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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": "'SINDH KALAY', England (CNN) -- The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. A British soldier on patrol in the mock Afghan village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles. What should the soldiers do? Conduct a weapons search? Approach the village elders first? In the complex political and cultural terrain of Afghanistan, what is the best course of action? Except this is not Afghanistan. It's Norfolk, England. Instead of the Hindu Kush mountains, it is the green ladscape and tidy farmhouses of the English countryside that stretch out behind them. Welcome to the British Army's state-of-the art training ground. It cost more than $20 million to build and every British soldier serving in Afghanistan will do his or her training here. \"I think it's the closest thing you are going to get short of being in Afghanistan itself,\" says Col. David Colthup of the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. His troops have already served one tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province and are training for another. British troops serving in Helmand province are tasked with mentoring and training Afghan security forces. Not an easy job in a Taliban stronghold and Afghanistan's center of opium production. \"Ultimately, a soldier joins the army and trains to fight. That's what a soldier trains to do. But today, it's a much, much more complex environment,\" explains Colthup. \"The business of being able to interact either through an interpreter or through Afghan security forces, whether they are police or army. And to understand how the people operate and how we can interact better with them. Because ultimately, that's what it's about,\" he says. The most distinctive features of Sindh Kalay are the high three-meter walls that make up the village compound, creating narrow alleyways difficult for troops to patrol. The village is staffed with Afghan asylum-seekers, many of whom have fled the Taliban. They play the roles of market vendors, village elders and sometimes Afghan security forces. Several Afghan women are also on hand, useful for training British soldiers on the religious and cultural sensitivities of entering an Afghan home. Watch British troops training in mock Afghan village » . The Taliban insurgents are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers authorized to handle weapons. They play their roles silently, unable to partake in the Pashtun banter among the Afghans. Fazel Beria is also an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. He is responsible for recruiting and for creating the sights and smells of Sindh Kalay and is easily identifiable as the only Afghan in the market in Western clothes. He beams with pride walking down the bazaar and clearly relishes his role in training the British Army. \"Everything with the culture comes up with the issue of hearts and minds,\" he explains. \"If you want to win that, you need to know about their culture. You need to respect their culture, their religion and their way of life.\" He gives high marks to the soldiers training so far. After each exercise, the Afghan actors talk directly to the soldiers about what went wrong and what went right. Sometimes, it's the little things that count. \"Yes, there have been quite a lot of surprises,\" Beria says. Like Afghan will sit cross legged for hours. \"The British soldier cannot do that,\" he laughs. \"The Afghan will be sitting very comfortable and the British soldier is not. So, they have to get used to it.\" See photos of British troops on patrol in Sindh Kalay -- and for real in Afghanistan » . Previously, the army trained on farmhouses and in urban neighborhoods that resembled Northern Ireland more than Afghanistan. But Sindh Kalay does more than mimic the physical reality of Afghanistan. It also mirrors the changing tactics on the ground. Troops are grilled in IED training by amputees that act out the violence with latex wounds and fake blood. When a new IED tactic is discovered by troops in Afghanistan it is communicated to Sindh Kalay and put into practice immediately. \"Before we had this, it wasn't realistic enough,\" says Col. Richard Westley, head of training here. \"I think if you're going to be asking young men and women to go and risk their lives in someone else's country, then you have a moral obligation to prepare them for that environment. And that's what this village does. It gives them the isolation and complexity of an Afghan village. Which we can't do with farmhouses which represent Western Europe.\" Some of the details in the Afghan village don't quite ring true. The slabs of lamb and beef hanging from the market stalls are plastic, as are the grapes and melons the vendors try and sell to the British soldiers. Still, Sindh Kalay is eerily effective. When soldiers sit down for a \"shura\" or meeting with village elders, helicopters buzz overhead and the soldiers seem surprised to be served a homemade yogurt and cucumber drink. But the unit commander can't help laughing when one of the Afghan village heads pulls out a \"list of damages\" by British troops. It turns out to be a receipt for the local supermarket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "British soldiers train in mock Afghan village before deployment to Afghanistan .\nVillage features Afghan asylum-seekers as vendors, elders, Afghan forces .\nTaliban militants are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers .\nVillage trains soldiers to understand Afghan customs, respect Afghan culture ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Two Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were shot Saturday after a gunman's domestic dispute led to shootings at two locations, a police spokesman told CNN. Crime scene tape cordons off a squad car involved in a chase and shootings Saturday in Baltimore. The rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend, who has a restraining order against him, police spokesman Don Moses said. The suspect, 34, forced his way into her home and they argued, Moses said. In an apparent rage, the man fired a round from a 9 mm Ruger, Moses said. The ex-girlfriend called police about 10:30 a.m. Moses described to CNN what unfolded next. Police have not released the names of anyone involved. Police received a call from the suspect's current girlfriend just before 11 a.m. She told them the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, and she suffered minor injuries. While a 42-year-old policeman was at her home tending to her report, the suspect called her. The officer talked to the suspect on the phone and convinced him to return to west Baltimore, where the girlfriend lived. When the suspect pulled up in a car, the officer approached him and was fired upon, suffering a gunshot wound to the buttocks. The wounded officer got into his patrol car and chased the suspect. An officer providing backup at the first shooting scene spotted the suspect's vehicle parked three blocks away. As the policeman observed the vehicle from inside his patrol car, the suspect appeared on the driver's side and fired at the officer. The backup officer, 44, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was shot in the chest and arm but managed to return fire, hitting the suspect three times. He was in stable condition after surgery and was expected to survive. The suspect is in custody and expected to live, Moses said. The officer shot in the buttocks was treated and released from the hospital Saturday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police spokesman: Rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend .\nWoman told police the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, CNN told .\nOne officer received minor wound, and a second was stable after surgery .\nSecond officer shot returned fire, wounding suspect, who is expected to survive ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- In these eco-conscious times, there are few areas of life that have not been touched by the drive to go green, and golf is no exception. Justin Timberlake has been an advocate of eco-golf at his course in Tennessee. The trend for environmentally friendly golf is rocketing with celebrities such as Justin Timberlake taking up the cause in unveiling one of the world's top eco-golf courses earlier this year. His club, the Mirimichi Golf Course in Tennessee is the first in the country to be designated as a certified Audubon International Classic Sanctuary, re-using 80 percent of the energy it produces. Next month Stockholm will host one of the largest meetings of American and European golf clubs to decide how the game can become more environmentally and socially responsible. Living Golf looks at a selection of some of the best eco-equipment making our greens even greener. The recyclable golf ball: . Every club player will be familiar with the age-old problem of losing golf balls -- but what happens to the collection of wayward balls once the search is over? Dixon Golf are asking for their customers to recycle their balls. It is estimated 300 million golf balls are discarded in the United States alone, every year -- that is enough balls to create a solid line from Los Angeles to London and back. Dixon Golf are encouraging golfers to recycle their lost and found by offering a dollar for each ball that is returned to their recycling centers throughout the US and in over 15 countries worldwide. \"We're getting the word out there. We don't have the advertising revenue of [bigger] companies but the more people know, the more they chose our eco-friendly balls. \"We're also developing our first prototype putter made entirely from recycled crushed golf balls,\" said company owner Mike Carey. The solar-powered cart: . Ever felt like your golf cart could do with that extra bit of oomph? Well, SolarDrive sun-powered, solar-paneled golf cart could be the answer. The SolarDrive sun-powered car - an energy solution for the future? By recharging itself throughout the day, the cart can work in drizzly and damp conditions -- which could be good news for golf lovers in rain-soaked Britain and sun-baked Abu Dhabi alike. The design has proved so popular that golf clubs such as the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course in Hong Kong and Sebonack Golf Club in the United States have recently converted entire fleets to use the power of the sun. General Manager at Sebonack Mark Hissey says it has been a great move for the club: \"First, it's a wonderful idea and second they look fantastic. Plus they're financially better for us to run, saving us over two-thirds on our electrical costs.\" Large-scale gated communities in the UEA are also reportedly keen to use the carts as a more environmentally-friendly alternatives to gas-run vehicles. The biodegradable tee: . A littered tee box may be a thing of the past with the biodegradable golf tee. Manufacturers XT-1 believe they are saving over 100, 000 trees with their nifty corn based tee. The manufacturers of the XT-1 claim it will biodegrade within three months. Unlike wooden tees which take up to two years to degrade, XT-1s take just two to three months by way of an interesting eco-system. Once the tee comes in contact with the soil, the corn-based product is attacked by incredibly small microbes (or micro-bugs) that eat away at the tee to corrode the core. A slightly unusual method perhaps but an effective one, as sales in the last few years have soared. Manager Alan Berry told CNN: \"We're gaining interest all over the world -- Australia, the Middle-East, Europe and the States. Our sales figures speak for themselves.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New developments in golf show that the sport has a drive to go green .\nDixon Golf aim to recycle some of 300 million discarded balls in the U.S.\nSolarDrive can convert golf carts so they can run off the power of the sun .\nXT-1 have developed a golf tee that can biodegrade in just three months ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- When Michele Maro became captivated by \"The Lord of the Rings\" movies, she never imagined she would one day be walking around in the Shire, touring Hobbiton and peeking into hobbit holes. Fans of the \"Lord of the Rings\" trilogy can tour a New Zealand farm that was used as the setting for Hobbiton. Those are all fictional places, but fans can visit the closest thing possible in New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed and where specially designed tours will take visitors to some of the stunning locations featured in the movies. Maro, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, spent two weeks in New Zealand in 2003 being guided around forests, national parks and farms, exploring sites that she didn't think were real when she first saw them on the big screen. \"The scenery was so pretty that I thought it had to be computer-generated,\" Maro said. But the place that moved her most was a serene sheep farm in Matamata, New Zealand, where filmmakers brought to life author J.R.R. Tolkien's vision of Hobbiton, the hobbit village where Frodo Baggins lives, complete with hobbit holes peeking out of hill sides. \"I just stood there and cried. It was like, 'I can't believe I'm actually here,' \" Maro said. \"I loved the movie so much, and to actually be there where they filmed that, it overwhelmed me.\" See iReporters' film location photos » . Sing along with 'The Sound of Music' Such passion has prompted tour operators all over the world to take fans to sites that have served as settings for blockbusters on the big and small screens. They can be legendary places recognized on their own or seemingly mundane restaurants, houses and street corners that become instantly recognizable when put in the context of a favorite movie or TV show. In London, England, you can visit locations used in movies such as \"Bridget Jones's Diary\" and \"Four Weddings and a Funeral.\" When in Rome, Italy, world-famous landmarks like the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum will make you feel as if you've stepped right into \"Roman Holiday\" and \"La Dolce Vita.\" Tours highlighting sites used during the filming of \"The Sound of Music\" have many visitors singing with joy in Salzburg, Austria. \"The buses were packed. It seemed to be very popular,\" said Kelly Van Baren, a sales manager who lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois. She and her sister watched the musical over and over while growing up, she recalled, and when they visited Munich, Germany, in the fall of 2007, they made a special one-hour train trip to Salzburg just to take one of the tours. It turned out to be an adventure in itself. A convoy of three huge buses with scenes from the film painted on their sides shuttled mostly American tourists to various sites, including the church where the main characters were married and a gazebo featured during some of the musical numbers, Van Baren recalled. Her favorite site was a majestic palace used as the von Trapp family home in some of the exterior shots. The movie was played on the bus during the tour, and the sightseers were encouraged to sing along, prompting Van Baren to wonder what the locals must think of the visitors. \"It was just hilarious, these three giant buses full of Americans driving around the countryside. It wasn't a proud moment, but it was fun,\" Van Baren said. Big Apple lures fans . Movie and TV fans who want to stay closer to home to explore famous locations have plenty of movie tours to choose from in the United States. New York, which has served as the backdrop for countless films and television shows, offers a wide variety of sites. Seeing them in person for the first time can be shocking, tour operators say. \"Guests are definitely surprised by the appearance of the locations,\" said Pauline Gacanja, public relations and marketing assistant for On Location Tours. \"On TV, things generally look larger and more dramatic than they really are.\" The company takes about 100,000 visitors a year to dozens of well-known sites around the city by bus, by water taxi or on foot. Buildings used as homes in \"Friends\" and \"The Cosby Show\" are among the most popular places, Gacanja said. Visitors can also see locations such as the diner used in \"Men in Black\" and the firehouse used in \"Ghostbusters,\" according to the company's Web site. But the most popular tour focuses on sites used in the television and big screen hit \"Sex and the City,\" Gacanja said. Fans of \"the Sopranos\" also have their own tour. \"Seinfeld\" aficionados may opt for Kramer's Reality Tour, offered by Kenny \"The Real\" Kramer, the man said to have inspired Jerry's colorful friend Cosmo Kramer. Stops include the Soup Shop that inspired the \"Soup Nazi\" episode and the real Monk's Restaurant, used for the exterior shots of the diner where the characters hung out. This may be the only tour that tempts visitors with highlights such as \"Visit the office building where Elaine worked for Pendant Publishing, Kramer had his coffee table book published and George had sex, on his desk, with the cleaning lady.\" Plenty of movie tours also thrive outside New York, in cities such as San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For Maro, the experience in New Zealand was so unforgettable, she went again a year later for another look at \"The Lord of the Rings\" sites. \"My imagination went wild there. It was so fabulous. It was just a great trip,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tours take fans to sites that have served as settings for movies and TV shows .\n\"Lord of the Rings\" fans flock to New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed .\n\"The Sound of Music\" tours have visitors singing with joy in Salzburg, Austria .\nPopular tours in New York take fans to \"Sex and the City,\" \"Sopranos\" locations ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (CNN) -- Families of September 11 victims visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday urged the Obama administration to drop plans to close the facility and to restart terror trials there. A guard talks with a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year. \"I am opposed to the closing of this facility because of political reasons,\" said Gordon Haberman whose daughter, Andrea, was killed when terrorist planes struck the World Trade Center. \"I believe that the current administration spoke too quickly on this.\" Haberman said he thinks President Obama should not insist on carrying out his campaign pledge to shutter the detention facility. Haberman was one of nine people visiting Guantanamo this week who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. He and the others had the opportunity to observe pre-trial hearings for some suspects on Wednesday and Thursday. Several were critical of Obama's decision to suspend military commissions at Guantanamo Bay while the administration reviews what to do with each detainee. \"Our government's current executive order to halt the military commissions makes us foolish and weak, and invites more attacks,\" said Melissa Long, whose boyfriend was a first responder killed in New York. \"What is fair and just is to continue the military commissions and punish those who have committed acts of terrorism against Americans, period.\" Long later married a man who lost his parents when their plane slammed into the Pentagon on that fateful day. Brian Long acknowledged that some of the detainees may have gone through some inhumane treatment through the years, but he thinks they are being well taken care of now. \"The only injustice is being orchestrated by our leader by making decisions about something he knew nothing about,\" Long said. Other September 11 families have visited Guantanamo Bay for previous hearings and voiced support for using the facility for terror trials. The government uses a random process to select names of family members invited to observe. The family members said they think Guantanamo detainees have been provided with good attorneys, who, in many cases, are paired with clients who don't want their help. Some of that was on display at a hearing Thursday for five detainees charged with orchestrating the September 11 attacks, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Mohammed and fellow prisoner Ramzi Binalshibh refused to come to the proceeding, after being told no detainees would be allowed to make statements. Three others did show up. But one, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, left quickly because he was not allowed to talk to the judge about problems he said he was having with one of his military lawyers. All five September 11 suspects want to act as their own attorneys. Thursday's hearing focused on discussions about the competence of al-Hawsawi and Binalshibh to stand trial and represent themselves. Mohammed and two others have been granted permission to defend themselves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Families of September 11 victims urge Obama to keep Guantanamo Bay open .\nFamilies also want Obama to restart military commissions at facility .\nObama administration trying to determine what to do with detainees ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- Investigators who completed their search of the California property belonging to kidnapping suspects Phillip and Nancy Garrido said initial findings do not connect the couple to the disappearances of two young girls. Ilene Misheloff, left, has been missing since 1989; Michaela Garecht disappeared in 1988. But police said that they have not eliminated Phillip Garrido as a suspect in the decades-old cases. Bone fragments found on the couple's property near Antioch could be human but are \"far too old to be relevant in our cases,\" said Lt. Chris Orrey of the Hayward police department. Teeth found on an adjacent property are most likely from an animal, she said. And some anomalies found by ground-penetrating radar uncovered \"chunks of concrete, tree roots, and in one case a floor mat,\" Orrey said at a news conference. Investigators had already found bone fragments at the property in unincorporated Contra Costa County, but have not said if they are human. \"Although nothing [was found] that would definitively link Phillip and Nancy Garrido to the disappearance of Ilene Misheloff or Michaela Garecht, we're going to continue to follow up on the evidence that we have recovered,\" Lt. Kurt von Savoye of the Dublin Police Department said at the news conference. \"We're going to examine and process all items that have been taken from this property to see if there is any possible link to the Garridos.