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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": "NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities Tuesday filed a police complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking a former president of the country as he was to travel to New York in April. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials said. Civil aviation officials in New Delhi accused Continental of gross violation of Indian security rules that prohibit pre-embarkation body checks on certain dignitaries like a former president. The police complaint followed a probe that had established that APJ Abdul Kalam was subject to frisking before he boarded a flight from New Delhi to New York on April 21, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. The ministry also alleged the airline did not respond to its show-cause notice in connection with Kalam's body checks. In its police complaint, Indian civil aviation authorities accused the airline staff of \"willful violation\" of their directions on exemptions from pre-embarkation frisking. Continental, however, insisted it followed standard American air-safety procedures. \"TSA (Transportation Security Administration) requirements impose a final security check in the aerobridge just before boarding the aircraft. \"This procedure is followed by all carriers flying to the U.S. from most of the countries in the world and there is no exemption to this rule,\" it said in a statement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Indian authorities file complaint against Continental for frisking former president .\nFormer president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials say .\nContinental, however, insists it followed standard U.S. air-safety procedures ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Authorities regained control of a Kentucky prison early Saturday after inmates torched buildings, shattered windows and threw rocks at guards. Inmates set fire to a Kentucky prison on Friday after the warden said he would ease restrictions on a lockdown. Inmates at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in Burgin started an uprising shortly after the warden announced he'd ease restrictions on a lockdown, Northpoint Public Information Officer Mendalyn Cochran told CNN. Two inmates were transported to hospitals with chest pains, she said, and there were no reports of hostages taken. The lockdown was instituted Tuesday, after about 10 to 15 inmates assaulted two others in a fight over stolen property, Cochran said. Warden Steve Haney told prisoners about 6 p.m. Friday of his plan to ease the lockdown, but 30 minutes later, fires began to spread through the dorm-styled institution, she said. Inmates were evacuated to the prison yard and authorities threw tear gas over the fence to subdue the prisoners, Cochran said. The damage to the facility was so severe that all the prison's 1,200 inmates had to be kept outside in a prison yard. \"There are several buildings in the front that will be a total loss,\" said Lt. David Jude of Kentucky State Police. An investigation will determine whether criminal charges will be levied against some of the inmates. Burgin is about 40 miles southwest of Lexington. CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guards regained control of Kentucky prison early Saturday after inmate uprising .\nPrison was placed on lockdown Tuesday after fight among inmates .\nWarden planned to ease lockdown when fires broke out in prison ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 arrived at a Brazilian Air Force base in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday, the air force announced. Brazilian pilots and a medical team bring one of the first bodies ashore at Fernando de Noronha island. The 16 bodies were taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Recife for identification, the statement said. Police will perform DNA tests at their lab in the capital, Brasilia, if necessary, they said. Another 25 bodies have been found and will go through the same procedure starting Thursday, the air force said. Official identification of the bodies will be made only by the Legal Medicine Institute, even if any of the bodies could have been identified while on Fernando de Noronha, the islands where they were first brought after being recovered. A French nuclear submarine joined the hunt Wednesday for the flight data recorders and other wreckage from Air France Flight 447 as Brazilian air force and navy crews continued to pull bodies from the Atlantic. Bad weather and poor visibility are expected in the search area, Brazilian Air Force spokesmen said. France is leading the investigation into what caused last week's accident when the Paris-bound flight from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the sea off the Brazilian coast with 228 passengers and crew on board. The French nuclear submarine Emeraude began patrolling the area Wednesday morning, the French defense ministry said. Around 400 French military personnel are involved in the salvage effort. France has also sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- are participating, along with five Brazilian ships. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) -- will be placed aboard the French tugs. Watch challenges faced by search crews » . Brazilian officials emphasized earlier this week that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders. The 16 bodies retrieved Tuesday from the Atlantic were taken to the island of Fernando de Noronha for transport by helicopter to Recife. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate. Watch bodies being returned to land » . The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. See photos of bodies arriving at Fernando de Noronha » . It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air. The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), Brazilian officials said. Map of Flight 447's flight path » . The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. Brazilian officials said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife. The cause of the crash is still not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Did plane's tail fin snap off? » . Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday. The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month. Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents. The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident. Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused \"a loss of airspeed data,\" according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed. Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Ayesha Durgahee, Niki Cook, Jim Bittermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "16 bodies retrieved from crashed airliner arrive in mainland Brazil .\nBodies taken to police laboratory in Brasilia for DNA testing .\nFrench nuclear submarine joins hunt for wreckage from Air France Flight 447 .\nLocation, cause of crash off Brazilian coast have not been determined ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's always something happening in the city that never sleeps, but if you're in New York at the right time you'll get to see New Yorkers coming together for one of the city's big annual events. Giant inflatables are the highlight of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. St Patrick's Day Parade (17 March) St Patrick's Day is when New York's sizeable Irish-American community celebrates its long association with the city, with thousands joining a flag-waving parade of traditional marching pipe bands. Dating back to 1762, it's far more traditional than New York's other parades. There are no floats or corporate sponsors involved -- just vast numbers of green-clad revelers. Indeed, it's the one day of the year when shamrock-adorned hats and stick on ginger beards are considered appropriate attire. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at 44th Street, making its way past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street and the American Irish Historical Society at 83rd, finishing at 86th Street at around 5:00 p.m. Needless to say, New York's Irish bars get pretty crowded in the evening. Watch Candace Bushnell take CNN on a tour of New York. » . Met in the Parks (June) An al fresco treat for opera lovers, every summer New York's Metropolitan Opera Company lays on free outdoor performances in the city's parks. The 2009 program will feature performances in each of the five boroughs, at Staten Island's Tappan Park, Crotona Park in The Bronx, Queensbridge Park in Queens; Coffey Park in Brooklyn, East River Park in Manhattan and at SummerStage in Central Park. If that's whet your appetite for evenings of outdoor classical music, \"New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks\" takes place in July at parks around the city. Take a blanket and a well-stocked picnic hamper for maximum enjoyment. What do you think are New York's seasonal highlights? Sound Off below. Independence Day (July 4) The day America declared its independence from Britain in 1776 is a national holiday celebrated in style throughout the country. But, naturally, New York is where the celebrations become a full-blown extravaganza. The highlight of New York's Independence Day celebrations is the Macy's fireworks display. Usually, fireworks are launched from the East River, but the 2009 fireworks will be launched from barges positioned between 24th and 50th Streets on the Hudson River. That means Manhattan's West Side and New Jersey will provide prime viewing spots and will consequently be packed to the gills with tens of thousands of rubbernecking New Yorkers. See photos of Candace Bushnell in New York. » . Village Halloween Parade (31 October) Halloween is a big deal in America and the nation's biggest and best Halloween parade takes place along New York's Sixth Avenue. Greenwich Village's \"anything goes\" attitude is what makes this event special, translating into eye-popping costumes, heaps of audience interaction and dazzling giant puppets, brought to life by showboating puppeteers. The parade begins at 6.30 p.m., starting on Spring Street and making its way to 23rd Street. You'll need to stake your roadside spot early if you want to see more than the backs of other spectators. Better still, wear a costume and you're entitled to join in the parade -- nothing is too outrageous. Even if you're cheering from the sidelines, you should get into the spirit of things by donning a ghoulish mask at the very least, thousands of which suddenly appear in local shops in the days leading up to the parade. http://www.halloween-nyc.com . Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (fourth Thursday in November) A New York institution, the inaugural parade in 1924 included live animals on loan from from Central Park Zoo. The zoo animals have long been retired, replaced by floats that act as moving anchors for enormous helium balloons of various colorful cartoon characters. These floating colossi are the highlight of the event and attract annual crowds of around three million New Yorkers. The parade runs from 9 a.m. to midday and follows a two-and-a-half mile route through Central Park West to Herald Square. A new route for the 2009 parade has yet to be confirmed -- check the web site for details. To enjoy the giant balloons without battling the crowds, wrap up warm and see them inflated the night before the parade on West 77th and 81st streets between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New York turns green for the city's traditional St Patrick's Day Parade .\nWearing a costume lets you join in the the Village Halloween celebrations .\nInflatable cartoon characters are the highlight of Macy's Thanksgiving Parade ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Rep. Charles Boustany is a Republican who represents southwest Louisiana. Before being elected to Congress, Boustany practiced medicine as a cardiothoracic surgeon for 14 years. Rep. Charles Boustany says Democrats' health care plans don't focus on quality. (CNN) -- Americans deserve the best health care system in the world -- one that emphasizes quality, but reduces cost, so all Americans can participate. As a doctor, I saw firsthand the problems many patients face finding a doctor, navigating the system, and paying their health care bills. Unfortunately, Democrats' plans in Congress fail to focus on quality. House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, recently stated that the Democrats were proposing \"a government-run nightmare operated by federal bureaucrats.\" If enacted, their plans would complicate the system and take more money from American pockets -- a nightmare, indeed. One report estimates more than 100 million people could drop their current health care coverage if the plans were open to all employers. One reason cited for the drop in current coverage -- businesses no longer offering private coverage -- would contradict the president's promise to allow Americans to keep their current coverage, if they like it. Imposed employer mandates could cost 4.7 million people their jobs. All of this means that many people who like their current health insurance might not be able to keep it and be forced into a new system, including a government option with lower reimbursement rates that might discourage their current doctor from continuing to treat them. Just as a doctor has the obligation to be honest and straightforward with their patients, Democrats in Washington must inform the public of the impact their plans will have on current insurance and the exact costs. As the economy struggles to recover, Americans are rightfully concerned about the potential cost of health reform, as shown by a recent CNN survey. Before we know how much it will cost and how it will affect those currently with insurance, we cannot have an open and honest debate on the merits of any proposal. While the House bill remains unscored by the Congressional Budget Office, health overhaul plans being crafted by Senate Democrats will likely cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and could fail to cover millions of Americans. As a doctor, I know there is a better way to help all Americans achieve meaningful health care access. The president's proposed cuts in health care spending will result in limited treatment options for patients, and by shifting the burden of debt to the next generation of Americans, our children will be the ones helping to defer the outrageous costs. With our government's inability to maintain the Medicare and Medicaid programs that we currently fund, how much deeper can the hole get? The Government Accountability Office refers to Congress' failure to face Medicare's monetary difficulties as a \"leadership deficit.\" Even some Blue Dog Democrats are asking if funding a new plan is even possible if the government cannot solve the funding problems of the current plans. Patients in these programs continue to be denied access to a doctor in many communities. A few months ago, I received an e-mail from a Medicaid patient diagnosed with a brain tumor. Doctors told her that she would likely be put on a six-month waiting list for brain surgeons currently serving Medicaid patients. For timely care, she had to borrow a neighbor's car, secure child care for her autistic child and drive four hours to a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. Patients in government-run plans obviously deserve better than this, so is this new government-run plan going to be any better? Republicans will give all Americans the liberty to select the plan that works best for them and let those who like their health care coverage keep it. We pledge to make quality health care coverage more available and less expensive, including those with pre-existing health conditions. We want to protect Americans from losing their current health coverage because an employer drops private coverage for a government-run program. This plan should also improve American lives through effective wellness, prevention and disease management programs, while finding innovative treatments for life-threatening diseases. We will ensure that medical decisions are made by patients and their doctors. By lowering costs and building more personalized plans, we can help more Americans develop a meaningful doctor-patient relationship. President Obama stated that \"if you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift. No one will take it away, no matter what.\" This rhetoric sounds comforting, but fellow Democrats don't seem to share his view -- as evidenced by their proposed bill. Some Democrats are completely unwilling to reach across the aisle. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, said, \"My goal is to write a good bill; my goal is not bipartisanship.\" Other Congressional Democrat members were told \"explicitly not to work with Republicans.\" Moderate House Democrats even recently complained in a letter to several committee chairmen about being left out of any meaningful discussions on health-policy changes. Health reform should be open and transparent. No matter what party weighs in on the issue, Americans must fully comprehend the complicated decisions we face, and also understand how these new decisions will affect them. Leaders need to compromise, negotiate with members of both parties and ideologies, and reform health care the right way -- by developing a strong plan that encompasses the needs of all Americans. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Charles Boustany." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rep. Boustany: Many Americans could lose current health plans .\nHe says they could wind up in government system without current doctors .\nBoustany: Plans could burden next generation with enormous cost ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Michael Jackson's publicist wants you to know that, despite a tabloid report to the contrary, the 50-year-old singer \"is in fine health.\" Michael Jackson's spokesman says reports of the singer's ill health \"are a total fabrication.\" The United Kingdom's Sun newspaper started a stir Monday morning when it quoted the author of an upcoming book about Jackson saying he was battling a potentially fatal disease that required a life-saving lung transplant. Other papers echoed the Sun's thinly-sourced story and the rumor spread quickly through Internet message boards. By Monday afternoon, Jackson's spokesman issued a response that said \"The writer's wild allegations concerning Mr. Jackson's health are a total fabrication.\" \"Mr. Jackson is in fine health, and finalizing negotiations with a major entertainment company & television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances,\" said Dr. Tohme Tohme, identified as Jackson's \"official and sole spokesperson.\" The original report quoted writer Ian Halperin saying Jackson's illness had robbed him of 95-percent of the vision in one eye and that he needed a lung transplant \"but may be too weak to go through with it.\" Jackson's reclusive lifestyle -- and a photo earlier this year of him being pushed in a wheelchair -- created a fertile ground for the planting of the rumor. Tohme suggested Halperin's motive was to get attention for his book about Jackson. \"Concerning this author's allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorized 'biography,'\" Tohme said. The Sun's report attempted to bolster its source's credibility by calling Halperin \"an award-winning investigative journalist\" who has \"written for respected Rolling Stone magazine.\" Halperin's biography on his publisher's Web site claimed he was the winner of the \"Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism.\" Rolling Stone magazine responded Monday afternoon by denying Halperin ever won that honor, but did note he was on a school newspaper staff in 1985 that collectively received the \"College Journalism Award\" from the magazine. Halperin has made a career writing about Hollywood scandals and the trouble lives of various celebrities, often claiming to have gone undercover to penetrate their inner-circles. The Jackson story was off the Sun's online front page by Monday evening. Instead, the paper featured a shirtless photo of President-elect Barack Obama on a Hawaii beach with the headline: \"As President Elect Goes Topless, How Do World Leaders Shape Up?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "UK's Sun newspaper ran report saying Jackson battles a potentially fatal disease .\nReport quoted writer Ian Halperin saying Jackson needed lung transplant .\nJackson story was off the Sun's online front page by Monday evening ." } ]

[ { "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 Ukrainian general has been arrested in connection with the murder of a journalist nearly nine years ago, the country's president said Wednesday. Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko has labeled Georhiy Gongadze's killing the country's most important case. Gen. Alexei Pukach was detained Tuesday in connection with the killing of Georhiy Gongadze, who was abducted in September 2000 and later found decapitated. The Gongadze killing is the country's most important criminal case, President Viktor Yushchenko said in a statement on his Web site. \"To me, it's a question of honor to resolve the murder of Georhiy Gongadze. It's a question of whether or not good or evil prevails,\" Yushchenko said. Organizations ranging from the European Union to the Committee to Protect Journalists have demanded that Ukraine bring the journalist's killers to justice. Pukach had been on the run for years before he was seized Tuesday in a joint operation by the Security Service and the prosecutor general's office, Yushchenko said. He has already been interrogated once and is cooperating with the investigation, the president added. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the arrest, it said in a statement to CNN. \"As the suspected organizer of the killing, Pukach could point the investigation to those who ordered the crime nine years ago,\" said Nina Ognianova, the organization's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator. \"Only with the masterminds behind bars would Ukrainian authorities be able to reverse the impunity in Gongadze's assassination,\" her statement said. Three former police officers were convicted last year of killing Gongadze and given jail sentences of 12 to 13 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at the time. There has long been suspicion that top Ukrainian government officials were involved in the murder. \"Gongadze, the pioneer editor of critical Internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), had long angered authorities with his highly critical reports detailing corruption in (former President Leonid) Kuchma's administration,\" CPJ said last year, when the three men were sentenced. Kuchma has long denied involvement in the killing. Pukach was a high-ranking interior ministry official at the time Gongadze disappeared. His former boss, Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, was found dead at his country house in March 2005, days before he was to be questioned by prosecutors over the killing of the journalist. The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, suggested Kravchenko killed himself, and the dead man's successor quoted a suicide note, according to Russian media. \"Please forgive me, I've become a victim of political intrigues of President Kuchma and his people. I'm leaving you without a twinge of conscience. Farewell,\" then-Interior Minister Yuli Luzenko quoted the note as saying. But Myroslava Gongadze, the slain journalist's widow, noted Kravchenko had two bullets in his head. \"I think it has to be investigated,\" she said of the death. \"He was the main player of my husband's murder ... he was the person who [took] the order and who gave the order,\" she told CNN at the time of Kravchenko's death. Kuchma had been implicated in the murder by critics who cited secretly recorded audio tapes in which the president allegedly ordered his staff to get rid of the journalist. Kuchma vehemently denied those charges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ukrainian general arrested in connection with murder of journalist .\nGeorhiy Gongadze abducted in September 2000 and later found decapitated .\nGen. Alexei Pukach, who has been on the run for years, was captured Tuesday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered its inspectors to make sure regional airlines' training programs are in line with federal regulations, authorities announced Tuesday. Regional airline Colgan Air's Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, on February 12. \"It's clear to us in looking at the February Colgan Air crash in Buffalo that there are things we should be doing now,\" FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said. \"My goal is to make sure that the entire industry -- from large commercial carriers to smaller, regional operators -- is meeting our safety standard.\" Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, on February 12, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard. One person on the ground was also killed. Federal investigators held hearings on Capitol Hill last month on the cause of the crash but have not concluded their inquiry. Several shortcomings of the crew came to light during the National Transportation and Safety Board hearings when it was revealed that Colgan Air Capt. Marvin Renslow failed to reveal two pilot exam failures in his job application. Testimony at the hearings also revealed that fatigue apparently contributed to the failure of Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw to save the plane as it approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport. USA Today newspaper reviewed the safety board's accident reports over the past 10 years and found that in nearly every serious accident involving a regional airline during that time, at least one of the pilots had failed multiple skill tests. \"In eight of the nine accidents during that time, which killed 137 people, pilots had a history of failing two or more 'check rides,' tests by federal or airline inspectors of pilots' ability to fly and respond to emergencies,\" USA Today reported Sunday. \"In the lone case in which pilots didn't have multiple failures since becoming licensed, the co-pilot was fired after the nonfatal crash for falsifying his job application.\" In addition to reviewing regional airlines' training programs, Babbitt and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have called on representatives from major air carriers, their regional partners, aviation industry groups and labor to participate in a \"call to action\" in Washington on Monday, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation news release. The review will address pilot training, cockpit discipline and other flight safety issues, the release said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "FAA to examine training at regional airlines to make sure it meets federal standards .\nNTSB investigation into fatal crash in Buffalo revealed pilot exam failures .\nUSA Today inquiry found pilot test failures in eight of nine regional airline crashes ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A U.N. tribunal convicted two Serb cousins Monday of having burned alive more than 100 Muslims in what the presiding judge called a part of the \"wretched history of man's inhumanity to man.\" Serb Milan Lukic has been found guilty of burning alive more than 100 Muslims. Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic were convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s, during the bitter ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia. Milan Lukic organized a group of local paramilitaries with ties to police and the military, sometimes referred to as the \"White Eagles\" or \"Avengers,\" according to an indictment. Before and during the war, his cousin Sredoje Lukic worked as a policeman before joining the group. The crimes include two incidents in which Muslim men, women and children were forced into homes that were then set on fire -- and some who tried to escape were shot. Milan Lukic was found \"guilty of persecutions, murder, extermination, cruel treatment and inhumane acts, as crimes against humanity and war crimes, in relation to six discrete incidents,\" the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague said. He was sentenced to life in prison. Sredoje Lukic was found guilty of \"aiding and abetting the commission of the crime of persecutions inhumane acts, murder and cruel treatment.\" He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Their crimes were committed during the 1990s. Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992 and Radovan Karadzic declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic. The Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital. During the conflict that followed, the Serb forces launched what they called the \"ethnic cleansing\" of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats. The cousins' cases are a small part of the caseload the Tribunal has dealt with regarding violations of humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Since its creation the Tribunal has indicted 161 people on charges of serious violations of humanitarian law. The court found Milan Lukic responsible for the murder of 59 Muslim women, children and elderly men in a house in the town of Visegrad. \"On 14 June 1992, the victims were locked into one room of the house which was then set on fire,\" the tribunal wrote. \"Milan Lukic was found to have placed the explosive device into the room, which set the house ablaze. Milan Lukic shot at people trying to escape from the burning house.\" Sredoje Lukic \"knew what would happen to the victims that he helped herd\" into the home, the court wrote in its judgment. Milan Lukic was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians in another house in Visegrad later that same month. The court found that he and others \"forced the civilians inside the house, blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the house on fire.\" In all, the court found that Milan Lukic \"personally killed at least 132 Muslim people.\" The defense for both men denied the accusations against them, but the evidence demonstrated their guilt, the court said in its judgment. \"The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,\" presiding judge Patrick Robinson said. \"In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man's inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. \"At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.N. tribunal convicts Serb cousins of burning alive more than 100 Muslims .\nMilan Lukic, Sredoje Lukic convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s .\nMuslim men, women and children forced into homes that were then set on fire ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "EDGEWATER, New Jersey (CNN) -- People steadily file into movie theater No. 4, but they're not carrying buckets of popcorn or soda -- instead, it's Bibles and coffee. Worshippers sing at Joy Christian Fellowship, which meets at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in New Jersey. The sign above the double door announces \"The Proposal,\" the latest Sandra Bullock movie, but there's no romantic comedy playing on the screen -- instead, the lyrics to a Christian song fade in and out to the beat of the music: \"We are here because of you, because of you.\" On this Sunday morning, the approximately 200 people on hand aren't here to watch a movie but to worship God. Some stand stoically as they sing, others sway back and forth with eyes closed, a few have their hands raised toward the ceiling. At the front of the theater below the screen is a six-piece rock band that continues to sing, \"Oh, beautiful sound. The joy of heaven here.\" And it's here -- at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas -- where Joy Christian Fellowship has been meeting for the past two years. \"It's not a traditional church setting,\" said Danny Han, Joy Christian's senior pastor, \"but we turn this theater auditorium into a worship place.\" Reclining cushioned seats take the place of pews; the movie screen stands in for stained glass windows. An entertainment venue has turned out to be an unconventional yet conveniently popular religious venue, attracting a new crowd of worshippers deterred by the traditional church setting. About 200 churches are renting theater space under a one-year contract with National CineMedia, a nationwide multiplex cinema chain. That's an increase from three churches six years ago. \"The economy has had clearly a positive impact,\" said Kurt Hall, the CEO of National CineMedia, about the trend of Sunday theater rentals, \"as churches have found it more difficult to raise money to build their own buildings.\" It's an alternative not only for small start-up churches that cannot afford space but also for large churches seeking to set up multiple locations. The movie theater offers a perfect setting: comfortable seats, state-of-the-art audio-visual technology, central air, ample parking, and prime locations. Joy Christian Fellowship leases two theaters from National Amusements, another multiplex cinemas chain, at $1,000 for 3 1/2 hours each Sunday. National CineMedia has \"Worship Solutions\" packages with negotiable rates. But what may have started as a practical and economical solution has surprisingly become a spiritual solution for boosting church attendance. Only about four in 10 Americans say they attend religious services at least once a week, according to surveys conducted in recent years by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In Indianapolis, Indiana, the Rev. Ethan Maple decided that since people weren't filling the church pews, he would go to them. In March he started The Movie Theater Church. \"We're reaching out to those who have no religious background and also people who have been hurt by the traditional church setting,\" Maple said. His vision is not to build a physical church but to build a church community in a comfortable and unintimidating place. \"Everyone's gone to see a movie, and going to a theater to see worship is not a huge jump.\" Courtney Gonzales said he had been in and out of churches all his life before he came to The Movie Theater Church. \"I really hadn't had a permanent church home and was always feeling sort of disconnected,\" he said, adding he was raised in a Catholic family but did not relate to the rituals. \"I never really felt anything was getting through to me.\" As soon as he walked into the movie theater, Gonzales said, he immediately connected. \"I just felt comfortable, unlike when I had been at other churches.\" Congregation members eat popcorn and drink soda while worshipping. The offering is collected in popcorn buckets. \"Sunday best\" is often sneakers, jeans and an untucked T-shirt. Song lyrics and movie clips that illustrate sermon points flash across the large screen. (And during normal theater hours, church ads are included in the movie previews.) \"Lots of pastors give us feedback that they've seen an increase in church attendance because they're in the movie theater,\" said Hall from National CineMedia, which has created a team of nine people exclusively focused on church-theater relations. At The Movie Theater Church, attendance for this year's Easter service was 268 people, up from 91 last year, Maple said. \"The numbers show that the congregation accepts this new church style.\" It's a style these churches want to keep. According to National CineMedia, 67 percent of their church clients consider the movie theater to be a permanent facility. \"We wouldn't go any other way,\" said Chris Jarrell, a pastor National Community Church in the District of Columbia area. \"We see this as a long-term strategy.\" Four of National Community Church's five locations are movie theaters near subway stops, including the Phoenix Movie Theater on the lower level of Union Station. Watch congregants talk about having services in a cinema » . However, Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church in Virginia said staying in a movie theater sends a certain message to the community. \"The moment you define yourself as 'We're just going to rent this facility,' you're saying that you're not necessarily here to stay,\" he said. His congregation has been leasing theater space for five years while they wait for more members and money to build a facility on 31 acres of already-purchased land. Being a tenant comes with other drawbacks, such as the task of transforming the theater into a sanctuary every Sunday. Kuen Doo, a member of Joy Christian Fellowship, is in charge of setting up for the 9:30 a.m. service. His morning begins at 7:30 a.m. at a storage location, which houses 14 large black boxes on wheels that contain everything from music stands to speakers, church signs to drum set. \"It takes about an hour to load everything, come to this movie theater, unload, and help set up,\" Doo said. At least 17 congregation members are devoted to setting up and breaking down each Sunday. Joy Christian Fellowship has to clear out before noon, when the matinees begin, and theater No. 4 -- along with other movie theaters nationwide -- no longer belongs to the church." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Idea appeals to small start-ups, big churches seeking to set up multiple locations .\nAt one cinema-based church, Easter attendance was up threefold from year before .\nPastor: Staying in a movie theater risks sending message that you won't stick around .\nOne big drawback: Setting up and breaking down sanctuary weekly is a lot of work ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Since the moment Barack Obama took office, he has made a concerted effort to speak directly to the Muslim world. Election posters hang on the exterior of many buildings in Tripoli, Lebanon, last week. Even his inauguration address sent a new and different message from the United States: . \"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,\" he said on January 20, standing in front of a changed nation. \"To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.\" Next month, Obama will deliver a long-awaited speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt. He will speak at a critical time for Lebanon, days before an election that could bring powerful Shia militia group Hezbollah to power. This possibility could shake the foundation of Obama's attempts to bring stability and peace to the Middle East. With one of the most powerful armies in the Middle East, Hezbollah is poised to lead Lebanon's government with the help of Lebanese Christian opposition leader, Gen. Michel Aoun. Aoun signed a memo of understanding with Hezbollah in February 2006 and joined the March 8 bloc, led by Hezbollah. That could give the bloc the numbers it needs to control parliament after the June 7 elections. There have been sporadic incidents of violence ahead of the vote: Billboards have been defaced and just last week, a Hezbollah-aligned political office was burned to the ground. While these acts of violence are small by Lebanese standards, a friend who lives near the burned office told me it was a \"terrifying reminder of last May.\" That is when Hezbollah militants, in a blatant show of force, seized control of the streets of Beirut, marking the worst violence to hit Lebanon since the end of its civil war in 1991. Many saw it as an embarrassment to Saad Hariri's ruling March 14 bloc, which had to grant major political concessions to Hezbollah to restore order to Beirut. Hezbollah's leader has painted May 7, 2008, as a \"glorious day that prevented civil war,\" but journalists like myself remember the day slightly differently: pinned down behind a building by raging gunfire. At the time, I could not believe that Hezbollah gunmen were about to occupy half of the Lebanese capital. They did so until the government gave in; then they withdrew back to Beirut's southern suburbs, allowing the city's wealthy neighborhoods to return to normal for the summer. Regardless, it was a show of force that people in Lebanon have not forgotten. The lead-up to next month's vote has seen the same, typical -- and at times stereotypical -- Beirut antics. Hezbollah has accused Hariri's political bloc of bringing Lebanese expatriates into the country in droves to try to swing the vote in its favor. Anyone who drives out to Beirut's airport can see these expats arriving from countries like Brazil, Canada and the United States. Hariri swept to power in the wake of the 2005 assassination of his father, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many Lebanese blamed Syria, which had dominated Lebanon politically and militarily since the civil war, for the killing. The assassination sparked widespread protests that led to the election of the younger Hariri's anti-Syrian bloc in parliament and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Damascus has denied any role in Hariri's killing, but a U.N. investigation has found indications of Syrian involvement. Now, it appears the tide is turning once again in Lebanon, this time in Hezbollah's favor. Three years ago, Hezbollah -- which is supported by both Syria and Iran -- fought a war against the Israeli military, which failed to weaken the militia. Since that perceived victory over Israel, Hezbollah has been considered by its supporters to be the \"defender of Lebanon.\" So what happens on June 8 when the world wakes up to a Lebanon that sees Hezbollah aligned with Aoun as the majority and Hariri's March 14 bloc as the opposition party? When Hamas won the elections in Gaza in January 2006, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the elections \"free and fair.\" But that made no difference as Israel tightened its grip, and the two rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, killed each other in the streets of Gaza. Is the situation any different now for Lebanon, or is it perhaps even worse? Lebanon's political landscape is shifting months after a similar shift in Israel. Voters in the Jewish state overwhelmingly supported conservative parties over more moderate groups, bringing into power Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. Netanyahu is viewed in the Arab world as more hawkish than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who ordered the war against Hezbollah in 2006. With an estimated 30,000 rockets pointed at Israel from southern Lebanon -- all under the control of Hezbollah -- how can Netanyahu sell the idea to the people of northern Israel that they are safe from a country ruled by Hezbollah-aligned politicians? The situation means that the Arab world will be listening even more closely to Obama's June 4 address in Cairo to hear whether the U.S. president will champion democracy -- even if it means an inevitable standoff between Israel, a historically staunch ally, and Lebanon, as it struggles to find an identity both within itself and in the outside world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lebanon elections on June 7 could bring Hezbollah to power, says CNN's Cal Perry .\nThat would shake President Obama's efforts toward Mideast peace, Perry says .\nObama plans to give major speech to Muslim world on June 4 in Egypt .\nWill Obama champion democracy, given the situation in Lebanon, Perry asks ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN/IN Session) -- A German man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and passed himself off for years as a member of the moneyed clan was sentenced Friday to four to five years in prison for kidnapping his daughter. The man who said he was Clark Rockefeller actually is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Earlier in the day, a jury of eight women and four men found Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter, 48, guilty of the kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Judge Frank M. Gaziano noted that Gerhartsreiter showed little regard for the impact his actions had on his former wife and daughter. He said he also considered the defendant's long history of deceptive and manipulative behavior, including the use of multiple aliases. Gerhartsreiter already has spent a year in jail, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could spend just another year or two in prison. Gerhartstreiter, who was born in Germany and is in the U.S. illegally, faces removal by immigration authorities when he completes his sentence. In addition, his lawyer said, authorities in Los Angeles, California, have convened a grand jury to investigate his possible role in the 1985 deaths of a couple who rented a carriage house to him. The defendant stared straight ahead as the judge announced the sentence. He was equally impassive when the jury returned its verdicts. Watch the verdict » . The jury rejected Gerhartsreiter's insanity defense, but found him not guilty of two lesser charges after deliberating for 26½ hours over five days. He faces up to 15 years in prison. A sentencing hearing was set to begin at 2 p.m. ET. \"Today the victims in this case have some sense of justice, I hope,\" said Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley \"We are very happy with today's verdict. We're very happy with the jury.\" After announcing the verdict, all 12 jurors returned to the courtroom and delivered a prepared statement. \"This was a complicated case, and not as clear-cut as it might have seemed to those who followed it in the media,\" the jurors' statement said . \"We are confident that our verdict is fair and just, and based only on the information we were legally allowed to consider,\" it continued. \"Our verdict is a unanimous one, as the law requires, and all of us stand by the verdict completely. \" The jurors said the terse statement was their final word on the case. They did not take questions. The case has attracted international attention because of the defendant's bogus claim to be related to the Rockefellers, one of America's wealthiest families. He fooled even his wife of 12 years, who said on the witness stand that she had \"a blind spot\" for a man who charmed her, then controlled her and bullied her. Prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter came to the United States from Germany in 1978 as a student. They said he is a con man who has been telling fanciful tales and misrepresenting himself ever since. The defense said he has long suffered from mental illness that boiled over into insanity when he abducted his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last summer. The jury heard closing arguments and legal instructions before retiring for deliberation Monday. \"This is not a man playing with a full deck,\" said Jeffrey Denner, one of two lawyers who gave closing arguments for the defense. According to testimony from defense experts, Gerhartsreiter believed his daughter was in danger. He also believed they could communicate telepathically and shared a secret language. \"You see him descending into madness,\" Denner said. \"You see completely irrational action that other people are buying because of the name Rockefeller and the appearance, the veneer, of respectability with a powerful wife.\" The defense called two experts who, he said, spent 28 hours with the defendant before diagnosing him as having a narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions. Prosecutor David Deakin called the insanity diagnosis \"preposterous.\" He argued, \"This is not a case about madness. It's a case about manipulation.\" He described Gerhartsreiter as a controlling man who was angry that his former wife, Sandra Boss, had moved with their daughter to London in December 2007. According to testimony, Boss, a Harvard business school graduate and senior partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting company, took full custody of the child, giving her ex-husband $800,000, two cars, her engagement ring and a dress he had bought her. She said she believed the fanciful stories her husband wove around his image as Clark Rockefeller and never saw any sign of mental illness. Denner asked how a successful businesswoman who was educated at Stanford and Harvard universities and made $1 million a year could fall for an impostor. \"There's a big difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence,\" Boss explained. \"I'm not saying I made a very good choice of a husband. It's obvious I had a pretty big blind spot.