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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": "(CNN) -- A 26-year-old man was arraigned Tuesday on murder charges in the January strangling deaths of his girlfriend and her four small children in an Oklahoma apartment. Joshua Durcho told a friend he choked Summer Rust but said her children were elsewhere, an affidavit says. Joshua Steven Durcho is charged with five counts of first degree murder in the January deaths of Summer Rust, 25; her son Teagin, 4; and daughters Evynn, 3, and Autumn and Kirsten, both 7. All five bodies were found January 12 in Rust's apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. Authorities believe Durcho killed Rust because she threatened to call the police on him, prosecutors said in court documents released Tuesday. He knew that likely would bring about his arrest, the documents said, because two outstanding bench warrants had been issued on him after he failed to appear in court in two criminal cases -- one on charges of driving under the influence and the second on charges of unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Durcho had previously served time in prison after being convicted of unlawful possession of marijuana and \"vowed he would never go back to prison,\" the court documents said. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against Durcho, according to the documents, which note each victim suffered \"severe pain and anguish\" as they fought for their lives while being strangled with a ligature, which could include a string, cord or wire. In addition, the documents said, evidence indicates Durcho sexually abused both the 7-year-old girls at or near the time they died. In Tuesday's arraignment, Canadian County District Judge Edward Cunningham entered not guilty pleas on Durcho's behalf, according to The Oklahoman newspaper. An affidavit filed in the case, written by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent, said Durcho went to the home of an acquaintance January 12 and said he had \"choked\" Summer Rust -- identified in court papers as Summer Garas -- to death and was leaving Oklahoma. When the acquaintance, a women, asked Durcho about Rust's children, he \"told her that the children were at their grandmother's residence ... while he and Summer worked out their relationship problems,\" according to the affidavit. The acquaintance then called Durcho's mother, who drove to the apartment but received no answer at the door, the affidavit said. She asked her nephew, Durcho's cousin, to accompany her, leading to the discovery of Rust's body. The cousin notified police, and responding officers found the children's bodies in the apartment. According to the court documents released Tuesday, Durcho also told the female acquaintance that he killed Rust because she threatened to call the police on him. Durcho was arrested in Hamilton County, Texas, the day after the bodies were found. He has been appointed public defenders, according to Canadian County, Oklahoma, court records, and earlier waived his right to a preliminary hearing in the case. CNN's Ashley Broughton contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Court papers say woman, four kids suffered \"severe pain and anguish\"\nNEW: Two 7-year-old girls sexually assaulted before they died, documents say .\nNEW: Threat of returning to prison motivated slayings, prosecutors say .\nBodies found January 12 in apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A Mexican man who was allegedly killed on orders from his own cartel believed they were hunting for him after he began working as an informant and was fearful for his life, according to court documents. Police say soldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, acted as the gunman. Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana began to worry after he began working as an informant for immigration officials in the United States. \"The victim was concerned for his own well-being and the safety of his family,\" the documents said, referencing statements the victim made to a witness. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials gave Gonzalez a visa so he could live in El Paso, Texas, his fellow Juarez cartel members began to get suspicious, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a press conference. Allen said Gonzalez's exit from Mexico, combined with a raid on a cartel warehouse and the arrest of cartel lieutenant Pedro \"El Tigre\" Aranas Sanchez led cartel members to believe he might be working as an informant, Allen said. Then, a Mexican newspaper named Gonzalez as an informant in the arrest of the high-ranking cartel member, according to court documents. Police say Gonzales quickly became the target of his own cartel. Police said Gonzalez knew if his fellow cartel members found him, he would likely be killed, police said. On May 15, the cartel found him. He was shot eight times outside his home in El Paso, Texas, police said. Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17, were each named as suspects Monday and each are facing one count of capital murder. The three men are being held on $1 million bond. Police said Apodaca was the shooter, Duran was the getaway car driver, and Rodriguez was the one who coordinated the murder. On Wednesday, police also arrested a 16-year-old who they said was involved in the surveillance and reconnaissance of the victim. The juvenile also faces one count of capital murder. Rodriguez and the victim were in the Juarez cartel, based across the border from El Paso, police spokesman Chris Mears said. He said police believe Apodaca and Duran were not cartel members. Apodaca joined the Army a year ago and worked as a crew member on a Patriot missile launcher, officials at Fort Bliss in El Paso said. \"He was in the top of his class,\" said Dave Jackson, his grandfather. \"You talk to all his sergeants. He's a good soldier. Now, before he went in [and joined the Army], he was in, he was in with a bad crowd.\" Investigators said at the press conference they think the three suspects met through a relative of Rodriguez. \"He [Rodriguez] was the older guy, he provided the alcohol, the party locations,\" police Lt. Alfred Lowe said. \"And he recruited these people to do his bidding.\" Once the three men were allegedly hired, they were \"told to find the victim in the United States,\" Allen said. Rodriguez paid the victim's cell phone bill hoping he would be able to learn where he lived, federal officials learned, according to court documents. Federal law enforcement was apparently concerned enough about the incident that officers told local law enforcement to signal Gonzalez's home could be at risk. Hours before the slaying, police said Rodriguez called a tactical supply store that exclusively sells the same brand of ammunition found at the scene. The suspects found Gonzalez at a relative's home in Canutillo, Texas, and followed him back to his home before shooting him, police said. The three arrested men's phone records showed their approximate locations on the night of the killing and corroborated that the suspects were tracking the victim, according to court documents. During an interrogation, Rodriguez told investigators he ordered Gonzalez's execution, police said. But Allen also said during the press conference that Rodriguez planned the killing and hired the other suspects after he was given the order by cartel lieutenant Jesus Aguayo Salas. Police said there was also a warrant out for his arrest. Rodriguez told police he paid the participants for their role in the killing, the affidavit said. It said he also noted that he was a midlevel member of the cartel, which he called the \"Compania,\" and said he was in charge of coordinating surveillance for the cartel, \"following intended victims up until their execution.\" Duran and Rodriguez told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter and Duran to drive the getaway car, according to the affidavit. Allen said both men were each paid \"quite a robust amount of money ... under $10,000, in that area.\" Police said more arrests could still come in the case. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Tracy Sabo, Mallory Simon and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police say victim believed if cartel found him, he would be killed .\nDocuments: Suspect tried to find victim by paying his phone bill .\nSoldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday .\nOther suspects include Ruben Rodriguez Dorado and Christopher Andrew Duran ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'SINDH KALAY', England (CNN) -- The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. A British soldier on patrol in the mock Afghan village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles. What should the soldiers do? Conduct a weapons search? Approach the village elders first? In the complex political and cultural terrain of Afghanistan, what is the best course of action? Except this is not Afghanistan. It's Norfolk, England. Instead of the Hindu Kush mountains, it is the green ladscape and tidy farmhouses of the English countryside that stretch out behind them. Welcome to the British Army's state-of-the art training ground. It cost more than $20 million to build and every British soldier serving in Afghanistan will do his or her training here. \"I think it's the closest thing you are going to get short of being in Afghanistan itself,\" says Col. David Colthup of the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. His troops have already served one tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province and are training for another. British troops serving in Helmand province are tasked with mentoring and training Afghan security forces. Not an easy job in a Taliban stronghold and Afghanistan's center of opium production. \"Ultimately, a soldier joins the army and trains to fight. That's what a soldier trains to do. But today, it's a much, much more complex environment,\" explains Colthup. \"The business of being able to interact either through an interpreter or through Afghan security forces, whether they are police or army. And to understand how the people operate and how we can interact better with them. Because ultimately, that's what it's about,\" he says. The most distinctive features of Sindh Kalay are the high three-meter walls that make up the village compound, creating narrow alleyways difficult for troops to patrol. The village is staffed with Afghan asylum-seekers, many of whom have fled the Taliban. They play the roles of market vendors, village elders and sometimes Afghan security forces. Several Afghan women are also on hand, useful for training British soldiers on the religious and cultural sensitivities of entering an Afghan home. Watch British troops training in mock Afghan village » . The Taliban insurgents are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers authorized to handle weapons. They play their roles silently, unable to partake in the Pashtun banter among the Afghans. Fazel Beria is also an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. He is responsible for recruiting and for creating the sights and smells of Sindh Kalay and is easily identifiable as the only Afghan in the market in Western clothes. He beams with pride walking down the bazaar and clearly relishes his role in training the British Army. \"Everything with the culture comes up with the issue of hearts and minds,\" he explains. \"If you want to win that, you need to know about their culture. You need to respect their culture, their religion and their way of life.\" He gives high marks to the soldiers training so far. After each exercise, the Afghan actors talk directly to the soldiers about what went wrong and what went right. Sometimes, it's the little things that count. \"Yes, there have been quite a lot of surprises,\" Beria says. Like Afghan will sit cross legged for hours. \"The British soldier cannot do that,\" he laughs. \"The Afghan will be sitting very comfortable and the British soldier is not. So, they have to get used to it.\" See photos of British troops on patrol in Sindh Kalay -- and for real in Afghanistan » . Previously, the army trained on farmhouses and in urban neighborhoods that resembled Northern Ireland more than Afghanistan. But Sindh Kalay does more than mimic the physical reality of Afghanistan. It also mirrors the changing tactics on the ground. Troops are grilled in IED training by amputees that act out the violence with latex wounds and fake blood. When a new IED tactic is discovered by troops in Afghanistan it is communicated to Sindh Kalay and put into practice immediately. \"Before we had this, it wasn't realistic enough,\" says Col. Richard Westley, head of training here. \"I think if you're going to be asking young men and women to go and risk their lives in someone else's country, then you have a moral obligation to prepare them for that environment. And that's what this village does. It gives them the isolation and complexity of an Afghan village. Which we can't do with farmhouses which represent Western Europe.\" Some of the details in the Afghan village don't quite ring true. The slabs of lamb and beef hanging from the market stalls are plastic, as are the grapes and melons the vendors try and sell to the British soldiers. Still, Sindh Kalay is eerily effective. When soldiers sit down for a \"shura\" or meeting with village elders, helicopters buzz overhead and the soldiers seem surprised to be served a homemade yogurt and cucumber drink. But the unit commander can't help laughing when one of the Afghan village heads pulls out a \"list of damages\" by British troops. It turns out to be a receipt for the local supermarket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "British soldiers train in mock Afghan village before deployment to Afghanistan .\nVillage features Afghan asylum-seekers as vendors, elders, Afghan forces .\nTaliban militants are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers .\nVillage trains soldiers to understand Afghan customs, respect Afghan culture ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez continues to shuffle his top military commanders as he tries to make good on his recent promise to cleanse the government of corruption. Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez has faced political pressure to act on government corruption. After firing 700 police officers and forcing the retirement of 31 military and police generals Sunday, Fernandez on Monday removed more generals and reassigned others. The government also has announced that more than 535 members of the nation's 24,000-strong military have been forced out in the past six months due to their suspected involvement in the drug trade. Among the generals forced to retire was the former head of the nation's top anti-drug agency, the Dominican National Drug Control, known by its Spanish acronym DNCD. In his state-of-the-nation speech Friday, Fernandez said, \"In the Dominican Republic -- listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass.\" Despite the president's strong words, many Dominican citizens and outside analysts said narcotrafficking already has taken hold. \"The situation in the Dominican Republic is that organizations that are supposedly involved in fighting corruption and narcotrafficking are involved in it,\" said Tomas Castro Monegro, an anti-corruption attorney for 25 years in Santo Domingo, the capital. Tobias Friedl, a regional manager for Latin America at Washington-based iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, which helps companies assess and deal with dangers abroad, said, \"The security forces -- the army and the police -- have been corrupted.\" The Dominican government generally carries out military promotions and retirements on February 27, the day in which the nation celebrates its 1844 declaration of independence from Haiti. But this year's numbers are unprecedented, Castro said. In 1978, he said, 48 generals were let go -- some for perceived corruption, others for political reasons. But Castro said he never has seen 700 police officers fired or more than 500 military personnel relieved of their duties. \"In the majority of cases,\" he said, \"there has to be something linking that person to narcotrafficking or corruption in general.\" National police chief Rafael Guzman addressed his force Monday, admonishing them not to cave in to the many temptations they face. \"Today, more than ever, harassed by increasingly demanding challenges that jump out from all sides, just when drug trafficking persists in crippling society, it's time for all police agents and officers, the men and women of our dear institution ... to raise our chest, since this is the moment to define ourselves. We're with the nation or we're against it,\" he was quoted as saying in the Dominican Today and Listin Diario newspaper Web sites. Castro and others said police and the military have been involved in organized crime \"for a long time.\" The evidence lies in the lavish lifestyles many of these officials are able to sustain on a public salary, they said. \"They live in contradiction with their salaries,\" Castro said. \"They live in houses that cost millions of pesos and drive big vehicles.\" Corrupt officials prefer to work in customs, at the airport and the border and in anti-drug units, the lawyer said. They receive bribes from traffickers, Castro said, and also profit by arresting people involved in the drug trade and taking their possessions. Castro, a well-known attorney in a nation of less than 10 million, has represented drug suspects and has argued cases before the Dominican Supreme Court. In 2000, a published report said, he filed a suit against Fernandez alleging padded road-construction contracts. Friedl, the risk analyst, notes that Caribbean routes for drug shipments have diminished due to strong interdiction efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard. The majority of shipments now travel through Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, he said. However, Friedl and others said, the drug trade still flourishes in the Dominican Republic. \"The Dominican Republic is not a major drug-producing country, but it acts as a transit point for cocaine, heroin, marijuana and ecstasy bound for the United States and Europe,\" said Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment, a publication that offers country-by-country risk analysis. \"The main trafficking routes are by sea from South America, and the drugs are then transferred by go-fast boats to islands such as Puerto Rico and St. Martin, on the way to the U.S.\" The indexmundi Web site, which offers analyses on nations worldwide, said the Dominican Republic has become \"a trans-shipment point for ecstasy from the Netherlands and Belgium destined for the U.S. and Canada.\" Jane's and indexmundi point out that substantial money-laundering also takes place in the Dominican Republic. Deteriorating conditions in Haiti, with which the Dominican Republic shares a 193-mile border, have led traffickers to go next door. \"Haiti was the place where drugs used to come through,\" Friedl said. \"Some of this now has shifted to the Dominican Republic.\" Drug use in the Dominican Republic also has shifted. Ramon Cruz Benzan, a reporter for the Listin Diario newspaper who has been covering corruption cases, relates what many Dominicans say: \"Before, it used to come in and it would go. Now, it's not like that. It comes in and it stays.\" Friedl points out that tourism creates a demand for drugs. \"Tourism is a huge thing in the Dominican Republic. Local consumption has definitely gone up.\" And large Dominican communities in the United States and Puerto Rico \"create a natural connection\" for drug smuggling into those countries, Friedl said. Federal officials in New York have been battling -- and indicting -- Dominican natives on drug charges for years. Some observers see Fernandez's crackdown as a sign that he is getting serious. \"Fernandez is trying to weed out corruption,\" said Chris Kimble, a Latin America analyst also with iJET Intelligent Risk Systems. Others, such as the lawyer Castro, said Fernandez was forced to act after public outcry concerning the shootings deaths in August of seven Colombians in a drug-related case. A high-level commission appointed by Fernandez concluded that low- and midlevel officials from the national police were involved. But many Dominicans said they believe higher-ranking officers were responsible and the political pressure has been mounting on Fernandez to act. And many observers don't expect this will be the last of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Leonel Fernandez fires 700 police officers in Dominican Republic .\nHe shuffles more commanders after forcing retirement of 31 military, police generals .\nFernandez vows in a state-of-the-nation speech to rid the government of corruption .\nFernandez says, \"Listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Marine was killed in action and several others wounded Thursday in a major U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, the Marines said. U.S. Marines prepare for Operation Khanjar at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, on Thursday. The push, called Operation Khanjar, is targeting militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region. The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of national elections in August. Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors, along with several hundred Afghan security forces and British troops, worked to clear Taliban militants from population centers in the Helmand River valley. They have been operating in the districts of Nawa and Garmsir in central Helmand province and \"as far south as the vicinity of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district in the region of the Helmand River valley known as 'The Fishhook.' \" The Marines stressed the mission \"is to provide security for population centers\" and \"connect local citizens with their legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for national elections.\" Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, said he believes the operation will work and has assured the populace that it will provide security for them. His spokesman also confirmed that resistance had been minimal. The Marines said about 80 percent of the American troops are in direct combat, with the rest working in support. Taliban resistance has been light and sporadic, consisting of intermittent small arms fire, the Marines said on Thursday. The troops have encountered only relatively small groups of militants. \"Indications are the militants break away shortly after they make contact,\" Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe said, referring to what is regarded as the Taliban's habit of running and hiding after troops confront them. A Taliban spokesman said the group's fighters had killed 33 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles. CNN could not independently verify the Taliban claims because of safety and access issues. There has been an outcry in Afghanistan over civilian deaths in the Afghan war's crossfire, with much ire directed toward coalition air operations. But the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan emphasized in a news release that the Marines have not \"received any confirmed reports of civilian casualties or damage to property.\" They said they have not utilized \"artillery or other indirect fire weapons, and no bombs have been dropped from aircraft.\" The brigade operates under NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The assault has prompted Pakistani authorities to redeploy troops along the Afghan border to stop Taliban from escaping the push in Helmand. More than 30 U.S., British and Danish troops have been killed there since January, with the latest being the Marine on Thursday and a pair of British soldiers slain in Helmand on Wednesday. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it comes after a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. When President Obama announced his strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said American soldiers and Marines \"will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east, and give us a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces and to go after insurgents along the border.\" He also said the bolstered deployment \"will also help provide security\" ahead of August presidential elections in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the September 11 attacks. It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are \"very significant.\" \"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level,\" the official said. \"In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan.\" The defense official said the operation is a \"tangible indication\" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year war. \"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys; they're going in to hold the area and stay there,\" the official said. \"This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed.\" During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans. \"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence,\" he said. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in al Qaeda attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped, and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan. Helmand was once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, but the fertile land is now used for growing poppies. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, with most of that coming from the poppies in Helmand. The drug trade is an import source of income for the Taliban and major supply routes run through the province. CNN's Atia Abawi in Afghanistan, Nic Robertson in Pakistan and Chris Lawrence and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One Marine killed, others wounded; Taliban says 33 soldiers killed .\n4,000 American troops, hundreds of Afghans involved in Operation Khanjar .\nIt focuses on Helmand River valley, hotbed of Taliban violence .\nOperation's size and scope are \"very significant,\" official says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- A 12-mile oil slick near where an Air France jet crashed Monday into the Atlantic Ocean indicates the plane likely didn't break up until it hit the water, Brazil's defense minister said Wednesday. Image released by the Brazilian Air Force shows oil slicks in the water near a debris site. If true, that would argue against an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters. But Robert Francis, former vice chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said the question of determining where a plane broke up \"is a very difficult one to deal with.\" He told CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\" that \"there are lots of things that cause a plane to go out of control.\" He added that extremely strong winds are not unusual near Brazil. Pilots who fly over that part of the world keep track of radar and \"are very, very wary about the weather as they go back and forth down in that area.\" Jobim said currents had strewn the debris widely and that the search area had been expanded to 300 square miles. The Airbus A330, carrying 228 people, went down about three hours after beginning what was to have been an 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. No survivors have been found. Map of Flight AF 447's flight path » . Investigators have not determined what caused the plane to crash. The flight data recorders have not been recovered, and the plane's crew did not send any messages indicating problems before the plane disappeared. Watch as high seas hamper recovery » . The Brazilian Air Force said it found the oil slick and four debris fields Wednesday, but rain and rough seas kept searchers from plucking any of the debris from the water. Among Wednesday's finds were objects in a circular 5-kilometer (3-mile) area, including one object with a diameter of 7 meters (23 feet) and 10 other objects, some of which were metallic, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral said. Searchers had found two debris fields Tuesday and identified the wreckage as coming from Flight 447. The debris was found about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil. It included an airplane seat and an orange float. Wednesday's debris find was about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Tuesday's discoveries, Amaral said. Eleven aircraft and five ships are engaged in the search, including airplanes from France and the United States. Watch as experts question whether recovery is possible » . The NTSB said Wednesday it has accepted an invitation from the French aviation accident investigation authority, the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses, to aid in the investigation. NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior air safety investigator Bill English as the U.S. accredited representative. The U.S. team will include technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration; General Electric, which made the plane's engines; and Honeywell, which made the plane's data recorders. The aircraft's computer system did send about four minutes of automated messages indicating a loss of cabin pressure and an electrical failure, officials have said. Some investigators have noted that the plane flew through a severe lightning storm. Foul play has not been ruled out. Air France had received a bomb threat May 27 for a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Paris, sources in the Argentine military and police told CNN on Wednesday. According to the officials, who had been briefed on the incident and declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigation, the Air France office in Buenos Aires received the threat from a man speaking Spanish. Authorities checked the Boeing 777 and did not find anything. Security was tightened during check-in for Flight 415, which left on time and without incident, the officials said. Although officials have said the likelihood of finding survivors of Flight 447's crash is small, authorities have not closed the door on the possibility. \"Until the aircraft is identified, and the remains indicate that survival is technically impossible, we will maintain the possibility that there could be survivors,\" Amaral said. The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. The remaining victims were from 29 other countries, including three passengers from the United States. French officials said Wednesday they may never find the jet's flight data recorders. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the ocean depth in the area at 3,000 meters (about 9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 feet). Brazilian officials have said the sea depth in the area is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,562 to 9,842 feet). \"We need time to reach the recorders,\" said Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's accident investigation bureau. The recorders are built to emit locator signals for up to 30 days. The French government has sent a research vessel carrying a deep-diving submersible to where the debris was found. \"Recorders from time to time were found after the 30 days, but I'm not so optimistic,\" Arslanian said. \"It's not only deep, it's also very mountainous at that place of the ocean.\" But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed optimism that the flight data recorders would be found. \"I think that a country with the ability to retrieve oil from 6,000 meters (3.7 miles) underwater can retrieve a plane from 2,000 meters (1.2 miles). The truth is, we are going to see -- I'm not a specialist and don't want to give predictions of what will happen,\" Lula said, according to the Brazilian state news agency. A memorial for the victims of Flight AF 447, which included 61 people from France, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans and people from 29 other countries, took place Wednesday at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Brazil has declared three days of mourning. CNN correspondent John Zarrella in Rio de Janeiro and journalist Brian Byrnes from Buenos Aires contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Oil slick may argue against an in-flight explosion, Brazilian official says .\nNEW: Determining where plane broke up will be difficult, U.S. aviation expert says .\nAir France flight disappeared over Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Brazil .\nMemorial for the victims of Flight AF 447 takes place in Paris at Notre Dame ." } ]

[ { "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 rash of bank robberies in New York has the city's police commissioner worried that criminals have turned banks into \"virtual cash machines\" and some wondering whether tough economic times are fueling the trend. A surveillance camera captures a bank robbery suspect in New York on December 2. On Monday alone, robbers targeted five banks in the Big Apple, some striking in broad daylight and near famous landmarks. Police called the incidents unrelated, but they're just the latest examples of the growing tally of hold-ups. Bank robberies in New York have risen 54 percent compared with last year, with criminals committing more than 430 in the past 12 months, according to the New York police department. \"As it stands now, they've turned [banks] into virtual cash machines,\" New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Bank robberies are also up in many areas across the country, including San Diego, California, and Houston, Texas, federal law enforcement experts told CNN. It's enough for some to link the trend to the rash of layoffs, the plummeting stock market and the bust in the real estate values, all of which have left many Americans in dire financial straits. \"It makes me think that the recession is making people go to extreme measures,\" a woman who frequents one of the banks robbed Monday told The New York Times. Watch where the robbers struck » . But Kelly said it's not clear whether the bad economic times are fueling the unusual spike. \"People want to say... it's because of the economy. I think it's too early to make that statement,\" he said. CNN security analyst Mike Brooks agreed, adding that although there are typically many bank robberies during the holidays, there are no data to suggest that any recent spike was caused by the economy. Another expert said it's possible that the difficulty of finding a job right now may be a factor, but he doubted that law-abiding citizens are turning to crime to make ends meet. \"It's hard to attribute the bank robberies to people who were let go from Lehman Brothers or other organizations that are in trouble,\" said Alfred Blumstein, who has researched criminal justice for 20 years and is a professor of operations research at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. \"I would anticipate that people who rob banks have been involved with crime before because that's not where one is likely to start,\" Blumstein said. A person who might turn to robbing banks is someone in their late teens or early 20s who has already broken the law and has decided to move on to a bigger target, he added. \"Bank robbery is a very high-risk activity, because most banks have various surveillance equipment in place, and it requires a degree of aggressiveness that otherwise law-abiding folks are not likely to take on,\" Blumstein said. Some officials say the modern, customer-friendly design of banks -- with easy access to tellers and cash -- is too tempting for robbers. \"We don't like the business plan that makes a bank look like a living room,\" Kelly said \"We [advise] just some common sense provisions, such as so-called bandit barriers, so that tellers have some option to act when somebody puts a note in front of them.\" In fact, bank robbers have simply handed tellers a note in a vast majority of hold-ups in New York. Kelly put the figure at 80 percent and added that although the rest of the robbers claimed to have a gun, many didn't actually show it. Mike Smith, president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association, is meeting with the NYPD to see what more can be done to discourage robbers. He said banks have a significant amount of security, some of which may not be visible to the public. \"Are there enhancements? Obviously. Criminals talk to each other, they know what's going on, but typically they are apprehended,\" Mike Smith said. CNN's A. Pawlowski contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bank robberies in New York have risen 54 percent compared with last year .\nOn Monday alone, robbers targeted five banks, some striking in broad daylight .\nNYPD: Not clear whether the bad economic times are fueling the spike .\nExpert doubts law-abiding citizens are turning to crime to make ends meet ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Fans wishing to attend singer Michael Jackson's memorial service next week will have to register for the 11,000 free tickets, organizers said Thursday. Michael Jackson is shown rehearsing at the Staples Center on June 23, two days before his death. Details on how to register for the 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET) service at the 20,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Tuesday are to be announced Friday. Jackson's family will hold a private ceremony before the public memorial service, his brother said Thursday. Speaking to CNN's Larry King, Jermaine Jackson said the ceremony will be held Tuesday morning, but he did not say where. Jackson rehearsed at Staples Center two nights before he died, and he appeared healthy in a video clip of the rehearsal obtained by CNN. Jackson died June 25 after collapsing at his rented home in Los Angeles. AEG, promoter of Jackson's planned London, England, shows, released the short video of Jackson rehearsing in the arena on June 23. Jackson sang \"They Don't Care About Us,\" a song from his \"HIStory\" album, as he danced along with eight male dancers. Watch Jackson rehearse » . Jackson did not specify where he wished to be buried in a 2002 will, which was filed in court Wednesday. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper talk about his interview with AEG » . More information emerged Thursday about how Jackson's estate will be shared, which his will estimated in 2002 as being worth $500 million. The family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge of the contents of the trust. Mother Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said. The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- also will share 40 percent of the estate's assets, and the remaining 20 percent will benefit charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said. A judge has delayed for a week, until July 13, a hearing to decide whether Katherine Jackson will remain the temporary guardian of Jackson's children. At a brief talk with reporters Thursday, an attorney for Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe said she \"has not reached a final decision\" on whether she will challenge Jackson's mother for custody of Jackson's two oldest children, according to her lawyer. A Los Angeles TV station quoted Rowe on Thursday morning saying, \"I want my children.\" Except for the statement to the radio station, she has not publicly indicated whether she would seek custody now that Jackson is dead. Rowe was left out of the will. \"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my former wife, Deborah Rowe Jackson,\" the will said. The will nominated Katherine Jackson, now 79, as the guardian of his children. If Katherine Jackson were to die, \"I nominate Diana Ross as guardian,\" Jackson said in the will, written July 7, 2002. Singer Ross, 65, was a lifelong friend of Jackson's. Watch how the two had a close relationship » . There's also a question on when the will's executors should take over control of the late entertainer's assets, which Judge Mitchell Beckloff temporarily placed under Katherine Jackson's control. One man named as executor is John Branca, who represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. The other is music industry executive John McClain, a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. DEA reportedly joins investigation . The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into Jackson's death, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night. And the California State Attorney General's office said Thursday that it is helping the Los Angeles Police Department in its investigation. The attorney general's office said it will assist police in sifting through information in a state database that monitors controlled medication. Two law enforcement officials separately confirmed the DEA inquiry, saying agents would look at doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. Neither official wanted to be identified because they could not comment publicly on the matter. Officially, a DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Los Angeles Police Department, which would not confirm the involvement. \"We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act,\" said Sarah Pullen of the DEA. \"However, at this time, we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson.\" Speculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died June 25 at his rented estate in Holmby Hills. The cause of his death, at age 50, was pending toxicology results. On Wednesday, police released a car belonging to Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They had impounded the vehicle Friday, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Murray's attorneys issued a statement, asking the public to reserve judgment about the cause of death until the coroner's tests are complete. \"Based on our agreement with Los Angeles investigators, we are waiting on real information to come from viable sources like the Los Angeles medical examiner's office about the death of Michael Jackson,\" the statement said. \"We will not be responding to rumors and innuendo.\" No public showing planned for Neverland . Logistical and financial challenges derailed earlier plans for a public viewing and private memorial at Neverland Ranch. Planning had been under way for a motorcade to carry Jackson's body from Los Angeles to the Santa Barbara County ranch, which state and local officials suggested would be difficult and costly. Law enforcement sources had said a public viewing at the ranch was under consideration for Friday, but a spokesman for the family said that it would not happen. \"Plans are under way regarding a public memorial for Michael Jackson, and we will announce those plans shortly,\" said Ken Sunshine, whose public relations firm had been hired by the Jackson family. Despite the announcement, more than two dozen TV satellite trucks lined the narrow two-lane road leading to the ranch. For a time, the California Highway Patrol closed the road to clear up a small bottleneck of cars created by Jackson fans and the media. CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Michael Carey, Paul Vercammen, Carol Cratty and Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: 11,000 memorial service tickets will be made available .\nSource: Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at Los Angeles' Staples Center .\nJackson appears healthy in video clip of rehearsal two days before death .\nDrug Enforcement Administration reportedly joins inquiry into Jackson's death ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- The British are coming, the British are coming -- to Brooklyn? By subway? Barclays has paid $300 million for the naming rights to the New Jersey Nets arena. New York's struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sold the naming rights to the second-busiest subway stop in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station will now have the name of a British bank, Barclays, added to it. Several subway riders are outraged that Barclays has purchased the naming rights to this subway stop, which sees about 10 million people go through it each day. One straphanger said, \"A London Bank shouldn't be the name of this train station; it's something that belongs to the public domain.\" Another said, \"It's just everywhere we go, everything we do, it's just branding, branding, branding. It's America now.\" Renaming the Atlantic-Pacific Station is tied to the construction of Barclays Center, the new sports arena for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. Barclays is paying developer Forest City Ratner $300 million for naming rights to this arena. Ratner, in a separate deal, will be paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $200,000 a year for the next 20 years to rename this commuter hub. Authority Press Secretary Jeremy Soffin said, \"Like transit systems all over the U.S. and around the world, we are facing budget deficits.\" In an effort to bridge the authority's $1 billion deficit, the transit giant that oversees the operation of the city's subways, buses and rail lines wants to follow the Barclays example with stations throughout the system. Though the Atlantic-Pacific subway station is the first in New York for which naming rights have been sold, across the country, there have been several cases of public transportation systems using naming rights to increase revenue. In 2003, the Las Vegas monorail system signed a 12-year, $50 million deal with Nextel to put its name on the station in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Cleveland Bus System sold station names to two hospitals for $1.1 million a year. Internationally, Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has been selling the naming rights of 23 metro stations. However, not all naming rights deals are successful. In 2001, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority tried to raise $22 million by auctioning the naming rights to four historic \"T\" stations. It received no bids. Reassuring the public that there are certain lines they won't cross when it comes to renaming stations of historical value, Soffin said, \"It's a very clear line there, and we want to be as open as possible, but we're not sort of selling the shop here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Basketball arena developer pays $200,000 a year for 20 years for rights .\nAtlantic Avenue-Pacific Street station is second busiest in Brooklyn .\nRiders express disappointment at \"branding\" of subway stop ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Insurgents' use of roadside bombs has increased dramatically in Afghanistan this year, according to Pentagon statistics, and the United States' top military official is calling them the \"No. 1 threat\" to troops there. An IED is exploded by U.S. Marines near the remote village of Baqwa, Afghanistan, in March. In June there were 736 incidents in Afghanistan involving roadside bombs, called improvised explosive devices or IEDs, and 82 \"effective attacks,\" ones that caused casualties among coalition forces, the figures show. That was up from 263 incidents and 25 effective attacks in February, with the numbers increasing each month, said the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, an agency dedicated to thwarting roadside bombs. The number of coalition forces killed and wounded by such bombs has climbed, though not steadily, from 18 killed and 33 wounded in February to 23 killed and 166 wounded in June, the agency said. No numbers were provided for July, but such attacks have continued this month. In the latest, roadside bombs killed two NATO-led troops on Thursday, one in eastern Afghanistan and the other in southern Afghanistan. The military has called IEDs the weapon of choice for insurgents in that country. And at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response to a reporter's question that the biggest threat to coalition troops in Afghanistan is improvised explosive devices. Watch Adm. Mullen address efforts in Afghanistan » . He noted that they \"have become more and more sophisticated over time\" and that they are being combined with \"more and more sophisticated attacks from the Taliban, where they use IEDs as well as other tactics to inflict or to fight our troops.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pentagon agency: 82 incidents in June caused casualties among coalition troops .\nMilitary has called IEDs the weapon of choice for insurgents in Afghanistan .\nNo numbers were provided for July, but such attacks have continued this month ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- David Letterman has been taking some heat and issuing some apologies for the off-color joke he made last week about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, but he found a sympathetic critic in comedian Jeff Foxworthy on Monday. Jeff Foxworthy, the father of two teenage daughters, says David Letterman's joke was flawed. The best-selling comedy recording artist in history paid a visit to CNN's \"Larry King Live\" to talk about Letterman's gaffe. \"As a father of two teenage daughters, it was a flawed joke,\" Foxworthy said. Letterman joked last Tuesday that Palin's \"daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez\" at a recent Yankees game, stirring up an angry reaction from the Palin family. Letterman has since apologized twice for what he called \"inappropriate\" humor. And Foxworthy agreed: \"I don't think any kind of joke about someone having sex with a teenage girl is funny.\" Watch Foxworthy comment on joke » . But Foxworthy's rebuke of the joke was gentle in tone, and he showed empathy for Letterman as well as the Palin family. \"As a comedian, you look at what Dave does,\" Foxworthy said. \"You're trying to do this night after night, year after year, decade after decade -- at some point in the road, are you going to throw one out there you shouldn't have? Yeah.\" Foxworthy said it's probably time to forgive and forget. \"It's about forgiveness,\" Foxworthy said. \"He came back and apologized and said: 'Hey, the joke is flawed.' And to me you move on.\" King asked what advice he'd give Sarah Palin if she received an invitation to appear on Letterman's \"Late Show.\" Foxworthy said he'd encourage the Alaska governor to accept it. \"Life is about forgiveness. I think that makes her bigger to go on there and say 'I accept your apology'.\" Letterman has insisted he was referring to Palin's 18-year-old, Bristol, who gave birth to a boy in December, and not her 14-year-old, Willow, in the joke. Palin has called that a \"weak, convenient excuse\" for a joke that was\"inappropriate\" no matter which daughter was the target. Foxworthy, the author of \"How to Really Stink at Work,\" also made some \"confessions\" about his pre-comedy career in corporate America. \"I was at IBM for five years; I don't know how much work I did,\" Foxworthy said. The comedian, who said he used to make prank phone calls to his boss at work to lure him back and forth from his desk, had this tongue-in-cheek advice for people about how far to take things on the job: . \"You don't really want to get fired; you want to have a job. But you don't want to do it well, because you're going to be promoted, and that's a lot of pressure. Who can have any fun with that kind of anvil hanging over your head?