\" The processing of all the evidence could take several weeks, Orrey said. Police from Hayward and Dublin began executing search warrants simultaneously last week on the Garrido property and an adjacent property to which he had access. They sought any evidence in the 1988 abduction of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht of Hayward and the 1989 disappearance of 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff of Dublin. The search of the adjacent property was also completed and the resident will be able to return soon, police said. The Garridos' home will remain boarded up and the fence locked, Orrey said. The Garridos face a combined 29 felony counts in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, then 11, from South Lake Tahoe, California. Authorities say the couple held Dugard in a hidden compound behind their home for 18 years and have said Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, fathered her two children. Phillip Garrido won't be eliminated as a suspect because of similarities in the Dugard case and the other disappearance cases, Orrey said. \"I can't help but feel relief that they didn't find anything here,\" Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch, told reporters. \"If they had found something on this property, it most likely would have meant Michaela wasn't alive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police say they haven't eliminated Phillip Garrido as suspect in girls' disappearances .\nAuthorities seek evidence in abductions of Michaela Garecht, Ilene Misheloff .\nPolice began executing search warrants last week on Garrido property .\nThe Garridos are accused in 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, then 11 ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was a heartwarming sight: Laura Ling and Euna Lee landing on U.S. soil and being reunited with their families. To the elation of their families, Bill Clinton returned to the U.S. with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Then, after an appropriate amount of time for hugs and kisses, Bill Clinton appeared, descending from his movie-producer friend's plane like an angel from heaven. An emotional Ling practically referred to the former president as a messiah, describing to the media and well-wishers waiting at the airport how she and Lee thought they were being sent to a hard-labor camp, only to walk through a door to find Clinton. The crowd broke into loud applause. For all of those who wondered what Bill would do in Hillary Clinton's diplomatic world, wonder no longer. As details of the Clinton mission came out, it was revealed that the North Koreans themselves asked for Clinton, promising amnesty for the women upon delivery of the former president, whose visit eluded them while he was in office. The deal was done even before Clinton stepped on the plane. So what is next for Bill Clinton? If the mere thought of a meeting with him is enough to move a regime notorious for never moving, can the Obama administration use that star power to rescue three American hikers who ventured into Iran and are believed to be held by Iranian authorities? Can Clinton head off two Russian attack submarines cruising in the Atlantic off the East Coast of the United States? Former presidents are used as envoys and undertake humanitarian missions all the time. Then-President Clinton used former President Jimmy Carter to travel to North Korea in 1994 to negotiate the end to the first nuclear crisis. Clinton and his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, were tapped by Bush's son, then-President George W. Bush, to lead relief efforts to help Asian and African nations devastated by the 2004 tsunami and again in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. But the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton and President Obama is complex, to say the least. After a bitter-fought battle during the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton supporters were looking for a robust role for her in exchange for her support of Obama, with many even suggesting her as a possible candidate for vice president. That idea was short-lived. The Obama team wanted Hillary far from the West Wing. And they wanted Bill even farther. When Obama tapped Hillary to be his secretary of state, there was no shortage of critics who asserted that her husband's global foundation and role as a high-paid public speaker would present a conflict of interest. The Clintons agreed to strict rules of the road to avoid such conflicts going forward. However Hillary never demurred in her praise for what her husband has accomplished, both during his eight years in the White House or post-presidency. Hillary herself has said she considered her husband a trusted adviser and could even consider using him where appropriate. He is a former president, after all. Bill Clinton has largely stayed out of the limelight, quietly continuing his globetrotting on behalf of the world's poor and downtrodden. In May, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed him as the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti in an effort to refocus international attention on the Caribbean country's deep economic problems and environmental decay. But with the success of his North Korean mission so quick and easy, it's conceivable that Bill Clinton could add the role of \"diplomatic cleaner\" to his resume -- a version of Harvey Keitel's role as Winston Wolfe in the movie \"Pulp Fiction\" -- a fixer of messy problems, which he solves with a combination of stylish charisma and lucid thinking under pressure. The Obama administration has no shortage of messy foreign policy problems that Hillary Clinton knows could use a Winston Wolfe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Spotlight returns to Bill Clinton after successful mission to North Korea .\nEx-president's speedy retrieval of detained journalists could set stage for new role .\nIn \"Pulp Fiction,\" characters turned to Winston Wolfe to calmly solve messy problems .\nAnalysis: Clinton's charms could be used with Wolfe-like efficiency around globe ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says. The marks of a police truncheon are shown on a student's back after a protest, Amnesty International says. The report, released Wednesday, said the beatings were meant to punish those who opposed the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. It includes testimony from, and photographs of, several people who were baton-whipped and detained by police officers who sometimes wore no visible identification and hid their faces behind bandanas as they broke up demonstrations. \"They beat us if we raised our heads; they beat us when they were getting us into the police cars,\" said a student whom Amnesty International interviewed in late July at the police station where he was being detained. \"They said, 'Cry and we'll stop.'\" Multiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered. The government has said in the past that the demonstrators were arrested for engaging in violence and provoking authorities. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's defiant push to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. He was ousted in a coup on June 28. The congress named Roberto Micheletti provisional president shortly after the military detained Zelaya and sent him into exile. Micheletti and his supporters deny that a coup took place, calling the action a constitutional transfer of power. The coup resulted in unrest throughout the country, with frequent clashes between police and military on one side and civilian protesters on the other. At least two people were shot to death, Amnesty said. Among several examples, the Amnesty report quotes F.M., a 52-year-old teacher, who said he was demonstrating peacefully when police descended on the rally. \"They grabbed me and shouted, 'Why do you (all) support Zelaya's government?' They beat me. I have not been informed as to why I am detained.\" He showed deep-red imprints on his back, which he said were from a beating with a baton. \"Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing,\" said Esther Major, Amnesty's Central America researcher." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a bloodless coup in June .\nReport: Beatings meant to punish those opposed to ouster of Zelaya .\nMultiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama urged Congress to adopt a \"pay-as-you-go\" approach to federal spending in order to restore fiscal discipline, but critics say the president's call lacks credibility. Preisdent Obama says PAYGO is common sense. Faced with a record $1.8 trillion deficit, Obama on Tuesday pushed Congress to take up the spending rules, known as PAYGO. The approach would require lawmakers to pay for new programs, dollar-for-dollar, with budget cuts elsewhere. \"The 'pay as you go' rule is very simple. Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere,\" Obama said, as he announced that he was submitting to Congress a proposal to make PAYGO law. Obama repeated his vow to halve the deficit by the end of his first term, and he said PAYGO is an important step toward making that happen. A previous PAYGO mandate helped erase federal budget deficits in the 1990s, and subsequent ineffective rules contributed to the current budget deficits, Obama said. \"Paying for what you spend is basic common sense. Perhaps that's why, here in Washington, it has been so elusive,\" the president said Tuesday. Watch more on Obama's 'pay-as-you-go' plan » . But Republicans were quick to question the administration's sincerity. Republican Whip Eric Cantor charged that the administration's focus on PAYGO \"seems more driven by polling and PR strategy than a serious commitment to fiscal discipline.\" \"It seems a tad disingenuous for the President and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to talk about PAYGO rules after ramming trillions in spending through Congress proposing policies that create more debt in the first six months of this year than in the previous 220 years combined,\" Cantor, R-Virginia, said in a statement Tuesday. Republicans point to the $787 billion stimulus package as evidence that Obama is not following his own advice. Cantor's statement included a \"fiscal timeline\" highlighting government spending initiatives this year. The timeline entry for June 8 points to polls showing dissatisfaction with the administration on spending and the deficit. The entry for June 9 shows the president holding a PAYGO summit. However, a group of fiscally conservative Democratic representatives known as the Blue Dogs say Obama's proposal is responsible and necessary. \"President Obama inherited an economy in free fall and a $10.6 trillion national debt,\" said Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, vice chairman of the Blue Dog Budget and Financial Services Task Force. \"While short-term spending was necessary to get the economy moving again, our long-term fiscal problems became that much more urgent.\" But when it comes to reducing the deficit, even the Senate Budget Committee's Democratic chairman doubts the president can deliver on his promise. Asked if Obama could halve the deficit -- given the recent government spending --- Sen. Kent Conrad said, \"I don't believe so. I don't believe anybody could.\" Administration officials still defend piling the stimulus spending on top of the deficit, arguing that it was the best approach to get the country out of the recession. \"Pay-as-you-go embodies a common sense principle that you shouldn't dig a hole deeper,\" said Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. CNN's Kristi Keck and Tom Cohen contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Approach requires Congress to balance spending increases with equal savings .\nRepublicans question timing of announcement -- after months of spending .\nA key Democrat says Obama could have tough time keeping promise to halve deficit .\nBlue Dog Democrats applaud \"pay-as-you-go\" as responsible and necessary ." } ]
[ { "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) -- At least 43 people are feared dead after a massive mudslide swept away three hamlets in northern India, authorities said Sunday. Two small villages were completely destroyed Saturday while one was partially knocked down, said Manoj Pande, a senior disaster management official in Pithoragarh district. Rescuers have pulled 15 bodies from the debris and many more may have been swept into the river, Pande said. More than 2.9 million people in India have been affected by floods since June, according to federal officials. Yearly monsoon rains sweep across the subcontinent from June till September. Though they bring much-needed relief to often-parched farmlands, they also leave a trail of landslides, home collapses and often fatal floods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three hamlets affected by recent mudslide in India .\nAt least 43 people are feared dead .\nMillions in India have been affected by floods since June, officials say ." } ]
[ { "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 are in for a significant cultural shift next week if the Senate approves a new law from President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow more shops to open on Sundays. The law would permit shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones. 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 workweek 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. If approved by the Senate, 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. The measure passed the National Assembly last Tuesday by a vote of 282 to 238. It will go the Senate for three days of debate next Tuesday, where it is almost certain to be approved. 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. CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "French Senate set to approve new law to allow more shops to open on Sundays .\nIf approved new law would overturn 1906 law forbidding Sunday trading in .\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": "KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's reputation as the world's leading narcotics supplier is well-known, but in a squalid ruin in Kabul, the country hides a darker secret -- a huge home grown drug addiction problem now on the brink of fueling an HIV/AIDS epidemic. Junkies smoking heroin can get high for $4. Here junkies lie in their own filth, wasted limbs poking out of blood-spattered clothing as they blank out the abject misery of their surroundings. In one room, a veritable narcotics bazaar offers pills and drug paraphernalia -- with hits retailing at less than $4. One user claims he has been an addict for 22 years, although it is difficult to talk to any of the dazed and ragged occupants of the drug rooms. The atmosphere is edgy and -- as thick clouds of burning opium fill the air -- dizzyingly toxic. The Kabul den is just the tip of the iceberg in a country awash with narcotics. The government estimates the number of addicts in Afghanistan could be as many as five percent of its 25 million people. Watch Nic Robertson's report from the 'house of hopelessness' » . And though nascent efforts are being made to tackle the problem, chronic funding shortfalls have prompted the United Nations to warn that drug use will escalate, potentially driving an HIV/AIDS crisis as junkies move from smoking to high risk needle-sharing. Afghanistan has always been a major narcotics supplier -- responsible for 95 percent of the world's heroin -- although this was scaled back under the rule of the Taliban, which outlawed poppy cultivation and imposed strict penalties for drug users. Since 2001, when the extremist regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion that installed President Hamid Karzai, production has doubled. And for many in the country still mired in poverty and conflict, these cheap drugs offer a tempting escape. The last United Nations survey of Afghanistan's drug problem four years ago estimated the country's addicts to number about 200,000. According to Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Khodaidad, the figure is now far greater. \"More than 1.2 million people in Afghanistan are addicts. It's a very huge number and every year it increases,\" he told CNN. Khodaidad says the Afghan government is largely powerless to control the production of opium while Taliban extremists, who now control and draw funding from drug crops, control cultivation areas despite major international military efforts to push them back. \"We did very little due to weakness of governors, due to insurgents, due to pressure of terrorism in the area,\" he added. \"We don't have sufficient law enforcement agencies -- the police, the border security force, and other special forces to control this area -- so it will take time.\" But, says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kabul, time is something Afghanistan does not have. As intravenous drug use takes hold, raising the prospect of needle sharing, he says HIV/AIDS will follow quickly. \"The little data we have at the moment are very alarming,\" he told CNN. \"They tell us that we should not wait longer and if not, this country will be saddled with another burden it just can not afford. \"I think it is already happening today. We have seen, now, a few HIV/AIDS cases. Hopefully we can contain the problem, although it is unlikely given the problems with the health structures.\" The U.N. has begun a program to detox users willing to get off drugs in Afghanistan. A renovated warehouse in Kabul offers hope to 100 addicts in the biggest facility of its kind in the country. Watch Robertson go inside the detox clinic » . In the center's clean, bare rooms, shaven-headed junkies tremble under blankets as they go through the agonizing cold turkey of weaning their ravaged bodies off drug dependency. Therapy sessions also help motivate them to kick their deadly habit. \"Here we deal with the problem from a humanitarian perspective, not from an addiction perspective, to save lives,\" says Jehan Zeb Khan, UNODC program manager. But says Khan, with what little funding there is now dwindling fast, the salvation offered to these lucky few may be short lived -- they will be forced back out on the streets, where more opium dens will flourish, bringing yet more misery for Afghanistan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Government officials say 1.2 million Afghans are now addicted to drugs .\nUnited Nations says growing drug use could lead to HIV/AIDS crisis .\nEfforts to combat drug use suffering from chronic lack of funds ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- There is more water on the moon in more locations than originally thought, a discovery that may bolster NASA's long-held goal of setting up an outpost there, a researcher said Thursday. NASA says there is more water on the moon in more locations than originally thought. One ton of the moon's surface -- in which the water's ingredients are held -- could yield as much as 32 ounces, or one quart, of water, according to three reports from research teams who studied data from three spacecrafts. Although that amount isn't large, said geological sciences professor Jack Mustard, the findings show \"there are ways you could convert these amounts of water into higher amounts\" that could support human activity. The water was discovered in rocky environments and in craters, Mustard said. \"It's in more places and in different places than were inferred previously,\" he said. Since the Apollo missions began in the 1960s, scientists have believed the moon was virtually dry. Only trace amounts of water were found in rocks and soil brought back to Earth, and that water may have resulted from contamination during the retrieval process, scientists said. Watch report on discovery of more sources of moon water » . Mustard was on a team led by Carle Pieters, science manager of the NASA-supported Keck Reflectance Experiment Laboratory at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Pieters also is principal investigator for NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), which the space agency contributed to India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, in October 2008. The mapper was a \"state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer\" that provided the first map of the entire lunar surface at high resolution, revealing the minerals of which it is made. Examining data from Chandrayaan-1, Pieters' team found signs of water at the moon's frigid poles. The researchers believe it might have migrated from elsewhere on the moon's surface, attracted by the cold, they said. Their overall findings also were confirmed by data from a high-tech spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft -- which also found evidence of water at lower latitudes away from the poles -- and from infrared mapping done by the Deep Impact spacecrafts -- which found trace amounts over much of the moon's surface. Reports on those findings came from teams led by Roger Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey and Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. This most recent information is far more precise than any previous data, Mustard said. Previous measurements were \"the size of Texas, say, and now are the size of Providence.\" \"We find it (water) distributed more broadly,\" he added. In the late 1990s, scientists found pockets of hydrogen on the moon, and inferred that its molecules could bond with oxygen to make water, the professor said. He called the older information much coarser. This time, researchers are reassured that the components are on the moon to make water because of the presence of hydroxyl -- produced when hydrogen and oxygen also bond with a mineral structure. The researchers said the results also suggest that the molecules are continually being created on the lunar surface, perhaps as a result of the solar wind -- the stream of ionized particles ejected by the sun. The research reports were being posted Thursday by the journal Science, at the Science Express Web site, www.sciencexpress.org, and will be in the magazine that comes out Friday. A news conference on the findings is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Washington." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NASA says there are small amounts of water in lunar soil .\nMany scientists thought there was no water on the moon .\nThe discovery could expedite NASA's plans to create lunar settlements .\nAbout 32 ounces of water could be created from a ton of lunar soil, NASA says ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Texas authorities on Sunday were searching for a convicted burglar who escaped from a medical facility by rappelling off the building using a string of bedsheets, officials said. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was serving 35 years in prison for several convictions, including two escape charges. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was last seen at 8:15 p.m. Saturday on the seventh floor of a Texas Department of Criminal Justice medical facility in Galveston, Texas, said TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark. Fifteen minutes later, Barnes was gone, Clark told CNN. Security officers noticed there was a hole in the wall and a vent had been removed. According to Clark, Barnes busted a hole through a wall in his room and then broke through a thick window. He apparently tied bedsheets together, rappelled down the side of the building to a roof, and then jumped to the ground, Clark said. Barnes was serving 35 years in prison for several felony convictions, including seven burglary charges, two escape charges and an aggravated assault charge in the Texas Panhandle area, according to a TDCJ press release. The inmate was being housed at a prison in Midway, Texas. He was transported to the medical facility in Galveston last week after being hurt in an altercation, TDCJ said. The department of criminal justice has tracking dogs and dozens of officers searching the area, Clark said. Local police officers also joined the search. Barnes began serving his sentence in January. CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was last seen on 7th floor at Texas medical facility .\nHe apparently tied bedsheets together and exited window, police official says .\nDepartment of criminal justice has tracking dogs, officers searching the area ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested for bragging about his sex life on television has apologized for his comments while Saudi authorities discuss whether he should be charged with a crime, according to local media. Mazen Abdul Jawad appeared earlier this month on Lebanese channel LBC's show \"Red Lines,\" on which he discussed foreplay, sexual conquests and how he picks up women, all taboo subjects in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi daily newspaper Arab News, Abdul Jawad has initiated a damage-control campaign and on Sunday \"appeared in the pages of a local newspaper apparently wiping away tears from a handkerchief as he apologized and begged for forgiveness.\" Abdul Jawad is a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four. In Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal and unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle. According to Arab News, Abdul Jawad is not in jail and is considering filing a complaint against the show's producers for presenting him \"in the worst possible manner by taking two hours of footage and condensing it down to a minutes-long segment.\" Ashraf Al-Sarraj, the lawyer representing Abdul Jawad in his possible complaint against LBC, told Arab News, \"We will study the case and eventually present it to the Ministry of Information.\" According to the paper, \"LBC refused to comment on the matter until it has more time to formulate a response.\" The segment in question has, since its initial broadcast, been posted on YouTube and been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. It includes scenes of Abdul Jawad discussing his enjoyment of sex and how he lost his virginity at age 14. Abdul Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds up sexual aids to the camera. It ends with him cruising the streets of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in his car and looking for women. CNN has been unable to reach Abdul Jawad, the Saudi Ministry of Justice or the Saudi Ministry of Information for comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mazen Abdul Jawad apologizes for discussing sex life on TV, reports say .\nSaudi authorities debating whether charges should be filed, reports say .\nJawad appeared earlier this month on a show on Lebanese channel .\nIn deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Fire, the wheel and even cup noodles were among the varied answers to the question posed by CNN: \"What is man's greatest achievement?\" Man set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Was that man's greatest achievement? Have your say. CNN producers armed with cameras put the puzzler to passersby in Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Bangkok, Tokyo, New Delhi and Paris. In the lead-up to the 40th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, more people might have been expected to nominate the moon landing as one of man's greatest feats. Alas not. One woman in Germany suggested the computer. \"It has opened up my world. I can stay in my house and travel all over the world,\" she said. Another suggested the airplane. \"It's the easiest way to get from one country to the other. Imagine if you would be able to only take the ship. It would take you ages to go somewhere, so it makes humanity more flexible.\" See what they said » . Fire also got a look-in. \"Everything started there right?\" said one man in Spain. There was agreement in Italy: \"I think the most important is that man discovered fire because it's bringing a lot of life.\" The written word was also nominated in Italy, as were architecture and sanitation. \"The biggest achievement of mankind? Music, right?\" suggested one woman in Spain. In New Delhi, video games got one man's vote. \"It allows you to be whomever you want, in whichever world you want, and lets you live an alternate fantasy life,\" he said. One hopeful businessman in Italy told us, perhaps prematurely: \"Peace, I'd say peace. That would be the greatest achievement for all.\" What do you think is man's greatest achievement? Where does the moon landing fit in?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN posed the question to people in seven cities .\nAnswers ranged from fire, to the written word, the Internet, plane travel .\nA few people nominated the moon landing as man's greatest feat .\nHave your say through Sound Off, or send us a video to iReport ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence. Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's. The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe. Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks. \"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear,\" Lock said. Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector. \"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm,\" Lock said. That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land. Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent. When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point. When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage. \"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize,\" he told CNN. So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted. With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: \"Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable.\" On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level. Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused . Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house. \"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out,\" he said. Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal. But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either. When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land. \"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights. \"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them,\" he told CNN. But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed. Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted. \"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go,\" Kale told CNN. Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before. Lock said: \"When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening.\" Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. \"That is not true,\" he said. \"We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity.\" To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zimbabwe white farmers battle continuing policy of land redistribution .\nOne farmer shows CNN his fire-destroyed farmhouse .\nControversial policy gives white-owned farms to landless blacks .\nSince 2000, more than 4,000 commercial farmers driven off their land ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea's rhetoric toward the United States has always had a certain bizarre, over-the-top quality to it. Under the Bush administration it labeled Undersecretary of State John Bolton \"human scum.\" \"Complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable path for North Korea,\" Hillary Clinton says. But the North Korea's latest comments about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are stunningly personal. An unnamed North Korean official quoted by the state-run KCNA news agency calls Clinton \"by no means intelligent\" and a \"funny lady.\" \"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping,\" he said. The remarks seem to be a reply to Clinton's comments to ABC News in which she compared North Korea's leadership to \"small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention.\" Behind the scenes, U.S officials for months have made similar comparisons, claiming the Pyonyang's modus operandi is to be deliberately provocative, to \"act out\" to get the United States' attention and be rewarded for its \"misbehavior.\" This time, they say, it's not going to work. Clinton said Pyonyang has \"no friends left.\" After North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in May and fired several ballistic missiles over Japan, the United States rallied the United Nations to pass resolution 1874, which invoked strong sanctions, including targeting top North Korean officials connected to Pyonyang's nuclear program. Significantly, the resolution was supported by Russia and China, countries that have been reluctant to impose strict sanctions on North Korea. \"Complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable path for North Korea,\" Clinton said at the Association of Southeast Asia Nations meeting in Thailand this week. \"We do not intend to reward North Korea just for returning to the table, nor do we intend to reward them for actions they have already committed to taking and then reneged on. The path is open to them, and it is up to them to follow it. Unless and until they do, they will face international isolation and the unrelenting pressure of global sanctions.\" North Korea, however, says the six-party talks with the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan are dead and it's not going back. The country has the right to a nuclear program, it says, since it must defend itself against possible attack from the United States. With strong words on both sides, the standoff seems intractable. Clinton maintains the door still is open to the North, but only if Pyonyang does what it already has committed to: resume talks and dismantle its nuclear program -- completely, irreversibly and verifiably. \"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible denuclearization the United States, as well as our partners, will move forward on a package of incentives and opportunities, including normalizing relations that will give the people of North Korea a better future,\" she said. But a North Korean official, quoted by South Korean news agency Yonhap, calls the package of incentives \"nonsense.\" \"The U.S. is telling us to take off all of our clothes,\" he's quoted as saying. \"The most important thing for us is sovereignty. Sovereignty, security, namely life, should be guaranteed. How can we barter life with money?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl,\" official reportedly says of Clinton .\nU.S. officials have likened North Korea's provocative actions to children acting out .\nNorth Korea's nuclear test in May strengthened U.S. call for sanctions .\nNorth Korea remains defiant, showing no signs of abandoning nuclear program ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A leading international children's charity has warned that Elton John's desire to adopt a 14-month-old baby boy could lead to more children being abandoned. Elton John kisses baby Lev during his visit to the orphanage in Ukraine on Saturday. The singer, 62, made the announcement during a visit with his partner, 46-year-old David Furnish, to an orphanage for HIV-affected children in Ukraine on Saturday. \"David always wanted to adopt and I always said no because I am 62 and I think because of the traveling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child,\" he told reporters. \"But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home. I've changed my mind today.\" While EveryChild praised the British musician for helping raise awareness of children affected by HIV/AIDS, it said international adoption is sending out the wrong message. James Georgalakis, EveryChild's Communications and Advocacy Manager, told CNN: \"Research conducted in the Ukraine in 2007 which showed high-profile celebrity adoptions and news around foreigners coming into the country and adopting children generally was actually encouraging vulnerable young mothers to abandon their children into homes hoping their child would be adopted by a rich foreigner and have a better life. \"So it's quite well documented that these high-profile adoptions could actually be increasing the number of children in institutions.\" Do you think celebrity adoptions are a good thing? According to research by the charity's Web site, 95 percent of the children in Ukraine's institutions are not orphans, with babies born to HIV+ mothers facing particular discrimination. They are separated from their mothers and often end up in children's homes and institutions segregated from children not affected by HIV. It argues that governments such as Ukraine need to be encouraged to put more emphasis on keeping families together rather than placing them in outdated Soviet-era children's homes. \"After a great deal of campaigning by charities such as ours, the Ukraine government introduced a new 'gate-keeping' system which means the authorities will have to consider all available options before a child is placed in an institution,\" Georgalakis said. \"So when a child is taken into care or abandoned, they will have look at whether a child has other family or can be fostered by another family for example. This is a huge step forward and one that needs support. \"We will definitely be speaking to Elton and his representatives about this.\" Elton John is the latest high-profile figure to be linked with a case of this kind. Earlier this year, Madonna won a court appeal to adopt a second child from Malawi. Critics of the pop-star accused the pop superstar of taking advantage of \"archaic adoption laws\" in a bid to adopt three-year-old Chifundo James. Madonna's initial attempt was denied because she did not meet a residency law that requires applicants to have lived in the country for some time before adoption. This condition was waived when Madonna -- and then husband Guy Ritchie -- adopted her first Malawian child, David Banda. The judge in that case said the interest of the child outweighed the issue of residency. Meanwhile, the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said around 4,000 children need to be adopted in UK each year, with many facing a considerable wait. BAAF Chief Executive David Holmes told CNN: \"While Elton John may be considered too old under current guidance to adopt a baby in the UK, there are many children, particularly older children, sibling groups, children with disabilities, and children from black minority groups, all waiting for a family. \"We'll certainly be reinforcing this message during National Adoption Week in Britain later this year.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elton John, 62, made announcement during a visit to an orphanage in Ukraine .\nEveryChild charity believes international adoption sends wrong message .\nSpokesman: Mothers abandon children in hope they are adopted by foreigners .\nMadonna recently won appeal to adopt second child from Malawi ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001. In an exclusive, CNN talked with President Obama in Ghana about his order to review alleged deaths of Taliban. \"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention,\" Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview during the president's visit to Ghana. The full interview will air 10 p.m. Monday. \"So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up,\" Obama said. The inquiry stems from the deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. The fighters were in the custody of troops led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Afghan warlord who has served as chief of staff of the country's post-Taliban army. Dostum, a former communist union boss and militia leader who fought against the U.S.-backed mujahedeen in the 1980s, is known for switching sides as Afghanistan's political conflict has evolved. When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Dostum sided with the Americans and received military and CIA support to battle the Taliban. The allegations against him first surfaced in a 2002 Newsweek report, which cited a confidential U.N. memo saying the prisoners died in cramped container trucks while being transported from their Konduz stronghold in northern Afghanistan to Sheberghan prison, west of Dostum's stronghold at Mazar-e Sharif. At the time, the Boston, Massachusetts-based group Physicians for Human Rights said it found a mass grave in nearby Dasht-e Leili, where witnesses said the bodies of Taliban prisoners were buried. The finding prompted U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Afghanistan, to support an investigation into the allegations. But The New York Times, citing government officials and human rights organizations, reported Friday that the Bush administration \"repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode.\" State Department officials recently have tried to derail Dostum's reappointment as military chief of staff to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the newspaper reported, citing several senior officials who suggested the administration \"might not be hostile to an inquiry.\" Dostum, a key ally of Karzai, was reportedly living in exile in Turkey until last month, when he was reinstated to his post as defense minister. He had left Afghanistan over allegations that he had kidnapped Akbar Bai, a former ally turned political rival. When asked by CNN about whether Obama would support an investigation, the president replied, \"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war. And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of laws of war, then I think that, you know, we have to know about that.\" Watch part of CNN's exclusive interview with the president » . Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, on Sunday praised Obama \"for ordering his national security team to collect all the facts in the Dasht-e-Leili massacre and apparent U.S. cover-up.\" \"U.S. military and intelligence personnel were operating jointly and accepted the surrender of the prisoners jointly with General Dostum's forces in northern Afghanistan,\" Sirkin said earlier in the week. \"The Obama administration has a legal obligation to determine what U.S. officials knew, where U.S. personnel were, what involvement they had, and the actions of US allies during and after the massacre. These questions, nearly eight years later, remain unanswered.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Allegations: Bush administration resisted inquiry into CIA-backed Afghan warlord .\nInquiry stems from alleged deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners under warlord .\nGen. Dostum has served as chief of staff of Afghanistan's post-Taliban army .\nObama: \"There are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Police in Irving, Texas, captured a convicted burglar Wednesday who escaped from a medical facility last weekend by rappelling off the building using a string of bedsheets, a department spokeswoman said. Saturday night's escape was the third for Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, since June 2008. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, escaped Saturday night from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital at Galveston. It was Barnes' third escape from authorities since June 2008. Each time, he was caught in four days. He will face felony escape charges, spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. According to the Criminal Justice Department's inspector general, about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, police received a call about a suspicious person in a park, Lyons said. The man ran as police approached him, and police chased him. The man, later identified as Barnes, barricaded himself in an abandoned residence before surrendering to police without incident about 10 a.m. Barnes was to be taken to one of the department's Huntsville-area prisons later in the day. When authorities realized Barnes was missing Saturday, they noticed a hole in the wall where a vent had been removed. Barnes also had broken through a thick window. Barnes was serving 35 years in prison for felony convictions including seven burglary charges, two escape charges and an aggravated assault charge in the Texas Panhandle area, according to a department statement. He began serving his sentence in January. He was housed at a prison in Midway, Texas, but authorities said he was taken to the medical facility in Galveston last week after being hurt in a fight. Barnes' two other escapes took place in Potter County in the Texas Panhandle while he was under the control of local authorities. On June 6, 2008, he fled the county courthouse shortly after being asked to take the stand during a probation violation hearing. The second escape was on October 4, 2008, when Barnes fled the county jail recreational yard after hopping onto the corner of a roof and peeling back layers of sheet metal and galvanized fencing. In both cases, he was found four days later, hiding out at motels. CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Convicted burglar escaped from Galveston medical facility Saturday .\nWednesday morning, Irving police receive call about suspicious person in a park .\nPolice chase escapee, who flees to abandoned house, then surrenders .\nEscapee was moved to Galveston medical facility last week after a fight ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN Student News) -- September 10, 2009 . Quick Guide . Health Care Address - Hear the latest arguments in the debate over U.S. health care reform. Campaign Finance - Review the details of a court case that could impact U.S. elections. Purifying Invention - Find out how one inventor hopes to quench concerns about clean water. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: On HLN, online, on iTunes; here, there and everywhere, this is CNN Student News! Thank you for spending part of your Thursday with us. From the CNN Center, I'm Carl Azuz. First Up: Health Care Address . AZUZ: First up, health care reform reclaims the spotlight as President Obama takes up the issue in a speech to Congress. This debate has been heating up for months, with politicians and citizens weighing in with their opinions. It's an incredibly complicated issue, so we're gonna look at some of the main points right now. Some people think the country's health care system is fine the way it is. Others think it's broken, but what they don't agree on is how to fix it. For example, how much would it cost to reform the system, and where would that money come from? Should there be a government-run health insurance program? And if so, how might that impact private insurance companies? Those are just a few of the questions facing lawmakers. President Obama says he isn't the first president to take on health care, but he hopes to be the last. He's been pushing for reform since he took office, and he believes the time for action is now. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care. Health Care Response . AZUZ: After the president wrapped up his address to Congress, the Republican Party offered a response from U.S. Representative Charles Boustany. The Louisiana representative, who has more than 20 years of experience as a surgeon, says he agrees with parts of President Obama's plan. But he thinks it also presents several problems. Last night, he outlined some alternative ideas about how to improve the health care system and how to lower its costs. REP. CHARLES BOUSTANY JR, (R) LOUISIANA: We need to establish tough liability reform standards, encourage speedy resolution of claims, and deter junk lawsuits that drive up the cost of care. Real reform must do this. Let's also talk about letting families and businesses buy insurance across state lines. I and many other Republicans believe that that will provide real choice and competition to lower the cost of health insurance. Shoutout . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas are all members of what governmental body? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Congress, B) The U.S. Supreme Court, C) President Obama's Cabinet or D) The Federal Reserve? You've got three seconds -- GO! Along with six other justices, these people compose the U.S. Supreme Court. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Campaign Finance . AZUZ: It's their job to interpret our country's laws, and one case the justices are looking at right now could have a major impact on elections, including the ones coming up next year! It's all about how much money corporations can give to candidates. Right now, there's a limit on that, but some people argue that violates the Constitution. Elaine Quijano is on the case. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FROM CITIZENS UNITED AD FOR \"HILLARY, THE MOVIE\": Who is Hillary Clinton? ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: It started small. During last year's presidential primaries, a federal court said campaign finance laws barred this ad for an anti-Hillary Clinton movie by an advocacy group, a non-profit corporation. FROM CITIZENS UNITED AD FOR \"HILLARY, THE MOVIE\": If you thought you knew everything about Hillary Clinton, wait 'til you see the movie. QUIJANO: But now, the Supreme Court could make a monumental change in how money influences politics, deciding, in the name of free speech, whether there should be any limits at all on corporate campaign spending. FRED WERTHEIMER, DEMOCRACY 21, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM SUPPORTER: Allowing corporations to flood our elections and use campaign expenditures to buy influence would fundamentally undermine our democracy. QUIJANO: Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 warns overturning a century of precedents would shut average citizens out of the political process. WERTHEIMER: The little guy would have no role here, because the dominant force in our politics, the dominant force in Washington decision-making, would become corporations. QUIJANO: But David Bossee of Citizens United, the group behind the anti-Hillary Clinton movie, argues that anyone pooling resources, including unions, the health industry, advocacy groups like the National Rifle Association, has free speech rights. DAVID BOSSEE, CITIZENS UNITED: I actually went out and looked for this fight, because I don't believe the government should have the right to impede people's entry into the process. And that's what the Federal Election Commission is trying to do here, squelch our first Amendment Rights. QUIJANO: Interestingly, the American Civil Liberties Union agrees. A final ruling is expected in a couple of months, and legal observers say conservatives could hold the key, with enough votes to possibly declare much of current campaign finance law unconstitutional. Elaine Quijano, CNN, the Supreme Court. (END VIDEO CLIP) Flash Flooding . AZUZ: Six months' worth of rain in two days! That is what residents in parts of Turkey are dealing with. This massive downpour triggered flash floods in the country this week, claiming more than 30 lives. In this video - look at this - you can see how the water rushed through a low-lying valley. It flipped and ripped up dozens of cargo trucks. Hundreds of other vehicles were washed out into the sea. The country's prime minister said emergency workers rescued around 1,300 people from the floods. He's already pledged money to get help and relief to the affected regions that need it. I.D. Me . RAMSAY: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a rock band originally from Liverpool, England. I made my first U.S. appearance in 1964. 20 of my songs landed at number 1 on the U.S. charts. And I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. I'm the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr! The Beatles: Rock Band . AZUZ: They were a rock band. Now the Beatles are in Rock Band! A new game featuring the famous Fab Four is out this week. It lets players jam out on dozens of the group's biggest hits. Plus, it gives younger audiences -- you -- a chance to check out some of rock and roll's most famous songs nearly four decades after the band's last gig. That's not the only reason the Beatles are back in the spotlight. All 15 of their albums have been re-mastered and put back on store shelves. Purifying Invention . AZUZ: Meanwhile, a famous inventor wants to do some re-mastering of his own. But we're not talking about digital, we're talking liquid. More than a billion people around the globe don't have access to clean drinking water. Sure, there're water water everywhere, but if it's not clean, it can cause serious consequences. Gary Tuchman looks at one idea designed to quench the problem. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Water: It's the most abundant resource on the planet, yet every year, millions of people die because they don't have access to clean water. So Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, decided to take this problem on with a machine he calls the \"Slingshot.\" DEAN KAMEN, INVENTOR: We believe the world needs a slingshot to take care of its goliath of a problem: bad water. TUCHMAN: He says the machine can turn contaminated water like this dirty river water into clean drinking water by boiling, distilling and vaporizing it. KAMEN: In goes the bad, and as you can see, out comes the good. That is pure water. TUCHMAN: The machine is smaller than some other water purifying systems, making it more portable. KAMEN: It's ideally suited to go to places in the developing world. TUCHMAN: Kamen says it requires very little electricity and maintenance to function. But until he finds partners and distributors to keep costs down, Slingshots won't be available to the people who need them most. KAMEN: We've got to find better strategies to deal with this incredibly unique and valuable resource called water, that we've all come to take for granted, but we'll not be able to do that in the future. TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we leave you today, we've got a story about something that's pretty darn fast. Usian Bolt may be the quickest person on the planet, but he's got nothing on Sarah. The cheetah charged into the record books yesterday as the world's fastest land mammal. She made the 100-meter dash in 6.16 seconds. Then she went out and shaved some more time off in her second attempt. Now for reference, sprinter Usain Bolt did it in 9.58 seconds. So, cheetah wins. Think you could outrun her? You're welcome to give it a shot. Goodbye . AZUZ: But you've got to make sure that she doesn't break any rules. After all, she's a cheetah. Okay, we know a lot of you probably saw that coming, but you just can't miss the opportunity to make a cheetah pun. It's where we cross the finish line for today, but we'll be back tomorrow to close out the week. We look forward to seeing you then. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hear the latest arguments in the debate over U.S. health care reform .\nReview the details of a court case that could impact U.S. elections .\nFind out how one inventor hopes to quench concerns about clean water ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Giant jellyfish descend on the Sea of Japan, causing untold devastation to coastal villages and leaving a trail of destruction and human misery behind. A diver attaches a sensor to a Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of northern Japan in October 2005. Sounds like a great sci-fi flick. But it's not. It's real and a nightmare for Japanese fishermen. The massive sea creatures, called Nomura's jellyfish, can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter and weigh more than 450 pounds (204 kilos). Scientists think they originate in the Yellow Sea and in Chinese waters. For the third year since 2005, ocean currents are transporting them into the Sea of Japan. Monty Graham, a marine biologist at Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said the jellyfish grow to an enormous size as they are transported by ocean currents. He said they stay together in packs and as they drift northward, they get caught in fishermen's nets. The giant jellyfish are one of about 200 species of coastal jellyfish or large jellyfish that exist around the world. But Nomura's stands out because of its enormous size. \"The sheer size of them, individually, makes them fairly spectacular,\" Graham said. Spectacular, perhaps, to scientists, but perilous to villagers along the Japanese coast who have seen the destructive habits of these colossal creatures in the past. They had giant-jellyfish invasions in 2005 and 2007, and because they've recently been spotted in the Sea of Japan, they're bracing for another, potentially harmful wave this summer. The jellyfish destroy fishermen's nets, getting trapped in them, tearing holes and ruining catches. Fishermen often use expensive mazelike nets that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. When swarms of giant jellyfish tear them, the result is devastating. \"Communities of fishermen and these fishing villages own these nets,\" Graham said. \"When these nets get wiped out, it actually has this economic devastation for an entire community.\" The good news is that previous attacks have prompted Japan to put in place a warning system for fishermen. While they still risk losing a big catch, they can, at least, save their pricey nets from the invasion of the giant jellyfish. It's not clear why waves of Nomura's jellyfish have made it to the Sea of Japan in recent years. Some have speculated that overfishing, pollution or rising ocean temperatures may have depleted the kinds of fish that prey on Nomura's jellyfish in the polyp stage. However, no one is certain, Graham said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nomura's jellyfish seen in Sea of Japan for third year since 2005 .\nSpecies can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter, 450 pounds (204 kilos)\nTears in expensive nets can devastate communities ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish judge has indicted three suspected former Nazi concentration camp guards Thursday on charges of genocide and ordered their arrests. Visitors mark 60th anniversary of liberation Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 2005. Two of the suspects, Johann Leprich and Anton Tittjung, each 84, are thought to live in the United States, while the third, Josias Kumpf, also 84, is believed to live in Austria, according to a copy of the court order viewed by CNN. They are accused of serving in the Nazi SS. Leprich and Tittjung were armed guards at the Mauthausen concentration camp and Gross Raming subcamp, while Kumpf served at the Sachsenhausen camp, the court order said. In addition to Jews and other types of prisoners, the Spanish judge said there more than 7,000 Spaniards held prisoner at Mauthausen, of whom 4,300 died. Some Spaniards arrived at the Sachsenhausen camp, in convoys from France, the document said. The order, including international arrest warrants, was issued by Judge Ismael Moreno of Spain's National Court, which investigates genocide and crimes against humanity involving Spaniards. The 18-page document cited prior judicial investigative work from other countries regarding the backgrounds of the three alleged ex-Nazi guards and their suspected roles in the notorious Nazi death camps during World War II." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Spanish judge indicts three suspected former Nazi concentration camp guards .\nTwo suspects thought to live in U.S.; third believed to live in Austria .\nOrder includes international arrest warrants ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has identified the suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate the country's assistant interior minister last Thursday and released details of a phone conversation between the two men prior to the attack. A Saudi man reads a newspaper featuring a front-page story on Thursday's attack. The disclosures reported by the country's official news agency were highly unusual. The agency, SPA, reported the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri, a wanted Saudi militant who had been hiding in Yemen, got in touch with Saudi authorities telling them he wanted to turn himself in to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs. After arriving back in Saudi Arabia, Asiri spoke by phone to Mohammed, who agreed to see him during a Ramadan reception at his home in the city of Jeddah. According to a transcript provided by SPA, during the phone call the men exchanged greetings and discussed the importance of the holy month of Ramadan. Mohammed is quoted as telling Asiri that \"one should be careful; evil people would like to exploit all of you. Now only you to fear Allah Almighty and come home.\" Later in the conversation, Asiri asked if a special plane could be dispatched to take him to meet with Mohammed. Asiri, escorted by security, was transported to Jeddah, where he met with the prince at his palace. During the meeting, Asiri explained to Mohammed that other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender but sought reassurances from the prince. According to SPA, a call was then placed to one of the militants in Yemen. While the prince was on the phone, Asiri blew himself up, SPA reported. Mohammed, who is also the son of the country's Interior Minister, was lightly injured in the attack. Saudi King Abdullah was shown visiting the prince in the hospital after the attack on Saudi TV. The king asked the prince why the militant was allowed to get so close him without being inspected properly and searched thoroughly. Prince Mohammed answered the king by telling him it had been a mistake. SPA adds that \"the concerned security authorities opened an investigation into the incident. However, the criminal laboratory and a forensic report have reached conclusions that, for security considerations, will not be announced at this time.\" Asiri's name was on a list of 85 most wanted suspects released by Saudi Arabia in February. At the time the list was released, Saudi Arabia asked Interpol for its help in apprehending dozens of the wanted Saudis on the list who were suspected of plotting attacks against Saudi Arabia from abroad. The announcement was significant because it is rare for the kingdom to announce that some of its most wanted terrorists are on the loose. It is also unusual for Saudi Arabia to ask for help in finding them. Some of the suspects on the most wanted list had been released from Guantanamo Bay, returned to Saudi Arabia, and had then gone through a Jihadi reeducation program run by the Interior Ministry, before fleeing to Yemen and taking up terrorist activity once more. Saudi Arabia has been battling terrorism since 2003, when al Qaeda launched a series of attacks inside the Kingdom. In the security crackdown that followed, Asiri, like many other wanted Saudi militants, fled to Yemen. Earlier this year, Saudi al Qaeda and Yemeni al Qaeda merged to form \"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.\" Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates out of Yemen, claimed responsibility earlier this week for the attack against Mohammed. In August, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced that over the past year, 44 al Qaeda suspects across the country had been arrested. While the Interior Ministry is calling the attempted assassination an \"action of treachery and treason\", SPA reports that the Ministry will not change its \"open-door policy\" of granting amnesty to militants wishing to surrender - in particular, \"those citizens residing outside the country\" who wish to \"take advantage of the state-sponsored program of advice and care.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wanted Saudi militant Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri had been hiding in Yemen .\nReportedly got in touch with Saudi authorities saying he wanted to turn himself in .\nAsiri met with Saudi assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs .\nHe explained other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Jordan Belfi has a great job: He plays Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage,\" a comedy series that takes a look at the life of a young actor, Vincent Chase, and the old friends who surround him in Hollywood. Jordan Belfi arrives at the premiere of \"Entourage\" season six in Los Angeles, California. Davies is one of the few characters on the show who has the ability to shake one of the central figures: the unshakeable agent Ari Gold. Belfi has been around since the early days of \"Entourage\" and remembers the humble beginnings of his character's career as an agent under Gold's direction. Since that first season, Davies has risen to become Ari's chief rival on the show. Belfi believes conveying the tension between him and Ari is easy, based on the great material he's given. \"It's a testament to the writing by Doug Ellin, the creator of the show. It's just on the page,\" Belfi said. \"When you get setups and writing and dialogue and scenes that good, it makes your job that much easier.\" CNN talked to Belfi, who's also in the movie \"Surrogates\" (opening Friday), about his experiences on the show and his inspiration for the role. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: A lot of fans really missed that rivalry between you and Ari Gold. Talk a little about how you and Jeremy Piven kind of prepare for that and try to make that real on screen. Belfi: Adam Davies has become ... one of the few characters on the show that really knows how to get under Ari's skin and push his buttons. Ari is an entertaining character, and it's fun to watch him go after things, but people really enjoy kind of when Ari's off balance. That interplay, that back and forth, particularly the sort of thing that's happening now [on the show], the constantly one-upping each other, is just really fun to watch. It's entertaining. And I get that response from a lot of the fans of the show. They love Adam Davies for that reason because he just knows how to do it. Jeremy ... [is] an actor with so much power and force and impact that you're sort of forced to up your game. You're really present in the moment. And when you're there and you're really going back and forth, that's when the sparks really fly. CNN: Talk little bit about the inspiration you draw from to play Adam Davies. Belfi: I started way back on season one in the beginning of the show. And back then, Adam Davies was still in his cubicle. So a lot of the inspiration came from meetings I had when I was starting out -- you know, behavior I experienced from agents and other industry people when I was starting out. I was in a not-too-dissimilar position. ... And I think that's what people really respond to. There's an absolute foundation of truth -- almost scary truth -- to the things Adam says, the things Ari does, all that kind of stuff. And it's why it's such a visceral experience for people in the industry and fun for people that happen not to be in the industry. CNN: What are your thoughts on Adam Davies as a person? Belfi: What gives Ari a little bit of his soul, his heart, is that we have all these scenes with his wife and his family, and you really get to see him as a dad. ... [But] we haven't gotten to see any of the personal life of Adam Davies. So I don't know if there's anything yet to kind of balance out those ruthless qualities he has. But I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have if you're that actor trying to go after that job. You want that agent who's going to beg, borrow and steal to help prove that you're the guy. So in that respect, it seems like he's someone you'd want on your side. And the thing is, I think that's what made the rivalry between him and Ari so great. You know when he was coming up, he probably did a lot of the same things [as Ari] and ran over people in similar kinds of ways. They're really kind of the same in a lot of ways. So you're either best friends or mortal enemies when you share that much in common with somebody. CNN: Exempting Davies, who's your favorite character on the show and why? Belfi: Ah! Impossible question! I have to exempt Adam Davies from the answer? ... If I absolutely, gun-to-my-head have to choose, there's a quality about [Chase's brother] Drama that I've always loved. And it was maybe more prominent in the first couple of seasons than it is now because it's evolved slightly. The quality that I always found the most entertaining, is that Drama was always this mix of desperation and simultaneous pride. And that's really funny. You know at the beginning he was just scratching, begging for something, some chunk of the game or to get back in the game. But he simultaneously kind of knows it all. And that mix is a great comedic mix, comedic recipe. It was both funny and heartbreaking. CNN: Of course, our diehard \"Entourage\" fans would love to get some scoop on the coming story lines. You've gotta give us something. Belfi: A little something? Well, I don't think I'd be giving away too much to say that Adam might get Lloyd. In terms of the story line, there's some stuff that I'm told with Drama and his going after this role on \"Melrose Place\" and the screen test for that role and the ups and downs of that. And also, some big things happen between Eric and Sloane. But in terms of the really exciting stuff between Adam Davies and Ari, I guess I'll say this: At the end of season two, when Ari is trying to form his coup, to break up the agency, and Adam is the one who rats him out and gets him fired and humiliated and causes that whole thing ... In the amazing way that Doug has constructed it, all that stuff from the end of season two comes full circle. There's this one thing that happens that will really stand out and that people will talk about. So some fun, exciting stuff to look forward to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jordan Belfi plays acting agent Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage\"\nBelfi has played Ari Gold's nemesis on the show since the first season .