\" \"He told compelling stories,\" she said. \"It seems stupid in hindsight, and it really was, but that is how it was. ... I lived with a person who told me a set of internally consistent things.\" \"I was completely traumatized,\" Boss said of the abduction. \"I was hysterical.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jury deliberated for 26½ hours over five days returning guilty verdicts .\nEight women, four men on jury reject insanity defense .\nMan who said he was a Rockefeller faces 15 years in prison .\nEx-wife, Sandra Boss, testified for the prosecution ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Despite efforts to keep people from profiting from Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson, scalpers online Monday were asking as much as $9,000 per ticket to the free event. Free tickets to Tuesday's memorial service for Michael Jackson have appeared for sale online. Dozens of listings selling vouchers for Jackson tickets appeared Monday on auction site eBay and Craigslist, the classified ads site, prompting complaints from Jackson fans and others who felt the sales were inappropriate. \"You people trying to sell these tickets should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves,\" said a Craigslist user in a post Monday morning. \"Please flag all of these money-grabbing opportunists...if you're a true MJ fan you won't give money to these parasites.\" Organizers of the public memorial service, scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles, made 8,750 pairs of tickets available through an online lottery. But demand far outstripped supply, as about 1.6 million fans registered for a chance at the tickets. Winners received an e-mail Sunday directing them to print vouchers and bring them Monday to Dodgers Stadium, where they were to receive tickets and have a nonremovable wristband placed on their arms. Those entering the Staples Center on Tuesday must have wristbands to match their tickets. But that didn't stop some people from trying to sell their vouchers to anyone who could make it to Dodgers Stadium by 7 p.m. Monday. One pair of tickets attracted a bid of $275,000 on eBay before the listing was removed. It was difficult to tell whether the offer was serious. Both eBay and Craigslist took steps Monday to thwart the ticket sellers. \"eBay will not allow Michael Jackson memorial service tickets to be listed on the site,\" the company said in a statement. \"If found, eBay will remove them from the site immediately.\" By Monday afternoon the number of listings for \"Michael Jackson memorial tickets\" on eBay had dropped to a handful, and the site was removing them shortly after they appeared. Learn more about plans for the memorial » . Craigslist allows its users to flag ads they find inappropriate, and ads receiving enough negative flags are automatically removed from the site. Many ads proffering Jackson memorial tickets were removed shortly after they were posted Monday. Among those was a listing posted by a man who identified himself only as Peetey, 29, of Venice Beach, California. He was asking $8,000 for a single ticket; the winning bidder would accompany his girlfriend to the service, he said. The ad was removed within 15 minutes, he said, but that was enough time for five people to call with interest. When contacted by CNN, Peetey said he sees nothing wrong with selling a free ticket to a memorial service. \"We live in a capitalist society where money is what really speaks,\" he said. \"I'm not trying to make a huge profit. I'm not trying to take advantage of anybody.\" Peetey, who did not want his last name used for fear of backlash from Jackson fans, said he would go to the memorial service if he can't get at least $5,000 for the ticket. His girlfriend won the lottery-issued tickets, he said, and will attend the event. \"I want to go, and I have a large desire to go, but if I can get a lot of money, especially in this economic climate, it doesn't seem wise for me to sit there for two hours if I can get $10,000 for the ticket,\" he said. Daniel Moreno, 33, of Murrieta, California, said people trying to sell the tickets are disgracing Jackson by trying to capitalize on his death. \"That kind of sucks, you know. The guy's dead,\" said Moreno, who posted a statement on Craigslist vowing to flag any listings selling Jackson memorial tickets. Moreno said those with tickets should give them away if they don't want to attend the service. \"I don't have $1,000 to spend on this ticket and wouldn't want to spend $1,000 on this ticket,\" he told CNN. \"And I wouldn't want to be in the presence of someone who's trying to sell the ticket because I'd be arrested for battery.\" By 2 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), organizers had handed out more than 6,400 pairs of tickets. Los Angeles police Capt. Bill Murphy said the distribution process was going smoothly as of early Monday afternoon. One person tried to pass off a photocopied voucher and was ejected, Murphy said. CNN.com's John D. Sutter contributed to this story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tickets for Tuesday's memorial for Michael Jackson have appeared for sale online .\nBoth eBay and Craigslist took steps Monday to thwart ticket sellers .\nCraigslist user: Ticket sellers \"should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves\"\nSeller: \"We live in a capitalist society where money is what really speaks\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal court has ordered a Kuwait-based contractor to pay nearly $5 million in damages to the family of a U.S. military officer killed in Iraq -- a rare court decision holding a contracting company accountable for its actions in the war. Lt. Col. Dominic Baragona was the highest-ranking soldier to die in Iraq when he was killed May 19, 2003. Army Lt. Col. Dominic \"Rocky\" Baragona was just an hour away from a U.S. base in Kuwait -- ultimately headed home to the United States -- when a tractor-trailer operated by Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company slammed into his Humvee on May 19, 2003, killing him instantly. Baragona, a West Point graduate, was 42 years old and the highest-ranking soldier to have died in the war at the time. His family filed a wrongful death suit against KGL. Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia sided with the family, holding the Kuwait company negligent in Baragona's death for failing to provide safe passage on the three-lane road where the accident occurred. A key issue in the judge's decision was whether a U.S. court had jurisdiction over a foreign contractor and whether there was a legal basis to find it negligent. Ultimately, Judge William Duffey found that there was. \"The court enters judgment in the amount of $4,907,048 to be paid by KGL in a single lump payment,\" the judge wrote in his 12-page decision issued on November 5. Baragona's father, Dominic Baragona, a former U.S. Marine, told CNN he is embarrassed his family was forced into a lawsuit to learn details surrounding his son's death. He also said the court decision is bittersweet: No amount of money will ever bring his son back, but it feels good that a court of law sided with his family. Watch family describe Rocky's hugs, his Mustang and his character » . \"You feel good for the Rock,\" he said of his boy. \"We're going to make KGL sweat it a little bit. I mean they're going to remember Rocky's name.\" Baragona's sister, Pam, added, \"Even in his death, he's still handing out more messages -- very quietly, in Rocky's way.\" CNN sought comment from KGL for this story, but got no response. The law firm Crowell & Moring, which has represented KGL in the past, declined comment. KGL has received millions of dollars in U.S.-government contracts. On its Web site, the company says it \"performs multiple operations such as providing of vehicles and equipments to customers,\" including the U.S. Army and coalition forces. It also boasts of having more than $1 billion in market capitalization. CNN legal analyst Jeffery Toobin said the court decision theoretically \"does open the door to more lawsuits\" against contractors, but that the Baragona family is a long way from ever seeing the money. \"It is always very hard to collect judgments against foreign companies and, when you overlay the chaos of Iraq, it makes it extremely difficult -- if not impossible,\" Toobin said. The court decision comes at a time when Congress has been closely scrutinizing contractors and seeking ways to hold the companies accountable for their actions in war zones. The Baragonas say their suit was never about money. They would like to see changes made in the contracting business, most importantly to have third-party investigations carried out when something goes wrong and to keep everyone abreast during that reporting process. \"[Rocky] was about improving and changing systems so that we had a better Army. And that's what he believed in and that's what he dedicated his life to. If in his death, he adds more on to that -- that's what I'm fighting for,\" said Pam Baragona. If the family ever gets paid, they say they want to set up a foundation to honor their son and brother to help pay for college educations of deserving students. \"Rock's the little guy. We have to vindicate for him. We have to take care of the little guy,\" his sister said. \"Creating a legacy for him is a huge responsibility.\" Born on Flag Day on June 14, 1960, Rocky Baragona dedicated his life to the military, entering West Point after high school and graduating among the top of his class in 1982. His motto was: \"More than expected.\" He was one of seven children, five boys and two girls. One brother, Christopher, died of leukemia just before he would have turned 9. The family says it was a young, energetic and super smart Rocky who \"held our family together through that dark time.\" \"Rocky was my heart,\" his mother, Vilma, said. So sharp was Rocky that he attended a computer camp in the mid-1970s and then taught a computer class in high school for two years because nobody else at school knew much about computers, his mom said. Rocky loved the military. He also loved gadgets, the Cleveland Indians, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Browns. His father, Dominic, said he spoke with his son just two hours before he was killed in Iraq. As the commander of the 19th Maintenance Battalion based out of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, his son was helping his soldiers get out of Iraq en route to Camp Victory in Kuwait. Once at the Kuwait base, they were scheduled to head home to Fort Sill. \"I remember asking him: 'Well, Rock, is there anything I have to worry about?' \" the father said. \"He said, 'The only thing you have to worry about, Dad, is something stupid happening.' \" According to the lawsuit, Baragona was traveling south through Iraq as part of a three-vehicle convoy when the crash happened. The suit claims the KGL tractor-trailer struck a pile of dried concrete that had spilled on the road, jack-knifing the big rig and then slamming into Baragona's Humvee. The soldier driving Baragona's vehicle survived the accident. The Baragona family never expected more than four years later to be talking to a reporter about their son over the Thanksgiving holiday, a court decision and the grief they've endured -- grief over losing a young child to leukemia and then a grown son three decades later to an accident in war. \"It just never goes away,\" his mother said of her pain. The father says he and Rocky loved to talk politics. Rocky would always take the opposite position just to rile up his old man. \"I didn't win too many arguments off him because he was so damn sharp,\" he said. \"To me, he was the guy I couldn't wait to talk to.\" The dad then paused and said, \"What a great relationship.\" E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Federal court orders Kuwaiti contractor to pay $5 million to soldier's family .\nLt. Col. Dominic \"Rocky\" Baragona died in Iraq accident on May 19, 2003 .\nDad: \"They're going to remember Rocky's name\"\nRuling comes at a time when Congress is weighing contractor accountability ." } ]

[ { "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 Church of England is offering unmarried parents who want to tie the knot the option of having baptisms for their children at the same time. Statistics show an increasing number of couples live together before their wedding day, the church says. The offer is a response to demand after church-sponsored research showed that 20 percent of couples getting married in a church already had children, whether together or from a previous relationship, the church said. It is also a way to make the church more welcoming for unmarried parents and their families, a church spokesman said. The church is issuing new guidelines to priests that encourage them to offer parents the option of having a baptism or thanksgiving service for their child's birth at the same time as their wedding. The guidelines also advise priests on how to perform the dual ceremonies, the spokesman said. \"Patterns of relationship and marriage within society are presenting new opportunities for the church,\" said Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten, who chairs the Church of England's Liturgical Commission. \"We are therefore offering guidance on how thanksgiving for the gift of a child, or indeed baptism, might be incorporated within a marriage service so that the church can respond pastorally to our changing world if a priest feels it would be advisable to offer this option.\" What do you think of the offer? Have your say . It has always been possible to hold both ceremonies at the same time, but priests didn't always know how to go about it, spokesman Howard Dobson said. The guidelines make it easier for priests to know how to offer and perform the dual ceremonies, he said. Research from Britain's Office of National Statistics shows that for many couples, having children is now the first major milestone of adult life, ahead of marriage -- in contrast to their parents' generation, the church said. Statistics also show an increasing number of couples now live together before their wedding day, the church said. The Church of England said it hopes the ideas \"will help churches show their welcome for couples with children, and give the whole family a special occasion and a new beginning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Church of England looking to be more welcoming to unmarried parents .\nChurch research: 20 percent of couples getting married already had children .\nParents offered baptism for their child at the same time as their wedding ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed Michael Vick back into the National Football League on Friday after the quarterback spent almost two years in federal prison on a felony dogfighting conviction. Michael Vick speaks at a Philadelphia Eagles news conference on Friday. Vick, formerly with the Atlanta Falcons, has signed a two-year deal with the Eagles. \"I think everybody deserves a second chance,\" Vick said at a news conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday. \"Now I want to be part of the solution and not the problem.\" The 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 at Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to his Virginia home to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. iReport.com: Is this a good move? \"Everything that happened at that point in my life was wrong,\" Vick said of his involvement with the dogfighting ring. Watch bloggers discuss Vick's return to the NFL » . \"I had to reach a turning point. Prison definitely did it for me,\" he said. Flanked by Eagles coach Andy Reid and former NFL coach Tony Dungy, who acted as a mentor to Vick after he was imprisoned, the newest Eagle vowed \"to do all the right things.\" \"I want to be an ambassador to the NFL and the community,\" he said. \"I'm glad I got ... a second chance. I won't disappoint.\" Dungy said that he thinks Vick can revive his career and turn his life around in Philadelphia but that the quarterback will be tested by fickle Eagles fans. \"He is gonna have a lot of people who do not think he should be playing. He's got to prove them wrong on the field and off the field,\" Dungy said. Watch why Dungy thinks Vick will be a positive force » . Earlier reaction to Vick's signing was mixed. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Thursday night in a statement that it was \"incredibly disappointed\" at the news. \"Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and, most particularly, pit bull lovers,\" said Susan Cosby, the organization's chief executive officer. \"To root for someone who participated in the hanging, drowning, electrocution and shooting of dogs will be impossible for many, no matter how much we would all like to see the Eagles go all the way.\" However, Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in a statement that \"[NFL] Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Philadelphia Eagles have granted Michael Vick a second chance, and the ASPCA expects Mr. Vick to express remorse for his actions, as well as display more compassion and sound judgment this time around than he did during his previous tenure with the NFL. \"We hope that Mr. Vick uses his stature for the betterment of the community and the advancement of the issue of animal cruelty,\" Sayres said. Reid said he knows that there are some fans who will not accept Vick. \"I understand how that works,\" he said. \"But there's enough of them that will, and then it's up to Michael to prove that that change has taken place. I think he's there. That's what he wants to do.\" He said Vick \"seems very focused, and he wants to get his career back on track.\" It is unclear what role Vick will play in the Eagles' offense. But it was clear that the move had the blessing of Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"I pretty much lobbied to get him here,\" McNabb said. \"Because everybody deserves a second chance.\" The NFL reinstated Vick on a conditional basis last month. Vick \"will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan,\" the league said in a statement last month. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October. Vick may participate in practices, workouts and meetings and may play in his club's final two preseason games under the conditions of his reinstatement, the league said last month. \"I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for [the] opportunity I have been given,\" Vick said in a statement last month upon his reinstatement. Goodell said last month that Vick underwent tests, including a psychiatric evaluation, after requests from animal rights groups. Vick has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At a hearing in that case, he told the judge he earned 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor while in prison. Court documents released in Vick's case showed that two of his co-defendants, who also pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, said that Vick helped kill dogs that didn't fight well and that all three men \"executed approximately eight dogs\" in ways that included hanging and drowning. The dogs were killed because they fared poorly in \"testing\" sessions held at Vick's property. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick offered to work with the organization on anti-dogfighting campaigns. Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president, has said Vick was to work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting and on programs to assist youths who have been involved. In November, Vick pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge and received a three-year suspended sentence. The Eagles are scheduled to play Vick's former team, the Falcons, in Atlanta on December 6." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Philadelphia Eagles introduce Michael Vick at news conference .\nEagles head coach Andy Reid: I know some fans won't accept Vick .\nNFL suspended Vick in 2007 after he pleaded guilty in dogfighting case .\nVick won't be able to play in regular season games until October ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa's police chief said Monday that violence directed at foreign nationals had killed 22 people over the past week. Police carry an unidentified Malawi national on an improvised stretcher after he was badly beaten in Reiger Park township. The attacks have been concentrated in Johannesburg's poorest areas, and many of the victims were Zimbabweans who have fled repression and dire economic circumstances. The Nelson Mandela Foundation issued a statement condemning the \"senseless violence\" that police say was sparked a week ago in Johannesburg's Alexandra Township. \"We join the rest of South Africa in deploring this violence,\" said Achmat Dangor, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, according to a statement released on Monday. \"Whatever the underlying causes they have to be addressed, but this senseless violence is not a solution.\" Police said those behind the attacks accused the foreigners of stealing jobs, carrying out criminal activities and benefiting from social services -- such as free housing -- meant to benefit South Africans. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Police arrested more than 200 people during the violence for offenses including rape, murder, robbery and theft. Police said at least one foreigner was burned alive over the weekend, while others had their houses torched, their shops looted and their possessions stolen. Many have sought refuge at police stations. Some women have told police they were raped as part of an effort to drive the immigrants out. South Africa's police director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said 22 people had been killed in the past week. The Red Cross estimates some 3,000 more were displaced. The attacks were concentrated in some of the poorest parts of South Africa where locals are jobless, hungry and in need of basic services such as clean water, sanitation and housing. South African President Thabo Mbeki called for an investigation into the violence. He has been reluctant to describe it as xenophobic because many South Africans have criticized his government for not doing enough to deal with the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic collapse, with nearly 80 percent unemployment and inflation estimated to be at 160,000 percent. In addition, it is also in a state of political limbo. A presidential runoff between long-time leader President Robert Mugabe and his opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai is scheduled for June 27 -- three months after the initial vote. Opposition leaders have accused the government of carrying out a campaign of political intimidation ahead of the runoff. The economic and political situation has seen an influx of Zimbabweans to South Africa, seeking a better life. Archbishop Desmond Tutu also condemned the violence and urged South Africans to remember the help that he and other anti-apartheid leaders received from neighboring countries. \"Although they were poor, they welcomed us South Africans as refugees, and allowed our liberation movements to have bases in their territory even if it meant those countries were going to be attacked by the SADF (South African Defense Forces),\" Tutu said. \"Please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop.\" A South African military veterans' group plans to mobilize soldiers who fought against the country's former system of legalized racial separation \"to help educate the people ... about the role played by other African countries in securing South Africa's freedom.\" \"Many brave comrades paid the ultimate price on African soil, but never at the hands of the people of those countries,\" according to a statement from the Military Veterans' Association in the Western Cape province. \"In the light of these facts, the xenophobic attacks witnessed in Gauteng (Province) over the past week -- and previously, against refugee traders in Cape Town -- are totally repugnant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At least 22 people killed by mobs targeting foreigners in Johannesburg .\nPolice arrest more than 200 people for offenses including rape and murder .\nZimbabweans who have fled their own country are driven from squatter camps .\nSouth Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu condemns the attacks ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Reza Sayah is one of the few Western journalists reporting from Tehran after the Iranian government placed restrictions on coverage. A man in the crowd holds up a photo of Ahmadinejad during Khamenei's address at Friday prayers. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- People in the crowd sang songs of tribute as they waited. When he arrived, they stood and welcomed him in unison: \"Praise be to God and to his prophet, Mohammed.\" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader for two decades, took the stage during Friday prayers at Tehran University with a few notes on small pieces of paper in his left hand. He leaned on the lectern with his right arm, crippled in an 1981 assassination attempt. He was ready to put an end to a week of unrest. First, a sermon about the dangers of division and disunity, using the language of Islam. Then came secular sentences, decidedly direct. He praised the huge turnout at the polls as a victory for Iran but criticized post-election turmoil as the work of Iran's enemies -- the United States, Israel and Britain. \"The enemies want to destroy our confidence. They want to create doubt about the election,\" Khamenei said. A full hour passed before he delivered a verdict that supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi did not want to hear. \"Eleven million votes difference?\" he asked. \"Sometimes there's a margin of one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, or one million, maximum. Then one can doubt, be concerned that there has been some rigging or manipulation. \"But there's a difference of 11 million votes. How can vote rigging happen?\" To be clear, he reminded the crowd of the victor at the polls. It was the man sitting in the front row: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was the \"the absolute victor,\" Khamenei said. \"If political elites want to ignore or break the law and willy-nilly take wrong measures which are harmful, they will be held accountable for all violence and blood and rioting.\" Few in the crowd were disappointed with the cleric's words. \"Death to America!\" the people chanted repeatedly, interrupting Khamenei's speech. \"Death to Israel.\" Noticeably absent Friday was Moussavi, the man who had sparked Iran's unrest by calling for a recount of the votes. Absent, too, were Moussavi's supporters, who did not take to the streets to protest as they had done in previous days. There were no signs and placards on the streets. Or people clamoring for change. The tens of thousands who showed up for Friday prayer were a stark contrast to the demonstrators. They were mostly religious conservatives, supporters of Ahmadinejad. And they had a message for the president's opponent, though it was not always consistent. Some were conciliatory. \"The nation should come together,\" one said. \"We are all one.\" Others took a hard line: \"They must stop with the demonstrations, otherwise there will be consequences.\" Just what those consequences might be may become apparent Saturday afternoon, when the demonstrators are expected again on the streets of Tehran. But for now, Iran's supreme leader had issued his warning clearly: Enough is enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Supreme leader sermonizes about dangers of division and disunity .\nKhamenei: Post-election turmoil the work of the United States, Israel, Britain .\nAyatollah endorses official results showing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected .\nCrowd repeatedly interrupts him to chant \"Death to Israel\" and \"Death to America\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although it may have been Jon and Kate Gosselin's unusual family that landed them a reality show, it is their marital problems-- to which much of their audience can likely relate-- that have made them a household name in recent weeks. Jon and Kate Gosselin's marital problems have give their TLC show record-breaking ratings. During the previous four seasons of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus Eight, the couple has bickered, eye-rolled, and jabbed its way through adventures in rearing now 9-year-old twins and now 5-year-old sextuplets. In this past Monday's record-breaking fifth-season premiere (9.8 million viewers), Jon and Kate finally addressed the very topic that has kept them on tabloid covers for weeks: Their marriage is on the rocks. Even without the stress of eight children, rolling cameras, and public scrutiny, all couples encounter tension in their relationships. Below, five trigger points that have tested Jon and Kate in their reality-TV run -- and how to make sure the same stressors don't take a toll on your relationship. Stress trigger No. 1: A growing family . Whether you're bringing home one new baby or six, expanding your brood requires adjustment. Sleep deprivation can trigger depression and anxiety, said Dr. Ken Robbins, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. New moms are also at risk for postpartum depression, and both parents will likely feel stretched for time. Health.com: 4 Myths about healthy sex . Then there's the issue of intimacy, which will undoubtedly be affected with children in the house. \"Sex lives of people who have children are worse -- there's data to prove it,\" said Dr. Andrew Goldstein, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the author of Reclaiming Desire. \"But a relationship is not like a job where you just have to accomplish what is necessary; you can't just put it on autopilot.\" Smart solutions: Couples need to work together to find creative ways to support and appreciate each other through this transition. • Adjust sleep schedules so that one partner sleeps while the other is awake with the baby. • When possible, get a friend or relative to occasionally help out at night so mom and dad have some time to cultivate their relationship one-on-one. Especially as kids get older, make sure they understand that mom and dad need time to themselves. • Be aware of the signs of postpartum depression like appetite changes, trouble concentrating, loss of energy, and hopelessness. Health.com: 6 Rules for a healthy postpartum slim-down . • Make activities that promote mental health -- such as exercise and social time -- a top priority. Stress trigger No. 2: Career changes . Before Jon & Kate Plus Eight, the Gosselins worked like the rest of us-- she as a nurse, he as an IT consultant. But things have changed since their family morphed into reality-show fodder, with Kate parlaying her notoriety into a career that includes two books, television appearances, and publicity tours. \"Kate's career has taken off and I'm a bit lost,\" Jon told People magazine in April. Any couple going through a similar change -- whether one partner loses a job or takes on a new one-- can experience tension in the relationship. Smart solutions: Couples should speak honestly and listen carefully to each other to see if a career change has affected their relationship. • The partner who is earning less money may struggle with a diminished self-esteem and feel extra sensitive, while the other may feel resentful about being the primary breadwinner. But both partners need to respect the other's role and recognize their situation as shared. In the case of Jon and Kate, \"the only reason she can do what she does is because he probably takes care of the kids while she's giving a lecture,\" Goldstein pointed out. • Find family and friends dealing with this same issue. Talking about shared struggles can help couples gain perspective and give them a chance to feel good about using their experience to help others. • If one partner is out of work, he or she should be encouraged to pursue a new skill set and stay intellectually and physically active. This will improve his or her role within the family and may open new doors in the future. Health.com: Help! My spouse has ADHD . Stress trigger No. 3: Intrusive in-laws . Although most couples don't have extended family announcing their disapproval on national television, it is certainly not uncommon for couples to elicit criticism from relatives over how they're raising their children. When people come together as a couple, they bring their own family's rules and ways of doing things with them, said Robbins. Smart solutions: Family members may have their own ideas about everything from how often you should go out to eat to what religion to observe to whether or not it is appropriate for children to appear on national television. And in all likelihood, both sets of grandparents may disagree. But you do not have to end up in a war over whose rules, if any, you will adopt. • First, listen to your in-laws. But in the end, decide as a couple which rules and guidelines are in your (and your children's) best interest. • Talk to each other. If one partner is under more scrutiny, it's important that the other listen carefully and that both talk about how they may be affected. • Present a united front to your extended family. It is crucial that they know you stand together. Stress trigger No. 4: You pick on each other . Kate has famously criticized Jon for breathing too loudly. He continually seems irritated by her neat streak. \"When couples begin to argue over small things, it usually means they have not resolved a more important problem,\" said. Robbins. Smart solutions: Since the partner who is doing the picking may not even be aware of his or her behavior, the onus in this situation is on the person who feels disrespected. • In a calm moment, sit your partner down and ask him or her if there is something you have done that is troubling them. Be clear about why you feel mistreated and be specific in your examples. • If you're the one doing the criticizing, first consider how much actual damage your partner's annoying habit can do, said Goldstein. \"If your spouse is text messaging while driving, that's worth talking about. If someone slurps when they drink -- well, you have to weigh the cost of the criticism versus the change that you're going to get.\" Health.com: How to care for and cope with a bipolar spouse . • Don't give up. It may take some discussion to figure out what is really going on, but in the end it can prevent unnecessary and unproductive conflict. Stress trigger No. 5: Infidelity . The tabloids have been buzzing with reports of Jon's and Kate's alleged indiscretions, which they have both denied. But it raises a common question for many couples -- what constitutes an inappropriate relationship? Smart solutions: Don't put yourself in situations that you're not comfortable discussing openly with your partner-- even if they don't technically involve cheating. Every couple has to develop its own definition of what is appropriate and what is not. • Sit down and talk about what relationships were like in your family when you were growing up. Maybe you're comfortable with your partner going out for lunch at work with a member of the opposite sex, but not for happy hour. Be open about what feels \"normal\" to you. • Don't be constrained by other people's ideas of what is right and wrong. This is a private matter for the couple to agree on. • If a line has been crossed, you need to decide together if the marriage is salvageable. If both members feel that there is a possibility of working things out, seeing a professional can help you sort out the feelings you are left with and move past them. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jon and Kate Gosselin's marital problems are what audience likely can relate to .\nEven without eight children, all couples encounter tension in relationships .\nFive trigger points have tested Jon and Kate; tips on preventing the stressors ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and murder two decades ago will be executed December 10 in the nation's first military execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday. Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, and sentenced him to death. Gray's execution by injection will be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in a news release. Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post. Both military and civilian courts found Gray responsible for the crimes, which were committed between April 1986 and January 1987. Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes in a civilian court and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms. The general court-martial at Fort Bragg then tried him and in April 1988 convicted him of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. In July, President George W. Bush approved the Army's request to execute Gray. \"The president took action following completion of a full appellate process, which upheld the conviction and sentence to death,\" the Army said in the news release. \"Two petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied during the appellate processing of Pvt. Gray's case.\" Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed with presidential approval since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system. The Army also sought Bush's authorization to execute another condemned soldier, Pvt. Dwight Loving, who was convicted of robbing and killing two cab drivers in 1988. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was sentenced in 1955. The U.S. military hasn't actively pursued an execution for a military prisoner since President John F. Kennedy commuted a death sentence in 1962. Nine men are on military death row. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pvt. Ronald Gray convicted of raping, murdering fellow soldiers, civilian .\nGray will be executed December 10 by soldiers in Terre Haute, Indiana .\nArmy Pvt. John Bennett was last man executed by military in 1961 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds unveiled a wax figure of Michael Jackson on Thursday, showing the late entertainer in a pose from the concerts he had planned to hold this month. The new waxwork of Michael Jackson -- only Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more times by Madame Tussauds. Sculptors at the wax museum started working on the figure four months ago. They had intended to display it this month, to coincide with the start of Jackson's \"This is It\" comeback tour in London. The new figure is modeled on a Jackson pose from the concert poster, the museum said. It shows him \"arms outstretched, pelvis thrusting and tip-toed, with his trademark trilby angled forward,\" the museum said. It is the 13th Jackson waxwork by Madame Tussauds, the museum said. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth II -- who has been on the throne for almost 60 years -- has been portrayed more often. \"It is extremely unusual for a personality to have been portrayed so many times,\" said Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Liz Edwards. \"But Michael Jackson was totally unique and his iconic status made him one of the most popular stars here.\" The London museum has two other Jackson waxworks -- one in a pose from \"Thriller\" and another from his \"Dangerous\" album. The other 10 Jackson waxworks are in other Madame Tussauds museums around the world. The museum said it decided to proceed with the figure after Jackson's death last month \"as a tribute to one of the greatest musicians of all time and to celebrate his amazing 40-year career.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Waxwork is the 13th of Jackson unveiled by the London tourist attraction .\nModel had been commissioned before singer's death to coincide with London concerts .\nOnly Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more often by the museum ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Adam Walsh, Etan Patz and Madeleine McCann, before the first Amber Alert, before a young face stared back from the side of a milk carton, there was Danny. Danny Barter was 4 when he vanished in 1959 while on a family camping trip. Danny Barter vanished in 1959. He was on a family camping trip to Alabama's Perdido Bay. He was playing with his dad one minute, gone the next. \"Just like that,\" recalled his brother Mike Barter. Danny was 4 years old. Last weekend, his loved ones returned to the campsite and to the scene of the presumed stranger abduction. They came to remember Danny and to rededicate a half-century mission to find him. Even with the passage of time, their faith has not wavered. \"We've never doubted that he's ... out there,\" Mike Barter said. \"Until they prove otherwise, we hope one day we will be reunited.\" Their hope has been bolstered by investigators with the FBI and the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which reopened the case last year after hearing of a recent conversation. \"A lead was sparked when someone was sitting in a public area talking about what happened,\" FBI spokeswoman Joyce Riggs wrote in an e-mail to the media. As cold case cops know, a wisp of a lead can turn into a big break, a fact FBI Special Agent Angela Tobon believes can solve the Daniel Barter mystery. \"Even if [people] think it's insignificant, it's probably not,\" Tobon said. \"Each little piece of the puzzle may not mean something, but when you put it all together, you get the big picture.\" Danny was the third youngest of Paul and Maxine Barter's seven children. He had brown hair and big brown eyes. \"He's such a very pretty and sweet child,\" his mom told the Mobile Register in an article published June 21, 1959. \"I can understand why someone would want to take him, because he's such a pretty child.\" Three days earlier, Danny, his parents and his siblings were enjoying a family outing near the Gulf shore. Danny and his dad had just returned from getting some drinks at a store. Tents were pitched. Fishing poles were prepared. And then someone noticed that Danny was gone. \"I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water, he had wandered into the water and drowned,\" Maxine Barter told the Mobile Register. \"But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road, and someone picked him up.\" The search was extensive and immediate. Hundreds combed the land and the waters, looking for Danny. Bloodhounds were given his scent and dispatched to follow it. Alligators were killed and cut open. But there was no trace of Danny, then or now. For his parents and the police, the sickening conclusion was quickly reached: He was stolen by a human predator. Danny's mom could not fathom that the kidnapper would bring harm to her boy. \"I hope now that someone did take Danny, because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him, they would take good care of him,\" she said. Fifty years later, the family longs for closure. Paul and Maxine Barter are both deceased, but their children carry on the decades-long pursuit to know the truth. On dannybarter.com, a Web site dedicated to finding answers, the family posted this plea to the public: . \"We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound.\" The FBI is also seeking information on Danny Barter. It has published two photographs of him on its Web site. One shows the smiling child, taken in the months before Danny was abducted. The other picture is age-progressed, depicting what Danny would look like today at 54. If you have any information on the Danny Barter case, go to dannybarter.com or contact the FBI, your local police or the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office in Alabama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "FBI says it has a new lead in a 50-year-old cold case .\nDanny Barter, 4, is believed to have been taken by a stranger .\nBoy went missing during a family camping trip in Perdido Bay, Alabama .\nFBI says someone was overheard talking about the boy's abduction ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Formula One's new Team U.S. F1 will have the financial backing of YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley -- and the video sharing Web site's chief executive expects to make a big impact in motorsport. Chad Hurley is hoping his start-up experience can help the US F1 team become a major player. The American, who along with co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim sold YouTube to internet giant Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, has faith in the team's prospects for the 2010 season. It is fronted by engineer Ken Anderson, formerly involved with NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing, and Peter Windsor, a journalist who has worked with F1's Ferrari and Williams. \"I believe in Ken and Peter and the team that they have put together, and I believe that we have a chance to hopefully start from a clean slate and try to build a team in a different way,\" Hurley told Web site Autosport.com. Hurley started YouTube from scratch, and sees parallels with his involvement with US F1. \"The business aspect of what attracted me to US F1 is just that, that it is a start-up,\" he said. \"And it's a very similar situation to one that would be in Silicon Valley. \"It's a small team of talented, smart individuals trying to break the mould, trying to accomplish something that others think is impossible.\" However, Hurley does not expect instant success for the new franchise, which will be the only F1 outfit based outside of Europe and comes into the sport in difficult economic times when sponsors are dropping out. \"Obviously we want to be competitive,\" he told Autosport.com. \"I know there is going to be a lot of competition -- it's going to take quite a few years to ramp up this team and get the cars into a position where we are competing for the world championship, but ultimately that's our goal. \"We're not necessarily going to get involved and be satisfied with just getting a car onto the track. Our aspirations and goals go much farther than that.\" While major manufacturers have been reviewing their participation in motorsport's premium category -- Honda withdrew at the end of last year and BMW will end its association with Sauber at the end of this season -- Hurley is confident that he can find other investors to back the American team. \"I hope so, and I hope it goes beyond Silicon Valley,\" he said. \"I am definitely going to be involved in helping the team with sponsors, helping the team with business relationships, and helping the team with integrating technology -- ways that they can leverage and benefit from social media and the Internet broadly. \"So in many ways, I hope to add benefit to the team and what they are trying to accomplish.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Formula One's new Team U.S. F1 backed by YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley .\nHurley primary investor in American outfit ahead of its debut season in 2010 .\nHe sold video sharing Web site to Google in 2006 but is still its chief executive .\nHurley hopes new American team will make a big impact in elite motorsport ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Couples in the African kingdom of Swaziland are being urged to get tested together as part of a HIV \"love test\" campaign. A couple discusses the love test with a PSI member. Before the campaign, only 2 percent of couples got tested. The nationwide initiative -- funded by the United States government and implemented by global charity 'Population Services International' (PSI) -- is aimed at couples because tests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status. \"If partners get tested separately, they may not disclose the results and not get the support they need,\" Dominic McNeill, spokesman for PSI Swaziland, told CNN. Only one in four people -- mostly female -- know their HIV status despite the fact that approximately 26 percent of the population in Swaziland is HIV positive. The charity says it also wanted to move away from the traditional HIV campaigning methods. \"We wanted to turn HIV on its head and move away from the fear-inducing campaigns we've seen in the past, which don't work. Instead, we focus on love, saying that it is love that should be contagious and couples should get tested together,\" McNeill explained. Would you get tested with your partner? Tell us in the Soundoff below . But in a country where a macho culture still prevails, getting couples tested together has proved challenging. McNeill said: \"In Swaziland it is difficult to convince men to get tested as it makes them feel inferior.\" PSI said it found that one of the most successful campaigning tools has been to directly target men in areas where they are often concentrated. \"We go to the places where men have their cattle disinfected and also work extensively in churches. We even have a testing facility in one of the countries' prisons\" said Iulian Circo, PSI's country director. Watch PSI in action in Swaziland . \"Men are the head of the family and we try to get them to own up to that responsibility.\" PSI Swaziland received $3 million this year from the United States' President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and has so far spent $35,000 on radio, TV and print advertisements. Since the launch of the campaign in April, PSI -- which partnered with UNICEF and UNAIDS -- told CNN it has already seen a 25 percent increase in couple testing and a 400 percent in general testing year-on-year. And neighboring countries such as Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia have already shown interest in the 'love test.' The tests are also quick and free. Offered in facilities in the four regions of the country, they take only 45 minutes, including a 30-minute counseling session and on-the-spot results. If results show one or both partners are HIV positive, PSI offers longer-term free counseling. The HIV campaign is expected to last until the end of the year and the charity is also partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- which has donated $50 million to fight aids in the region -- to promote male circumcision, medically proven to lower the risk of getting the HIV virus." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Couples in Swaziland are being urged to get the HIV 'love test' together .\nTests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status .\nOnly one in four know their HIV status and 26 percent in Swaziland are HIV positive .\nThe charity wanted to avoid the traditional fear mongering that surrounds HIV testing ." } ]

