's a mountain of evidence to prove that effective communication from doctors increases patient satisfaction and understanding, leading to better clinical outcomes and improved adherence to treatment. Health.com: I lost my insurance, stopped my diabetes medication, and had a heart attack . Jauhar agrees that health literacy improves not only the quality of health care, but also life expectancy. \"Health literacy is clearly very important, and how well patients are versed in their own health care is probably just as important a factor in determining longevity as genes or socioeconomic status,\" he says. \"These are important factors in how long someone lives.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than half in British survey couldn't identify heart's location .\nU.S. results could be similar or worse, some experts speculate .\nHealth literacy contributes to better care received, better patient outcomes ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Family members of Phillip Markoff visited him in jail Friday for the first time since his arraignment on murder charges connected to the slaying of a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad. The parents, brother and sister-in-law of accused killer Philip Markoff visited him in jail on Friday. Markoff's parents, brother, and sister-in-law visited him Friday, having to get through a throng of media members who gathered near the Boston, Massachusetts, jail. Richard Markoff and Susan Haynes arrived early in the afternoon, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Markoff's parents stayed at the jail for about two hours and left without making any comments to media, the affiliate reported. Markoff's brother and sister-in-law also visited him on Friday, the affiliate reported. John Salsberg, Markoff's attorney, addressed the crowd of reporters Friday and said he was speaking on behalf of the family. \"They love their son very much. They are supportive of him, that's what they would say if they were speaking themselves,\" he said. It is not yet known if Megan McAllister, Markoff's fiancee, would visit him in jail, but in an e-mail sent to ABC News, she said police have the wrong man and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" she wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" Markoff, 23, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, is charged with killing Julissa Brisman, who lived in New York, April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Police have said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. They say Markoff may have met her through the online site. Prosecutors say Brisman sustained blunt head trauma and said the she was shot three times at close range. One of the bullets passed through her heart, killing her, prosecutors said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the April 10 robbery of Trisha Leffler, 29, at a Westin Hotel in Boston, another woman he allegedly met on Craigslist. Leffler was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards, police reports said. Prosecutors said she was bound and held at gunpoint. Brisman's mother, Carmen Guzman, released a statement Friday about her devastation. \"The feeling of losing my daughter in this way and the pain she must have felt will haunt me for the rest of my life,\" Guzman said. \"She won't live to see her dreams. We will hold Julissa in our hearts every day.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Philip Markoff's family visits him in jail .\nPhilip Markoff, 23, charged in death of Julissa Brisman's death .\nPolice say they believe Markoff met Brisman on popular online classifieds Web site .\nMarkoff's fiancee says police have wrong man, husband-to-be \"was set up\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk was granted an emergency stay late Tuesday to block what appeared to be his imminent deportation to Germany. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents remove John Demjanjuk from his home Tuesday. The ruling, handed down by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, came less than two hours after federal immigration officials took Demjanjuk into custody at his home near Cleveland, Ohio. Demjanjuk, 89, is wanted by German authorities for his alleged involvement during World War II in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. The Justice Department would not immediately comment on the stay, saying officials needed to review the order. The last-minute legal maneuvering leading to the order was the latest chapter in one of the longest-running pursuits of an alleged Holocaust perpetrator in history. The deportation of Demjanjuk, who had been transported to an Ohio detention facility when the stay was issued, would set the stage for what would likely prove to be an extraordinary German war crimes trial. \"Upon due consideration of the motion for a stay and the opposition by the attorney general, we conclude that a stay of removal is warranted,\" the circuit court wrote. Representatives of Attorney General Eric Holder argued in response to an emergency motion filed by Demjanjuk's attorney that the circuit court does not have jurisdiction over the case. But the court acted anyway. \"Because it is our understanding that the government may remove the petitioner later today, we are compelled to rule on the motion for a stay prior to addressing the jurisdictional concerns raised by the government,\" the court said. On Friday, a federal immigration board rejected an emergency appeal for a stay of Demjanjuk's deportation. His attorney, John Broadley, had argued that deporting him would constitute torture because of his health problems. Broadley has said Demjanjuk suffers from pre-leukemia, kidney problems, spinal problems and \"a couple of types of gout.\" When Broadley filed another appeal with the 6th Circuit Court, Justice Department officials said they believe that his chances of getting the board's ruling overturned are slim. \"Looking at what's going on in Cleveland ... is truly appalling,\" Broadley said shortly after Demjanjuk was taken into custody. \"You have an 89-year-old man with various physical ailments, and you have eight guys from [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] trying to stuff him into a wheelchair to send him to Germany. This looks like something taking place in Germany and not in the United States.\" Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center found irony in Broadley's argument for his client. \"He wants to plead the sense of fairness that he regularly denied all of the victims at Sobibor,\" Hier said. He called Demjanjuk's comparison of his planned deportation to torture \"preposterous coming from a person that served the [Nazi organization] S.S. in a death camp. It is a preposterous argument and insulting to the survivors of the Holocaust.\" Hier said that 250,000 Jews were killed at the camp and that none of the guards who worked there was blameless. \"You were there for one job: kill the Jews,\" he said. \"And that's what they did full-time.\" He called the evidence against Demjanjuk \"overwhelming.\" German authorities issued an arrest warrant for Demjanjuk on March 10, accusing him of being an accessory to 29,000 counts of murder as a guard at Sobibor from March to September 1943. The warrant was issued after the authorities concluded that an identification card provided by the U.S. Office of Special Investigations was genuine. Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker, has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for more than two decades. He was previously extradited from the United States to Israel, where he was convicted in 1986 of being \"Ivan the Terrible,\" a guard at the notorious Treblinka extermination camp. The conviction was overturned by Israeli courts on appeal, and he returned to the United States. The United States filed new charges against him in 1999, again alleging that he had been a concentration camp guard. He was stripped of U.S. citizenship and has been awaiting deportation since 2005, after fighting his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian, says he saw action in the Soviet army and later was a prisoner of war held by the Germans. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Attorney general's representatives said court has no jurisdiction .\nImmigration agents picked up John Demjanjuk at home near Cleveland, Ohio .\nDemjanjuk, 89, has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for 20-plus years .\nGerman authorities accuse Demjanjuk of involvement in killings at Nazi death camp ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A New Jersey man whose efforts to gain custody of his son in Brazil attracted international attention may have finally gotten his wish. David Goldman has been fighting for custody of his son, Sean, since his mother took him to Brazil in 2004. David Goldman's lawyer, Patricia Apy, said Monday night that a Brazilian federal court has ruled that Goldman's son should be returned to the United States. Apy said she found out Monday afternoon about the court's decision, which calls for 8-year-old Sean Goldman to be turned over to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. Apy said David Goldman was traveling to Brazil and was expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro early Tuesday morning. Sean's mother, who was Brazilian, divorced Goldman, and in 2004 returned to Brazil with Sean. She died in 2008 while giving birth to another child. Sean was was being raised in Brazil by his stepfather. Apy said that Goldman was \"very happy\" at the news, and that it had been \"a long five years.\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to the case Monday, telling reporters, \"I also wanted just to take this opportunity to recognize the decision by the Brazilian federal court today ordering a young American boy, Sean Goldman, to be reunited with his father, David. It's taken a long time for this day to come, but we will work with the Goldman family and the Brazilian government, with the goal of ensuring this young boy's return.\" Apy said she had not received a copy of the Brazilian court decision but expected to get one on Tuesday. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sean Goldman, 8, to be turned over to U.S. Consulate on Wednesday .\nSean's parents divorced and mom moved him to Brazil in 2004 .\nMom died in childbirth in 2008, leaving Sean with stepfather ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Islamist fighters in Somalia have made significant gains in the country, according to the latest statement purportedly from al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ayman al-Zawahiri, pictured here in 2006, also spoke about Yemen, Gaza, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 25-minute audio recording, titled \"From Kabul to Mogadishu,\" focuses primarily on the \"important developments\" in Somalia, which al-Zawahiri called \"a step on the path of victory of Islam.\" CNN cannot authenticate the message, which was released on Sunday and was interspersed with television news reports and statements from various al Qaeda-linked commanders. CNN analysts who listened to the recording say the voice is consistent with his intonation and accent. This is the third message from al-Zawahiri espousing the views of the al Qaeda terror network in 2009; the other two focused on Israel's recent military operation against Hamas leaders in Gaza. In addition to Somalia, al-Zawahiri also addresses the situations in Yemen, Gaza, and Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al-Zawahiri praised Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia who recently seized control of Baidoa, where the U.N.-backed transitional government had been based. He warned the newly installed government, under President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, not to squander those gains by submitting \"to American demands\" and not abiding by sharia, or Islamic law. \"I call on my Muslim brothers in beloved Somalia ... to not be deceived by those who agree to the secularist constitutions which vie with the sharia in its right to rule,\" he said. Al-Zawahiri also addressed the \"awakening\" in Yemen, where many suspected al Qaeda militants wanted in neighboring Saudi Arabia are believed to have fled. That group includes several former detainees of the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The al Qaeda leader accused Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih and his government of being \"servants and slaves\" to the United States by allowing Yemen to be used as \"a supply center ... against Muslim countries.\" \"How can you agree to let the ruling authority in Yemen be the CIA?\" al-Zawahiri asked the people of Yemen. Al-Zawahiri spent the last eight minutes addressing the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gaza. His focus on Somalia and Yemen -- which accounted for more than 17 minutes of the 25-minute address -- is a departure from the topics of his previous messages. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen suggested that is a reflection of al Qaeda's recent losses as a result of U.S. missile strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. \"There were three in 2007 and 34 in 2008 by my count,\" Bergen said. \"These strikes are causing al Qaeda leaders to consider their options.\" Al Qaeda has considered relocating its base to Somalia or Yemen, according to a former U.S. official who is familiar with the intelligence. Other analysts have suggested that it would be difficult for al Qaeda to gain a stronghold in Somalia because its radical agenda is unpopular in the moderate Islamic country. John Prendergast, who studies the Horn of Africa for the Center for American Progress think tank, said he expects Al-Shabaab's overseas ties to dry up after the recent withdrawal of Ethiopian forces, which was its only basis of support in Somalia. J. Anthony Holmes, director of the Africa program for the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is unlikely Somalia will emerge as \"a breeding ground for terrorism\" because of its clan-based society. But Bergen noted that both Somalia and Yemen lack a strong central government and \"therefore (are) attractive locations for al Qaeda.\" \"Al Qaeda also has had an on-and-off presence in Somalia since 1992 and even earlier in Yemen,\" he said. \"As we have seen also, Yemen's weak government and permissive attitude to jihadists have made it an increasingly attractive venue for Saudi members of al Qaeda.\" Bergen said that is most likely why al-Zawahiri chose to focus more than half of his latest message on Yemen and Somalia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The 25-minute audio recording is titled \"From Kabul to Mogadishu\"\nVoice claiming to be Ayman al-Zawahiri praises Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia .\nThird message from al-Zawahiri espousing views of al Qaeda network in 2009 .\nAl Qaeda considered relocating base to Somalia or Yemen, ex-U.S. official says ." } ]