\" Foxworthy is also the host of \"Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader\" and talked about the appeal of a game show that spotlights how much people tend to forget after all those years of cramming in facts at school. \"It's a strange thing why the brain keeps some things,\" Foxworthy said. \"Like I don't know why my brain has all the words to 'The Brady Bunch' theme song, but it deleted everything about triangles.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David Letterman made off-color joke about Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter last week .\nFoxworthy: \"As a father of two teenage daughters, it was a flawed joke\"\nFoxworthy also says he thinks Palins should accept Letterman's apologies, move on .\nThe comedian also has \"advice\" about having fun on the job ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time. The British landmark has lived through war, bad weather and disasters. Big Ben's distinctive bongs have been a part of the London scene for 150 years. Big Ben is the 14-ton bell inside the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, although most people use the name to describe the tower that houses it. The clock is perched on a 96-meter (310-foot) elegant tower at the Westminster Bridge end of the Palace of Westminster. The Victorian masterpiece, which provides distinctive chimes known as bongs, was voted Britain's favorite monument in 2008. It has been featured in films such as \"101 Dalmatians\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.\" Big Ben has been disrupted a few times over the years for various reasons, including weather and breakages. Its bongs went silent for about two months in August 2007 to allow a crew to repair its mechanism system. During that time, the rest of the clock was running on an electric system. It was fully restarted again October 1. The clock pays tribute to Britain's royal history: It has a Latin inscription of the phrase: \"O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.\" The ornate masterpiece has some quirky features. The hour hand, which weighs 300 kilograms (661 pounds), is made of gun metal while the minute hands are made of copper sheet. The minute hands would not work when they were first made of cast iron because they were too heavy. The clock started working on May 31, 1859, after the lighter copper hands were installed. The origins of the landmark's name are obscure. Some say it was named after the 1850s heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt while others suggest it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a former member of parliament. Hall, the commissioner of works in 1859, was responsible for ordering the bell. Alan Hughes, the director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the bell, prefers the latter. \"I suppose I like it chiefly because it was a nickname of a man who was big and loud and pompous, and never used one word if 27 would do,\" he said in a 2008 interview. Hughes' company also made America's Liberty Bell and a number of others for cathedrals and churches around the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "London's Big Ben turns 150 years old on Sunday .\nLast year, Victorian masterpiece was voted Britain's favorite monument .\nNo one is quite sure where the clock's moniker came from ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The emergence of a purported statement from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden about U.S. policy in Pakistan as the U.S. president embarks on a major trip to Muslim countries is no coincidence, the White House spokesman and a counterterrorism official say. Osama bin Laden is seen in an image taken from a videotape that aired on Al-Jazeera in September 2003. \"I think the reports we've seen are consistent with messages we've seen in the past from al Qaeda threatening the U.S. and other countries that are involved in counter-terrorism efforts,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday. \"But I don't think it's surprising that al Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president's historic efforts and continued efforts to reach out and have an open dialogue with the Muslim world.\" A U.S. counterterrorism official, asked about the statement, said bin Laden \"has timed the release of tapes to major events so it is not surprising that he picked this particular week.\" Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language TV network that aired the message on Wednesday, said the statement was \"a voice recording by bin Laden.\" As for the tape's authenticity, a CNN analysis said the voice does indeed sound like the leader of the terrorist network that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. The counterterrorism official said \"there has never been a fake Bin Laden tape.\" The message comes as Obama begins his trip to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, in Egypt on Thursday, making a major speech to the Muslim world. Zeroing in on the conflict in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where Pakistan's troops are taking on Taliban militants, the message asserts that Obama is proving that he is \"walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars.\" The message said U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated \"new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.\" The remarks -- which would be bin Laden's first assessment of Obama's policy -- were believed to have been recorded several weeks ago at the start of a mass civilian exodus because of fighting in northwestern Pakistan. The speaker cites strikes, destruction, and Obama's \"order\" to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari \"to prevent the people of Swat from implementing sharia law.\" \"All this led to the displacement of about a million Muslim elders, women and children from their villages and homes. They became refugees in tents after they were honored in their own homes,\" the message says. \"This basically means that Obama and his administration put new seeds of hatred and revenge against America. The number of these seeds is the same as the number of those victims and refugees in Swat and the tribal area in northern and southern Waziristan.\" And, the message says, \"the American people need to prepare to only gain what those seeds bring up.\" Watch what the speaker says on the tape » . The speaker also says Zardari and Pakistan's military chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, continue to divert the army's main role from protecting the nation to fighting Islam and its followers. He says the war is also hurting Pakistan's economy, endangering the country's religion and security and \"fulfilling an American, Jewish and Indian plot.\" \"Most of the Pakistani people reject this unjust war. Zardari did this in response to the ones paying him in the White House -- not 10 percent but multiple folds of that,\" the message says. The message points to India's aspirations, saying it is \"easy for India to subject the disassembled territories of Pakistan, one after another, for its own benefit, like the case of eastern Pakistan before, or even worse.\" \"This way, America eases its worry towards Pakistan's nuclear weapons,\" the message says. Eastern Pakistan is a reference to Bangladesh, which had been part of Pakistan until it became an independent country in 1971. Pakistan and India have also been at odds over the disputed territory of Kashmir, and pro-bin Laden jihadis have opposed Indian rule there. Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Pakistan and India, said he hadn't listened to the message but commented on what he had heard about it. \"The idea that anyone is responsible for the refugee crisis other than al Qaeda and the Taliban and the other people who have caused such tragedy in western Pakistan is ludicrous,\" he said. \"This entire problem begins with al Qaeda and its associates, and everybody in the world knows that, and it's silly to even respond to such a ludicrous charge.\" Al Jazeera aired three separate segments totaling just over four minutes long from what it said is a new bin Laden audiotape aired over an old still picture of the terrorist leader. The network's anchors took part in describing each of the segments before they ran them. Since the message was not posted on the radical Islamist Web sites that usually carry statements from al Qaeda, it is believed that this latest message was hand-delivered to the TV network, based in Doha, Qatar. In other purported bin Laden messages issued in March, he called for Somalia's new president to be overthrown and called Israel's recent offensive in Gaza a \"holocaust.\" Bin Laden has delivered many messages over the years, but the last video message from him was in early September 2007. In that video message, he criticized U.S. Democrats for failing to stop the war in Iraq; spoke of the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II; the troop surge in Iraq; and world leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. On that tape, bin Laden's appearance was artificially changed for the first time. He dyed his beard from grayish white to black, leading analysts to believe that he has switched to sending only audio messages because he is altering his looks and doesn't want people to know what he looks like. Analysts also believe that bin Laden hasn't made videos lately because they are more labor-intensive to produce. There have been gaps between videos from bin Laden, with many audio messages in between, each time prompting analysts to theorize he might be dead. The last two videos of bin Laden himself delivering an address were the 2007 tape and another in 2004. See a timeline of bin Laden messages » . The U.S. counterterrorism official said of the latest purported bin Laden tape that \"while the words are different\" from other messages, this statement \"recycles the broad themes of messages past.\" \"While we are still looking at the message closely, there is no reason to believe any specific or credible threat is contained in it,\" the official said. Al Qaeda's second in command issued an audio statement Tuesday saying Obama is not welcome in Egypt. Ayman al-Zawahiri said relations with the United States cannot be mended so long as the administration maintains its alliance with Israel. In a message called \"Tyrants of Egypt and America's agents welcome Obama\" that was posted on Islamist Web sites, al-Zawahiri once again lashed out at the United States. Obama's message to the Muslim world, he said, has already been delivered with his support for \"Zionist aggression.\" In the 10-minute audio message, al-Zawahiri said Obama had already made himself an enemy of Muslims by sending more soldiers to Afghanistan, ordering bombings in the tribal areas of Pakistan and administering a \"bloody campaign against Muslims\" in Pakistan's Swat Valley. CNN's Octavia Nasr and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: White House says timing of tape is not a coincidence .\nAnalysis of tape indicates that voice sounds like Osama bin Laden's .\nPurported tape from terror leader surfaces as President Obama visits Mideast .\nMessage says U.S. policy on Pakistan has generated \"seeds of hatred\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month led to massive protests, on Tuesday called the balloting \"the most free election anywhere in the world.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected last month, setting off days of protests. \"It was a great event,\" he said in a nationally televised address. The election, which opponents charge was rigged, was followed by street demonstrations and civil unrest that led to the deaths of at least 20 protesters and the arrest of more than 1,000, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government banned coverage by international journalists. The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents \"did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud.\" Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation.\" Everyone has criticisms, he said. \"I have my own.\" But he accused the \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in his country's affairs, including the post-election situation. Some Iranians collaborated with enemies, the president said. Ahmadinejad also said Tuesday he believes the government should be \"substantially\" reorganized. Although he didn't elaborate, he said the areas of employment, housing, development and civil rights were high on the agenda. \"[We] need to create newer capacities and prepare ourselves for this new period,\" he said, apparently referring to his upcoming second term in office. \"With this election, we have entered a new era ... in domestic spheres and on an international level,\" he added. He called it \"an era of solidarity.\" \"The government is at the service of the entire people,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"Things will be done in a better way, more effective way, so we can reach higher aspirations.\" He said experts have been invited to help the government achieve progress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iranian president calls recent vote \"most free election anywhere in the world\"\nIn address, he says criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation\"\nHe accuses \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in country's affairs .\nWidespread protests rocked Iran in days after Ahmadinejad's re-election ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Tribune Media Services) -- While most first-time visitors to Europe choo-choose to travel by train, consider the convenience of driving. Behind the wheel you're totally free, going where you want, when you want. When drivers come off a ferry in Great Britain or Ireland, they usually see a sign warning them to drive on the left. Driving in the British Isles is wonderful -- once you remember to stay on the left and after you've mastered the roundabouts. But be warned: Every year I get some emails from traveling readers advising me that, for them, trying to drive in Great Britain and Ireland was a nerve-wracking and regrettable mistake. Here's a tip: If you want to get a little slack on the roads, drop by a gas station or auto shop and buy a green \"P\" (probationary driver with license) sign to put in your car window. Of course, in Britain and Ireland you'll be driving on the left-hand side of the road. Why that side? Originally, it was in order for you to drive defensively ... with your \"sword hand\" on the inside to protect you against oncoming traffic. Many Yankee drivers find the hardest part isn't driving on the left, but steering from the right. Your instinct is to put yourself on the left side of your lane, which means you may spend your first day or two constantly drifting off the road to the left. It can help to remember that the driver always stays close to the center line. Not only will you be driving on the left, but you'll also be using roundabouts, where traffic continually flows in a circle around a center island. These work well if you follow the golden rule: Traffic in roundabouts always has the right-of-way, while entering vehicles yield. For some drivers, roundabouts are high-pressure traffic circles that require a snap decision about something you don't completely understand: your exit. To replace the stress with giggles, make it standard operating procedure to take a 360-degree, case-out-your-options exploratory circuit. Discuss the exits with your navigator, go around again if necessary, and then confidently wing off on the exit of your choice. Whenever possible, avoid driving in cities. London even assesses a congestion charge -- about $13 per day -- to drive in the city center (see www.cclondon.com). It's best and less stressful to begin your driving experience away from big cities, so try renting your car in a smaller town. A pleasant scenario for a Britain itinerary would be to start your trip in a small town such as Bath, rent a car when leaving Bath, explore Britain at your leisure by car, then drop off the car in York, and take the train into London, where you can rely on the excellent public transportation system. Outside of the big cities and the motorways (freeways), British and Irish roads tend to be narrow. Adjust your perceptions of personal space. It's not \"my side of the road\" or \"your side of the road.\" It's just \"the road\" -- and it's shared as a cooperative adventure. In towns, you may have to cross over the center line just to get past parked cars. Sometimes both directions of traffic can pass parked cars simultaneously, but frequently you'll have to take turns -- follow the locals' lead and drive defensively. On rural roads, locals are usually courteous, pulling over against a hedgerow and blinking their headlights for you to pass while they wait. Return the favor when you are closer to a wide spot in the road than they are. Do some homework before getting behind the wheel; buy good maps and check various mapping Web sites, including Michelin's site and Google Maps. A GPS device can also be helpful. You'll notice some differences between driving in the Republic of Ireland versus the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). In the Republic of Ireland, the speed limit is in kilometers per hour, road signs are usually bilingual (but not always -- \"geill sli\" means yield), and roads are more likely to be bumpy and poorly maintained. In the United Kingdom, the speed limit is in miles per hour, signs are in English (except in Wales, where they are bilingual), and roads are generally in better condition. Even if you don't drive, as a pedestrian you'll have to remember that among our British and Irish cousins' many unusual habits, traffic comes from the opposite direction -- look both ways before crossing any street. Horror stories about British and Irish traffic abound. They're fun to tell, but driving here is really only a problem for those who make it one. The most dangerous creature on the road is the panicked American. Drive defensively, observe, fit in, avoid big-city driving when you can and wear your seat belt. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at [email protected], or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A University of Memphis football player was shot and killed on campus Sunday night, prompting administration officials to cancel classes and plead for anyone with information to come forward. Police said defensive lineman Taylor Bradford, 21, apparently was shot around 9:45 p.m. (10:45 ET) Sunday. The 5-foot-11-inch, 300-pound junior apparently then got into his car, drove a short distance and hit a tree near the campus residence hall area. Bradford, of Nashville, Tennessee, was pronounced dead at Regional Medical Center. The university locked down the residence halls and canceled classes for Monday as an \"early precaution\" against the possibility there was an armed attacker on campus, university President Shirley Raines said. Raines said the school did not activate its newly installed emergency public address system because university police determined the campus was not in imminent danger. Witnesses told police they saw people they suspect were the assailants fleeing the scene, Raines said. University police said the Memphis Police Department's homicide bureau is assisting in the investigation. Officials said they hope that surveillance cameras in the area will yield clues. Memphis Director of Police Services Larry Godwin said that because such crimes are rare on the university campus Bradford \"may very well have been targeted.\" \"We're looking at everything,\" he said. \"We're hoping that someone will step forward with some information to point us in the right direction.\" Residence halls reopened early Monday, and classes are expected to resume Tuesday. On Monday, offices at the university were open so students could have access to counseling and talk with faculty and staff, said university spokesman Curt Guenther. Raines said she and head football coach Tommy West met with Bradford's parents and other family members to express their condolences. West said Bradford was \"very popular within our team, very popular on our campus. Very upbeat, very up-tempo personality. Always smiling, always talking. Very well-liked on this campus.\" Bradford, a marketing major, transferred to the University of Memphis from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, according to the Univeristy of Memphis football team's Web site. The University of Memphis had 20,562 students last fall and about 2,500 employees, according to the school's Web site. On September 21 two students at Delaware State University were wounded in shootings. There will be a moment of silence at Tuesday night's scheduled football game against Marshall University to honor Bradford. E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Coach says the 21-year old was a popular student .\nUniversity of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford, shot dead .\nInitial investigation suggests attack was not random, police say .\nClasses canceled Monday but are expected to resume Tuesday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BUCHENWALD, Germany (CNN) -- President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity's duty to fight the spread of evil. President Obama visits Buchenwald with Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and survivor and activist Elie Wiesel. The visit had personal significance for the president, whose great-uncle helped liberate prisoners from the camp during World War II. \"I will not forget what I've seen here today,\" Obama said after touring the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and survivor Bertrand Herz. \"These sites have not lose their horror with the passage of time,\" Obama said. \"This place teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our times. ... We have to guard against cruelty in ourselves ....\" Watch Obama honor Holocaust victims » . Wiesel, whose father died at Buchenwald, was imprisoned at the camp during the final months of the war in 1945. \"Every war is absurd and meaningless,\" Wiesel said. \"The world hasn't learned. ... Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.\" Like Obama, Wiesel stressed that the lessons of Buchenwald are that humanity must unite to keep such atrocities from happening again and work toward making the 21st century \"filled with promise and infinite hope.\" \"Memory must bring people together, rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity with all those who need us,\" Wiesel said. Obama told reporters earlier in the day that his great-uncle, Charles Payne, had a \"very difficult time re-adjusting to civilian life\" after helping his Army division liberate the Ohrdruf forced labor camp, a subdivision of Buchenwald . \"And it is now up to us, the living, in our work, wherever we are, to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take and ensure that those who were lost here did not go in vain.\" Later Friday, the president traveled in Germany to Ramstein Air Base and visited with wounded American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. He then moved on to Paris, France, ahead of D-Day commemoration services on Saturday. Obama began his tour of the Middle East and Europe in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, before moving on to Egypt, where on Thursday he delivered a key speech on American and Muslim relations. In the 55-minute address -- billed as a fence-mending effort between the United States and Islam -- the president urged those in the Cairo audience and the people across the globe viewing the speech on television to enter a new, productive and peaceful chapter of relations. CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Obama recalls great-uncle's role in liberation of Buchenwald as reason for tour .\nHolocaust survivor, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel speaks of father dying at Buchenwald .\nObama met Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel .\nGermany visit comes day after key speech in Egypt on U.S. relations with Islam ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates. Rob Thomas prefers to focus on the \"musician\" side of his career, rather than \"celebrity.\" We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year. \"We're interviewing Rob about his solo album,\" I told him. \"Hey,\" Doucette exclaimed. \"Tell that guy to call me, would you? I didn't even know he was in L.A.!\" By the time we met up with Thomas the next day, he and Doucette had already connected over drinks somewhere between midnight and the morning -- musician's hours. Thomas recently released \"Cradlesong,\" his second solo CD. Even though he's clearly excited about it, he spends as much time talking about Matchbox Twenty as he does the solo album he's in town to promote. For the 37-year-old singer-songwriter, it's all interconnected. One has fed into the other since he gained household name status a decade ago, after scoring a massive, Grammy-winning hit with Carlos Santana on \"Smooth.\" Watch Thomas describe the difference between being a celebrity and a musician » . The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Who has given you the best piece of advice? Rob Thomas: Carlos [Santana] will constantly send you messages out of nowhere. Carlos will call me at 10 at night and be like, \"Listen, I had a dream about you, and so much good is happening, but there's dark forces at work, and when you get out of here, I have this woman who wants to cleanse you.\" I think Carlos' most important piece of advice ever was that he taught me the difference between being a celebrity and being a famous musician. CNN: But some artists don't have that kind of success, and they try for celebrity instead. Thomas: Sure, and sometimes that works -- but none of my favorites have done that. I remember when Matchbox Twenty started years ago, and we had a lot of success, but nobody knew who we were. The first time we did an interview with MTV, it was about how no one knew who we were. We had sold 8 million records. I don't know if we were being naive at the time, but we thought we'd won because our songs were more famous than we were. I'm much more known for the music that I make than what I do with my life. It's never, \"Oh yeah, I've been seeing you in [the New York Post gossip column] Page Six at these clubs that you go to\" or \"I know who you're sleeping with.\" CNN: When you became famous for being Rob Thomas the solo artist, did that cause problems within the band? Thomas: No. I think the guys would rather it be me than them. None of them want the job, and they realize that it's working now. They have a singer. I can go out and do it [publicity] for them, and they're fine with it. They can stay home. I think there's nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity. If I'm not out supporting my work, I really don't want people to see me. I go to movie premieres -- my wife and I -- all the time, and nine out of 10 of those movie premieres, much to my publicist's dismay, I get there, but I sneak around the pictures and get into the party [using the back entrance]. If I have a record coming out, I'll go in front of the cameras, and I'll say, \"Hi! Hey, I'm at this movie premiere.\" I liken it to being a switch that I can move on and off. CNN: What has doing a solo project enabled you to do that you can't do with a band? Thomas: I get to pick my own schedule, and that's nice. Matchbox Twenty -- it's four lead singers, there's four front men, and everybody's tastes, everybody's schedule, everybody's personal life comes into account when you're doing something like that. We all live [in four different cities] ... so we literally have to pull ourselves up from all over the country and go somewhere, just to get us into a room to write. And you have to not think you're so great so you don't get upset when somebody doesn't like your stuff. Like \"Her Diamonds\" -- one of the singles on this solo album -- is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, and the guys loved the song, but didn't want to play it. [They said,] \"When you do a new solo record, you should put it on there. It doesn't sound like a song we would do right now.\" And they were right. When we put together the last Matchbox record, it was much more of a rock record. CNN: What's the most surprising thing on your iPod? Thomas: Britney Spears. Come on! \"Toxic,\" man, is just one of the baddest tracks ever! I remember the first time we listened to \"... Baby One More Time.\" ... We were like, \"Oh, let's go play Britney Spears on the piano!\" And we all come over drinking, and after a couple of minutes, we're like, \"This Britney Spears is a lot harder than we thought!\" CNN: Whose career would you like to emulate? Thomas: Tom Petty is a famous musician. He's not a music celebrity. When Tom Petty walks down the street, you know that it's Tom Petty, but it would be like, \"Oh my gosh, it's Tom Petty! I love Tom Petty, right on!\" It would never be like, \"Aaaaaaaah!\" -- and 3 million teenage girls follow him down the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty has new album out, \"Cradlesong\"\nThomas says Matchbox Twenty is still very much together .\nSinger: \"Nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- An anti-abortion activist suspected in the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller told CNN on Tuesday the closing of Tiller's women's clinic is \"a victory for all the unborn children.\" Scott Roeder, charged in the death of Dr. George Tiller, spoke to CNN on Tuesday. Scott Roeder, 51, would not admit to CNN's Ted Rowlands that he killed Tiller, who was gunned down at his church May 31. But he said if he is convicted in Tiller's slaying, \"the entire motive was the defense of the unborn.\" Tiller's family said Tuesday the clinic he headed will permanently close, effective immediately, and they would issue no more statements. At the time Roeder was interviewed Tuesday, word of the permanent closure had not come out -- but when told the clinic had been shuttered since Tiller's death, he said, \"Good.\" Roeder said the closure would mean \"no more slicing and dicing of the unborn child in the mother's womb and no more needles of poison into the baby's heart to stop the heart from beating, and no more partial-birth abortions.\" Watch Rowlands describe Roeder's mood during interview » . Dan Monnat, Tiller's attorney, declined to respond to Roeder's comments on the family's behalf. But in an e-mail, he added, \"Speaking for myself ... I am reluctant to in any way legitimize Mr. Roeder, or anything he stands for, by directly responding to his statements. \"I am content to let law enforcement determine whether anything he says merits attention. I do not encourage anyone else to give Mr. Roeder or his extremist views any additional attention as he awaits trial,\" Monnat wrote. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. He had already survived one attempt on his life before he was slain, and the announcement by Tiller's family dismayed supporters of abortion rights. Nancy Keenan, the president of Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Tiller's killing \"part of an ongoing pattern of extreme anti-choice violence and intimidation\" aimed at depriving women of a legal medical option. \"It is a sad day for our country when family members who stood by their husband and father as he endured countless anti-choice attacks are forced as a result of his murder to make a decision like this one,\" Keenan said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, expressed hope that other doctors \"will be brave enough to come forward and continue Dr. Tiller's critical work of providing services to women.\" \"It is unacceptable that anti-abortion intimidation and violence has led to the closing of Dr. Tiller's clinic. It illustrates the ongoing harassment endured by abortion providers and the resulting disservice to women across this country,\" Northup said. Roeder is jailed on first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in Tiller's death. A Kansas judge earlier this month set his bail at $5 million. Tiller's family said Tuesday it is \"proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father,\" and that it would honor his memory \"through private charitable activities.\" The statement promised his patients \"that the privacy of their medical histories and patient records will remain as fiercely protected now and in the future as they were during Dr. Tiller's lifetime.\" Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said he and his staff \"fully respect and understand\" the family's decision. \"Their loss is immense -- they have lost a husband, father, grandfather and hero,\" Brownlie said in a statement. But the closure of Tiller's clinic \"creates a significant gap in access for women and families in Kansas,\" he continued. \"No one is providing that service between Kansas City and Denver.\" Most of the leading U.S. anti-abortion groups have condemned Tiller's killing and disavowed Roeder, saying they wanted Tiller's clinic shut down, but through peaceful means. Troy Newman, the president of one of those organizations, Operation Rescue, said in a statement on the group's Web site Tuesday that his group is \"thankful that Tiller's clinic will not reopen and thankful that Wichita is now abortion-free.\" But he added, \"This is a bittersweet moment for us at Operation Rescue. We have worked very hard for this day, but we wish it would have come through the peaceful, legal channels we were pursuing.\" Operation Rescue and other Kansas anti-abortion activists had supported a criminal investigation by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a petition drive to empanel a special grand jury to investigate the practice and efforts to get his medical license revoked. On its Web site, the group referred to Tiller as a \"monster\" who had \"been able to get away with murder.\" But in a New York Times interview last week, Newman said closing the clinic because of the shooting would be cause for concern. \"Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason,\" he said. \"Every kook in the world will get some notion.\" Roeder met with Rowlands for a half-hour Tuesday, talking on a phone through security glass at the Sedgwick County jail where he is being held. He initially was reluctant to talk, as he said he had been misquoted in another interview. But he gradually opened up, noting that he was giving the interview against the advice of his defense attorney. Roeder told CNN he is \"feeling good,\" and getting encouraging letters from people around the country, many of whom he does not know. But he complained about conditions in the jail, saying he doesn't like being in solitary confinement and that the jail is \"freezing.\" Associates have told CNN that Roeder was a regular among the protesters who routinely gathered at Tiller's clinic. Roeder's former roommate, Eddie Ebecher, has told CNN Roeder was \"obsessed\" with Tiller and in the past had debated whether to kill him. Relatives said Roeder had suffered from mental illness over the years and had refused treatment at times. He served prison time in Kansas in the late 1990s after being arrested with explosives in his car, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. But Roeder said Tuesday that reports he has mental illness or schizophrenia are \"totally wrong.\" He acknowledged having a drug problem at one point, but said he has been off drugs since he was 28 years old and has no mental illness. Rowlands said he attempted to discuss Tiller's death with Roeder, pointing out that there were witnesses to the shooting and its aftermath who claim they saw Roeder leaving the scene and got a license plate from the car. Roeder nodded, Rowlands said, but still would not admit any culpability. But \"He didn't say, 'I didn't do it,' \" Rowlands said. \"He didn't say, 'Get me out of here, I'm the wrong guy.' \" Federal civil rights prosecutors have launched an investigation into Tiller's slaying, the Justice Department has said. The inquiry will focus on violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and other applicable federal laws. Roeder was concerned about the possibility of federal charges, saying his lawyer has warned him that he will be facing them if he doesn't stop talking. CNN's Michael Cary contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In jail interview with CNN, suspect Scott Roeder admits no guilt in Tiller slaying .\nBut Roeder says if he's convicted, \"motive was the defense of the unborn\"\nRoeder is charged in death of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions .\nFamily is shutting Tiller's clinic permanently, lawyer says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Nancy Grace is the host of \"Nancy Grace\" on HLN nightly at 8 and 10 p.m. ET. Read an excerpt from her new novel \"The Eleventh Victim\" published by Hyperion. Nancy Grace found it challenging to complete her first novel, \"The Eleventh Victim.\" (CNN) -- Readers of Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim,\" would be forgiven if they assumed the main character is based on Grace. After all, the heroine of the novel becomes an Atlanta, Georgia, district attorney after her fiancé is murdered and later relocates to New York for a fresh start. But Grace said there are some differences between her and her protagonist. \"Hailey is a much better person than I am,\" Grace said. The tough-as-nails anchor of the HLN show that bears her name was driven to complete her first book of fiction, which she said has been in the works for almost a decade. The novel centers on the character of Hailey Dean, a psychology student who becomes a prosecutor after the tragic murder of her fiancé just weeks before their wedding. The mystery takes flight when Dean, having relocated to Manhattan and trained as a therapist, discovers that her patients are being murdered in a copycat style of an Atlanta serial killer from her past. Grace -- who is also the author of the nonfiction book \"Objection!\" -- recently spoke to CNN about the challenges of giving birth to both twins and a thriller, who might die in her next novel and what she thinks about television shows like \"Saturday Night Live\" parodying her. CNN: You are a working mother of two year-old twins. How in the world did you find time to write a book? Nancy Grace: It was hard work. I had done \"Objection\" and I had an idea for a second nonfiction. I went back to my editor and I said \"Here's an idea for another nonfiction.\" She said \"Yeah, it's OK, you got anything else?\" I said \"No, but I do have an old manuscript I've been working on for a long time, a murder mystery.\" I told her it's not finished yet, I have about 300 pages. I took it over that day and the next day they told me they wanted a two-book series on Hailey Dean. Then I thought \"Oh Lord, now I've got to finish it.\" That happened around the time I got pregnant. Watch Nancy discuss her new book » . I had a difficult pregnancy. I was in a wheelchair, I threw up every day, I broke my foot during the pregnancy, so a lot of crazy things happened. Finally, after the twins came, the deadline came. I literally had to sit in the bed with the computer and force myself to finish it. I knew what was going to happen in each of the four storylines, but I had to get there. I would be up sometimes until 3 or 4 in the morning. The twins, one would wake up, by the time I would get that one fed and down, the other one would wake up and then it was time to get up at 5:30. CNN: You said you knew who did it in terms of the mystery early on in the writing. So how did the book change during its development? Grace: The characters really developed. It's like getting to know a person. Read an excerpt from the novel . There are certain things Hailey simply would not do. You get to know your characters and they become richer and more intricate because you get to know the character. I would not do anything that was out of character for them. CNN: The plot and the settings sound very familiar to your own life. How much of you is in Hailey? Grace: Hailey is a much better person than I am, I can tell you that much. She's very brave. She thinks her way out of difficult and almost impossible situations, she's courageous and she's witty. I would say it's loosely based, but she's a much better heroine than I could ever be. CNN: What is more difficult, writing nonfiction or fiction? Grace: It is definitely harder to write fiction. With nonfiction you deal with facts already in existence, but with fiction you have to create everything. Details like what color somebody's hair was to how hot it was that day. A lot of ideas for the book would come to me in the middle of the night and I forgot some of them so often that I now sleep with my two BlackBerrys near the bed. I've learned my lesson the hard way, so I will now write myself my book notes in the middle of the night. CNN: Is there anything that didn't make it into this book that you wished had? Grace: Yes, but don't worry because I saved it for the next book, which will be set in the television industry. There's going to be a lot of dead TV executives (laughing). CNN: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so what are your thoughts on having been parodied? Grace: It's funny to me. Everything from YouTube to \"Boston Legal\" and \"Saturday Night Live.\" It's very flattering that they would think enough to make fun of me. I want [rapper] Eminem to make fun of me, but I don't think it would be very nice (laughing)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim\" has a story similar to hers .\nGrace says main character \"is a much better person than I am\"\nThe thriller was almost a decade in the making .\nBook first of two planned about prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Britons, Germans and other tourists on the Spanish island of Mallorca \"can feel safe because they aren't targets of the ETA terrorist band,\" which recently bombed the popular resort, Spain's interior minister said Tuesday. Police cordon off the route leading to the location of the blasts in Palma de Mallorca. \"People should feel safe because security forces are on top of this,\" Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a nationally-televised news conference in Madrid. Rubalcaba's comments followed the Sunday explosions on Mallorca of what he said were four small ETA bombs that caused no injuries, and two weeks after an ETA car bomb killed two Civil Guard officers on the same Mediterranean island. But Rubalcaba said police aren't sure if the ETA militants behind the bombings remain in hiding on the island or have left, and he warned repeatedly that the Basque separatist group could attack again. \"We are on maximum alert in Mallorca and the rest of Spain,\" Rubalcaba said. \"ETA, when it can, attacks, so you can't rule out that they won't attack again. We try to prevent them from doing so.\" Watch background behind ETA's decades-long struggle » . The island's regional government told CNN on Monday that since the bombings, there have been no \"significant\" tourist cancellations. Tens of thousands of Britons and Germans are vacationing on Mallorca, as is Spain's King Juan Carlos and the royal family. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence. Police initially attributed three small bombs on Sunday to ETA, which is listed as a terrorist group by Spain, the United States and the European Union. But Tuesday, Rubalcaba confirmed that police believe a fourth bomb also was ETA's work. Some local authorities initially thought it might have been just an accidental gas explosion. Three of the bombs exploded in the restrooms of restaurants and a bar in the main city, Palma de Mallorca, and the other was placed in the restroom of an underground commercial area beneath a main square. Rubalcaba revealed that at least one of the bombs was in a male lavatory; previously it was reported they were all in women's restrooms. Rubalcaba said one of the three warning calls on Sunday preceding the attacks came from near Bordeaux, France --- ETA's traditional rear-guard base. The warning calls, he added, provided only scant details about the bombs' locations to police. The four small bombs were activated by timers, and one of them was hidden in a bar that had been closed since Friday. Rubalcaba reiterated the government's position that \"these attacks don't do anything but strengthen our determination. Those who placed the bombs will spend long years in jail and recent experience says they will.\" ETA has been battered over the past 16 months by arrests of four suspected top ETA military chiefs and dozens of militants. Hours before Sunday's bombs, ETA claimed responsibility for a series of bombings across Spain in June and July: the one that killed two Civil Guard officers, another that killed a police officer, and another that heavily damaged a Civil Guard barracks, slightly wounded dozens, including children. In a statement released to the Basque newspaper Gara, ETA said those attacks were in retaliation for the Socialist government's crackdown on its ranks. The group said, \"What ETA has been looking for during long decades is a negotiated political solution.\" But Rubalcaba recently ruled out a resumption of negotiations that his government tried without success in 2006 during an ETA cease-fire. Spanish media last week cited numerous politicians and analysts who suggested that ETA's recent spate of violence might be trying to force the government back to the negotiating table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Spanish officials say ETA not targeting tourists on island of Mallorca .\nFour bombs detonated on Sunday with no injuries .\nTwo Civil Guard officers killed on Mallorca two weeks earlier ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month led to massive protests, on Tuesday called the balloting \"the most free election anywhere in the world.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected last month, setting off days of protests. \"It was a great event,\" he said in a nationally televised address. The election, which opponents charge was rigged, was followed by street demonstrations and civil unrest that led to the deaths of at least 20 protesters and the arrest of more than 1,000, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government banned coverage by international journalists. The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents \"did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud.\" Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation.\" Everyone has criticisms, he said. \"I have my own.\" But he accused the \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in his country's affairs, including the post-election situation. Some Iranians collaborated with enemies, the president said. Ahmadinejad also said Tuesday he believes the government should be \"substantially\" reorganized. Although he didn't elaborate, he said the areas of employment, housing, development and civil rights were high on the agenda. \"[We] need to create newer capacities and prepare ourselves for this new period,\" he said, apparently referring to his upcoming second term in office. \"With this election, we have entered a new era ... in domestic spheres and on an international level,\" he added. He called it \"an era of solidarity.\" \"The government is at the service of the entire people,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"Things will be done in a better way, more effective way, so we can reach higher aspirations.\" He said experts have been invited to help the government achieve progress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iranian president calls recent vote \"most free election anywhere in the world\"\nIn address, he says criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation\"\nHe accuses \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in country's affairs .\nWidespread protests rocked Iran in days after Ahmadinejad's re-election ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A tsunami watch issued for five nations after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean was canceled about two hours later. A tsunami watch in effect after an earthquake in the Indian Ocean has been called off. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued the watch for India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh after the quake, which struck at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday (3:55 p.m. Monday ET). Its epicenter was about 163 miles (262 km) north of Port Blair in India's Andaman Islands, and 225 miles south-southwest of Pathein, Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake's focus was about 20 miles below the Earth's surface. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground. Watch where the earthquakes hit » . \"Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,\" the warning center said in a bulletin. \"Therefore, the tsunami watch issued by this center is now canceled.\" According to the geological survey, a 6.4-magnitude quake struck near the south coast of Honshu, Japan, 12 minutes after the Indian Ocean quake. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory following that quake, but said that the expected wave would be under 2 feet. CNN's Augie Martin contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Watch covered India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh .\nIt was issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean .\nQuake with 6.4-magnitude occurred near Japan 12 minutes later ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Jack D. Hidary co-founded a technology company, Earth Web/Dice, and a financial research company, Vista Research. He works currently in the fields of clean energy technology and policy and is chairman of SmartTransportation.org which successfully pushed for the use of hybrid cars as taxis in New York City. Jack Hidary says the Cash for Clunkers program promotes fuel economy and safety while boosting the economy. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Our country is facing a daunting economic challenge this year and we must take steps to pull ourselves out of this ditch. One such program that has hit the ground running is Cash for Clunkers. It's helping consumers move beyond these hard times and has reignited a whole industry. Cash for Clunkers is now working in more than 10 countries around the world. In Germany, consumers have junked more than 1.2 million guzzlers in the last five months and significantly boosted the economy there. So we know that Clunkers programs get the job done. How many other government programs can you say that about? The Senate has joined the House in passing an additional $2 billion for Cash for Clunkers, allowing the program to move forward. This will bring additional buyers to the showroom. One key feature of the Clunkers program is that it is not just $3 billion of new money into the economy. It is injecting $21 billion -- since consumers must bring the rest of the money to pay for the new car. That is a lot of stimulus for the dollar. Cash for Clunkers is saving jobs up and down the auto supply chain: from dealers to assembly workers and parts markers. Dealerships alone lost 50,000 jobs in the last 18 months and would continue to shed jobs without this program. If you look at the new cars consumers are buying with the program, 45 percent are from Detroit's Big Three automakers. That is a lot of new sales for Ford, GM and Chrysler. Cash for Clunkers also helps autoworkers across the country. Let's remember that lots of the Toyotas and Hondas sold in the program are made by American workers right here in this country. They are in states such as Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. This program helps all American autoworkers, not just those up North. Some people ask why we should help the auto industry and not other industries in this same way. Cash for Clunkers actually helps all of us -- even those of us who do not participate in the program or work in the auto industry. First, the auto industry has so many connected jobs in real estate, finance, manufacturing and other industries, that is hard to separate it out. Second, one of the biggest drags on our economy is our trade imbalance. We import about $700 billion more than we export. That hurts our capital flows, credit and other key indicators. Guess what amounts to 50 percent of that trade imbalance? Oil. We use 21 million barrels of oil every day in the United States and import 62 percent of that -- mainly from countries that really don't like us. We use that oil mainly for transportation -- cars, SUVs, and other vehicles. Unless we scrap guzzlers at a faster rate, we will never reduce our oil consumption. Cash for Clunkers is a step in the right direction. It educates the consumer on how much they are paying for having a low-MPG car and encourages them to get into a more efficient vehicle. A family can save $750-$1,000 a year by jumping just 10 mpg in efficiency. Those savings will increase as gas prices go back up. Gas has already shot up from $1.50 a gallon to $2.60. Do you want to be stuck with a 10 mile-per-gallon guzzler when gas jumps back to $4 a gallon? Third, Cash for Clunkers saves lives. When you bring in a clunker that has no airbags, anti-lock brakes or other modern safety features and get a new car that does, you are protecting your family. Forty thousand people die every year on American highways and many more get serious injuries. You can reduce your chances of becoming a statistic by getting the most safety for your dollar -- and with the Clunkers program you can now do that more affordably. As a co-architect of the federal Cash for Clunkers program with the Center for American Progress and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and adviser to various congressional offices on the issue, it is gratifying to see how quickly it has been adopted by the American people. It achieves multiple goals -- it stimulates auto sales, increases the efficiency of the U.S. fleet and makes us safer. Let's support this program by encouraging our friends and neighbors to finally retire that guzzler and help the country with the purchase of a cleaner, lower maintenance car for the future. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack D. Hidary." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jack Hidary: Cash for Clunkers program boosting economy and auto industry .\nHe says getting clunkers off the road will help decrease dependence on foreign oil .\nHe says switching to a more efficient car can improve safety and save cash .\nHidary: Cash for Clunkers is saving jobs up and down the auto supply chain ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LEBANON, Tennessee (CNN) -- A tumultuous home life forced country music star Gretchen Wilson to grow up quickly. Bernadine Nelson, left, and Gretchen Wilson want to raise awareness about the importance of adult education. \"I was one of those kids that was brought up in kind of a crazy environment in the home, and I just thought I'd be better off if I could get out there and start doing it my way,\" said Wilson, 35. So at 15, she quit school and became a bartender in her Illinois hometown. From that point on, Wilson focused her attention solely on surviving and making music. In 1996, she moved to Nashville to pursue her dream of being a country music singer. Despite setbacks along the way, she found success in 2004 with the release of her first single, \"Redneck Woman.\" \"I had big dreams like most local musicians do, but the chances of this having happened for me were slim to none,\" said the Grammy Award winner. \"Without [an] education, I'd have been pouring drinks for the rest of my life.\" Until earlier this year, Wilson was one of the millions of Americans who haven't finished their high school education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 43 million people have dropped out of high school, and one in five Americans are functionally illiterate. Though she was a successful musician, Wilson said she became more determined than ever to finish her education. So, at age 34, she decided to get her GED -- and it was educator Bernadine Nelson who helped her. \"I didn't have to go back and get my GED, but it was something I really needed to complete me as a person,\" Wilson said. Wilson reached out to the local adult education center in Lebanon, Tennessee, where she met Nelson, the center's director. \"[She] greeted me with a huge smile on her face and welcome arms,\" Wilson said. \"She promised me above all that I'd be able to stand in that line and be proud of myself. She became an instant hero in my eyes.\" Nelson held true to her word. A year later, Wilson received her GED, crediting the achievement to Nelson's support and encouragement. Together, they're now raising awareness about the importance of an education and encouraging people to say, \"I can do that too.\" Though she had been a teacher for decades, Nelson, 62, didn't realize the scope of under-education in America until she began working in adult education roughly six years ago. \"It was an emotional thing to me because I kept thinking, 'What can I do? How can my little job help?' \" Nelson said. \"But I know it does, because every single person I've helped helps the big problem.\" Watch Wilson describe why Nelson is her hero » . In addition to overseeing the center, Nelson has become an outspoken advocate for adult education in Tennessee, speaking to community groups and holding a weekly guest spot on a local radio show. She believes the benefits of an education are priceless. \"Having a GED or high school diploma gives you more self-esteem and a better opportunity for a better job,\" Nelson said. Since 2002, Nelson has helped more than 1,050 students receive their GEDs. And she said she knows that many others will follow in Wilson's footsteps. \"Gretchen came to the program because she wanted to fulfill this void that had been missing for all these years for her,\" Nelson said. \"I don't think she realized how much this would speak to other people. Her fans are legion. If their role model, the Redneck Woman, could get her GED, then ... maybe they could too.\" Since Wilson received her GED in May 2008, Nelson said, several people have already called her, citing the singer's achievement as inspiration for obtaining theirs. For Wilson, Nelson's dedication to bringing the importance of education to the forefront of people's lives is making a difference. \"She's bound and determined to put that sense of pride back into these people who felt that they've lost it,\" Wilson said. \"That's not only respectable, it's admirable.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Country singer Gretchen Wilson earned her GED 20 years after quitting school .\nEducator Bernadine Nelson helped Wilson along the way .\nWilson and Nelson promote the importance of adult education .\nWilson's achievement has inspired others to get their GED, Nelson said ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Irish government ordered a recall Saturday of all pork products linked to pigs slaughtered in Ireland, after laboratory tests found the presence of dioxins in animal feed and pork fat samples. Preliminary evidence gathered by Ireland's Food Safety Authority indicated that the contamination likely started in September, the government said in a statement. The Food Safety Authority advised consumers not to consume Irish pork and bacon products for the time being. The government is now trying to determine the scope of the contamination. Dioxins are environmental contaminants, often present in industrial waste. Most dioxin exposure occurs through diet, with more than 95 percent coming from the consumption of animal fats, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dioxin levels in food are regulated. Dr Tony Holohan, Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, said that the dioxin usually impacts the nervous system and liver in comments reported by the UK Press Association. Holohan added that the dioxin would only be perilous through prolonged exposure. The agency reported that an animal feed ingredient supplied by one business to 40-plus farms is regarded as the likely cause of the dioxin by experts, and that tests revealed the dioxin polychlorinated biphenyls to be 80 to 200 times above the acceptable safety level." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Food scare in Ireland after dioxins found in animal feed and pork fat samples .\nGovernment evaluating extent of contamination, risk only via prolonged exposure .\nMedia: Government says level of dioxins were 80 to 200 times above acceptable level ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Bishop Earl Paulk, a charismatic preacher brought down by a series of sex scandals, has died. He was 81. Bishop Earl Paulk died this weekend at 81. Paulk died near midnight Saturday at the Atlanta Medical Center, a nursing supervisor confirmed to CNN. The bishop had been at the hospital for several days, she said. Paulk's death came after an \"extended and horrible battle with cancer,\" Paulk's nephew, Bishop Jim Swilley, wrote in a blog post. Paulk founded the Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta. It quickly grew to become one of the first megachurches in the country. Paulk also had his own television show. But his success as a preacher was overshadowed time and again by allegations of sexual impropriety. One allegation ended in a civil suit that was settled out of court in 2003. The accuser said Paulk molested her when she was a child. A second woman claimed the bishop forced her into a 14-year affair. She filed, withdrew and refiled a suit. Dennis Brewer, an attorney for Paulk, admitted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Paulk had a brief adulterous relationship with the woman, but said she was the initiator. During a deposition in the case, the bishop said under oath the woman was the only one he slept with outside of marriage. But a court-ordered paternity test showed that he also fathered a child with his sister-in-law. Other allegations -- some true, some unfounded -- cost the church membership, as worshippers dwindled from 10,000 to about 1,000. \"As most of you know, my family has been walking through a very long nightmare season in connection with things concerning him,\" Swilley wrote in his blog post. \"Please pray for some much needed healing and closure for us all.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bishop Earl Paulk died near midnight Saturday at the Atlanta Medical Center .\nPaulk was accused several times of molesting various church members .\nPaulk was battling cancer, according to a blog posting by his nephew ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(WIRED) -- Say hello to your latest personal navigation device: a netbook. Dell plans to introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be integrated into the company's netbooks to turn them into gizmos that can offer turn-by-turn direction as well as any Garmin or TomTom. Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks to offer turn-by-turn direction. \"Smartphones already have GPS capabilities,\" says Alan Sicher, senior wireless product manager at Dell. \"We are now bringing it to netbooks so the devices know where you are and can help you where you want to go.\" Customers will have the option to buy the $69 card called the Wireless 700 when ordering their Dell Mini 10 netbook. Dell's move comes at a time when navigation devices makers are looking beyond the traditional standalone GPS gadget and are offering their software on other devices. Last month, TomTom announced that its turn-by-turn directions app would be available on the iPhone. TomTom will also offer accessories such as a car mounting dock and power charger. Meanwhile, Dell is hoping to capitalize on the explosive sales of netbooks. Dell netbooks with the integrated GPS cards will allow consumers to pop open a netbook and get directions and also also make their netbook location aware. For instance, buyers can geo-tag photos on Flickr or check weather information customized to their current location. The Wireless 700 card combines Broadcom's GPS technology and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi positioning solutions. As for the navigation software, it offers 2D and 3D map views, save addresses for a trip and route optimization-- pretty much all the things that a standard GPS devices does. Netbooks are petite devices. Still, it is difficult to imagine consumers carrying it around as a GPS navigation device or using it their car to find their way around--especially when smaller-sized cellphones could do the job. Sicher says Dell's GPS-capable netbooks will come in handy for international travelers. \"If you are traveling to Europe roaming costs can be pretty pricey for your cellphone,\" he says. The GPS netbooks could also be handy in areas where cellphone coverage is weak, says Sicher. But there's fine print to the turn-by-turn directions navigation software on the netbook. Though it will be free for buyers of the card and the netbook, the maps will be updated yearly and customers could be charged for the updates. Dell plans to offer accessories such as car charger and a dock for the netbooks, but they won't be available until later this month. The GPS cards will be available starting July 7. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks .\nThe company's netbooks will be able to offer turn-by-turn directions .\nMakers are looking beyond traditional GPS gadgets to offer software on other devices .\nUsers will be able to geo-tag photos on Flickr or check customized weather info ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The text messages address various issues and come from all over the African continent. President Obama greets people Saturday during breakfast at Osu Castle in Accra, Ghana. From the personal: \"Obama, as a young lady I dream of being the president. U r a huge encouragement.\" To cries for help: \"Dear president, Darfur firing again...waiting for peace through the change u promised.\" To calls for intervention: \"Encourage African leaders to improve the quality and access to education for citizens.\" The messages, from Ghana, Sudan and South Africa respectively, were among more than 5,000 sent to Barack Obama during his first visit as president to sub-Saharan Africa. Obama, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters arrived in Ghana on Friday night, sparking excitement in the west African nation. Watch how Ghana is celebrating Obama's visit » . Despite being home to some of the world's poorest nations, Africa has a vibrant cell phone market, considered by industry analysts as among the fastest-growing worldwide. Administration officials said they set up different numbers across the continent for citizens to communicate with Obama, whose father was from the east African nation of Kenya. \"Over the past week, we have been collecting questions, comments and words of welcome for President Obama via SMS, Twitter, Facebook and from newspapers across Africa,\" the White House said on its Web site. Three journalists from South Africa, Senegal and Kenya will vet the questions and provide a few to Obama, who will address them on African radio stations and via a Web video Monday, the White House said. Peter Kimani, a senior associate editor for a Kenyan daily, The Standard, is one of the three. \"The U.S. Embassy picked and vetted the journalists, and we are getting the questions, then it is up to us to determine what questions we will forward to the president,\" Kimani said. \"It is our judgment call on what to pick.\" Most of the text messages were coming from South Africa, according to a log on the White House Web site. Obama's one-nation visit has generated envy among Ghana's neighbors, who considered it a message from the White House to governments that have poor records of stability. Citizens of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nations, and Kenya were the most vocal in their concerns over the choice of Ghana. \"We r disappointed that you have not chosen Nigeria as your first African point of call,\" one text said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than 5,000 messages sent to Obama during his visit to Ghana .\nDespite widespread poverty, Africa has a vibrant cell phone market .\nThree African journalists from South Africa, Senegal, Kenya will vet questions .\nObama will address the questions on African radio stations and via Web video ." } ]

[ { "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 massive fire engulfed the four-story offices of a major film company in central London on Friday, sending clouds of white smoke over the city skyline, the London fire department said. Streets in London were cordoned off while firefighters tackled the blaze. Two firefighters were taken to the hospital with minor injuries as a result of the blaze in the Future Films building on Dean Street in the city's Soho district, London ambulance services said. The London Fire Brigade dispatched 12 engines and 55 firefighters to battle the fire, which began before 2 p.m. (9 a.m. ET). As a result, an adjacent street -- the W1 -- has been closed to traffic and pedestrians. When reached by CNN, Future Films founder and managing director Stephen Margolis had no comment about the fire. Future Films has been involved in the production of more than 120 films since Margolis created the company in 2000, including \"Bend it like Beckham\" (2002), \"The Importance of Being Earnest\" (2002), and \"Transsiberian\" (2008). CNN's Per Nyberg and Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Streets sealed off around London blaze .\nSmoke seen billowing over British capital .\nSoho a popular nightlife district ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Venezuela has promised to give Nicaragua $50 million to replace money that the United States said this week it would withhold from the Central American country, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra said Saturday. Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega expressed disappointment in U.S. President Barack Obama's decision. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised the aid after Ortega learned that the United States was canceling $62 million of aid that was to have come from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S.-government-funded anti-poverty fund set up by former President George W. Bush. Ortega expressed disappointment in President Barack Obama for the decision. \"He expresses good will, but in practice, he has the same policies as President Reagan,\" Ortega told a crowd of supporters in Managua's Plaza of the Revolution. In 1982, then-President Reagan supported funding the contras, the forces opposed to Ortega and his socialist Sandinista Party, which had come to power after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Ortega called this week's decision not to follow through on the payment \"disrespectful.\" \"The United States had given its word to the people of Nicaragua and in particular to the people of the cities involved in the program,\" he said. Wednesday's decision to cut the funds altogether came after the United States announced last November that it was suspending aid to Managua in the wake of what it said were fraudulent municipal elections. Ortega, whose party members won most of the mayoralties, disputed that. And he warned his U.S. counterpart that the world has changed since the United States funded the contras. \"He is the first to know that the United States of today is not the United States of 20, 30, 40 years ago,\" Ortega said. \"Today, the United States cannot do whatever it wants in the world. It doesn't have the moral force, even though it may have the material force to do it. They have even lost the support of the U.S. people.\" Still chafing over his loss to Violeta Chamorro, who replaced him as president in 1990, Ortega said those were the elections that were fraudulent. He said President George H. W. Bush affected the outcome by telling the Nicaraguans, \"If you vote for the [Sandinista] front, the war is going to continue; if you vote for the enemies of the front, go in peace.' That was the promise that Bush made.\" He described that pact as \"a big lie, since the peace was already coming. We, the Nicaraguans, were making peace.\" What Bush then wanted, Ortega said, was war throughout Central America. \"He fed the war in Guatemala, he fed the war in El Salvador, he fed the war in Nicaragua,\" Ortega said. Ortega described the three U.S.-backed governments that ruled Nicaragua from 1990 until 2007 -- when he reclaimed power -- as anti-democratic. \"They robbed the people of the right to health, the right to education, the right to decent housing,\" he said. \"They privatized energy industry, the telecommunications industry, the businesses of the workers -- those were nothing more than acts of corruption.\" And he said that the $62 million would have been used to build 12 highways, not to support his government. But work that has begun on two of the roads will be completed, said Rodney Bent, deputy CEO for the Millennium Challenge Corporation in an interview Friday with CNN en Espanol. He denied any suggestion that the money was being used for political ends rather than simply to alleviate poverty. \"That's totally false,\" Bent said, adding that his corporation's funds are doled out regardless of a government's leftist, centrist or conservative policies. \"We want a clean government,\" he said, adding that because the elections were not clean, \"we had to act.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. cancels $62 million of aid from the Millennium Challenge Corporation .\nOrtega: 'Obama expresses good will, but ... has same policies as Reagan'\nOrtega called the decision not to follow through on the payment 'disrespectful'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rep. Charles Rangel said he is satisfied with the steps New York police are taking in response to the death of Officer Omar Edwards, but renewed his call for a federal investigation into instances of police friendly fire. Officer Omar Edwards was shot to death by another officer on May 28. Edwards, 25, a black officer, was shot to death May 28 by a fellow officer, Andrew Dunton, who is white. Edwards was off duty at the time. Edwards was in plainclothes and carrying a handgun as he chased a suspect past a police car, authorities said. Dunton shot him after Edwards failed to drop his weapon when ordered to, they said. Officials said Dunton said he didn't realize Edwards was an officer. \"Every white cop that shot down a black cop, I would believe it was a mistake and not because of racism, but it takes special training for them to know,\" Rangel , D-New York, told CNN's Don Lemon on Saturday. In the wake of Edwards' death, the New York Police Department has implemented sensitivity training and provided guidance to officers on identifying themselves. In a statement, Rangel asked the Department of Justice to look into \"police department practices, training of police officers and whether and to what extent race was an issue in the tragedy.\" The shooting prompted New York Gov. David Paterson to commission a task force to investigate shootings between police officers statewide, spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein told CNN on Saturday. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne pledged Saturday to assist Paterson's investigation. Also Saturday, the NYPD released a list of 10 New York City officers killed in cases of mistaken identity since 1930. Five of the officers were African-American or Hispanic; five were white. The list does not include officers who were injured by friendly fire, and does not specify whether the officers killed were on or off duty. The formation of the New York task force came after Paterson met with state officials, clergy members and civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in a closed-door meeting Friday. The group called for an independent investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the NYPD incident. \"We are handling this sensitively,\" Paterson told reporters after the meeting. \"There may be issues that involve race, [but] we are not discussing any institutional or direct racism.\" The governor spoke of what he described as a \"high percentage of African-American and Hispanic police officers who were shot either on or off duty by friendly fire.\" However, the commission will examine friendly fire incidents between all officers regardless of race, according to Shorenstein. The task force will ask NYPD and police departments across the state to provide any data related to shootings where officers were either killed or injured by other officers. The governor said the task force will look at the statistics to \"determine if there's any disproportionate sense that any particular group has been victimized more than any other.\" Paterson said that he would \"not close the door\" on an independent investigation or special prosecutor to look into the death of Edwards, but would rely for now on the investigation by the New York City district attorney and the NYPD. The focus of the task force, the governor said, would be to prevent friendly fire among all police officers, regardless of race, and to instill confidence in the state and community that such incidents are investigated properly . CNN's Alona Rivord contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officer Omar Edwards of NYPD killed in friendly fire incident last month .\nEdwards, who is black, was shot by white officer who didn't realize he was fellow cop .\nRep. Charles Rangel asks Justice Department to look into police training, practices .\nNew York Gov. David Paterson has set up task force to look at issue statewide ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- After arguing with her husband, Liza Murphy walked out of their home in Emerson, New Jersey, leaving behind her purse, her cigarettes, her cell phone and her three children, her husband told police. There has been no sign of her since August 19, 2007. Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007. Murphy's friends and family reported her missing the next day. \"In my heart, I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone,\" said her mother, Sophia Stellatos. Police searched extensively for Murphy, especially around a reservoir not far from her home, but they found nothing. Cadaver dogs caught her scent near the George Washington Bridge, but the trail went cold, police told the family. Deepening the mystery, her husband, Joe Murphy, tried to take his own life a few days after his wife disappeared by walking into oncoming traffic and throwing himself in front of a fire truck, police say. He was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries, but police say he hired a lawyer and is no longer cooperating with investigators. His lawyer said Murphy, an Irish immigrant, has nothing to hide from the authorities. He said his client has no criminal record and no history of violence. Attorney Joseph Rem added that there was no physical violence in the marriage. According to her family, Liza Murphy, 42, was not the type of person to take off on her own without letting her family know. Watch an update » . \"She would never leave her three children behind voluntarily,\" her mother insisted. \"What doesn't make sense is Liza leaving her house without her purse, cell phone, wallet, keys or cigarettes,\" she added. \"She was a heavy smoker, and if she took off after a fight for a walk to cool off, she definitely wouldn't leave without her cigarettes!\" Liza Murphy and her husband were having marital problems, her family said. Stellatos described Joe Murphy as possessive of his wife, never allowing her to go out with her friends. She said he was even jealous if she spent time with her parents. Rem pointed out that his client has not been named as a suspect or a person of interest in the case. He said police have not asked to speak to his client recently. Liza Murphy's children are 15, 13 and 10 years old now. Joe Murphy has full custody of them, and the Stellatoses have not seen their grandchildren since shortly before their daughter disappeared. Murphy and her children had spent the week before her disappearance visiting with her parents, who live about 125 miles away. They returned the Friday before Murphy's disappearance. Police say both the Murphy home and their vehicles have been processed for forensics, but they found no evidence of foul play or struggle. Liza Murphy had been suffering from depression and was on medication for fibromyalgia, a painful condition that affects the muscles and soft tissues. Police say she may have been accosted after she left home, still stewing over the argument. The police seek the public's help in this case. Anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of Liza Murphy or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the Emerson Police Department's tip line at 201-262-2800." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Woman disappeared after argument with husband .\nHusband tried to kill himself after disappearance, denies involvement .\nCadaver dogs detected Liza Murphy's scent near George Washington Bridge .\nKnow something? Call 201-262-2800 ." } ]

[ { "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 stolen Statue of Liberty replica has resurfaced in a disturbing video posted on YouTube that shows someone decapitating the blindfolded lady and smashing her head into pieces. The YouTube video shows a gloved hand sawing off Lady Liberty's head before smashing it. The 200-pound replica was stolen less than a month ago from Vox Pop, a coffee shop in Brooklyn. \"It's very disturbing,\" shop operator Debi Ryan told CNN, adding the video struck a chord similar to that of terrorist assassination videos. \"I don't know what it means. ... I don't know who would do this.\" The YouTube video begins with a waving American flag, and then shows a gloved hand sawing off the head of the statue before crushing it. The slogans \"We don't want your freedom\" and \"Death to America\" flash across the screen during the one-minute video, which is dated July Fourth. It was anonymously e-mailed to the Daily News and Ryan earlier this week. Ryan said she's sure the statue in the video is the one stolen from her cafe. \"She's unique. I know my girl,\" she said of the statue. \"We just had her completely refurbished, outfitted with a solar torch and painted.\" Authorities told CNN they are handling the case as a larceny rather than separately investigating the YouTube video. \"We want to verify who sent the e-mail with the video and see if they're responsible,\" police said. A sign on the store, located in Ditmas Park, reads, \"Books, Coffee, Democracy,\" near where the 8-foot replica of Lady Liberty used to stand outside. The self-described community coffee shop is also a bookstore and a spot for artists and performers. \"We've created a space here that's owned by the community,\" Ryan said. \"We're all about freedom of speech and freedom to be who you are and say whatever you think.\" But Ryan doesn't consider the YouTube video featuring her stolen statue appropriate free speech. \"Vox Pop stands for freedom of speech. You don't get to steal somebody else's property to send that message. We have to respect each other,\" she said. Although the coffee shop recently faced economic problems and neighborhood tension, the motive behind the statue's theft remains unknown. As for whether there will be a replacement statue, Ryan said, \"I'm hoping. I think she belongs here. But she added, \"Whether we have a physical statue or not, what she stands for remains here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Video shows Statue of Liberty replica blindfolded before it's decapitated, smashed .\n200-pound replica was stolen less than a month ago from Vox Pop coffee shop .\nSlogans \"We don't want your freedom,\" \"Death to America\" flash across screen .\nCops say they are handling case as larceny ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- David Beckham is planning showdown talks with L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan, who questioned the English football star's commitment to the MLS team earlier this month. Landon Donovan, left, is unhappy with David Beckham's contribution at LA Galaxy. Beckham said the U.S. national captain was \"unprofessional\" for publicly voicing his opinions, which were reported worldwide from the soon-to-be-published book \"The Beckham Experiment\" by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl. \"In every football player's eyes throughout the world, it would be unprofessional to speak out about a team-mate, especially in the press and not to your face,\" Beckham said before watching the Galaxy's 1-0 win over Chivas USA on Saturday night. What do you think? Was Donovan right? \"In 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players, and not once have I been criticized for my professionalism. \"It's important to get this cleared up, and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days. Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation.\" Donovan, who led the United States to the Confederations Cup final last month, said in the book that Beckham had been a negative influence since his high-profile move to the Major League Soccer outfit two years ago. He said Beckham, who brokered a loan move to AC Milan last season, had shown little interest in the Galaxy since coach Ruud Gullit resigned in August last year. Donovan, who leads the Galaxy in Beckham's absence, also cast doubt on the 34-year-old midfielder's leadership abilities. But last week he admitted that he should have brought up his grievances with Beckham earlier. \"I don't apologize for what I said,\" Donovan told MLSnet.com on Thursday. \"I just apologize for the way I did. I should have told him to his face. I've long told David since he's been gone and I've been gone that I want to sit down and talk with him about everything. \"It's fresh in everyone's minds now, and it appears like everything has gone on in a short period of time, but this has been a long time coming. The timing of it makes it a little awkward and seemingly uncomfortable, but we'll be fine. We'll get through it. \"I like David as a person and I think he's a very good player. The frustrating part was at some point something happened and he seemingly turned off at the end of the year. \"Nobody knows what it was, and my fault is I should have asked him and approached him and I didn't. Instead I vented to a reporter, and I regret it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David Beckham plans to meet with L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan .\nU.S. captain accused Beckham of not been committed to the MLS team .\nEngland star Beckham says Donovan's comments were \"unprofessional\"\nThe midfielder has returned to the Galaxy after loan spell with Italy's AC Milan ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie. Woody Harrelson says he got into a clash with a photographer because he mistook him for a zombie. The TMZ photographer filed a complaint with police claiming the actor damaged his camera and pushed him in the face at La Guardia Airport, according to an airport spokesman. \"We're looking into this allegation and if it's warranted, we'll turn it over to the proper authorities,\" said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Ron Marsico. The photographer, who was not identified, captured the encounter on a small camera after his larger one was broken. Harrelson, who is being sued by another TMZ photographer for an alleged assault in 2006, did not deny his involvement. \"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland,' in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character,\" Harrelson said in a statement issued Friday by his publicist. \"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie,\" he said. TMZ.com posted two videos of the incident, including one recorded by the larger camera before it was damaged. The first video shows the photographer following Harrelson and his daughter down an escalator and out of the terminal. It ends with Harrelson apparently reaching for the lens. The second video begins with the photographer accusing Harrelson of breaking his camera. After Harrelson returns the camera to him, a scuffle appears to ensue. \"Woody, this is assault. Woody, this is assault,\" the photographer is heard saying. \"Woody, chill out. Would you please chill out?\" The photographer continues to follow Harrelson for another four minutes as the actor and his daughter walk to the airport parking lot. At one point, Harrelson again turns toward the cameraman. \"I'm being chased by Woody Harrelson while I'm talking to you,\" the photographer says as he talks to an unidentified person on a cell phone. \"He hit me in my face, he broke my friggin' camera, he broke the camera in pieces,\" he said. Harrelson, his daughter and a driver get inside an SUV and the encounter ends. In the movie \"Zombieland,\" Harrelson plays \"the most frightened person on Earth\" looking for refuge from zombies, according to the Internet Movie Database . Filming on the movie wrapped in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, according to director Ruben Fleischer's Web site. TMZ photographer Josh Levine filed a lawsuit against Harrelson last year for an alleged attack outside a Hollywood nightclub in 2006. Video of that incident, which is also posted on TMZ.com, also appeared to show Harrelson grabbing a camera and clashing with the photographer. Los Angeles prosecutors declined to press charges against the actor, but Levine filed a suit last summer asking for $2.5 million in damages. \"Woody Harrelson has a history of anger management issues with people and we intend to put a stop to this,\" Cyrus Nownejad, Levine's lawyer, said Friday. TMZ is partly owned by AOL, part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Woody Harrelson defends his clash with a photographer at a New York airport .\nStatement through publicist says he was still in character from zombie movie .\nHarrelson: \"I quite understandably mistook [the photographer] for a zombie\"\nHarrelson is being sued by another TMZ photographer for an alleged assault ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pilot of a doomed plane that crashed, killing 50 people, said \"Jesus Christ\" and \"We're down,\" seconds before the plane hurtled from the night sky into a house outside Buffalo, New York, in February. An investigator walks past the wreckage from a plane crash in Clarence Center, New York, in February. The last sounds heard in the cockpit were First Officer Rebecca Shaw saying \"We're\" and then screaming at 10:16 p.m. on February 12, according to a transcript of the cockpit recording. Seconds earlier, the pilot, Capt. Marvin Renslow, said, \"Jesus Christ,\" as a sound \"similar to stick shaker\" was heard, the transcript said. Renslow said, \"We're down,\" and a thump was heard before Shaw said, \"We're\" and screamed. The National Transportation Safety Board released the transcript of the cockpit recording on Tuesday as it began a three-day hearing in Washington on the crash. See how crash of Flight 3407 unfolded » . Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by regional carrier Colgan Air, plunged into a house in Clarence Center, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one man in the house. About five minutes before the crash, Shaw had shared with Renslow her fear of flying in icy conditions, according to the transcript. \"I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'dve freaked out. I'dve [sic] had like seen this much ice and thought, 'oh my gosh, we were going to crash,\" Shaw told Renslow. The NTSB's preliminary investigation determined there was some ice accumulation on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft, but that \"icing had a minimal impact on the stall speed of the airplane.\" Watch more on the NTSB investigation » . In a story Monday, the Wall Street Journal cited investigators as saying the crash resulted from pilot Marvin Renslow's incorrect response to the plane's precarious drop in speed: He overrode an emergency system known as a \"stick pusher,\" which sends the plane into a dive so it can regain speed and avoid a stall. Colgan Air, the operator of Continental Connection flights, said Monday that Renslow had never trained in a flight simulator with the safety system that activated just before the plane went down. Colgan said there is no regulatory requirement that it provide hands-on training with the \"stick pusher.\" \"A stick pusher demonstrated in an aircraft simulator is not required by the FAA,\" the airline said in a statement. \"And thus was not included in Colgan's Q400 training program.\" The Federal Aviation Administration said its standards do not require hands-on practice with the safety system. \"That's a significant problem,\" veteran pilot Douglas Moss told CNN. Moss, an expert in stall recovery, believes flight simulator practice with a stick pusher should be mandatory for aspiring pilots. \"It's similar to picking up and throwing a groundball in baseball. You can study it academically all you want to but you really need to develop the proficiency, the skill, the muscle memory required to do that,\" said Moss. Renslow had failed five pilot tests, known as \"check rides,\" three of which occurred before he joined the airline, Colgan Air said. Renslow had revealed only one of those failures to the airline, according to Colgan. NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said Tuesday that the board's hearing will not address who is to blame for the accident. \"Over the course of this hearing, we will continue to collect information that will assist the safety board in its examination of safety issues arising from this accident,\" he said. He said those issues are: airplane performance, cold weather operations, a sterile cockpit, flight crew training and performance, and fatigue management. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: First officer talked to pilot about fear of crashing, transcript shows .\nSafety board releases transcript from cockpit of plane's final moments .\nFebruary crash near Buffalo, New York, killed all 49 on plane and one on ground .\nMonday report cited pilot's training; airline says training met FAA requirements ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Mental Floss) -- Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep's wool -- and, later, thanks to the printing press -- newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The average American uses 57 squares a day and 50 pounds of toilet paper per year. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water. But the idea of a commercial product designed solely to wipe one's bum? That started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A. In less than a century, Uncle Sam's marketing genius turned something disposable into something indispensable. Toilet paper gets on a roll . The first products designed specifically to wipe one's nethers were aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp dispensed from Kleenex-like boxes. They were invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty, who claimed his sheets prevented hemorrhoids. Gayetty was so proud of his therapeutic bathroom paper that he had his name printed on each sheet. But his success was limited. Americans soon grew accustomed to wiping with the Sears Roebuck catalog, and they saw no need to spend money on something that came in the mail for free. Toilet paper took its next leap forward in 1890, when two brothers named Clarence and E. Irvin Scott popularized the concept of toilet paper on a roll. The Scotts' brand became more successful than Gayetty's medicated wipes, in part because they built a steady trade selling toilet paper to hotels and drugstores. But it was still an uphill battle to get the public to openly buy the product, largely because Americans remained embarrassed by bodily functions. In fact, the Scott brothers were so ashamed of the nature of their work that they didn't take proper credit for their innovation until 1902. \"No one wanted to ask for it by name,\" says Dave Praeger, author of \"Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product.\" \"It was so taboo that you couldn't even talk about the product.\" By 1930, the German paper company Hakle began using the tag line, \"Ask for a roll of Hakle and you won't have to say toilet paper!\" As time passed, toilet tissues slowly became an American staple. But widespread acceptance of the product didn't officially occur until a new technology demanded it. At the end of the 19th century, more and more homes were being built with sit-down flush toilets tied to indoor plumbing systems. And because people required a product that could be flushed away with minimal damage to the pipes, corncobs and moss no longer cut it. In no time, toilet paper ads boasted that the product was recommended by both doctors and plumbers. Mental Floss: 5 times drug companies promised too much . Strength of going soft . In the early 1900s, toilet paper was still being marketed as a medicinal item. But in 1928, the Hoberg Paper Company tried a different tack. On the advice of its ad men, the company introduced a brand called Charmin and fitted the product with a feminine logo that depicted a beautiful woman. The genius of the campaign was that by evincing softness and femininity, the company could avoid talking about toilet paper's actual purpose. Charmin was enormously successful, and the tactic helped the brand survive the Great Depression. (It also helped that, in 1932, Charmin began marketing economy-size packs of four rolls.) Decades later, the dainty ladies were replaced with babies and bear cubs -- advertising vehicles that still stock the aisles today. By the 1970s, America could no longer conceive of life without toilet paper. Case in point: In December 1973, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked about a toilet paper shortage during his opening monologue. But America didn't laugh. Instead, TV watchers across the country ran out to their local grocery stores and bought up as much of the stuff as they could. Also telling was that, in 1978, a TV Guide poll named Mr. Whipple --the affable grocer who implored customers, \"Please don't squeeze the Charmin\" -- the third best-known man in America, behind former President Richard Nixon and the Rev. Billy Graham. Mental Floss: Cheetos Lip Balm and other bizarre brand extensions . Rolling the world . Currently, the United States spends more than $6 billion a year on toilet tissue -- more than any other nation in the world. Americans, on average, use 57 squares a day and 50 pounds a year. Even still, the toilet paper market in the United States has largely plateaued. The real growth in the industry is happening in developing countries. There, it's booming. Toilet paper revenues in Brazil alone have more than doubled since 2004. The radical upswing in sales is believed to be driven by a combination of changing demographics, social expectations, and disposable income. \"The spread of globalization can kind of be measured by the spread of Western bathroom practices,\" says Praeger. When average citizens in a country start buying toilet paper, wealth and consumerism have arrived. It signifies that people not only have extra cash to spend, but they've also come under the influence of Western marketing. America without toilet paper? Even as the markets boom in developing nations, toilet paper manufacturers find themselves needing to charge more per roll to make a profit. That's because production costs are rising. During the past few years, pulp has become more expensive, energy costs are rising, and even water is becoming scarce. As the climate continues to change, toilet paper companies may need to keep hiking up their prices. The question is, if toilet paper becomes a luxury item, can Americans live without it? Mental Floss: Why does bottled water have an expiration date? The truth is that we did live without it, for a very long time. And even now, a lot of people do. In Japan, the Washlet -- a toilet that comes equipped with a bidet and an air-blower -- is growing increasingly popular. And all over the world, water remains one of the most common methods of self-cleaning. Many places in India, the Middle East, and Asia, for instance, still depend on a bucket and a spigot. But as our economy continues to circle the drain, will Americans part with their beloved toilet paper in order to adopt more money-saving measures? Or will we keep flushing our cash away? Praeger, for one, believes a toilet-paper apocalypse is hardly likely. After all, the American marketing machine is a powerful thing. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ancient Greeks used clay,stone; Romans, sponges and salt water as toilet paper .\nU.S. man designs aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp in 1857 .\nJohnny Carson joked about toilet paper shortage, people bought out stores .