[ { "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": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Animal rights campaigners were holding a meeting Tuesday with Britain's Ministry of Defence to argue against the use of bearskin in the iconic furry headgear worn by royal guards at Buckingham Palace. A PETA activist in Sofia, Bulgaria earlier this year protests against UK troops wearing bearskin hats. Robbie LeBlanc, European director for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), was meeting with Ann Taylor, the minister for defense equipment and support, the defense ministry said. \"We are hoping that they will switch to a humane synthetic alternative,\" a PETA spokeswoman said. PETA has been campaigning for years against the use of bearskin in the headgear, a familiar symbol of London worn by the guards who keep watch over royal buildings like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The hats are part of the footguards' ceremonial dress, along with the bright red jackets. PETA says the bears used to produce the fur hats are killed cruelly and unnecessarily. \"It's an absolute moral disgrace,\" said Mike Hancock, a British lawmaker who has joined PETA's campaign against the bearskins. \"I don't think the British public or tourists will mind if it's synthetic fur, and I'm absolutely amazed in this day and age that we see beautiful animals skinned and killed\" to produce the hats. A spokesman for the National Army Museum in London, Julian Farrance, said the fur comes only from Canadian bears that have died naturally, and that no bears are killed for the hats. Campaigners say they still want the defense ministry to use a different material. \"It still promotes the usage of animal fur in areas where it's totally unnecessary, in my view, for fur to be used,\" said Glenda Jackson, another British lawmaker opposed to the use of the fur. The British Army's use of the bearskin hats dates back to the Battle of Waterloo on in 1815, when Wellington's army defeated the French Imperial Guard in a victory that marked Napoleon's downfall. The British soldiers captured the headgear from the defeated Imperial Guardsmen and have worn them ever since, although today the hats are only worn for ceremonial duties. Those British soldiers were renamed the Grenadier Guards to honor their defeat of the Grenadiers of the French Imperial Guards. The Grenadiers are now among five bearskin-wearing regiments that guard British royal buildings. But each bearskin hat is heavy and can prove very hot for the wearer. \"There have been occasions where soldiers have suffered from heatstroke, because obviously wearing that much fur on your head ... can get quite warm,\" Farrance said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Animal rights campaigners oppose UK royal guards wearing furry headgear .\nScheduled to stage meeting with defense ministry in London Tuesday .\nIconic headgear has been worn since the battle of Waterloo in 1815 .\nArmy expert: Fur comes only from Canadian bears that have died naturally ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Florence's best buys tend to be leather goods, designer wear and food. Roberto Cavalli's Florence store, just one of the city's many high-end boutiques . If money is no object, head to Via Tornabuoni, Florence's answer to 5th Avenue, and snap up Prada, Gucci, and local-born designers Cavalli, Ferragamo and Pucci. If your budget doesn't stretch that far, head south to the city outskirts by car or taxi to the designer outlets where you can pick up luxury goods from Dolce and Gabbana and more at bargain prices (www.outlet-firenze.com.) For hand-made cashmere or silk-lined leather gloves, try Madora ( Via Guicciardini 1/R; +39 055 239 6526). Some people travel all the way to Florence just to shop here. If you have ever admired Sting's suits, you can buy one of your own from Piero and Franco Cisternino (Via del Purgatorio 22/R; +39 055 280 118) who make men's suits to measure. One of the most beautiful shops in Florence is an ancient herbal pharmacy or apothecary, Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella (Via della Scala 16; +39 055 216 276), set in a 13th-century frescoed chapel. Its world renowned products include pomegranate perfume, orange blossom water and carnation milk soap. Italians have typically been late adopters of vintage fashion but Elio Ferraro (Via del Parione 47/R; +39 055 290 425; www.elioferraro.com) was ahead of the game. A visit to his gallery/shop will unearth vintage Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and Chanel from the 1930s onwards. ...................... Florence City Guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . ...................... Do you agree with our Florence picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Florence's shopping isn't cheap: think high-end luxury goods .\nItalian designers can be found on Via Tornabuoni -- and also at the outlet mall .\nFlorence is famous for its quality leather goods, like silk-lined gloves .\nMade-to-measure suits and vintage fashions can also be found ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A 7-year-old girl died after a large ocean wave kicked up by Hurricane Bill knocked her and two other people into the Atlantic off Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday, a park official said. An ocean wave knocked three people into the Atlantic off Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday. Coast Guard rescuers plucked the three from the ocean after a wave swept them from a rocky ledge at the park, according to Sheridan Steele, the park's superintendent. The conditions of the two survivors -- a 12-year-old girl and a man -- were not immediately available. No names were released. Ocean waves also injured a few other people at the park, knocking them to the ground or into rocks and crevices, Steele said. Some were taken to a hospital with broken bones or other injuries, Steele said. The victims were among several thousand people who were at the park late Sunday morning to watch the high waves that Hurricane Bill -- a Category 1 storm -- was producing offshore. \"Even though we try to warn people and try to get people to watch from a safe distance, we weren't able to contact everybody in time,\" Steele said Sunday evening. The hurricane's center passed New England without making landfall and got very close to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday afternoon. It was expected to pass near or over southeastern Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center said. Watch how Canada is bracing for Bill » . At 11 p.m., Hurricane Bill was about 115 miles west-northwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, according to the hurricane center. The storm had maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, and was moving to the east-northeast near 40 mph the center reported. Bill would become a tropical storm if its winds fall below 74 mph. \"Weakening is forecast during the next 24 hours and Bill is expected to become extratropical on Monday,\" the center's 11 p.m. advisory said. \"Large and dangerous swells generated by Hurricane Bill will continue to impact the Atlantic Maritimes of Canada overnight.\" Though tropical storm warnings were lifted in the United States, tropical storm warnings were in effect for parts of Canada's Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and and Newfoundland. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 24 hours. \"Large and dangerous swells generated by Hurricane Bill\" were possible along those provinces Sunday night, and 2 to 6 inches of rain were possible in Newfoundland, the advisory said. Earlier, the weather service warned that dangerous surf and \"life-threatening rip currents\" remained concerns along the U.S. East Coast. Rip currents are strong seaward flows of water that occur where there's a break in the shoreline. They are difficult to detect. Watch a primer on rip currents » . The water is unsafe even for \"strong swimmers,\" Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick warned Saturday. Though beaches along the Massachusetts coast remained closed, the National Weather Service lifted its tropical storm warnings there Sunday morning. Stuart Smith, the harbormaster in Chatham, Massachusetts, said there were reports of \"insignificant\" storm-related damage, but Bill did not cause much concern. \"I think we really dodged a bullet,\" he said. \"It stayed just enough offshore to give us a break.\" Watch how Canada is bracing for Bill » . It's good news for President Obama and his family, who planned to arrive for vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on Sunday. \"We look forward to welcoming him to Massachusetts as soon as he can safely get here,\" Patrick said. Rain was scant in Chatham on Sunday morning as residents went about their normal business. Doug Ricciardi, a cook at the Chatham Pier Fish Market, was making 5-gallon buckets of chowder, as he does every morning. He said he was expecting a typically busy day at the restaurant. Watch how surf warnings persist in North Carolina » . Smith said the only problems reported were a few small boats washed ashore or coming loose from their moorings. Patrick O'Connell of Chatham said he has a house on nearby North Beach Island, and neither his nor his neighbor's house suffered any damage. Smith said the beaches should reopen Monday at 2 p.m. after the heavy surf and rip currents pass. The Coast Guard reported swells reached 18 feet about 15 miles off the Massachusetts coast early Sunday. The swells began diminishing around 3 a.m., and swells off the coast of Chatham on Sunday morning were 11 feet. Watch the waves crash on Massachusetts beach » . Hurricane Bill skirted Bermuda, leaving rain in its wake. A tropical storm warning for Bermuda was discontinued. iReport.com: Are you bracing for Hurricane Bill? The weather service reported that swells from Bill continued to affect Bermuda early Sunday, but should gradually diminish over the course of the day. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: One of three people in Maine swept into Atlantic Ocean by wave dies .\nVictims were among people at state park to watch high waves from Hurricane Bill .\nStorm skirts East Coast; Massachusetts residents carry on with daily lives .\nChatham, Massachusetts, harbormaster: \"I think we really dodged a bullet\"" } ]

[ { "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 glimpse of something shiny on the ocean floor nine years ago led a Welsh diver to uncover a piece of local history that had been forgotten for more than a century. The silver pocket watch was found off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. Diver Rich Hughes was exploring a shallow shipwreck off the Pembrokeshire coast in April 2000 when he noticed the object embedded in sediment. He thought at first that he had found a coin, but he found it was actually an intact silver pocket watch, still bearing the inscription of its owner. Hughes said he was determined to trace the history of the watch, believing such a prized object deserved to belong to family members or a local museum. But that led Hughes on a nine-year search with lots of dead ends and few leads. Now, months after enlisting the help of a local researcher, Hughes has finally tracked down a family member and will be presenting the watch to him next week. \"I'm very happy and satisfied that we found out who he was,\" Hughes told CNN by phone Wednesday. \"It sort of brings the story to a close. It's quite rewarding that it hasn't just sat in the back of somebody's garage.\" The watch inscription reads \"Richard Prichard, Abersoch, North Wales, 1866.\" That was the only information Hughes had to go on for most of the past nine years; even the name of Prichard's ship was a mystery at the time. Over the years, Hughes searched records in person and online, contacting everyone from county records offices to Lloyd's of London. Nothing turned up any information about Richard Prichard. \"It becomes a bit of a bug, really,\" Hughes said. \"It's hard to describe. If you find something like that -- it's a very personal item, and one of my biggest bugbears is if somebody pulls something off a shipwreck and it just sits in the back of their garage. \"It's just a lost opportunity and it's tragic when that happens, that history is just put in a corner,\" Hughes said. \"You're obligated to find something out about it. It's your duty to do it.\" Earlier this year, out of frustration, Hughes said he turned his attention again to the place name inscribed on the pocket watch, Abersoch, a coastal town in north Wales. \"I just kept doing searches on Google to find out whether any historical societies at all had any information on it,\" he said. That led Hughes to a couple that runs the Web site for a nearby village, Rhiw, and they put Hughes in touch with researcher and historian David Roberts. Roberts searched the graveyards of local churches and found two references to Richard Prichard. He also found a reference to Prichard on the Welsh Mariners' Web site, showing that Prichard was captain of an iron-clad barque called the Barbara. The pocket watch was probably a gift to Prichard when he was promoted to mate in 1866, from his fellow sailors or his parents. Prichard became captain of the ship and died in 1881 while the Barbara was en route to Rangoon, which is modern-day Yangon, in Myanmar. He was buried at sea. The watch was lost on the Barbara's return trip to Wales with a cargo of rice later that year. Roberts believes the man who took over from Prichard, Captain Jones, was probably bringing the watch home in order to present it to Prichard's widow. Jones probably intended to sail through St. George's Channel, between Ireland and Wales, on his way to Liverpool, Hughes said. But on a dark November night, in driving rain and gale-force winds, Jones took a wrong turn and found himself stuck in the Bristol Channel, along Wales' south coast. \"These ships couldn't turn around -- they could only go 90 degrees to the winds,\" Hughes said. \"He wouldn't have known where he was.\" Hughes said the captain would probably have been filled with fear to see the cliffs of the Pembrokeshire coastline in front of him, where waves that night were probably at heights of 30 to 40 feet. With no way to turn around, the Barbara crashed into the cliffs and sank. Everyone on board the ship was saved, with the exception of Captain Jones, who went down along with Prichard's pocket watch. While that solved the mystery of the unidentified shipwreck, tracing Prichard's descendants proved a tougher task. Though Prichard had a son, he died with no heirs, and Roberts found no descendants from Prichard's three sisters. Prichard's only surviving relative is Owen Cowell, a retired dentist living in Pwllheli, North Wales -- incidentally, not far from Abersoch. Cowell's grandmother was Prichard's cousin. Hughes now plans to present the pocket watch next week to Cowell, who in turn plans to present it to the Abersoch village hall for display in an annual exhibition. This year's display will open a week from Saturday, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Diver finds watch on sea floor off Welsh coast, spends years tracing its history .\nDiver discovers watch originally belonged to Richard Prichard, captain of the Barbara .\nPrichard died at sea in 1881; watch was probably being returned to his widow .\nWatch was lost when Barbara was shipwrecked in driving rain, gale-force winds ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Entertainment Weekly) -- Sandra Bullock will surely be popping open the champagne as her new romantic comedy, \"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at the box office this weekend by grossing $34.1 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock have reason to celebrate after \"The Proposal\" takes top box office spot. Not only did \"The Proposal\" win the weekend, but it was by far the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling the opening of her previous best, \"Premonition,\" which debuted to $17.6 million in 2007. While \"The Proposal's\" success was fueled mostly by women (73 percent of the audience was female), both women and men gave it a healthy \"A-\" CinemaScore rating, so expect the movie to hold up fairly well during the next few weeks. The weekend's other big release, the prehistoric buddy comedy \"Year One,\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million -- an okay debut for the $60 million movie. However, all indicators point to a quick descent for the Jack Black/Michael Cera flick. \"Year One\" dropped 24 percent from Friday to Saturday (never a reassuring sign), and the movie received an unimpressive \"B-\" rating from CinemaScore. \"Year One\" is all but certain to join \"Land of the Lost\" as another box-office disappointment for high-concept comedies. On the other hand, \"The Hangover\" (No. 2 with $26.9 million) and \"Up\" (No. 3 with $21.3 million) continued to show off their box-office stamina, dropping only 18 percent and 31 percent, respectively, from the prior weekend. \"Up\" now stands at $224 million, and may levitate past \"Star Trek\" (currently at $239 million) to become the year's highest-grossing film. Finishing off the top five was \"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,\" which fell an alarming 52 percent for an $11.3 million weekend stash. Also opening this weekend was Woody Allen's \"Whatever Works,\" starring Larry David. The New York-based comedy laughed up $281,000 from just nine theaters for a weekend-leading $31,000 gross per theater. The film will expand to more than 300 theaters on July 3. Overall, the box office was up 3 percent compared to last year's Father's Day weekend, when \"Get Smart\" debuted to a surprisingly sharp $38.7 million. Hope you all are having a splendid Father's Day! I know I will -- I'm taking my pop to see \"Up.\" CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at box office by grossing $34.1 million .\nThis is the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling her previous best .\nJack Black's comedy \"Year One\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million .\nCheck out the rest of the top 10 movies at this weekend's box office ." } ]

[ { "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 Prince William went hiking Friday with a group of homeless teenagers on a picturesque peak in northern England to raise awareness for two charities he patrons, spokespeople for the prince and one of the charities said. Prince William, right, joined a group of homeless teams on a mountain climb in the UK. William, 27, was joined by six teenagers from Centrepoint, a charity for homeless young people, as they walked up Helvellyn, a mountain in the Cumbria region of northeastern England. Leading the group were members of Mountain Rescue, a volunteer-run charity. Prince William is the patron of both charities. The aim of the walk was to provide some of Centrepoint's homeless teens with a memorable and challenging day, and also to have an event that both charities could participate in together. Each teenager was paired with a Mountain Rescue volunteer as they climbed the mountain, said Andy Simpson, a spokesman for the charity who was on the walk. After days of spotty storms, the group got lucky with the weather and had sunshine and big, billowy clouds for much of the two-hour climb, Simpson said. He described Helvellyn as a moderate mountain that requires a certain level of fitness. The prince, however, did very well -- not surprising, given his military training. \"He's a very fit bloke,\" Simpson said. \"I had trouble keeping up with him.\" The location of Friday's hike was kept a secret until the last minute. That meant other climbers on Helvellyn had no idea they would encounter royalty on an otherwise-normal day out. \"One or two of the people were quite surprised, to say the least, to see the future king of England coming the other way,\" Simpson said. William stopped to chat to the people he met, he said. \"It was nice to see him engaging with so many members of the public. They just happened to be out for a walk and it's just made their day,\" he said. Partway up the mountain, by a lake called Red Tarn, the prince flew a flag for the London 2012 Olympics, Simpson said. Monday marks three years until the Opening Ceremony of the Games." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Prince William joins homeless teens on hike to help charities .\nWilliam, 27, was joined by six teenagers from the charity Centrepoint .\n\"Fit\" prince leads the way up mountain ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- President Obama took a brief hiatus from his health care push on Monday, promising increased help for America's war veterans in dealing with life after combat. More money will be spent to treat and screen war veterans for post-traumatic stress and brain injuries, Obama says. Obama, speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix, said his government will always honor military service and never abandon what he called true American heroes. Obama promised increased spending to help war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, calling those \"the defining injuries of today's wars.\" \"So, caring for those affected by them is a defining purpose of my budget -- billions of dollars more for treatment and mental-health screening to reach our troops on the front lines and more mobile and rural clinics to reach veterans back home,\" Obama said. \"We are not going to abandon these American heroes. We are going to do right by them.\" The president also repeated he intends to have all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq by the end of August 2010, and all other U.S. troops out of that country by the end of 2011. The VFW and ladies auxiliary delegates applauded when he promised to eliminate wasteful Pentagon practices that he said squander billions of dollars that would better be used for supporting U.S. troops and veterans. \"This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,\" Obama said. \"It's about giving our troops the support that they need. And that's something that all Americans should be able to agree to.\" The crowd laughed when Obama cited one example of needless spending -- for a presidential helicopter that he said would enable him to cook a meal when the nation was under nuclear attack. \"Now let me tell you something -- if the United States of America is under nuclear attack, the last thing on my mind will be whipping up a snack,\" he said. Overall, Obama was intent on cementing his support from a key voting demographic that generally tends to back conservative candidates. In a thinly veiled dig at the previous administration, he complained that U.S. forces were being used for far more tasks than fighting wars. While pledging to never hesitate \"to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests,\" Obama also said any decision to deploy U.S. forces would be based on strategic necessity and \"good intelligence.\" \"And I will give you a clear mission, defined goals and the equipment and support you need to get the job done,\" he said to applause. The Obama administration has committed more resources and troops to Afghanistan to battle the insurgency and train Afghan security forces, while also sending additional diplomats and civilian aid workers to focus on reconstruction and development. Obama noted the mission includes providing security for this week's presidential election there. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told The Wall Street Journal that he is still considering a request to send 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan in addition to the planned 68,000 troops who are expected to be in place by the end of the year. Obama made no mention of any troop levels for Afghanistan in his speech. His appearance before the VFW wrapped up his four-day swing through the West. The president has spent the past few days traveling through Montana and Colorado, where he held a series of town hall meetings to promote health care reform, his top domestic priority. He raised the health care issue in his speech to war veterans, pledging that their medical benefits would be untouched in any overhaul of the nation's health care system. \"No one is going to take away your benefits. That is the plain and simple truth,\" Obama said in reference to what he called misinformation on the issue. CNN's Ivan Watson and Ed Henry contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: President promises more money to help veterans cope with postwar life .\nNEW: Money would help with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury .\nObama speaks to Veterans of Foreign Wars convention ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on Friday of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex, according to the court in the Western District in Arkansas. Evangelist Tony Alamo was convicted of all 10 counts against him and will be sentenced later. Authorities in September charged Alamo, the 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas. Jurors reached the verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Between March 1994 and October 2005, Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex, according to the indictment. The criminal complaint included accounts from three of the girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was filed last year and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them. Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, had denied all wrongdoing. In a phone interview last year with CNN, he called the accusations a hoax. \"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will.\" Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ. \"Why were they after Jesus,\" he asked. \"It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me.\" Alamo also has compounds in Oklahoma and New Jersey. The Southern Poverty Law Center says Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is anti-Catholic and a cult." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jury convicts Tony Alamo of all 10 counts against him .\nHe was accused of transporting minors across state lines for sex .\nAlamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, heads Tony Alamo Ministries ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Tensions mounted in Paris, Texas, on Tuesday when about 100 mostly black protesters clashed with white supremacist groups in a verbal confrontation over a black man's death. White supremacists taunt black protesters who marched Tuesday in Paris, Texas. The confrontation stems from the 2008 death of 24-year-old African-American Brandon McClelland. After his body was found mangled on the side of a rural road, investigators concluded he was run over, dragged, and killed. Two white men were initially charged with murder, but the charges were dismissed last month because of a lack of evidence. Black protesters marched through the town Tuesday, hoisting a flag of red, green and black, the colors associated with African liberation movements. They chanted, \"No justice, no peace.\" White demonstrators waved a flag emblazoned with a Nazi swastika and taunted the black marchers, shouting through a megaphone: \"White power, white power.\" Watch the confrontation » . Paris, in northeast Texas, has 25,000 people, 70 percent white and 20 percent black. No violence or injuries were reported but two white men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for trying to incite the protesters, Lt. Danny Huff of the Paris Police Department said. McClelland's mother, Jacqueline McClelland, told CNN the demonstration was not about race but was aimed at achieving justice for her only child. \"We come seeking justice, not only for myself, but [for] other people who have been done wrong,\" she said. \"I want for everyone to get equal justice. \"I don't know the whole story,\" she said. \"I can't be at peace until I know what happened to my child.\" CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People in Paris, Texas, march to protest dismissal of charges in black man's death .\nSupremacists wave a flag with a Nazi swastika, shouting \"White power\"\nTwo white men charged with disorderly conduct after taunting marchers, police say .\nBattered body of Brandon McClelland, 24, was found next to rural road ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- They are domestic relics of a bygone era when space travel was new and exciting and the world was buzzing with optimism about what could be. This Coney Island playground climbing frame is one of the larger items clogging the Kleeman family's barn. NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing 40 years ago reinvigorated demand for space-inspired mementoes that was stirring well before the start of the Space Age in the 1950s. Shops offered everything from rocket-shaped lamps, to skateboards, biscuit tins and toys emblazoned with stars and futuristic astronauts. Such was the excitement surrounding the momentous moon landing in 1969 that some were moved to create their own memorabilia in needlepoint and tin. See memorabilia of 1969 moon landing » . Many early examples of space-inspired design, both professional and homemade, can now be found in a 100ft hay barn at the Kleeman family home in the U.S. state of Connecticut. They're not on display -- yet -- but the family hopes to soon show the world what they call the \"Space Age Museum,\" a collection of as many as 10,000 pieces inspired by humanity's adventures in space. \"Everything started with a toy ray gun Peter and I bought at a flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts 20 years ago for $10,\" John Kleeman said. \"We have never lost the excitement of that first find and since then we have continued our quest for cultural artifacts which tell the back story of the Space Age -- how ordinary folk like us experienced the magic, adventure and meaning of human space exploration.\" Weekend trips to markets and auctions became more frequent and over time the collection grew to include more cumbersome items including a 40-foot promotional trailer based on the design of \"Terra IV,\" a battle cruiser in the 1950s U.S. television series, \"Space Patrol.\" \"They had a movie theatre inside so 40 people could sit inside it and watch a rocket launch,\" John's son Peter explained. \"We had to adjust the doors to the barn to fit it, but it's in our barn now.\" As the barn became more crowded, references to their \"collection\" morphed into \"the museum\" and their father-son hobby transformed into a potential business. \"It was kind of a 'some day' kind of thing,\" Peter said. \"My dad had a day job as an attorney and I was in college and we said some day we'll create a museum so people can visit.\" \"Then three or four years ago I was at a point where I'd been working in the outdoors leading trips for youth at risk and thinking, \"Do I want to do this forever? How am I going to fit this space museum into the picture some day?' I realized that I'd like to do it now.\" Since then, they've been carefully peeling back layers of packaging and photographing their second-hand treasures for a digital catalogue. \"My mum is surprisingly and wonderfully supportive of all this,\" Peter said. \"Because it's a family business she always gets consulted, especially on large acquisitions. I think there have been some vetoes but there's nothing that she's vetoed that we wish that we'd gotten.\" Now 29, Peter Kleeman travels back and forth from his parents' house and his new home in New York to build the business. \"For now we'd like to contract out our exhibits to other museums and then if funding and the right sponsorship came in we'd be open to doing a permanent location so people could visit,\" he said. For Peter, the Space Age Museum is not simply about nostalgia; it's an important reminder of the enthusiasm that once gripped the world about future frontiers that has slowly deflated with time. \"One of the questions I ask myself is, 'what would it take to turn that around and for us to have a more creative and adventurous optimism for the future, and get that pioneering spirit back in our culture?'\" A mission to Mars might be one, he suggested, along with a long-term plan for future exploration. This museum curator is not in the camp that argues that money for space programs is better spent at home. \"A lot of people feel that because of our environment and different social and economic struggles that are going on in the planet that we should just focus all of our resources on fixing things here,\" he said. \"I agree -- there's a lot that's not working on our planet. We should be taking care of each other but that shouldn't stop us from also exploring -- there's a got to be a way to balance it. \"I think that knowing our place in the solar system and beyond helps give us perspective on who we are and where we are. I think it can be humbling and it also helps us remember how precious and rare our planet is and that we really need to protect it and manage its resources better.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For more than 20 years the Kleeman family has collected space-inspired items .\nCollection includes rocket-shaped lamps, old space toys, climbing frames .\nFamily preparing to launch the \"Space Age Museum\" to display exhibits .\nKleeman: \"Knowing our place in the solar system helps give us perspective\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French Senate began debate Tuesday on a law that would mark a significant cultural shift -- allowing many more shops across the country to open on Sundays. The law would permit shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones. The bill passed the lower house, the National Assembly, last Tuesday by a vote of 282 to 238, a partial victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who backs it. What seems routine in much of the Western world has been fiercely resisted in France, where Sundays have officially been set aside as a day of rest for more than a century and where a 35-hour workweek remains the norm. The new legislation, if approved by the Senate, would overturn a 1906 law that forbids Sunday trading in all but the largest cities. It is part of a raft of reforms Sarkozy has pushed for since becoming president. While the change is significant, it is not as much as the government originally hoped because Sarkozy had to deal with opposition from both the left and the right. Socialists filed thousands of amendments to the president's original version of the law. Leftists and unions said it would effectively introduce a seven-day working week and allow bosses to force employees to work Sundays. Members of the president's own ruling conservative party opposed the law despite assurances it would boost economic activity, saying it would instead deprive families and church groups of their dedicated day. The law would permit shops, department stores and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones of what are called \"exceptional commercial\" centers near three of the country's largest cities: Paris, Marseilles, and Lille. Additionally, 29 areas involving about 500 cities and towns would be added to the list of tourist areas, which already allow some economic activity on Sundays. The new law will, among other things, straighten out a somewhat chaotic situation in which some stores managed to obtain exceptions from the old law and others didn't, and where some stores found it made more sense financially to accept fines for breaking the old law because the income from Sunday sales more than made up for the penalties. Opinion polls in France show that slightly more than half the population want shops to have the freedom to open on Sundays, according to Time magazine. The Senate debate is scheduled to last three days, with a vote expected late on Thursday. CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "French Senate debates new law allowing more shops to open on Sundays .\nIf approved new law would overturn 1906 law forbidding Sunday trading .\nSarkozy has had to deal with opposition from both left and right ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, the government said in a televised statement on Tuesday. Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, has contracted the H1N1 virus. Arias fell ill on Sunday, complaining of a sore throat and temperature, Presidential Minister Rodrigo Arias said. A doctor's visit on Tuesday revealed that the president had the H1N1 virus, cases of which had been reported earlier in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. The president's overall health was good, but following his doctor's advice, he will rest at his home until Sunday, Rodrigo Arias said. The president is expected to return to work on Monday, the minister said. As of Friday, there were 718 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in Costa Rica, and the virus has been blamed for 27 deaths, according to a report by the country's ministry of health. A majority of the confirmed cases -- 480 -- were in San Jose. Arias, 67, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping bring an end to Central America's civil wars. More recently, he acted as mediator between two feuding sides claiming the leadership of Honduras." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Oscar Arias has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, government says .\nArias fell ill Sunday, complaining of a sore throat and a temperature .\nArias is expected to return to work on Monday, presidential minister says .\nAs of last Friday, there were 718 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in Costa Rica ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- With four Phoenix, Arizona, boys ages 9 to 14 charged with sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl, a prosecutor vowed Thursday his office will \"seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation.\" Police say a girl was lured to a storage shed at an apartment complex where she was sexually assaulted. \"This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community,\" said Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas. According to Phoenix police, the girl was lured to a storage shed at an apartment complex on July 16. The four boys, who had offered the girl chewing gum, allegedly restrained and sexually assaulted her. At a news conference about the case Wednesday, police did not release any information on the girl's condition, but officers called the case one of the worst they have investigated in many years. The 14-year-old was charged as an adult and will face two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping, Thomas said Thursday. The other three boys were charged in juvenile court with sexual assault, and two of them also were charged with kidnapping, Thomas said. All the suspects except for the 14-year-old live in the same apartment complex, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. The victim and the boys charged are all from refugee families that have come to the United States from the war-torn West African nation of Liberia, police said. Detectives said the girl was placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services after the attack because of her parents' attitude toward her. \"The parents felt that they had been shamed or embarrassed by their child,\" Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill said. The Phoenix Police Department has a community response unit that assists with such sensitive cases. \"They made some initial contacts with the refugee community. They acted as liaison and were present when the child protective services agency took the victim,\" Hill said. Protective services officers \"will determine what's going to happen in the days ahead and they'll look at the past history with that family, if there is one,\" he said. CNN affiliate KTVK said it interviewed the girl's 23-year-old sister, who said she was baby-sitting the girl at the time of the alleged attack. The sister, who was not identified by name by the station, expressed mixed feelings about her sister's attack. \"I came to her and said it's not good for you to be following guys because you are still little,\" the sister told KTVK. She also said that she wanted the suspects to be released from jail because \"we are the same people.\" \"When she comes back I'm going to tell her don't ever do that again because all of us, we are the same family, we are from the same place. Now she is just bringing confusion among us. Now the other people, they don't want to see her,\" the sister told KTVK. Tony Weedor, a Liberian who fled civil war with his family and now lives in the Denver, Colorado, area, told CNN that cultural aspects are deep in the case. In Liberia rape was not against the law until 2006, he said. \"The family [believes they] have been shamed by her, not a crime, but the name of the family has been degraded and news will get back to Liberia. And they're more concerned about that than the crime,\" said Weedor, who is co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which aids Liberian refugees in the United States and provides aid for those still in Liberia. Edwin Sele, the deputy ambassador of Liberia to the United States, also responded to the incident. \"Having heard the story myself, I'm outraged,\" he said. \"In Liberia, the family and law enforcement officers would be embracing the victim. To hear that the family is not doing that, that should be an isolated case.\" Resettlement groups around the country help refugees settle into life in the United States. Among them is the Refugee and Immigrants Relief Center in Phoenix, where Omar Dolleh, a refugee from Sierra Leone in West Africa, is the program director. As a part of the refugee orientation program, he said, his group touches upon the laws in the United States, but the most immediate goal for refugees and organizations that help them is finding employment and places to live. CNN's Sara Pratley contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Prosecutor vows justice for girl who says she was sexually assaulted by young boys .\nOfficers call the case one of the worst they have investigated .\nVictim's sister wants suspects released because \"we are the same people\"\nPolice in Phoenix, Arizona, say 8-year-old girl lured to vacant shed with gum ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After years of speculation and rare case reports, a study suggests that stimulant medication -- mostly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- may have played a role in a handful of cases of sudden, unexplained death in children and adolescents. Untreated ADHD can lead to poor school performance and increase adolescents' risk for harmful behavior. The study authors stress, however, that parents and doctors should not refrain from treating children with ADHD just because of these results. \"The association is significant in that it's real, but that doesn't mean it's not a very low risk,\" says lead author Madelyn S. Gould, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and public health at Columbia University, in New York. \"There probably does need to be more careful monitoring, but the bottom line is that parents should not take their children off stimulant medication they're currently on and should not be scared to have their child go on a stimulant if that's what they and their doctors decide is the best thing for their child.\" The study, published this week in the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to suggest that the stimulants may pose a risk -- albeit remote -- in children without underlying heart problems. About 2.5 million children in the United States take such medications. Stimulants linked to 1.8 percent of unexplained deaths . Gould and her colleagues compared medical records and parent interviews of children and adolescents who had died between the years of 1985 and 1996, including 564 who had died from an unexplained heart-rate abnormality or other causes, and 564 who died as passengers in motor vehicle accidents. They excluded cases with other known possible causes of death, such as asthma or congenital heart diseases. Of all the unexplained cases, the researchers found that 10 children, or 1.8 percent of the group, had had stimulant medication prescribed. This compared with only two cases of stimulant use, or 0.4 percent, among healthy children who had died in motor vehicle accidents -- a group used to represent a general population of healthy children and adolescents. Health.com: Treatment options for ADHD at any age . In all 10 cases, the children were taking methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Ritalin and Concerta. A similar drug, Adderall, is composed of mixed amphetamine salts and was not included in the study results because it was first approved in 1996. However, the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 asked the manufacturers of stimulants, including Adderall, to add a warning to their label saying the medications should not be used in children with structural heart abnormalities or other heart problems. At the time, the FDA advisory panel rejected a more stringent black-box warning about the possible risk of sudden unexplained death. Strattera, another medication approved for ADHD in children, is not a stimulant medication. A spokesperson for McNeil Pediatrics, which distributes and markets Concerta, says the company welcomes any data that add to the body of knowledge in this therapeutic area, but did not make a specific comment on the new study. Michael Billings, a spokesperson for Novartis, the manufacturer of Ritalin, notes that the drug has been used for more than 50 years and is the most studied ADHD medication. Health.com: Secrets to a stress-free home . \"For all of its products, Novartis reviews its global safety and efficacy through post-marketing surveillance and consistently reports new information to health authorities on an ongoing basis,\" says Billings. \"Review of Novartis safety data has failed to detect an increased risk in sudden cardiac death associated with methylphenidate use.