\n\"I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have,\" Belfi says of Davies .\nA little something about coming story lines: Belfi says Adam might get Lloyd ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The name is already taken, but \"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy\" might be a fitting title for a new interactive view of the Milky Way unveiled this week by the European Southern Observatory. Hundreds of photos taken with a regular digital camera, along with computer crunching, formed this panorama. The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy, complete with points of interests such as the 12-billion-year-old, star-packed globular cluster Omega Centauri and the beautiful, reddish Rosette Nebula. Want to stay closer to home? The panorama also points out familiar landmarks such as Jupiter, noting it's the third-brightest object in our night sky after the moon and Venus. For a bit of a head-rush, you can choose to zoom in and click on \"Tour Destinations,\" which will take you on a trip from one end of the galaxy to another, stopping at your selected point of interest. Users can explore the image in magnificent detail, uncovering millions of individual stars forming a dustlike haze, or superimpose a map of the different constellations in the sky. The beautiful panorama is the first to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project, which seeks to \"link the sky we can all see with the deep, 'hidden' cosmos that astronomers study on a daily basis,\" according to ESO. The image is composed of almost 1,200 photos, which were taken by French astrophotographer Serge Brunier with a regular digital camera from ESO observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and from one of the Canary Islands. \"I wanted to show a sky that everyone can relate to, with its constellations, its thousands of stars, with names familiar since childhood,\" Brunier said. The images were then crunched into the single panorama using special software, an effort that took about 340 computing hours to finish, according to the ESO. You can chart your own trip across the Milky Way at GigaGalaxyZoom.org. The next GigaGalaxy Zoom image will be released Monday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy .\nUsers can zoom in and tour destinations such as globular cluster Omega Centauri .\nThe image can be explored in magnificent detail, showing millions of individual stars .\nThe image is the first of three to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, in a rare interview Thursday, depicted himself as an African hero battling imperialism and foreign attempts to oust him rather than the widespread perception of a dictator clinging to power at the expense of the welfare of his people and country. Robert Mugabe says sanctions against his country are \"unjustifiable.\" The 85-year-old Mugabe, the only leader of Zimbabwe since it became independent from Britain in 1980, rejected repeated assertions by CNN's Christiane Amanpour that his policies have driven the nation once known as Africa's breadbasket to virtual economic collapse. Instead, Mugabe accused Britain and the United States of seeking to oust him by imposing economic sanctions, the effects of which he said were worsened by years of drought. He denied that his country is in economic shambles, saying it grew enough food last year to feed all its people, and defended policies that have driven white farmers off their land as properly restoring that land to indigenous Africans. \"The land reform is the best thing (that) could have ever have happened to an African country,\" said Mugabe, a former revolutionary leader who came to power when white-ruled Rhodesia became black-ruled Zimbabwe. \"It has to do with national sovereignty.\" Watch Mugabe on his controversial land reform program » . It was Mugabe's first interview with a Western television network in several years, and he appeared to get frustrated with some of Amanpour's direct questioning, repeatedly denying widely accepted evidence and reports on his nation's woes. Mugabe denied that his ZANU-PF party lost elections in 2008 that forced him to accept a power-sharing agreement with his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who now is prime minister. Violence surrounding the disputed election, much of it against opposition supporters, further damaged Zimbabwe's standing, but Mugabe rejected any blame on Thursday. \"You don't leave power when imperialists dictate that you leave,\" he insisted. \"There is regime change. Haven't you heard of (the) regime change program by Britain and the United States that is aimed at getting not just Robert Mugabe out of power but get Robert Mugabe and his party out of power?\" He also waved off Amanpour's assertion that the power-sharing arrangement is not working, and that opposition political figures are continuing to get harassed and arrested. Watch Mugabe talk about power-sharing » . Asked about Roy Bennett, a white opposition figure who has yet to be sworn in as agriculture minister a year after formation of the power-sharing government, Mugabe stammered before saying Bennett faces charges of \"organizing arms of war\" against Zimbabwe. He added that he's heard the prosecution lacks evidence in the case, but said he won't agree to swearing in Bennett until after any charges are dropped. Mugabe also denied any responsibility for harm to the nation from his economic policies, instead blaming what he called \"unjustified\" and \"illegal\" sanctions that he said were intended to bring regime change. \"The sanctions must be lifted. We should have no interference from outside,\" Mugabe said. \"The continued imperialist interference in our affairs is affecting our country adversely.\" When Amanpour challenged him by saying most of the sanctions were directed at individuals, rather than economic entities, Mugabe said she was wrong. \"The U.S. sanctions are real sanctions, economic sanctions. Have you looked at them?\" he said. \"It's because of sanctions, mainly.\" Amanpour tried to push the point, saying outside observers blamed his policies and not sanctions. \"Not everybody says so,\" Mugabe cut her off. \"It's not true.\" He also rejected criticism from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle, who has accused Mugabe of turning Zimbabwe into a \"basket case\" and repressing his own people. \"It's not a basket case at all,\" Mugabe said. He later called Tutu's comments \"devilish talk\" and added: \"He doesn't know what he's talking about, the little man.\" On the takeover of white-owned farms -- a policy blamed for undermining the agriculture sector -- Mugabe displayed the African nationalist fervor of his revolutionary days. \"Zimbabwe belongs to the Zimbabweans, pure and simple,\" he said, then adding that white Zimbabweans -- even those born in the country with legal ownership of their land -- have a debt to pay. \"They occupied the land illegally. They seized the land from our people,\" Mugabe said. When Amanpour pressed him on white farmers being forced off their land, he shot back, \"Not just off their land. Our land.\" \"They are British settlers,\" he said, later calling them \"citizens by colonization, seizing land from original people, indigenous people of the country.\" Asked if would run again in elections likely to take place in 2011, Mugabe refused to answer, but denied he feared defeat and again rejected charges of past electoral wrongdoing. \"Elections don't go all that smoothly all the time in many countries,\" he said, tossing a jab at the United States. \"Look what happens elsewhere. They didn't go smoothly here, look at what happened during the first term of Bush.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mugabe rejects criticism that he has turned Zimbabwe into a \"basket case\"\nCNN interview is Mugabe's first in years with a major Western network .\nMugabe calls sanctions \"unjustified and illegal\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Jaycee Dugard will testify against the couple that allegedly held her captive in an elaborate compound hidden in their backyard for 18 years if there is a trial, a lawyer for her family said at a news conference Thursday. This photo of Jaycee Dugard was taken at the 1991 Rose Bowl parade. She was abducted later that year. Attorney McGregor Scott admitted it has been a difficult transition for Dugard and her two children -- who police say were fathered by her captor -- given her captivity spanned more than half her life and was the only world she knew for so long. \"But there is no question that she knows that terrible and wrong things were done to her and that those people must be held accountable,\" Scott said. Scott said he had no idea when a trial would be set for Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who have both pleaded not guilty to charges relating to Dugard's alleged kidnapping and subsequent abuse. He acknowledged Dugard would have to relive the \"trauma\" in court by sharing the \"very, very sordid tale.\" Scott also said that because of Phillip Garrido's previous criminal history, which includes a kidnapping and rape charge for which he was registered as a sex offender, Garrido would automatically receive a sentence of 25 years to life if he were found guilty on only one felony charge. But Scott said the family is trying not to focus on any of that and instead work on building a new life together. He said he had met with Dugard and her family twice for a couple of hours and was happy to see \"how well they had been doing.\" \"Even more encouraging was the second time I met with them, I saw progress,\" he said. \"I'm just very pleasantly surprised watching the dynamics, and I think it's a very positive thing going forward.\" Scott said Dugard's daughters, who police said never went to school or a doctor, were receiving tutoring. Dugard has been participating and observing. \"This is a woman whose [own] formal education ended in the fifth grade,\" he said. \"She has a brain that she wants to develop, so it's a very positive thing.\" The family received medical attention and counseling beginning the day Dugard and her children were discovered, Scott said. He also said they had received donations of more than $100,000 from the public, which would help the girls as they get older. He praised law enforcement and family members for helping protect Dugard and her children after her discovery. \"[They are] very guarded in allowing the girls access to TV news, Internet, etc.,\" he said. \"Because they're being a mother, a grandmother, protecting the girls from too much information too early.\" He said he knows there is a curiosity about where the family is, but pleaded that the public and the media give the family time to heal. More than anything, Scott said, Dugard's family is working to make life as normal as possible and allow them to make up for lost time. \"To watch the interaction between Jaycee and her mother ... after 18 years is remarkable,\" Scott said. \"The emotions there, I think they're still wrestling with all of that but I think they're making great progress.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lawyer: Jaycee Dugard \"knows that terrible and wrong things were done to her\"\nLawyer says Dugard, daughters and family progressing well since she was found .\nDugard daughters receive tutoring, counseling and medical attention .\nFamily has gotten donations of more than $100,000 from the public ." } ]
[ { "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 Beastie Boys canceled all scheduled concerts and delayed their next album release while member Adam \"MCA\" Yauch is treated for a cancerous tumor in a salivary gland, Yauch says in a video statement to fans. The Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch will be treated for a cancerous tumor in a salivary gland. \"The good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it's only localized in this one area and it's not in a place that affects my voice,\" Yauch says. \"So, that's nice. That's convenient.\" The cancer is in his left parotid gland and \"also in a lymph node right in that area,\" he says. He will probably have surgery next week and radiation treatments afterward, he says. With band mate Adam \"Ad-Rock\" Horovitz sitting next to him, Yauch tells fans how he found out he had cancer. \"About two months ago, I started feeling this little lump in my throat, like you would feel if you have swollen glands or something like that, like you'd feel if you have a cold, so I didn't really think it was anything,\" he says. His doctor sent him to a specialist who diagnosed the cancer, he says. Yauch does not estimate how long the tour will be delayed, but he apologizes to \"anyone who's made plans\" to come to the shows. The illness will also delay the release of the band's next album, \"Hot Sauce Committee Part 1,\" he says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beastie Boys member Adam \"MCA\" Yauch has cancerous tumor .\nBand postponing tour, delaying release of next album while he gets treated .\nYauch: Tumor \"only localized in this one area\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(InStyle) -- Drew Barrymore keeps evolving -- from star to producer, and now director. Drew Barrymore sat down with InStyle for its October issue, on newsstands Thursday. The 34-year-old actress earned critic's attention with her uncanny portrayal of \"Little Edie\" Beale in HBO's \"Grey Gardens,\" and her directorial debut, \"Whip It,\" has been hailed as a success well before it rolls into theaters October 2. But, at her core, she's still the irresistible free spirit we all know and love, as she revealed in the October issue of InStyle. On being a celebrity ... Barrymore said that while she loves her life, there are still moments she battles with being a celebrity. \"Some days I want nothing more than a brilliant mask so I could look like someone else and go wander the streets and be free,\" she said. \"I'm very peeved that Halloween only comes once a year.\" On exercise... When it comes to transforming her body for a role, as she did for \"Grey Gardens,\" the sunny actress is nothing but dedicated. But in everyday life, Barrymore aims for balance and body acceptance. \"I don't have the time or discipline or interest in having a perfect-10 body. I work out, I eat right, but I'll always be a little bit of Jell-O on a pole.\" On her relationship with her mom ... Barrymore admitted her relationship with her mom is a topic she doesn't readily discuss, but the central love story between a girl and her mom in \"Whip It\" caused Barrymore to reflect on her relationship.\"I am OK with my dad, but my mom and I have yet to work it all out,\" she said, adding that she doesn't talk about it because \"how do you talk about something you're confused about?\" On girl power ... From \"Charlie's Angels\" to her new all-girl roller derby flick, it's no secret that Barrymore champions female friendships. \"I like teams -- I like buddies. I don't understand women who are competitive, apart from positive forums like athletics. One person is a powerful thing, but a tribe is unstoppable.\" On her first fashion faux pas ... Barrymore is known for her ever-evolving, ever-eccentric style, but said anything she donned during the \"E.T.\" era can be labeled as a fashion faux pas. Or can it? \"Velour and taffeta, together? Oh, no, no, no. Now I think it's brilliant.\" On her first broken heart... Barrymore recently broke up with The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and called the five-year relationship one of the most important in her life. But when it comes to her first broke heart, Barrymore said it was her \"first big boyfriend, Jamie Walters.\" Read the full interview with Barrymore in the October issue of InStyle, on newsstands Thursday. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright © 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Drew Barrymore talked first boyfriends, fashion and girl power in October's InStyle .\nBarrymore admitted that her relationship with her mother is hard for her to talk about .\nWhile she loves her life, she sometimes wishes that she could be someone else .\nThe full interview hits newsstands Thursday ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Actress Mackenzie Phillips has said that she believes she had a \"genetic predisposition\" to the life of sex, drugs and rock and roll that have come to define her. Mackenzie Phillips tells CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that her father raped her in 1979. In a 1999 interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on \"Why Some Childhood Stars Crash and Burn,\" the former \"One Day at a Time\" star said she didn't blame Hollywood for the years of drug and addiction she had endured. \"I think that for a lot of us, alcoholism and addiction is the root of the problem, not the fact that we were child stars,\" she said at the time. \"Certainly, it lent to the problem, but it wasn't the root of the problem.\" By the time she did the interview, her well-publicized addiction to cocaine, drug arrests and stints in rehab had overshadowed an acting career once full of promise. Then, on Wednesday, the 49-year-old actress revealed on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" that she engaged in an incestuous relationship with her father, legendary musician John Phillips, for nearly 10 years. In her tell-all memoir, \"High on Arrival\" -- named after a song her father dedicated to her -- she claims the relationship began in 1979. She claims her father forced himself on her while they were under the influence of drugs on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones' entourage. She ended the relationship a decade later, when she became pregnant and realized she did not know who had fathered her child -- her husband or her own father -- and terminated the pregnancy, the actress told CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch Phillips discuss her alleged incestuous relationship with her father » . But before the incest claims -- and subsequent denials from relatives -- Mackenzie Phillips was better known as a child actor full of promise who fell from grace under the toxic guidance of her drug-addicted father. Born Laura Mackenzie Phillips in 1959 to John Phillips and Baltimore socialite Susan Adams, Phillips told People magazine in 1980 that she alternated between two wildly different worlds after her parents divorced when she was three years old. \"My mother concentrated on bringing me up a proper lady,\" Mackenzie Phillips told the magazine. \"And then on weekends at my dad's place, I would find Mick Jagger and Donovan and the Beatles hanging out. I remember crawling all over Paul McCartney.\" Her father taught her to roll a joint when she was 10, she tried cocaine for the first time when she was 11 and lost her virginity at age 12, she told Meredith Vieira of NBC's\"Today\" show. When she was 12, a talent scout for Francis Ford Coppola spotted her playing in a band with classmates on amateur night at the Troubadour, according to People.com. She eventually landed a memorable role in the 1973 hit coming-of-age flick, \"American Graffiti.\" After filming, her mother sent her to a Swiss boarding school, but the rebellious teen didn't last long in exile. She returned to her father's home in Los Angeles under the supervision of her father's sister, Rosemary Throckmorton. When her father and stepmother left for New York in 1974 and never returned, Mackenzie, her brother Jeffrey, moved in with their aunt in \"a little house behind the Hollywood Bowl which we shared with 12 cats,\" according to People.com. Despite her relocations, Phillips' career continued to advance. At 15, she appeared in her second movie, \"Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins,\" with Alan Arkin. In 1975, she was offered the role of Julie Cooper on CBS' hit sitcom, \"One Day at a Time,\" according to IMDB.com. \"By the time I turned 18, I moved into a little chalet of my own and felt very grown-up,\" Mackenzie told People in an interview in 1980. As her star grew, so did her appetite for drugs, particularly cocaine. A few years later, just after she turned 18, Phillips was arrested when she was found collapsed on quaaludes on a street in Los Angeles. Phillips said on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" that her father's response was, \"Congratulations! Now you're a real Phillips. Now you know that even though they caught you, the rules don't apply.\" Her weight loss and erratic behavior disrupted the show's filming and became a source of distress to her co-stars, Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli, according to People.com. According to Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's \"The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows,\" Phillips missed the 1980-81 season while in rehab for addiction issues. When she went to seek treatment at Fair Oaks, a psychiatric hospital in Summit, New Jersey, in December 1980, she joined her father and stepmother, who entered the hospital after being charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics, according to People.com. She left with a clean bill of health, but soon enough resumed using drugs even as she attempted to rebuild her career as a member of her father's new version of the Mamas & the Papas. In her memoir, she recalls arriving at a hotel room to find two packages -- one containing her father's newly published memoir and another containing an eighth of an ounce of cocaine, according to excerpts of the book published on MSNBC.com. After shooting up, she recalls reaching for the book and looking up her name in the index. \"Under my name was a list of subheadings and page numbers. I scanned down the entries: . Phillips, Laura Mackenzie . acting career of... arrested on drug charges... attempts to clean out... in California... childhood of... drug use by... early childhood of... at finishing school in Switzerland... Jeff Sessler and... marriage to Jeff Sessler... Peter Asher and... rape.... shipboard romance on QE 2... \"There it was, my life to date, with highlights selected, cross-referenced, and alphabetized. I had been organized and reduced to a list of sensational and mostly regrettable and/or humiliating anecdotes. Being indexed, particularly under such dubious headings, gave me a weird feeling that definitely wasn't pride. I felt like I wasn't a real person, just a list of incidents and accidents,\" she writes in the book. Her television career experienced a revival in the 1990s, with guest appearances on hot shows including \"Beverly Hills, 90210,\" \"Melrose Place,\" \"Walker, Texas Ranger\" and \"Chicago Hope,\" her profile on IMDB.com states. From 1999 to 2001, she had a regular role in the Disney series, \"So Weird,\" and several other television guest appearances followed, according to IMDB.com. She appeared to be getting her life back on track, eventually giving birth to a son, Shane. She was arrested in for drug possession in 2008 on her way to an \"One Day at a Time\" reunion. Since then, she says she has been drug-free, and hopes that purging herself of the secret incestuous relationship will help her recover. Yet she insists she does not hate her father for what he did. \"I have to say that I loved my father, and I still do. I've been trying to come to terms with this very difficult past,\" Phillips told Winfrey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mackenzie Phillips believes she had \"genetic predisposition\" to substance abuse .