\nU.S. buys $6 billion of toilet tissue annually -- more than any other nation ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 42 people were killed and 154 were wounded in five attacks on a religious holiday Friday, an Interior Ministry official said. Shiite Muslim women light candles early Friday at a shrine in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq. The first four attacks, which together killed 36 and wounded 124, targeted Shiites; the fifth attack was against a Sunni target. In the latest attack, a parked motorcycle bomb exploded in the marketplace of al-Khadra in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. Six people died, and 30 were wounded, the official said. The attack appeared to have targeted a police patrol; three of the fatalities were police, the official said. But most of the carnage was directed at Shiite targets, with the highest single toll exacted in the northern city of Mosul, where a suicide car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque as a funeral was taking place, killing 30 people and wounding 100, the official said. In another attack, a roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying pilgrims in the Sadr City neighborhood, killing three and wounding eight, the official said. Also in Sadr City, a roadside bomb exploded near a car, killing one person and wounding seven. And in eastern Baghdad, a car carrying pilgrims was targeted, killing two people and wounding nine. Friday was the end of a Shiite Muslim celebration in Karbala celebrating the birthday of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi, the last of 12 historic imams revered by Shiites. Pilgrims participating in such celebrations have been the target of similar attacks by Sunni Muslims. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi \"is expected to return at the end of time as the messianic imam who will restore justice and equity on Earth.\" Last Friday, bombs detonated after prayers near five Shiite mosques nearly simultaneously, killing 29 people as they were leaving the mosques. The attacks fueled fears that sectarian violence could be reigniting in the country and called into question the ability of security forces to safeguard the population as U.S. troops have taken a back seat to their Iraqi counterparts. Though the number of casualties has dropped over the past year, Friday's attacks show that an insurgency capable of wreaking havoc remains. CNN's Arwa Damon and Yousif Bassil contributed to this story from Baghdad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Motorcycle bomb kills six in Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad .\nBlast near Shiite mosque kills at least 30 in Mosul .\nThree attacks target Shiite pilgrims traveling through Iraqi capital .\nFriday was end of Shiite celebration of historic imam's birth ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- All the news that's fit to print -- the motto of The New York Times -- does not necessarily apply to photos. The newspaper published an editor's note Thursday stating that pictures used in a photo essay in its most recent Sunday Magazine were digitally manipulated without the paper's knowledge. The Times commissioned Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins to shoot a Sunday magazine color photo essay titled \"Ruins of the Second Gilded Age\" to capture physical evidence of the real estate bust that took place across the United States. In the text that preceded the six photos that were published, the magazine stated that while the photographer \"creates images with long exposures,\" he does so without digital manipulation. \"A reader ... discovered upon close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons,\" the Times editors wrote. \"Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show. Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which has been removed from the NYTimes.com,\" the note concluded. Numerous attempts by CNN to reach Edgar Martins by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful. The newspaper's decision to withdraw the photos left a publisher of Martins' book \"Topologies\" released in 2008, intrigued and surprised. \"I think he's a great artist and we're very proud to have published his prior works,\" said Lesley Martin, publisher of Aperture books. She said that Martins' prior works frequently verge on abstract landscapes, including forests ravaged by fire and nighttime beaches. \"His work has a certain visual effect. A distinct look and feel to it.\" However, Martin said she understands the newspaper's decision. Aperture books, which publishes a variety of photographic styles, including photojournalism, \"would not have published this work in a strict journalistic context had we known there would be manipulation used,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New York Times admits pictures in recent photo essay were digitally manipulated .\nEditors say photos in Sunday Magazine were changed \"for aesthetic reasons\"\nPhotographer Edgar Martins' photo essay showcased real estate bust ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Joey \"Jaws\" Chestnut unseated the six-time defending champion in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest on Wednesday, eating 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. Chestnut -- veins throbbing in his forehead -- wolfs down a dog on his way to the title and a world record Wednesday. Six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, nursing a sore jaw after wisdom tooth surgery, scarfed down 63 hot dogs. Last year, he edged out Chestnut by nearly two dogs, eating a then-record 53 and three-quarters to Chestnut's 52. Chestnut, who hails from San Jose, California, set a record with Wednesday's feat of eating 66 hot dogs, the event's organizers said. Not since Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in the 1971 bout coined the \"Fight of the Century\" have two contestants battled so hard. Perhaps. At one point, Kobayashi expelled some of his half-mashed hot dogs from his mouth; those did not count in his total. Chestnut toiled beside him, a vein throbbing in his forehead and his face bright red. Watch how the wiener-off went down » . \"My body worked for me,\" Chestnut said in an interview after the contest. Kobayashi, 29 years old and weighing in at 154 pounds, was listed as questionable prior to the event. He was receiving acupuncture treatment Wednesday morning to relieve pain in his jaw after wisdom tooth surgery. Video from Tuesday's weigh-in showed that he could open his mouth only half way. Chestnut, 23, weighing 215 pounds, had broken Kobayashi's 2006 record by downing 59½ hot dogs at a qualifying contest in Phoenix last month. Chestnut claims the \"Coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt\" and wins a one-year supply of hot dogs from Nathan's, the sponsor of the annual event, which has been held on the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn since 1916. Organizers said 50,000 people attended Wednesday's contest. Chestnut is a civil engineering student at San Jose University. E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joey \"Jaws\" Chestnut unseats six-time defending champion, sets record .\nReigning champ possibly was slowed down by wisdom tooth woes .\n\"My body worked for me,\" winner says after hard-fought swallowing scrap ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Marines on Friday kept up a major push against entrenched militants in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to rout the Taliban from their stronghold in Helmand province, Marine Capt. William Pelletier said. A U.S. Marine patrols Garmser district in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Friday. A Marine source described Thursday evening's fighting in the Helmand River Valley as \"our most significant encounter.\" Sporadic fighting that began earlier Thursday stretched over several hours in the southeastern sector of Garmser district, said Pelletier, spokesman for the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan. Helmand province, a poppy-growing region, is the focus of the U.S.-led Operation Khanjar. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used in the production of heroin. The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of Afghan national elections in August. Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors from the expeditionary brigade, along with more than 600 Afghan national security forces, are operating in key population centers along the valley, Pelletier said. Their targets are Garmser and Nawa districts in central Helmand, and stretch to Rig district in the south, Pelletier said. Marines and Afghan forces have taken over the key town of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, which had been under Taliban control, the Marine source said. The goal is to protect residents from the threat of Taliban and other insurgent intimidation and violence, Pelletier said. \"Our focus is now and will remain the Afghan people. We have worked closely with local Helmand government officials and many tribal and local leaders in the detailed planning of this major offensive,\" said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of Task Force Leatherneck. Once security is established, civil affairs personnel and other nongovernmental groups and agencies can come in and establish programs. However, Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar to the east that security forces face a tough job, according to a report this week in The New York Times. The government has no involvement in five of Helmand's 13 districts, the report said. In the fighting that began Thursday, Marines fired 20 mm cannons from their Cobra helicopter gunships -- but dropped no bombs -- to avoid the higher risk of civilian casualties, the Marine source said. The source called resistance \"heavy\" and \"persistent\" but intermittent. Militants responded using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. \"Last night, Marines bedded down in compounds within cities ... with permission from the people\" rather than sleep in a restricted area away from the local population, Pelletier said. He said military leaders also were holding talks with village leaders. In other developments . CNN's Atia Abawi, Barbara Starr and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marine source describes fighting as \"our most significant encounter\"\nMarines trying to rout Taliban from stronghold in Afghanistan's Helmand province .\nMarines and Afghan forces in control of key town of Khan Neshin, source says .\nMarine killed in the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say. A hospital worker has admitted to secretly injecting herself and using unclean syringes for patients. Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said. She had hepatitis C, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities said. She was a surgical technician at Rose from October 2008 to April 2009. Nine patients who had surgery there during that time have tested positive for hepatitis C. Investigators are looking into whether they contracted the virus from Parker. According to an affidavit filed by an investigator with the Food and Drug Administration, Rose Medical Center knew Parker tested positive for hepatitis C. She was counseled on how to limit her exposure to patients. Parker quit after she was found to be in an operating room where she was not allowed to be. She subsequently tested positive for fentanyl. Hospital officials then contacted the DEA. Parker is in federal custody facing three drug-related charges. If she is found to have done serious harm to a patient, she could face up to 20 years in prison. If a patient dies because of her actions, she could face life in prison. In a statement to police, Parker said, \"I can't take back what I did, but I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, and so does everyone else.\" Her attorney could not be reached Friday. Rose Medical Center is contacting 4,700 patients who had surgery at Rose during the time Parker was employed there. However, hospital officials do not believe that many patients were exposed. \"We are taking a very conservative and cautious approach by contacting everyone who had surgery during this broad time period,\" a statement on the hospital's Web site said, adding, \"It is likely that most of the patients who receive letters will not have been exposed to hepatitis C.\" An additional 1,200 patients may have been infected between May 4, 2009, and July 1, 2009, when Parker worked at Audubon Ambulatory Surgical Center in Colorado Springs. Audubon is also contacting patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kristen Diane Parker believes she contracted hepatitis C from sharing dirty needles .\nShe was a surgical technician in Denver from October 2008 to April 2009 .\nHepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government is buying 10,000 Taser stun guns for police officers across England and Wales, Britain's Home Office said Monday. British police officers use a Taser gun to tackle a mock suspect in a training exercise. The move will expand the ranks of officers carrying the weapons from \"select firearms squads\" to \"thousands of trained frontline officers,\" according to the Home Office, which is responsible for domestic policing. Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Jacqui Smith said police \"deserve our support, so I want to give the police the tools they tell me they need to confront dangerous people. That is why I am giving the police 10,000 Tasers.\" The guns fire barbed darts charged with enough electricity to stun a person, the Home Office said. But Amnesty International UK described them as \"potentially lethal electrical weapons\" that deliver \"50,000 volts of electricity into a person's body. The result is excruciatingly painful, causing a person to fall to the ground and, at times, lose control of their bodily functions.\" The human rights group, however, expressed qualified support for the British government move, urging that the weapons be given only to officers specially trained to use them. \"We don't actually oppose the use of Tasers as long as it's by a limited number of highly trained specialist officers, responding to genuinely life-threatening or very dangerous situations,\" said Oliver Sprague, the organization's arms program director. But, he added: \"Tasers are potentially lethal weapons which are already linked to numerous deaths in North America and that's why wide deployment without adequate training is a dangerous step too far for British policing.\" \"The home secretary should urgently review this decision and ensure that Tasers only end up in the hands of a small number of fully trained officers capable of making the potentially fatal decision over whether to fire 50,000 volts into a person's body.\" Amnesty says more than 300 people have died after being shot with Tasers since 2001. The decision to introduce Tasers across England and Wales follows what the government called a successful pilot program with officers from 10 police forces, including London's Metropolitan Police and forces responsible for Liverpool and Bristol. The test ran for 12 months from September 2007 with constables who had not previously carried firearms, a Home Office spokesman said. Before the pilot program, approximately 6,000 specially trained firearms officers across the country had access to Tasers starting in 2004. Most British police officers do not carry any kind of firearm, Home Secretary Smith emphasized in her statement, a fact she said she was proud of." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police officers across England and Wales to armed with Taser stun guns .\nGuns fire barbed darts charged with enough electricity to stun a person .\nDecision to roll out Tasers across England and Wales follows pilot program .\nHuman rights group criticizes plan to use \"potentially lethal electrical weapons\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One day while driving with her father, Hannah Salwen noticed a Mercedes stopped next to a homeless man sitting on the curb. The Salwen family of Atlanta, Georgia, has decided to sell this house and give half the proceeds to charity. \"I said to my dad, 'If that guy didn't have such a nice car, then that guy could have a nice meal,' \" the 15-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, recalled. And so began the tale of what the Salwen family calls \"Hannah's Lunchbox.\" Watch why family wants to give away $800K » . It started as family discussions about what they needed versus what was enough. Hannah's father Kevin, an entrepreneur, is on the board of the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity and is no stranger to community work, but he said this family conversation was life-changing. \"We stopped and paused and thought about what are the things in the world that could really make a difference, a little bit of difference in the world,\" he said. They talked about selling their cars or other things, but it was Hannah's mother, Joan, who came up with selling their 6,500-square-foot house, donating half the proceeds and then moving into a house half the size. For nine years, the family lived in a historic 1912 mansion near downtown Atlanta. It boasts five bedrooms, eight fireplaces, a kitchen that would make any cook jealous and even an elevator. See the new and old houses, side by side » . When Hannah would bring friends over, she said, often their jaws would drop and they'd gasp, \"Wow, you live here?\" Like most teens, Hannah loves to shop, and she jammed every space of her massive walk-in closet full of clothes. But she also knows many people are less fortunate; she volunteers at a local community food bank and other relief agencies. Joan Salwen, a teacher, said the mansion was her dream home. \"It was a challenge,\" she said of giving up that house. \"It was a test, almost, to see: How committed are we? I mean, how serious are these kids about what we should do? And they all nodded and there we were.\" So the Salwens put the house up for sale in May 2007 and started figuring out what they would do with half the proceeds, which would amount to more than $800,000. They spent six months researching charity organizations before deciding on the Hunger Project, an organization dedicated to helping end world hunger through people helping themselves. Hunger Project Vice President John Coonrod said the family met with organizers in New York and notified them months later that the charity was the winner. When the Salwen house sells, the money will be channeled through The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta over a six-year period and end up in Ghana, Coonrod said. \"This will underwrite a process in more than 30 villages to enable people to meet all of their basic needs on a sustainable basis,\" he said. \"They will be able to grow enough food, to build clinics and schools, and the villagers will be doing the lion's share of the work.\" Coonrod said he'd never heard of a family donating in this way. \"Hannah's awakening to social injustice, and her family's ability to make a difference in that issue will make a profound difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people,\" he said, estimating the money could affect more than 20,000 people in Ghana. Hannah's 13-year-old brother, Joseph, was so impressed with his big sister's ideas that he made a three-minute video of the family's project. Watch Joseph's video . The video won the grand prize in the 2008 \"My Home: The American Dream\" contest, sponsored by Coldwell Banker and Scholastic Publishing. In the video, Joseph tells viewers, \"We're showing you can redefine the American dream.\" But the Salwens' house has sat on the market for more than a year. It's a tough time to sell any house, let alone one with an asking price of nearly $1.8 million. Real estate agent Sally George said she's shown the house 40 or 50 times, and there have been nibbles but no buyers. See the house's real estate listing . Many people are interested in the house's rich history but often don't know anything about the philanthropic aspects of the family's project. \"I've never handled a house selling for this reason,\" George said. \"I didn't learn about what the family was doing until early this year.\" Hannah and Joseph said most of their friends at school don't know about it. \"We didn't do it for the fame or the glory,\" said Joan Salwen. \"This was something Hannah sort of yanked us into.\" Even though it was Joan Salwen's idea to sell the house, it has been tough for her to give it up. \"I have to admit,\" she said, \"I loved living in this house. Does that make me an evil person? I hope not because it's a beautiful place.\" The family recently moved to a house less than half the size of their mansion four blocks away. While Hannah's friends called her old home the \"wow house,\" this one is more ordinary and that's fine with her. Lately the family has spent a lot of time around the kitchen table talking about an upcoming two-week trip to Ghana. The Salwens will spend six or seven hours a day visiting the villages where their money will be put to work. Kevin Salwen said the new house is great, it's just smaller. \"We as Americans have so much,\" said Salwen, a former Wall Street Journal writer. \"We love the concept of half. We are going from a house that's 6,000 square feet to a house that's half the size, and we're giving away half the money. \"And we do think everyone can do something if they think through half.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Family tries to sell $1.8 million mansion and give half the proceeds to charity .\nDecision comes after discussions about how much wealth is needed .\nFamily voluntarily downsizes to more ordinary house .\nAfter sale, money will go to villages in Ghana via the Hunger Project ." } ]

[ { "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) -- The rehearsals ended on a high note that night. Jackson, here at a June 23 rehearsal, \"was full of jokes, full of life,\" band vocal coach Dorian Holley said. Michael Jackson was energetic and excited. He popped his signature moonwalk and dance spins that gave chills to some of those watching. As he walked to his car, he put his arm around concert promoter Randy Phillips and -- as Phillips later recounted -- in his soft voice, whispered: \"Thank you, I know we're going to get it there together. I know I can do this.\" That was late Wednesday night, June 24. A few hours later, Jackson was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead. \"All I know is that the Michael Jackson that hugged me and said 'goodnight' was a healthy, vibrant human being about to undertake the greatest undertaking of his life,\" Phillips said Thursday. \"And something happened between 12:30 when he left us and the morning when I had to rush to the hospital when I got the first call.\" Watch Jackson rehearse for London shows » . The death of the pop icon shocked the music world, not only because many fans were looking forward to his 50 sold-out shows in London, England, beginning in mid-July, but also because the 50-year-old singer -- while a step slower than in his prime -- was apparently healthy and up to the task of what has been described as a grueling show. \"He was just like a kid in the candy store because he was seeing his vision come alive,\" said Dorian Holley, the vocal coach for Jackson's band, about the last rehearsal. \"He was just full of jokes, full of life,\" Holley said. He added that Jackson was due to be back at rehearsals again at 4:30 p.m. on the day of his death. On Thursday, Phillips' promotion company, AEG Live, released a 1½-minute rehearsal clip that was shot two nights before Jackson's death. In that clip, Jackson barreled through the song \"They Don't Care About Us.\" As a guitarist played a riff, he danced next to her and then led eight backup dancers in a choreographed march, reminiscent of his breakthrough music video \"Thriller.\" The clip -- shot at the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, California, on June 23 -- ends with a voice off stage saying, \"Hold for applause, hold for applause ... fade out.\" Two days later, Jackson was dead. Phillips said a doctor, hired by the tour's insurance carrier, examined Jackson before AEG proceeded with the rehearsals -- and gave the singer the green light to continue. \"He examined Michael for about five hours at his house and I think they went somewhere for some other tests,\" Phillips said. \"We are obviously not privy to the patient-doctor relationship with that information, but the insurance broker told us that he passed with flying colors.\" The production pace in those final weeks was ferocious, some of the attendees said. Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, told a radio interviewer that he discussed tweaking the strenuous two-hour format of the shows. \"We were going to do one of two things,\" DiLeo told KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week. \"We were either going to do so much in the beginning, take a half-hour break, then come back and do the second half of the shows. Or we were going to cut it down to 90 minutes.\" The exacting rehearsals may have been taking a toll on Jackson, his doctor's lawyer has said. \"Michael Jackson didn't eat very much,\" said Edward Chernoff, the lawyer for Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. \"He really didn't drink very much. He didn't hydrate very well. When he rehearsed, it was very strenuous exercise.\" As authorities await toxicology reports to determine how Jackson died, fans around the world lamented the loss of a great performer whose ability to dazzle seemed intact, if inhibited, in the short video clip. \"He still moves better at 50 than I could at 15,\" said Stephanie Siek, a graduate student in Frankfurt, Germany. \"But he also seems to be holding back in a way he never did in his older videos or other footage I've seen. I think it would have been a great show, but I think that a lot of people would have been disappointed, because he was so iconic in his prime. That's a very, very hard standard to live up to.\" This report incorporates information from CNN broadcasts and interviews conducted Thursday for the shows \"AC 360\" and \"The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson rehearsed at Staples Center on night before he died .\nHe was preparing for 50 sold-out shows in London, England .\n\"He was just full of jokes, full of life,\" vocal coach says .\nVideo clip shows Jackson singing, dancing 2 days before he died ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox will testify Friday in an Italian courtroom to defend herself against charges that she took part in the killing of her roommate two years ago, her lawyer said. American college student Amanda Knox, 21, is expected to take the witness stand Friday at her Italian murder trial. Knox, 21, an American college student from Seattle, Washington, will be questioned by her attorneys first and her testimony could continue Saturday, said Luciano Ghriga, one of her lawyers. The trial against Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, began January 16 in Perugia, a university town about 185 kilometers (115 miles) north of Rome. They are charged with murder and sexual assault in the November 2007 slaying of Knox's roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, who died in what prosecutors called a \"drug-fueled sex game\" with the couple. A third person, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Kercher was found dead in her bed, half-naked, with a knife wound to her neck. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors say they have physical evidence placing the defendants at the scene, and that they gave investigators confusing and contradictory statements about their whereabouts the night Kercher died. Knox first said she was at the house she shared with Kercher, then changed her story, according to court records. Sollecito, meanwhile, said he was never at the house, but was at his apartment, watching a movie on his computer with Knox. Later, he told investigators he did not remember whether Knox was with him the entire night. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that the physical evidence was tainted by sloppy police work. The case is being heard by a panel of eight judges. The trial has drawn more than 140 journalists from 86 news outlets to the courthouse in Perugia, Italy. The presiding judge in the case, Giancarlo Massei, has barred cameras from the courtroom and said he could completely close portions of the trial dealing with the most graphic sexual assault allegations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Murder trial makes American student Amanda Knox well-known in Italy .\nBritish student Meredith Kercher found dead in house shared with Knox .\nProsecutors say they have evidence placing Knox, other defendants at scene .\nKnox's former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, also faces murder charges ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- With Congress on its August recess, lawmakers are back in their home districts to meet with their constituents. Voters are confronting lawmakers with tough questions on health care at town hall meetings across the country. Across the country, members of Congress are holding town hall meetings where voters are encouraged to voice any questions or concerns about what's happening on Capitol Hill. Health care reform has dominated the conversation at the meetings. President Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation this year, but lawmakers are hearing from their constituents that they want more specifics on what reform will mean for them. In addition to taking questions, lawmakers are trying to set the record straight and put an end to the spread of misinformation. Many town hall meetings are open to anyone. If you're interested in attending one, you're not alone. More than 70 percent of people say they are either very likely or somewhat likely to attend a town hall on health care, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey. To find a meeting near you, determine who your senators and representatives are. You can find this information on the House and Senate Web sites. Some lawmakers have information about their town hall meetings clearly listed on their Web sites. Democratic Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, for example, has an \"events\" section detailing the time and location of his upcoming meetings. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has a section called \"listening sessions.\" It links to a map that shows where the meetings are by county. Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa lists his August meetings under the \"latest headlines\" section of his Web site. Not all of the lawmakers keep their Web sites up to date, and some don't have their town hall meetings listed online. If that's the case, you also can call your senator or representative's office to get more information on upcoming events. It's a good idea to call their office to confirm the time and location, even if the details are online. Meetings are often rescheduled or relocated, and it never hurts to double-check. Find out what time the doors open, and ask whether registration is required. You can also keep track of your senators and representatives on Twitter. Some lawmakers send messages about their upcoming events. Tweetcongress.org has a list of members of Congress who use Twitter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Congress is on its August recess, and lawmakers are hearing from constituents .\nVoters are encouraged to attend meetings to voice questions and concerns .\nCall your senator or representative's office to confirm the time and location ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded \"evil\" by Republicans. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama's plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an \"evil\" move that would result in \"death panels\" deciding who would live or die. Her criticism has been echoed by fellow Republicans in direct attacks on Britain's NHS. In an article, Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said British healthcare was run by \"Orwellian\" bureaucrats who put a price tag on life. Sound off: What do you think of the British healthcare model? The comments caused a storm of protest in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister Brown wading into the argument via micro-blogging site Twitter, where a conversation chain, \"#welovetheNHS\", is generating huge online traffic. Britons react to the U.S. healthcare debate » . A posting on the 10 Downing Street Twitter site on Wednesday read: \"PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.\" The message was followed by another, from Brown's wife Sarah, adding: \"#welovetheNHS -- more than words can say.\" Professor Stephen Hawking, author of \"A Brief History of Time\", also spoke out in favor of the British system, telling the Guardian newspaper that he owes his life to NHS treatment for the neuro-muscular dystrophy he has suffered from for 40 years. \"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,\" he said. \"I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.\" Despite the support, the 51-year-old NHS is regularly the target of criticism at home, with opposition politicians accusing Brown's government of mismanagement resulting in long waiting lists and a \"lottery\" in deciding who gets life-saving drugs and surgery. Nevertheless, opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron also added his voice to the defense campaign with a posting on his party's Web site. \" Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS -- including my own family. \"One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill -- no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got -- you know that the NHS will look after you.\" His statement followed comments from one of his own party members backing the Republican criticism of the NHS. Dan Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament reportedly said in an interview that \"he wouldn't wish it on anyone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Britons leap to defend National Health Service after U.S. criticism .\nPrime Minister Gordon Brown among those expressing pride in system .\nNHS offers free health care to all UK residents ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- You might think childbirth would be a topic too personal, too beautiful or way too graphic to write about on Twitter. Sara, the wife of Twitter's CEO, posted online from a hospital while she was in labor. But, as Sara Williams showed on Tuesday when she posted Twitter updates about giving birth to her child, online social networking has pushed its way into the delivery room. It's now a trend for expectant moms to post to sites such as Twitter from the time they conceive to the moment they deliver a baby into the world. Williams, wife of Twitter CEO Evan Williams, posted to her 14,000-plus Twitter followers when her water broke, when she arrived at the hospital, during contractions and when she decided to get an epidural. Her husband broke the news on his Twitter feed that their \"perfect baby boy\" was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. As if the real-time drama of her labor wasn't enough, Sara Williams managed to spice up her Twitter feed with humor along the way. \"Dear Twitter, My water broke. It wasn't like Charlotte in Sex and the City,\" she wrote at about midnight ET on Tuesday. \"Now, timing contractions on an iPhone app.\" After noting later that contractions are painful, she wrote, \"Epidural, yes please.\" Her childbirth drew widespread attention online, where people who have never met Williams eagerly awaited the birth of her baby. Some moms and dads cheered her on, saying that by posting through labor she lifted the veil on a period that can be terrifying for pregnant women who don't know what to expect when their baby is ready to leave the womb. Others cringed at the idea, saying childbirth posts are too much information. Williams' childbirth is among the first to be publicized though Twitter, but she's far from the only woman to have published thoughts about the birth of her child while the process was happening. Terra Carmichael, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she tweeted through her third childbirth in February to keep her loved ones up to date. \"At the moment nothing went through my head. It was just like, 'This is how I'm feeling and so this is going out there, and if you don't like it you don't have to read it,' \" said the 36-year-old. \"Afterwards, I was like 'I hope I wasn't too gross or graphic.'\" She said posting to Twitter helped relieve some of the pain. \"I would literally be coming down from a really painful contraction and I'd be saying, 'Give me my iPhone,' and [my husband] would be saying, 'You are weird. Why are you doing this,'\" she said. \"Some of it was for me. It just felt kinda good to get that out there, put that out to the universe so it wasn't just my pain, so other people could feel it for me and feel it with me a little bit.\" Kyle Monson, a new dad in New York City, did the tweeting for his wife. While she was in labor, he was busy sending text messages. \"We were on our iPhone and Blackberry right up until the point when my wife started pushing, and then we had to put those phones down,\" he said. Monson posted updates about his wife's labor to Twitter by using code words only his friends could understand. Instead of posting \"my wife just gave birth,\" for instance, he wrote, \"Operation Bumblebee complete! Ada Elizabeth is 7lbs, 2oz, and is very happy to be here.\" Ada, who is the couple's first child, was born on August 5. Monson has nearly 800 Twitter followers and didn't want everyone in the world to know about the \"blood and gore\" of the birthing process. Most of the couple's friends and family live further West, he said, so the online networks helped them keep their loved ones updated. The senior editor at PCMag.com said his wife was sending text messages to people throughout her 10-hour labor. \"She had an epidural so it was actually pretty easy for her,\" he said. Debora Robertson, group manager of the Expectant Mother's Guide, said she wouldn't feel comfortable sharing so many details on Twitter, but making such information public could be helpful for pregnant women who are anxious about childbirth. \"I think it's great that she [Sara Williams] can do that with family and friends, and I would imagine a lot of first time moms have curiosity,\" she said. \"They're peeking into the delivery rooms.\" Monson also said Twitter posts from the delivery room can be informative. \"Going into it I had a lot of questions because no one really writes about this stuff\" online, he said. Many new sites are promoting \"mom-to-mom wisdom\" as a way for expecting parents to become educated about childbirth, said Dina Freeman, spokeswoman for the Baby Center, an online resource for moms. Freeman said one of her friends tweeted through childbirth. She had mixed feelings about the posts. \"Although I was happy for the updates, I was like, 'Are you sure you want that on Twitter?'\" New moms also are joining mom-specific social networks to get important questions answered, said Freeman, who manages the Baby Center's Facebook page. She said the wisdom of the crowd is useful, but sometimes she recommends pregnant women and new moms see physicians for potentially serious health issues. Moms are finding other ways to share their pregnancies online, too. A quick search on YouTube found more than 3,600 videos matching \"childbirth.\" And a product called the Kickbee is a belt that wraps around a pregnant woman's stomach and automatically posts to a Twitter feed when the baby kicks. Some people say too much technology in the delivery room is a bad thing. \"I think it's terrible,\" Dr. Renana Brooks, a psychologist, told the Baltimore Sun in reference to people who post on Twitter during childbirth. \"One of the few rituals we have, in terms of giving each other undivided attention, is that time in a delivery room. To be spending time writing to someone else destroys the whole ritual. \"That's like Twittering on your wedding night. You can blog about it afterward.\" The Twittering parents, however, said they're just trying to include as many friends and family members in their special moment as possible. \"I've got a lot of people in my life that I love,\" Carmichael said, \"and I want to keep up on their lives. This is one of the biggest events of my life, and so [writing on Twitter] was my way of keeping people posted on what was happening.\" After his wife gave birth on Tuesday, Evan Williams beamed on his Twitter feed. \"Yes! @sara gave birth to a perfect baby boy,\" he wrote. \"Both are well. 8 pounds, 21 inches! Smiles all around.\" Moments later, friends responded with encouragement. \"Yay! @ev and @sara just had their first baby and it's a boy -- can't wait to meet the mini CEO,\" Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: The wife of Twitter's CEO posted messages on Twitter during her labor .\nNEW: Sara Williams delivered a \"perfect baby boy\" Tuesday afternoon .\nOne of her last posts from the hospital said, \"Epidural, yes please\"\nSome say it's a trend for moms to post online about labor and pregnancy ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- I have vivid memories of childhood. The 5-year-old girl with endless questions; she wanted to discover the secrets of the entire world within minutes. She dreamed of being a doctor once, an engineer another time, and a mother of lovely kids. A dreamer, this is how I would describe the little girl Reem. Reem is a 22-year-old student living in Gaza City. Days passed fast. Reem couldn't remember a lot of them, but she had some moments left in her memory -- usually the happy moments of her life -- and those memories were the basis for today's Reem, the 22-year-old girl who is ME. I remember how happy I was when my teacher announced to the school that I was first in my class. I remember my mother's voice singing to me before I fell asleep; I remember my father running behind my kite when I lost it in the air, and I remember me asking my parents for a real monkey as a pet. I can't forget the day I finished high school; I felt so grown up. I remember the day when the school announced the exam results and the tears of happiness my mother shed when I received a grade of excellent, and then I decided to enroll in the college of Business Administration. I can call Gaza City the city of qualifications, where a lot of youth are qualified for good jobs. I am one of those youth who is volunteering in organizations, participating in community service activities, getting trained in various skills and getting more qualified day by day. But many young people like me cannot find jobs. See perspectives from Palestinian youth » . Sometimes, I feel disconnected from Gaza, but whenever I see the photos of Jaffa, I realize that it's where I and a thousand refugees belong. I find myself crying, missing a place I have never been to, but it's where my parents and my grandparents lived. I remember all those bedtime stories my grandmother used to tell me about the land, the fence of roses they had, and her climbing trees and cutting fruits. How I miss that place. But life must go on. My day starts with the smile of optimism and the plan of my day. Waking up early to go to my university; I have to attend all of my lectures even though some are boring. My friends are a big part of my day. We start with our updates and then go to courses where we can develop our skills. When I arrive home, I feel so exhausted, but still I continue working and studying hard. I am always looking for chances for personal development, whether through volunteer work or at school. I was offered a great opportunity to volunteer with the aid organization Mercy Corps as a founding member of the Why Not? youth program, and then I had the pleasure of seeing this program blossom into the Global Citizen Corps, or GCC, a cultural exchange between Palestinian and American students. I believe this program is deeply important because it changes the negative impression of Palestinian youth that is too often spread by media. All my friends and 1,000 others are engaged in this program, which develops our personalities, our skills and serves the community. We use digital media as a tool to express what we feel and what we do. We make changes in ourselves, in our community, and we pave the way for global change. We are thinking globally and acting locally. My ambition is to be a researcher in business studies all over the world. I finished my B.A. and a diploma of business studies, and I hope to obtain a scholarship to do graduate work in media and development. I am also interested in the field of project management and human interaction management. I know it is a good ambition to be Ph.D. holder and a worldwide researcher, but as Palestinian girl, I have fewer opportunities, not because I am not qualified or hard-working enough but because I am Palestinian. Usually Palestinian students have fewer opportunities than others to get scholarships, because it's hard for them to leave the Gaza Strip, as all of the borders are closed. But I have not lost hope, and I will not. I will keep trying to pursue my dream of being the researcher I want to be. It's true that I am a girl, and girls face some challenges in our society. For example, I can't stay a late hour at work. But I am so happy and honored to be a Muslim; putting the scarf on my head is something that I love. To many foreigners, it might seem to be against women's freedom, but I can tell that when a lady is convinced of it, it becomes part of her self-esteem, her self-confidence and her protection each day. I feel sad when the world gets angry at Muslim girls while they are peaceful and happy, enjoying their choices and freedom. I found that I'm not that different from Catherine, who lives in the United States and whom I contact through the Global Citizen Corps. I have realized how similar Palestinian youth are to youth all over the world. Catherine likes some of the food I like, and she loves swimming just like I do. There are also lovely differences between us: I tried to cook what she taught me once, and she is learning Arabic now. Maybe our lifestyle is different. I focus on my own development; I spend most of my time working to become a more qualified person with more knowledge and skills. I do not work hard because I am super girl or I aspire to be one but because I always want to be ready for the worst situation. In Palestine where I live, surprises can happen at any time, and I don't want to be caught off guard. I want to make my future secure by being a really good person. I deserve to live. I enjoy my life as it is now, but I hope that when I find a scholarship and live in the West, I will not be obliged to take off my scarf and won't hear negative comments about me because I am Muslim. I consider religion a personal freedom that is related to your beliefs and what you feel in your heart. I love letting others live in peace. ... Why can't we enjoy peace, too? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reem calls Gaza City the city of qualifications, but many can't find jobs .\nShe describes her day filled with school work, friends, studying and volunteering .\nShe says she realizes Palestinian youth are similiar to youth all over the world .\nFor more, go to In Depth: Generation Islam ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- The much-maligned symbol of motoring in Communist East Germany, the Trabant, is set to make an unlikely comeback as a concept car at this year's International Motor Show in Frankfurt. The old-style Trabi is a common sight in Germany where tourist operators use the car for local tours. Designers have replaced the car's smoke-belching two-stroke engine with electric fuel cells and solar-powered air-conditioning. This, they promise, is not the four-wheeled object of ridicule that rolled off production lines in East Germany from 1957 until 1991. This is the new Trabant, or Trabi as they're known, an energy-efficient city car for modern drivers. \"I think the market will be people who say the old Trabant was a cool car, and people who want to have a stylish car, and want to have a green car,\" Daniel Stiegler, of Herpa Miniaturemodelle, told CNN. Herpa is not a carmaker, at least not in the traditional sense. It makes model cars and airplanes, of the type that sit in display cabinets, not garages. Two years ago, a member of its management team, Klaus Schindler, decided it was time to make a miniature model of the Trabant. Herpa took it to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2007 and were stunned by the response. \"We had a special folder where people at the fair could fill out and give it back to use. We had about 14,000 reactions on that, and most of them, 90 percent, said 'Yes, the Trabant is a really cool car, let's bring it back,'\" Stiegler said. Herpa teamed up with German auto parts maker IndiKar, which has designed a prototype to be unveiled at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September. They hope to attract enough interest to put the car back into production. The early response of Trabi enthusiasts to an electric version of their much-loved cars has been encouraging. \"This will be an ideal vehicle to try it on,\" Geoff Armitage, who had been the president or chairman of the Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK on and off for some 18 years. \"If they go for the same type of cladding of duroplast, or western-style glass fibre, you have a light body which obviously will be an advantage for an electric car.\" The original exterior of the cars was made from duroplast, a blend of cast-off cotton fibers from Russia mixed with glue. Armitage bought his first Trabant in the Netherlands in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Over the years, he's owned around 20 of the German cars, adding \"we have several restoration projects in the yard at the moment.\" Like many admirers, he appreciates the Trabi's simplicity. \"They are basic technology. There is absolutely nothing that we can't repair ourselves. If we can't get the parts we can usually make them,\" he laughed. \"If they can do the electrical conversion, for want of a better term, in a relatively low-tech way so they keep it simple I think it could be a success,\" he said. German filmmaker Maximilian Spohr spent four years making a documentary about the Trabant. He became fascinated about the car's origins as a child growing up in the East where residents faced up to a fourteen-year wait for delivery of their vehicles. \"There was only a certain contingent, a certain amount, allowed every year, because they didn't have enough screws, they didn't have enough parts,\" he said. For his documentary, \"A Car For A Dollar,\" he interviewed former Trabant engineers and owners and found an abundance of nostalgia for the old-style vehicles, despite their association with Communist repression. \"People remember it as their only partner in crime,\" Spohr said. \"It was the one and only thing that brought them around the country. They weren't allowed to go far. This was the only vehicle they could use and it was always reliable, most times.\" Many of the cars were dumped by their owners as soon as they'd driven them to freedom over the border from East to West. Spohr said it didn't take long for nostalgia to kick in and the first Trabi appreciation meeting was held in 1990, just one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of plans for a new, eco-friendly Trabi, Spohr says, \"\"I think it's great. People would probably love it, I think it will sell. Big time.