\" Not a watershed moment, researchers say . Gould says it's important to report this association, but she is also concerned about the results being misinterpreted. \"We're very sensitive to not wanting this to be some watershed moment where stimulant medications start to get used less and get used inappropriately,\" she explains. In an editorial accompanying the article, Benedetto Vitiello, M.D., and Kenneth Towbin, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health, agree with Gould's concerns. Health.com: The Top 5 cholesterol myths . They write that the study findings \"should underscore that stimulant medications are not innocuous and that their therapeutic use requires careful diagnostic assessment, diligent safety screening, and ongoing monitoring. \"However, it is equally clear that sudden, unexplained death is a rare event, this is only the first such study, it relies on small numbers, and it is not possible to quantify the risk beyond estimating that it is very small.\" Indeed, since a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial isn't ethically possible in this situation, it is hard to conduct a study that's not without flaws. Although the researchers are confident that the results are not due to any underlying factors -- children with ADHD often have asthma and heart conditions also linked with sudden death, and so these cases were eliminated from the analysis --\"one can never be 100 percent sure that there aren't other unknown or undiagnosed issues,\" says Gould. Health.com: Slideshow: Celebrities with ADHD . James Perrin, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, says the study isn't surprising \"nor particularly convincing.\" He says the research is flawed because, among other problems, it may have underestimated the number of children who were taking stimulants. The rate of stimulant use, particularly in the accident-related deaths, was lower than expected, he says. \"The study adds very little to what we already know, i.e., that some children who receive stimulants experience sudden unexpected death,\" says Dr. Perrin, who was not involved in the study. \"The current study should not change the use of any medications or treatments.\" More research, careful monitoring is needed . Stimulant medications currently contain a warning targeted to specific high-risk children, including those with structural heart defects, cardiomyopathy, or heart-rhythm disturbances. The medication labels also warn that stimulants may raise blood pressure and heart rate, and have been linked with stroke and heart attack in adults. When deciding whether to put a child on stimulant medications, both clinicians and parents should weigh the seriousness of the situation, says Gould. The benefits may not outweigh the risk in cases in which attention problems may be keeping a B-student from becoming an A-student, she explains. Health.com: Yoga moves to beat ease stress, insomnia, and pain . But with more serious cases, the choice should be clearer. Untreated ADHD can be harmful in itself, leading to poor performance in school and increasing adolescents' risk for harmful behavior such as reckless driving, unsafe sexual practices, and substance abuse. \"I have two boys, now grown, so I can certainly relate to parents facing these decisions,\" Gould says. \"If my child was having problems to the extent that a neurologist or psychiatrist was recommending medication, I would want the medication -- although, even though we didn't discuss this specifically in the study, I would want my child to have an EKG.\" In 2008, the American Heart Association recommended that doctors consider routine electrocardiograms before starting children with ADHD on stimulants or other psychotropic medications, but underscored the need for future research. An EKG may help to detect cardiac abnormalities that would increase a child's vulnerability to sudden heart problems. Parents considering stimulant medication for their children should also provide their doctor with a detailed family history, including any heart problems or sudden deaths of close family members. Future research should focus on new ways to detect which children are most at risk for sudden death when taking stimulants, says Gould, since not all cases seem to be detectable with routine screenings. Until then, a thorough examination and careful monitoring is the best way to reduce a child's danger. The study was funded by a grant from the NIMH and a contract with the FDA. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Study: Stimulant meds, often used in ADHD, may have role in kids' deaths .\nAuthors warn parents not to stop treating kids with ADHD; risk is low .\nStimulant meds currently contain a warning targeted to specific high-risk children .\nAbout 2.5 million U.S. children take such medications ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Three Disney monorail workers have been placed on paid leave just days after two monorail trains crashed at the Orlando, Florida, theme park, killing one of the train's operators, according to a Disney spokeswoman. Train operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21, was killed in Sunday's monorail crash. Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the action was \"part of an investigative process, not a disciplinary action.\" The three workers were a monorail maintenance shop member, the monorail pilot of one of the trains and a transportation manager. Disney would not name the employees. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Sunday morning accident, is expected to be at the park for several days. \"To this point in the investigation, no anomalies or malfunctions have been found with the automatic train stop system or with any mechanical components of the switch or with either trains,\" the NTSB said in a statement. The crash killed operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21. The operator of the other train was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Additionally, six passengers on Wuennenberg's train were treated at the scene for minor injuries. Wuennenberg was piloting the \"Purple\" train. The other train, known as the \"Pink\" train, was operated by one of the employees who has since been placed on leave. The Pink train was instructed to go back through a track switch that would take it from the monorail's Epcot loop to the Magic Kingdom loop. \"For undetermined reasons that are currently under investigation, the switch had not changed position needed to allow the Pink train to be routed to the Magic Kingdom loop,\" putting the Pink and Purple trains on a collision course, the NTSB statement said. NTSB investigators believe that Wuennenberg attempted to put his train into reverse before the collision, attempting to avoid the crash. The Orange County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating Wuennenberg's death, would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Action is \"part of an investigative process,\" spokeswoman says .\nWorkers are maintenance shop member, pilot and transportation manager .\nSunday morning crash of two trains killed one driver .\nNTSB is still investigating incident ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A man was stabbed in the chest and 13 people were arrested after violence marred an English League Cup tie between Premier League side West Ham and east London neighbors Millwall. Millwall fans taunt West Ham supporters during their English League Cup tie. The 44-year-old man was stabbed in Priory Road, a few yards from West Ham's stadium as fans clashed with police before and after the match; police say he is now in a stable condition. During the match, which West Ham won 3-1, fans fought with police and stewards inside the stadium and play was temporarily suspended when numerous supporters invaded the pitch. Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Steve Wisbey, who was in charge of policing the match, confirmed his force were investigating the events and would seek to punish those responsible for the trouble. Commenting on the tie which has a tradition for trouble among rival fans Wisbey added: \"Police worked closely with West Ham Football Club, British Transport Police and the local authority to minimize disorder. \"Officers responded swiftly whilst missiles were being thrown as they tried to separate fans outside the ground after the match. \"Incidents of this nature at a match are thankfully rare, but it would appear that a small number of supporters were intent on causing a confrontation. \"A team of dedicated police officers will be reviewing all the events that took place and will be looking at CCTV both inside and outside the ground to identify evidence of offenses and offenders. \"We will proactively seek to obtain football-banning orders for those responsible so they will not be permitted in stadiums throughout the country or abroad.\" The Football Association (FA), who are currently promoting England's bid to stage the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, have denounced the violence. \"We absolutely condemn all of the disorder that has occurred at Upton Park, both inside and outside of the ground,\" an FA spokesman said. \"We will very quickly be working with all parties, including the police and clubs to establish the facts surrounding the events. We expect all culprits to be banned from football for life - they have no place in our game.\" And West Ham confirmed they are assisting with investigations and would not hesitate to issue lifetime bans to those deemed to have been intent on causing trouble. A statement on the club's Web site said: \"West Ham United will fully investigate the deplorable scenes that took place during the cup tie with Millwall on Tuesday evening. \"The club will not tolerate the unacceptable behavior witnessed inside the Boleyn Ground and will take the strongest possible action against anyone found responsible, including life bans. \"As was the case before, during and after the match, we are cooperating fully with the relevant agencies, including the police.\" The incident caps an troubled period for West Ham off the pitch following the stabbing of defender Calum Davenport and the death of the father of midfielder Jack Collison in a motorbike accident in recent weeks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Violence marred the English League Cup tie between West Ham and Millwall .\nA 44-year-old man was stabbed in the chest and police made 13 arrests .\nMetropolitan Police are now identifying evidence of offences and offenders .\nWest Ham, Millwall and the Football Association denounce troublemakers ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported. People sit at a wireless cafe in Beijing, using their laptop computers. Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps that offer to wean their children -- mostly teenagers -- from excessive Internet use. There are at least 400 private rehabilitation clinics or camps in the country, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Internet Association, adding that China has 10 million teenage Web addicts. But the Chinese Ministry of Health says none of the private rehab clinics are legally registered. The parents of Pu Liang, the injured teen, had sent him to a camp called the Anti-traditional Education Training Center on August 4 near Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Chinese media reported. Pu allegedly was beaten three times between August 4 and August 11. Police discovered the boy in solitary confinement last week and he was taken to a hospital, according to media reports. His parents accused a counselor at the camp and Pu's peers of repeatedly hitting him, Chinese media said, adding that particular camp has been closed. \"He is suffering from water on the lungs and kidney failure,\" Pu's father, Pu Shiwei, told the publication China View on Wednesday. \"All injuries were done by the people at the camp.\" The training center denied that a counselor beat the youth, contending Pu was hit by other campers because he couldn't get along with them, China View reported. Authorities in Zhongjiang county, where the camp is located, said they detained the counselor after a report of alleged abuse from the parents of another child. The man who established the military-style camp, Wu Yongjing, admitted to the BBC that youngsters were sometimes subjected to \"physical punishment.\" \"Physical punishment is an effective way to educate children -- as long as it can be controlled,\" he said in an online story Wednesday. The injured youth's mother told Chinese media that her son \"got addicted to online games and frequented Internet cafes ... at the end of last semester, my son said he didn't want to go to school.\" The mother, Li Shubing, saw an ad for the training camp and hoped her son could be helped, she told China Daily. The parents signed a contract with the center and paid 5,000 yuan (about $730), she said. In a separate incident, 15-year-old Deng Senshan died after his parents sent him to a summer training camp for his Internet addiction, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. That camp was in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Authorities detained several counselors and were investigating the incident. Injuries found on the body indicated the teen had been beaten, Xinhua reported. China is in the process of classifying Internet addiction as a mental illness, according to China Tech News. Medical experts have called for laws and regulations to govern treatment. Last month the government banned electro-shock therapy as treatment for Internet addiction after abuses were reported. Internet users claiming to have received the treatment wrote in blogs and forums about being tied down and subjected to shocks for 30 minutes at a time. \"The market of Internet addiction treatment in China is in a total mess due to lack of diagnostic standards and treatment guidelines,\" said Tao Ran, director of the country's first Internet addiction clinic at Beijing's Military General Hospital. China started to pay attention to the prevention of addiction in 1994, when his clinic opened, Tao said. Data from the Beijing Public Security Bureau indicate that about three-quarters of juvenile criminals in China say they are addicted to the Internet. The proposed Diagnostic Criterion of Internet Addiction makes clear that the Internet-addicted should be treated in medical units with psychiatric departments, Tao said. \"Internet addiction is treatable. Through about three months' treatment, 80 percent of the patients can get away from the addiction,\" Tao has said. Some youths are so immersed in chat rooms and online games that they drop out of school, he added. \"They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands,\" Tao said. One authority on Internet use in China said she has known several college students there who are wildly enthusiastic about the Internet. \"When they've come to the U.S., they've all been hooked on the social networking sites,\" said Susan Barnes, associate director of the Laboratory of Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. \"No matter what time it is, you can always find somebody online.\" The Internet can easily become compulsive behavior for anyone with an addictive personality, Barnes said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Survey: China has 400 private rehab clinics or camps, 10 million teen Web addicts .\nChinese Health Ministry says none of the private rehab clinics are legally registered .\nPu was allegedly beaten three times between August 4 and August 11 .\nReport: Boy is suffering from water on the lungs and kidney failure, father says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Somali government forces have seized control of a central town from an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia, a spokesman for Somalia's president said Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered aid to Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's president. \"Bulo Burde is now under the control of government forces after our forces overran a stiff resistance at the entrance bridge of the town by Al Shabaab fighters,\" said Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman, communication director for Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's transitional president. Despite the announcement, residents said heavy fighting continued Thursday and the town is still divided between pro-government forces and Al Shabaab fighters. The ongoing exchange of heavy-weapon fire between the two sides has trapped people in the town, residents said. \"Everyone inside this house is scared because heavy shells are raining in the town,\" said one resident, Sahra Muse. Bulo Burde is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Somalia's transitional president and vowed to continue U.S. support for his government. \"The United States and the international community must serve as an active partner in helping the TFG [transitional federal government] and the people of Somalia confront and ultimately move beyond the conflict and poverty that have gripped their country,\" Clinton said at a joint news conference with Ahmed at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The United States announced in June that it is providing weapons and ammunition to help Ahmed's government fight the militants. The weapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban some arms shipments to Somalia, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. Clinton warned that terrorist groups like Al Shabaab pose a threat to the broader international community. \"Certainly if Al Shabaab were to obtain a haven in Somalia, which could then attract al Qaeda and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States,\" she said. There are growing concerns that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said that the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. \"Our concern right now is that likely safe havens are areas in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Yemen, that are countries that because of their political status can be attractive to al Qaeda in order to operate there,\" Panetta said in June. Separately, the FBI is investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by Al Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area in recent months. At least three of them, including a suicide bomber, have been killed in Somalia. Also, Australia recently announced the arrests of four men with ties to Al Shabaab who were suspected of planning a suicide attack on a military base in the southern state of Victoria. President Ahmed is a former member of the Islamic Courts Union, which took part in the 2006 coup. His decision to renounce the bloody insurgency and try to establish peace in Somalia has put him at odds with Islamist hard-liners who are still battling for control of Somalia. It also paved the way for his election as president of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government in January. Journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Troops \"overran a stiff resistance\" from Islamist militia, spokesman says .\nBut residents still report heavy fighting between Al Shabaab, pro-government forces .\nU.S. backs Somalia's weak government, fears it could fall to al Qaeda-linked group .\nU.S. officials warn that Somalia could become haven for al Qaeda operatives ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- For astronaut Jose Hernandez, his first space flight, scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, marks a remarkable journey from the farm fields of California to the skies. Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico. Hernandez, an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico, is getting plenty of attention at home and abroad for his journey from working the fields to operating some of the most advanced mechanics on the space shuttle. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the 47-year-old astronaut over the weekend to congratulate him. A transcript of the entire conversation was promptly posted online by the Mexican government. Hernandez is also reaching out to fans through Twitter, where he posts updates under the name \"@Astro--Jose.\" \"I come from a very humble family and what I would call a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said in a NASA interview. As a child, Hernandez's family split their time between Mexico and California, where they worked as migrant farm workers. During the school year his parents emphasized his education, but on the weekends Hernandez would help the family, he said in the interview, posted on the NASA Web site. Growing up in Stockton, California, it was Hernandez's job as the youngest child to hold up the rabbit ear antennas on the family's television set in order to get the best reception while everyone watched the Apollo missions. \"Now I kid around with my family saying that, you know, it was through osmosis that I became an astronaut because I was closest to the whole situation,\" Hernandez told NASA. The real catalyst for his dream to become an astronaut, however, came when Franklin Chang-Diaz, became the first Latin American astronaut in 1981. \"There was a lot of parallels and that's when I challenged myself. I said, \"Hey, if Franklin can do it, why can't I do it?\" Hernandez said in the interview. Hernandez earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, and before joining NASA worked on a number of high-tech projects, including an X-ray laser to be deployed in space, a digital mammography system and the disposal of excess nuclear material in Russia, his official biography states. According to NASA, there are nine Hispanics currently in the astronaut program, and 13 total in the program's history. Astronaut Danny Olivas, also of Mexican descent, will also fly on Discovery's upcoming 13-day mission. The scheduled launch of Discovery on Tuesday was scrubbed twice, once because of weather and then hours later because of of mechanical issues involving a drain valve. NASA did not announce a new launch schedule." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of Mexican immigrants .\nJose Hernandez scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery .\n\"I come from ... a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said .\nMexican President called the 47-year-old astronaut to congratulate him ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The name \"Vampire Weekend\" describes the band perfectly: distinctive and eccentric. Vampire Weekend has earned a following for its upbeat, surf-laden songs. Made up of four guys who attended Columbia University, the band's sound is distinguishable from other bands competing for attention in the indie pop arena with its percussive use of drums, shakers and guitars, as well as upbeat, surf-inflected melodies. The group -- Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio -- earned generally favorable reviews for its first, self-titled CD release in 2008, which landed on many year-end best-of lists. Among its songs: \"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa\" and \"A-Punk.\" The band is working on a new album, scheduled out early 2010. And what about that name? It comes from a film Koenig was making in his backyard, which was in turn inspired by the 1987 film \"The Lost Boys.\" In Koenig's version, a character had to go to Cape Cod and fight vampires on the way there. Watch Koenig talk about the source of \"Vampire Weekend\" » . The band was originally going to be called simply \"Weekend,\" but opted for the slightly longer version. \"It feels right,\" Koenig said. So does their sound, though it's not likely to earn them any No. 1 singles in the current musical environment. \"Ultimately we wanted to make music we listen to, and like most people we listen to a lot of music outside of rock and roll,\" Koenig said. The members talked to CNN about the band's origins, the forthcoming album and maintaining Facebook accounts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vampire Weekend working on second album .\nBand created splash with first CD in 2008 .\nAnd that name? It comes from a film one member was making ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Health care reform should mean all Americans can get coverage while allowing doctors to heal patients instead of being bureaucrats, President Obama told the American Medical Association on Monday. The AMA agrees with Obama on the need for health care reform but not how to go about it. In a speech to the 158th annual meeting of the doctors' advocacy organization, Obama called an overhaul of the ailing health care system the most important issue for the nation's long-term economic stability. He acknowledged the concerns of doctors that reforms could bring a government-heavy system that would dictate how patients get treated and how much physicians get paid. But he called such thinking wrong. Obama urged all players -- doctors, patients, insurance companies, drug companies and the government -- to contribute to a workable system that would provide coverage for the 46 million uninsured Americans while reducing costs and increasing efficiency. \"You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers,\" Obama said to a standing ovation at the conference in Chicago, Illinois. \"You entered this profession to be healers, and that's what our health care system should let you be.\" Obama has made health care reform a top priority of his young administration, and Congress will consider at least three proposals in coming weeks to address an issue that deeply divides Democrats and Republicans. Watch Sen. John McCain discuss health care reform » . The AMA represents a powerful constituency of U.S. physicians, and its support is considered important in getting a bill through Congress. Dr. J. James Rohack, president-elect of the AMA, welcomed Obama's speech for acknowledging the challenges facing doctors, including excessive bureaucracy, the threat of malpractice lawsuits and medical students' debt burdens. The president's 50-minute speech detailed the problems of the U.S. health care system and presented his plans for confronting them. He blamed some of the spiraling costs on a reimbursement system that he said pays for the number of tests and services provided, regardless of what is needed. \"It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can't spend much time with each; and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it's not truly necessary,\" Obama said. \"It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession -- a calling -- to a business.\" He also cited unnecessary tests and procedures as part of a \"defensive\" medicine culture created in part by the risk of medical malpractice lawsuits. To loud applause, he said ending unnecessary procedures could require restrictions on malpractice liability to protect doctors. \"I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I personally believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed, but I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, how to let doctors focus on practicing medicine, how to encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines,\" Obama said. Watch the Health and Human Services chief talk about the administration's plan » . Rohack called for a \"safe harbor\" for doctors to determine treatment, warning that \"unless we have protection in a courtroom for not ordering a test, we're going to order that additional test.\" Obama's speech advocated an end to health care insurance providers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, with an emotional reference to his mother's battle against cancer amid concerns of whether her treatment would be covered. \"Changing the current approach to pre-existing conditions is the least we can do -- for my mother and every other mother, father, son and daughter who has suffered under this practice, who've been paying premiums and don't get care,\" he said to another ovation. Any health care bill must include measures to modernize record-keeping with an electronic system that reduces paperwork and increases efficiency, and to emphasize preventive treatment to reduce overall illness and chronic conditions that sap the health care system, Obama said. He defended his call for a government-funded health insurance option for people who are uninsured or cannot afford full coverage. Obama repeated a promise that reforms will not require anyone to change from existing coverage but said an overhaul should include mandates for individuals to obtain coverage or employers to provide it. A proposal from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, a longtime health care reform proponent, includes a public option as one choice for consumers. Republican leaders adamantly oppose any public option, complaining it would lead to an eventual government takeover of health care similar to the cradle-to-grave coverage in Canada and England. Kennedy's health-care bill would cost $1 trillion over a decade and reduce the number of uninsured by about 16 million, according to a preliminary analysis released Monday on the the unfinished bill. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which examined the unfinished bill with the the help of the Joint Committee on Taxation, said that the health-care bill would cost about $1 trillion over fiscal years 2010 to 2019. The AMA acknowledges the need for reforms but opposes any public option plan that forces physicians to participate, expands the fiscally challenged Medicare program for senior citizens or pays Medicare rates. Obama outlined a series of steps to lower current costs and raise taxes to pay for an overhaul of the health care system. His actions would realize almost $1 billion over the next 10 years in cost reductions, new revenue and other funding, which is roughly the amount that health care reforms would cost, the president said. His plan includes reducing tax deductions for high-income Americans. Another funding idea under consideration is taxing the medical benefits of employer-provided health coverage, which the Obama administration opposes but has not ruled out entirely. Watch more about who pays for health care » . A national survey released last week by Diageo/Hotline found that 68 percent of those questioned opposed taxing health insurance benefits to provide funding for the enormous cost of expanding health care coverage to all Americans. Possible alternatives to a public health insurance option include private cooperatives, like electricity cooperatives, owned and paid for by communities that would compete with existing insurance programs. Supporters say such a program would require initial government support, but eventually would provide the kind of competition Obama seeks without creating a new government bureaucracy. Watch Rep. Ron Paul weigh in on health care reform » . Obama said Monday that the nation is ready to overhaul the health care system after decades of debate with no substantive action. \"What makes this moment different is that this time -- for the first time -- key stakeholders are aligning not against, but in favor of reform,\" he said. \"They are coming together out of a recognition that while reform will take everyone in our health care community doing their part, ultimately, everyone will benefit.\" As Obama spoke to doctors in Chicago, Senate Republican leaders in Washington intensified their attacks on the proposals, with one predicting \"momentum will inevitably slow\" as Americans learn the details of the complicated overhaul. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also said it's \"fairly unlikely\" Republicans will back a Finance Committee bill that has been seen as the most likely measure in Congress to gain bipartisan support. In speeches and press events on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders highlighted controversial aspects of the proposals that have drawn criticism from key doctor and hospital groups. \"Over the weekend, the administration proposed making cuts to Medicare as a way of deferring costs of a new government plan. That is exactly the wrong approach,\" Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in speech on the Senate floor. \"America's seniors expect Congress to stabilize Medicare so it continues to serve their needs, not drain its resources to pay for another even bigger government plan.\" Kyl said Obama's proposals would lead to higher taxes, rationing of health care and too much government control of a sector that needs vibrant private sector involvement to thrive. Kyl and McConnell introduced a bill Monday that would prevent the government from using comparative medical analysis to ration health care. The stepped-up criticism came days before two Senate committees begin the process of formally passing their bills. While GOP support for the Obama reforms has never been strong, Democrats have been negotiating with Republicans for months in hopes of bringing some on board. CNN's Paul Steinhauser and Ted Barrett contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: AMA official welcomes speech, calls for malpractice protection for doctors .\nPresident calls for insurers to stop denying coverage for pre-existing conditions .\nHe also wants modernized record-keeping, cut in paperwork, increased efficiency .\nAMA agrees nation needs health care reform, is unsure about public option plan ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A dilapidated building collapsed in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people who had defied orders to vacate the structure, a police spokesman told CNN. Rescue workers clear away debris after a building collapsed Wednesday in Mumbai, India. Another 26 people were injured and hospitalized, the spokesman said. Mumbai city officials had told residents living in the old building to leave it because of structural concerns. The chief minister of Maharashtra state, Vilasrao Deshmukh, visited the building hours after the collapse to pay his respects to the victims. Last July, another building collapse in Mumbai -- formerly Bombay -- killed 26 people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officials had warned people to leave building due to structural concerns .\nAt least 26 people injured as dilapidated building collapses .\nChief minister of Maharashtra state pays his respects to victims ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Libya will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of terrorist attacks involving Americans in an agreement signed and finalized Thursday, the U.S. State Department said. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, left, and Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Fitouri sign the deal. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch signed the deal in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday. If implemented, the deal will end Libya's legal liability in numerous lawsuits from families of victims of what the United States considers Libyan terrorist acts. It also paves the way for stronger ties between the two nations and increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. \"This resolves the last major historical issue that has stood in the way of a more normal relationship between our two countries,\" Welch said. The deal had hinged on congressional approval. Last month, just before leaving for summer recess, Congress unanimously adopted the Libyan Claims Resolution Act, sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. The legislation cleared the way to end the feud with Libya over terrorist attacks and creates a fund for victim payments. \"The Libyans didn't believe that Congress would ever be helpful, and Congress didn't think Libya would ever do it,\" Welch said Thursday. \"We found a diplomatic way to accommodate both sides by turning suspicion into an asset.\" Under the new law, Congress gives the Bush administration the authority to restore sovereign immunity for Libya only when the United States receives the agreed-upon money to pay American claimants in the fund and the secretary of state certifies it. See a timeline of events following the Pan Am attack » . Once the money is received into the fund, Libya would be exempted from legislation passed this year enabling terrorism victims to be compensated from frozen assets of governments blamed for attacks. The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. The 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin, Germany, killed two American servicemen and injured 79 Americans. Libya has paid 268 families involved in the Pan Am bombing $8 million each of a $10 million settlement. It was withholding the remaining $2 million owed to each family over a dispute regarding U.S. obligations to Tripoli. Under the deal, Libya would pay more than $500 million to settle remaining claims from the Lockerbie case and more than $280 million for victims of the La Belle disco, according to Jim Kreindler, the lead attorney for the Pan Am families. It would also set aside funds to compensate victims of several other incidents blamed on Libya but for which Libya hasn't accepted responsibility. The total settlement could exceed $1 billion. The pact, supported by the victims' families, closes the book on a contentious period in U.S.-Libyan relations. Ties between the two countries began to improve in 2003, when Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program and began compensating Lockerbie victims. But lingering lawsuits prevented the two countries from fully normalizing ties. A joint U.S.-Libya statement issued Thursday in Tripoli said \"both parties welcomed the establishment of a process to provide fair compensation for their respective nationals, and thereby turn their focus to the future of their bilateral relationship.\" This spring, Libya made a proposal to the Bush administration that held some promise in settling the dispute, Welch said. Over the next several months, he and State Department lawyers held closed-door negotiating sessions with the Libyan delegation in London, England; Paris, France; Berlin; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he finally secured a tentative agreement in late July. The afternoon he came back from Abu Dhabi, Welch met with Lautenberg and urged passage of the legislation. Welch said Libya would expect an end to the claims and put the longstanding dispute with Libya to rest, despite the lingering mistrust of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. \"This could not have worked without a great deal of honesty on everyone's part,\" Welch said. On Thursday, Lautenberg issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the agreement. \"For too many years, Libya has refused to accept responsibility for its horrific acts of terror against American victims,\" he said. \"The signing of this agreement means these victims and their families can get the long overdue justice they deserve. Today's agreement is a critical development in moving Libya forward on its path toward diplomatic respect,\" he said. The State Department said the \"agreement is being pursued on a purely humanitarian basis and does not constitute an admission of fault by either party.\" Senior State Department officials said the formula was designed to respect Libyan sensitivities about compensating victims for incidents for which it hasn't taken responsibility . But it also allows Libya to settle outstanding claims for U.S. air strikes on Tripoli in 1986, in which Libya claims more than 40 of its citizens were killed, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter. Donations to settle Libyan claims would be placed in the \"voluntary\" fund, from which each country involved in the claims draws the money to pay its citizens. Welch said no U.S. taxpayer money would be used to compensate Libya but said he was \"optimistic\" donations to settle Libyan claims would be made. Other senior U.S. officials said American companies eager to do business in Libya could possibly make a contribution. The deal is to be followed by a U.S. upgrading of relations with Libya, including the confirmation of a U.S. ambassador and possible American aid. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit Libya before the end of the year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Deal ends Libya's liability in lawsuits from families of victims of terrorist acts .\nLibya to pay more than $700 million to settle Lockerbie, La Belle disco cases .\nLibya will be exempt from law allowing terror victims to be paid with frozen assets ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Comic book fans have been waiting for years for a film to be made of \"Watchmen,\" the famed graphic novel about a group of misfit crimefighters battling a plot to eliminate their members while the world awaits nuclear war. Malin Akerman, who plays the second Silk Spectre, says \"Watchmen\" will make fans proud. Now that the film is complete and set for release Friday, the cast of the adaptation is confident the movie will meet fans' high expectations. \"We've heard a few comments from diehard fans where they're just saying, 'Wow, we're really impressed,' \" said Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II in the movie. Praising director Zack Snyder, whose resume includes the highly successful \"300\" and \"Dawn of the Dead,\" Akerman said the film will make fans proud. \"This is just sort of a huge feat for Zack to take on. But him being a true fan, he came in with the mind of these fanboys and really kept that in mind and I think that he did a great job,\" she said. \"Watchmen\" had a long road to the screen. The original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons came out in 1986 and 1987 and was compiled into a book. Since then it has been considered both brilliant -- it made Time magazine's list of the 20th century's greatest novels -- and unfilmable. Watch \"Watchmen\" stars talk about the film at its premiere » . Rights passed from studio to studio, with any number of directors attached (including Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass), before ending up with Warner Bros. (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Snyder. A longtime fan himself, Snyder said he was determined to remain true to the book. \"Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source material as possible,\" said Snyder's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . Jackie Earle Haley, who stars in the film as Rorschach, said Snyder's passion for the film will lead to its success among dedicated fans. \"I think the film does to the comic book film genre what ['Watchmen'] the comic book does to the comic book genre,\" Haley said. \"I think Zack captured it ... and it's just an in-your-face, kick-butt comic book film, but it's got that extra depth, it's a little smarter.\" Fans of the comic book have been scrutinizing the film \"every step of the way,\" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, he added, \"It's going to blow people away even with these high frigging expectations that everybody has.\" Indeed, there have been any number of challenges. The comic book is set in an alternative 1985 in which the United States and Soviet Union are on the verge of nuclear war, so there were period details to attend to. There are some superhero accessories, such as a flying machine nicknamed Archie, as well as the character Dr. Manhattan, a blue, extremely powerful and often naked Superman type. Carla Gugino lost herself in the part of Sally Jupiter, an early female crimefighter who is the mother of Akerman's character. That immersion -- which included age makeup for scenes in which Sally is in her 60s -- made the film easier to watch, she said. \"I look at it and don't feel like I'm watching myself, which then liberates you, because I am my own worst, harshest critic,\" she said. \"There was something about watching Sally older and I was like, 'Oh, that seems like a different woman ...' and I can sort of see her for what she is.\" iReport.com: Are you excited for \"Watchmen\"? Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, said seeing himself transformed with the effects of computer-generated imaging was astonishing. \"I was totally flabbergasted by the level of detail and sophistication that went into making Dr. Manhattan real,\" he said. In some cases, the actors were as excited as they expect fans to be. Morgan enjoyed delving deep into the character of Edward Blake, or The Comedian, and said the role allowed him to live his childhood dream. \"We got to play superheroes. We got to do something that I used to do when I was 12 years old,\" he said. \"This is always the guy that I wanted to be when I was 12 and I get to do it at 40 years old.\" CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Watchmen\" film has been anticipated since comic books in mid-'80s .\nFilm to be released Friday; stars are proud of finished product .\nActor Jeffrey Dean Morgan: \"We got to play superheroes\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning for a mission to deliver equipment to the international space station. Discovery rests on launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral on Monday evening. The seven-member crew was boarding the orbiter Monday night on Cape Canaveral's launch pad 39A. Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Kevin Ford will guide Discovery to the space station after launch, scheduled for 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday, NASA said. Forecasters gave the Cape an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions at launch time. One of Discovery's seven astronauts, Nicole Stott, will remain on the space station as a flight engineer, replacing astronaut Timothy Kopra, who will return home aboard Discovery as a mission specialist, according to the NASA Web page for the mission. Also on board: The Leonardo logistics module, science experiments and the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), named for Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's \"The Colbert Report.\" Earlier this year, NASA conducted an online poll to name the space station's newest compartment, asking voters to choose one of four given options or offer their own suggestion. Colbert urged his viewers to suggest \"Colbert,\" which won. But Colbert and the space agency compromised to give the moniker to the treadmill instead. The new module was given the name Tranquility. \"I'm so proud my treadmill will be going into space to help trim down those famously fat astronauts. Lay off the Tang, Chubby!\" Colbert said in a statement last week. The mission will be Discovery's 37th to space, and the 30th shuttle mission dedicated to international space station assembly and maintenance, NASA says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Discovery scheduled to launch at 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday .\nCape Canaveral has 80 percent chance of acceptable weather for launch .\nShuttle to deliver equipment to international space station .\nAstronaut Nicole Stott will remain on the space station as a flight engineer ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Worldwide tributes for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, who has died after a long battle with brain cancer, poured in Wednesday, led by politicians hailing his role in securing a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Senator Edward Kennedy, right, pictured with Northern Irish politician Gerry Adams in 1996 . Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose administration presided over the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which led to an end to decades of sectarian violence in the province and established a united ruling Assembly, praised Kennedy's commitment to the process. \"I saw his focus and determination first hand in Northern Ireland where his passionate commitment was matched with a practical understanding of what needed to be done to bring about peace and to sustain it,\" Blair said. Kennedy, of Irish Catholic ancestry, was initially an outspoken opponent of British military deployment to the province during the violence of the 1970s and 80s in which more than 3,600 people were killed, but later moderated his views to support negotiations that brought all sides to the table. The senator is credited with getting an American visa for Gerry Adams -- leader of the pro-Irish nationalism Sinn Fein party accused of links to Irish Republican Army militants -- allowing him to attend a pivotal U.S. conference on Northern Ireland's future. Sound off: Your reactions to Sen. Kennedy's death . Kennedy was awarded an honorary knighthood in March 2009, for his contribution to Northern Irish peace, which included a landmark speech in the province in 1998 urging mainly pro-British Protestants and mainly pro-Irish Catholics to work together. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen described Kennedy \"a great friend of Ireland.\" \"He has used his considerable influence in the world's most powerful parliament for the betterment of this island,\" he said. \"In good days and bad, Ted Kennedy worked valiantly for the cause of peace on this island. He played a particularly important role in the formative days of the Northern Ireland peace process in the early to mid-1990s.\" iReport.com: Share your tributes . Irish President Mary McAleese added: \"He will be remembered here in Ireland as a hugely important friend to this country during the very difficult times. \"His death will be greeted with a great sense of sadness here because of his long-standing affection for this country, not just with the peace process, but on many other issues, including emigration,\" McAleese said. \"His outstanding and remarkable personal contribution was made, despite the sacrifice and sorrow that was part of the overall contribution of the entire Kennedy family.\" Sinn Fein president Adams greeted Kennedy's death with great sadness, according to the UK Press Asscociation. \"He has served the American people with courage and commitment for nearly 50 years. His service to Ireland through his role in the peace process was exceptional and contributed significantly to its progress.\" Irish former policitician John Hume, a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Northern Irish violence, described Kennedy as a close personal friend who took the Northern Ireland issue onto the world state. \"Ted Kennedy was at the forefront of persuading the British government to talk to the Irish government,\" he told CNN. Shaun Woodward, the British government's Northern Ireland minister, said he was \"deeply saddened\" to hear of Kennedy's death. \"Ted Kennedy was a true and constant friend of the peace process in Northern Ireland whose huge influence in engaging the United States in that process cannot be over estimated,\" he said. \"In every sense he was an immense figure whose part in transforming Northern Ireland will be a lasting memorial. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to Kennedy's achievements on the wider world stage, describing him as the \"senator of senators.\" \"He led the world in championing children's education and health care, and believed that every single child should have the chance to realize their potential to the full,\" Brown said. \"Even facing illness and death he never stopped fighting for the causes which were his life's work. I am proud to have counted him as a friend and proud that the United Kingdom recognized his service earlier this year with the award of an honorary knighthood.\" In Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman hailed Kennedy as a \"great friend of Israel and the Jewish people a defender of human rights and member of a family that through the years at the Senate was always at the side of Israel, in bad times and good and contributed to the deep and special relationship between Israel and the United States.\" German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Kennedy as a \"towering figure in U.S. politics.\" \"His battle for justice and equality was defined by persistence and resoluteness. In Senator Kennedy both Germany and Europe have lost a great and dear friend,\" she said. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described Kennedy as a \"great American, a great Democrat and also a great friend of Australia.\" \"He has made an extraordinary contribution to American politics, an extraordinary contribution to America's role in the world,\" Rudd said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sen. Edward Kennedy praised as influential in Northern Ireland peace process .\nFormer UK prime minister Tony Blair says Kennedy \"committed\" to peace .\nIrish Prime Minister Brian Cowen: Kennedy \"a great friend of Ireland\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday it will apologize to veterans who were mistakenly told they'd been diagnosed with a fatal neurological condition. Brent Casey said went into a \"meltdown\" when he got a letter from the VA saying, erroneously, that he had ALS. Letters were sent August 13 to 1,864 veterans and survivors, the VA said in a written statement. They were supposed to be sent to veterans with ALS -- also known as Lou Gehrig's disease -- to keep them apprised of expanding benefits eligibility. \"According to the records of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), you have a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),\" said the letter, according to the National Gulf War Resource Center. \"This letter tells you about VA disability compensation benefits that may be available to you.\" But some who received the letters, like Brent Casey, do not have ALS. Casey, a disabled Army veteran from the first Gulf War, told CNN that when he received the letter, he was \"just completely beside myself. Just floored. Went into a complete and total meltdown. I couldn't speak, couldn't -- I guess I was, truthfully, speechless.\" The VA said issued a statement saying it made \"a coding error, and a number of veterans who should not have received this letter did.\" An estimated one-third of the letters -- more than 600 -- were sent erroneously, a department official familiar with the program told CNN. After hearing from veterans who received the letter but do not have ALS, the VA immediately began reviewing individual claims files for all the recipients to determine who received the letter by mistake, agency spokeswoman Katie Roberts said in the statement. \"VA employees are personally contacting these individuals to ensure they understand the letter should not be confused with a medical diagnosis of ALS, explain why they mistakenly received the letter and express VA's sincere apologies for the distress caused by this unfortunate and regrettable error.\" \"It's not right for it to happen this way,\" Casey said. \"Regardless if it was the case that I was diagnosed with ALS, that would be the worst possible way for an organization to let an individual know.\" Upon receiving the letter, some veterans sought a second opinion outside the VA, according to veterans' service organizations, paying for doctors' consultations out of their own pockets. The VA said it will reimburse those veterans for the costs. In addition, the VA said it is reviewing its notification process to make sure a similar error doesn't happen again. The AmVets service organization is \"encouraged\" by the VA's response to the situation, and pleased to see they caught the error, said spokesman Ryan Gallucci. CNN Radio's John Lorinc contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: VA says some 600 people got letters in error due to a \"coding error\"\nLetters sent last week informed 1,864 veterans and survivors of ALS diagnosis .\nVA: \"Employees are personally contacting\" those who don't have disease .\nAgency is reviewing notification process to ensure no such error is repeated ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LAS MANOS, Nicaragua (CNN) -- Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya returned to Nicaragua late Friday night after briefly entering his home country from which he was removed in a military coup nearly a month ago. Supporters cheer as deposed leader Jose Manuel Zelaya crosses into Honduras on Friday. Zelaya crossed a few yards into Honduras on Friday afternoon and then hunkered down while he carried on extensive telephone conversations and press interviews. The Honduran government said it would arrest Zelaya if he pushed further into the nation and would ask the International Red Cross to monitor his treatment. Provisional President Roberto Micheletti, who was sworn in hours after Zelaya was removed from office on June 28, said Friday night his country was willing to continue negotiations. Two previous rounds hosted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias were deadlocked over the Honduran government's refusal to allow Zelaya to return to power. Watch Zelaya cross the border » . \"I offered several days ago to give up my position if Mr. Zelaya would stop inciting his followers to violence,\" Micheletti told CNN en Español. Micheletti said Zelaya had no intention of returning to Honduras, where he faced certain arrest by the national police. Zelaya went back to Nicaragua, Micheletti said, to keep causing problems. \"We have received information that they want to continue with these type of actions that only incite the public,\" he said. Asked in an interview with CNN en Español late Friday night why he did not go farther into Honduras, as he had vowed to do, Zelaya said he did not want to cause any violence. \"You have a correspondent here who can tell you how aggressive the military has been acting,\" Zelaya said. The latest events unfolded live and in front of a multitude of TV cameras as Zelaya led a 20-vehicle convoy over two days from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua to the Honduran border. Along the way, he held news conferences and conducted numerous telephone interviews. The highlight occurred Friday afternoon when Zelaya walked under a border chain and returned to his home soil. \"I am not afraid when I work for a just and noble cause,\" Zelaya said to someone on a cell phone moments after crossing the border, surrounded by scores of reporters and cheering supporters. Honduran soldiers pulled back about 25 meters (80 feet) from the border as Zelaya stopped and continued talking on the phone. He stopped in front of a large white sign that says, \"Bienvenidos a Honduras\" (Welcome to Honduras). Zelaya remained in the area for several hours, saying he was waiting for his wife to join him. She stayed in Honduras when the military flew Zelaya out of the country during the coup. His wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, told CNN en Español that she was being kept from joining her husband. Asked what she was feeling, she said, \"Anguish. Anguish is what we feel at this moment because he is a man of peace.\" Moments before crossing the border, Zelaya talked briefly face to face with army Lt. Col. Luis Roicarte, with whom he had been previously talking on the phone, said CNN's Karl Penhaul. The army officer cut off the conversation with Zelaya because he had to take a call, likely from one of his superiors. Zelaya later recounted the conversation. \"The colonel told me, 'You can't cross the border.' I said, 'I can cross.' I crossed, shook his hand and asked for communications with his higher-ups,\" Zelaya said. In Washington, the State Department issued a travel alert for Honduras and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Zelaya's actions. \"We have consistently urged all parties to avoid any provocative action that could lead to violence,\" Clinton said. \"President Zelaya's effort to reach the border is reckless. It does not contribute to the broader efforts to restore democratic and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis.\" The State Department warning \"alerts American citizens to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras, and recommends that American citizens defer all non-essential travel to Honduras until further notice.\" While the drama unfolded at the border, Micheletti supporters held a large and colorful rally in San Pedro Sula. Zelaya supporters amassed in the Honduran city of El Paraiso, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the border with Nicaragua. They were met there by about 1,500 police and soldiers, some of whom fired on the crowd, a correspondent for CNN en Español reported from the scene. Two people were wounded, journalist Jorge Jimenez said. The police and soldiers fired tear gas at the demonstrators for about 15 to 20 minutes before letting off a barrage of 15 to 20 shots, Jimenez said. The apparent shootings happened minutes after Zelaya held a news conference on the Nicaraguan side of the border and asked police and soldiers to let him back into his country. Watch a report on Zelaya's return » . \"Allow me to return to my country,\" Zelaya said, directly addressing his nation's police and army. \"To embrace my fellow countrymen, my children, my wife, my mother.\" Honduran police and soldiers set up numerous roadblocks between Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and the border, and established an immediate curfew in the area until 4:30 a.m. The shootings came after the National Police director, Salomon Escoto Salinas, said in a televised news conference that cars and people were being searched for weapons. \"Our job is to maintain order of the people who are protesting,\" Escoto Salinas said. \"If there is any vandalism, the police will act and we will apply the laws.\" He declined to say in an interview with CNN en Español whether Zelaya would be arrested if he crossed into Honduras. The National Police have a plan, he said, and it will be carried out. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution, even though the congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court ruled it illegal. The takeover has drawn international condemnation, including demands by the United Nations General Assembly, the OAS and the European Union that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has steadfastly rejected characterization of the takeover as a coup, saying Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power. He repeated that contention Friday night. \"There has been no coup because in a coup the military remains in power,\" he told CNN en Español." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Zelaya says he did not go further into Honduras to avoid violence .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton calls Zelaya's actions \"reckless\"\n\"I am not afraid when I work for a just and noble cause,\" Zelaya says upon return .\nDeposed leader walks under border chain Friday surrounded by supporters ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Hundreds of people attending Comic-Con in San Diego, California, will transform into zombies on Thursday. A \"zombie walk\" at Comic-Con will promote the upcoming \"Zombieland\" movie. They'll converge in a \"zombie walk\" through the San Diego Convention Center to promote Woody Harrelson's upcoming post-apocalyptic comedy, \"Zombieland.\" Comic-Con is an annual gathering of 125,000 people whose interests include comic book and science fiction film and TV, anime, toys and video games. Major movie studios and TV networks use the convention to launch their latest productions. Zombie movies have been on the rise in recent years, and the type of zombies on the big screen has been evolving with the times. George Romero's 1968 film \"Night of the Living Dead\" -- followed by \"Dawn of the Dead\" -- popularized zombies \"based on the original Haitian voodoo kind of zombie, the supernatural being, the walking dead or the undead,\" said \"Zombieland\" director Ruben Fleischer. Zombie films made \"a seismic shift in zombies with Danny Boyle's film '28 Days Later,' where it became a more viral-based thing, a diseased population, as opposed to from the grave,\" Fleischer said. In \"Zombieland,\" living people are infected by a fast-spreading virus that turns them into \"this other being\" that is fast, ferocious and flesh-eating, he said. \"These modern zombies are reflective of some of the perils of what can happen with overpopulation and disease control and how quickly things can spread and become a problem.\" iReport.com: Going to Comic-Con? Fleischer, along with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, consulted a disease expert \"to get to the bottom of what the modern pandemic would be,\" he said. \"When swine flu happened, it was after we finished shooting, but it just really reminded me of how these things can spread so quickly and a whole population can be devastated,\" he said. While about 500 extras were hired to be zombies in Fleischer's movie, even more Comic-Con participants could take part in Thursday's zombie walk. Sony has hired professional makeup artists to get them ready. Fleischer said those portraying a modern zombie should think like \"a rabid dog.\" Don't lumber along like Frankenstein's monster, but move with \"a real furious anger and intensity\" and \"a lot of grunting and snarling and growling,\" he said. \"Zombies don't talk.\" Hunger is a modern zombie's chief motivation, he said: \"I think that they're definitely cannibalistic. They want to eat people.\" What does a modern zombie wear? Fleischer's zombies come as they are, whether in a work uniform or dressed for the mall. \"It's as if you were at the mall and some zombies attacked and everyone there got turned into a zombie,\" he said. \"They'd be wearing the same clothes that they had before. They'd be dressed in the same way.\" Fleischer developed a list of 150 types of zombies for his film, including construction workers, moms, a punk rocker and preppie zombies. \"They're just people who got infected, like a modern pandemic,\" he said. \"Zombieland\" -- which hits theaters October 9 -- brings out the humor in killing zombies, which is Harrelson's specialty. \"They're not easy to kill, so sometimes you've got to get them more than once,\" Fleischer said. \"You've got to make sure you get them because they'll keep coming if you don't.\" Harrelson blamed post-traumatic stress from filming for his scuffle with a TMZ photographer at an airport the day after shooting wrapped in Georgia in April. \"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie,\" Harrelson said. While Harrelson will be at Comic-Con to promote the movie, it was not known if he would be kept away from Thursday's zombie walk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some Comic-Con attendees will become zombies to celebrate new film .\n\"Zombieland,\" starring Woody Harrelson, to debut in October .\nComic-Con draws more than 100,000 fans annually ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Arturo Gatti, who was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room in suspicious circumstances, is revered by boxing fans for his trilogy of thrilling and brutal fights with Micky \"Irish\" Ward. Arturo Gatti fought to the limit of his endurance in many epic bouts. The Italian-born Canadian captured world titles at super featherweight and junior welterweight during his 16-year-professional career and also fought and lost to legends Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in big money matches. But his 2002 and 2003 bouts with Ward will always be remembered, and two of them won the \"Fight of the Year\" award given out by the prestigious Ring Magazine. The first two fights were over 10 rounds, with Gatti losing the first and gaining revenge in a classic second bout. The third and deciding fight took place in June 2003, and Gatti broke his right hand in the fourth round. Almost unbelievably, he fought on and despite being floored in the sixth dominated the rest of the fight to win on a unanimous decision. Despite Gatti's winning the WBC junior welterweight crown the following year by beating Gianluca Branco of Italy to the vacant title, his storied wins over Ward proved to be the high point of Gatti's career. He made two successful defenses of the title against lightly-regarded opponents until running into Mayweather in June 2005. It proved a big fight too many, as he was slowed by body shots and cut a sorry figure as he was stopped in the sixth round. Moving up to welterweight, Gatti won a warm-up fight before losing to Carlos Baldomir in a world title bout. His comeback fight, with old rival Micky Ward by then his trainer, also ended in defeat to Alfonso Gomez in July 2007, and he promptly announced his retirement. It ended a 49-fight career with 31 knockout and nine defeats. His first world title had come with victory over Tracy Harris Patterson, the adopted son of heavyweight great Floyd Patterson, to claim the IBF super featherweight crown. As his fame spread and with countless nominations for Ring's Fight of the Year, Gatti, nicknamed \"Thunder,\" gained a large and devoted following among boxing fans. But his life outside the ring proved contentious and in March this year the Canadian Press reported that Gatti was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend Amanda Rodriguez and spent two nights in jail after failing to turn up for a court appearance. Gatti later married Rodriguez, and they have a one-year-old son. She has been arrested in connection with his death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Arturo Gatti was one of the most popular fighters of his generation .\nItalian-born Canadian fought epic trilogy of bouts with Micky Ward .\nGatti also won world titles at two different weights in 16-year pro career ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sean Kingston was talking about his hit song \"Fire Burning\" when his cell phone suddenly started to ring. The device blasted a familiar tune. Sean Kingston has one of the summer's hottest hits with \"Fire Burning.\" She's fire burning, fire burning on the dance floor. Wait a minute. His own song is his ringtone? \"I've got to support it, man,\" said Kingston, 19, with a cheeky smile. \"It goes right back in my pocket, but hey.\" There had better be plenty of room in those pockets. \"Fire Burning\" is shaping up to be one of the summer's hottest tracks, with more than a million downloads sold, and is the second best-selling song on iTunes this week. For mainstream radio listeners and nightclub goers, the reggae-trance track is inescapable. Even for Kingston. Watch how Kingston sets the dance floor ablaze » . \"Three days ago I was in an elevator,\" he said. \"A lady came in and she had her iPod and she was playing my song. She didn't know who she was standing next to. That was kind of funny.\" But hearing his music in public doesn't mean he's allowed to get too cocky, he said. \"It actually motivates me to make even more music, because that's kind of big. Coming from where I'm from -- coming from nothing -- it's just amazing to hear people react to my music like they do.\" The Miami-born artist, whose real name is Kisean Anderson -- he changed his name to Kingston to reflect his Jamaican heritage -- got a taste for the big time in 2007 when his debut song \"Beautiful Girls\" became a No. 1 hit in the United States. His sophomore album, called \"Tomorrow,\" comes out September 22. Kingston just wrapped filming in Los Angeles for the music video for its second single, \"Face Drop.\" Kingston dropped by CNN to share his thoughts on his abilities on the dance floor and the leading ladies of pop. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: How much time do you actually spend on the dance floor? Sean Kingston: I spend a lot of time on the dance floor, [though] ... I'm more the type of dude to sit back and pose and act cool. But I had to make a song for it because there's a lot of stuff that's going on in the world today ... people want to dance. People want to let loose and \"Fire Burning\" is a song that you can do that to. CNN: You were born in Miami. You grew up in Kingston. Then you moved to L.A. Where do you feel most at home? Sean Kingston: I feel really at home, I can't even lie, in Miami. Because it's just like I know a lot of people, my friends that are there. That's where I started doing music when I was in Miami. CNN: Why call your sophomore album \"Tomorrow\"? Kingston: Because I feel like it's so futuristic. I felt like my last album was yesterday. Nobody's going to be able to expect what Sean Kingston is bringing on this new album. CNN: The first track that came off the new album was a collaboration with Lil' Wayne. It didn't take off like your previous hits. Why do you think that is? Kingston: We never sent it to radio. That record got leaked. It got leaked from the Internet and we just kept it going. But it never really got that push from the label. But I mean it did good. I mean 4 million plays on YouTube, 3 million on MySpace. Sometimes you've got to give free music to get people to pay attention and to build a buzz. So I basically gave my fans free music. CNN: You collaborate with punk-pop band Good Charlotte on the album. Kingston: Yeah. Benji and Joel [Madden], man! Those guys are hilarious. They're talented and geniuses. ... The whole \"Tomorrow\" album ... it's ridiculous. I feel like it's going to be the album of the year. I feel like it's my best album that I ever made. It's way better than the first one. CNN: Do you feel like you've pioneered this new sound that combines reggae and hip-hop and other elements? Kingston: I definitely think that's my own style. I definitely think I came in the game and I got my own blend. I've got something that I call hip-pop, not hip-hop. And a lot of people are starting to use that now but I feel like it was my fusion. CNN: Is it fair to say that \"Beautiful Girls\" brought massive change to your life? Kingston: It did. It changed my life like that! No other song did it but that song. I'm blessed. CNN: Are you surprised that it only takes one hit song to make someone a huge star? Kingston: It didn't really quite take me one. It took me one to get in the door. And then it took having a Top Five record. But you've got to understand ... in this music business, there are so many one-hit wonders. You could have a hit, but it's like \"OK, could you follow up?\" So it's not about what your past is, it's about longevity. CNN: You've been the opening act for Gwen Stefani and Beyonce. Who are some other female musicians you admire? Kingston: Man, those two are amazing. Gwen Stefani! That's what you call a star right there. Just to be in her presence ... I learned a lot from her. She's just amazing. Beyonce too. I like Mary J. Blige. Rhianna! I met her a lot of times and she's down to earth. She's so cool. And she's an island girl. And I'm an island dude, and we gotta hold down for other people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sean Kingston's \"Fire Burning\" one of top hits of summer .\nKingston melds reggae, pop, hip-hop; he calls it \"hip-pop\"\nNew album, \"Tomorrow,\" is due in September ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A single-engine airplane made an emergency landing on a California highway Sunday morning, though no major injuries were reported, authorities said. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101 just outside Santa Barbara and a few miles from the airport, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer James Richards. The plane's engine quit, and as the pilot descended, he lost control of the plane and landed in the southbound lane facing oncoming traffic. The plane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail, Richards said. One vehicle passenger was treated for minor injuries, he said. No other injuries were reported. The landing happened at 10:36 a.m. (1:36 p.m. ET) and held up traffic for less than two hours, Richards said. He added that the plane had departed Temecula in southwestern Riverside County, California, and was destined for the airport in Santa Barbara, a flight of about 180 miles. The pilot told authorities that he attempted to switch fuel lines during the flight, but was unable to restore power to the plane. He said he alerted a tower at the airport that a landing on the highway was imminent, Richardson said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on U.S. Highway 101 .\nPlane's engine quit, pilot lost control; landed in south lane facing oncoming traffic .\nPlane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Jesse Ray Beard said he was constantly in trouble, even when he behaved. It took being accused of the racially charged attempted murder of a white classmate in the Deep South to turn his life around. Living with attorney Alan Howard, right, has afforded Jesse Ray Beard a bevy of new experiences. Beard, 18, now interns at a New York law firm as he prepares for his senior year next month at Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy where Beard is highly regarded among peers and teachers. \"I didn't change the way I act. I didn't do nothing different. It was just that I was at Canterbury instead of Jena,\" he said. \"It was like Jena was out to get me -- and not just me, but other people, too.\" If not for the controversy surrounding the Jena Six and the palpable racial tension in the Louisiana town, Beard never would have met the attorney who changed the course of Beard's life by removing him from everything he knew. Watch Beard describe his reaction » . Alan Howard met Beard, the youngest of the African-American teens who made up the Jena Six, in January 2008 when he began representing him in a lawsuit filed by beating victim Justin Barker. The fight followed months of disquiet among Jena High School students, including off-campus skirmishes, a school arson and nooses hung from a campus tree. In September 2007, thousands of protesters, alleging the teens were treated harshly because they were black, converged on middle Louisiana. Protesters were particularly angered at the jailing of Mychal Bell, one of the six, who was charged as an adult. Later in September, he was reclassified as a juvenile and released. The Jena Six were lionized and vilified; donations for their defense poured in, as did threats on their lives. Howard said his first impression of Beard -- that he had \"tremendous character, tremendous resilience and tremendous potential\" -- was so strong he invited the teen to live with his family in New England. It's been a tidal shift, Beard said, moving from a Louisiana town of 3,000 to Bedford, New York, a well-to-do city of 18,000 situated an hour north of the Big Apple. The biggest shock? \"Where I'm from in Jena, I think the only time it snowed is when I was 6, and it was like 1 inch.\" Another difference, he said, is not living in a town where everyone associates him with one of the most controversial events in contemporary race relations. See history of Jena Six » . The Howards say Beard meshes seamlessly. Though he struggled with the curriculum at Canterbury -- a Catholic school in New Milford boasting a six-to-one student-teacher ratio -- he is seeing tutors and showing improvements. He spent the summer helping attorneys at Howard's firm prepare for court cases and looks forward to his senior year as a three-sport athlete. Head football coach Ken Parson said he \"can't wait to unleash\" the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Beard. Beard is a candidate for team captain, Parson said, and the coach hopes Beard's leadership and \"quiet confidence\" will draw recruiters from Division I schools. Division II schools are already snooping around, he said. \"When he gets going, he's like a freight train. He's also got the softest pair of hands you could ever imagine on a high school football player and can make moves in the field like Barry Sanders,\" Parson said, invoking the Detroit Lions' legendary running back. Though football, baseball and basketball are his preferred sports, Beard has picked up lacrosse from playing with Howard's sons -- Nick, 14, and Tommy, 11 -- and tennis from playing with Howard's daughter, Jessie, 17. She said his tennis skills are \"ridiculous.\" Other fresh experiences include snowboarding in Utah, surfing in Long Island, visiting the Hamptons and attending baseball games at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. Around the house, he's a big brother, said Howard, whose children welcomed Beard immediately. \"My kids were the ones who said, 'If it means getting out of Jena, let him stay here,' \" Howard said. \"My 14-year-old son said, 'He can share my room,' and he doesn't even let his 11-year-old brother in his room.\" Beard is prone to the same gaffes as any teenager, Jessie said, giggling as she recalled a time he replaced a box of snacks in the cabinet after finishing the last one. Her mother, Patti, left the box on his sneakers with a note: \"Would you like more of these?\" \"He's just another member of the family,\" Jessie said. \"Now, when people ask me how many brothers I have, I say three, not two.\" Beard said he could never be proud of his involvement with the Jena Six, but he believes God put him through tribulations to deliver him to a better place. \"I'm not glad it happened, but I'm glad I came to a good family,\" he said. Beard's mother, Stella, is a \"remarkable woman,\" Howard said, but Beard didn't have much supervision at home. Howard thought to himself in 2008, \"It's not just enough to keep the kid out of jail one time because the system is stacked against him.\" Five of the Jena Six had already made tracks -- to Texas, to Georgia, to other parts of Louisiana -- but Beard had nowhere to go. That he was on house arrest for another juvenile offense confounded matters. \"I promise you I will get you out of Jena, whatever it takes,\" Howard told Beard. \"You promise me that you'll hang in there, keep doing what you're doing, going to school and keep out of trouble.\" Beard's mother made \"the ultimate sacrifice,\" allowing Howard to pursue guardianship and ferry her son 1,500 miles to New England. She put aside Jena Six donations to help Howard pay Canterbury's $40,000-a-year tuition, he said. She declined to be interviewed. Beard left Jena in spring 2008. About a year later, Beard, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery. Fines and probation were doled out and civil suits settled. The terms were undisclosed. Bell, who served as the face -- and lightning rod -- of the Jena Six, had separately pleaded guilty to a second-degree battery charge in December 2007. Weeks after completing his 18-month sentence at a juvenile facility, Bell shot himself in the chest in December after an arrest on shoplifting charges. He later said the pressure to be perfect prompted him to pull the trigger. Read Bell's remarks after the suicide try . Jena is often painted as a town of bumpkins who pursued draconian criminal charges and exorbitant bails for a school fight but turned a blind eye when three nooses dangled from a campus tree. Beard, however, bristles at the portrait and defends his hometown. \"No, sir. There's not more racists in Jena,\" he said. \"There's racism everywhere. I just can't blame it on Jena because I did get along with the white folks and they did like me.\" As he and his five cohorts pursue educational and athletic endeavors around the nation, Beard hopes they won't be dogged by racial matters but that they'll be \"superstars, not from being the Jena Six, but from whatever we go to college for.\" Howard and Parson have confidence Beard will succeed, no matter his occupation. \"Whatever he ends up doing,\" the coach said, \"he's going to be great.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In spring 2008, Jesse Ray Beard went to live with his attorney's family in New York .\nOnce accused of attempted murder in Louisiana, Beard now attending prep school .\nAttorney Alan Howard's daughter, Jessie, says she considers Beard a brother .\nFootball coach says he \"can't wait to unleash\" Beard at linebacker, wide receiver ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Famous for honest self-portraits, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo said that she painted her reality and that her paintings carried a message of pain. Her life was full of it, both physical and emotional, and she used it to fuel her art. Frida Kahlo was born in this house and lived in it with her husband, Diego Rivera. Much can be learned about both her private and public life by visiting the home she shared, first with her parents and later with her painter husband, Diego Rivera. The bold blue house with red trim stands out in the quiet residential street of the Coyoacán section of Mexico City. It was painted that way because Kahlo and Rivera felt that the bright colors represented Mexican culture better than the original white paint. This home-turned-museum, known as La Casa Azul, is where Frida Kahlo was born, began to paint and died, making the house a witness to one of the most important artistic lives in Mexican history. The museum entrance leads to a large patio where pre-Columbian sculptures collected by Diego Rivera throughout his lifetime are scattered among the plants and fountains. The couple's love for traditional Mexican art can be seen throughout the house, from the large fireplace designed by Rivera that dominates the first room, resembling a step pyramid like the ones built by the Mayas and Aztecs, to Kahlo's paintings and the couple's collection of smaller sculptures. Some of Kahlo's most well-known works, such as \"Viva la Vida,\" a still life of watermelons, are on display in the museum, but it is the personal objects that tell the most interesting stories. An entire room is dedicated to communist paraphernalia. Kahlo was very politically active and did not hide her political leanings. In fact, she and Rivera invited exiled Russian communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his wife to live with them in the late '30s. As visitors move through the museum, it is the remnants of Kahlo and Rivera's private life that begin to tell their story. Part of the collection is a bed with a mirror attached to it, used by Kahlo in order to create many of her celebrated self-portraits. At the age of 18, she was left bedridden for a few months when her spine was broken in a serious bus and trolley accident. It was during those months that Kahlo began to paint, to help pass the time and keep her spirits up. Also on view are several corsets that Kahlo had to wear during her lifetime because of lasting injuries from the accident, several surgeries and a childhood bout of polio. It was because she began painting that Kahlo met Diego Rivera, who was at the time a famous Mexican muralist. Kahlo wanted to know whether she had talent enough to make art a career, so she sought out Rivera to get his opinion. That was the start of their famously tempestuous relationship. They were married for the first time in 1929, but after infidelities on both sides (including an affair between Kahlo and Trotsky), they divorced in 1939. They were married again a year later. She once commented on their relationship, saying that there had been two great accidents in her life, the trolley and Diego; Diego, she claimed, had been the worst of the two. The house, which was witness to the birth of Kahlo on July 6, 1907, was also witness to her death July 13, 1954. Rivera put her ashes in a pre-Columbian urn, which remains in the house to this day. He donated the house in 1957, and it opened to the public as La Casa Azul, Museo Frida Kahlo in 1958. So the blue house, which has seen so much of the history of two of Mexico's most famous artists and was witness to so much of Kahlo's personal suffering, is open to the public, ready to tell their story to all who are willing to listen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frida Kahlo was born in La Casa Azul and lived there with Diego Rivera .\nThe house contains the bed where an injured Kahlo started to paint .\nAn entire room in the home is dedicated to communist paraphernalia ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Roberto Lee Jr, 35, is the President of Fresh Bread & Company in Shanghai. He has an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and an Executive MBA (EMBA) from INSEAD and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Roberto Lee: \"I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA.\" Roberto tells CNN how his EMBA has helped his career. CNN: Tell us about your current role. Roberto Lee Jr: I'm president of Fresh Bread & Company, in Shanghai, which I started in 2004. We supply finished products like sandwiches, cakes and desserts for Starbucks, Walmart, Metro AG, Tesco, and a number of franchised restaurants. We also have a more upscale chain with bakeries, coffee shops and the biggest bread chain in the Shanghai subway system. We currently have 620 employees, 32 shops in Shanghai, and we hope to expand into Eastern China next year. CNN: You already had an MBA, what made you decide to do an EMBA? RL: We are hoping to expand Fresh internationally, at least in Asia, and it could become an international company. The Tsinghua/INSEAD EMBA is a really global MBA. We had classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Fontainebleau (in France) so it gave a very international focus. In each city INSEAD arranged for guest speakers from very large companies to tell us about the business environment in each country. It gave me much more of an international focus. CNN: How has that global focus helped you with your business? RL: In my class I had senior people from 17 countries. We became like a family and we are still in touch. I've been in different countries the last few years and my classmates have entertained me and showed me around in each of the countries. Down the road, if we decide to go into some of these countries, I have contacts and I've learned from my classmates, from their past experiences and the experiences they're going through. CNN: What was the biggest difference between the MBA and the EMBA? RL: A key difference is seniority. The average age on the MBA was 28 and on the EMBA it was 37. On an MBA people are getting ready to move into senior management, whereas much more senior management things being discussed on the EMBA. The other difference is that for the MBA you take off two years of your life. With the EMBA you still work, so every five to six weeks you meet for a week or two and you go to classes. With the EMBA you don't get spend as much time on the books, so an MBA is more theoretical and with the EMBA you learn a lot more from your classmates. I had numerous high-level people in my class and they shared how they've done things in the past. Read more business related features . CNN: So because you're working at the same time, can you put what you've learned into practice? RL: That's what was really cool -- all my classmates did it, taking stuff from class and applying it. I was able to get help from my finance professor about international standards for how some things are done on the books. The professors all have working experience -- they're not just people with PhDs who teach -- so you can ask for advice and even now I can email them and ask their advice. CNN: Can you think of any example where you've directly applied something you learned from the EMBA to your business? RL: We learned about how one company got all its senior managers together and went out for a weekend brainstorm to set out their strategy for the next year. That's something we did this past year at Fresh, and we set out a really clear path and goals. So far we've met all our goals this year, so it was a really great way of doing it. CNN: Would you have got where you are today without the EMBA? RL: It helped me out a lot -- I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA. It's given me a broader perspective for being a manager for all departments. My strong point has always been sales and when the company started that was the area I pushed the hardest, but now I'm diving more into finance, accounting, marketing and HR. After the EMBA I have a much clearer idea what's going on in my company within all the different departments -- that's where it's really been a huge help for me. CNN: What would you say to people put off by the expense of an MBA? RL: If you're going to do an EMBA program, do a good one. Tuition plus time and expense will usually run into six figures in U.S. dollars, but if you get into a good program it's very worth it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Roberto Lee Jr is President of Fresh Bread & Company, based in Shanghai .\nHe has an MBA from USC and EMBA from INSEAD and Tsinghua University .\n\"I've learned from my classmates and their past experiences,\" says Lee .\nHe says the EMBA course helped him become a more complete manager ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tukwila, WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Dude was in the house. Winners of the Seattle Lebowski Fest best-costume prizes pose at a bowling alley. Actually there were 11 Dudes, all dressed in the bathrobe-paired-with-sunglasses look made famous by actor Jeff Bridges in the movie \"The Big Lebowski.\" The venue, a bowling alley outside Seattle, Washington, was the setting for the Lebowski Fest, the unofficial celebration of the Coen brothers classic. When the film -- with its story of an aging hippie bowler turned bumbling detective -- opened in 1998, \"The Big Lebowski\" fell flat at the box office and with many critics. Since then, however, the movie has developed a distinct cult following. \"These guys are not the 'Star Trek' fans, they are not the 'Star Wars' fans, they are a different class. They are not the nerds. They are the slackers,\" said attendee Scott Glancy. Dressed like a wide range of characters from the film, about 200 attendees of Seattle Lebowski Fest watched the movie yet again, bowled, drank the film's signature white Russians and quoted each other their favorite lines. Watch highlights from the Fest » . There were plenty of Jeff \"the Dude\" Lebowskis, but also a handful of people dressed like his addled Vietnam vet sidekick Walter Sobchak, and sex offender nemesis from the bowling alley, Jesus Quintana. Others dressed up as lines of dialogue or set pieces, like the tumbleweed blowing across Los Angeles in the opening of the film. Most of the attendees stay in character the entire night with a dedication that would make Russell Crowe or Robert DeNiro jealous. \"There's a certain community thing that goes on when you hang out and watch your favorite film,\" said Lebowski Fest co-founder Scott Shuffitt. \"When you are watching it with 700 people who love it just as much as you do and everyone's quoting from it, it's just a really nice community.\" Shuffitt and fellow founder Will Russell came up with the idea in 2002 while quoting lines from the movie during a slow day selling T-shirts at a tattoo expo in Louisville, Kentucky, where they live. \"People we didn't know jumped in and started quoting lines with us,\" Russell said. \"We realized we are not alone with our obsession for this movie, and we thought, 'Hey man, let's have a party in a bowling alley for \"The Big Lebowski\" ' and never thought anything would come of it, and here we are eight years later doing it all over the country.\" Since then, Lebowski Fest has been held 25 times in the United States and overseas. This year, the roving celebration of the movie will visit 15 cities, including Chicago, Illinois, New York and Washington. Rachel Life, who dressed as Maude Lebowski, the film's eccentric artist and love interest for the Dude, said the fest brings a sense of community. \"I love hanging out with freaks that are like me,\" she said. \"We are letting our freak flags fly!\" Dude look-alike Kurt Michaels came for the feeling of being in on the joke. \"It's just this cult following,\" he said. \"So many people are in on something that the general public is not aware of.\" And for Scott Glancy, it's about getting something -- anything -- out of an otherwise unfortunate natural resemblance to a character played by actor John Goodman. \"It's my destiny,\" he said. \"Where else can I come where I can be a superstar for four hours?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Big Lebowski\" fell flat at the box office, but has developed a cult following .\nFilm tells story of an aging hippie bowler turned bumbling detective .\nLebowski Fest attendees dress like characters from the film, bowl, quote lines .\nMost of the fans stay in character the entire night ." } ]