\nDad showed her how to roll joint when she was 10, she tells \"Today\" show .\nDrug abuse forced her out of role on successful CBS sitcom \"One Day at a Time\"\nWatch Mackenzie Phillips on Larry King Live, Wednesday 9 p.m. ET ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Authorities have seized $1 billion worth of marijuana plants and have arrested 82 Mexican nationals with ties to drug cartels in the first week and half of an effort to eradicate marijuana fields from California's Fresno County, the county sheriff's office said Wednesday. The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels. Operation Save Our Sierra began July 13 and involves local, state and federal agencies working together to remove marijuana growing operations, investigate and arrest drug traffickers, and remove infrastructure on public lands in Fresno County, a news release said. \"This is a high-intensity drug trafficking area,\" U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said in a phone interview. \"I think what should be highlighted here is the local authorities' work to reclaim the land from the drug traffickers.\" The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels, local authorities said, though they did not release further details. Eastern Fresno County, where the seizures have been made, is mountainous and sparsely populated. Growers exploit the area's streams, rivers and lakes to create elaborate drip lines for their plants. A mature plant can be worth $4,000, said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims. \"Fresno County is roughly the size of Connecticut, and the drug traffickers target these areas because they know there is not that significant of a law-enforcement presence,\" Mims said. \"The chances of getting caught are slim.\" \"The bottom line is our public lands are being destroyed by foreign drug trafficking and heavily armed Mexican cartels,\" George Anderson of the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday at a news conference highlighting the seizures. The operation is the largest in Fresno County history and one of the largest in California, Mims said. \"What makes this operation unique is the approach: prevention, enforcement, eradication and reclamation,\" she said. Intelligence gathered for the operation began in February, with community presentations about prevention. The effort is now focused on shutting down the at least 70 marijuana farms identified by local authorities. The operation is expected to continue into November, when colder weather makes marijuana growing more difficult. At least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized, Mims said. \"This shows what can be accomplished at the local level when agencies work together,\" Kerlikowske said. Kerlikowske, who flew to Fresno County on Wednesday and toured a marijuana farm, said his office is one of the primary sponsors of the operation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The U.S. drug czar says it is a high-intensity drug trafficking area .\nSuspects have links to Mexican drug cartels, authorities says .\nAt least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized .\nOperation is expected to continue into November ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- A terrorism suspect accused of plotting the bombing of a skyscraper made his first appearance in federal court Friday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi said through his lawyer that he understood the charges Friday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian, said little during a 20-minute hearing at the Dallas federal courthouse. His lawyer, however, said Smadi understood the gravity of the charge. Judge Irma Ramirez set a probable cause hearing for October 5. Smadi initially drew authorities' scrutiny because of his violent posts on an extremist chat site, court papers indicate. He was arrested Thursday in a sting operation, the FBI said. Federal officials said Smadi, who entered the United States illegally and lived in Texas, tried to set off an explosive attached to a vehicle at the base of the 60-story Fountain Place office tower. Long before authorities arrested Smadi, however, they were following his Internet discussions, according to a court affidavit. \"Smadi was discovered by the FBI within an online group of extremists,\" the affidavit says. \"Among many others in the group who espoused and endorsed violence, Smadi stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States.\" Undercover officers then contacted Smadi, posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell. After months of conversations, the agents considered Smadi a legitimate threat. Smadi picked several targets to attack, including the Dallas-Forth Worth airport, before deciding on the skyscraper, which houses Wells Fargo Bank, the affidavit says. It details a conversation that Smadi is said to have had with authorities: . \"I have decided to change the target,\" he said, according to the affidavit. \"God willing, the strike will be certain and strong. It will shake the currently weak economy in the state and the American nation, because this bank is one of the largest banks in the city.\" Smadi said many times that he wanted to commit violent jihad and he was a soldier of Osama bin Laden, the affidavit says. Undercover agents tried to get Smadi to \"re-evaluate his interpretation of jihad,\" saying there were nonviolent ways to commit the act. But \"Smadi again communicated his continuing commitment for violent jihad,\" the affidavit says. After casing the bank in July, Smadi told an undercover agent he would target it, according to authorities. Initially, Smadi told the agent he wanted to bomb the bank on September 11 but decided to wait until the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended on September 20, authorities said. After receiving what he thought was an explosive from an undercover agent, Smadi drove a car with the fake bomb into a parking garage under the skyscraper, authorities said. Watch how a Jordanian was given fake explosive » . Smadi thought he could detonate the bomb by dialing his cell phone, they said. When he dialed, the number rang a phone in authorities' possession, the affidavit says. Counterterrorism officials arrested Smadi on Thursday before publicly disclosing a similar but unrelated terrorism sting arrest Wednesday in Springfield, Illinois. A federal law enforcement official familiar with the cases said authorities feared that word of the Illinois arrest could tip off the Texas suspect to the sting operation. Watch what the recent terror arrests mean » . A charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction carries a potential sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. In the Illinois case, undercover FBI agents foiled a plot to bomb Springfield's federal building, authorities said. In neither case did authorities find ties to known terrorist groups. Journalist Todd Bensman and CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Sean Callebs and Terry Frieden contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Suspect initially wanted to stage attack on September 11, authorities say .\nAffidavit: Teen accused in Texas bomb plot wrote violent posts on extremist Web site .\nHosam Maher Husein Smadi accused of plotting to bomb Dallas skyscraper .\nSmadi told plans to undercover FBI agents, authorities say ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed a deeply personal side in an interview Thursday night, saying he loves Jesus Christ and would have liked to play Major League baseball in Yankee Stadium. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke highly of President Obama at the United Nations on Thursday. He also expressed a fondness for American people and culture, saying he likes the movie actor Charles Bronson and the poet Walt Whitman. He loves to sing, he said, though he does not do it well. And Chavez had kind words for the U.S. security detail protecting him during his visit to New York, saying he chatted with them while out walking and that they \"have been very gracious, very efficient and very attentive, very kind.\" In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, Chavez spoke at length about a host of issues: relations between Venezuela and the United States and his hopes for improved ties with President Barack Obama; Iran, Israel and those who deny that the Holocaust existed; efforts to overthrow him and have him assassinated; criticism that he is power hungry and trying to silence critics. Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist, spoke with King a few hours after giving a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, in which he praised Obama but criticized some U.S. policies. Watch Chavez speak at the U.N. General Assembly » . When asked whether he is misunderstood in the United States, Chavez seemed to turn reflective. \"I'm a man with many defects,\" he said. \"I love. I sing. I dream. I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother. My children, my two daughters are with me and I want a better world for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren. \"Now, they demonize me. But that's the start of these world campaigns to try to defend what you cannot defend -- a system that is destroying the world. ... I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.\" Chavez then talked about his religious upbringing and current faith. \"I was an altar boy,\" he said. \"My mother wanted me to be a priest. I am very Christian and Catholic. ... I'm very faithful. I believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ. I am a Christian. ... I cry when I see injustice, children dying of hunger.\" His comments were all the more remarkable because Chavez and the Catholic Church have been at odds since he came to power in 1999. The church has been one of his major critics, with Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders expressing concern over what they see as attempts by Chavez to limit the church's influence. Chavez's efforts to change anti-abortion laws have been at the top of those concerns. Chavez, in turn, has referred to church leadership as a \"tumor.\" Speaking of other matters, Chavez said he hopes for improved relations with Obama, but \"we want relations based on respect, relations of peoples where we are respected.\" That has not been the case so far, he said. \"Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America,\" Chavez told King. \"They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations. It's enough. We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality.\" Chavez particularly criticized former President George W. Bush, whom he accused of orchestrating an assassination attempt on the Venezuelan leader during a short-lived coup in 2002. Chavez regained power within days. Watch Chavez discuss the alleged assassination attempt » . \"The Bush government toppled me,\" he said. \"They asked for my assassination. They disrespected us. ... I saw my assassins. ... I was a prisoner in Venezuela, being a president. They took me to the seaside. I was debating with those who wanted murder me. They received the order to kill me. However, at this very moment, a group of soldiers refused. They did not kill me, but I saw those who wanted to kill me, and the order came from the White House.\" Chavez also expressed concern that the United States, which he calls \"the empire,\" still would like to topple him. As he has numerous times in recent weeks, Chavez criticized U.S. plans to begin operating out of military bases in neighboring Colombia. The United States says it needs a presence in Colombia to fight drug traffickers. Chavez sees a sinister intent. When asked what country he fears would harm him, Chavez replied, \"The empire. The empire. Seven military bases ... in Colombia, that's a serious threat against Venezuela.\" Chavez also defended his relationship with Iran but denied having said that Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology. Iran has embarked on a nuclear program that the United States and other nations think will lead it to develop nuclear weapons before long. \"They have fooled you,\" Chavez said. \"I've never said that Iran is going to help us to have nuclear technology. ... That's a strategy to attack Venezuela and say that we are building an atomic bomb. That's the next accusation. And I'm going to say this now: Please, come on. That's crazy. That's crazy.\" Chavez said he does not agree with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contention that the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were killed during World War II, never existed. \"But there also was another holocaust in South America,\" Chavez said. \"I do not deny the Jewish Holocaust. And I condemn it. But in South America, when the Europeans arrived, there were close to 90 million Indians; 200 years later, we only had four million remaining. That was a holocaust. And the Europeans denied this holocaust.\" Israel came under criticism from Chavez, who called it a \"small country with atomic bombs, and very aggressive country. ... They have massacred entire families. It is a war-mongering country.\" Turning to the situation in his own country, Chavez denied that he is trying to shut down critical media, such as the independent Globovision TV station. Government officials have levied several charges against the station, saying that it is disseminating false information and trying to foment dissatisfaction against Chavez. The Chavez government has repealed licenses for other independent TV and radio stations, and has threatened to do so against Globovision. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter this week joined human rights groups and others who have expressed concern over what they see as Chavez becoming too authoritarian. Chavez dismissed the criticism. \"Never in Venezuela have we had so much freedom of speech as now,\" he said. Pressed by King about whether he is going to shut down Globovision, Chavez answered, \"I do not know. It depends on them. If they keep on sponsoring coup d'etats, if they keep on calling for my assassination, if they keep on breaching the law even as well, it is not Chavez that's going to close them. I want to apply the law. We need to respect the law. It is the law. It's out of logic, and it's pure logic.\" As to Carter, Chavez said, \"Yes, I read that and I regret for him, because I think he's totally confounded and lost. It's a long time since he visited us. I respect him enormously, but I think he is wrong. He's a victim of so much falsehood in the world.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he loves Jesus Christ, U.S. people, culture .\nChavez says he hopes for improved relations with U.S. President Barack Obama .\nHe denies he is trying to shut down critical media in Venezuela .\nHe denies Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Four boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year old girl, police in Phoenix, Arizona, said Wednesday. The girl was lured into a vacant storage shed by the suspects, who offered her chewing gum, police said at a news conference. The girl was restrained while the boys -- ages 9, 10, 13 and 14 -- sexually assaulted her, police said of the July 16 incident. All the suspects except for the 14-year-old live in the same apartment complex, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. The 14-year-old has been charged as an adult, Hill 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 girl and the boys charged are all from families that have come to the United States from the West African nation of Liberia, police said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police in Phoenix, Arizona, say 8-year-old girl lured to vacant shed with gum .\nFour boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting girl .\nGirl placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services ." } ]
[ { "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) -- Doctors say an encephalitis outbreak has killed 130 people -- mostly children -- in northern India since January. The outbreak of acute encephalitis -- an inflammation of brain tissue -- is mostly concentrated in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, said V.S. Nigam, the state's nodal officer for tackling the disease. He told CNN that 640 patients had tested positive for the infection, including 30 with Japanese encephalitis, which is spread by mosquitoes. Acute encephalitis can be spread in various ways, including a bacterial or viral infection; the ingesting of toxic substances; and complications of a disease. The disease has mostly struck children up to 15 years old, Nigam added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Encephalitis outbreak has killed 130 people in northern India since January .\nOutbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh .\nEncephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissue, mostly affecting children under 15 ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on issues affecting communities across the country. County administrator Brenda T. Buck is trying hard to help create eight to 10 sawmill jobs for Jefferson County. FAYETTE, Mississippi (CNN) -- The odds are against Brenda T. Buck, and she knows it. So she counts on what she calls the Sandwich Philosophy: \"Take it one bite at a time.\" Buck is the county administrator in Jefferson County, a rural area in southwest Mississippi dotted with small churches, modest homes and markers noting a Civil War skirmish. \"It is a great small town, and everybody knows everybody,\" Buck says. If you look through the statistics, three things jump out: . • The Census Bureau lists the population of Jefferson County as 86 percent African American, the highest percentage of any county in the United States. • It is the fourth-poorest county in the United States, with a median income of $15,037. • The unemployment rate in August was 18.6 percent, the highest of Mississippi's 82 counties. \"It has not always been this way,\" says Angelia Shelvy, a single mother of three who is among the unemployed. \"I think we are forgotten.\" Shelvy had a job making $10,000 a year as a teacher's assistant, but she left it to take a job paying twice as much, signing on with a union that provides workers to nuclear power plants. Her parents agreed to care for her children when she had to travel, for months at a time, as far away as Arizona. Shelvy thought it was the right thing to do for her family, but phone calls to home at bedtime proved otherwise. Her 4-year-old, especially, had a rough time adjusting. \"I'm like, 'You have Granny.' He's like, 'No, I don't want Granny; I want you to hold me,' \" Shelvy told us. \"I missed Mother's Day twice; for two years I missed it. ... So I decided that it was more important for me to be here with my children.\" Back home now, she has been searching for work since March, looking as far as 90 minutes away from Fayette. \"I did Internet searching, different jobs, hospitals, different schools,\" she said. \"They're not hiring. They either say they are not hiring, or I'm not qualified. I don't have enough years of experience. 'We'll call you later.' 'Get back with us.' And it's been stressful for me.\" Buck spends hours a day trying to help, and most of her time with the Board of Supervisors is spent debating economic development ideas. At home, too, she is reminded of the bleak local jobs market. Her husband isn't there. He's working 900 miles away, at the moment, in Indiana. \"He works with a company that has been going into a lot of the car plants\" during refittings and downsizing, Buck said. \"We have four kids. ... He is here basically maybe a total combination of, maybe, two months out of the year.\" The county got a modest amount of federal money to buy new police cruisers. But its requests for stimulus money to improve its roads have been ignored, at least to date, and as Buck continues to press those requests, she also is pushing smaller economic development grants. Reliable Mat LLC is her current obsession. The screeching hum of a giant saw greets visitors, and inside the warehouse are dozens of pallets of neatly stacked firewood, waiting to be loaded on 18-wheelers and distributed across the country for the coming winter. On the grounds, there are 10 workers, some running giant logs through the saw, others stacking and wrapping the wood for shipment. On average, the men make about $100 day, and Paul Southerland, the company's general manager, says the noise and activity attracts others who are down on their luck. \"I see a lot of people come by looking for jobs, yeah,\" Southerland says during a tour of the grounds. The company's main product is giant wooden mats used to create flat surfaces to provide access -- on foot and in vehicles -- to oil and gas fields. All of the work has shifted to the firewood production because orders for the mats have dropped dramatically. \"Mississippi is always last to feel the effects of a recession, and most of the time it is the last to pick back up,\" Southerland said. \"It hit us about June. .. It really hit us hard, too.\" Still, Southerland expects orders to pick up early next year. He hopes to expand the business by then if the county secures an economic development grant to help him buy a bigger sawmill. \"If we had that sawmill, we would be able to add eight or 10 more folks,\" Southerland said. Eight or 10 more jobs might not seem like much in many places. But Jefferson County's population is just shy of 9,000, and when nearly one in five are unemployed, Buck invokes her Sandwich Philosophy. \"My short term goal is to get that grant, to get those eight people working,\" she says. \"My philosophy, when I walk through the doors in the morning, just like a sandwich: take one bite at a time.