\" If the modern Trabant fails to materialize, there's always the option to step back in time in the original version. Trabis can still be seen slowly weaving through traffic, particularly in Berlin and Dresden, where Trabi-Safari leads tourists in a procession of up to six cars to local points of interest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Relic of Communist East Germany to be revived as eco-friendly city car .\nNew electric Trabant to be unveiled at International Motor Show in Frankfurt .\nCar was once the only vehicle available in East before fall of Berlin Wall .\nTrabi enthusiasts admire the car's simplicity, ability to make running repairs ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An illegal immigrant dishwasher who lost $49,000 to the U.S. government as he tried to take it home to Guatemala will get some of the money back, his attorney said Wednesday. Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant, managed to save $59,000 while working as a dishwasher for 11 years. Pedro Zapeta was \"very, very happy\" when he learned about a federal appeals court ruling that says he is entitled to recover some of the money, said attorney Robert Gershman, who handled the financial end of Zapeta's case. Zapeta was carrying $59,000 in cash when he was stopped at a security checkpoint at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2005. He told authorities he was returning home to Guatemala with the money he had saved working illegally as a dishwasher over 11 years. But federal law requires that anyone leaving or entering the country with $10,000 or more must declare it. Because Zapeta had not done so, he was detained, and his money was seized. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the judge who fined Zapeta applied an incorrect standard in determining the amount to be forfeited. The appeals court ordered a hearing to set a new fine. \"I am extremely happy,\" Gershman said. \"Even though he is not a citizen, it shows he has equal rights.\" Gershman has said Zapeta, who does not speak English, was not trying to conceal the money but did not know the law. Zapeta had paid taxes on the earnings, he said, and under legal guidelines should be fined at most $5,000 for failing to report that he was traveling with the cash. Circuit Court Judge James Cohn instead fined Zapeta $49,000, all the money he was carrying over the $10,000 limit. \"The government always acted as if the money was their own,\" Gershman said. \"They acted almost entitled to it. But it's not their money. It was Pedro's, and the [appeals] court affirmed that.\" Zapeta said last year that he had saved the money to build a house for himself and his family in his home village in the Guatemalan mountains. He returned to Guatemala this year under the threat of deportation, but his lawyers continued to argue that his fine was excessive. Federal prosecutors in Miami did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision or on whether they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Zapeta's case was publicized, U.S. residents donated money to him, and Gershman set up a trust. It has received about $15,000 in donations, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pedro Zapeta was stopped in 2005 trying to take $59,000 home to Guatemala .\nZapeta had paid taxes on the money, didn't know he had to declare it, attorney says .\nHe was fined $49,000 and left U.S. under threat of deportation .\nNew ruling says judge applied wrong standard and Zapeta should get some back ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father's very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable. Khidir, now 8, was kidnapped and held hostage for two years by operatives with al Qaeda in Iraq. Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq. \"They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,\" said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. \"And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots.\" What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police. Watch boy describe torture » . \"This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out,\" he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound. He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain. \"I would think about my mommy and daddy,\" he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony. His father, Abdul Qader, struggles for words. \"When he tells me about how they would torture him, I can't tolerate it. I start crying,\" he says. \"What hurts me the most is when they hammered a nail into his leg.\" The father, a police officer, was sleeping at the police station in Falluja when his son was kidnapped. It was too dangerous to go home regularly. Although Falluja was no longer controlled by insurgents, assassinations against police were common. \"I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion ... and then I heard my name on the radio. I ran outside and they came to me saying your house was blown up,\" he says. \"When the police patrol came back, they all started kissing and comforting me,\" he continues. \"I was asking, 'What's going on? Where is my family?' They told me that they took my son. This was a disaster. I went mad that day, I wasn't normal, I was hysterical.\" Khidir's grandmother was at home with the family at the time. \"The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,\" she says.\"They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he's not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.\" The last thing she remembers were his screams of \"Granny, Granny!\" The attackers rigged the house with explosives and demolished it before taking off with the 6-year-old. The boy's grandmother and seven other family members rushed out of the home before it exploded. \"The kidnappers called me on the phone and demanded that some prisoners that we had be released or they would slit his throat,\" Khidir's father says. \"But I said no to the release. I would not put killers back out on the street that would hurt other Muslims. So I thought to myself, 'Let my son be a martyr.' \" He even held a secret funeral for his little boy. He didn't want to tell the rest of the family that he had refused the kidnappers' ultimatum, allowing them to hope that he was still alive. Last December, nearly two years later, police in Taji, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, received a tip that terrorists were holding kidnapped children. \"We thought that it was just a tip to ambush us, but we considered the mission as a sacrifice,\" said Iraqi police Capt. Khalib Ali. \"Either we find the children and free them or face the danger and take the risk.\" The tip led the Iraqi police to a rundown farm and a series of mud huts. Khidir's tiny body was twisted abnormally. And in another hut, they found another child. Two children are still believed to be with the kidnappers. Al Qaeda in Iraq has historically kidnapped children for money, to pressure officials, and even to use in terrorist attacks. For Khidir's father, it was as if his son had come back from the dead. \"He didn't recognize his mother or his grandmother,\" Abdul Qader says. \"But then he saw me in uniform and ran to me. I went flying toward him to hug him. People said be careful; both his arms are broken. So I held him from his waist, and he hugged me, kissed me, smelled me, and then broke into a smile.\" The father flips through old family photos -- all they were able to salvage from their destroyed home -- and notes some of the kidnappers are still at large. He still fears for his son's safety, but says he won't quit the police force. \"Never, never,\" he says. \"If I leave the police force, if others leave the force, who will protect us from the terrorists? We are the only ones.\" CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iraqi boy survives two-year hostage ordeal by al Qaeda in Iraq operatives .\nTerrorists took the boy to blackmail his father, who was a police officer in Iraq .\n\"They pulled my teeth out with pliers,\" the boy tells CNN .\nDad says he won't leave police force despite intimidation, threats ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj arrived home in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum early Friday after nearly six years in the U.S. Navy prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj at a hospital in Khartoum after his release from Guantanamo Bay. \"I was so happy that I cried,\" al-Hajj told the Qatar-based Arabic news network by phone from his hospital room, where he was taken after arriving at the airport. \"It is our right to be happy and to rejoice, but we also miss our brothers that we left behind and who live in very difficult conditions.\" An official with the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said the transfer brought to an end a matter that the United States and Sudan considered to be \"of great mutual concern.\" Al-Hajj, a Sudanese citizen in his late 30s, was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 by Pakistani intelligence officers and handed over to the United States, which accused him of being an \"enemy combatant.\" A senior Pentagon official confirmed the journalist's release. Al-Hajj was held without being charged or given a trial, Al-Jazeera reported. The cameraman was on a legitimate assignment and carried a work visa at the time of his capture, the network said. It also reported that the U.S. plane that carried al-Hajj had about 20 other former detainees aboard who also had been released from Guantanamo Bay. The plane dropped off a Moroccan national, identified as Al-Saeed Bou Jaadiya, the network said. Al-Jazeera aired video showing a bearded al-Hajj being carried from the plane in Khartoum by U.S. military personnel and laid on a stretcher. He was transported to Al-Amal Hospital. \"He was brought in here by ambulance and entered to the intensive care unit on a stretcher,\" said Al-Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar from the hospital. \"He was exhausted and very sick, and he's receiving the necessary care in the hospital.\" Khanfar said he was awaiting word from doctors on his medical condition. In a statement, U.S. Charge D'Affaires Alberto Fernandez of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said the transfer \"is a result of many factors and the work of many hands. An important one was the cooperation between the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence and Security Service.\" Al-Hajj had been on a hunger strike for more than a year and was being force-fed, said Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer who has worked on al-Hajj's case since August 2005 and last visited him three weeks ago. \"Al-Hajj is remarkably thin,\" Katznelson said. \"He looks like an ill man.\" The journalist was conscious, but did not appear to speak to anyone as paramedics rolled his stretcher inside. Family members stooped to kiss him as the gurney passed. \"I would have hoped they were here with me now. I look forward to the moment,\" al-Hajj said told Al-Jazeera before being reunited with his family. Earlier, al-Hajj's wife spoke to the network about his release. \"Now I can think differently,\" Asma Ismailov said. \"Now I can plan my life differently. Everything will be all right, God willing.\" Al-Hajj's young son, Mohammed, said he would \"kiss his head\" when he sees his father. \"I'll tell him that I love him and I need him.\" The Sudanese government told Al-Jazeera that al-Hajj faced no charges in Sudan and is a free man. The network also said the United States placed some conditions on al-Hajj's release, including one that prevents him from any political activity. Reporters Without Borders, which campaigned for al-Hajj's release, said in a statement that the cameraman \"never should have been held so long.\" \"U.S. authorities never proved that he had been involved in any kind of criminal activity,\" the worldwide press freedom group said. The organization said al-Hajj was accused of gun-smuggling for al Qaeda and running an Islamist Web site, although no evidence supporting those charges was produced. \"We are delighted that Sami al-Hajj can finally be reunited with his family and friends,\" said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. \"But his detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas.\" E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sami al-Hajj arrives home in Sudan and is taken to hospital, network says .\nPakistani intelligence officers captured him in Afghanistan in December 2001 .\nAl-Hajj was transferred to U.S. custody and held without charges or trial .\nAl-Jazeera said he was on an assignment when he was apprehended ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Driving over a pothole may not be a big deal for most people, but for Jeff Bell, it was a source of endless frustration. Jeff Bell found treatment for OCD very difficult, but says it helped him turn his life around. Afraid that he had injured a person, he would drive back to each pothole again and again to check, and he lost a lot of time in the process. \"I knew that my behaviors made no sense. I knew that my thoughts that were triggering these behaviors made no sense, and yet I felt so helpless to do anything about it,\" he said. Bell, a news anchor with KCBS Radio in San Francisco, California, now knows that his condition has a name: obsessive-compulsive disorder. He frequently speaks out about it and has written a memoir called \"Rewind, Replay, Repeat.\" Psychologists are debating where OCD belongs in relation to other psychiatric disorders, and whether certain symptoms are actually part of other conditions. The condition affects as many as 4 million Americans, according to the International OCD Foundation, for which Bell is a spokesman. In a class of its own? Currently, OCD sits with anxiety disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association to help diagnose mental illness. The next edition will be released in 2012, according to the APA. Many experts, such as Jonathan Abramowitz, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, believe OCD should stay with anxiety disorders. That's because people with the disorder tend to engage in repetitive behaviors to reduce anxiety. Watch CNN's Elizabeth Landau talk more about OCD » . There is mixed evidence based on brain scans that OCD has a separate biological mechanism, leading some psychiatrists to favor classifying it separately, Abramowitz said. \"We haven't exactly pinned down what might be the problem,\" he said. Categorizing related symptoms . Checking for evidence of harm done, as in Bell's case, is one of many manifestations of OCD. Some people are overly afraid of germs, while others are overwhelmed by thoughts of violence or sex, or fear that they have \"sinned,\" and still others spend countless hours arranging objects, said Jeff Szymanski, executive director of the International OCD Foundation. There are also people with OCD who repeat behaviors a fixed number of times because \"it will undo the thought or image that came to mind that you didn't want,\" he said. Behaviors such as compulsive gambling are in a different category, Abramowitz said. A key difference is that those people enjoy gambling, while a person with OCD does not get pleasure from the behaviors he or she repeats. There is also controversy over whether trichotillomania -- compulsive hair pulling -- falls under OCD, because it is characterized by a repetitive behavior, but not necessarily obsessive thoughts, Szymanski said. Tics and Tourette syndrome also are OCD-related. Most people with OCD realize that their compulsions are irrational, but about 4 percent do not, Abramowitz said. Hoarders, who compulsively acquire objects without throwing anything away, tend to have less \"insight into the senselessness of their symptoms\" than others with OCD, he said. This is one of the reasons that hoarding may be distinct from OCD altogether, he said. Hoarders also do not respond as well to traditional treatments. Randy Frost, psychologist at Smith College, said only 5 percent of hoarders have an OCD basis for it; the rest may have other OCD-related problems or none at all. Treating OCD and hoarding . Doctors may prescribe drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for OCD symptoms. But for some people this is only part of the solution, Szymanski said. The other first-line treatment is called exposure and response prevention, which forces people with the condition to confront their fears. This helps some people to stop engaging in behaviors, such as checking potholes, which would normally be their means of escaping those fears. Bell found this treatment so difficult that he initially lied to his therapist about doing the homework she assigned. But once he became serious about the therapy, he felt as if he was turning his life around. He also learned to externalize the force behind intrusive thoughts -- he calls it the \"doubt bully.\" \"The key is to find those things in life that motivate us to sit with the discomfort of our anxiety through this treatment process to get better,\" he said. Researchers at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, and Smith College and Boston University in Massachusetts, are collaborating on a new treatment for hoarders. They've just finished collecting data from 46 participants, Frost said. The treatment targets acquisition, discarding, and disorganization, Frost said. That's because people who compulsively hoard tend to buy or pick up too many things, keep things rather than throw anything out, and create clutter. To help with \"acquisition,\" therapists try to help people understand their attachment to their possessions. For example, the therapist will ask the patient how upset he or she will be if a piece of paper is thrown away, and then test that prediction by throwing it away. Researchers have found that participants who hoard do not get as upset as they anticipated when they dispose of the paper, Frost said. OCD is sometimes as hard on loved ones as on the patients themselves, Bell said. Family members may even become enablers, unintentionally fueling the cycle, he said. \"Often times, it involves family members meeting with a trained therapist who can help give them guidelines as to what is helpful and what's counterproductive,\" he said. For more information, visit the International OCD Foundation or Jeff Bell's outreach site Beyond the Doubt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As many as 4 million Americans suffer from obsessive- compulsive disorder .\nThere is some debate about whether it is an anxiety disorder or something else .\nCompulsive gambling is not a symptom of OCD .\nHoarding may be separate from OCD, and there is a new treatment for it ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- New details have emerged about a Jewish immigrant who fled Austria as World War II was brewing, lived frugally in New York and left an estate whose size -- $300,000 -- astounded some. Ida Blumin fled Austria in 1938 for the U.S. and married Walter Fischer, who earned money performing odd jobs. In a story published Monday, CNN and other news organizations reported neither the woman's name nor much else about her, except for the fact that she had donated half of her estate to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a school with which she had had no known contact. Since then, CNN has contacted two of her friends and a relative, who have identified her as Ida Fischer, who was born Ida Blumin in 1911 in Vienna. They said she was neither a concentration camp survivor nor had she ever been homeless, as the school originally reported. Her life story, however, was still remarkable. In 1938, she, her mother, her sister and her sister's husband fled Austria, said Peter Last, a Jewish collectible coin and banknote wholesaler who lived on East 32nd Street and befriended Fischer 20 years ago, when she lived a block away. The Blumins made their home in New York, where they had relatives. The 5-foot-2-inch immigrant married Walter Fischer, another Austrian, who earned money performing odd jobs. The couple lived with Fischer's mother; Ida Fischer earned money from a variety of office jobs. Fischer, who was in her mid-70s when Last met her in the late 1980s, gave the impression that she was just scraping by, he said. \"She hung around on the street and talked to everybody and people gave her food and clothes,\" he said. \"She was very thrifty.\" She once traveled with her mother to Israel, but did not appear particularly religious, Last said. Gabor Szanto, who met Fischer nearly 40 years ago upon his arrival in the United States from Hungary by way of Italy, disagreed, saying his friend observed all the high holidays. \"I used to take her to the synagogue,\" said the hair colorist who has a shop on the Upper West Side and cut Fischer's hair for free. He received 25 percent of her estate. \"She was a great believer in God.\" He described her as \"a free spirit.\" \"She would say she liked weak men and strong coffee,\" he said. \"She was always being taken out to eat by one person or another; people bought her things, bought her food, bought her newspapers. But she wasn't a down-and-out bag lady with a pushcart like the people in the movie. She was very neat, clean and she was a decent person.\" He said her penny pinching was understandable \"because she lived through the Depression.\" Last said that, throughout the years he knew Fischer, she lived on East 31st Street in a 10th-floor, sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment in a building for senior citizens. Her rent -- about $145 per month -- was even lower than it would have been because she reported housing code violations in her apartment to authorities, who then declined to approve rent hikes, Last said. But Fischer spent much of her time outside the building, where she sat on a bench dressed in old clothes and carried on a busy social life. \"Everyone knew her,\" he said. \"Everybody in the diner on the corner knew her.\" Among her coterie was Rue McClanahan, who played Blanche Devereaux on \"The Golden Girls\" and lived on the block, he said. Neighbors would sometimes give her items they no longer wanted. Fischer's frugality was legend: She recycled greeting cards, crossing off the name of the original recipient and replacing it with the new one. \"She'd write on the top of it: 'From Ida,'\" Last said. Instead of paying extra to get an unlisted telephone number, she simply listed it under someone else's name, he said. Occasionally, Last, now 74, would treat his neighbor to a meal at the diner or a nearby delicatessen, where her favorite dishes included lox. Though she was not thin, she would rarely finish what was on her plate. \"A lot of it, she would take home,\" he said. \"She'd take all the sugar and all the napkins; she'd bring extra jars to take coffee home in.\" He always picked up the tab. \"There was never any question,\" he said. \"I don't think she ever bought anything.\" Last, who was also born in Austria, helped Fischer increase her monthly pension from the Austrian government. He also helped her augment her income, giving Fischer $5 to sit in his Peugeot on days when the street sweeper went by so that he would not get a parking ticket. One day, Fischer asked Last about a flier she had received offering to help residents write their will for free. \"I looked into it and I found that this was the Brooklyn Law School; they would send a lawyer who would take two students to people's houses and do their wills, so I said, 'It's OK.'\" Fischer asked Last to serve as executor and he agreed. She also told him that she would leave him money, but Last was unimpressed. \"I never thought she had any real money,\" he said. \"She was enough of a pest that I told her, 'No, I don't want it.'\" She took him at his word. Instead, she left a quarter of her $300,000 estate to Last's wife, Silvia, a quarter to Szanto and half to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where a spokesman said the school was grateful for the donation, but had no idea what inspired it. Though Fischer remained alert until the end, she faltered physically during her final months, when she \"very reluctantly\" hired a woman to take care of her. \"She didn't want to pay for it,\" Last said. Fischer died in 2007 of heart failure, he said. Last said Fischer had told him she had no relatives, but he discovered after her death that she had not been truthful. \"It turned out there was a sister and a nephew that she wasn't on speaking terms with,\" he said. Even after Fischer died, Last continued to learn about his friend's penurious ways. When he went to a bank to carry out his duties as executor of the will, a vice president told him Fischer had taken advantage years before of a promotional offer of a year's free access to a safe deposit box, Last said. But after the year elapsed, she refused to pay the $100 annual fee, he said. So the banker told him he kept Fischer's Series E savings bonds for $60,000 in his desk drawer, Last said. Though the size of her total savings surprised him, Last said her dogged thrift could have explained it. He calculated that -- between her pension from Austria and her $800 monthly check from Social Security -- her monthly income was about $2,000, of which she spent only about $500. Fischer's sister -- from whom she had long been estranged -- died a few months ago, said Fischer's nephew, Peter Lynwander, who lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He said he last saw his aunt more than three decades ago at a family get-together. \"She was a live wire,\" quick to pound out a waltz on the piano or to dance. He was not surprised at the sum of her savings: \"She worked all her life and she didn't live high. So I don't think that's all that unusual.\" CNN's story published Monday quoted a spokesman for the school as saying Fischer had survived a concentration camp and lived homeless on the streets of New York. Her friends and her nephew said neither was true. On Friday, school spokesman Richard Dukas said the discrepancies were the result of a miscommunication. Hebrew University \"regrets misinterpreting the facts about Ida's amazing and generous story,\" he said. \"What is clear is that Ida was a remarkable woman who has made a difference by supporting research and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, something that will have an impact far beyond the borders of the state of Israel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ida Fischer a Jewish immigrant who fled Europe before WWII .\nFischer lived in New York; her frugality was legend among friends, neighbors .\nShe re-used greeting cards, got supplies from restaurants, paid rent of $145/month .\nShe left half her estate to Hebrew University in Jerusalem ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- The sleek, dark wood has all the characteristics of endangered mahogany from Peru's Amazon rainforest. Kebony is targeting decking manufacturers and boat builders as potential clients of its modified sustainable wood. In reality, it was manufactured in Norway, in a five-day process that instills all the qualities of rare, tropical hardwood into sustainable softwood. The company that makes it, Kebony, says it comes with none of the environmental cost. \"This is a mega turn, people have to act,\" Kebony CEO Christian Jebsen told CNN. \"We have a green solution for the tropical wood market and we are there to take that market or at least be part of it.\" Christian Jebsen talks to CNN » . The global market for wood products from tropical forests is estimated to be worth some $20 billion each year, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization. Most of the wood on the world market now comes from Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the Rainforest Foundation Norway. Tighter controls on logging in Brazil have reduced the amount of hardwood being shipped out of the Amazon, once a popular source for the finest quality mahogany, teak and cedar. \"Each tree is worth maybe $25,000-$40,000 on the international market. And there are lots of trees being taken out [worldwide] -- so this is a large business, a huge business,\" said Lars Løvold, director of the Rainforest Foundation Norway. The United Nations estimates some 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide each year, equivalent to an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua. Their absence is said to contribute more carbon emissions each year than the global transport sector. Demand for luxury hardwood is by no means the main cause of deforestation. Clearing land for agriculture and the collection of wood for fuel are the main drivers, but Løvold said the lucrative market for hardwood provides a compelling incentive for loggers to move into previously untouched areas. \"Almost all deforestation starts with the logging,\" Løvold told CNN. \"The logging doesn't necessarily end up in the total clearance of an area, it just opens up the area, it takes out all the valuable trees and makes it much easier.\" Kebony's move into the global wood market follows more than a decade of research started in the late 1990s by Canadian scientist Marc Schneider of the University of New Brunswick. Rigorous testing took place before the first trial production in 2004. Strong demand for the product convinced the company to build a new plant with ten times the production capacity, which opened in January. \"What we are doing with our technology is to permanently transform the wood so it doesn't change. Our process is 100 percent environmentally friendly,\" Jebsen told CNN. The process involves injecting softwood with a patented formula which includes Furfuryl alcohol, a waste by-product of sugar cane production. The wood is then subjected to pressure, heated and dried before being cured at high temperatures to create a product that the company says is stronger, more stable than untreated softwood and weather-proof. Kebony's environmental credentials have been endorsed with the receipt of the Nordic region's eco-label, the Swan. It's also received Norway's national environmental prize, the \"Glass Bear.\" On a cost basis, the company says it can compete with the price of authentic teak on the European market. \"You can buy a cubic meter of teak in Europe for anything between 3,000 euros ($4,000) up to 10,000 euros ($14,000), depending on the quality. I would say we are competitive with that,\" Jebsen said. Kebony is \"slightly more expensive\" when compared to pressure-treated wood, but it doesn't contain any of the potentially harmful metals or pesticides that are commonly used to improve the wood's durability. Jebsen sees some of the company's best opportunities in the boat-building industry, where rare teak from Myanmar is being used at the luxury end of the market. \"We believe multiple boat manufacturers will start to use Kebony very soon -- some have already started,\" he said. The company is also planning a move into the U.S. decking market where it's scouting for clients and recruiting distributors. \"The U.S. decking market, which is using toxic impregnated, metal-based wood modification methods, together with tropical wood, is [worth] about five billion dollars, so the market is obviously enormous,\" Jebsen said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Norwegian company has developed eco-friendly way to simulate hardwood .\nKebony uses sustainable wood including maple, pine and beech .\nWood is treated to give it the same look, performance as tropical hardwood .\nProduct widely used in Norway, now the company is expanding internationally ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- What is it about Woodstock? Jimi Hendrix closed the Woodstock festival on Monday morning, August 18, 1969. The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was arguably more influential and, like Woodstock, spawned a terrific film, D.A. Pennebaker's \"Monterey Pop.\" The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival in England, two weeks after Woodstock, included the elusive Bob Dylan. And there were several other gatherings during the late-'60s and early-'70s festival frenzy, including the ill-fated Altamont festival in 1969 and the record-setting Watkins Glen festival in 1973. But nobody talked about a \"Monterey Nation\" or a \"Wight Nation\" or, God forbid, an \"Altamont Nation.\" No other festival prompted Charles M. Schulz to name a \"Peanuts\" character after it. No other festival has maintained a viable name for four decades. And no other festival is still so present in the public and media consciousness. With Woodstock's 40th anniversary Saturday comes a plethora of releases, including CDs, DVDs, a VH1 documentary airing Friday, the new movie \"Taking Woodstock\" and several books. Watch Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang talk about the festival » . \"There's a quality to Woodstock that has to do with the ... hugeness of it,\" said festival co-founder Joel Rosenman. \"We seem to remember that it involved the whole generation.\" LIFE.com gallery: Chaos, nudity, spirit . Many members of that generation, he added, weren't aware there were so many others like themselves. \"They had ... been reading in the establishment media they were a splinter here and a fragment there,\" he said. \"And all of a sudden, they get to Woodstock ... and saw the entire world as [they] knew it was on [their] side instead of the side you thought it was on. ... It was pretty heady stuff.\" iReport: Memories of Woodstock . By now, the basics of Woodstock have passed into legend. How four men -- Rosenman, his business partner John Roberts, entrepreneur Michael Lang and record executive Artie Kornfeld -- wanted to put on a concert for the counterculture. How their site choices fell through. How Max Yasgur rented his dairy farm with a month to go. How the event drew half a million people, more than twice what had been expected. How it caused a huge traffic jam. How it became a free concert. How it rained. And how everyone -- concertgoers and security, musicians and authorities, visitors and residents -- got along and made the most of the three days with minimal violence and lots of joy. Watch why Woodstock made a difference » . As a resident of the Woodstock Nation might say, the vibes were good. But that doesn't explain how the event gave way to the myth. Elliott Landy, a photographer best known for his \"Music from Big Pink\" and \"Nashville Skyline\" portraits of The Band and Bob Dylan, respectively, believes part of Woodstock's aura came from its isolation. \"In the full Woodstock experience, you were cut off from the rest of ... everyday life,\" he said. \"It was kind of a magic land.\" Rock critic Dave Marsh, who said he was offered a ticket but didn't go, puts it succinctly: \"Woodstock was an accident. God liked that one.\" But Woodstock was also at the nexus of so many swirling currents of the '60s: the generation gap, the antiwar movement, the evolution of rock music, the growth of the youth culture. One person in Barbara Kopple's VH1 documentary said, with still-discernable anger, \"They [the establishment] were trying to kill us,\" and he wasn't kidding; the draft was ever-present, with the threat of Vietnam hanging over many heads. Music was just as divisive. Unlike today, when underground acts quickly become mainstream through word-of-Internet, the underground in 1969 was truly underground. Only the most popular rock acts appeared on prime time television, and a 1966 Harris poll reported a plurality of people over 21 disliked rock 'n' roll. \"Longhair\" and \"hippie\" weren't descriptions; they were epithets. Woodstock gave the baby boomers a rallying point. If the special editions of magazines trumpeting its success weren't enough, the movie and the soundtrack album were huge hits upon their 1970 release, bringing elements of the Woodstock experience to millions. Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, whose drum solo during the band's \"Soul Sacrifice\" became an indelible Woodstock moment, remembers how fame caught him by surprise. He was waiting in line to see \"Woodstock\" with other band members. As the previous show let out, \"We noticed that people were looking at us and pointing at us, and we didn't know what was going on.\" The band found out soon enough: On a tour of Europe, Shrieve stopped at a newsstand to pick up a magazine, and he was on the cover. \"I realized this was taking off,\" he said. Though much is made of the Woodstock spirit -- the camaraderie, the cooperation through the rain and the mud and the traffic -- not everybody bought into it. The Who's Pete Townshend has often criticized Woodstock, disparaging The Who's performance and calling the audience \"a bunch of hypocrites\"; he later plowed his Woodstock-era alienation into such songs as \"Won't Get Fooled Again.\" (Townshend has also acknowledged that the Woodstock gig was \"important.\") Marsh, who wrote a recent cover story on Woodstock for Relix magazine, admires the festival's optimism but not many of its realities: the poor sanitation, the hype, the idea that getting away from society was going to solve its problems. \"We were ambitious as people, and our ambition was to create a beautiful new society. ... And this seemed like a step on the road to a lot of people,\" he said. \"I never bought the thing that the artificial wilderness was a solution to our social problems. ... I think a lot of people thought if you got stoned and bonded together with a bunch of people to whom on Monday you didn't feel bonded at all, that that was a step on the journey.\" For all of the good will Woodstock created, it's also blamed for what it didn't do. The war didn't end. Altamont, the hope for a West Coast Woodstock, culminated in an audience member's slaying. And members of the \"Woodstock Nation\" went their separate ways. Woodstock also was the beginning of a new era in the music business -- it became a \"music industry,\" Woodstock co-founder Lang noted. Producer-engineer Eddie Kramer, a Jimi Hendrix colleague who recorded the festival, agreed the music world changed after Woodstock. \"You have to realize that, in 1969, agents and managers were in the background,\" he said. \"And the musicians weren't really competing with each other. They were friendly to each other and were eager to help.\" As much as \"getting back to the garden,\" in Joni Mitchell's words, Woodstock now also symbolizes baby boomer nostalgia. Among the related products and events are a 6-CD box set (Rhino); an \"Ultimate Collector's Edition\" DVD reissue of director Michael Wadleigh's Oscar-winning documentary (Warner Home Video); the new Ang Lee film \"Taking Woodstock\"; \"Woodstock Experience\" remastered CDs of complete live sets by such performers as Santana and Janis Joplin (Sony/Legacy); Friday's VH1 documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple; a tour by the \"Heroes of Woodstock\"; an anniversary concert at the Woodstock site in Bethel, New York; and several books, including works by Lang and Landy. That's a lot to pile on to what was, at its heart, a music festival, and perhaps people have expected too much from Woodstock. Just a year after the event, critic J.R. Young reviewed the soundtrack in Rolling Stone and gave voice to the disappointment and cynicism. \"That's why there will never really be a Woodstock Nation,\" said a character in the review, which was written as a short story. \"You won't let anybody live on your land.\" And yet \"Woodstock\" remains a magic word -- one that, finally, refuses to reveal its secrets. Woodstock co-founder Rosenman ends up reaching for the elation of Keats' poem \"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer\" -- \"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken\" -- when trying to describe the festival's thrill. But he stops short of adding up the details. It was the people, he said, who made Woodstock. \"That half a million-strong audience created something -- they created a legend,\" he said. \"I actually don't think it's possible to do the making of that legend and explain it to the satisfaction of almost anybody. I think you'd still come away wondering, 'What the heck made that happen?' \" And Shrieve, who's long since come to terms with being known as \"the guy who did the drum solo at Woodstock,\" is equally philosophical about how the festival is portrayed. \"It's interesting to observe history from the viewpoint of having been there. It also gives you some insight into everything else,\" he said. \"I mean, any historical moment, there are people that are there and people who are not there. And when it grows into something that becomes more mythological, you see people telling the story of how it happened, and you go, 'Wait a minute! That's not what happened!' \"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Woodstock festival was 40 years ago Saturday .\nFestival represents idealism, music, money, mud, depending on who you ask .\nFestival co-creator: It was the audience who \"created a legend\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is not often that football players are actively encouraged to play dirty -- unless of course they are taking part in a unique variant of the game called \"Swamp Soccer\" when it is virtually unavoidable. The competition is fierce in the 2009 Swamp Soccer World Championship held in Scotland . Originating from the bogs of Finland, the game was started by cross-country skiers who used the football matches in knee-deep mud to strengthen their leg muscles. The first tournament took place in 1997 with 13 teams, but now annual events take place in Sweden, Iceland, Russia and Brazil which can often feature over 200 teams. What do you think of Swamp Soccer? Do you prefer Beach Football of another form of the game? Let us know your thoughts on the 'Sound off' box below. Glasgow Rangers fan Stewart Miller imported the concept to the United Kingdom after a chance meeting with founder Jyrki Vaananen while on a business trip to Iceland. Miller launched the first UK tournament in 2005 and now teams travel from all over the globe to the Scottish village of Strachur to try and become the annual Swamp Soccer World Champions. Watch the action from the bog ». \"We had teams coming from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to take part in the tournament this year so there is an international flavor to the event,\" Miller told CNN. \"There is a huge appetite to try out new things and I think that's why Swamp Soccer is able to capture the imagination of people. \"The basic rules of football also apply to Swamp Soccer with the exception that matches are played in thick mud with six players on an oversized five-a-side pitch. \"It's probably one of the only sports in the world where the worse the conditions are the better the sporting spectacle!\" There is no offside in Swamp Soccer while kick-offs, throw-ins, corner kicks, free kicks and penalties are taken by using the hands to drop the ball onto a chosen foot. Teams are also allowed to make unlimited substitutions although no shoe changing is allowed for the match duration. Miller believes that the oft-used quote that the state of a pitch can bridge the gap between two unevenly match teams is even more applicable with Swamp Soccer. \"You could put the Brazilian national side up against an amateur team and you wouldn't know who would come out on top -- the pitch really does prove to be a leveler in this instance,\" he said. \"Although professional footballers are precious commodities these days -- I'm not sure we'll see any stars getting caked in mud too soon, most of them are far to pampered for that. \"Nobody's ever been injured seriously playing in the swamp, sometimes somebody's got a cut or two but nothing big -- so maybe when they retire from the game they might be prepared to give it a go.\" The imaginatively titled Real Mudrid, Mudchesthair United and Cowdungbeath were unable to make it past the group stages in the 44-team event which was won by FC Full Gunge from Poole in England who retained their title with a 1-0 victory over The Chocolate Men. This year's Swamp Soccer tournament was held in a village in the Scottish countryside but Miller revealed that he intends to bring the mud game to metropolitan areas. He added: \"The future for Swamp Soccer is in the city and of course I'm certain we'll bring all the mud with us. It will certainly make a great spectacle if set up a swamp in the middle of Glasgow or Edinburgh, so watch this space.\" If you are interested in taking part in the 2010 Swamp Soccer World Championships visit the official Web site of the tournament." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Swamp Soccer was started by cross-country skiers on the bogs of Finland .\nThe 2009 World Championships have just been held in Strachur, Scotland .\nCompetitors came from all over the world to take part in the tournament ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Cheryl Morse was 19 years old when she hitchhiked more than 700 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Bethel, New York. She was determined to make it to the Woodstock music festival. An estimated 400,000 people attended the Woodstock music festival in Bethel, New York, in August 1969. Although Morse, now 59, no longer recalls details such as how long it took to get there or what food, if any, she ate, she still vividly remembers the music. When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young opened their set with \"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,\" she said the energy in the crowd was intoxicating. And she can still picture folk musicians Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez performing in the rain Friday night. \"It was like being totally shut off from the rest of the world for three days, with nonstop music by world-class musicians playing their hearts out ... for our party,\" she said. Forty years later, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair remains a major cultural touchstone. Held in Bethel on August 15, 16 and 17, 1969, the music festival welcomed some of the biggest musicians of the era and legions of fans from across the United States. Despite the concert's size -- an estimated 400,000 people attended the festival -- it seems the idea of Woodstock is bigger than the actual event was. It is remembered as a peace- and love-filled celebration, an out-of-this-world experience fueled by rock 'n' roll music and copious drugs. See Woodstock 40 years ago, and what the site looks like today » . Like many others, it wasn't until Morse left the festival grounds and re-entered the outside world that she began to realize Woodstock's impact. She stopped at a local market on her way out of town and saw news coverage of the festival on television. \"Until [then], I had not thought about the outside world at all,\" Morse said. \"That was when I slowly began to comprehend the impact the gathering was having on the country.\" Woodstock, Morse explained, \"came at a pivotal point in history,\" when the Vietnam War and subsequent anti-war movement were in full swing. The festival, a massive event that was largely peaceful and free of riots, was considered exceptional for the time. Years later, Morse realized that Woodstock \"would never be forgotten,\" she said. \"It took you 10 years to realize you were part of history,\" said Lenny Eisenberg, who made the journey to Bethel to see Jimi Hendrix perform. \"At the time, it was just another great show.\" Part of the concert's lasting power was fueled by the Oscar-winning documentary \"Woodstock,\" which also led to a blurred perception of the festival, Eisenberg said. \"I have some distorted ideas of what happened,\" he said. Still, Eisenberg recalls Hendrix's performance that famously closed the festival on Monday morning. The aspiring photographer saved one of the three rolls of film he brought with him to document the guitarist's set. The wait was worth it, he said. Eisenberg captured several shots of Hendrix, including one of the guitarist with his middle finger in the air, seconds after he flashed a peace sign to the audience. iReport.com: See Eisenberg's photos . \"It's really hard to pin down a best memory,\" said Thomas Burke, who was 19 years old when he went to Woodstock. \"The whole place was a memory.\" Burke still has his Woodstock tickets along with the check his mother wrote for them. His memories from the event are fond, but fuzzy. \"I remember some of the acts, but not the order or where I was when they played,\" he said. He recalls seeing Richie Havens and Jefferson Airplane, and can't forget Hendrix's legendary performance of \"The Star-Spangled Banner.\" \"Woodstock marked a big turning point in my life,\" said Burke, who was drafted into the Army soon after returning home from the festival. \"It was a fitting end to the '60s.\" \"It was the experience of a lifetime. I've always been proud of the fact that I was there,\" said Ralph Chin. He remembers the rain and mud, nonstop music, free-flowing drugs and conversations with strangers. For Chin, nothing can recapture Woodstock. \"I went to a couple other festivals after Woodstock, but they fell short on the overall feeling,\" he said. iReport.com: 'The experience of a lifetime' \"Woodstock was like a big party with all your friends there, whereas the festivals afterward felt more like you were an independent entity and had no connections to anyone else.\" \"I think it was the ultimate spontaneous thing. It just happened,\" said John Laferlita, a photographer who attended Woodstock at 23. Laferlita heard about the festival on the radio and thought, \"Why not?\" He hopped on a bus from Manhattan, New York, on Saturday, with little more than his camera and tickets. Like many others, he slept on the ground that night. \"There hasn't been anything like it,\" added Laferlita. \"Everything else is planned to the minute, but this was spontaneous. That's what made it so special.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Woodstock celebrates 40 years, the music festival still looms large .\nMemories of the event are distorted by media coverage, movies, some say .\n\"It took 10 years to realize you were part of history,\" said Lenny Eisenberg .