[ { "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 crown of the Statue of Liberty will re-open to tourists on July 4, the Interior Department said Friday. The Statue of Liberty welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The crown was closed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for safety and security reasons. The National Park Service closed the attraction amid worries that it would be difficult for visitors to evacuate quickly in the event of an emergency. Visitors must climb a narrow 168-step double-helix spiral staircase to get to the crown. Since the closing, tourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue. iReport.com: Show us your best Statue of Liberty shots . The federal government planned to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. \"We are once again inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes by climbing to Lady Liberty's crown for a unique view of New York Harbor, where the forebears of millions of American families first saw the world,\" he said in a statement. Access to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a National Park Service ranger. \"We cannot eliminate all the risk of climbing to the crown, but we are taking steps to make it safer,\" Salazar said. The measures include raising the handrails on the spiral staircase and stationing rangers throughout the Statue to help visitors. The Statue of Liberty will be open for the next two years, then closed again for \"work on a long-term solution that will improve safety and security permanently,\" according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. A gift from France to the United States, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for its centennial on July 4, 1986. It stands just across New York Harbor from where the Twin Towers stood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crown has been closed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 .\nTourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue .\nAccess to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a ranger .\nOfficial: Government wants to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Watergate Hotel, part of a complex that became synonymous with President Richard Nixon's downfall, attracted no bids at an auction Tuesday. The Watergate Hotel will most likely have to be sold privately after not attracting bids at auction. According to Paul Cooper, vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, some 10 bidders ready to provide a $1 million deposit were registered for the auction. But the hotel fell back into the hands of its lender, PB Capital, after no one advanced the $25 million opening bid, the auction company said. The auction was sponsored by PB Capital, which holds a $40 million note on the hotel after the previous owner, Monument Reality, defaulted on its loan. Monument's 30-day foreclosure note expired Thursday. Cooper said PB Capital will most likely sell the hotel privately after it takes over the title and will not try to operate the hotel itself. On the night of June 17, 1972, the hotel served as a base for an illegal break-in by operatives of the Nixon re-election campaign at the offices of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate office building next door. Some of the burglars and their handlers, whose arrests began the investigation that led, two years later, to Nixon's resignation, actually stayed at the Watergate hotel prior to the break-in. Among the hotel guests were former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy, and former CIA operative Howard Hunt, both of whom later served prison time as a result of the Watergate break-in. Developers estimate the hotel could need up to $100 million in renovations. The Watergate complex was built in the late 1960s and consists of the hotel, two office buildings, and three apartment buildings. Only the hotel building was up for auction Tuesday. It closed two years ago for renovations, and possible conversions into co-op apartments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hotel falls back into the hands of its lender, PB Capital .\nPB Capital will most likely sell the hotel privately after it takes over the title .\nHotel was a base for a break-in by operatives of the Nixon re-election campaign ." } ]

[ { "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 solo round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari happily admits that you need to be a little bit 'mad' to take on long-distance sailing. Dee Caffari celebrates completing the solo Vendee Globe race earlier this year. And she should know: Caffari became the first woman to sail single-handedly around the world in both directions after completing the solo round-the-world race, Vendee Globe, earlier this year. \"People say you must be mad -- and there probably is an element of truth in that,\" the 36 year-old told CNN. Growing up on the south coast of England, Caffari was bitten by the sailing bug early and her passion for the sport led her to enter the Vendee Globe, considered by some to be the most punishing sporting event on the planet. Caffari spent 99 days at sea completely alone and says preparation is the key to success in long-distance voyages at sea. That, and the desire and self-belief to make it to the finish. \"You have to have this desire to see how far you can push yourself. It's having the willingness to put yourself in that uncomfortable position -- and belief that you have the strength to get through it. \"It's a perceived risk and you go out there knowing that you have done all you can to deal with all scenarios. You don't just go out there on a whim -- we are well trained,\" she said. Coping day-to-day during the journey is a whole new challenge: solo sailors must battle perilous conditions, changes to sleep patterns and, inevitably, loneliness. Would you survive a round the world voyage? Take our personality test and find out! Caffari says she found being separated from family and friends was the hardest aspect of sailing round-the-world the first time. \"The toughest thing about my first journey was not seeing people for six months. You can communicate very well now, perhaps too well, but it still doesn't allow you to have face-to-face contact with people.\" Modern-day communications allow sailors to keep in touch via satellite phones and also keep in Internet contact. Sailors are tracked by global positioning systems (GPS) and also receive regular weather information. \"Transition\" periods at the start or just after the end of voyages -- when sailors are adjusting to boat routines or getting reacquainting with daily life -- are also very challenging. Exhaustion while getting used to different sleep patterns was particularly difficult: On board, Caffari would generally sleep in short bursts of two or three hours depending on conditions. The amount of sleep could vary greatly from day-to-day. \"The transitions are difficult. Life on board is very disciplined. Your adjustment with new sleeping patterns takes about two to three weeks. If it's changeable weather when you're out there, you don't stand a hope of getting sleep. \"It's a major shock to the body when you get back too. Suddenly you are supposed to get all your sleep at once -- and you actually have a night and a day,\" she said. Food is also an issue for sailors spending a long time at sea. It needs to keep for a long time and take up minimal space, which means meals can be monotonous -- freeze-dried pasta or rice-based dishes made by adding hot water. Cravings are not unusual, according to Caffari. \"Thankfully the product has improved. I just get bored of eating the same type of food. You are aware you haven't had fresh produce in a long time and you start to crave it.\" Despite the hardships, Caffari says there are numerous benefits. \"It's an amazing environment. Every time you go out you are going to see something different -- but you can't always prepare for how hostile the environment may be. \"I'm not a gadget person, so I quite enjoy the basics of life. I really value my time now. And in a team scenario it can be particularly rewarding, as the ability to not only push one's own limits but also to push other people's limits is important,\" she said. The intrepid Caffari is ready to push her limits once again -- this time sailing around Britain and Ireland. To find out more about Dee Caffari's voyage around Britain and Ireland go to her Web site: www.deecaffari.co.uk ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN's MainSail speaks with British round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari .\nCaffari is the only woman to have sailed around the globe in both directions .\nLack of sleep and loneliness are the main challenges, according to Caffari .\nDesire, preparation and self-belief are the keys to success, Caffari says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The Lebanese army has arrested 10 suspected members of a terrorist network who the military believes were planning to attack targets abroad, the army said. The army claims suspects planned to create cells to monitor and attack UNIFIL troops, among other things. Most of the suspects are not from Lebanon, said the army, which does not identify the network in the statement it released. Officials also don't say when or where the suspects were captured. \"As a result of intensive investigation by the Lebanese army intelligence directorate in following up on radical terrorist networks, the directorate was able to arrest ten persons of one of these networks, belonging to different Arab nationalities,\" the statement said. According to a military probe, some of those arrested had used their jobs in private companies as a cover for surveillance and monitoring operations. The army urged private employers to verify the legal status of their employees or job seekers and report any suspicious information. The army claims the terrorists in custody were planning to: . • Smuggle wanted terrorists from the Palestinian refugee camp Ein el-Hilweh, located south of Beirut, to other countries. One of the network's members was to bring them fake documents and money for their trip. • \"Harbor radical elements\" from the terrorist group Fatah al-Islam and give them fake documents to help them enter the Ein el-Hilweh camp. • Create terror cells to monitor the Lebanese army and UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, to carry out attacks against them. • Carry out surveillance of money exchange centers and jewelry stores as possible robbery targets to help finance their operations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most of the suspects were not Lebanese, according to statement from the army .\nStatement doesn't identify the terror network it claims the suspects belong to .\nMilitary probe: Some had used private-sector jobs as cover for operations .\nPlots to aid \"radical elements,\" target UNIFIL troops and commit robbery alleged ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Travelers to China who display flu-like symptoms may be randomly quarantined over concerns of the swine flu virus, the U.S. State Department warned. A child traveling with his parents wears a face mask after they arrive at the Beijing, China, airport. There have been cases of children being separated from parents after either tested positive for the virus, also known as H1N1, a travel alert said Friday. Chinese officials may give medications to minors in such cases without consulting their parents, according to the alert. \"Although the proportion of arriving Americans being quarantined remains low, the random nature of the selection process increases the uncertainty surrounding travel to China,\" the alert said. Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs transmitted to humans and caused by type A influenza virus. Symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. There have been about 48,000 confirmed cases worldwide, including 519 in China, according to the World Health Organization. The Chinese government has taken measures to stop the spread of the virus. They include placing passengers who have fever or flu-like symptoms on a seven-day quarantine, the alert said. Others facing quarantine include those sitting close to travelers with symptoms, those with elevated temperatures and those from areas where virus outbreaks have occurred. A 15-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, told CNN on Monday that she was quarantined in Beijing for a week. \"Apparently, I was sitting too close to a man who had a fever on the 14-hour plane ride,\" Kaitlin Hannigan said, adding that she initially thought she had a fever, but her temperature was fine when officials checked it. A day after she arrived in Beijing with an educational group, government officials showed up at her hotel. \"They were wearing quarantine suits, goggles and masks and, like, full body suits and gloves, and said I had to be quarantined for seven days because I came in contact with that guy,\" Hannigan said. Earlier in June, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin was quarantined in Shanghai after possible exposure to the virus. Nagin was headed to Australia on an economic development trip when he was quarantined for four days after sitting beside a passenger who was being treated for suspected swine flu symptoms. Nagin showed no signs of illness. State officials warned Americans traveling to China that they have to follow local quarantines procedures. \"The U.S. Embassy will be unable to influence the duration of stay in quarantine for affected travelers,\" the statement said. The travel alert expires in September." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Travelers to China with flu-like symptoms could face 7-day quarantine .\nChinese government officials try to control spread of H1N1 virus .\nNew Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin recently quarantined on China trip ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Maria (Maki) Haberfeld is a professor of Police Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She has served in the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israel National Police, and worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a special consultant. From 1997 through 2001, she was a member of a research team, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, studying police integrity in three major police departments in the United States. She is the author of \"Critical Issues in Police Training\" (2002) and co-author of \"Enhancing Police Integrity\" (2006). Maria Haberfeld says police officers make decisions based on their awareness of potential danger. NEW YORK (CNN) -- We teach our children to think about what others feel before they act, but as grown-ups we frequently assume we understand what others do without ever having walked in their shoes. President Obama expressed his opinion about a police officer's interaction with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. \"The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home,\" the president said. Was it stupid behavior or was it an understandable result of police procedure -- the culture, or rather sub-culture, of this profession. People depend on police in a time of trouble but are quicker than lightning to judge harshly when things go wrong. But the most important question in this case is: Did they go wrong? One needs to understand that the interaction between a police officer and a suspect is just part of a larger context. When a neighbor calls the police to report a burglary in progress and a police officer is dispatched to respond, a decision-making process begins for the officer. Police work is about sub-cultural contexts, about war stories, about suspicion, about unpredictability, about danger and fear for one's life. Police officers make their decisions based not just on a given situation but also based on their prior experience, the experience of those they have worked with and the stories they have heard about incidents that happened in the past. A call to respond to a burglary in progress generates a series of images that prepare a police officer for an encounter -- a dangerous encounter that can possibly end with a loss of life. Not long ago one of my students, an officer in the New York Police Department, was killed trying to stop a robbery in progress. Police officers hear about these stories and unlike the members of the public who forget a story, no matter how sensational within a day or two, police officers carry these stories as their secret weapons. This is part of their armor. An officer responding to a burglary in progress arrives at a scene with a heightened sense of danger, anxious and ready to go into fighting mode. Yes, the professor identified himself as a legitimate occupant of the premises. However, he was not arrested for trespassing. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Police officers arriving at the scene of a suspected burglary in progress do not put down their armor of suspicion just because somebody proved to them that they are the legitimate occupants of the dwelling. Police encounters can become deadly when officers assume that, on the surface, everything appears to be in order. It is their sixth sense of suspicion that helps them assess the situation in a way that members of the public would not consider reasonable. It is this precise quality of suspicion that goes beyond a reasonable doubt that sets them apart from the larger public and can be understood only by the members of the force. A person usually does not break into his own house -- it is true that it can happen, and it apparently did in this case -- but this is not a standard behavior that, once explained to the officer, should mandate an automatic approach to put down your guard. The officers look at the scene of the event they were called to as their domain, their turf, their territory, where some order has been disturbed and they were called to restore it. A famous police scholar, Egon Bittner, once wrote that we call the police when \"something ought not to be happening about which something ought to be done right NOW!\" The professor may have raised his voice, and this would appear now as justifiable under the circumstances. But, when somebody challenges the authority or the domain of a police officer who was just called to restore order, the discretionary process of the officer is not the same as that of a bystander. The professor seemingly lost his temper. One might say that this is fine, given the circumstances. The police officer did not lose his temper, he just made a decision that might have been an outcome of an error of judgment, or which one might say could have been justified given the totality of the circumstances. iReport.com: \"Shame\" on Gates . There are over 19,000 different law enforcement agencies across the United States. Each agency has its own standard operating procedures and rules and regulations, including the ones that would appear relevant to this case. However, there are no national standards that can be applied when officers respond to a call for a burglary in progress. Only very general standards could be applied and even then the evolving situation would dictate how officers would proceed after confronting the suspicious person. When an individual under suspicion becomes agitated, insults the officer and becomes aggressive, the majority of police departments would allow the officer to make an arrest. I was not there. Neither was the president nor all the others who are quick to pass judgment. What went on in the officer's head is something that I can only guess but, based on over 30 years of experience in the doing, teaching and studying of the police profession, I would venture to say that race had nothing to do with the behavior displayed and that the sub-culture of police work dictated the action, more than any possible bias or prejudice. I do believe that racial profiling exists in the minds of many -- not just police officers but also regular citizens. But police departments around the country are working very hard to fight these ill-conceived notions and, in recent years their diversity recruitment and selection processes, paired with modules in sensitivity and multicultural training, have had an impact. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Maria Haberfeld." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maria Haberfeld: President Obama said police acted stupidly in arresting professor .\nShe says act could be viewed as result of officers' awareness of potential danger .\nShe says officers arrive at such scenes with heightened sense of danger ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sales of the flu drug Relenza shot up 1,900 percent from a year ago as governments around the world stockpiled in preparation for a swine flu pandemic, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday. Stocks of antiviral treatments are pictured at a warehouse in an undisclosed location in the UK . Relenza sales were £60 million ($98.4 million) in the second quarter of this year, compared to £3 million ($4.9 million) in the same quarter last year, the company said in announcing its Q2 results. Glaxo also said that by the end of the year, it expects to have an annual production capacity for Relenza of 190 million treatment courses, more than a threefold increase to its previously announced maximum capacity. The company will achieve it by increasing production of the Relenza Diskhaler inhaler and building new capacity to manufacture Relenza Rotacaps, Glaxo said. Watch as swine flu boosts drug profits » . Relenza is an antiviral medication similar to Tamiflu that treats symptoms of the flu and helps to prevent getting it. GlaxoSmithKline started production last month of a vaccine for swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, the company said. It is now on track to meet the orders placed by many governments and the World Health Organization for the vaccine, Glaxo said. \"To date we have contracts in place to supply 195 million doses of the vaccine,\" Chief Executive Andrew Witty said. \"We also have a variety of agreements in place with the U.S. government to supply pandemic products worth $250 million. Discussions with over 50 governments are ongoing, with many at advanced stages, and I therefore expect further significant orders. Shipments are expected in the second half of 2009 and early 2010.\" In an interview with CNN's Richard Quest, Witty said the new swine flu vaccine will likely be a boost to sales into 2010. \"As we go forward, I think we'll see (swine flu) become more material for the company, particularly as we move into (the fourth quarter) of this year and vaccine shipments begin,\" he said. However, he thinks any sales boost from the planned swine flu vaccine will last only as long as the threat. \"What we're doing here is responding to government needs, where they've said, `Look, we don't know how serious this is going to be but we want to be prepared',\" he said. The real challenge for pharmaceutical companies is coming up with new blockbuster drugs for chronic disease, not acute outbreaks like swine flu. \"I think what you see in our industry is relatively resistant to the economic downdrafts ... but we do need to constantly renew our portfolio -- that's the challenge we face.\" Glaxo will donate supplies of both the swine flu vaccine and Relenza to the WHO for use in developing countries, he said. Australian company CSL announced this week it planned to start the first human trials of a swine flu vaccine in Australia. Watch vaccine being tested » . Participants will receive two shots three weeks apart and will undergo blood tests to determine if they are generating an appropriate immune response to the virus, the company said. Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the WHO said Monday it was changing tactics against the virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. WHO declared the virus a global pandemic on June 11. More than 120 countries have reported cases of human infection, totaling more than 98,000 documented cases worldwide. More than 700 people have died of the virus, the organization said Tuesday. With 29 deaths and a huge rise in the number of cases, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe. Cases of swine flu in Britain have, however, proven to be generally mild in most people, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday. They have been severe only among a small minority, mostly where patients have had underlying health problems, he said. \"Robust plans are in place\" to deal with the pandemic, Brown said. By the end of the week, a new National Pandemic Flu Service will be operating in England to quickly diagnose people who have swine flu and allow them to get antiviral treatment directly from local providers, Brown said. Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the WHO is changing tactics against the H1N1 virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. \"At this point, further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable,\" the WHO said. The counting of all cases is no longer essential because it is exhausting countries' resources, the organization said. While most patients have reported mild symptoms, a rise in severe symptoms or respiratory ailments that require hospitalization should be cause for concern, it said. Governments should also pay attention to unusual patterns linked to fatal cases, the WHO said. Any changes in prevailing patterns should be flagged, including a rise in school and job absenteeism, and an increase in visits to the emergency room. An overwhelmed health system may mean there is a rise in severe cases, the organization said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: CEO: Boost from swine flu vaccine will likely increase profits later this year .\nSales of flu drug Relenza soar as governments stockpile in case of pandemic .\nAround the world there have been 98,000 cases of swine flu in 120 countries .\nWith 29 deaths, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MUNICH, Germany (CNN) -- Juliane Koepcke is not someone you'd expect to attract attention. Plainly dressed and wearing prescription glasses, Koepcke sits behind her desk at the Zoological Center in Munich, Germany, where she's a librarian. Juliane Koepcke fell more than 3kms after the plane in which she was traveling broke up in midair. Yet this unassuming middle aged woman has one of the most exciting and unbelievable stories of tragedy and survival to tell. It was Christmas Eve, 1971, when Koepcke, then aged 17, and her mother boarded a Lockheed Electra turboprop for a flight from Lima, Peru, to Pucallpa in the Amazonian rainforest. Her parents, both famous zoologists, ran a research station in the jungle studying wildlife. The airline, LANSA, had already lost two aircraft in previous crashes. \"We knew the airline had a bad reputation,\" Koepcke told CNN, \"but we desperately wanted to be with my father for Christmas, so we figured it would be alright.\" The flight was supposed to last for less than an hour and for the first 25 minutes everything was fine, Koepcke recalled. \"Then we flew into heavy clouds and the plane started shaking. My mother was very nervous. Then to the right we saw a bright flash and the plane went into a nose dive. My mother said, 'This is it!'\" An accident investigation later found that one of the fuel tanks of the Lockheed Electra had been hit by a bolt of lightning which had torn the right wing off. \"We were headed straight down. Christmas presents were flying around the cabin and I could hear people screaming.\" Watch Koepcke tell her dramatic survivor's story » . As the plane broke into pieces in midair, Koepcke was thrust out into the open air: . \"Suddenly there was this amazing silence. The plane was gone. I must have been unconscious and then came to in midair. I was flying, spinning through the air and I could see the forest spinning beneath me.\" Then Koepcke lost consciousness again. She fell more than three kilometers (two miles) into the jungle canopy but miraculously survived with only minor injuries. Ninety-one other people aboard Flight 508 died. Koepcke says she is not a spiritual person and has tried to find logical explanations for why she survived. \"Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats,\" she says. \"It was rotating much like the helicopter and that might have slowed the fall. Also, the place I landed had very thick foliage and that might have lessened the impact.\" In any case she survived with only minor injuries. Her collarbone was broken, her right eye swollen shut, she was suffering concussion and had large gashes on her arms and legs. \"I didn't wake up until nine o'clock the next morning. I know this because my watch was still working. So I must have been unconscious the whole afternoon and the night. When I came to I was alone, just me ... and my row of seats.\" Her ordeal was far from over. Rescue planes and search crews were unable to locate the crash site and Koepcke was stranded in the jungle alone. But she had spent years on the research station with her parents and her father had taught her how to survive in the rainforest -- she knew how to cope in that environment. \"\"He said if you find a creek, follow it because that will lead to a stream and a stream will lead to a bigger river and that's where you'll find help.\" The day after the crash she found a creek and started to wade down stream, but it was tough going. The only food she had was some candy she had found at the crash site and her wounds were quickly infested with parasites. \"I had a cut on my arm and after a few days I could feel there was something in it. I took a look and a fly had laid her eggs in the hole. It was full of maggots. I was afraid I would lose my arm. Later, after I was rescued it was treated and more than 50 maggots were found inside. I still wonder how so many maggots could have fitted into that little hole, it was no bigger than a one euro coin.\" As she travelled downstream, Koepcke discovered more wreckage from the plane -- and found some of the crash victims. \"I found another row of seats with three dead women still strapped in. They had landed head-first and the impact must have been so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the ground. \"I was horrified -- I didn't want to touch them but I wanted to make sure that my mother wasn't one of them. So I took a stick and knocked a shoe off one of the bodies. The toe nails had nail polish on them and I knew it could not have been my mother because she never used nail polish.\" Juliane continued through the rainforest, wading through jungle streams infested with crocodiles, piranhas and devil rays. \"Sometimes I would see a crocodile on the bank and it would start into the water towards me, but I was not afraid. I knew crocodiles don't tend to attack humans.\" After 10 days, starved and exhausted, Koepke finally came upon a small boat and a hut on the river. She stayed there, hoping to be rescued. The next day a group of Peruvian lumberjacks found her and brought her to the next town. She became known as the miracle girl and was hounded by Peruvian media, receiving hundreds of letters from people she had never met before. \"It was so strange,\" she says, smiling. \"Some of the letters were simply addressed 'Juliane -- Peru' but they still all found their way to me.\" The events of 1971 still haunt Koepcke and she says the memories are especially clear when she is confronted with airline disasters like last month's Air France crash off the coast of Brazil. \"It just horrifies me. I only hope it all went quickly for those on board.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "German girl, 17, was only survivor of 1971 plane crash in Peruvian rainforest .\nJuliane Koepcke fell more than 3km into jungle attached to a row of seats .\nKoepcke suffered minor injuries, survived for 10 days alone in rainforest .\nKoepcke haunted by ordeal; especially when confronted with other air disasters ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Members of the international community have reacted to the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran and the oppostion protests which have accompanied the result. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pictured at a rally held in Tehran Sunday to celebrate his re-election as Iranian president. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement Saturday: \"We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide. \"The United States has refrained from commenting on the election in Iran. We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people.\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Saturday the administration was \"impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians.\" U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, commenting on NBC's \"Meet the Press\" Sunday, said: \"I have doubts, but withhold comment.\" He added that the Iranian government had suppressed crowds and limited free speech, which raised questions. He also said that the strong showing by Ahmadinejad was \"unlikely,\" based on pre-election analysis. Gallery: Emotions run high after election » . Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman said in a statement that \"the problem which Iran poses for the international community is not personal in nature, but derives from its policy. \"In any case, in light of Tehran's ongoing policy, and even more so after Ahmadinejad's re-election, the international community must continue to act uncompromisingly to prevent the nuclearization of Iran, and to halt its activity in support of terror organizations and undermining stability in the Middle East. In a statement Saturday the EU Presidency said it was \"concerned about alleged irregularities during the election process and post-electional violence that broke out immediately after the release of the official election results on 13 June 2009. \"The Presidency hopes that outcome of the Presidential elections will bring the opportunity to resume the dialogue on nuclear issue and clear up Iranian position in this regard. The Presidency expects the new Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take its responsibility towards international community and respect its international obligations.\" UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Saturday that the UK government had \"followed carefully, and admired, the passion and debate during the Iranian election campaign. \"We have also heard the concerns about the counting of ballots expressed by two of the candidates. This is a matter for the Iranian authorities to address. We will continue to follow developments. Our priority is that Iran engages with the concerns of the world community, above all on the issue of nuclear proliferation.\" Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement backed by Iran, welcomed the results. He urged the world to respect Iranian democracy and accept the results of the elections. The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement Sunday that he had congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory. It added that Karzai believed \"relations between the two Muslim nations of Afghanistan and Iran expanded during Mr. Ahmadinejad's first term and hoped that these relations get stronger during his second term.\" German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told ARD Sunday that the Iranian ambassador in Berlin would be summoned to explain the treatment of protesters against the result. \"I have already prompted Iran, together with European colleagues today, to quickly shed light on what has happened there -- if one can take the announced election results there seriously or not,\" he added. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have offered their congratulations to Ahmadinejad, the official Anatolian Agency reported Monday. It said that they \"called Ahmadinejad on the phone and congratulated him for his success in the election.\" Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, that Canada was \"deeply concerned\" about allegations of voting irregularities. \"We're troubled by reports of intimidation of opposition candidates' offices by security forces. We've asked our embassy officials in Tehran to closely monitor the situation, and Canada is calling on Iranian authorities to conduct fair and transparent counting of all ballots.\" CNN's Shira Medding in Jerusalem and Greg Clary in Washington contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. Vice President Joe Biden: Questions need to be asked about vote .\nUK: We admire passion of the election, Iran needs to address fears about fairness .\nEU Presidency: Hopes outcome sees opportunity for dialogue on nuclear issue .\nTurkish media: President, prime minister have offered congratulations ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin. The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday. The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province and was observed by CNN's Ivan Watson, who is embedded with the U.S. Marines operating in that province. The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters. Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs. Watch U.S. military bomb poppy seeds » . \"There is a nexus that needs to be broken between the insurgents and the drug traffickers,\" Wayne said. \"Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies.\" In a bid to encourage Afghan farmers to swap out their poppy plants for wheat crops the U.S. Agency for International Development has been offering them seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation. Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year. Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August. \"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now,\" said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer. \"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work,\" he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province. \"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own.\" Watch Afghans speak about the change in their farming practices » . Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals. Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. \"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away,\" said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. \"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear.\" Atia Abawi contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. bombs poppy seeds in bid to break up Taliban's connection to heroin .\nPoppy seeds used to produce opium and heroin .\nOpium, heroin has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban .\nUSAID offering seeds, other help to encourage Afghan farmers to grow wheat ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- President Obama on Monday strongly praised a decision by the nation's pharmaceutical industry to agree to a deal cutting drug costs for elderly Americans, calling it an example of the kind of compromise required for successful national health care reform. President Obama says the pharmaceutical industry announcement \"marks a major step forward.\" The agreement discounts medications for Medicare beneficiaries facing high out-of-pocket expenses when their benefits reach a gap in coverage. \"This is a significant breakthrough on the road to health care reform, one that will make the difference in the lives of many older Americans,\" Obama said at the White House. \"Today marks a major step forward, but it will only be meaningful if we complete the journey. ... I have to repeat and revive an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes, we can. We are going to get this done.\" The nation's top drug manufacturers agreed over the weekend to at least a 50 percent discount for most beneficiaries for brand-name medicines purchased in the so-called \"doughnut hole\" gap in coverage, Obama noted. The gap involves medication costs of senior citizens between roughly $2,700 and $6,100 a year that are not covered by the Medicare part D plan. The deal will be part of an $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens over the next 10 years, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, who helped negotiate the agreement. Part of that $80 billion will go to closing the Medicare prescription drug \"doughnut hole.\" Congressional staffers did not have precise estimates, but Finance Committee spokesman Erin Shields said they expect the $80 billion commitment to both cover the Medicare drug gap and leave additional money for other, still unannounced, programs. The American Association of Retired People, the nation's largest organization of senior citizens, has praised the pharmaceutical industry agreement as a step toward health care reform. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs noted Monday that AARP was opposed to health care reform during the first term of former President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s. \"You've got the pharmaceutical industry and the largest group representing seniors in this country, who 16 years ago weren't at the table but were on the other side of the political debate,\" Gibbs said of groups expressing support Monday for health care reform. \"I think that represents progress and important steps towards real reform.\" Overhauling health care is a top priority of Obama's administration, but the initial proposals to reach Congress last week received a rocky reception. The Congressional Budget Office determined that either of two similar bills written by Senate Democrats would cost more than $1 trillion, which was higher than expected. Republican opponents immediately slammed the measures, and the Senate Finance Committee delayed scheduled hearings on one of the bills. Hearings by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the other measure began amid intense partisan bickering, with hundreds of amendments proposed by Republican opponents. At least two more bills are expected from the House of Representatives, and a bipartisan group led by former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle, Howard Baker and Bob Dole also has offered guidelines for a proposal. At issue is how best to reduce the cost and increase the reach of the current health care system, which officials say is increasingly draining personal, corporate and government budgets while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance. Obama has warned that a failure to act soon will bring far worse economic difficulties than the costs of plans under discussion. Both parties in Congress agree on the need to slow the increase in health care costs while ensuring that all Americans can get health insurance, but they differ sharply on how to proceed. Democrats generally favor a government-funded \"public option\" to compete with private insurers. Republicans have said such a step would lead to a government takeover of health care, which they oppose. Republicans also accuse Obama and Democrats of trying to rush through what they say is flawed legislation in 2009 before the politics of midterm elections in 2010 and the 2012 presidential race. The parties do appear to agree on several broad principles, however, including an emphasis on preventive care, cost-cutting measures in the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, and a halt to denials of coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. CNN's Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Deal discounts drugs for some on Medicare when benefits reach gap in coverage .\nDeal part of $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens .\nHealth care overhaul a priority for President Obama; early plans have had hang-ups ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fashion photographer Rankin took time out from his career to take powerful pictures of people from Congo. One of Rankin's images. He visited a refugee camp with the charity Oxfam and his work is now being exhibited in London. The photos are posed like a fashion shoot and different to the regular images coming out of conflict zones. \"I wanted to make the people who saw the photos look at the people and see them as people, not see them as victims,\" Rankin told CNN. Oxfam says 10 million people have died in the last 10 years in the Democratic Republic Of Congo. In the last few weeks, a fragile cease-fire has broken down. The conflict is complicated by outside forces and a variety of armed groups fighting both the government and each other. Rankin said the people he photographed just \"wanted the thing to stop.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fashion photographer exhibits shots of refugees in DR Congo .\nRankin says \"I want people to see them as people, not victims ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Defying threats of arrest or worse, witnesses to protests in Iran are managing to leak reports of violence after the country's disputed presidential elections. Anti-riot police form a barrier against protesters in Iran Tuesday. \"Censoring is very bad here and they have reduced Internet speed,\" two Iranians said to a friend outside the country. The pair wanted to broadcast images of damage and casualties after a reported attack on a dorm at the University of Tehran. \"We managed to upload a few pictures and movies ... please give it to news agencies and ask them to air it.\" The witnesses said riot police and militia attacked the dormitory Sunday night after a student protest the day before. Up to 150 students were arrested, according to the account, and at least one was killed. Students were beaten and shot, and one of the buildings caught fire. Some university professors resigned after the incident, the witnesses said. CNN cannot independently confirm this or other reports. The images showed a heavily damaged building, the charred remains of what appeared to be a dorm room, an injured or dead person, a burned motorcycle and a bloody floor. Many Iranians feel the June 12 election was \"a sham,\" a Tehran man in his 20s told CNN in an interview. \"During [the] previous presidential election, we had a 50.9 percent turnout,\" he said. \"This time, we got 82 percent, because people wanted change and [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad out. We know that many of Ahmadinejad voters from [the] last election voted for [opposition leader Mir Hossein] Moussavi this time. \"This is one of the reasons we were certain that Moussavi would win,\" he said. \"On Saturday morning, when they released the results that Ahmadinejad got 64 percent and Moussavi got 33 percent, we were absolutely shocked. If you looked at the returns coming in, Ahmadinejad's returns never dipped -- but [conservative presidential candidate] Mohsen Rezaie's dropped from 630,000 to 570,000. How is that possible? It's just more proof that the elections were rigged ... people feel like their intelligence has been insulted and that they've been lied to.