\" She also sees a bigger gain than just eight or 10 jobs. \"Just imagine, eight people, if it were eight men making $10 to $11 an hour could actually come home and be home at night with their families,\" she said. \"The impact that it would make not just from the economical standpoint but from the social standpoint. \"That father's presence there in that household and not having to travel so far. I mean you have a double whammy. It's a win-win for any family.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jefferson County is fourth-poorest in U.S.; the recession came late but hit hard .\nSometimes, breadwinners must leave state, and their families, to scrape by .\nCounty administrator Brenda T. Buck wants to bring jobs close to home .\nShe considers every new job created in her county a small victory ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Three independent United Nations human rights experts have accused Iran of torturing confessions from detainees charged with fomenting political unrest, the international organization said Thursday. Iranian opposition suspects cover their faces at a Revolutionary Court hearing in Tehran last week. \"No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture,\" said Manfred Nowak, who is the U.N. special rapporteur on torture. The treatment of detainees at Iran's prisons has increasingly become a divisive issue within Iran's Islamic leadership, as reformists continue to accuse the hardline government of allowing abuse and torture in attempts to coerce false confessions. Iranian officials have denied the allegations. \"These confessions for alleged crimes such as threats against national security and treason must not, under any circumstances, be admitted as evidence by the Revolutionary Court,\" said El Hadji Malick Sow, vice chairman of the U.N.'s working group on arbitrary detention. The United Nations, in a news release, said the statements also reflect the position of Margaret Sekaggya, special U.N. rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Iran is conducting a mass trial of about 100 Iranian defendants in its Revolutionary Court. Reformist politicians, lawyers and journalists are among those accused of protesting in an attempt to overturn government leadership. Among the defendants are Seyyed Mohammad Abtahi, a former Iranian vice president; Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine; and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar. Street protests and a brutal government crackdown followed the June 12 presidential election, leading to the arrests of more than 1,000 people. The official death toll from the post-election unrest is 30, although opposition leaders have reportedly said it's more than twice that figure. On Wednesday, Iran's influential parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, dismissed allegations by Iran's opposition that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, according to state-run media. Larijani said that a special panel of Iran's parliament, or Majlis, conducted a \"precise and comprehensive inquiry\" into the treatment at Tehran's Evin and Kahrizak prisons, and found \"no cases of rape or sexual abuse,\" government-funded Press TV reported. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry also denied that prisoners had been tortured. \"What kind of talk is this? There was never any pressure used against these people,\" Hassan Qashqavi said Monday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. They were responding to accusations made by opposition candidate Mehdi Karrubi who, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Iran's election authority declared Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the race, sparking hundreds of thousands of Iranians to take to the streets in protest. Iranian opposition figures such as Karrubi have compared the treatment of the detainees to political prisoners abused under the \"oppressing regime\" of the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In an open letter to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani posted Saturday on his party's Web site, Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to \"investigate these tragedies with transparency until they are resolved.\" He said he is willing to lead the investigation in a \"truthful, unbiased fashion.\" \"Some of the former detainees have told of such brutal and violent, repeated rapes of the young women [in detention] that have caused irreparable damage to their reproductive systems,\" Karrubi says in the letter. \"Others have raped our detained young men with such brutality that they have been afflicted by depression and are no longer speaking with anyone and refuse to leave the dark corners of their houses.\" Larijani on Wednesday challenged Karrubi to \"present evidence of such outrages\" for the Majlis to investigate, according to Press TV. Iranian media has reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has ordered one prison, Kahrizak, shut down amid reports it did not measure up to the required standards. Kahrizak's chief was fired and arrested over allegations of detainee mistreatment, according to local reports Saturday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "3 U.N. human rights experts say government tortured detained protesters .\nGovernment denies opposition detainees were abused into confessions .\nIran conducting a trial of about 100 Iranian defendants in its Revolutionary Court .\n1,000 people arrested, accused of fomenting unrest after June 12 election ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A report from an Israeli advocacy group based on what it says is the testimony of several unnamed Israeli soldiers accuses the Israeli military of intentionally putting Palestinian civilians at risk during its recent operation in Gaza. Palestinian Majid Abed Raboh, left, shows Wednesday how he says Israeli soldiers used him as a human shield. The report, released Wednesday from a group called \"Breaking the Silence\" -- which includes former Israeli soldiers -- has been dismissed by the Israeli military as slanderous. In the 110-page report, the group said some of the 26 soldiers interviewed said they used Palestinians as human shields during the military's more than two-week long ground operation in Gaza earlier this year. \"In some cases a civilian would be forced to walk in front of soldier while the soldier places his gun barrel on the civilian's shoulder,\" the report states. Other soldiers talk about destroying buildings even though the structures posed no direct threat. They also said that white phosphorus was used in densely populated areas and describe the rules of engagement as \"permissive.\" Phosphorus shells can be used to create a smokescreen for troops. In creating the diversion, the element ignites when exposed to oxygen and can cause severe burns. International law calls on militaries to limit the use white phosphorus in civilian areas. Other organizations, including the United Nations' Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, have criticized the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza. Israel has questioned the legitimacy of those claims, as well. The stories presented by Breaking the Silence are anonymous accounts which CNN cannot independently verify. The group said that the soldiers were not willing to speak with the media. In response to the report's allegations, the Israeli military said it complied with international law on all fronts. The advocacy group said many of the soldiers interviewed in its report are still serving and fear repercussions if they reveal their identity, and they did not take their complaints up the chain of command. The Israeli military has rejected the report, saying the anonymous nature of the testimonies means they lack credibility. \"There are no factual details, no places, no names of incidents in specific houses on a specific date,\" military spokesman Lt. Col. Avital Liebovitch said. \"I would be more than happy to be provided with these details and I will be able to investigate them.\" The Israeli military conducted its own investigation into soldiers' actions during Operation Cast Lead, its 22-day military offensive in January against the militant group Hamas in an effort to end ongoing rocket attacks. It found that Israeli forces \"operated in accordance with international law\" although there were a few incidents in which \"intelligence or operational errors\" occurred. Fighting left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead according to officials in Gaza, while Israel put that death toll closer to 1,100, saying more than 70 percent of those killed were Hamas militants. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the operation, including three civilians. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, responding to the report which was widely publicized in Israel, said the criticism was \"misplaced and misdirected.\" \"If someone has a criticism, or information or conclusions about IDF (Israel Defense Forces) actions, they should bring them to me, as minister of defense of the state of Israel, and to the Israeli government that instructed the IDF to restore quiet to the communities in the south,\" Barak said. \"The IDF is the most moral army in the world and it operates according to the highest ethical code.\" CNN did independently obtain corroborating detail on one anonymous claim in the report. Gaza resident Shafiq Daher told CNN earlier this week that he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers during the recent Gaza military operation. His description of his experience closely matched an account given in the Breaking the Silence report. \"He was holding with all his strength like this and with his heavy machine gun on the other shoulder,\" said Daher, who demonstrated how the soldier walked behind him as they approached his neighbors' homes. The Israeli military would not comment on whether Palestinians were used as human shields in Gaza, saying only that there are dozens of ongoing internal investigations into individual soldier conduct. Daher, who lives in Jabaliya outside Gaza City, said he was forced to search his neighbors' homes this way for about a week, under heavy fire. He said he was also given a hammer and told to break through his neighbors' walls. \"I felt like a dead man walking,\" he said. \"I was walking and praying to God and thought this is what death is like.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Israeli advocacy group bases report on testimony of unnamed Israeli soldiers .\nSoldiers say they used civilians as shields, phosphorus in crowded areas .\nSoldiers referring to operation in Gaza; between 1,100 and 1,400 Palestinians killed .\nIsraeli military calls report slanderous, lacking in credibility ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Astounding. Risky. Quitter. And that's what fellow conservatives had to say Sunday about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her decision to step down with 18 months left in her term. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down this month. Democrats left it to Republican and conservative voices to assess what Friday's unexpected announcement by Palin means for her and a possible run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. For example, Vice President Joe Biden called it a personal decision, offering no analysis of why she did it. By contrast, those on the political right acknowledged that they didn't know what to make of it. Karl Rove, the \"architect\" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns, said the resignation left many of Palin's fellow Republicans \"a little perplexed.\" \"It's a risky strategy,\" Rove told \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"Astounding,\" was the pronouncement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and conservative columnist George Will said Palin was declaring herself a quitter. Palin, who was Sen. John McCain's vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months. She also complained that too much time and too many taxpayer dollars were going toward fighting ethics investigations and that the mainstream media were continuing with unfair attacks on her and her family. Some analysts believe that Palin will seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare. Rove, whom Bush dubbed \"the Architect\" for managing his successful presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, said stepping down now won't lessen the media spotlight on Palin. In fact, he said, leaving the governor's office takes away her platform for controlling her agenda and message. \"The media, if she wants to run for president, is going to be following her for the next 3½ years,\" said Rove, who called the move unclear and therefore a potentially harmful strategy for a politician. \"Effective strategies in politics are ones that are so clear and obvious that people can grasp. ... It's not clear what she's doing and why.\" iReport.com: Share thoughts on Palin stepping down . Grassley told the CBS program \"Face the Nation\" that he had \"no insight into why she did it.\" \"I would think, if you want to run for president -- and I'm not sure that's got anything to do with what she's doing -- that the forum of a governorship would be a better forum than just being a private citizen,\" the veteran senator said. Will told the ABC program \"This Week\" that he had \"no idea why she did this.\" \"The one that rings most hollow is, she doesn't want to put Alaska through the terror of [her] being a lame-duck governor,\" Will said. \"If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with [voters] to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter.\" Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska criticized Palin's decision as abandoning the state's voters. Palin defeated Murkowski's father the gubernatorial election in 2006. But Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, also on the Fox program, said Sunday that Murkowski's statement disappointed him because it failed to recognize all that Palin has accomplished in her 2½ years in office. \"She doesn't need a title to effect change and bring some hope to people who need it,\" said Parnell, a Republican who stands to become governor when Palin steps down this month. iReport.com: Conservative says Palin decision \"not a smart move\" Palin had no public appearances Sunday, but she encouraged her followers via Twitter to ignore the pundits. \"Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again,\" her Twitter message said. In an Independence Day message to supporters, Palin said she was leaving office for a \"higher calling.\" \"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country,\" Palin said in a statement attributed to her on her Facebook page. \"And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family.\" Palin said her administration had \"accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two.\" \"We have accomplished so much, and there's much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most,\" she said. \"And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier. I've never been one to waste time or resources.\" iReport.com: \"No solid explanation\" from Palin . Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, noted that Palin will remain in the media spotlight regardless of whether she is governor. \"The challenge that she's going to have is that there will be people who will say, 'Look, if they chased you out of this, it won't get any easier at other levels,' \" Huckabee said. \"It could be a brilliant strategy. The point is, we don't know.\" Huckabee called a presidential campaign \"brutal\" and said a Republican primary will ratchet up the pressure on Palin. \"When your opponents within your own team spend millions of dollars to redefine you, it's very, very difficult,\" Huckabee said. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Shirley Hung contributed to this story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fellow conservatives question decision to resign .\nColumnist George Will says Palin is declaring herself a quitter .\nSome analysts believe move intended to free her to prepare for presidential run .\nPalin: Once I decided not to run for another term, I didn't want to be lame duck ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A controversial bill that California legislators say would allow the early release of more than 27,000 inmates from crowded prisons will be taken up by the state Assembly on Monday. Inmates at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, interact in a gym modified to house them in August 2007. The Senate on Thursday passed the corrections package 21-19, after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, assured senators the changes would protect the public from the most violent offenders. The legislation also would direct more resources toward parolees, he said. Senate Republicans say the bill would undermine public safety. All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the measure. Both houses of the legislature are controlled by Democrats. Consideration of the bill comes as California faces a mid-September deadline for reducing its prison population by about 40,000 inmates. A special panel of three federal judges issued the order, contending the crowded prison system violates prisoners' constitutional rights. The judges said they will make the reductions themselves if the state fails to act. The measure would save the financially strapped state $524.5 million, according to a statement from Steinberg's office. When coupled with budget revisions that lawmakers made in July, the total corrections savings would be $1.2 billion, he said. That is the amount that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants as part of his efforts to cut state spending and balance the budget. Republicans said the bill would lead to the release of about 27,000 prisoners, while Democrats estimated it would reduce the prison population by 27,300 in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 37,000 during fiscal year 2010-11. \"It is undeniable that the real failure of our criminal justice system is that it fails to distinguish between violent offenders and nonviolent offenders,\" Steinberg said. \"Of course, we want to keep violent criminals off our streets and out of our communities, and this reform package is a necessary step to do that because it concentrates our incarceration efforts on the violent criminals and ensures that nonviolent offenders have more contact with parole officers,\" he said. Some nonviolent offenders could serve shorter sentences. According to Steinberg, each parole officer in California is responsible for about 70 parolees, many of whom recommit crimes and go back to jail. If the legislation is passed, the ratio would be reduced to 45 to 1, he said. \"They [parole officers] cannot adequately supervise those who are the most at risk and those who are the most risk to the public safety,\" Steinberg said. With a lesser workload, the officers also can make more home visits and arrange more meetings with the people they supervise, the lawmaker said. Senate Republicans called the legislation a threat to public safety. \"Among the inmates who could be eligible for early release under the Democrat plan include felons convicted of human trafficking, stalking, identity theft, violent child abuse and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction,\" the Republican Caucus said in a written statement. \"Unfortunately, this proposal exploits a fiscal crisis in order to advance a dangerous liberal agenda that seeks to undo successful anti-crime laws,\" said Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta. GOP lawmakers in the Senate also strongly opposed the creation of what they described as \"an unelected and unaccountable sentencing commission that would be given broad authority to alter important public safety laws.\" The legislation would establish a 16-member Sentencing Commission that would put in place new sentencing guidelines by July 1, 2012. Unless vetoed by the legislature and governor, the guidelines would become effective January 1, 2013. The 13 voting members of the commission would include the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, a judge appointed by the chief justice, the state public defender and the secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A crime victim would be among the three ex-officio members. California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement early Friday morning, explaining that the assembly recessed around midnight and will reconvene Monday. On Thursday and into Friday morning, she said in the statement, \"we have been taking into account many of the concerns raised by law enforcement, and are working toward a bill that the people of California can agree makes sense,\" and that process will continue through the weekend. \"Our target remains a responsible approach that will achieve our public safety and budgetary goals, and allow us to prevent the wholesale release of prisoners by federal judges.\" \"Relieving prison overcrowding and reducing recidivism are monumental challenges, but they are challenges that we will not retreat from,\" Schwarzenegger told an audience of prosecutors in June. California has a 70 percent recidivism rate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "California Senate OKs bill to allow early release of 27,000 inmates .\nState Assembly will take up measure, which would save $524 million, on Monday .\nDemocratic Senate official says changes would protect public from violent offenders .\nSenate Republicans call the legislation a threat to public safety ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "CISHAN, Taiwan (CNN) -- Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday he accepts responsibility for the government's slow response after Typhoon Morakot slammed into the island killing at more than 120 people and unleashing floods, mudslides and misery. Mourners kneel and pray to the dead as they face the devastated valley of Shiao Lin. Ma, who has faced heavy criticism from victims of the disaster, ruled out resignation, insisting his government did its best in the face of difficulties, however he pledged an investigation into any irregularities. \"Certainly, I will take full responsibility whatever the blame is because, after all, I am the president of this country,\" Ma told CNN, saying heavy rains grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief. \"Once the weather was good -- that is the 14th of August -- we were able to evacuate 2,518 people. It's a record,\" he said. Hundreds of people still await rescue in remote areas of Taiwan, where torrential downpours, dense fog, rugged terrain and raging rivers have hampered relief efforts. Washed-out roads and collapsed bridges have made some rescue operations impossible . Touring disaster areas, Ma has been confronted by angry survivors, and even provoked a scuffle when he opened a weekend baseball game as protesters demanded he step down. Ma has offered apologies and promises to do better. \"We will find out not only to correct the mistakes but (also) to punish the people responsible,\" he said. Rescue efforts were ongoing Sunday with military helicopters bringing stranded villagers to their waiting relatives. Watch rescue efforts in Taiwan » . Others, waiting days in anguish for word on their loved ones, lashed out in anger. \"Local officials don't care,\" one man said. \"There are still people there and they don't do anything.