\niReport.com: Were you at Woodstock? Share your memories, photos ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Officials in Mexico's Chiapas state postponed classes Friday for more than 1 million students in an effort to avoid a resurgence of H1N1 flu, which has sickened thousands throughout Mexico this year. After the first confirmed swine flu reports in April, Mexico shut down all of its schools and many public venues. Chiapas Education Secretary Javier Alvarez Ramos and state Health Secretary James Gomez Montes said classes will start August 31 for middle and high school students and September 7 for elementary pupils, the state-run Notimex news agency said. About 1.55 million students will be affected, 850,000 of them in elementary school, Notimex said. This is not the first instance of officials in Mexico altering schedules to combat the disease. The first cases of H1N1, also called swine flu, were confirmed in Mexico in April. Within days, the government closed all schools and most public venues. In Mexico City, officials shut down all bars, theaters and public gathering places and limited restaurants to take-out orders. About 35,000 businesses were affected. All non-essential federal government offices also were closed nationwide for several days. The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in early June. As of August 6, the WHO reported more than 177,450 confirmed cases in 170 nations. The Western Hemisphere has the most cases, with nearly 103,000 confirmed instances of the disease and almost 1,300 deaths. The WHO is no longer providing a country-by-country breakdown, but the United States, Argentina and Mexico have had the most cases and fatalities. In the United States, federal officials released new guidelines this month for containing the spread of the virus across the nation's school system. Government officials have warned of a possible resurgence in the H1N1 virus this fall. Among other things, health officials urged local administrators to exercise caution and restraint when deciding whether to close a school in response to an outbreak, noting that the costs of shutting down institutions often outweigh the benefits. Officials also confirmed that a new vaccine to combat the virus is likely to be ready by October. The revised federal guidelines advise parents to keep children infected with the H1N1 virus out of school for 24 hours after the fever has gone away. Parents were previously advised to keep their children out of school for seven days after the end of a fever caused by H1N1. The virus has spread around the world with unprecedented speed, according to the WHO. Past influenza viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the current H1N1 virus spread in less than six weeks, the WHO said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officials in Chiapas delay school in effort to avoid flu resurgence .\n1.55 million students affected, 850,000 of them in elementary school .\nU.S. officials urge restraint when shutting schools, because of cost ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Preakness Stakes favorite Rachel Alexandra lived up to her billing Saturday, thundering past an all-male field of competitors and becoming the first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924. Saturday's victory for Rachel Alexandra, who raced from the 13th and furthest stall, was the filly's fifth straight win. \"She's the greatest horse I've ever been on in my life,\" jockey Calvin Borel said after the race. \"She did not handle the track 110 percent and still won.\" Long-shot Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird fell short in his improbable bid to compete for horse-racing's Triple Crown, but showed his Derby victory was no fluke -- charging hard to finish second. Musket Man finished third. Rachel Alexandra's win was historic for multiple reasons and capped a run of five straight victories that included a blowout of the field in the all-filly Kentucky Oaks. She became the first horse to win from the race's 13th stall -- the furthest from the inside of the track. Borel became the first jockey to ride a winner in the Kentucky Derby -- he steered 50-1 underdog Mine That Bird to the win -- and then choose to ride another horse in the Preakness. Watch why Preakness was viewed as battle of sexes » . She ran at the front of the mile-and-one-sixteenth race for almost the entire time. Mike Smith, Mine That Bird's jockey on Saturday, said Borel gave him advice on how to run the undersized champion on Saturday. The two chatted after a finish in which less than a single horse-length separated the two. \"I said if I'd had that rail trip, it might have been a different outcome,\" said Smith, who'd hoped to take Mine That Bird to the inside of the track just as Borel did in the May 2 Derby. \"They knew I was going to do it so everybody was just sticking on it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rachel Alexandra is first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924 .\n\"She's the greatest horse I've ever been on in my life,\" jockey Calvin Borel said .\nBorel first jockey to ride separate horses to victory in Kentucky Derby, Preakness ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Three women who were seized along with six other foreign workers in Yemen have been killed, Yemeni government officials said Monday. South Korean officials discuss the kidnappings Monday. A South Korean woman reportedly was killed. \"It is with profound sorrow that the Yemeni government reports finding three bodies,\" according to a statement from Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen's Embassy in the United States. The statement said the dead were identified as a South Korean teacher and two German nurses in training, all in their 20s. They were found in the Noshour Valley in Safrah district in the province of Saada. The women were abducted Sunday along with five other Germans, including three children, and a Briton, according to Yemen's state-run SABA news agency. Earlier, the Yemen Post said seven of the nine hostages were killed, citing the country's interior ministry. But SABA reported later Monday the remaining six were believed to be alive, and security forces were searching for them . Albasha said the nine foreigners left the city of Saada without police escorts that are required due to the \"heightened security situation\" in the area. \"This event was a heinous crime and constitutes not only a violation against the peaceful principles of Islam, but also the precepts of humanity,\" the embassy spokesman said. \"Moreover, it does not reflect the good traditions and culture of Yemen.\" The Germany Foreign Ministry said it is in close contact with the German Embassy in Yemen but couldn't confirm any details at this stage. Initial official statements said the group was apparently seized by Houthi rebels, Shiite militants who have been fighting the government for years, according to SABA. The militants are hoping to derail the peace and reconstruction process in Saada, which has been rocked by war in the past year, according to SABA. However, the news agency later reported Houthi rebels accused drug cartels of abducting the group and killing the three. In addition, SABA said a spokesman for the rebels accused regional tribes of being behind the kidnappings and slayings. Sunday's abduction was the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreign workers in Yemen this year. All the previous hostages had been released unharmed, including 24 medical workers whom armed tribesman seized last week in Yemen's Amran province. CNN's Caroline Faraj, Diana Magnay and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "South Korean teacher, two German nurses in training found dead, Yemen says .\nInitial reports cited Shiite militants in abductions .\nBut Houthi rebels blame drug cartels and regional tribes, news agency says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was absent again Tuesday from his Senate impeachment trial, but state senators who will decide whether to remove him from office heard him loud and clear on FBI recordings of his phone calls. Gov. Rod Blagojevich talks to CNN's Campbell Brown Tuesday night about his impeachment trial. Only four snippets of conversations were played for senators in the second day of the impeachment trial, and all pertained to horse-racing legislation. Prosecutors said the brief recordings focused on the governor's efforts to apparently raise campaign contributions in exchange for signing a horse-racing bill. In one recording from December 3, a lobbyist assures the governor that a race-track owner has pledged his \"commitment.\" \"He goes, 'I hope I'm gonna have it next week, but you have my commitment. I've always been there. I'm gonna be there,' \" the lobbyist told Blagojevich of the race track owner. None of the recordings mentions money specifically. Meanwhile, Blagojevich continued an ambitious media blitz, appearing in interviews with CBS, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press. A day earlier, he appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View.\" Watch Blagojevich on \"Larry King Live\" » . \"I hate all of this,\" Blagojevich told CNN's Campbell Brown in an interview Tuesday. \"This is a life-changing thing. I am about to be thrown out of office for accusations that are false and not true.\" Watch Brown interview Blagojevich » . He added, \"But there's principles involved. And that is I did nothing wrong and I'd like an opportunity to prove it.\" The governor has railed against state Senate rules that restrict the calling of some witnesses and the presentation of some evidence. State Sen. Matt Murphy, part of the nine-member committee that put the Senate trial rules together, has said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked both sides to \"defer to the criminal prosecution\" of Blagojevich and \"limit witnesses.\" The House prosecution in the Senate trial is operating under the same restrictions, he said. Senators also heard testimony Tuesday from FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain, author of a 76-page affidavit released in December, when the governor was arrested on federal corruption charges. Watch proceedings from Tuesday's trial » . Among other allegations, federal prosecutors said the governor tried to trade or sell the Senate seat that would become vacant after Barack Obama became president. Cain testified about transcripts of federal tapes in the affidavit, mostly replying in the affirmative when House prosecutor David Ellis asked whether the portions of the affidavit were accurate. \"In the end, we were very confident that it was the governor's voice in those conversations,\" Cain told House prosecutor David Ellis. Cain said FBI agents repeatedly listened to the governor's recorded conversations to make sure they were accurate. \"Agents would listen to the recordings repeatedly as many times as necessary to verify the accuracy and quote,\" he said. Later, as senators tried to ask Cain about the recordings, a representative from the U.S. attorney's office was on hand to block some answers. After Blagojevich's arrest, the state House impeached the two-term Democratic governor in two votes, with only one dissenting vote each time. The second vote was needed because of the seating of a new House. Blagojevich has said the House impeachment vote was politically motivated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "State senators heard recorded phone calls about horse-racing legislation .\nGovernor absent from trial, holding interviews with media outlets .\nSenators also heard testimony from FBI agent who wrote affidavit .\nU.S. attorney has asked both sides to \"defer to criminal prosecution\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Defying many predictions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a commanding lead in the presidential vote count early Saturday, election officials with Iran's Interior Ministry said. Men choose their candidates before voting Friday at a mosque in Tehran, Iran. With 72 percent of ballot boxes counted, Ahmedinejad had 65.7 percent of the vote while his chief rival Mir Hossein Moussavi had 31.4 percent, election officials said. Moussavi, widely regarded as a reformist, had been expected to do well as his campaign caught fire in recent days, triggering massive street rallies in Tehran. An \"unprecedented\" voter turnout at the polls Friday was also expected to boost Moussavi's chances of winning the presidency. Iran's Interior Minister Seyed Sadeq Mahsouli said 70 percent of 46 million eligible voters had gone to the polls Friday, according to Fars, another semi-official news agency. Both candidates claimed victory. Moussavi's camp accused the Iranian establishment of manipulating the vote. Watch why each side is claiming victory » . Voting was supposed to end after 10 hours, but because of the massive turnout, officials initially said polling stations would remain open until everyone in line had a chance to vote. However, Moussavi alleged that doors were being closed with people still waiting outside. Some private news agencies reported many Iranians were milling about on the streets late into the night. Mehr reported that the chief of police declared public gatherings of candidate supporters illegal. Earlier in the day, voters crowded the steps of one polling place in Tehran, some waiting more than three hours underneath the hot sun to cast their ballots. Some were lining up even before the polls opened at 8 a.m. Moussavi is the main challenger among three candidates vying to replace Ahmadinejad. The other candidates are former parliament speaker and reformist Mehdi Karrubi, and Mohsen Rezaie, the former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Mehr reported Rezaie had 1.72 percent of the vote and Karrubi had 0.87 percent. If no single candidate reaches a simple majority -- 50 percent plus one vote -- a runoff election will be held on Friday, June 19. It was unclear where the ballots that had been counted so far had been cast. Ahmadinejad still has staunch support in Iran's rural areas, but has been blamed for much of Iran's economic turmoil over the last four years. If he loses, it would be the first time a sitting Iranian president has not won re-election to a second term in office. Fawaz Gerges, an academic and author who studies the region, said Friday's vote is really \"a referendum on Ahmadinejad,\" who has been in office since 2005. \"The unemployment rate is 30 percent ... the largest in the third world, inflation is [in the] double digits in Iran,\" Gerges told CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"We focus in the United States a great deal on his inflammatory rhetoric on the Holocaust, on nuclear weapons. We tend to forget that Ahmadinejad has basically done a great deal of damage to the Iranian economy, on social policy.\" While Moussavi's campaign has energized key segments of Iranian voters -- particularly women -- Gerges noted that \"Iranians have surprised us many times.\" Moussavi's supporters crowded the streets of Tehran this week, wearing the candidate's trademark color green. His campaign has also energized Iran's youth, many of whom did not take part in the 2005 election. Yasmin, a 21-year-old university student, said she cast her ballot on Friday for Moussavi. CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports emotions on the street » . \"I've never even been interested in the politics of my country until today. It was my first time voting, and I am so excited about it,\" she said. \"We are all yearning for change, and I believe Moussavi will bring much more freedom to Iran and our lives. That is why I cast my ballot for him. There is so much anticipation in the air.\" Moussavi's supporters hope that he follows in the same footsteps as Mohammed Khatami, a reformist candidate who overwhelmingly won the presidency in 1997, raising hopes that the reformist movement would bring religious and democratic freedoms to the Islamic republic. But the real power in Iran rests in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. By the time Khatami left office in 2005, he was unable to make major changes because of the opposition of hard-line elements in Iran's clerical establishment. \"The elected president is not the commander in chief, he does not make decisions of war and peace,\" Gerges noted. \"The major decision maker [in Iran] is the unelected supreme leader, that is Ali Khamenei, along with a National Security Council.\" But Gerges noted that the \"the style of the president\" and his \"posture\" have a great deal of influence on Iran's relations with other countries, particularly the United States. Watch CNN review the unprecedented online presence of candidates » . No matter who wins Friday's vote, analysts say it is unlikely any of the candidates would change Iran's position on its nuclear program, which the Islamic republic insists is for civilian purposes but the United States and other Western powers believe may be a cover for a weapons program. Iranian-American analyst and scholar Reza Aslan said that while Moussavi is \"a little bit more of a moderate when it comes to the nuclear issue ... all four candidates agreement with Iran's right to develop nuclear.\" Nevertheless, Aslan said that all four candidates also \"recognize it's time to open up to America and to the international community because there's no other option with regard to the economy.\" CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Samson Desta and Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officials: 72 percent of votes in, incumbent president has 65.7 percent .\nLarge turnout was expected to benefit Ahmadinejad's main rival, Moussavi .\nMoussavi camp accuses Iranian establishment of manipulating the vote .\nNone of candidates expected to change Iran's position on its nuclear program ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- When powerlifting coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis wanted to create a winning formula for her athletes, she didn't head to the weight room. Instead, she found herself in the classroom. Coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis with athletes from Great Britain's powerlifting team. Head coach of Great Britain's powerlifting squad, Vaughan-Ellis participated in a course that's designed to boost the leadership and management skills of coaches. Vaughan-Ellis's responsibilities run the gamut from identifying up-and-coming talent to developing training programs. She had friends who were corporate performance directors, and realizing the skills they had were applicable to her own line of work, she decided to pursue a professional development course designed for coaches. \"We expect athletes to be the best they can be. Our responsibility as coaches is to be the best we can be,\" Vaughan-Ellis told CNN. In pursuit of becoming better managers and leaders, players in the business world have long turned to executive education programs. Elite coaches are taking a cue from business and turning to tailored programs too. In the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the desire to develop high caliber coaches is ramping up in the UK, said John Neal of Ashridge Business School, where Vaughan-Ellis took the coaching course. \"A lot of coach development work [in the UK] is ad hoc. It's becoming more clearly defined, but our vision is to establish a more development pathway for coaches,\" he told CNN. Vaughan-Ellis trains about 20 powerlifters as part of a program that was established to prepare athletes in Great Britain for major competitive events like the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Nutritionists, psychologists, fitness coaches and sports scientists are all focused on a goal of helping athletes achieve a performance edge, she says. But coaches also need to make sure they make the best decisions for their athletes. That requires a broad range of skills, from understanding the athlete experience and identifying particular challenges they may encounter as well as having a firm understanding of where funding comes from and making sure it's spent wisely . \"We prepare our athletes to be the best in the world. But we also have to make sure that we are making the best choices for them,\" she said. Ashridge, which specializes in customized education programs, has been running sport coaching courses since 2001. Its core World Class Sport Coach Development program is endorsed by the British Olympic Association. The course is made up of 10 one-day master classes that are spread out over a period of about 10 months. In a typical meeting, coaches are given scenarios, break up into groups for discussion and then present their responses to the class. The program is flexible so coaches can focus on the skills they want to improve. A wide range of topics are covered, from communication, negotiation and team building skills to body language, motivation and development of young players. Neal estimates that about 160 coaches have completed the coaching program since it was launched. Most participants are UK-based, but coaches come from around the world and represent a long list of sports that includes diving, swimming, rugby, hockey, shooting and cricket. Coaches have few opportunities to share their knowledge. According to Neal, that's one reason why the course has been popular. One measure of its success: Many coaches, like Vaughan-Ellis, participate more than once. Due to a lack of funding, however, coaches oftentimes end up paying for the course themselves. Ashridge heavily subsidizes the program and charges £2,000, just about a quarter of what it actually costs to run it. But in return, the business school gets a unique perspective on decision making that is fed back into its executive education programs, Neal said. Elite coaches have a lot to offer companies, especially in the current economic downturn, Neal said. More businesses are under pressure to maximize efficiency, and many want to learn from the sport experience, since coaches are required to achieve results quickly. With 2012 less than three years away, Vaughan-Ellis is planning to return to Ashridge for a refresher. She says one of the advantages of the program is that it helps coaches deal with pressure by teaching them how to cope with and embrace change. That's an invaluable skill in athletics. \"Sport is change,\" she said. \"You're only as good as your last competition or as strong as your weakest link. You have to move forward and constantly evolve.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With 2012 Games approaching, focus on coach development on the rise in UK .\nElite coaches turn to program run by Ashridge Business School to build skills .\nCourse designed to transfer lessons from business world to sport ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted sanctions placed on the Navy over its underwater sonar testing, a setback for environmental groups that claimed the warfare technology was harming whales and other marine mammals. An endangered blue whale surfaces off the coast of Southern California in July. At issue in the 5-4 ruling was whether the Navy's need to conduct exercises to protect the country from enemy submarines outweighed concerns raised by environmental groups. The case focused on whether the president had the power to issue executive waivers allowing such tests and whether federal judges can issue preliminary injunctions blocking them. The high court ultimately sided with claims of national security over environmental concerns. Those environmental interests, said Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority, \"are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines.\" Roberts said a lower federal court \"abused its discretion\" by imposing a 2,200-yard perimeter for testing and ordering a shutdown of sonar use during surfacing exercises. But in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned that the ecological damage was significant. \"This likely harm cannot be lightly dismissed,\" she said, \"even in the face of an alleged risk to the effectiveness of the Navy's 14 training exercises.\" Justices David Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens also questioned the Navy's arguments. The exercises have continued while the case was under appeal. Environmentalists had sued the Pentagon over the practice, and a federal judge ordered major changes to the Navy's annual offshore training exercises in March. President Bush had issued an emergency waiver to allow the exercises to go on without the filing of an environmental impact study, but the lower court ruling blocked the use of sonar. That federal judge, in ruling against the government last March, said it was \"constitutionally suspect\" for Bush to issue the national security exemption to allow skipping the impact study. Military officials argued that the restrictions could hamper readiness in time of war, because new sonar technology is needed to detect increasingly sophisticated enemy submarines. \"This case was vital to our Navy and nation's security, and we are pleased with the Supreme Court's decision in this matter,\" Navy Secretary Donald Winter said. \"We can now continue to train our sailors effectively, under realistic combat conditions.\" One of the environmental organizations that sued the Defense Department told the justices that the exercises had been planned in advance and that the Navy was required under law to conduct more extensive environmental tests than it had. The waters of southern California are home to dozens of species of whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, nine of them federally listed as endangered or threatened. Federal courts have cited scientific studies and the Navy's own conclusions that high levels of sonar can cause hearing loss and disorientation in the animals. In February, the U.S. Navy demonstrated for CNN its onboard procedures for turning down mid-frequency sonar when whales come within 1,000 meters and shutting it off completely when they approach 200 meters. The sonar sounds like a \"ping, ping\" noise, and it can be reduced as necessary, officers said. But environmentalists say that the sonar can hurt whales much farther than 1,000 meters away and that the noise created by the sonar \"was like having a jet engine in the Supreme Court multiplied 2,000 times, compensating for water,\" attorney Richard Kendall told the justices. Reacting to the ruling, Kendall said, \"It is gratifying that the court did not accept the Navy's expansive claims of executive power and that two-thirds of the injunction remain in place.\" In 2000, 16 whales beached themselves in the Bahamas, and the Navy concluded that too many sonar ships had been operating in a narrow underwater channel. The service says it is funding $16 million in independent research to minimize sonar's effect on marine mammals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Navy secretary says ruling allows sailors to train under \"realistic\" conditions .\nBy 5-4 vote, Supreme Court allows Navy exercises in whale habitat .\nSound waves can permanently harm sea mammals, environmentalists argue .\nFleet's safety and need to train trump concern for whales, chief justice writes ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a new medal Wednesday to honor the families of British service personnel killed while serving their country. The Elizabeth Cross may be given to family members of service personnel who have died since 1948. The Elizabeth Cross will be given to the next of kin of armed forces personnel killed on operations or as a result of terrorism \"as a mark of national recognition for their loss,\" the Defense Ministry said. It is the first time the name of a reigning monarch has been given to a new award since the queen's father, King George VI, instituted the George Cross in 1940. That medal recognizes acts of bravery of both civilians and military personnel. The most prestigious medal, the Victoria Cross, was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for acts of gallantry by the armed forces. \"This seems to me a right and proper way of showing our enduring debt to those who are killed while actively protecting what is most dear to us all,\" the queen said in a message to the armed forces. \"The solemn dignity which we attach to the names of those who have fallen is deeply ingrained in our national character. As a people, we accord this ultimate sacrifice the highest honor and respect.\" The Elizabeth Cross is a sterling silver emblem in the shape of a cross over a wreath. In the center is the queen's monogram, EIIR, which stands for Elizabeth II Regina, or Queen Elizabeth II. At each of the four tips of the cross are floral symbols: a rose for England, a thistle for Scotland, a shamrock for Northern Ireland, and a daffodil for Wales. The reverse of the cross will be engraved with the name of the person who died. The name will also be written on a scroll signed by the queen, to be given to family members along with the medal, the Defense Ministry said. The award may be given to family members of all service personnel who have died since 1948. Charles Mosely, the former editor in chief of Debrett's, an authority on etiquette, said the Elizabeth Cross is a good way to recognize the sacrifice made by members of the military and their families. \"It seems very praiseworthy and very overdue,\" he said. It makes sense for the medal to be named after the reigning monarch, he said, because she is head of the armed forces. \"They have personal allegiance to the sovereign, a personal loyalty,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elizabeth Cross for next of kin of armed forces personnel killed on operations .\nMedal is a sterling silver emblem in the shape of a cross over a wreath .\nFirst time name of a reigning monarch has been given to an award since 1940 .\nMost prestigious medal, Victoria Cross, introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Achtung, baby! Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a flamboyant Austrian fashionista in \"Bruno.\" There's a British theory that everything sounds funnier delivered with a Teutonic accent. That's tested to the limit in Sacha Baron Cohen's newest provocation, \"Bruno,\" but it's not what comes out of his mouth that makes the Austrian fashionista such a handful. The man in the tight yellow lederhosen knows that in our visually overstimulated culture, a picture is vorth a thousand vords. More if there's significant skin involved -- and he's happy to show us his wurst. Cohen seems to believe that prudery is the enemy. Certainly, bad taste is his Trojan horse. An early montage of romantic coupling, Bruno-style, is enough to get tongues wagging -- or clucking in disapproval. It's the closest thing to gay porn most heterosexuals will see this side of \"300.\" Either way, Cohen's laughing: Properly managed, outrage is a useful marketing tool, as \"Borat\" showed. Apparently permanently airbrushed right down to his backside, Bruno looks nothing like his hirsute Kazakh cousin, but the men share an ego; they're equally insensitive to other people and oblivious to notions of social decorum and the politically correct. And they both invest heavily in the American Dream. Bruno hungers after fame as hungrily as Borat lusted for Pamela Anderson. After a brief prologue in Europe -- and the distressing revelation of the vacuity of the fashion scene -- he sets out for Los Angeles, determined to become Austria's \"biggest superstar since Hitler.\" Perhaps inspired by another Cohen creation, Ali G, he sets out to make a celebrity interview show -- but sadly, the only dupes ignorant enough to participate are \"American Idol\" judges (Paula Abdul chats about her philanthropic pursuits while perched on the back of an immigrant laborer) and presidential candidates (take a bow, Ron Paul). It's not just about the scarcity of the guests, though. Bruno doesn't draw them out the way Borat did. Quite the opposite: Mostly they're wary and guarded, or downright hostile -- and understandably so, often enough, given Bruno's shock tactics. Yes, it's funny seeing him fire up a predominantly African-American TV studio audience by announcing that his \"adopted\" black baby is named O.J., but still, the scene tells us more about Cohen's need to provoke than about the crowd's supposed homophobia. The same goes for his brief stint in a U.S. Army training facility. The actor's quick wit and virtuoso physical comedy skills carry the day, but just as Bruno is forced to abandon one dead-end celebrity scheme after another, the movie too seems to be casting about haphazardly for some real comic traction. Evidently it's not easy testing taboos in 2009. Wherever Bruno turns, he seems to be following in someone else's footsteps. Peace talks in Israel (what Bruno calls \"Middle Earth\")? Morgan Spurlock has been there, done that. Camping out with the gun lobby? Michael Moore, \"Bowling for Columbine.\" Gay conversion? Didn't director Larry Charles go there with Bill Maher just last year in \"Religulous\"? Meanwhile, Bruno's love-hate relationship with his assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), only highlights how similar the new film's few narrative pegs are to \"Borat.\" Some sketches do hit much closer to home. A series of interviews with stage moms and dads who eagerly sign up their infants to work with hornets, wasps, dead or dying animals, antiquated heavy machinery and sundry toxic substances is a real jaw-dropper, though the kicker is tempered by Bruno's behavior. And, to its credit, the film saves the best for last. In a show-stopping climax (which I don't propose to spoil here) Cohen puts it all on the line and definitively nails gay-bashers where it hurts: right between the eyes. iReport.com: \"Bruno\" vs. Borat\": Preview audience weighs in . It's an elaborate -- and brave -- stunt by which Bruno ultimately achieves the fame he craves. And it does more than enough to validate the film's fast and loose play with stereotypes and questionable undercover tactics. \"Bruno\" has its problems, but the finale makes it a winner. \"Bruno\" is rated R and runs 83 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bruno\" is Sacha Baron Cohen's new film; he plays gay fashionista .\nFilm attempts to show homophobia but in some cases pushes too hard .\nStill, last scene makes it worth it, says reviewer Tom Charity ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor Rob Knox has been given four life sentences and told he will be behind bars for at least 20 years. The parents of Robert Knox read a statement outside the Old Bailey after Karl Bishop was found guilty of his murder. A judge at the Old Bailey court in central London sentenced 22-year-old Karl Bishop on Thursday, the day after he was convicted of the attack on Rob Knox and four of his friends in southeast London last May. Bishop stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the court heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. The judge, Mr Justice Bean, told Bishop: \"You are at present a highly dangerous man,\" the Press Association reported. \"There is plainly a very significant risk to the public of serious harm caused by your committing further offences of violence. \"Because you had threatened his younger brother, Rob Knox was among those who tried to disarm you. He paid for his bravery with his life. \"The truth is that you simply could not care less whether you killed him or not. When you learned that you had killed Rob your only response was to say 'Yeah, sweet.'\" Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. The Knox family left the court without commenting, but earlier Rob's mother Sally said of Bishop: \"Once he's got his sentence and he's gone, I will not waste my time thinking about him. \"I just think maybe somebody like him may have some kind of disturbed mind, which may not be due to the life he's had, it just may be something in him.\" Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor jailed for life, must serve at least 20 years .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Les Paul never stopped tinkering, said Henry Juszkiewicz. Les Paul was constantly making recommendations on how to improve guitars, says the CEO of Gibson. Juszkiewicz, the chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitars, remembers getting calls from his company's partner (and famed client), offering recommendations on how to change or market his eponymous Gibson guitars. Sometimes, Juszkiewicz recalls, the two would go out for Chinese food. Paul was very particular, desiring a dish called Chicken Subgum. The two would have to search Chinatown for a restaurant that knew how to cook it, he says with a chuckle. Les Paul died Thursday of pneumonia. He was 94. Juszkiewicz talked about his friend and colleague Thursday afternoon. The following is an edited version of the interview. Watch how Les Paul helped invent modern music » . CNN: Tell me about working with Les Paul. Henry Juszkiewicz: I've been with Gibson about 25 years and known Les pretty much through that entire period. ... Les was a very kind person. He was a visionary. In the early days, Gibson was doing very poorly as a company, and I got involved essentially to turn the company around. ... We had many, many conversations about the guitar business and what to do. ... A lot of the things we talked about and implemented were very successful. CNN: What was distinctive about the Gibson Les Paul when it came out, and what remains distinctive about it? Gallery: Guitarists pay tribute to Les Paul » . Juszkiewicz: When it first came out, it was extremely controversial, and it was not really successful. It took years for Gibson to actually come to terms with Les. He had been pitching the head of what was Gibson's parent company, CMI, for three or four years until they finally decided to give it a try -- and only then when he became very famous and a television personality. And they were right, actually, because a solid-body guitar was considered silly. ... It really wasn't until 1965, '66 that the guitar took off and became popular. In fact, in the early '60s, the guitar was discontinued for several years. One of the [prized] Les Pauls was the 1959 Les Paul -- that's sort of the holy grail of Les Pauls -- and one of the reasons is there were only 300 units made in 1959. And 300 units was not really that successful for Gibson; it was a powerhouse guitar builder in 1959. So Les was always ahead of his time. He was someone who could see what was going to happen 50 years in advance, and very often, he was able to bring his vision to reality and share it with the entire musical community. ... The [Les Paul] guitar shines in modern music. ... In the '50s and before the '50s, the [standard] guitar was amplified, but it was just louder. In other words, it still sounded just like an acoustic guitar, but you could turn it up. What Les did was turn it into a whole new instrument. When he was playing ... you will hear this rich context that's kind of normal today. ... CNN: Les Paul being Les Paul, I assumed he continue to play with things over the years. Juszkiewicz: Yeah, he would call me all the time and give me suggestions. It's really hard to answer your original question, what makes it [distinctive]. ... As a guitar player, when I pick it up, I know it's a Les Paul. I can feel the sustain. It's got a certain feeling. ... There's a lot of things in it. But it's the package that's kind of magic. In the modern world, working with modern equipment, it's incomparable. CNN: How many Les Pauls do you sell nowadays? Juszkiewicz: A lot. Many, many thousands. I'll share with you: We had a big debate when we first got involved in the business. When I was a young guitar player, Les Pauls were always very expensive ... and they're very expensive today. [Paul] said, \"You know, Henry, you really have to make a less expensive Les Paul.\" ... We argued about it for a year and a half, and finally I gave in. I said, \"OK, Les, it's your guitar.\" ... And it was an instant success. And all of a sudden, people that couldn't touch that magic got a shot at it, and he was pleased as punch, and we were as well. He was a renaissance man. ... What a life. And what a wonderful, warm gentleman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gibson CEO: Les Paul made frequent recommendations on how to improve guitars .\nLes Pauls weren't particularly popular when introduced .\nPaul, legendary guitarist and inventor, died Thursday at 94 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- British lawmakers demanded answers Thursday after a newspaper reported that a UK tabloid illegally hacked the phones of thousands of public figures including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson. Britain's News of the World tabloid is at the center of the phone-hacking allegations. Prosecutors said they would look again at claims of alleged phone hacking by the News of the World. However police said they would not conduct a new investigation into the claims by the Guardian newspaper. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates said officers had seen no additional evidence since its last investigation. Earlier Thursday the Guardian reported the cell phones of \"several thousand public figures\" were hacked into by reporters and staff of the News of the World tabloid during one month in 2006. The public figures named by the Guardian as victims of the phone hackings include lawmaker John Prescott, who was then the deputy prime minister; Tessa Jowell, who was the secretary of state for culture, responsible for the media; and London Mayor Boris Johnson, who at the time was the Conservative Party spokesman on higher education. The Guardian said actress Gwyneth Paltrow, model Elle MacPherson, actor Jude Law, singer George Michael, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, and actors union Equity were also victims of the hacking. \"The allegations -- the enormity of it -- is just unbelievable,\" Prescott told the BBC on Thursday morning. \"I think it is outrageous,\" former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who was not named among the alleged victims, told the BBC. \"I think we do need action immediately.\" Thursday's revelations in the Guardian come from a case last year in which Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers' Association, was suing the News of the World for illegally intercepting messages on his cell phone. The tabloid paid Taylor more than £400,000 ($800,000 at the time) to settle the case, the Guardian said. The case file was sealed, but the newspaper said it obtained the suppressed evidence. That evidence, the Guardian said, shows that journalists working for the News of the World paid private investigators to illegally hack the cell phones of several thousand public figures. The staff then paid for the information the investigators obtained, the Guardian said. News International, the parent company of the News of the World defended its journalists and said it would not \"shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing.\" In a statement News International, the UK subsidiary of News Corporation, said it was prevented by \"confidentiality obligations from discussing certain allegations made in the Guardian newspaper today.\" But the statement stressed its staff have been told they must operate within the law and the industry's code of conduct. Police and prosecutors also came under scrutiny in the Guardian's report. It said the Metropolitan Police were aware of the hackings and raided the offices of some of the private investigators but did not inform those whose phones allegedly were targeted. The paper also said prosecutors decided not to take any legal action over the claims. Prescott demanded to know why -- if those allegations are true -- he wasn't told that his phone had been allegedly been hacked. \"I am writing to the chief of police to ask him and the Met authorities, did you know that many of our phones were being tapped? Did you tell the public prosecutor? Did the prosecutor then say 'no further action'?\" Prescott told the BBC. \"I can't believe that such legal authorities -- on such serious charges, if these allegations are right -- did nothing, and I want to know from them.\" A spokeswoman for Jude Law said the actor was not commenting on the Guardian's report. Other celebrities contacted by CNN had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Equity said the union was writing to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to ask for evidence accompanying the claims. The Guardian reported that Equity was targeted as a way to get actors' addresses. \"We have no evidence to support the claims in today's Guardian story that Equity was conned into giving out information and we have received no complaints from any of our members that the details we hold on their behalf have been improperly accessed,\" Equity's letter states. \"We do, however, take the claims very seriously. We will be investigating the alleged breach in our security.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guardian newspaper: Cell phones of \"several thousand public figures\" hacked .\nCelebrities include Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson .\nAllegations against News of the World staff during one month in 2006 .\nLondon's Metropolitan police rule out a new investigation ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Dry conditions and strong winds in California left much of the state vulnerable to massive fires, with blaze-starters ranging from a cooking fire at a drug trafficking operation to a bird flying into a power line. Drop in humidity, high temperatures could hamper efforts to contain the Lockheed Fire in Santa Cruz County. \"It really goes to show you that it doesn't take much with these dry conditions to start a fire,\" CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant told CNN Sunday. The fire sparked by a bird hitting a power line ignited a series of blazes in Yuba County, forcing some 1,300 firefighters to the scene and officials to declare evacuations in the town of Dobbins, he said. Authorities have battled the Yuba fire since Friday and expect containment by Thursday. In Southern California's Santa Barbara County, a weeklong blaze has charred more than 84,000 acres, investigators said. The fire originated at an illegal marijuana camp believed to be run by a Mexican drug organization, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit said in a news release Saturday night. \"I haven't heard of any other fire starting that way,\" said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Carol Underhill, referring to the so-called La Brea Fire. More than 2,000 firefighters are fighting the blaze, which is 35 percent contained, authorities said. Some homes around the Los Padres National Forest have been evacuated. Narcotics investigators have secured the area after working for the past month to eradicate marijuana operations in the remote and steep terrain, the release said. \"It is also believed that the suspects are still within the San Rafael wilderness trying to leave the area on foot,\" officials said. Twenty firefighters sustained minor injuries while trying to contain a complex of smaller fires in Northern California's Shasta County that have burned nearly at least 17,623 acres, authorities said. Watch fire in Santa Cruz Mountains » . CalFire spokesman Brent Saulsbury said 37 of the 40 fires -- known as the Shasta Lightning Complex -- are under control. The area is dense with timber, giving the fires serious fuel. Rugged terrain, limited access to fire trucks and the length of time it takes to reach wildfires have hindered firefighters in recent days, he said. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Blaze-starters include cooking fire at drug trafficking camp, bird flying into power line .\nCalFire spokesman: \"It doesn't take much with these dry conditions to start a fire\"\nThousand of firefighters battle blazes in steep terrain across the state ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- West Indies cricket coach John Dyson has been dismissed from his job with immediate effect. Australian John Dyson had been in charge of the West Indies cricket side since 2007. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said they were terminating the contract of the Australian, according to a statement on the cricket board's Web site. The decision comes after recent Test and one-day series losses to Bangladesh, although in both defeats the West Indies were forced to put out weakened sides because of a dispute between players and the cricket board over contracts. Dyson, a former opening batsman who played 30 Tests for Australia, took charge of the West Indies in 2007. He enjoyed early Test series wins over South Africa and England but was heavily criticized for misreading the rain regulations in a one-day event with England in Guyana in March, an error that ultimately handed England the series. Earlier in his career he was appointed Sri Lanka coach in 2003 despite having only limited coaching experience at higher levels. The 55-year-old was due to lead the West Indies into next month's International Cricket Council Champions Trophy. The WICB offered no reason for Dyson's sacking but in a statement on their Web site confirmed that the assistant coach David Williams would take over as coach on a temporary basis for the upcoming tournament, which gets started in South Africa on September 22. The contract dispute means the West Indies will be forced to take a second-string side to South Africa. The statement added that \"in view of the special circumstances pertaining to this tour\" the former West Indies vice-captain and off-spin bowler Lance Gibbs had been appointed team manager." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Former Australian batsman John Dyson sacked as coach of the West Indies .\nDyson, the former Sri Lankan coach, took charge of the West Indies in 2007 .\nHe was due to take them to next month's Champions Trophy in South Africa .\nThe West Indies Cricket Board offered no reason for Dyson's sudden dismissal ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A 20-year-old Wisconsin man accused of attacking the mayor of Milwaukee with a metal pipe has been arrested, police said Sunday. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, seen in a file photo, was attacked Saturday night, police say. Mayor Tom Barrett was in stable condition Sunday at a Milwaukee-area hospital after he was attacked the night before at the Wisconsin State Fair in nearby West Allis, police said. Barrett was leaving the event with his family when he heard a woman crying for help, police said. When Barrett began calling 911, the man who had been attacking the woman charged at him and began battering him with a metal pipe, police said. \"He not only risked serious injury but endured serious injury in order to defend somebody who was weaker than their assailant,\" Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told CNN Radio. Police arrested Anthony Peters in connection with the attack. Watch the mayor's brother talk about what happened » . West Allis Police Chief Michael Jungbluth said the attack on the woman stemmed from a domestic situation, when an intoxicated Peters wanted to see his 1-year-old daughter, and had threatened to shoot himself and others. CNN's Chuck Johnston and CNN Radio's Shelby Erdman and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Police arrested Anthony Peters, 20, in connection with the attack .\nPolice: Man beat Mayor Tom Barrett with metal pipe at state fair on Saturday .\nBarrett heard a woman screaming and tried to help her, dialing 911 .\nMan who had been beating the woman then started hitting Barrett, police say ." } ]