\" Watch a report on images coming out of Iran » . Reports of violence came from outside Tehran as well. One video was posted by a person who said he had received it anonymously from a Twitter feed. It showed several people wounded by apparent gunshots, and people attempting to treat them, seemingly without medical supplies. The poster said the video was shot in Esfahan, a city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Tehran. \"We need napkins, towels!\" one person yells in the video. \"Quick, give them to me!\" \"Sit down, sit down,\" another person tells one of the injured. \"Please relax. You are very hurt.\" Another image on CNN's iReport site shows the body of a man who has suffered a huge gash to his side. The man was 25, the description said, and was martyred because of his belief in freedom. In yet another video, posted without a description, a screaming crowd surrounds a man's body. CNN is not identifying iReporters who post content from inside Iran. \"Iranian TV isn't giving the big picture,\" the Tehran man said. \"They are depicting the protesters as anarchists. They even report that students are finishing finals at the university when the place has been shut down for days.\" One iReporter noted that Moussavi supporters are still able to organize rallies through person-to-person contact. Many Internet sites are blocked, and cell phones lack service in some areas, the person said. iReport.com: Are you in Iran? Share your story with CNN . The Iranian government has blocked journalists who work for international news organizations. Witness accounts are that plainclothes police were on the streets, shooting rifles into crowds and chasing down those with cameras and cell phones attempting to communicate, fostering \"mass fear.\" One person said the injured were staying out of hospitals, as doctors are handing patients over to police. In Shiraz in southwestern Iran, 28-year-old Najmeh, a hospital nurse, said she had joined protests since Saturday, but decided on Wednesday the risk was too great. \"The police are everywhere you look,\" she said. \"They hurt and arrested so many people last night that no one wants to go out.\" Some Moussavi supporters, however, remained firm -- even as they accused those outside Iran of turning a blind eye to their plight. \"We are fighting with our lives and the world is just watching,\" said Ali, a Tehran University student who asked that his full name not be used. \"They see how the government is trying to silence us, how they are beating us -- but they don't come to our help. It's OK. We will succeed, even if we have to fight alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Report alleges arrests, beatings, shooting, fire in attack at University of Tehran .\nTwitter feed shows people apparently shot in city about 200 miles south of Tehran .\nNurse says police in Shiraz in southwestern Iran have put a damper on protests ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho, ever the headline creator, has caused further outcry this week after he substituted Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari from his Inter Milan side during their Italian Serie A clash with Bari. Inter midfielder Sulley Muntari was substitued Jose Mourinho for his low-energy levels as a result of fasting. Taking a tired player from the field of play was hardly breaking news, at least it wasn't until Mourinho revealed the move had been prompted because the player's perceived \"low-energy levels\" were as a result of fasting. Muntari is a practicing Muslim who, like many of the same faith around the world, is currently not eating during the hours of daylight to mark the Ramadan holy period .Should fasting footballers be dropped by their managers? Sound Off below. A discipline that clearly irked Mourinho who said in a post-match press conference: \"Muntari had some problems related to Ramadan, perhaps with this heat it's not good for him to be doing this (fasting). Ramadan has not arrived at the ideal moment for a player to play a football match.\" Muslim leaders in Italy have criticized the opinions of the coach known as the \"Special One\", but Mourinho did not rule out the possibility of dropping the player for the Milan derby between arch rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan this weekend for the same reason. Click here to see our gallery of the top 10 Muslim football stars » . Elsewhere in Italy, fellow Muslim and Siena striker Abdelkader Ghezzal added to the debate by revealing he cannot fast and play at the same time. \"I've always observed Ramadan but I have had to change my habits for health reasons from the first year that I became a professional. Before that I played at Crotone [while fasting] but after two weeks I felt ill and had to stop.\" Egypt's Under-20 football squad passed up the chance to break the Ramadan fast to help them prepare for the forthcoming World Youth Championship which they host at the end of September. The Egyptian Football Association confirmed that the Dar al-Ifta, the country's institution which clarifies religious principles and issues edicts, had given specific permission for the players to legitimately avoid fasting. It is not just Ramadan which has caused issues between Muslim players and their clubs. The beliefs of Sevilla striker Freddie Kanoute have conflicted with the demands of his professional career. Kanoute taped over the logo of the Sevilla club's shirt sponsors - internet gaming company 888.com -- in 2006 because he said Islam forbade the promotion of gambling. So is Mourinho right to take account of how religious practices may affect his players' performance? Is it wrong to drop a fasting footballer whose energy levels may be lower than his teammates? Should Mourinho contemplate that a player of faith may perform better in a period of self-enforced discipline? Were the Egyptian players right to carry on fasting even though they were given permission to break the fast? If Kanoute right to bring his religious beliefs into his place of work? And can sport and religion ever be separated in a satisfactory way?Let us know your thoughts in the Sound Off box below." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jose Mourinho substituted Sulley Muntari because he had been low energy .\nThe Ghanaian midfielder is a Muslim and had been fasting during Ramadan .\nEgypt's national youth team turned down the opportunity to break the fast .\nLet us know if fasting footballers should dropped in the Sound Off below ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Former world number one, Rafael Nadal, has exclusively told CNN his levels of fitness ahead of the U.S. Open are \"better than expected,\" boosting his chances of becoming only the seventh man in history to win a career grand slam with victory at Flushing Meadows. Titans of tennis, Rafael Nadal (left) and Roger Federer (right), will be both keen to capture the U.S. Open title. The Spaniard, who dropped to third-best in the world after being sidelined for over two months with a knee injury, said he was pleased with his physical preparation for the major that starts on August 31. \"I'm very happy as I arrive here feeling better than I expected I would a few weeks ago,\" the 23-year-old said, who came through two warm-up events recently for the hard-court tournament without any further reaction. Watch Nadal's interview with CNN. » . \"I had a really good time in Cincinnati and a good tournament in Montreal. \"But playing in New York is always a special feeling and it's the last major of the season so I hope to have a good event,\" Nadal said. Nadal, who was knocked out of the U.S. Open at the semifinal stage by Britain's Andy Murray last year, said he considers himself lucky in terms of injuries that have affected his career. \"If you're playing at 100 percent, always at the limit, it is normal that you get injuries. I had nearly four years of perfect fitness while playing a lot of matches. Injuries sometimes happen so you have to accept that and try and recover as quickly as possible.\" But the Majorca-born player admitted it has been difficult to cede ground to his rivals while unable to play and he is keen to prove a point in New York. \"Roger has done an unbelievable job - he deserved the 15 grand slams and I can't congratulate him enough. I miss the competition but not the challenge of playing Roger! \"The atmosphere in New York is great, the crowd is more educated than many other events, so I like this kind of energy and electricity and I have high expectations of playing well here.\" Current world number one and defending champions Roger Federer also spoke to CNN about his optimism ahead of the last major event of the calendar. \"I feel great, a lot has happened in my personal life, as I have twin babies now, and this is their first trip abroad they're only five weeks old. I won in Cincinnati so things are looking good. \"The main threats are Nadal, Murray and (Novak) Djokovic because they have done well here in the past - but we also have players like (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga and (Juan Martin) Del Potro coming through so I think it could be more wide open than normal.\" Despite the difficult opponents standing in his way the Swiss still had his eye on capturing his sixth straight title in America and extending his record of 15 grand slam wins. \"It would be a dream come true to win six in a row here. It's a dream that I always thought was impossible but I'm only a few matches away now so I'm close,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rafael Nadal feels fit for U.S. Open after returning from knee injury .\nSpaniard aims to seal career grand slam with victory at Flushing Meadows .\nRoger Federer is in good form after winning key hard-court warm up event .\nSwiss confident of bid to capture sixth successive U.S. Open title ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A small plane startled shoppers but caused no injuries or damage Tuesday when it made an emergency landing in the parking lot of a New Jersey shopping mall. The plane's pilot reported a \"rough-running engine\" before landing Tuesday, an FAA spokeswoman says. The plane landed around noon at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall, according to Greg Poff, an official with Rockaway Township, about 25 miles northwest of Newark, New Jersey. Neither of the two people aboard the Cessna 172 was hurt, Poff said. Footage from the scene showed the plane resting nose down in a part of the parking lot near JCPenney. Mall employee Jennifer Nelson was relieved to hear that no one was hurt, and kept her sense of humor about the novelty of the incident. The optician at Pearle Vision did not see the landing, but heard about it when a patient came in and told her a plane was in the parking lot. At first she thought the patient was kidding. \"I did, because, who would think? It's craziness,\" she said. The unusual excitement near her store did inspire one idea. \"We'll have to have a plane crash special on eyeglasses,\" she said with a laugh. Lori Magie, who works at the JCPenney department store, said that when she heard from others that a plane had landed in the lot, her first thought was to check on her car. \"When I was told, I could not believe there would be an accident like that around here,\" she said. iReport: Watch video shot at the scene of the parking-lot landing . The pilot of the plane reported a \"rough-running engine\" before the aircraft landed in the parking lot, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac. One of the plane's wheels apparently hit a tree during the landing, said Les Morris, a spokesman for Simon Property Group, which owns the mall. FAA records indicate that the plane is registered to an aircraft charter company called Genesus One, based in Paramus, New Jersey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Plane carrying two people lands in parking lot of New Jersey shopping mall .\nNo one injured, Rockaway Township official says .\nPilot reported engine trouble before landing, FAA spokeswoman says .\nMall worker says she thought landing was a joke when she first heard about it ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Getting arrested for stealing cars after his 16th birthday may be the best thing that ever happened to Terrence Barkley. Serving time in Missouri's juvenile justice system set Terrence Barkley on the path to college. It got him out of gangs and headed to college. While in one of Missouri's juvenile facilities, Barkley became editor of its student newspaper, captain of the football team and made the honor roll. \"I wanted something different for myself or I'd end up in Kansas City doing nothing. I knew I could do something,\" said Barkley, who is the first in his family to go to college. Now he's a sophomore studying criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri. Barkley wasn't scared straight. He wasn't packed away in a crowded facility with steel bars and razor wire. He wasn't under the constant guard of uniformed officers with billy clubs or locked down with hundreds of other juveniles. Instead, he was sent to Waverly Regional Youth Center, one of Missouri's 32 residential facilities where he wore his jeans and T-shirts. He slept in his own bunk bed in a room that looks more like a dorm than a jail cell. He received counseling and schooling. While America's juvenile system is often criticized for corruption and abuse, Missouri state officials say its juvenile justice solution has saved billions of dollars and reduced the number of repeat offenders. In the last four decades, the state has transformed its juvenile system into one that defies the traditional prison model. Known as the Missouri model, the program focuses on therapy, comfortable living conditions and an emphasis on job training and education. Missouri's facilities are serving thousands of young offenders, and they are receiving national acclaim. Each offender is placed in a small group of 10 to 15, assigned a case worker and sent to school during the day. Offenders also put on Shakespeare stage productions and play sports. They learn about teamwork through camping and rock climbing. \"Young people are really turning their lives around and becoming productive citizens,\" said Tim Decker, director of Missouri Division of Youth Services. \"We've redefined what's possible in the juvenile justice system.\" Several states including New Mexico, Louisiana, California and Virginia are trying to emulate the Missouri model. Washington's troubled juvenile detention center, Oak Hill Youth Center, which once housed some of the most serious teen offenders, was shut down in 2009 and rebuilt to copy the Missouri model. Missouri has changed, too. The state once relied on a punitive system that warehoused offenders in harsh conditions. For nearly a century, the Missouri Training School for Boys in Boonville was a dark place known for beatings, rapes and even deaths. At one point, it was crammed with 650 offenders. Even judges hesitated sending children to Boonville. It was closed in 1983 and transformed into an adult prison. \"We had a dysfunctional system and we had to change our mindset on how to best work with these kids,\" said Mark Steward, who helped pilot the Missouri model in the 1970s. Steward heads the Missouri Youth Services Institute, a consulting agency that helps other states implement the Missouri model. Under the Missouri model, juveniles who commit minor crimes such as skipping school or trespassing are placed in low-security, renovated houses or cottages with 10 other kids. The small group size allows staffers to work more effectively with individual offenders. Delinquents who commit violent crimes are placed in gated facilities that hold a maximum of 50 offenders but offer the same small group atmosphere and focus on rehabilitation. These offenders are broken into smaller groups and also receive counseling and go to school on site. Most juveniles work on community service projects during their stay. Instead of serving sentences of weeks, months or years, a juvenile in Missouri can win release through good behavior and demonstrated progress. Missouri officials say the small group size may be the reason why there hasn't been a suicide in their residences in 25 years. The federal government has reported hundreds of suicide incidents involving juveniles in confinement. Critics argue the Missouri model's residential centers are too soft on juvenile delinquents and that some youths may never become law abiding citizens. \"There are victims who certainly feel more is needed to help the child fully understand the consequences of their actions,\" said Julie Lawson, executive director of Crime Victim Advocacy Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Lawson said some adult criminals may take advantage of a juvenile system that doesn't appear to be as punitive as the traditional juvenile model. Adult gang members may ask juveniles to take the blame if they know that the punishment won't be that harsh, she said. Missouri's Youth Services Division staff admits that a small percentage of juveniles will continue breaking the law despite going through the program. But some research on the Missouri Model has shown promising results. A recent analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that about 9 percent of juveniles in Missouri get in trouble with the law again within three years of their release. By contrast, about 28 percent of Arizona's juvenile offenders were back in trouble within three years. The program has survived scrutiny from tough-on-crime conservative leaders such as former Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft, who later served as attorney general in the Bush administration. The Missouri model has saved the state billions of dollars, said George Lombardi, who heads the adult Department of Corrections. He credits the Missouri model's low recidivism rate with slowing prison population growth. As a result, the state didn't have to build three prisons. More than 370 of the juveniles who went through the Division of Youth Services graduated from high school this year compared to just 40 children when the program began in earnest in 1983, according to state officials. \"I had wanted to go to college\" said Kaitlyn Bullard, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Missouri. Bullard, a teen who abused alcohol was sent to a facility for girls in 2005 for behavioral problems.\"But I just never thought it would actually happen.\" Today, she is planning to apply to law school." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Missouri model uses small, therapeutic groups to treat juvenile offenders .\nJuvenile residences don't have barbed wire or require uniforms .\nA handful of other states are trying to replicate the Missouri model .\nStudies show only ten percent of Missouri's youth re-offend ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(InStyle.com) -- The Cyrus family is ready to rock and always on a roll at its new L.A. home. Kick back and chill out with Billy Ray, Miley and the entire guitar-crazy clan. Billy Ray, Tish and Miley join Braison and Noah for chips and salsa in the kitchen before a rare barbecue. After months on the road, playing concerts one city at a time, Hannah Montana deserves a little R&R when she gets home. \"I just Superman onto my bed,\" says Miley Cyrus, 15, whose Disney Channel alter ego has made her a pop sensation, with two multiplatinum sound-track albums and more than 70 sold-out concerts in the past year. \"I love to sleep. I'd sleep all day if I could.\" Her father and Hannah co-star, country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus, prefers to think of the family's Mediterranean-style villa in North Hollywood as more than a crash pad. \"I like for the house to be an escape from the insanity that is outside,\" says the 46-year-old singer and actor best known for his signature hit \"Achy Breaky Heart.\" Inside, the superstars focus simply on relaxing with Miley's mom and manager, Tish, 41, grandmother Loretta Finley (who runs Miley's fan club), 72, brothers Trace, 19, and Braison, 14, and sisters Brandi, 21, and Noah, 8. \"Our house is fun,\" says Miley. \"Parts of it are really modern, but it's mostly old Italian country.\" She opted for a \"more chill\" vibe in her two-room bedroom one for sleeping, one for hanging out and playing music with friends such as dancer Mandy Jiroux and High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale. Inspired by the ultra-cool Viceroy Hotel in nearby Santa Monica, the suite has sea blue walls, coral-filled lamps and a delicate shell chandelier that hangs over her bed. \"It feels beachy and Old Hollywood,\" says Miley. \"I love the way the room is laid out.\" Billy Ray felt the same way about the entire house the first time he saw it in 2007, when the family decided they needed more space and privacy in the after-blast of Hannah Montana's success... \"I just walked in and said, 'That's it; that's the place,'\" he says. Though Billy Ray and Miley have work to do in their native Tennessee, where the highly anticipated Hannah Montana movie is filming, right now he's eager to lead his youngest daughter on a roller-skating expedition around the house. Miley sits at the foot of the stairs, teaching her brother how to break in his guitar strings. The Cyrus clan is happy to be home, even if the comings and goings of family and friends sometimes get as crazy as life on the road. \"It feels like we're at the YMCA; there are so many people just in our family,\" Miley says with a laugh. \"Then our friends come over, and it's like, OK, this is a stinkin' country club!\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright © 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Miley Cyrus' Disney Channel alter ego is Hannah Montana, a pop sensation .\nCyrus has two bedrooms, one for sleeping and one for hanging out .\nThe family bought their new L.A. home in the wake of Cyrus' recent success .\nCyrus lives with her mom, dad, grandmother, two brothers and two sisters ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LEBANON, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements Tuesday at a town hall meeting on health care in Pennsylvania led by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter. Sen. Arlen Specter, left, answers questions Tuesday during a forum in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The meeting drew an overflow of about 250 people, with more gathered outside the hall to demonstrate for and against President Obama's push to expand health insurance for 46 million people without coverage while bringing down costs. It was the latest in a series of emotional public meetings on the health care issue that have prompted Obama and Democratic leaders to complain of a campaign by opponents to drown out the debate with unruly disruptions. At one point, Specter shouted into his microphone that demonstrators disrupting the proceedings would be thrown out. \"We're not going to tolerate any demonstrations or any booing,\" he said after one audience member shoved another making an unsolicited speech. \"So it's up to you.\" Watch the shouting and shoving » . Many in the crowd identified themselves as conservative Republicans, with one man noting they had voted for Specter before the senator switched parties this year. One woman prompted a standing ovation by telling Specter: \"I don't believe this is just health care. This is about the systematic dismantling of this country. ... I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country. What are you going to do to restore this country back to what our founders created, according to the Constitution?\" See a comparison of different countries' plans » . Specter responded by noting his support for the Constitution as a past chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on issues such as warrantless wiretaps. \"When you ask me to defend the Constitution, that's what I've been doing,\" Specter said. Specter said that overhauling the health care system is about America taking care of all of its people. \"In our social contract, we have provisions that see to it that you take care of people who need some help,\" he said. Several people asked if a health care bill would mean taxpayer dollars would pay for others to get abortions. Specter responded that any measure passed by Congress would allow people to choose a plan that didn't cover abortions. The senator agreed with the crowd on some issues, saying he opposes mandatory counseling on end-of-life issues called for in a House of Representatives version of health care legislation. Specter also vowed he would never support any bill that increased the federal deficit or took away a person's right to choose their health care coverage. \"I am opposed to anybody making a decision for you or me or anybody else about what health care plan we should have,\" he said. Emotions ran high, with questioners complaining of government intrusion in their lives on health care and other issues. One man implored Specter and the government to \"leave us alone,\" while another said the message Specter should take back to Washington is that he and others \"want our country back.\" The shoving incident occurred early in the 90-minute session when a man started shouting that he had been told by Specter's staff that he could speak, but he didn't get one of the 30 cards distributed to people allowing them to ask questions. Another man stood up and shoved the protester, and Specter approached the men shouting for calm. \"You and your cronies in government do this kind of stuff all the time,\" the protester shouted before leaving the hall. \"I'm not a lobbyist with all kinds of money to stuff in your pockets. I'll leave you so you can do whatever the hell you do.\" Specter remained calm most of the time, except when a woman asked if the bill meant a 74-year-old man with cancer would be written off by an overhauled health care system. \"Nobody 74 is going to be written off because they have cancer,\" he responded angrily. \"That's a vicious, untrue rumor.\" See an overview of the issue » . One man defended the rowdy behavior of the audience. \"I don't think we have bad attitudes,\" he said. \"We're just being Americans.\" iReport.com: Attending a town hall? Specter said he would vote against all the provisions he said he opposed in the town hall meeting, but he dodged the question of whether he would vote against a final bill if it still contained those provisions. The senator also tried to inject some humor, making sure to thank the lone person among the 30 questioners who supported the health care overhaul. Obama has said an overhaul is essential for long-term economic stability. Congressional action has slowed due to strong Republican opposition. Neither the House nor the Senate met Obama's goal of passing a bill before Congress' August recess. Watch how Obama is preparing for his own town hall » . In particular, Republicans and some Democrats reject a government-funded public health insurance option, arguing it would lead to a government takeover of the health care system. Most Democrats want a public option to ensure coverage is available to virtually all Americans and provide competition to private insurers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania addresses raucous crowd's concerns .\nOne man storms out after he says he failed to obtain card allowing him to speak .\nSenator angered by \"vicious, untrue rumor\" that sick seniors will be \"written off\"" } ]

[ { "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 first search of Michael Jackson's bedroom a day after his death found marijuana, skin-bleaching and hair-growing ointments, anti-insomnia pills and empty bottles of several anti-anxiety drugs, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. The documents reveal what investigators found in Jackson's bedroom the day after his death. A substance initially suspected to be tar heroin proved not to be a narcotic, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. An affidavit, written by Los Angeles Detective Orlando Martinez, was used to outline probable cause for a warrant to search Jackson's Holmby Hills, California, home on June 26. Martinez filed his report on what was found in the search five days later. While the documents may provide some insight into Jackson's life, they appeared to contain nothing that would lend new insight into his death. Another sworn statement written by Martinez several weeks later -- and made public earlier this week -- provided a more extensive list of drugs found by investigators at Jackson's bedside. That document also revealed that toxicology tests led the Los Angeles County coroner to a preliminary conclusion that Jackson died of an overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative he had been given to help him sleep. The latest release refers to suspicions by some members of Jackson's family in the hours after his June 25 death that heroin might have been involved. \"During the course of the investigation, family members of the decedent notified [coroner investigator] Chief [Ed] Winter that they located a quantity of tar heroin in a bag in the decedent's bedroom located on the second floor of the residence,\" Martinez wrote. He used this statement to justify a search of Jackson's home because \"there may be additional medications and/or narcotics at the location as well as the necessity to confiscate these items for the safety of the minor children.\" A source with knowledge of the probe told CNN Thursday that a test later showed that a brown, sticky substance found in the search was not heroin. The source asked not to be named because the source was not authorized to speak about it publicly. In addition to listing two Baggies of marijuana, the detective's report of what was found in Jackson's home listed three vials of Latanoprost Plus Solution liquid. An online search found medical journal references to this glaucoma medication also used to stimulate hair growth. Jackson suffered permanent hair loss when his scalp caught fire while taping a Pepsi commercial in 1984. He was known to wear wigs in public after the mishap. Also listed on the detective's report was Benoquin ointment, a medication used to lighten skin pigmentation in people with vitiligo, a skin condition. Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, said on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" last month that he had treated Jackson for the condition, which causes irregular patches of white skin. \"His was bad because he began to get a totally speckled look over his body,\" Klein said. The coroner announced two weeks ago that the report on Jackson's death was completed, but that police asked for it to be withheld until completion of the criminal probe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Skin-bleaching, hair-growth ointments also found day after Jackson's death .\nPolice searched Jackson's home after family believed it found tar heroin .\nSource: That substance was not heroin ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- An infant girl delivered prematurely from her mother, who has the swine flu virus, has died, hospital officials said Monday. Aubrey Opdyke was put into a medically induced coma to give the baby as much oxygen as possible. Parker Christine Opdyke was delivered 14 weeks early by doctors at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Florida's Palm Beach County. Her mother, Aubrey Opdyke, was placed into a medically induced coma June 3 to help give the baby as much oxygen as possible. But doctors delivered Parker on Saturday after her mother suffered a collapsed lung last week. Aubrey Opdyke remains comatose and in critical condition in Wellington's intensive care unit. \"Despite heroic efforts on the part of physicians and nurses, we are sad to announce that baby Parker Christine Opdyke has expired,\" said a written statement from the hospital. No other details were available Monday. Attempts by CNN to reach the family were unsuccessful. Even under the best circumstances, delivering a child at 27 weeks is a very early birth, Dr. David Feld, a Palm Beach County obstetrician and gynecologist, told CNN affiliate WPEC. \"When you have an infectious case, I don't think you're going to see that lung maturity as quickly, and I think that is the issue,\" he said. But, he said, now that Aubrey Opdyke is no longer pregnant, she will be able to fight for her own life. Palm Beach County has had 247 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, but only one death. In late June, a 25-year-old pregnant woman died, but her baby survived. Pregnant women have long been a prime concern of health care officials regarding the flu virus, but are of particular concern during this outbreak of swine flu. Pregnant women have always been advised to get a flu shot because they are at greater risk because of the weakened immune system resulting from their pregnancy. But the H1N1 epidemic has seen new complications and challenges. \"We have seen, with this virus, worse complications and severe infections in pregnant women,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"We're urging women who are pregnant who develop fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly.\" The CDC said it is vitally important for pregnant women to recognize the signs and symptoms, like fever and cough, to get to their doctor quickly and to begin taking antiviral medicines early on. \"I know that many pregnant women don't want to take anything while they're pregnant,\" said Schuchat. \"This is a situation where you need to be more worried about your health and the baby's health.\" The CDC also recommends that pregnant women get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, in addition to an annual flu shot. \"For people who are at high risk, like pregnant women, planning to receive both vaccines is probably the right way to go,\" Schuchat said. The CDC's advisory committee will meet later this month to make recommendations on at-risk groups who should receive the new vaccine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baby delivered 14 weeks prematurely from a mom battling swine flu has died .\nThe baby's mother, who has been placed in a coma, remains in critical condition .\nCDC sees \"worse complications, severe infections in pregnant women\" with this flu ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Seventh graders at Ron Clark Academy became an overnight sensation during the presidential election when their YouTube performance of \"You Can Vote However You Like\" catapulted them to online stardom. \"The higher the expectations, the higher the results,\" says Ron Clark, seen here with his students. Now, their creative and scholastic talents have proved the students to be more than just \"one hit wonders.\" Academy students showcased their poetry and writings for CNN's documentary \"Black in America 2,\" hosted by Soledad O'Brien. Cultivating student creativity is just one of the goals of academy founder Ron Clark, an enigmatic educator known for his unconventional teaching methods. Under his strict tutelage, students at Ron Clark -- who are predominantly African-American -- are expected to excel in all subjects and maintain a high standard of respect for their peers and teachers. \"I'm teaching an eighth-grade curriculum to fifth-graders,\" says Clark. \"Some people say my expectations of the kids, academically, is too high, but the higher the expectations, the higher the results.\" Watch Clark's students perform their original poetry » . But with high academic expectations come an equally high quotient for fun. It's become one of Clark's trademarks: singing and dancing to popular rap and R&B songs during class to get the kids engaged. \"My first day at Ron Clark Academy, I thought all the teachers were psychopaths,\" says seventh-grader Jai Springs. \"I thought Ron Clark was going crazy. He was up in front of the kids on desks, he was dancing. ... I never saw a teacher get up on a desk and dance. But now I'm used to it, so I get up on the desk and dance too,\" says Jai. Clark, formerly a schoolteacher from North Carolina, founded the academy with money he earned from his book titled The Essential 55, which detail Clark's 55 golden rules for success -- in and out of the classroom. Clark was invited to be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show after winning Disney Teacher of the Year Award in 2001. Oprah believed so much in the well-mannered Southern school teacher from South Carolina that she encouraged him to write the book. Later she promoted The Essential 55 on her show, prompting it's ascension to New York Times bestseller list. Together with co-founder Kim Bearden, Clark transformed a decaying factory in a rough part of Atlanta, Georgia, into a state-of-the-art educational model for middle schools across the country. See newsmakers and iReporters on race, challenges, solutions for black America . Soon after the school opened its doors in 2008, a Christmas package from Winfrey arrived for Clark in the form of a $365,000 grant, or \"a thousand dollars for each day of the year,\" as Oprah referred to it in the letter. Then came the elections, with a tight presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona. Inspired by rapper T.I.'s hit song \"Whatever You Like,\" Clark's seventh grade class penned their own lyrics and dance moves. The students' performance carried a message: Cast your ballot because you support a candidate's policies rather than just his skin color. When they perform the song, half the seventh grade class touts the virtues of GOP's McCain while the other half root for Democrat Obama: \"Obama on the left. McCain on the right. We can talk politics all night. And you can vote however you like.\" The students \"can talk politics with the best of them,\" says Clark. Video clips of the kids performing have garnered over 15 million hits on YouTube. \"We got lots of media attention. But when the media arrived to the school they realized the song is not the story, it's the kids,\" says Clark. One of Clark's credos is teaching a \"global curriculum\" with a heavy emphasis on current events. Himself an avid world traveler, Clark believes it's essential for his students to travel to other countries to develop an understanding and appreciation of the world in which they live. Through Delta's corporate sponsorship of the school, administrators have been able to send all 100 of their fifth to eighth grade students abroad before they graduate. \"I'm not nearly as shy as I used to be,\" says seventh-grader Chi Chi Kasarachi after her first year at the academy. \"My knowledge of the world has improved, I know more about what's going on in other countries and I'm more curious about things. ... I'm just hungry for knowledge,\" says Chi Chi. In fact, the students at Ron Clark Academy are better versed in current events and politics than many adults. \"I never thought I'd be interested in watching the news,\" says seventh-grader Osei Avril. \"Now I find it interesting because I have learned the stories behind the news,\" he says. Osei -- who pronounces Iranian President Ahmadinajad's name perfectly -- says he's interested in learning about world issues such as the Iranian elections, the Taliban in Pakistan, and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. \"At the beginning,\" says Clark, \"the kids will say something like 'I've been to East Point [a suburb of South Atlanta]. After a few years they've been to Kenya, Japan, or South Africa, or England. ... They've become very comfortable with understanding the country and understanding themselves.\" But it's not just the travel or even the singing and dancing to rap music that make the school so special, say the students. It's the academy teachers' creative ways of instilling education, solid values, and a passion for learning. \"They want you to pass the people at the top,\" says Jai. \"To be at the top nonstop, be at your fullest, to be creative, to think out of the box.\" But school isn't all fun and games, she says. Clark is a strict disciplinarian that expects -- and enforces -- model behavior from all of the students. \"I love Mr. Clark with all my heart, he's like a father to me,\" says Chi Chi. \"He might fuss a lot, but I know he's doing it for our own good.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ron Clark Academy students' '08 YouTube rap performance got millions of hits .\nClark teaches \"global curriculum\" with heavy emphasis on current events .\n\"I'm teaching an eigthth-grade curriculum to fifth graders,\" says Clark .\nStudent: \"My knowledge of the world has improved. ... I'm hungry for knowledge\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has followed his country's surprise 2-0 Confederations Cup defeat to the United States by hinting he could be ready to leave English Premier League club Arsenal because of their limited success. Is Cesc Fabregas paving the way for a move away from London-based club Arsenal? The 22-year-old star told British newspaper The Sun that the loss to the USA was not the prime factor contributing to his depressed mood, instead he focused on his club's inability to win silverware. \"The absence of titles at Arsenal is what angers me the most. Cristiano Ronaldo said he's leaving Manchester United because he had nothing else to win. For me right now it is the exact opposite, seeing the impotence,\" the playmaker and club captain said. Check out the world's 20 most wanted players. Fabregas, who joined the north London club in 2003, has not won a major club trophy since Arsenal beat Manchester United in 2005 to lift the FA Cup. Arsene Wenger's team have also not been crowned champions of the Premier League since 2004, a factor that has been increasingly of concern for the diminutive footballer. \"This year we wanted [the title], we were giving everything - but we couldn't reach the level that everyone expected of Arsenal. When you win, you're well. But when you don't, everyone is in a bad mood. For four years now, we've needed a title to regain our belief in ourselves,\" he added. Fabregas signed an eight-year contract with the Gunners in 2006, a deal that should see him stay at the club until 2014, however, it seems he is already considering other destinations to ply his trade. \"My seventh season is about to start. It's a lot when you're just 22. When you stop to think, you see that time flies. In football, you have to learn fast and take the best decisions for yourself and try to be happy. \"If one day I'm not happy, I am the first who will tell the manager. I admire Arsene Wenger but each of us has his own life and looks after his own interests.\" The midfielder - who helped his national side win the European title in 2008 as well as guiding Arsenal to the semifinals of the Champions League in 2009 - hinted that the ambition shown by Real Madrid has attracted his attention despite descending from a family of Barcelona supporters. \"Of course my family would understand if I signed for Real Madrid because they love me, they want me to be happy and what is best for me. They'd support me - whichever club I joined. My family will always be there for me - whatever decision I make. They're the ones who are always by my side.\" Since the re-election of president Florentino Perez, Real Madrid have embarked on a period of extravagant spending, buying Brazil's Kaka for $92 millions dollars from AC Milan and agreeing a $130 million transfer fee with Manchester United for World Player of the Year Ronaldo. Rumors have circulated that Fabregas could be a target for Los Merengues and the man himself speculated it would be a difficult choice to make if both Barcelona and Real were to bid for him. \"At the moment it's not happened so I don't have to choose. For any player it gives great pride that those two clubs come to sign him. It would be a difficult choice,\" he added. Arsenal kick off the forthcoming season in England with an away visit to Everton on August 15." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cesc Fabregas has lamented Arsenal's \"impotence\" over recent years .\nThe midfielder signed an eight-year contract with the Gunners in 2006 .\n\"Family would support a move to Real\" player tells The Sun newspaper .\nArsenal have not won the English Premier League title since 2004 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A U.S. mining company has denied a report by Indonesia's state media that a convoy of its buses came under fire in the province of Papua Wednesday. Indonesian soldiers provide security near a PT Freeport-owned gold mine in Timika, Papua province, on July 18. The state-run Antara News Agency had said that two people were reportedly killed when a 12-bus convoy carrying employees of PT Freeport was attacked by unidentified gunmen in the country's eastern-most province. The company clarified that a vehicle was wrecked in the province, killing one person and wounding several others. When police and mechanics drove to the area to assist, shots were fired at them. Three people were hurt in the shooting, the company said. \"No shots were fired at the PT-FI bus convoy as earlier reported,\" the company said. Following the company's comments, Antara's Web site changed its report to reflect the new information. PT Freeport is the largest copper and gold mining company in the province. Attacks directed at the company killed an Australian mine technician and two Indonesians on July 11 and 12. And two directors of the company were wounded Friday in a twin attack at the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in the capital Jakarta. Papua residents have long resented the presence of PT Freeport in the province. They have criticized the environmental impact of the mining operations and the small share of revenues the province receives. In 2008, a separatist group claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in the area. No one died in the attacks, Antara said. In 2002, two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague who worked at the mine were shot dead in an attack, the news agency said. Meanwhile, authorities on Wednesday released sketches of two men believed to have carried out the bombings at the luxury hotels in Jakarta. One was about 40; the other 17, officials said. Analysis of their DNA matched those obtained from a homemade explosive found in a room at the Marriott where they had checked in, police said. But authorities still do not know their identities. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Antara News Agency said two people were killed when convoy was attacked .\nConvoy was transporting employees of U.S. mining company PT Freeport .\nCompany clarified a vehicle was wrecked but no shots fired at convoy .\nPapua residents resent firm's presence, criticize environmental impact, little benefit ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Cannes Film Festival entrusted its opening to a Pixar film, and the animation studio did not disappoint. An adventurous boy and a cranky man travel by unusual means in the new Pixar film \"Up.\" Pixar, which has produced such gems as \"Toy Story,\" \"The Incredibles\" and \"WALL-E,\" introduced its latest feature, \"Up,\" on Wednesday night at the French movie celebration. By critics' reckonings, Pixar has never released a bad film, and those who saw \"Up,\" its 10th feature, say the studio's perfect record is still intact. The film is a \"captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along,\" wrote Variety's Todd McCarthy. \"The two leading men are 78 and 8 years old, and the age range of those who will appreciate the picture is even a bit wider than that.\" Gallery: Pixar in pictures » . \"It's a terrific family adventure,\" wrote Peter Bradshaw of Britain's The Guardian. \"The 3-D presentation gives it a real boost, but this film is airborne because of the traditional strengths: story, characterization and inventive animation with the old-fashioned values of clarity and simplicity.