[ { "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) -- They poured in to Los Angeles from places far-flung, an army of Michael Jackson fans hoping to collectively mourn their idol in a massive ceremony at the Staples Center downtown Tuesday. A fan leaves a note on a Michael Jackson memorial outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The singer's memorial service Tuesday will be a star-studded affair, with singers Mariah Carey, Usher and Stevie Wonder among the participants, according to an announcement released on behalf of the Jackson family. Also participating in the event will be basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson, and singers Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Smokey Robinson, the family said. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III will be among others taking part. Ken Ehrlich, known for producing the Grammy Awards, is producing the memorial show, his company said. Kenny Ortega, who was to have co-directed Jackson's series of concerts in London, England, this summer, will direct it. Mayer posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon saying \"I'm going not to 'perform' but to contribute.\" \"I'm honored to have been asked to play at MJ's memorial service. I will be representing all of us who can't be there,\" Mayer tweeted. \"Going to say goodbye from all us kids.\" One notable who won't be attending: longtime Jackson friend Elizabeth Taylor, who put out a message on Twitter that she \"cannot be part of the public whoopla.\" \"I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others,\" Taylor tweeted. \"How I feel is between us. Not a public event.\" \"I love him too much,\" she added, \"and I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word.\" Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former wife and the mother of his two oldest children, will not attend the memorial service, her lawyer Marta Almli said Monday. \"Although Debbie had originally planned to attend tomorrow's Staples Center memorial service, we have concluded with Debbie that she will not be attending,\" a statement from Almli said. \"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy. Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately.\" Fans without tickets to the memorial are being asked to stay away from downtown Los Angeles and watch the service on television. Details: See who will be there, map of area » . The family decided to provide a free live video feed to networks so it would be televised everywhere. \"Everything about the memorial has to do with accommodating as many fans as possible,\" Ken Sunshine, the Jackson family spokesman, said. While Jackson's family remains tight-lipped about the singer's burial arrangements, sources told CNN that relatives will hold a private gathering at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles Tuesday morning ahead of the public service. The California Highway Patrol will escort their motorcade, the sources said. The gathering is scheduled for 8 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) -- two hours before the service at the Staples Center arena. Cemetery officials have not commented on the matter. While there are five Forest Lawn cemeteries in the Los Angeles area, media trucks and crews have been parked at the gate of the Hollywood Hills facility for several days in anticipation of Jackson's possible interment there. Fans claim tickets . On Monday, fans chosen by random lottery for Jackson's memorial began arriving at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to pick up their tickets. Full story . Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Murphy said the distribution process was going smoothly. One person tried to pass off a photocopied voucher; he was ejected, Murphy said. The 8,750 fans have until 6 p.m. PT to claim their tickets. iReport.com: \"Surreal journey\" to get Jackson tickets . Each winner gets two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500. Just 11,000 of those are for seats inside the Staples Center. The other 6,500 would be for viewing the memorial telecast at the adjacent Nokia Theater. AEG Live, the promoter of Michael Jackson's London shows, owns and operates both venues. Deka Motanya, 27, who works in a doctor's office in San Francisco, scrambled Sunday night to line up plane tickets so she and her boyfriend could fly to Los Angeles on Monday. \"Oh, yeah, I'm going,\" she said. \"I'm e-mailing my boss saying I've got to leave early because I'm going to L.A.\" Executors control Jackson's assets . A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted control of Jackson's assets to the executors of his will Monday. The executors -- John Branca, Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend -- had sought immediate control of the entertainer's assets at a hearing before Judge Mitchell Beckloff. The judge appointed the men as special administrators until another hearing August 3. He said they will be responsible for protecting the estate from immediate losses. The men can enter into new ventures only with court approval, Beckloff said. Jackson died June 25. Since the next day, his mother, Katherine, has been administering the assets. Lawyers for Jackson's mother objected to Beckloff's decision, saying that \"irreparable damage\" could be done to the estate if Branca is allowed to take control. \"To award unfettered control to the other side would not serve justice,\" said attorney Burt Levitch. Katherine Jackson's lawyers argued that Branca was removed from several critical roles by Jackson after the signing of the will. They argued that the removal from those business roles should also exclude Branca as executor. \"Quite frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom,\" Levitch said. But Branca's lawyer, Paul Hoffman, said Branca had represented Jackson off and on since he was 21, that he was his lawyer at the time the will was written and that he was rehired in mid-June. Branca represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. McClain is a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. The judge ruled that Michael Jackson felt strongly enough about these executors to name them in his will. He required the two men to acquire a $1 million bond to insure their work as executors. The judge said he hopes the two sides can come to an agreement -- a \"free flow of information\" -- by August 3. Hoffman said the two sides met for four hours over the weekend but were unable to reach \"an acceptable accommodation.\" In their filing for control of the estate, the men said it would allow them to tend to Jackson's numerous outstanding debts, legal cases and business obligations. At a hearing Wednesday, Beckloff had appointed Katherine Jackson the temporary administrator. Levitch said Monday that a second will has surfaced and that it was written in 1997. The lawyer said that he hasn't looked at it and that it was given to the court for safekeeping. However, the 1997 document will have no bearing unless the later one is discredited, which the lawyers don't expect. CNN's Linda Hall, Nicole Saidi and Henry Hanks contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former wife, not attending memorial .\nMusicians, famed athletes slated for Michael Jackson memorial .\nPrivate gathering expected to be held at 8 a.m. PT Tuesday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a town hall meeting on health-care reform in Belgrade, Montana, President Obama will escape to Big Sky country on Friday evening where he'll spend time with family and go fly-fishing for the first time. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel carries fly-fishing tackle to Marine One on Friday. Fly-fishing requires a singular focus, much like golf. Having newly discovered the sport myself, it occurred to me as I watched Marine One lift off the South Lawn on Friday that there are probably some lessons on the river that could apply to Obama's presidency. Thinking like a producer, I called an expert -- fly-fishing instructor Tony Derosier, who described the evolution most fishermen go through. \"Usually, when you first go fishing, all you want to do is catch a fish, and then all you want to do is catch a lot of fish, and then you just want to catch the larger fish. After you've caught a lot of large fish, you kind of go back to square one and catch just one fish,\" said Derosier, manager at Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Aspen, Colorado. \"You basically just want to go fishing -- the numbers, the size, it doesn't matter any more.\" Obama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency: He's trying to get health-care reform legislation passed hook, line, and sinker. If he's successful, anything else he gets passed will be icing on the cake. Learning the fundamentals of fly-fishing can serve as a metaphor for health care reform. Obama just needs to look at hooking and landing Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans like he would trout. The first step -- learn how to cast. \"Fly-casting is all about maximizing the energy you put in your rod and you lose energy if you wait too long,\" Derosier said. \"And conversely, if you don't wait long enough, your line will crack like a whip.\" Obama has to strike the right balance between rushing things through and losing momentum; and maintaining support while bringing others over to his side. The second step -- reading the water: \"Instead of blindly casting anywhere in the river you want to understand where you might find fish,\" Derosier explained. Obama zeroed in on a fairly conservative state, Montana, where he faces a land full of skeptics about his health care reform plan. Third -- hook and land the fish: Derosier said once you hook the fish you have to know how to play the fish, which is a delicate balance between applying pressure but not so much that the line breaks -- much like the delicate balance of Obama's courting members of Congress. \"The ultimate goal is to gain an advantage over the fish so that you can land him,\" he said. \"It's the hardest thing to teach when it comes to fly-fishing,\" he said. Out in Montana, the game is catch-and-release trout. But in Washington, Obama is trying to hook Congress and take home health care reform, or risk it being the big one that got away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN White House producer: Fly-fishing is a metaphor that fits Obama's presidency .\nBeginning anglers desire to catch bigger and bigger fish, expert says .\nObama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency, Shawna Shepherd writes .\nDelicate processes of political success are like casting, reading the water, etc." } ]

[ { "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) -- Financing for DreamWorks Studios' partnership with one of India's richest men was finalized Monday, giving Steven Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider money to resume making movies. From left to right, Steven Spielberg, Anil Ambani, Stacey Snider and Amitahb Jhunjhunwala. The deal with Anil Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance BIG Entertainment, provides Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios with $875 million, coming from Ambani, the Walt Disney Co. and loans made by a syndicate of banks. Disney will distribute and market about six DreamWorks Studios films around the world each year, with the exception of India, where Reliance will have those rights. Spielberg and Snider found themselves in need of financial partners last year when he cut ties with Paramount Pictures and began rebuilding DreamWorks into an independent studio. Although the deal, which was announced last year, has been characterized in some reports as \"Hollywood meets Bollywood,\" Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider will have creative control over productions. \"This will allow us to move ahead quickly into production with our first group of films,\" Snider and Spielberg said in a joint statement. Reliance BIG Entertainment is part of the Reliance group controlled by billionaire Ambani. \"Our partnership with Stacey and Steven is the cornerstone of our Hollywood strategy as we grow our film interests across the globe,\" Ambani said. \"Given our faith in the business plan that they presented to us and despite the current economic climate, we were always confident that this day would come. Now Stacey and Steven can focus on producing more of the great films for which they are renowned.\" Ambani, whose company owns hundreds of theater screens across South Asia, has also invested development money this year with other Hollywood production companies, including those owned by actors Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Jim Carrey. A DreamWorks announcement said that J.P. Morgan brought together the syndicate of banks to provide about $325 million in funding. The banks include Bank of America, City National Bank, Wells Fargo, Comerica, Union Bank of California, SunTrust, California Bank & Trust, and Israel Discount Bank. One of the first movies to go into production will be \"Harvey,\" an adaptation of the play that won a Pulitzer for playwright Mary Chase. The tale about a man and his invisible bunny friend was first made into a movie, starring Jimmy Stewart, in 1950. Spielberg's long career as a screenwriter, director and producer has included classic blockbusters \"E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,\" the \"Indiana Jones\" series and \"Saving Private Ryan.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Steven Spielberg finalizes partnership with Indian tycoon, gets cash infusion .\nPartnership with Anil Ambani provides $875 million for DreamWorks .\nSpielberg's first film planned: remake of classic \"Harvey\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- In recent seasons, \"Dancing With the Stars\" has given exposure to such unlikely dancers as \"Cheers\" and Pixar favorite John Ratzenberger, magician Penn Jillette and Oscar-winning octogenarian actress Cloris Leachman. Kathy Ireland is among the contestants who will take part in the \"Dancing With the Stars'\" ninth season. But this year, the show is adding an even more unusual guest: A Hammer. Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- known as \"the Hammer\" for his tough-minded tactics -- is among the contestants for the show's ninth edition, ABC announced Monday. Host Tom Bergeron and contestant Donny Osmond appeared on the network's \"Good Morning America\" to make the announcement. \"This is the season where we have a cast that is as big as some of your family reunions,\" Bergeron joked to Osmond, a member of the Osmond family of entertainers. Blog: Are these really 'Stars'? Joining Osmond and DeLay will be Kelly Osbourne; former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin; models Kathy Ireland and Joanna Krupa; singers Macy Gray, Mya and Aaron Carter; actresses Melissa Joan Hart and Debi Mazar; Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin; ex-UFC fighter Chuck Liddell; snowboarder Louie Vito; and actors Mark Dacascos and Ashley Hamilton. Bergeron said this season will be a bit different as the show will have double elimination in the middle of the season. \"It will be a ballroom bloodbath,\" Bergeron said. The new season of \"Dancing With the Stars\" begins September 21. Last season's winner was gymnast Shawn Johnson." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay among \"DWTS\" contestants .\nAlso scheduled for the ninth season: Melissa Joan Hart, snowboarder Louie Vito .\nShow adding a double-elimination period: \"It will be a ballroom bloodbath,\" host says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran has released a French academic from prison, though it's not clear when Clotilde Reiss can return home, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office announced Sunday. French national Clotilde Reiss, right, and British embassy worker Hossein Rassam, far left, in court. Reiss, 24, is the second French woman facing charges as part of mass trials in Iran who was released on bond. French authorities are now demanding that Iran drop all charges against Reiss and Nazak Afshar -- an employee of the French embassy in Tehran who was released August 8, the statement from Sarkozy's office said. They were arrested in connection with protests after the June 12 presidential election. Reiss will stay at the French embassy in Tehran while she awaits her return to France, the statement said. She has spoken with her father and is good health and spirits, it said. Iranian media reported Reiss admitted to crimes in court Saturday in connection with protests after the presidential election, and asked for clemency. \"I shouldn't have participated in the illegal demonstration and shouldn't have sent the pictures, I am regretful,\" the semi-official Fars news agency has quoted her as saying. \"I apologize to the Iranian people and court and I hope the people and the court forgive me.\" Human rights groups and Iran's opposition leaders have accused the government of forcing people to make such confessions. Iranian authorities arrested about 4,000 people amid protests against the controversial election, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi has said, according to the Iran Labor News Agency. He said 3,700 were released in the first week. But 100 defendants, including Afshar, Reiss, and an Iranian employee of the British embassy, appeared this month in Tehran's Revolutionary Court at a mass trial on charges related to recent post-election violence. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the official result of the vote -- the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The government said he won by a landslide, but his opponents accused officials of rigging the results. A crackdown by security forces followed, and at least 30 people died in the violence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not clear when Clotilde Reiss can return home, French officials said .\nReiss, 24, is second French woman facing charges released on bond .\nReiss and Nazak Afshar arrested in connection with protests after June 12 election ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Inside a freezer in a research laboratory at the University of Washington are blood and blood plasma samples from 92 people who suffer from mysterious illnesses, including tremors, memory loss and severe migraine headaches. Terry Williams hugs her two boys -- Jake, left, and Zack -- in 2006, before she says toxic cabin air made her sick. They are mostly pilots and flight attendants who suspect they've been poisoned in their workplace -- on board the aircraft they fly. Clement Furlong, University of Washington professor of medicine and genome sciences, leads a team of scientists who have been collecting the samples for 2 ½ years. Furlong said his team is a few months away from finalizing a blood analysis test that will be able to definitely confirm whether the study participants were indeed poisoned by toxic fumes. Results of Furlong's research could expand recognition of what a select group of researchers believes is a largely unrecognized risk of flying: the chance that poisonous fumes enter the cabin. \"There's a danger of inhaling compounds that are coming out of the engine,\" said Furlong in his laboratory. See a diagram of how the air is circulated » . The air we breathe on board a plane is a 50-50 mix of filtered, recirculated air and so-called \"bleed air\" -- which bleeds off the engines, and then is pressurized and cooled before being sent into the cabin through vents. If an engine oil seal leaks, aviation engineers and scientists say, the bleed air can become contaminated with toxins. In 2002 the National Academies of Sciences' National Research Council reported \"contaminant exposures result from the intake of chemical contaminants (e.g., engine lubricating oils, hydraulic fluids, deicing fluids and their degradation products) into the Environmental Control System and then into the cabin.\" Of particular concern are toxic anti-wear agents in the oil, designed to prolong an engine's life, called tricresyl phosphates. \"The engine seals fail and there's very potent toxins that can come on board,\" said Furlong. Neuropsychologist Sarah Mackenzie Ross of University College London studied 27 British pilots who claimed they had inhaled contaminated air and subsequently had difficulty processing information and slowed reaction times. Her testing confirmed their symptoms. \"They did appear to underperform on tasks that required attention, processing speed, reaction time, and what we call executive functioning, which is high-level decision making,\" said Ross. Former flight attendant Terry Williams believes she is a victim of such a \"fume event.\" She complains of debilitating migraine headaches, tremors, and blind spots in her field of vision. \"It's been so constant and just continues to worsen so it's extremely frustrating,\" said Williams, who is suing Boeing, the owner of McDonnell Douglas, which made the MD-82 aircraft on which she worked. \"I'm frustrated that I don't feel any better and it's over two years after the exposure.\" Boeing told CNN, \"It is our belief that air quality on airplanes is healthy and safe.\" In its response to Williams' suit, the company said: \"The potential for bleed air contamination has been known through the aviation industry for many years.\" But Boeing denies any responsibility for Terry Williams' illness. While Williams' symptoms appear to be quite rare, it appears that fume events occur with regularity. A British study for the House of Lords found fume events in 1 of every 2,000 flights. In the U.S., airlines are required to report \"fume events\" to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were 108 such reports last year. So why wouldn't more flight attendants, pilots and passengers suffer symptoms? Furlong said a small percentage of people (how small is not known) appear to be highly sensitive to the most toxic chemicals. They may be genetically disposed to a strong reaction, possessing multiple genes of metabolizing proteins in their livers, or temporarily have high enzyme levels (which can be triggered by prescription drugs) that will act on the inhaled chemicals to magnify their toxicity. \"If you happen to be taking a medication that turns on the protein that converts pre-toxin to very potent toxin, you've got an issue,\" said Furlong. As a result, someone sitting next to a victim may have inhaled the same contaminated fumes, but not suffer the same reaction. How might you know that you may have been exposed to a \"fume event\" while flying? Experts say the telltale sign is a \"dirty sock\" smell. That's butyric acid from engine oil, which itself is not highly toxic. But along with it comes the deadly nonodorous compounds tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate and mono-ortho-cresyl phosphate. Boeing's new plane, the 787 Dreamliner, has been designed so that air entering the cabin from outside will not \"bleed\" off the engines. The company says that's only for fuel efficiency purposes, not because of any concern about the quality of bleed air in its current fleet of aircraft. Indeed, Boeing and the FAA say the air quality on airplanes is as good or better than that of the average office building or home. CNN's Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Results of scientist's research could expand recognition of \"bleed air\"\nBleed air is air that passes through the engines of a plane, then into cabin .\nBoeing and FAA say air quality on airplanes is as good as in office or home .\nFlight attendant Terry Williams believes she is a victim of fumes in cabin air ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Anita Davenport's curiosity about her family's past began with the photographs that surrounded her. She said she wanted to know the stories behind the images of her parents and uncles. Anita Davenport's grandfather, Walter, was stationed in Battle Creek, Michigan, during World War I. The stories she found -- and shared during several phone conversations from her home in Culver City, California -- parallel the African-American journey during the past century. The search took her to 1894, when her grandfather, Walter, was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Walter Davenport moved to Wedowee, Alabama. During World War I, Davenport was stationed at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, Anita said. Thousands of other African-Americans were also on the move, mainly to the Northeast and the Midwest, eager for opportunities related to the war and industrialization, according to Howard Dodson, a historian and the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Walter Davenport later returned to Alabama, married and had nine children, one of whom was Anita's father, Frank. Walter was fond of Battle Creek and regaled his family with stories, Anita said. The stories must have been convincing. The eldest of his nine children, also named Walter, moved north to Battle Creek in 1951. Frank Davenport, Anita's father, later joined his older brother in Michigan. Anita was born in Battle Creek. Between 1940 and 1970, more than 5 million African-Americans left the South, migrating to cities like Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan, and New York. \"You have this incredible movement of black people across the width and breadth of this land and [they] establish themselves as a national presence, rather than a regional one [based] in the South,\" Dodson said. Interactive: Explore the African-American journey . That movement of African-Americans -- called \"the Great Migration\" -- had a clear and direct impact on the country. \"It made race a national issue,\" said Nicholas Lemann, author of \"The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America.\" \"You could say it was always a national issue and have a very powerful case ... but it was possible to say, 'It's a Southern issue,'\" he said. \"After the Great Migration, it was no longer possible.\" African-American culture was interacting with other cultures across the whole of American society, Lemann said, \"affecting everything from government policy and music to sports and everything in between.\" The return South . Civil rights legislation passed during the 1960s helped set the stage for the next era of African-American migration: A return to the South. Around 1970, many African-Americans began moving back to the South, historians and demographers say. The trend accelerated during the 1990s and this decade, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank. From 1965 through 1970, the South experienced a net migration loss -- the number of people who moved into the region compared to the number of people who moved out -- of more than 287,000 African-Americans. Thirty years later, the numbers were nearly the opposite. From 1995 through 2000, the South saw a gain of nearly 350,000 African-Americans. iReport.com: Share your family's story . The statistics come from an analysis of census data conducted by Frey in 2004. The numbers of African-Americans returning to the South are not as large as those seen during the Great Migration, but the trend has resonance because of the place the region occupies in black history and mythology. The ascendance of the South's economy was a key factor behind the return migration, Frey said. \"I think there's a push and a pull involved with the movement,\" he said. \"A lot of it had to do with the decline of heavy industry, which employed a lot of blacks and blue-collar whites, in a whole set of Rust Belt states,\" he said. Meanwhile, states like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and increasingly the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee were booming, Frey said. Civil rights legislation and a more educated society made the South more tolerant and hospitable. The booming economy provided jobs and opportunity. But there is also an emotional element for many African-Americans when it comes to the region. \"I think a big part, aside from the economy, is the kind of historic roots that blacks have had there,\" Frey said. \"There is something culturally attractive about the South to the African-American population even though they spent many decades surviving brutal treatment during the Jim Crow period and a lot of the racial discrimination that occurred.\" Dodson, the historian, said many people, especially retirees, made decisions to return out of a desire to connect with ancestral homes, churches and communities. Anita's parents still live in Battle Creek, though they spend the winters in the South. Her uncle, Walter Davenport, moved to Stone Mountain, the place of his father's birth, in 1998. When asked for the reasons behind her uncle's move, Anita said it was a love of the land, the slower pace and something almost \"mysterious.\" \"They wanted to get out of the South, but it still calls them,\" she said of her family's journey during the past few decades. There's \"something about the land and it just calls them back like a song.\" CNN's Christina Zdanowicz contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For much of the 20th century, many African-Americans left the South .\nCensus statistics suggest many are returning to the region .\nAn economic boom in the Sun Belt states was a key factor, experts say .\nInteractive: Explore the different African-American migrations through history ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A former high school cheerleader who sued over injuries caused when a teammate failed to catch her during a routine, lost her appeal before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a cheerleader couldn't sue her teammate. The seven state justices unanimously concluded cheerleading is a \"contact\" sport, and therefore neither the male student cited nor the school district was liable for damages. The opinion also said the stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\" to students. It is the first legal decision of its kind, according to the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a group founded by parents. The case was closely watched by school districts and parents around the country concerned about whether they would have immunity from lawsuits involving unintentional injuries from certain extracurricular activities. Brittany Noffke was a varsity cheerleader at Holmen High School, about 14 miles from La Crosse, in western Wisconsin. Her team was practicing a \"post to hands\" stunt before a basketball game in 2004, and after being lifted up to stand on the shoulders of a fellow student, Noffke fell backward, striking her head on the floor. The 16-year-old male cheerleader who lifted her, and then was supposed to be a spotter, failed to catch her. The girl's family sued the boy and the school district, claiming the coach was negligent by not having a second spotter and not providing safety mats. State law does not specifically spell out which high school activities involve \"contact,\" but they typically involve sports such as football or lacrosse in which opposing teams compete against each other. But the Wisconsin high court concluded that \"cheerleading involves a significant amount of physical contact between cheerleaders that at times results in a forceful interaction between the participants.\" Justice Annette Ziegler cited the \"spirit rules\" of the National Federation of State High School Association's handbook, which contained pictures illustrating various cheerleading stunts. She said all but one photo showed at least two cheerleaders in contact with one another. Because the male cheerleader just made a mistake by being out of place when Noffke fell, the court found he did not act \"recklessly,\" the only legal standard that would have permitted a lawsuit to proceed. Although it is not considered a sport at many high schools and colleges, cheerleading has grown increasingly popular over the years, and the stunts have become more complex and dangerous, sports injury experts say. A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill study found cheerleading accounted for about two-thirds of some 93 \"catastrophic\" sports injuries -- including head and neck damage -- among high school girls in the past 26 years. But the study noted that other sports such as football produce far more devastating injuries, though fewer in number. Cheerleading advocates say the activity has become much safer in the past 15 years, following greater awareness of the risks and better coordination among state and national groups. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators estimates about 4 million people are involved in the activity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Justices rule cheerleading is \"contact\" sport, therefore teammates, school not liable .\nBrittany Noffke sued claiming negligence after she fell during a stunt .\nOpinion said stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\"\nCheerleading group calls ruling the first legal decision of its kind ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Two monorail trains at Walt Disney World collided early Sunday, killing a 21-year-old driver. A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesman said. A witness said one of the trains rammed into the back of a stationary train about 2 a.m. at the resort's Ticket and Transport Center. There were eight people on board at the time, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. A second employee was taken to a hospital to be checked; the six guests -- members of a single family -- were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released. Disney World officials said none of the seven was injured. Authorities identified the driver as Austin Wuennenberg, a senior at Stetson University studying computer science. \"It's a terrible day for us,\" said Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. \"Our hearts go out to Austin and his family.\" A statement from Wuennenberg's family said, \"He always enjoyed his work at Disney, and especially enoyed his work as a monorail pilot. He has many great friends who he has positively influenced; everyone will truly miss this dynamic young man.\" The theme park is working with county authorities and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the investigation. \"The safety of our cast and our guests is legendary and it's our top priority,\" Griffin said. Disney World calls its employees \"cast members.\" The monorail was shut after the accident, Griffin said. Images from the scene showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit the other train at a station." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Driver identified as Austin Wuennenberg, 21 .\nEight people were aboard, including family of six .\nCrash occurred about 2 a.m. at Ticket and Transport Center .\nWitness says one monorail train rammed into a stationary train ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- When pro quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in 2007, there was a spike in reports of dogfighting in the United States. One of six dogs recovered from a Sumter County, South Carolina, dogfight waits in a kennel last week. But when the headlines faded, the blood sport grew stronger and went even more underground, with thugs taking inventive precautions to keep police at bay, animal cruelty experts say. \"They know it's just not smart to have large crowds anymore, so we've seen fights where you've got the two handlers, a referee and Web cams everywhere broadcasting the fight on the Internet,\" said Mark Kumpf, an investigator based in Ohio who directs the National Animal Control Association. Fights are also being staged on the move -- in 18-wheelers. \"These guys are very sophisticated,\" Kumpf said. \"If you're driving down the road, there could be dogs in that truck driving next to you that are dying.\" Dozens more dogfighting cases have been investigated and prosecuted since the Vick case, said Alison Gianotto, who runs the database PetAbuse.com. The computer programmer, horrified when a neighbor's cat was set on fire eight years ago, created the California-based organization to track animal cruelty cases and animal abusers. The database, which logs media stories, has also become a popular place for law enforcement to send reports. \"There's not a central body keeping track of what's happening nationally, which is unfortunate when you consider that a lot of these cases cross state lines,\" she said. Still, detectives, animal welfare professionals and prosecutors agree that the attention the Vick case has brought to dogfighting has been positive because more people are inclined to report their suspicions. Dogfighting is illegal in all states; penalties vary but usually include heavy jail time or steep fines. The National Football League suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to Virginia to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. \"At the height of attention on the Vick case, things quieted down across the country with some of these dogfighters getting out of the business,\" veteran animal abuse investigator Tim Rickey said. \"But then, the headlines went away, and people thought the attention was off. It just started right back up, almost stronger than before.\" \"Every Saturday night in every county in Missouri, there is a dogfight going on,\" Rickey said. While the Vick case was making its way through the court system, Rickey, who directs the animal cruelty task force at the Humane Society of Missouri, was initiating what would become an 18-month investigation linking dogfighting rings in eight states. That probe led to the July 8 arrest of 28 people from eight states. As many as 400 dogs were confiscated in raids coordinated by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Rickey said. He said it was the largest such case involving dogfighting in the U.S. While those involved with the national case declined Monday to give details about that investigation, CNN spoke with several detectives across America who have worked other dogfighting cases. Among the abuses they've uncovered: . • Dogs with missing ears and patches of skin . • Animals with teeth shaved down to the bone . • \"Vets\" who have used leg splints that are to tight to \"treat\" animals in dogfighting rings . • Contraptions, usually fashioned out of wood, much like a treadmill, that force chained dogs to run or be choked. Detective Keith Coberly of the police vice squad in Dayton, Ohio, described a case he recently investigated that resulted in the convictions of three men. A neighbor called police when she saw a mangled dog that had apparently escaped from a home where investigators found 60 chained pit bull terriers, many being starved and wallowing in their own waste. There were thousands of hypodermic needles scattered across the ground. \"They were using steroids on the animals,\" he said. \"There was one dog -- in such bad shape, man -- tethered to a logging chain, and another was kept in a two-foot shed without ventilation or food.\" The suffering is incalculable, and the cost of caring for the animals is steep. Because the national investigation originated in Missouri, the state is harboring about 400 of the rescued dogs, some that have had puppies recently. \"These dogs are bred to attack each other, so just caring for them is a tremendous job. You have to keep them separate, and you have to protect volunteers who are devoting 12, 14 hours of their day,\" Rickey said. \"And we're doing all of that in this economy.\" Investigating dogfighting is dangerous -- and hugely popular in Russian mafia circles and with drug traffickers in Mexico, experts say. Dogfighting is reliant on word of mouth, and on what one undercover officer described as \"bad character\" references. \"If you can get someone to vouch for you, a match is set up,\" Kumpf said. \"They'll have everyone go to a hotel and come pick you up and drive you around in an unmarked van.\" Driving around town helps shake any police tail, he said. Those betting on fights aren't likely to get paid on site any more. Money is often kept at another location, making it more difficult to make arrests. In late July, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell conditionally reinstated Vick, who said on \"60 Minutes\" on Sunday night that he cried in prison because of the guilt he felt about dogfighting. Vick's agent announced Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcon signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, which reportedly could be worth more than $6 million. \"I hope people realize [dogfighting] is not just about Michael Vick,\" Rickey said. \"It's a lot bigger than him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dogfighters are using Web cams, staging fights in 18-wheelers to avoid police .\nVick case brought attention to dogfighting, but cases have not decreased .\nDetective: Anyone who wants to get into dogfighting needs \"bad character\" reference ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book \"Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought\" and writes a daily blog titled The Kitchen Table. Melissa Harris-Lacewell says African-Americans remain skeptical about racial progress in the U.S. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- America was proud of itself for electing Barack Obama. The pride was not just partisan and ideological; it was also specifically and clearly racial. The morning after Obama's win, The New York Times declared \"Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory.\" The Los Angeles Times asserted that \"for the first time in human history, a largely white nation has elected a black man to be its paramount leader.\" Some black commentators openly wept on election night, thrilled with witnessing the election of our first black president. Even Sen. John McCain, conceding defeat, pointed to the greatness of the American promise fulfilled in the election of his opponent. Obama's victory offered the possibility that the scars of America's racial legacy were healed or, at least, that they were less raw. For many African-American citizens, the election of the first black U.S. president was cause for celebration and open-mouthed wonder about an outcome that seemed so unlikely just two years earlier, when Obama announced his bid. Despite this joy, many black citizens were dubious that his victory represented the destruction of any particular racial barrier. African-Americans were both proud of and excited about Obama, but in the 45 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, black Americans had seen doors to power, influence and wealth open just enough to admit just a few without fundamentally altering opportunities for the majority. Indeed, responses to a recent CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicate that black enthusiasm about Obama exists side-by-by side with deep skepticism about America's racial progress. This atmosphere of both enthusiasm and doubt has sparked discussion about whether we have entered a post-racial era in American politics. It is a difficult debate, because the term \"post-racial\" is not clearly defined. Race itself is a slippery idea. Typically, we treat race like a fixed, unchanging, biological category. But race is none of these things. Race is a social construct. Though it is based in physical traits, race is a category developed through social practice, law and history. As a nation, we made blackness through our politics, developing a category of people who could be enslaved and later segregated. So when we talk of a post-racial America, we are not pointing to the massive demographic shifts that are unalterably changing the racial, ethnic and linguistic landscape of America. Instead, \"post-racial\" is an expression of social and political longing. For most, this means an America free of racism and discrimination, but others seem to hint at a society entirely free of racial identity or recognition. The idea of a post-racial America has been upheld as an achievable ideal where people would receive equal treatment and fair outcomes regardless of their race. It has been critiqued as an impossible dream unlikely to exist in a nation with a history of slavery and legal discrimination. It has been denounced as an unworthy goal that would require black Americans to reject their cultural specificity and unique social and political concerns. Undoubtedly, the 2008 election broke formerly entrenched racial trends. Obama was elected just as the depth and breadth of the American economic crisis was becoming clear. Some suggested that his victory could be explained by the nation's fiscal difficulties because he was the candidate of the out-party, which often wins when times are hard. But this analysis forgets the cross-cutting history of race. When the economic pie shrinks, Americans rarely form multiracial political coalitions led by minority candidates. Obama's victory countered the trend toward racial balkanization more typical in tough economic times. The changing dynamics of racial politics were further evidenced when Obama won both Virginia and North Carolina. In these Southern states and in many blue states throughout the country, Obama shattered the \"Bradley Effect,\" often getting a higher percentage of the white vote than polls predicted. There was little evidence that white voters rejected Obama based on his race, and few white Democrats crossed party lines to vote for McCain. For these reasons, Obama's win offers evidence of a post-racial American electoral politics. And if not post-racial, these data at least point to a much less racist American voting public than what existed 40 years ago. Still, the election of a black president has not changed the material realities of racial inequality. African-Americans are significantly more distressed than their white counterparts on every meaningful economic indicator: income, unemployment, wealth, education, home ownership and home foreclosures. African-American social realities are equally grim. Blacks are far more likely to be arrested and more harshly sentenced than whites. African-Americans are less likely to marry, more likely to divorce and more likely to live in single- parent households. Compared with whites, blacks are more likely to suffer infant mortality, cancer, diabetes and premature death. Substantial evidence shows that the economic, social and even political gains made by African-Americans in the 1960s and 1970s have leveled off or reversed in the past decade in areas such as urban education, the number of black elected officials and the racial wealth gap. The murder of a security guard at the national Holocaust museum by a racist anti-Semite reminded the nation that old-fashioned, violent bigotry still has life in America. These sobering realities indicate that race still vastly over-determines the life chances of Americans. These differences cannot be explained away by class alone, because most of these inequalities persist even when controlling for income. To be born black in America is still a tremendous disadvantage compared with being born white in this country. Herein lies the challenge facing Americans in this new racial era. For much of the 20th century, the battle for civil rights rested on a belief that political equality would translate into social and economic justice. There can be little doubt that many of the substantive battles for political power and representation have been won. In that sense, Obama's election is the fulfillment of a post-racial political promise. It is equally clear that this political arrival has not ushered in the other substantive racial changes that the civil rights movement hoped to achieve. In many ways, political equality is just the beginning of the process. The work of politics is to collectively craft the nation we want to have. The election of Obama does not indicate the realization of post-racial America, but it does allow us the opportunity to engage in renewed, collective questioning of what a racially just nation is like. Having achieved so much politically, there is still real debate about how to end overt racism, structural discrimination and persistent inequality. Some want a country where the black kids don't sit together in the cafeteria, while others hope black kids being together will provoke neither comment nor anxiety. Some want a nation where no one notices race, while others hope that their racial identity can be both recognized and appreciated. Some worry that eliminating racial barriers will only solidify economic differences, while others suspect that economic justice cannot be achieved without grappling with race. Some want the end of all inequality, while others simply hope disparities will be based on \"merit\" rather than race. As citizens in a democracy, we can choose the future of our racial politics. Not all at once and not without struggle, but we can make new choices . And this time, African-Americans participate in the process of remaking America's racial story from a very different position than we have occupied in the past. Rather than being solely on the margins of national power, black Americans, through the person of Obama, have achieved a new kind of citizenship more empowered to recreate American race. This does not mean black people have equal political or economic power, but it does mean that the election of Obama encourages black Americans to even more loudly and clearly articulate our varied aspirations for our country. In November, we did a marvelous thing. Now, the work begins. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Melissa Harris-Lacewell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Barack Obama's election celebrated as racial triumph .\nShe says it represented real progress in the arena of politics .\nHarris-Lacewell: In many other areas, issues of race remain significant ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A leading human rights activist was abducted and killed in Russia Wednesday, the organization she worked for told CNN. Estemirova, pictured in 2007, had been openly critical of Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov. Natalya Estemirova, of the Russian human rights group Memorial, was kidnapped outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya, Oleg Orlov said, citing eyewitness reports. She was later found dead in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia, said Orlov, the head of the organization's Moscow office. Estemirova, 50, was a leading human rights activist in the North Caucasus area who had been openly criticizing Chechnya's authoritarian president, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his methods. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed indignation at the murder and said her killers should be punished to the full extent of the law, his office said. He expressed his condolences to her family, press secretary Natalya Timakova said. Estemirova shouted that she was being kidnapped as she was forced into a white Lada automobile that had stopped on the road in front of her house at 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET), Orlov said. An unidentified man grabbed her and shoved her into the car, he told CNN. \"This is a kidnapping,\" she yelled, he said. Estemirova studied history at Grozny University, then taught history before turning to journalism and human rights in 1998, Memorial said. She joined the organization in March 2000. In a written statement, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States is \"deeply saddened\" by the report of Estemirova's death. \"We call upon the Russian government to bring those responsible to justice,\" he said. He described Estemirova as \"uncompromising in her willingness to reveal the truth regardless of where that might lead. She was devoted to shining a light on human rights abuses, particularly in Chechnya.\" The Committee to Protect Journalists, in a written statement, demanded that the killing be thoroughly investigated immediately. \"As she uncovered massive, ongoing human rights violations in Chechnya by the federal and regional authorities, Estemirova was often at odds with Chechen authorities, according to her colleagues,\" the advocacy group said. She won three international awards for human rights activities -- including the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the Russian investigative journalist who was herself murdered almost three years ago. Estemirova was Politkovskaya's \"most frequent companion during travel and investigations in Chechnya,\" the organization Reach All Women in War said in announcing the prize for Estemirova. \"They investigated a number of cases together -- about which Anna wrote for (the newspaper) Novaya Gazeta and Natalya wrote for Memorial's Web site and for local newspapers.\" \"President Medvedev must make good on his promise to investigate this shocking killing by ensuring that the inquiry is thorough and transparent,\" said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. \"The killers of this courageous reporter, one of the few left in Chechnya, must not be allowed to walk free like so many before them.\" CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow, Russia, contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Natalya Estemirova abducted outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya .\nEstemirova later found dead in neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia .\nEstemirova openly critical of Chechnya's authoritarian president, Ramzan Kadyrov ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The City of Brotherly Love isn't exactly embracing the news that one-time quarterback phenom and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick is joining their Philadelphia Eagles. Former Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick, right, was known more for his elusiveness than his throwing prowess. Vick's agent announced Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcon signed a two-year deal with the Eagles, which reportedly could be worth more than $6 million. He won't be able to play a regular season game until week six in October, and then, only if the National Football League fully reinstates him. \"Too bad they don't have him for the whole year,\" Eagles fan Charles James told CNN affiliate philly.com. The NFL indefinitely suspended Vick in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia. Vick, 29, left a Kansas prison in May to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. Some Eagles fans don't think Vick's punishment was sufficient and were trying to unload their game and season tickets on craigslist.com, making it clear they were less than eager to see Vick in Philly green. iReport.com: What do you think of Vick's return? A post from one irked fan looking to peddle two lower-level season tickets said: \"The last thing my son and I want to see is Michael Vick in an Eagles jersey. We made up our mind to sell the tickets ... $3000 cash gets the tickets. Any info feel free to ask, serious buyers only, I want the deal done fast.\" Lower-level season tickets were selling on an unrelated auction site for as much as $10,000 a pair. Bob Jenkins of northeast Philadelphia predicted most Eagles fans -- known to be some of the nation's most demanding -- won't be badmouthing the decision. \"The only people who won't be quiet are the people who don't like the Eagles,\" Jenkins told philly.com. \"Of course, they're going to be talking because he's going to be throwing some touchdowns.\" Despite Jenkins' assumption, it's unclear what role Vick will play on the team. A gifted athlete known more for his dazzling runs than his pinpoint throws, Vick's last season in 2006 was a bit of a disappointment to Atlanta fans. The Falcons finished 7-9, and Vick had a completion percentage of 52.6. He also threw for 2,474 yards, more than 1,000 fewer yards than the Patriots' Tom Brady, who completed 62 percent of his passes, and almost 2,000 yards behind the Colts' Peyton Manning, who completed 65 percent of his tosses. However, Vick also ran for 1,039 yards, the most ever by a quarterback. Mike Giunta of Tabernacle, New Jersey, told CNN affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that signing Vick would spawn \"dissension\" among the Eagles, who made it to their conference championship last season, losing to the Arizona Cardinals. Giunta predicted the move would create consternation between Vick and five-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"McNabb's going to be looking over his shoulder constantly now,\" Giunta said. McNabb said in a Thursday news conference that he welcomed the addition of Vick and he \"pretty much lobbied to get him here because everybody deserves a second chance.\" Several Eagles fans concur. One of them, Leroy Emerson of north Philadelphia, told philly.com, \"That was the best move the Eagles ever made, one of the best.\" Some fans, however, were licking their wounds and pointing to the most severe dogfighting allegations leveled against Vick: that he hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted and drowned them. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have both skewered Vick. The latter alluded to Vick being a \"psychopath\" earlier this year and released a statement Friday saying, \"Millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed\" in the Eagles. \"PETA certainly hopes that Vick has learned his lesson and feels truly remorseful for his crimes -- but since he's given no public indication that that's the case, only time will tell,\" the statement said. Upon being conditionally reinstated to the NFL last month, Vick acknowledged making \"terrible mistakes\" and said he had used the past two years to re-evaluate his life. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick also offered to work with the organization on its anti-dogfighting campaign. To some Eagles fans, though, the nature of Vick's crimes is too much to forgive. \"I'm just a little upset with it because I'm such an animal lover,\" Susan Wilson of Pitman, New Jersey, told WPVI. Kelley Williams of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, told the station that she, too, had trouble accepting Vick's signing. \"I think he should be out of the NFL altogether,\" she said. Sports talk shows already are predicting that Vick can redeem himself only by making big plays, and at least some of the Philadelphia faithful concur he can shut up his critics on the field. \"If they keep him,\" fan James told philly.com, \"he'll be the man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Michael Vick signs deal with Philadelphia Eagles, could play in October .\nCraigslist ticket seller says he, son don't want to see \"Vick in an Eagles jersey\"\nSeveral Eagles fans tell CNN affiliates they are excited by prospect of Vick's arrival .\nAnimal lovers still reluctant to give Vick a chance after almost two years in prison ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- He burst on the music scene in the 1970s with the Commodores and then went on to a major solo career with hits such as \"All Night Long\" and \"Hello.\" Lionel Richie and his daughter, Nicole, gave their first joint TV interview in six years to CNN's Larry King. She made a name for herself on the TV series \"The Simple Life,\" which followed the exploits of her and fellow socialite Paris Hilton, and in the tabloids. Father-and-daughter Lionel and Nicole Richie have been making news for decades, but rarely together. In their first TV interview together in six years, they talked with CNN's Larry King about their relationship; her time in rehab; Lionel's first grandchild, Harlow; their growing family; and more. The following interview, scheduled to air Thursday night, has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: You did \"American Idol.\" A European tour. A new CD. You ever give thoughts of just cooling it? Lionel Richie: My answer to that is very simple. I don't like fishing. I'm pretty much like you. This is my hobby. King: What's the new album [\"Just Go\"] about? Lionel Richie: You know what I decided to do on this album? Something different. Instead of controlling, which is what I love to do -- I'm the writer, I'm the arranger, I'm the producer, I'm the singer -- I decided [to] start another way. I just gave up the power completely. There is only one song on this album that I actually wrote, called \"Eternity.\" King: The \"American Idol\" thing. Was that fun? Why did you do it? Lionel Richie: It's the best fun in the world. Danny [Gokey] was so wonderful. He kept saying, \"Suppose I mess up or suppose I sing your line instead of my line,\" and I said, \"You can't mess this one up. And if you feel like you want to sing my part, sing it loud and strong.\" And of course he nailed it. It was so much fun to watch everybody backstage. The tension of what goes through that show, I don't think I [could] do it. [Nicole Richie joins the interview] . King: What is it like to be with her in this setting? Lionel Richie: I'm so proud of her right now. There is such a pride that she has turned this corner. She is an amazing mother. I want the world to know where she is. King: Now you're pregnant with a second child, right? Nicole Richie: Yes, yes I am. King: And the father [Joel Madden] is the same? Nicole Richie: Yes. King: You going to get married? Nicole Richie: Eventually, yes. King: But that's not important or paramount? Nicole Richie: I think for both of us, we are going to do it because we want to, not because that's what you do. King: What kind of grandfather is he? Nicole Richie: Well, he's very animated. He smiles like this all the time, and so he's nothing but fun for Harlow. She absolutely loves him. Watch Nicole Richie talk about her daughter » . King: Nicole, you've been through some turbulent times. You've had drug abuse, wild-child behavior. Entered rehab in 2003. How have you come through all of that? Nicole Richie: With the support of my family, really. I've always stayed really close with my mother [Brenda] and my father. I have really great friends. And I just have a really great circle around me who support me no matter what, don't judge me no matter how low I've ever gotten. King: How did you deal with it, Lionel? Lionel Richie: It gave me an amazing opportunity to step up to the plate. I said to her one day: I have some good news and I have some bad news. I said the bad news is that Nicole is going to die. The good news is, she doesn't have to. I remember that look on her face of sheer panic. And I said the only person who is going to be able to save Nicole is Nicole. And she went away and about three weeks later I got a phone saying, 'Dad, I want to go into rehab.' And when she checked into rehab, her mother and I checked into rehab with her. King: What was the toughest part about rehab? Nicole Richie: It was right before \"The Simple Life\" came out. Just the fact that I couldn't do it in private really was unfortunate. But we didn't watch TV there or [had no] connection to the outside world, which I thought was really great. So I just focused on being positive there and focused on myself. And my parents were there with me. They came for family week. And so I just focused on that and everything just kind of fell in place. Watch Nicole Richie talk about rehab » . King: When all of those troubles were going on, didn't it affect [your] performance? Lionel Richie: Thank God for the stage. What the stage was for me was an outlet. It gave me a chance to kind of get away from it for a moment. King: You said that you were not a good dad to Nicole growing up ... wasn't there for her. Do you regret that? Lionel Richie: I was trying to be Lionel Richie. There is a part of [me] that's guilty because I wish I could have been there more for her, but I was trying to make it as the solo guy at that time. King: What kind of dad was he? Nicole Richie: I really hate when he says that. I hate when he says that he wasn't a good dad because my memory of my childhood was nothing but good memories. I remember him coming down in the kitchen in the morning and singing songs and us playing. Was he gone a lot? Yeah. But he also toured a lot. Even when he and my mom divorced, it was kind of like he was on tour, so I was kind of OK with it. And he's not perfect, he's a human and we went through phases of not speaking. I could sit here and I could say that I was a terrible daughter, too, but I am not going to say that. King: How do you like her boyfriend [Joel Madden]? Lionel Richie: Love him. Love him. King: Don't you want them to get married? Lionel Richie: I want them to take their time. I'm more interested in whether they like each other and whether they're best friends. Because that means they'll be great parents forever. King [to Nicole]: You were adopted. Nicole Richie: Yes. Lionel Richie: When we adopted, [she] was 8, yes. When we first met her, she was 3 1/2. King: Took five years? Lionel Richie: She stayed with us for two years before we even thought about legal guardianship. King: Was there a doubt about doing it? Lionel Richie: It was a tremendous responsibility, but I fell in love. Brenda fell in love. And once you fall in love, you don't know anything else." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lionel Richie likes father of his grandchild; says Nicole shouldn't rush marriage .\nNicole Richie says parents' love and support helped her make it through drug rehab .\nNicole on Lionel: \"I hate when he says that he wasn't a good dad\"\nHow was his \"American Idol\" appearance? \"It's the best fun in the world\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Launched in 1995, the Airbus A330-200 is the newest member of the European aircraft manufacturer's twinjet family. The incident involves an Air France Airbus A330-200. With a range of 12,500 km (6,750 nautical miles) and the capacity to carry 253 passengers, the A330-200 is extremely well-regarded as a medium to long-range airliner. There are 600 currently in service with 82 airlines, including Air France, worldwide. Airbus has a further 300 orders for the aircraft. According to aviation expert Kieran Daly, the A330-200 is a \"reliable, ultra-modern, state-of-the-art airplane,\" with an impeccable safety record. He told CNN that there has only been one reported incident when an aircraft of this type has crashed. \"The incident took place in 1994 before the aircraft came into service,\" he said. \"It was being flown in test-mode by pilots who were putting it through some extreme maneuvers before it came down. \"Therefore the crash was not caused by the plane itself. \"It is very well-designed and well-equipped, with equally modern and reliable General Electric CF-6 engines.\" Air France has said that Flight AF 447 sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence early in its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Why it took so long to report the aircraft missing » . However, Daly said that it would take extremely violent weather conditions to cause the catastrophic failure of an aircraft of this size. \"These planes are extremely robust and widely used on transatlantic routes and across Asia,\" he said. \"They are equipped with an array of sophisticated communication equipment, so it must have been something extremely sudden to cause the loss of contact.\" There has also been speculation that the Paris-bound flight was struck by lightning, but that should not bring down a modern airliner, former Airbus pilot John Wiley told CNN. According to Air France, the captain of Flight AF 447 had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330/A340 aircraft. Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330/A340). The aircraft had totaled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009. The larger A330-300 aircraft from Airbus entered service in 1993 and has a capacity of up to 335 passengers. It too has an impressive safety record, despite a couple of incidents in the last 10 years. In August 2001, a Canadian airliner operated by Air Transat experienced double engine failure while traveling to Portugal. Miraculously the captain was able to perform an emergency landing in the Azores by gliding the powerless plane for almost 18 minutes. Last year, an A330-303 was forced to make an emergency landing in Australia after a sudden change in altitude injured 74 passengers. Qantas Flight 72 was flying from Singapore to the western Australian city of Perth when a sudden change of altitude caused abrasions, contusions, fractures and other injuries. The cause of the sudden drop remains under investigation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Airbus A330-200 was launched in 1995 .\nThere are 600 currently in service with 82 airlines, including Air France .\nExpert: A330-200 is reliable, ultra-modern, state-of-the-art airplane .\nAir France said Flight AF 447 reported electrical problems ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Abigail Thernstrom is the author of \"Voting Rights -- and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections,\" published last month by AEI Press. She is the vice-chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Her writing can be found at http://www.thernstrom.com/. Abigail Thernstrom says an impressive biography isn't a qualification for the Supreme Court. (CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor is all but certain to be confirmed as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. It is close to unimaginable that the Republicans will peel off enough Democratic votes to stop Senate confirmation. She's a first: a Latina. And she has an impressive life history: Raised in a housing project by a single mother, she went to Princeton and then to Yale Law School. It's a classic American overcoming-the-odds story, but, while admirable, it is not a qualification for the highest court in the land. Democrats themselves have often implicitly made the same point -- about other minority appointees, in fact. They never saw the much humbler origins of Justice Clarence Thomas as an argument for his elevation to the Court. And they used a filibuster to stop Bush appointee Miguel Estrada from getting a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which they feared would be a springboard to the Supreme Court. Estrada is a Honduran who arrived in America at age 17 with only limited command of English; he was also raised by a single mother and made it to Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the law review. Supporters of Sotomayor argue that she will add needed \"diversity\" to the Court. Yet, with her confirmation, there will be six Catholics, two Jews and one Protestant. For many Americans, religious affiliation is more important in defining an individual than race or ethnicity. But no one is complaining about \"too many\" Catholics or Jews -- thankfully. America is supposed to be a land in which individuals are seen as ... individuals. Too many, too few: that is the language of un-American quotas. Sotomayor has suggested that race and ethnicity, to a substantial degree, define individuals. \"Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences ... our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging,\" she said in a 2001 speech. At her confirmation hearings, she will undoubtedly dance away from such ethnic determinism. But it would appear to be what she believes, since she has reiterated the point several times in different venues. Her supporters also emphasize the \"empathy\" she would bring to the court. It is a quality the president promised he would look for in making court appointments. In a July 2007 campaign speech, he said, \"We need somebody who's got the heart -- the empathy -- to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old, and that's the criteria by which I'll be selecting my judges.\" Evidently, however, not all impoverished backgrounds leave you empathetic. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding appears to be party membership. By definition, conservatives are assumed to lack empathy. As Berkeley professor George Lakoff has argued, \"Empathy is at the heart of progressive thought. ... Progressives care about others as well as themselves.\" And, by implication, conservatives don't. Empathy has thus become a code word for progressive politics -- the likelihood that, as a justice, the nominee will take politically liberal positions. Public policy preferences driving Supreme Court decisions? What a shock. Some justices have much more respect for the law than others, but if the opinions were not often judgments driven by political values as well, they would be less predictable. Most court-watchers thought (correctly, as it turned out) that the recent New Haven firefighters' case would come down four-four, with only Justice Anthony Kennedy's vote hard to call. The results of an exam for promotion within the New Haven fire department had been thrown out because, with one exception, all of the successful candidates were white -- the \"wrong\" color, according to the reasoning of the city and Sotomayor. One can argue that race discrimination decisions do not involve ideology and are based on strictly legal grounds, but if so, it is passing strange that in busing, affirmative action and other race-related cases, even before the oral argument is heard we almost always know which justices will take what positions. Liberals still support busing, for instance; conservatives oppose it. Sotomayor will replace another reliable liberal, Justice David Souter, and so the ideological balance on the court will not change. And yet, perhaps as a consequence of her implicit embrace of quotas and identity politics, she has come to the Senate hearings with public support that is unusually low; only 47 percent of Americans say they want her confirmed, a recent CNN poll found. Nevertheless, Republicans are likely to tread softly in the hearings. Race-related issues make them nervous, and Latinos are a fast-growing group with increasing political clout, especially in such swing states as Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Virginia. Barring the totally unexpected, Sotomayor's confirmation will thus be a cakewalk. Let us hope that the public's pessimism proves to be misguided and she turns out to be a lawyer's lawyer and not an ethnic activist who tends to let the usual political definition of \"empathy\" drive her opinions. There is reason to worry: She will have lifetime tenure on an institution with enormous power. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Abigail Thernstrom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Abigail Thernstrom: Sonia Sotomayor's life story is a compelling one .\nShe says Democrats haven't honored such humble beginnings in GOP nominees .\nShe says Sotomayor's \"empathy\" may be code word for one brand of politics .\nThernstrom: I'm concerned that judge may have more fidelity to activism than to law ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- AC Milan have swooped to sign Standard Liege defender Oguchi Onyewu on a three-year contract -- making him the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in 1996. Onyewu will become the first American since Alexi Lalas to appear in Italian Serie A after joining AC Milan. Onyewu, who has also played in the English Premier League with Newcastle United, has moved to the San Siro on a free transfer after impressing with some superb displays during the United States' run to the Confederations Cup final. The 27-year-old has played 38 times for his country, scoring five goals.Latest transfer gossip and rumors . \"This transaction shows once again the excellent friendly relationship between our club and Belgian club Standard Liege, particularly their executive vice-president Luciano D'Onofrio,\" said a statement on Milan's official Web site. The six-foot four-inch player was born in Washington DC to Nigerian parents but began his club career at Metz in France in 2002. He was loaned out to La Louviere in Belgium in 2003 and his form there earnt him a move to Liege, where he won two Belgian titles. He then joined Newcastle on loan, playing 11 league matches. However, the transfer is unlikely to appease the Milan supporters who are unhappy with the summer sale of Brazilian superstar Kaka to Real Madrid -- and the departure of coach Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea. About 300 fans protested outside the club's Milanello base on the first day of pre-season training on Monday, complaining at the lack of big name signings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "AC Milan swoop to sign up American international defender Oguchi Onyewu .\nThe 27-year-old joins from Belgians Standard Liege on a three-year contract .\nOnyewu is the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in the 90s ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Renee Pernice, a 35-year-old mother of two young children, vanished from her home in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after New Year's this year. She hasn't been heard from since. Renee Pernice is pictured here with her two sons and husband, Shon. Police believe foul play is involved, yet they have not found her body. No one has been arrested in the case. Police have not named her husband, Shon Pernice, as a person of interest or a suspect in the case. However, \"he's the last known person to see her alive,\" said Doug Niemeier, a sergeant with the Kansas City Police Department. Six months after Renee Pernice disappeared, police say they still have questions about her husband in the days after her disappearance, including why he allegedly accessed a local fire department's hazardous materials building around 4:30 a.m. January 3. \"It should be noted that multiple types of cleaners, solvents and cleaning supplies are stored at Station #5,\" a police affidavit says. Attorneys for Shon Pernice declined to comment for this story. Police and family say Renee was pursuing a divorce around the time she disappeared. A local firefighter, Shon Pernice has said he was not involved in her disappearance. He told a local activist in March that \"I didn't harm my wife one bit. Not at all.\" In that interview, one of the few in which he's referenced his wife's disappearance, he added, \"It's gut-wrenching thinking that either she's got a rich-ass doctor boyfriend somewhere and she's happy, or she's dead.\" Since his wife disappeared, Shon Pernice has been arrested twice on unrelated charges: once for allegedly stealing a neighbor's gun and another time for disturbing the peace in an incident with that same neighbor this past July Fourth weekend. \"As everybody knows, my wife has been missing since January 2,\" he told CNN affiliate KCTV5. \"This is what it stems from. Basically what the media ... has portrayed of me -- of the whole situation. There's a lot of people that don't like me.\" The couple's two sons, ages 6 and 9, remain in the care of the father, although Renee Pernice's mother has sought custody of them. \"There is a lot that just isn't right,\" said Rick Pretz, the missing woman's father. \"It's not a stable environment for the children.\" Renee Pernice was known for being a caring mother, a talented nurse at St. Luke's Hospital and a gentle animal lover always surrounded by dogs. Neighbors say they last saw her in her backyard with her dogs the morning of Friday, January 2, 2009. When police searched the home, they say they found her purse, coat and other items still in the house. Her car was in the garage. Police say her cell phone was missing from the house. A homeless man found the phone in grass about 15 miles from her home, in an area Renee Pernice was not known to frequent, police say. It was found around midnight January 3, the affidavit says. Since then, police and volunteer teams have searched the area extensively, but they have found nothing. \"Family members and common friends of both Shon and Renee told police that Renee was not the kind of mother who would separate herself from her children for any reason,\" the affidavit says. \"Family members advised that finding Renee's purse at the residence was highly unusual as she never went anywhere without her purse.\" According to the affidavit, investigators watched Shon Pernice drive away from the home with his wife's dog and drop it off at a park a few days after he reported his wife missing. The affidavit also alleges that a drop of blood was found in the garage. However, authorities have not released whether it matched Renee Pernice or her husband. According to Renee Pernice's family, she was not the kind of person to take off on her own without letting her family know where she was. \"I spoke to her just the night before at 7 p.m. on the phone,\" her father told CNN. \"She would never leave her two sons like this.\" The family is offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of Renee Pernice. A white truck that could be related to her disappearance was captured on a surveillance tape in the area where her cell phone was found, and police have released a photo of it. Anyone who may have lent such a truck at the time the surveillance image was taken is being asked to come forward. Renee Pernice is white, stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and has brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is urged to call the Kansas City Police Department at 1-816-474-TIPS. CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Renee Pernice disappeared from her home shortly after New Year's this year .\nPolice believe foul play is involved, although they have not found a body .\nPolice say her husband accessed a HazMat building shortly after she disappeared .\nAttorneys for husband, Shon Pernice, declined comment for this report ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A woman and three children were killed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a suspected robber fleeing in a car jumped a curb and struck them, police said Thursday. Four people were killed after a car fleeing police struck a home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. \"He literally cut a tree in half,\" Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said, \"then hit the 1-year-old, [who] was in a stroller. The other individuals were on the front porch of their own home. He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose.\" Latoya Smith, 22, died Thursday from injuries in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fentonville area of north Philadelphia, police Capt. James Clark said. Smith's daughter, Remedy Smith -- who would have turned 1 on Friday -- died at the scene, as did Alicia Griffin, 6, and Gina Rosario, 7, Clark said. Video of the scene showed a crumpled silver Pontiac on the sidewalk, pushed up against the front steps of a house and wedged against a tree. Watch police commissioner describe carnage » . Donta Cradock, 18, the alleged driver of the gray Pontiac, faces charges for theft of a motorcycle, the crime that allegedly triggered his flight, police said. Other charges are pending approval from the district attorney's office, police said. \"We're hopeful that it will be four counts of murder,\" Clark said. Cradock and an alleged accomplice, Ivan Rodriguez, 20, stole a motorcycle at gunpoint around 7:30 p.m., he said. Rodriguez fled the scene on the motorcycle, while Cradock drove away in the Pontiac, Clark said. An unidentified person told a traffic police officer in the area about the alleged robbery and pointed out the Pontiac, he said. The police officer followed the car and tried to stop it at a traffic light, Clark said. \"At that point the Pontiac fled at a high rate of speed,\" he said. The officer followed the vehicle, but lost sight of it, Clark said. The officer was not close enough to chase the car, police said, but eventually came across what Clark called a \"horrific accident.\" Cradock was thrown from the Pontiac and is in the hospital, Clark said. He said a gun was recovered on the suspect. Rodriguez was arrested at his home, Clark said, and faces a theft charge. Both men have \"very extensive criminal histories,\" Ramsey said. Bench warrants were out on them at the time of their arrest, Clark said. It was not immediately clear if the two had retained attorneys. CNN's Mark Norman contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Donta Cradock, 18, allegedly fled scene of motorcycle robbery in silver Pontiac .\nPolice chase ends when car hits home, killing Latoya Smith, 3 kids .\n\"He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose,\" police say .\nCradock and accomplice face motorcycle theft charges; others pending ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Agents arrested 20 out of 42 people accused in a California Medicaid fraud ring that allegedly bilked the state out of nearly $4.6 million and put the lives of disabled children at risk, a prosecutor said. The defendants are accused of either posing as licensed nurses or organizing a scheme to send unlicensed nurses to provide home- or school-based care to disabled patients, many of them children with cerebral palsy or other developmental disabilities, the office of the U.S. attorney for central California said in a written statement. The long defendant's list makes the case the largest of Medicaid fraud in California, U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in the statement. Each defendant has been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and at least one count of health care fraud, according to the statement. Some parents and patients became suspicious of the nurses when they noticed their lack of skills. \"In one case, a 'nurse' was unable to replace a tracheotomy tube that had fallen out of a young patient's neck. In another case, an impostor nurse simply fled a medical situation when she apparently was unable to provide assistance,\" according to the statement. Some of the unlicensed nurses had foreign training, but never passed a U.S. qualifying nursing exam, the attorney's office said, while others had no medical training at all. Two defendants -- Susan Bendigo and Priscilla Villabroza, the accused ringleaders -- were charged separately. Bendigo and Villabroza instructed the workers to lie about their status and used the names of licensed nurses on documents, the indictment says. Villabroza operated a home health agency -- the Santa Fe Springs company Medicare Plus Home Health Providers -- the indictment said. Villabroza, a registered nurse, knowingly hired unlicensed nurses and billed Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, for the work of licensed vocational nurses from August 2004 through 2007, the indictment alleges. Villabroza pleaded guilty last year to five federal counts of health care fraud, the attorney's office said. Bendigo, a registered nurse, was also director of Santa Fe Springs' Excel Plus Home Health Services, which provided nurses to home health agencies, according to the indictment. Bendigo also was charged last year but fled the country, the statement said. Officials think she is hiding in the Philippines, said U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek. Villabroza is awaiting sentencing, and could be sent to prison for up to 50 years, Mrozek said. Each of the 42 new defendants faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for each charge if convicted, according to the statement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Prosecutor: Long defendants list makes case the largest Medicaid fraud in California .\n\"Nurses\" cared for disabled patients, many of them children, in homes, schools .\nPatients became suspicious of nurses when they noticed their lack of skills .\nRingleaders accused of telling workers to lie about status, using real nurses' names ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hope was 14 years old when her uncle raped her. Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network to help Zimbabwe's young sexual abuse victims. \"He trapped me to the ground and covered my mouth with his hand,\" said the 18-year-old from Zimbabwe. \"He threatened to kill me if I ever told anybody.\" So, she kept quiet. \"After a while people around the villages started saying that I looked pregnant,\" she said. Hope was not only pregnant, but her uncle had infected her with HIV. Like many young girls in Zimbabwe, Hope was the victim of a widely held belief that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin he will be cured of his disease. This so-called virgin myth, perpetuated by Zimbabwe's traditional healers, has led to the rape of hundreds of girls, according to UNICEF. Some of those victims are too young to walk, much less protect themselves. Betty Makoni has fought for nearly a decade to protect her country's young girls from sexual abuse. And she's witnessed some of the worst cases of the myth in action. \"The youngest girl I ever came across was a day-old baby who was raped,\" said Makoni, 37. Through her Girl Child Network (GCN), Makoni has helped rescue 35,000 girls from abuse -- including Hope; thousands more have found an empowering community and a public forum in which to speak out. \"Ten girls per day report rape cases,\" she said. \"It means if we keep quiet, at least 3,600 girls per year may just be contracting HIV and AIDS.\" Makoni's own tragic experiences fuel her fierce determination. \"I was raped when I was 6 years old,\" she recalled. Her attacker was a local shopkeeper. Makoni said her mother would not allow her to report the abuse. \"She said, 'Shh, we don't say that in public,' \" Makoni remembered. \"I had no shoulder to cry on.\" Three years later, she witnessed her father murder her mother. In that moment, Makoni said she realized the potentially deadly consequence of a woman's silence. \"I told myself that no girl or woman will suffer the same again,\" she said. Believing an education would provide her the best opportunity and means to speak out, Makoni earned two university degrees and became a teacher. While teaching, she noticed that girls were dropping out of school at an alarming rate. She approached her students with an idea. \"I [said] to girls, 'Let's have our own space where we talk and find solutions,' \" Makoni said. Girl Child Network was born. Watch Makoni help young girls find safety and empowerment in Zimbabwe » . By the end of the first year, there were 100 GCN clubs throughout Zimbabwe where girls could find support. Makoni said she was not surprised: \"Every woman and girl identified with the issues that we were raising,\" she said. In 2000, she quit her teaching job to volunteer with GCN full time. \"I decided to become an advocate because I walked my own journey to survival,\" she said. The following year Makoni successfully procured a piece of land and opened the organization's first empowerment village, designed to provide a haven for girls who have been abused. Girls are either rescued or referred to the village by social services, the police and the community. The healing begins as soon as a girl arrives. \"In the first 72 hours, a girl is provided with emergency medication, reinstatement in school, as well as counseling,\" said Makoni. It is important to her that the girls are in charge of their own healing. \"It gives them the confidence to transform from victims to leaders,\" she explained. The process helped Hope work through the times when she said \"I thought my life had come to end.\" \"They offered all they could ... as I was in a traumatized state,\" she said. \"I really appreciate what [Betty Makoni] has done and is doing in my life.\" Today, GCN has grown to 700 girls' clubs and three empowerment villages across Zimbabwe. An estimated 300,000 girls have received assistance. For those who were at greatest risk, Makoni believes that help was especially critical. \"If my organization didn't exist, the 35,000 girls I've saved from rape and abuse could have died by now,\" she said. But for Makoni, speaking out came with a high personal cost. In 2008, she was forced to flee her native country. \"I left Zimbabwe because my life was in danger as a result of my project being interpreted politically.\" Watch Makoni describe her reasons for leaving her homeland » . Today, she lives with her family in the United Kingdom. She still serves as executive director of her organization and shows no signs of slowing down. GCN has partnered with the DOVE project, a group based in Essex, England, that deals with domestic violence. \"We are now bringing the girls from a local community to the international scene,\" she said. Her efforts in Zimbabwe will also be highlighted in an upcoming documentary, Tapestries of Hope. Makoni says nothing will end her fight for the rights of women and girls. \"This is the job I have always wanted to do, because it gives me fulfillment. And in girls I see myself every day.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Girl Child Network and see how to help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Many in Zimbabwe believe a man raping a virgin can cure him of HIV or AIDS .\nBetty Makoni's Girl Child Network cares for Zimbabwe's young sex abuse victims .\nThe organization has rescued more than 35,000 girls .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a commanding lead in national elections Wednesday, according to the latest exit polls. A woman votes at a polling station in Indonesia. An average of six exit polls showed the incumbent holding about 60 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and 12 percent for Yudhoyono's vice president, Yusuf Kalla. Official results are expected no sooner than next week. Indonesia has 175 million registered voters spread over 17,000 islands. It was the country's second direct election since the authoritarian regime of dictator Suharto fell in 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. Analysts and polls, ahead of the vote, predicted Yudhoyono -- riding high on the country's economic strength -- would win a second term. Watch as incumbent expected to win election » . In 2004, Yudhoyono defeated then-incumbent Megawati in a runoff election. Watch more on the election » . Yudhoyono \"has positive global image; relations with the American government have been the best in all the time that I have been here, the last 30 years,\" said James Castle, who analyzes Indonesia's politics and economy. \"He's very popular in the foreign community and, to be honest, if he's not re-elected, the markets will react negatively for a month or so.\" Yudhoyono's Democratic Party was the only single party to get enough votes in April's legislative elections to nominate a candidate on its own. Kalla's Golkar Party came in second and Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, placed third. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. Kalla had hoped voters would give him some of the credit for Indonesia's economic successes which occurred under his term as vice president. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. See a photo slideshow of Indonesians talking about who they will vote for » . Yudhoyono is known as \"Mr. Clean\" because of his anti-corruption efforts. He has gained popularity for his handling of the 2004 tsunami recovery and the country's battle against terrorism. Indonesia has had impressive economic growth over the past five years, though how much direct credit Yudhoyono can take for that is questionable. And despite Indonesia posting an average of 5.9 percent annual growth during his presidency, little of that has trickled down to the country's poor. Yudhoyono's opponents say he is too liberal, is too skewed toward the west, and doesn't pay enough attention to the 40 million Indonesians living below the poverty line. Still, the country is exhibiting surprising resilience in the face of the global economic downturn. Growth topped 6 percent last year, and Indonesia was the fastest-growing economy in southeast Asia in the first quarter of this year. \"All off a sudden, everybody is contracting except for Indonesia,\" Castle said. \"We've had more visiting regional heads and so on in the last six months than we had in the last six years.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Polls close; Official results expected no sooner than next week .\nThree familiar faces competed: current president, his deputy and an ex-president .\nAnalysts and polls have Yudhoyono (known as SBY) tipped to win a second term .\nSBY is riding high on the country's economic strength ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A leader of the conservative \"Blue Dog\" Democrats told CNN Wednesday he and other group members may vote to block House Democrats' health care bill from passing a key committee if they don't get some of the changes they want. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, is a leading negotiator for the Blue Dog Democrats on health care. \"We remain opposed to the current bill, and we continue to meet several times a day to decide how we're going to proceed and what amendments we will be offering as Blue Dogs on the committees,\" said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Arkansas. Ross said the bill unveiled Tuesday by House Democratic leaders did not address concerns he and other conservative Democrats outlined in a letter late last week to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The conservative Democrats don't believe the legislation contains sufficient reforms to control costs in the health care system and believe additional savings can be found. Their letter to leaders raised concerns about new mandates on small businesses. Blue Dogs also say the bill fails to fix the inequities in the current system for health care costs for rural doctors and hospitals. The Energy and Commerce committee, along with two other House committees, is scheduled to take up the bill Thursday. Democrats outnumber Republicans 36-23 on the Energy and Commerce committee, which contains eight Blue Dogs, including Ross. If seven Democrats vote with Republicans against the bill, it would fail to advance to the House floor. Asked whether the Blue Dogs on Energy and Commerce are considering voting as a group against the bill if it remains unchanged, Ross replied, \"absolutely.\" He didn't give details on changes the Blue Dogs want. But he did say he wasn't satisfied with the penalty exemption for small businesses that don't provide health insurance for employees. An earlier draft of the Democrats' bill exempted businesses from paying a penalty if their payrolls were less than $100,000. Democratic leaders raised that payroll amount to $250,000." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rep. Mike Ross: House Democrats' bill doesn't address group's concerns .\nBlue Dog Democrats: Bill doesn't control costs in the health care system .\nIf committee's Blue Dogs and Republicans vote against it, bill won't advance ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation's security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday. Iraqi clerics say homosexuality must be eradicated but warn against anti-gay violence. Interviews with doctors indicate hundreds of men had been killed, but the exact number was unclear because of the stigma associated with homosexuality in Iraq, the New York-based watchdog group said in its report. \"Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,\" said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. \"Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.\" Four victims who spoke to CNN gave accounts of the attacks, which they say have intensified in the past few months. \"In 2004, militias and unknown groups started to go after the gays ... but the peak was six months ago,\" said Qaisar, who uses a pseudonym for fear of reprisal. \"It has become wide scale war against gays in Iraq.\" Iraqi officials acknowledged that the nation's culture stigmatizes homosexuality, but said the government does not condone such attacks. Authorities are unable to provide homosexuals with special protection, said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. According to Human Rights Watch, which is urging a government crackdown, attackers target people on the streets or storm homes, where they conduct interrogations and demand names of suspected gay men. Many end up in hospitals and morgues, the organization said, basing its conclusion on reports from doctors. Men have been threatened with \"honor killings\" by relatives worried that their \"unmanly behavior\" will ruin the family's reputation, Human Rights Watch said. Watch Iraqi men discuss attacks » . Killings, kidnappings and torture of those suspected of homosexual conduct have intensified in areas such as the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, the watchdog said. \"The Shiite people started this war and especially what happened in Sadr City,\" Qaisar said, adding that his sister-in-law had warned him against going to the area. Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which is active in Sadr City, has joined in the attacks and defends its actions as a way to stop the \"feminization\" of Iraqi men, the report said. \"We have testimony that indicates that the nation's security forces are taking part in the attacks,\" Long said. The group interviewed more than 50 people who gave accounts of abuses, beatings and stops at security checkpoints, he said. \"When the gay killings started and when they started go(ing) after them at checkpoints ... we started to change our look,\" said Basim, who also used a pseudonym. \"These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq's post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens,\" said Rasha Moumneh, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. A provision from the Saddam Hussein era endorses crimes committed \"with honorable motives,\" according to the organization. The government spokesman said the provision was popular during the Saddam era, but is not used today. He added that there is a push to educate police about human rights. Attacks against civilians, including homosexuals, are not allowed, al-Dabbagh said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Human Rights Watch says people are targeted on the streets and interrogated .\nGroup: Killings, kidnappings and torture of suspected homosexuals are escalating .\nAttacks against civilians, including homosexuals, not allowed, Iraq spokesman says ." } ]