\" See the excitement of Cannes' opening » . \"Up\" concerns Carl Fredericksen, a balloon seller voiced by Ed Asner. Faced with eviction after his wife dies, Fredericksen decides to uproot himself -- literally -- by attaching hundreds of balloons to his house and flying it to South America. However, it turns out he's not alone. A stowaway -- a Junior Wilderness Explorer named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) -- is in the house as well, and the two of them become mutually dependent after landing a continent away. The film opens May 29 in the United States. Cannes audiences are notoriously vocal. They'll whistle if they're unhappy -- a French version of a boo -- and a movie that doesn't meet the audience's high standards will be treated to the repeated \"whop\" sounds of theater seats banging shut as patrons leave. \"Up,\" on the other hand, received little but cheers. CNN's Natasha Curry, who's at the festival, reports a morning screening concluded with applause. It's an unlikely film to be opening Cannes. Not only is it animated, it's animated by computer -- and, in some theaters, it will be shown in 3-D. Those are all firsts for a Cannes curtain raiser. But the Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan told CNN that \"Up\" fits in with Cannes' aspirations. \"Cannes likes to be seen as innovative, likes to be seen as embracing something new,\" Turan observed. \"But really the reason 'Up' is opening the festival is not because it's animated, not because it's 3-D, it's ... because it's a wonderful film. [Festival organizers] saw that, and I'm sure they liked the fact that they could do something avant-garde in terms of technique, but really it's a wonderful story, it's a terrific film and that's why it's opening.\" Turan said he sees Pixar's work, and its recognition by Cannes, as another sign that animated features are among the best films being produced right now. \"The Pixar films, the Hayao Miyazaki films from Japan, the Wallace and Gromit films from Britain -- we're really living in the golden age of animation, one of the great ages of animation in the whole history of film,\" he said. \"And Cannes is happy to be part of that. Cannes is happy to recognize that.\" CNN's Matthew Carey contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Up,\" new film from Pixar, opens Cannes Film Festival .\nCritics widely praise animated film -- the usual reaction to Pixar movies .\nWhy the opener? \"It's a wonderful story, it's a terrific film,\" critic Kenneth Turan says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Mental Floss) -- We're in the throes of summer vacation season, but at least one American is still on the job. While it's rumored that President Obama will follow in the footsteps of President Clinton and vacation on Martha's Vineyard, he hasn't had a chance to break out his Bermuda shorts just yet. When Obama does take off, though, he'll join in the grand tradition of presidential vacations, like these notable ones: . President Bush (R) and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ride bikes in Crawford, Texas, in 2008. 1. Abe Lincoln doesn't go too far . Far-flung vacations are nice, but President Lincoln preferred to stay a bit closer to home. When Lincoln needed a getaway from the heat and political turmoil of Civil War-era Washington, D.C., he headed to...a different part of Washington, D.C. From 1862 to 1864 Lincoln spent June through November living in a cottage atop a hill at the Soldiers' Home a few miles from the White House. Lincoln apparently loved the slight change of scenery, which meant slightly cooler temperatures and a chance to ride his horse each morning. If you're considering a stay-cation this year, consider this Honest Abe's endorsement. 2. Movie cowboy does real ranching . Think George W. Bush was the first president to sneak away from the White House to spend time on his ranch? Not quite. At the end of his second term as Governor of California in 1974, Ronald Reagan paid just over half a million dollars to acquire Rancho del Cielo in California's Santa Ynez Mountains. The 688-acre ranch, complete with stables and a 1500-square-foot adobe house, was Reagan's go-to vacation destination while he was in office, and he entertained some big names there, including Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mikhail Gorbachev, who gamely wore a cowboy hat during his visit. 3. LBJ does some ranching, too . Texan Lyndon Johnson was very involved in the everyday operations of his ranch. Johnson, who had gotten into ranching in 1951, grew his LBJ Ranch into a 2,700-acre spread populated by 400 head of Hereford cattle. Johnson was no absentee owner when he was in Washington, either. Johnson frequently headed back on vacations and supposedly drove his foreman crazy by calling every day to talk about the weather on the ranch or how the pastures looked. Today, the National Park Service maintains LBJ's spread as a working ranch, complete with a herd of cattle descended from the Herefords Johnson bred. 4. George W. Bush initiates a war on brush . George W. Bush followed in LBJ's footsteps and went to his own Texas ranch when he needed a getaway. Prairie Chapel Ranch, a 1,583-acre spread Bush owns near Crawford, Texas, served as the secondary White House throughout Bush's presidency, and he was often shown clearing brush during vacations. Bush wasn't just doing farm work, though. He exhorted visitors to join the \"President's 100-Degrees Club\" by running three miles or biking 10 after the mercury hit 100 degrees. Anyone who could pull of the feat got a specialized Under Armour shirt as recognition. We can only hope one of the many foreign dignitaries Bush entertained at the ranch -- including Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Ariel Sharon, and Saudi King Abdullah -- managed to get one of the coveted shirts into their suitcases. Mental Floss: Iraq, Afghanistan and other extreme vacation spots . 5. FDR heats up Georgia . Some presidents choose to head to their hometowns or a beach side resort for their vacations, but Franklin Roosevelt preferred to travel to western Georgia. Warm Springs, Georgia, is the home of (you guessed it!) warm springs that supposedly had therapeutic value for polio sufferers. FDR, who had contracted his own paralytic illness in 1921, started visiting Warm Springs in 1924 in the hope that exercising in the springs' warm waters would cure him. Although the springs didn't reverse his illness, FDR felt like his time at the resort alleviated his symptoms somewhat. In 1927 he bought the resort he'd been staying at, and in 1932 he ordered a six-room Georgia pine house to be built on the property. This house was FDR's retreat throughout his presidency and became known as the Little White House. FDR was sitting for a portrait at the Little White House when he died of a stroke in April 1945. Today, the house is part of Georgia's state park system and is open to visitors; it's been preserved to look almost exactly as it did the day FDR died. 6. Nixon gets the right ice cubes . When Richard Nixon wanted a break from Washington, he headed to a modest ranch home he owned on Key Biscayne off Miami. Nixon's \"Florida White House,\" which he visited 50-plus times during his tenure in office, eventually swelled to include three houses and a floating helipad, which the Department of Defense installed at a taxpayer expense of $400,000. (There was plenty of room for taxpayer outrage at the $625,000 total the government spent sprucing up the Florida White House; one itemized expense was $621 for a replacement icemaker because \"the President does not like ice with holes in it.\") Given that this house was Nixon's retreat, it's no surprise that some shady dealings transpired on the premises. Nixon allegedly discussed plans for the Watergate break-in at the house, and he holed up there when the coverup came to light. The house fell into disrepair after Nixon sold it, and in 2004 it was razed to make room for a new building. The Florida White House wasn't Nixon's only retreat, though. He bought a mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Clemente, California, shortly after taking office in 1969. Nixon dubbed his new digs \"La Casa Pacifica,\" but the press quickly started referring to the spread as \"the Western White House.\" This house wasn't cheap for taxpayers, either; the government dropped over a million dollars improving this home with temporary office quarters for staffers, helipads, and an upgraded heating system. Mental Floss: Donald Nixon and other memorable presidential siblings . 7. Teddy Roosevelt goes bear hunting . Lounging on the beach is great, but do you really think Teddy Roosevelt would miss the opportunity to do something manly? Roosevelt's vacation in 1905 took him to the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he stayed for three weeks while bear hunting. 8. FDR's successor gets his own little White House . Harry Truman may have been from Missouri, but he headed south when he needed some R&R. Truman started suffering from exhaustion in late 1946, and his physicians recommended a warm weather vacation to revitalize the President. Truman took his vacation in a converted duplex in Key West that already held some history. The house, which was originally built in 1890 for the commandant and paymaster of Key West's naval base, had already hosted William Howard Taft while he was in office in 1912. When Thomas Edison developed 41 new weapons to aid in the American efforts in World War I, he spent six months living in the house. Once Truman visited the house, though, it quickly became known as Truman's Little White House. He ended up spending 175 days in Key West over the course of his two terms in office. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy later used the house while they were in office, and it's now open as a tourist attraction. Mental Floss: Early summer jobs of Truman, LBJ and more . 9. Kennedy retreats to his compound . Starting in 1926, Joseph P. Kennedy began taking his family to Hyannisport, Massachusetts, on vacation each summer. His son John liked the area so much that in 1956 he bought a cottage of his own near his parents' digs, and the family soon purchased a third cottage in the area, giving rise to the name \"the Kennedy Compound.\" JFK used his cottage as a base of operations for his presidential campaign and later vacationed there each summer he was in office. 10. George H.W. Bush prefers not to ranch . Not to be outdone by the Kennedys, the Bush family has an even older compound of their own in Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1903 George H. Walker, the grandfather of George H.W. Bush, built a great mansion on his oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, and the property has remained in the family ever since. George H.W. Bush used the Kennebunkport compound as his vacation home during his presidency, and George W. Bush made a few getaways to the house as well. Between father and son, they've entertained some pretty big names at their summer house, including Yitzhak Rabin, Vladimir Putin, and Nicolas Sarkozy. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. presidents leave the White House to relax on vacations .\nPresidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush visited their ranches .\nTaxpayers spent $625,000 sprucing up President Nixon's Florida home .\nPres. Lincoln spent four months at the slightly cooler Soldiers' Home ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Shweta Gupta knows exactly what kind of groom she wants: he should be educated, well settled and live in a good location --- one that must be in India. Indian brides and grooms from the Adivasi tribe take part in a mass marriage ceremony. Love may be recession proof in India, but arranged marriages are not. One of the casualties of the global economic slowdown is the Non Resident Indian (NRI) groom. They were once considered premium marriage material. After all, these were the men who had typically studied hard, gotten top jobs in the West, earned big bucks and could whisk their wives away to better opportunities in the West. Not anymore. \"Yeah, I hate to say it but the NRI man seems to be out of favor with the Indian woman,\" said Gaurav Rakshit of Shaadi.com, a matrimonial search engine used by 14 million people globally. He has seen demand for NRI grooms drop by around 20 to 30 percent since the recession hit. Why? Shweta Gupta, a 23-year-old student, has an answer. \"Many Indians working abroad have come back due to recession hitting foreign countries and I don't think recession has affected India that much,\" said said. She believes there is greater job security in India, so would prefer her husband to be based here. Her mother, who is involved in finding a suitable man for her daughter, agreed. \"Suppose there is no job security, then again he would have to come to India, then again he would have to find a job for himself, so I would prefer both of them to be here. Plus, I want my daughter to be close to me,\" said Shraddha Gupta. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India and parents play an active role in choosing a life partner for their children. Traditionally, parents will let friends know that they are on the lookout for a partner for their child. Sometimes, they go to a marriage broker -- a middleman who keeps a stash of resumes and photos of eligible men and women whose families have registered with them. As Indians get more tech savvy, more people are taking their search for partners online. Matrimonial Web sites are popular since they offer a much bigger pool of potential life partners. Shweta Gupta is currently pursuing an MBA in Mumbai and is confident of getting good job offers in India --- another reason she would not want to risk that by going abroad. \"As the woman finds her voice in Indian society, a part of the trend is defined by her unwillingness to compromise on where she grew up, the kind of person she wants to be with, the value system she wants to associate with,\" Rakshit said. Women in India are comfortable with the opportunities they have at home and don't feel they need to go abroad to have a better life. As a result, NRI men are out. So, who is in? Well, government employees, who are typically thought to hold more stable jobs. Shaadi.com said demand was up around 45 percent since last year for men with these jobs. Also in favor now: working wives --- a departure from the tradition of Indian men choosing only homemakers. Anish Sapra, 27, has been looking for a bride for around ten months --- and he wants a working woman. \"It will be a help -- more than a help -- to have a working partner,\" he said. \"Not just for financial reasons,\" he added noting that he believes he would have more in common with such a wife. A wife with a job could help pay off some of the wedding bills, too. Indian marriages are typically large and flamboyant affairs, though the slowdown means they are somewhat subdued these days. That is one tradition Shweta Gupta won't give up. She is holding out for a grand wedding with lots of singing and dancing -- she just has to find Mr. Right. \"My marriage should be fun, it should be remembered by all people,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Arranged marriages are still the norm in India .\nTypically families sought Indians working overseas as good marriage material .\nWith recession hitting the West hard, Indians are looking inward for suitors .\nWomen in India are more comfortable today with the opportunities they have at home ." } ]

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

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Michael Jackson couldn't sleep. A coroner preliminarily has concluded Michael Jackson died of an overdose of propofol, court documents say. Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications. The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn't get rest the night before he died on June 25. The affidavit, from Detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, outlines probable cause for search warrants on the offices of doctors who are thought to have treated Jackson. Yet it also opens a window into Jackson's final hours, revealing information about the singer's treatment and the drugs given him by Dr. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, before his death. Watch a panel discuss Jackson's death » . Based on interviews, visits to Jackson's home as well as records and documents gathered during the investigation, the affidavit provides the following account of Jackson's last days: . In May, Jackson hired Murray, a cardiologist. The singer was spending long days rehearsing for concerts that he saw as crucial to reviving his career. For six weeks, Murray told police that he treated Jackson for insomnia. He said he had been giving the singer an intravenous drip with 50 milligrams of propofol, diluted with lidocaine, every night to help him sleep. Jackson was already familiar with propofol, a powerful anesthetic, Murray said. The singer even called it his \"milk\" because of its milky appearance, he said. With the concerts approaching, Jackson started to need these drugs every night, Murray said -- and the doctor said he worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol. He wanted to wean Jackson off the drug. Three days before Jackson's death -- on June 22 -- Murray gave the singer a combination of drugs that he hoped gradually would move the singer off propofol. That mixture involved propofol, the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam (known by its brand name, Ativan) and midazolam (known as Versed). It succeeded in helping Jackson to sleep for that night and the next, Murray said. But by the night of June 24, Jackson again apparently was unable to sleep. Learn more about the events of Jackson's final hours » . At 1:30 a.m. on June 25, Murray decided to forgo the propofol in favor of 10 milligrams of Valium. Half an hour later, with Jackson still awake in bed, Murray injected the singer with two milligrams of lorazepam. It still wasn't working. At 3 a.m., Murray gave the singer two milligrams of midazolam, pushed slowly into his IV. And two hours later, with Jackson still awake, Murray administered another two milligrams of lorazepam through Jackson's IV. The drugs did nothing to help Jackson sleep. At 7:30 a.m., Murray gave the singer another two milligrams of midazolam in his IV. By that point, Murray wasn't even leaving Jackson's room anymore, let alone his bedside. The doctor told police he sat next to the singer in his bedroom, monitoring Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels. More than three hours later, despite a night of medication and doctor's care, Jackson remained awake. Jackson was repeatedly asking -- even demanding -- that Murray give him more propofol to help him sleep, the doctor told police. So Murray finally administered 25 milligrams of propofol diluted with lidocaine via Jackson's IV drip. The singer now had his \"milk,\" and it worked. After a restless night, Jackson was finally able to close his eyes and go to sleep. Murray told police he watched Jackson sleep for about 10 minutes before going to the bathroom. It had been a long night for both of them. The trip to the bathroom took less than two minutes, Murray told police. But when he came back, he said, he saw Jackson wasn't breathing. He started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but it didn't work. Jackson was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead later that afternoon. According to court documents released Monday, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County, concluded Jackson died of an overdose of propofol. Sathyavagiswaran reached that preliminary conclusion after reviewing toxicology results carried out on Jackson's blood, according to a search warrant and affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas. The coroner's office would not comment on the statements in the affidavit. But Ed Chernoff, Murray's attorney, took issue with some of the information included in the court documents. \"Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory,\" Chernoff said, specifically referring to media reports the coroner would rule Jackson's death a homicide. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said it has not yet seen a police report on the case, and no criminal charges have been filed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Affidavit opens a window into Michael Jackson's final hours .\nDoctor reportedly said he worried Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol .\nAffidavit: Dr. Conrad Murray gave singer several drugs on night before June 25 death .\nMurray's attorney calls some information in affidavit \"factual,\" other \"police theory\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JALOZAI REFUGEE CAMP, Pakistan (CNN) -- It's an exodus on an almost biblical scale. And it has produced a mosaic of plastic and canvas that is now home to more than 93,000 people -- with more arriving each day. These children are among the thousands of refugees this month at the Jalozai camp in western Pakistan. This is Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, suddenly almost a city in its own right as thousands flee the violence raging between the Pakistani army and Taliban fighters. The United Nations estimates that it's the biggest movement of people in Pakistan since the country was formed in 1947. Officials say up to 1.8 million people have been forced from their homes. Food is available at this camp -- fruit traders work their way through the avenues of tents. But people here can't afford to buy much. They make bread with flour handed out by the United Nations, but they say it's not enough. \"It's very difficult, there's lots of jostling,\" says Mehboob Shah, a man at the camp. When there is food, he says, \"it's very poor quality -- even the cows won't eat it.\" Sar Bari Khan arrived 15 days ago with his wife and three children. He says his family walked almost 62 miles to escape the fighting. They had to leave his father behind. Watch a report on the plight of refugees » . There are eight field hospitals in this camp. On a recent morning, 380 new patients registered for treatment -- most of them women and children, suffering from diarrhea and heat stroke. Some have signs of mental trauma. \"They are complaining of fear, phobias, palpitations and all symptoms seem to have started since they arrive in this camp,\" said Abid Farooqi, with the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik underlined the seriousness of the situation. \"I feel that this is even worse than the earthquake in Kashmir,\" he said, referring to the 2005 disaster. He noted that most of the people are from an area with relatively cold weather, and are unprepared for the heat here. Officials, he said, \"are making all possible arrangements\" to help. Water tankers provide a lifeline in the stifling heat. And on the edge of the camp, workers are clearing the ground for more tents. There is no sign of this influx ending any time soon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thousands flee south to escape conflict between military and Taliban .\nJalozai refugee camp near Peshawar suddenly almost a city in its own right .\nThe U.N. says it's the biggest movement of people since Pakistan formed in 1947 .\nFood is \"very poor quality -- even the cows won't eat it,\" says man at camp ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery launched just before midnight Friday on a mission to the international space station. Space shuttle Discovery lifts off late Friday from Kennedy Space Center in a photo from iReporter Alan Walters. The crew of seven astronauts includes one from Mexico and another from Sweden. One of those seven, Nicole Stott, will remain on the station as a flight engineer, while astronaut Timothy Kopra is to return home aboard the shuttle. Also on board: The Leonardo logistics module, science experiments and the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), named for fake newsman Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's \"The Colbert Report.\" Colbert won an online poll conducted by NASA to name the newest space station compartment, but Colbert and the space agency compromised to give the moniker to the treadmill. The new compartment was given the name Tranquility. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman said the treadmill is an essential addition to the space station. Watch shuttle launch » . \"We have the treadmill now to keep them healthy, which is really part of being able to come home in one piece. So it is an essential part,\" Coleman said. iReport.com: Discovery lights night sky . Discovery's liftoff, originally set for Tuesday, had been postponed three times -- first for bad weather, and twice more while mission managers checked out indications of a faulty valve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Space shuttle Discovery launches just before midnight Friday .\nDiscovery is scheduled to fly to international space station with a crew of seven .\nLogistics module, science experiments, Stephen Colbert treadmill also aboard ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events. Julian Zelizer says some of President Obama's political vulnerabilities have started to emerge. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- June has been rough for President Obama. After experiencing enormous success during his first months in office, some of his political vulnerabilities have started to emerge. As Republicans begin to think about the 2010 midterm elections and moderate Democrats decide how they should vote on Obama's most ambitious initiative, health care, the White House must prevent these weaknesses from becoming debilitating. The first vulnerability is the tension between the left and center of the Democratic Party. Since his election, President Obama has struggled to navigate the divisions that exist between the liberal base of the party, who were the core of his early support, and moderate Democrats, who were also instrumental to his victory. At first, the administration relied on good will and political capital from the election to overcome conflicts, such as when Obama agreed to reductions in the size of the economic stimulus package to placate the conservative Democrats and some Republicans despite the objection of progressives. But the tensions are becoming more pronounced and more difficult to resolve. The president has disappointed gay rights activists for not fulfilling promises they thought he had made on the issue of gay rights. Last week, they expressed their frustration with the Department of Justice's legal brief supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that prohibits same-sex partners from receiving marriage benefits and protects states that don't recognize same-sex marriages. Obama failed to calm the storm even when he extended some employment benefits to the same-sex partners of federal workers. He came under fire for having declined to provide health care and retirement benefits on the grounds that such a move would violate the Defense of Marriage Act. These kinds of left-center tensions will intensify when Congress delves into the final negotiations over health care this summer. Progressive Democrats insist that without a public insurance option health care reform will fail in the long run. Several Democratic moderates have been pushing alternatives that fall far short of that goal. The second vulnerability is the deficit. When Republicans have turned away from cultural issues and toward economics, they have been finding more success at attracting the interest of independents and moderates. Recent polls have shown that the public is concerned about the growing size of the deficit and Republicans have finally gained a bit of political traction by linking Obama's policies to the government's red ink. To be sure, this is not a home run issue for the GOP. Many commentators have pointed to the hypocrisy of Republicans making anti-deficit arguments following the tax-cutting and spending spree that took place under President Bush. Moreover, deficits have a poor track record in terms of being a winning campaign issue. There have not been any presidential candidates or major midterm elections in recent history that hinged on anti-deficit arguments. Many presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, survived while growing the deficit. Polls have shown the public is also notoriously fickle about how much weight it gives to the deficit as an issue, and is often misinformed about the actual size of the deficit. Nonetheless, warning about rising deficits has been an effective tool for weakening the political strength of an incumbent administration. Regardless of the economics of the issue, with some respected economists saying short-term deficits don't matter, many Americans perceive the budget deficit as a symbol for whether a president is keeping federal spending under control. While Republicans might not take back Congress by focusing on the deficit, they can erode Obama's political standing and make it more difficult for him to pass legislation. Finally, there is the economy. The irony for Obama is that as the economy has stabilized, it has become a greater source of political danger. Without an immediate crisis, voters are not as panicked and don't feel as desperate for federal assistance. A growing number are more comfortable criticizing the administration's economic policies. Some Republicans have picked up on this and have asked why the U.S. needs to spend the stimulus money if the recession is almost over. At the same time, Obama is in a double bind: Most experts agree that we will have a fragile economy in the foreseeable future, so voters won't be happy either. If there is any new dip in the economy, the public will blame President Obama rather than President Bush. This is exactly what happened with the recession in 1937, which FDR's opponents called the \"Roosevelt Recession,\" using the downturn to diminish the number of New Deal liberals in the House and Senate in 1938. Does this mean Obama is finished? Not at all. The same polls that reveal vulnerabilities show that Obama is still extremely popular with the public and most evidence suggests that he has good standing with congressional Democrats. But in recent weeks a candidate who was once seen as invincible is now seen as potentially vulnerable. This is when the sharks start to circle in American politics. The revelation of weakness gives Republicans, as well as unhappy Democrats, more confidence to challenge the White House. This is not what the president wanted right as he is trying to win support for his health care proposal and the rest of his budget. If the problems are not contained, they can also become the foundation for the Republican campaign for Congress in 2010. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Julian Zelizer: June has been a difficult month for President Obama .\nHe says divisions have grown among Democrats on gay rights, health care .\nZelizer says growing concern about deficit could blunt Obama's plans .\nHe says a new dip in the economy would be blamed on Obama, not Bush ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini believes his squad is now \"complete\" and ready for the challenge of a new Primera Division campaign. Manuel Pellegrini is encouraged with the performances of Cristiano Ronaldo and company in pre-season. The Bernabeu club have invested heavily in their side over the summer, bringing in the likes of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema in a bid to wrest the domestic and Champions League trophies away from rivals Barcelona. The pre-season signs have been encouraging, and they rounded off their preparations with a 4-0 rout of Norwegian side Rosenborg on Monday. Pellegrini is hopeful it will all come together again when they kick off their Spanish Liga campaign against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday. \"The pre-season has been very positive and we've managed to prepare the squad well, allowing every man to play more or less the same time,\" he told the club's official Web site. \"The team is solid in defence and has potential in attack. We keep possession more on our opponent's half of the pitch, allowing us to showcase our technical differences. \"This squad is complete. It gives us alternatives to try out different things. We still have to polish some aspects of our game, but I'm not worried about that.\" Pellegrini has also been impressed by Ronaldo, although he believes the Portugal winger requires more time to settle in following his move from Manchester United. \"Cristiano Ronaldo needs a little time to adapt to his new team's style. Every player on the squad is working hard to be fit and play well,\" the coach added. \"Cristiano has experienced a change in style and now lives in a different country. He needs a little more time unlike those who already know La Liga.\" Ronaldo himself is looking forward to the challenges ahead, with Real desperate to improve on their showing last term. \"The team is doing well. We are working hard and preparing for the start of La Liga,\" he said. \"I feel comfortable and relaxed. I am working hard and I am waiting for the league to begin. I'm sure things will turn out as we want them to. \"We must take things slowly, get in good shape and think positively at all times.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini says that his squad is now \"complete\"\nBernabeu giants have invested heavily in their side over the summer months .\nPellegrini reveals that Real Madrid's pre-season form has been encouraging ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Greece international central defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has completed his transfer to English Premier League side Liverpool after signing a two-year contract with the club. Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has turned to Kyrgiakos because of defensive injury worries. The 30-year-old has passed a medical to finalize his switch from AEK Athens, and will go straight into the squad for Monday's home match against Aston Villa at Anfield. He is likely to partner Jamie Carragher in the heart of Liverpool's defense, taking the place of teenager Daniel Ayala who made his full debut in Wednesday's 4-0 win over Stoke. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is without two key defenders through injury. Danish center-back Daniel Agger will have an operation on his back in Germany on Tuesday, and will be out for six weeks while Martin Skrtel is still struggling with a damaged jaw, sustained at Tottenham last weekend, and is not expected to be fit to face Villa. Benitez has been searching for defensive cover for weeks, having tried to sign Stoke's Ryan Shawcross and Hull's Michael Turner. He was also linked with West Ham's England defender Matthew Upson. But Liverpool's American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks are believed to have put the block on any further major signings, meaning that Benitez has had to search for the cheaper options. He has snapped up Kyrgiakos for just $3.3 million and Benitez said of his latest signing: \"He has had experience in Scotland with Rangers and in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt as well as with the Greek national side. Benitez told Liverpool's official Web site: \"He is strong and good in the air, and we were looking for experience and he is the perfect answer.\" Kyrgiakos, who has been capped 50 times by Greece described his decision to move to England as \"the biggest challenge of my career\". The tough-tackling defender moved back to Greece in 2008 after one season at Rangers and two with Eintracht Frankfurt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Greece international central defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos moves to Liverpool .\nLiverpool manager Rafa Benitez swoops because of recent defensive injuries .\nKyrgiakos, 30, likely to make Liverpool debut against Aston Villa on Monday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The daughter of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping her in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, testified against him by video at his trial Tuesday. Josef Fritzl is seen without his face covered and surrounded by security guards Tuesday. One of Elisabeth Fritzl's brothers, Harald, also testified by video, a court spokesman said. The media and public have been barred from the courtroom for sensitive parts of the trial. Fritzl has pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but denied murder and enslavement. He pleaded \"partly guilty\" -- an option in Austrian court -- to multiple charges of raping his daughter, Franz Cutka, a spokesman for the court in Landesgericht St. Poelten, said. A verdict is expected on Thursday, Cutka said. Elisabeth testified on an 11-hour videotape. Portions of the tape were played Monday, and Fritzl was asked about it. The remainder of the tape was played Tuesday, officials said. Watch his face in the courtroom » . Authorities have said Elisabeth and her children were given new identities and are in a secret location. Details of her testimony were not made clear at the daily afternoon news conference. Asked at the news conference why other family members have not testified, officials said they did not wish to do so. Watch media at Fritzl trial » . The murder charge relates to an infant named Michael Fritzl who died soon after birth, allegedly from lack of medical care, State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek says. A neo-natal expert gave evidence Tuesday in relation to the murder charge. As he had Monday when the trial opened, Fritzl concealed his face behind a file binder as he arrived in court to shield himself from reporters, television cameras and photographers and escorted by a phalanx of police officers. Later Tuesday he dropped his guard and was pictured with the binder by his side, talking to security guards. During the trial, prosecutors have painted a chilling picture of the more than two decades Elisabeth spent in the cellar of the family home in Amstetten with three of her children. Fritzl took three other children upstairs, authorities have said, telling his wife and other relatives that the missing Elisabeth had dropped them at the house. The woman and the remaining children never saw daylight, prosecutors said, and Fritzl went away for long periods of time, causing them to go hungry when he did not bring them food. Watch Fritzl's first day in court » . To punish them, prosecutors said, Fritzl sometimes turned the power off in the cellar for up to 10 days. In addition, they alleged, Elisabeth was often sexually assaulted in front of the children. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's then-19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions, and Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow the girl to be taken to a hospital. Hospital staff became suspicious and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Police said Fritzl confessed to them that he had sex with his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity, and burned the body of the infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins, and died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. Seven years later, she said, he drugged, handcuffed and locked her in the cellar. To back up his story that she had run away, Fritzl forced Elisabeth to write letters, authorities have said. Defense attorney Rudolph Mayer has said his client, 73, expects to spend the rest of his life in prison. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . • Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. • Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. • Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. • Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. • Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. • Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Diana Magnay and Frederik Pleitgen in St. Poelten and Melissa Gray in London contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Incest rapist Josef Fritzl in Austrian court for the second day of his trial .\nFritzl drops his guard, is pictured without binder obscuring his face .\nAustrian accused of keeping daughter in cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nDaughter Elisabeth give pre-recorded videotaped evidence ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Search teams have found the flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands in June, killing 152 people, the chief investigator said Friday. Search parties continue their operation to locate the Yemenia Airbus A310 off the Comoros Islands in July. An operation to retrieve the recorder has begun, said a statement from investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed. The Airbus 310 crashed into the Indian Ocean, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. One person, a 13-year-old French girl, survived. The recorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash. The plane had tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said soon after the accident. A French official said that country had banned the plane after it failed an aviation inspection in 2007, but Yemenia Airways was not on the European Union's list of banned airlines. Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Comoros Islands lie between east African and the island nation of Madagascar .\nRecorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash .\nThirteen-year-old French girl was the only person to survive plane crash ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Starting Tuesday, many \"robocalls\" from telemarketers will be illegal. A new ban on automated telemarketing calls goes into effect Tuesday. Businesses that try to push products on consumers with automated and unsolicited calls will face fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the Federal Trade Commission. \"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year,\" FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release. Calls from politicians, public service announcements and \"informational\" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP. \"If consumers think they're being harassed by robocallers, they need to let us know, and we will go after them,\" Leibowitz said. The ban on many pre-recorded calls was approved by the FTC in August of 2008 and is the last of a series of amendments to go into effect, said Lois Greisman, the FTC's associate director of marketing practices. She said the ban applies only to pre-recorded calls and encouraged consumers to sign up for the federal \"do not call\" registry for additional protections. Robocalls to mobile phones already are illegal, she said. People still will be able to receive telemarketer calls if they give companies written permission to contact them. Nate Anderson, a blogger at Ars Technica, a technology site, cheered the amendments but said many calls are illegal even without the new amendments. \"Most of the robocalls received by people in the office here are already illegal to do begin with -- pitches for time shares and bogus car warranties top the list of such calls,\" he wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An FTC ban on automated telemarketing calls starts Tuesday .\nCompanies breaking the rule face fines of $16,000 per call .\nExceptions include political calls, \"informational\" calls and bank calls ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Another child has died from last week's fire at a day care center in northwestern Mexico, bringing the death toll to 45, the state-run Notimex news agency said. A crib and baby seats sit outside the scene of a deadly day care center fire in Mexico. The child died Friday in a hospital in the city of Guadalajara, Notimex said. The news agency did not provide any additional information. A fire raged through the ABC day care center on June 5 in the city of Hermosillo in Sonora state. Officials said an air-conditioning unit in a government-run warehouse in the same building as the day care center caused the blaze. In another development Friday, three officials from the Mexican Institute of Social Security were fired, Notimex reported. The social security institute oversaw the ABC day care facility. Earlier, the Institute of Social Security removed its Sonora director, Arturo Leyva Lizarraga. Leyva Lizarraga was \"separated\" from the agency Wednesday to \"facilitate the investigative process,\" according to Notimex. The same wording was used in announcing Friday's firings. Earlier in the week, two other people who ran the center resigned from the government jobs they held. Also Friday, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said officials had found safety irregularities at the day care center in 2005, Notimex said. He declined to detail those irregularities but said authorities are investigating if anything was done about them. Any negligent officials will be punished once the investigation is completed, Medina said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Three officials from supervisory agency dismissed .\nDeath toll in Mexico day care center fire rises to 45, officials say .\nFire tore through building in Sonora state on June 5 .\nFire started in air-conditioning unit in adjacent warehouse, officials say ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson has officially become the most popular person on Facebook, with more than 7 million fans on the social networking site. The Michael Jackson Facebook page is now the most popular on the social networking site. Previously, the most popular person on Facebook, with just over 6 million fans, was U.S. President Obama. Over the past week, Jackson's page has grown from 80,000 fans to just over 7 million, generating the largest response on a Facebook page, the social networking site says. He has continued to gain about 20 fans per second and even more during peak traffic hours, said social media commentator Nick O'Neill, founder of the Social Times Web site. By comparison, actor Ashton Kutcher recently entered a race to beat CNN's Larry King to 1 million followers on Twitter. Kutcher won and remains the most popular person on Twitter -- but still has only 2.6 million followers. During his memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, all 10 trending topics on Twitter.com were Jackson-related. Jackson's popularity and the viral nature of Facebook fan pages are the primary reasons for the huge fan base, O'Neill explained. He said, \"It's simply his popularity. Also, as users become fans, the page gets recommended to others, driving the viral growth of the page. \"Michael Jackson is simply the largest celebrity in the world. While he was a controversial figure, he clearly attracts the attention of the global media,\" he continued. The Facebook page has become an online memorial to Jackson, with thousands of comments from around the world; dozens appear every minute. Free virtual versions of Jackson's famous glove are the most popular gift on the site, with more than 800,000 sent to members. The huge following leaves the singer's heirs (and his record label) with a massive network to communicate with fans and continue the massive resurgence of interest in Jackson's music, O'Neill said. \"While Sony has not heavily engaged the fan base on Michael Jackson's page, they at least have a presence. If your fans are there, you should be there. \"This also provided an ongoing promotional channel for any future products that are released. It's simply not an option and will become a component of all marketing strategies.\" There have been 2.6 million downloads of Jackson's music since his death. He has the top two albums on iTunes, as well as three of the top 10 singles. In the United Kingdom, Jackson held 11 of the top 200 album positions and 43 of the top 200 singles, based on sales monitored by the Official Charts Co. for the week ended June 27. His \"Number Ones\" album topped the OCC album chart after selling 46,400 physical copies and 10,000 downloads. The surge for demand in Jackson's music looks likely to continue for several months: The fan page has a music player with some of Jackson's hits and an option to buy them through Amazon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Michael Jackson is most popular person on Facebook with nearly 7 million fans .\nPreviously, U.S. President Obama had the most fans .\nExperts say Jackson's fan base gaining more than 20 fans per second ." } ]