\" On Saturday, weeping relatives of typhoon victims set up shrines near devastated villages to calm the spirits of the dead and honor the belief that their souls will return home after seven days. Watch mourners call home souls of the dead » . Morakot hit the island last weekend, dropping 2.6 meters (102 inches) of rain. Before it roared on to mainland China on Sunday, the storm killed at least 123 people in Taiwan. The death toll could climb to more than 300 after more villagers buried by mudslides and floodwaters are found, Taiwan officials have said. Southern and central Taiwan were hardest hit by the storm. Mudslides inundated some places in the south, including the village of Shiao Lin, where 160 homes were lost. Authorities believe hundreds of people could be trapped under five stories of mud in the village. International aid efforts were mobilizing on Sunday, however these were complicated by diplomatic pitfalls in the face of China's territorial claims over Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province awaiting reunification. The U.S. military has begun a \"modest\" humanitarian aid mission to Taiwan with the dispatch of a Marine Corps C-130 cargo plane carrying plastic tarpaulins for shelter, U.S. defense officials said. Also Sunday, the USS Denver was en route to the Taiwanese coast with additional humanitarian aid and water purification capabilities, the officials said. The Navy ship is expected to arrive Monday, but officials could not say when it will launch its heavy-lift helicopters to drop the aid. Sources in Washington have said in providing aid to Taiwan, the United States must be sensitive to its territorial relationship with China. CNN's John Vause in Cishan, Taiwan; Pauline Chiou in Shiao Lin, Taiwan; and Mike Mount in Washington contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taiwan's leader says he takes blame for slow typhoon response .\nMa Ying-jeou has refused to stand down over criticism .\nTyphoon killed 123 people in Taiwan and left many thousands homeless ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Inspectors have found \"nothing unusual\" in the rest of Southwest Airlines' fleet of 737-300s after a football-sized hole in one of the jets forced an emergency landing, an airline spokeswoman said Tuesday. The breach in the aircraft's fuselage caused a loss of cabin pressure. No passengers were injured. The airline inspected its roughly 200 Boeing 737-300s overnight following the incident that forced Southwest Flight 2294 to make an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia. A sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy, but there were no injuries among the 126 passengers or the five-member crew. Marilee McInnis, a Southwest spokeswoman, said the jets were inspected during non-operational hours overnight, and the cause of the incident remained unknown Tuesday morning. The airline is working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the matter, she said. Flight 2294 was at 34,000 feet, en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, when the incident happened, McInnis said. See map of flight path » . \"About 45 minutes into the flight, there was a loud pop. No one really knew what it was,\" passenger Steve Hall told CNN Radio. Watch as passenger describes watching the hole form » . The plane landed in Charleston at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported the sudden drop in cabin pressure, which caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. \"We were seated about two rows back from the wing, and four rows back you heard this loud rush and your ears popped, and you could tell that part of the inside was trying to pull out,\" passenger Sheryl Bryant told CNN affiliate WBAL-TV upon arriving in Baltimore aboard a replacement plane. \"And it was crazy -- the oxygen masks dropped,\" she continued. She put her mask on her face, then helped her 4- and 6-year-old children with theirs, she said. Bryant tried to stay calm and reassure her children, she said. Watch Bryant's account of acting brave » . \"My kids and I, we prayed, and then we said, you know, life will be fine,\" she said. Bryant praised the flight crew and ground personnel for keeping passengers informed and for giving clear instructions. \"We have a tremendous talent represented in the pilots and the flight crew,\" another passenger, Pastor Alvin Kibble, told WBAL-TV. \"I think we need to value them far more than perhaps what we do. It's very easy for us to begin to take things for granted.\" The damaged aircraft was still parked at Charleston's Yeager Airport on Tuesday, when NTSB officials arrived to inspect the plane, airport spokesman Brian Belcher said. A complete inspection could take one to two days, and investigators are expected to interview the passengers and crew as well, he said. The airline is \"doing things\" for the affected passengers on Monday's flight, but McInnis would not say whether they would receive refunds. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said. \"There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point,\" Southwest said in a statement Monday night. \"We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground,\" the airline said. \"Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely.\" CNN's Shawn Nottingham and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Southwest inspects all its 737-300 aircraft after one develops hole midflight .\nPassengers describe ordeal, praise professionalism of flight crew .\nBaltimore-bound Southwest jet makes emergency landing in West Virginia .\nFootball-sized hole in fuselage causes cabin to depressurize, oxygen masks to drop ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Richard Phillips, the cargo-ship captain whose capture by pirates triggered a dramatic U.S. Navy rescue off the coast of Africa, called on the federal government Thursday to provide military escorts for international shipping vessels. Capt. Richard Phillips, left, and John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., testify before a Senate committee. Testifying before a key Senate committee, Phillips conceded there may not be sufficient resources to do that. He also said arming vessels' crews could deter pirates, but should only be allowed in limited circumstances. Phillips was in command of the Maersk Alabama when it was boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia on April 8. Phillips said the optimum situation for cargo vessels would be to have military escorts. He said he realizes there is a limit to government resources that can be deployed in the vast area off the Somali coast and the Horn of Africa. See map of attacks » . Phillips told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he would not be opposed to having private security forces on a vessel, but \"very clear protocols would have to be established and followed. ... In the heat of an attack, there can be only one final decision-maker.\" Phillips said that, in his opinion, arming a ship's crew \"cannot and should not be viewed as the best or ultimate solution to the problem. ... To the extent we go forward in this direction, it would be my personal preference that only a limited number of individuals aboard the vessel should have access to weapons, and they should be specially trained.\" He warned that \"even this limited approach to arming the crews opens up a very thorny set of issues. ... We all must understand that having weapons aboard a merchant marine ship fundamentally changes the model of commercial shipping and we must be very cautious about how it is done.\" When the Maersk Alabama was seized, Phillips, 53, offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew. He tried to escape the next day, jumping into the ocean in an effort to reach a nearby U.S. Navy ship. He was rescued April 12 when Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three pirates holding him captive on a lifeboat. John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., said arming sailors could potentially worsen the current situation off the African coast. \"Arming merchant sailors may result in the acquisition of even more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates in a race that merchant sailors cannot win,\" Clancy told the committee. \"In addition, most ports of call will not permit the introduction of firearms into the national waters,\" he noted. Clancy said the solution to piracy must ultimately be an international one. He pointed out that most of the vessels that face a piracy threat do not fly the U.S. flag. He also noted that most of the naval vessels assigned to counter piracy off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden are not from the United States. Somali pirate attacks in and around the heavily traveled Gulf of Aden have risen dramatically in the past few years. Pirates have been able to successfully demand ransoms for millions of dollars from shipping companies -- for whom it makes business sense to pay in order to free their crews and many millions of dollars more worth of cargo. The attack on the Alabama was the first successful attack on a U.S.-flagged ship during that time. \"The renewed threat of piracy demands a multifaceted, multinational effort, one that coordinates the world's naval powers, the United Nations, the international shipping community, and the nations that border Somalia,\" said Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, at the start of the committee's hearing. \"International law is clear in its condemnation of piracy. This is an opportunity for all nations to come together and work in order to effectively respond.\" Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the committee, stated that the \"root cause of this problem is the breakdown of law and order in Somalia, which is what allows the pirates to operate from shore with impunity.\" Lugar warned that \"the existence of failed states directly threatens the national security interests of the United States.\" Meanwhile, the bodies of the three pirates killed by the Navy SEALs were turned over to Somali authorities Thursday, according to a U.S. defense official with knowledge of the matter but not authorized to speak about it. The bodies were being held on the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer until the U.S. State Department could arrange a transfer. The official said the bodies were turned over to police authorities from Puntland, a self-declared autonomous state in northern Somalia. Two police boats from the Puntland town of Bosasso met the Boxer to receive the bodies, the official said. It was unclear if the bodies will be returned to family members." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Capt. Richard Phillips rescued earlier in April from pirates off Somalia's coast .\nArming crews under certain circumstances could deter pirates, he said .\nPhillips told Senate committee best solution is military escorts .\nBreakdown of law and order in Somalia at root of piracy says Sen. Richard Lugar ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- When Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard invaded Kuwait in 1990, they brought back some unusual war booty to Baghdad: tapes of the region's \"Sesame Street\" show. Troops also took a Muppet camel. Haneen and Karim are two of the Muppet stars in \"Shara'a Simsim,\" the Palestinian version of \"Sesame Street.\" The camel, Cookie Monster and the other Sesame friends immediately became permanent POWs in Iraq. \"To this day, they've never been recovered,\" Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell said. \"That's how much the show is loved there.\" That \"kidnapping\" is just one example of Sesame Street's devoted global following. And Sesame is trying to use that following to foster a culture of understanding worldwide, beginning with children. In the Palestinian territories, Muppets teach nonviolence on a local version of Sesame Street called \"Shara'a Simsim.\" Sesame Workshop calls this effort \"Muppet diplomacy.\" \"This means using our characters -- characters children love and parents trust -- to bridge some of the world's most intractable divides,\" Knell said. \"Muppets give children, and the parents who watch the show with them, a chance to explore other cultures from the safety of their living room, where no one will criticize them for being curious.\" Daoud Kuttab, executive producer of \"Shara'a Simsim,\" knows that the Muppets are highly effective communicators. \"Anything the Muppets do, anything they say, any idea they transmit, the children accept.\" Watch a clip from the Palestinian version of \"Sesame Street\" » . An internationally respected Palestinian journalist, Kuttab began working with the show more than a decade ago. After covering the war-torn region for years, he realized that Sesame was a great way to reach Palestinian children who desperately needed an alternative to the harsh lessons they were absorbing. \"I would say 3-, 4-, 5-year olds -- if we don't catch them at that early age, we do risk losing them to all kinds of propaganda, whether it's conservative, religious or fundamentalist,\" Kuttab said. Hamas television runs a weekly program for kids, that sometimes preaches violent resistance. \"They have to be willing, prepared for the future. And that's why the Palestinians are showing seriousness,\" said Ahmed Yousef, a political leader in Hamas, the party in power in Gaza. \"To keep our dignity and our independence, we have to sacrifice our life. We are either victorious, or we die for the good cause.\" With some funding from the U.S. State Department and guidance from the U.S. producers, Kuttab's team developed the Sesame program into something uniquely Palestinian, complete with live-action segments filmed in the West Bank and Gaza, a set that looks like a typical Palestinian street and Muppets named Haneen and Karim. Watch Palestinian Americans trying to instill peace in society's youngest members » . \"We are interested in teaching tolerance, respect, pride in their own country and their own nation, and also in understanding that there are people who are different, and that's OK,\" Kuttab said. Worldwide influence . Sesame's influential roots go back decades. The creators of \"Sesame Street\" launched the show in the 1960s to fill a gap in American education. Studies had presented compelling evidence that solid early education was vital for a child's later learning; still, public pre-kindergartens were scarce, and early education was rarely available to underprivileged children. Although it was designed to address an American need, Sesame Street had immediate global appeal. In the 1970s, German producers put their version of the show on air. Today, children in 120 countries watch some version of \"Sesame Street.\" \"When I saw [Sinn Fein leader] Gerry Adams wearing a Cookie Monster watch,\" Sesame Workshop's Knell said, \"I knew we had made it in Northern Ireland.\" The program has always found fun and funny ways to teach reading and counting. But interspersed with those ABCs and 123s are lessons in cooperation, tolerance and mutual respect. It wasn't by accident that Sesame was a multiracial street as far back as the 1960s. Its creators wanted children to understand that integration was OK, a message so controversial at the time that \"Sesame Street\" was banned by some TV stations in the U.S. South. Those social messages help explain Sesame Street's appeal to television programmers around the globe. Still, what's an important issue in one country may not be in another. That's why Sesame Workshop has helped local producers create customized versions of the show in more than 20 countries. In South Africa, for instance, a country where one in nine children is an AIDS orphan, \"Takalani Street\" producers pushed to create a Muppet who is HIV-positive while the South African government was still coming to grips with the country's AIDS epidemic. \"The local producers knew it was important for children to see an AIDS orphan who still has a sunny disposition and lots of friends, even while being very open that she is infected,\" Knell said. \"This had a great impact on destigmatizing people with the disease.\" In Tanzania, Muppets teach malaria prevention. In Egypt, Muppets stress the importance of girls' education. Haneen and Karim . In the Palestinian version, \"Shara'a Simsim,\" direct references to the region's political situation are not included. The Muppets like Haneen and Karim show pride in their own culture but also understanding that there are differences in the world. And Karim, an upbeat young rooster Muppet, aims to provide a healthy role model for boys. \"Boys are a problem in our society. They see their parents being humiliated. They think they are the men of the house and have to do something about it. But they can't do anything,\" Kuttab said. \"We're trying to tell them, 'your energy is OK, but let's channel it in a different way.' \" Live-action segments introduce children to Palestinians who have channeled their energy into becoming teachers, doctors or business owners -- people, Knell says, \"who can act as role models, people who strive to remove themselves from the hardships children see.\" Sesame Workshop hopes to expand this type of localized programming into other areas that have witnessed recent conflict, such as Pakistan. Perhaps that means Iraq will get its own show someday and won't have to hold on to someone else's." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Children in 120 countries watch some version of \"Sesame Street\"\nSesame is trying to use that following to foster a culture of understanding .\nThe Palestinian version is called \"Shara'a Simsim\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Don't let Jack Johnson fool you. Jack Johnson makes sure his business and his concert venues are environmentally friendly. Tabbed as a \"mellow rocker\" by perhaps one too many publications, the chart-topping singer-songwriter has a fire within that belies his laid-back manner -- a fire that extends to his company, Brushfire Records, and his environmental activism. Johnson started the record label in 2002 \"as a way to put out soundtracks for surf movies we were making,\" he says. \"Then our friends G. Love and Special Sauce were coming to the end of their record deal with another label, and the idea came up to put out their stuff.\" The Hawaii-based artist -- whose latest album \"Sleep Through the Static\" hit No. 1 in the U.S. and sold over 2 million albums worldwide -- has continued to assemble talent. The label's roster now includes indie-rockers Rogue Wave, folk-pop musician Mason Jennings and keyboardist Money Mark. Johnson says the record label is not driven by dollar signs. \"We never try to talk anybody into joining the label, but we just offer a lot of creative control over all their music and a fairer deal than with most other labels,\" he explains. Watch Johnson, Zach Gill and Money Mark perform \"Hope\" » . Rogue Wave frontman Zach Schwartz is one of the converts. \"The music business is traditionally pretty cutthroat, nasty and evil, but [with Brushfire], it is not that way,\" he tells CNN. \"You can make the music you want to make.\" Still, even in these major-label-dominated times, artist-friendly labels aren't unusual; Dave Matthews has also attracted talent with his ATO Records. It's in making Brushfire a model of green business that Johnson and his colleagues have stood out. As keen environmentalists, Johnson and his team have required Brushfire and its distributors to engage in earth-friendly implementations that have influenced others in the record business. \"The music is one thing, but there is this business side,\" says Zach Gill, a Brushfire solo artist and member of Johnson's touring band. \"I think more and more businesses are saying, 'Yeah, we want to be responsible. Responsible to our employees. Responsible for the waste our company generates.' We're starting to see that a lot in all kinds of businesses, not just in music,\" he says. Watch Gill and Johnson perform \"Family\" » . Entertainment industry giant Universal Music Group -- the largest family of record labels in the recording industry -- has taken notice. Under Brushfire's direction, UMG uses recycled stock on all of the packaging for its releases, including movies, ensuring that the paper is as environmentally friendly as possible. Some is even made using wind power. Moreover, Brushfire's artists have exerted their eco-influence on venues and promoters for concert tours worldwide. The tour rider, a checklist of artists' requirements at each venue, usually consists of specific brands of beer or (in one case involving Jennifer Lopez) the way the coffee is stirred. Brushfire uses an EnviroRider, a handbook of eco-friendly options and actions for various components of concert tour production. \"It gets augmented every year. What started out as suggestions are now becoming requirements [for us to play at a venue],\" says Johnson. Johnson and his management also created All At Once, a social action network that provides tools and information to people who want to become more involved in their community and worldwide. Visitors to the All At Once area at tour venues will be rewarded with exclusive music downloads by their favorite Brushfire artists. Johnson's charity, Ohana Charitable Foundation, will match any donation (up to $2,500) to nonprofits made by fans at the shows or online. \"We shrink our carbon footprint always, but we have all these nonprofit groups that we all work with,\" says Johnson. \"Money from the shows goes to these groups and helps bolster their memberships so that after we leave the town, these groups can continue to do good things. So more than just lessening our negative [environmental] impact, it's actually leaving a positive impact [wherever we tour],\" says Johnson. Additional actions taken by Brushfire tours will include fueling tour vehicles with sustainable biodiesel, offering eco-friendly merchandise, working with venues to create waste management programs, onsite recycling and encouraging fans to use alternative transportation. Back at home, Brushfire has adopted a similar strategy. All the power for the recording studios and the offices is generated by solar panels. Insulation is supplied by cotton from scraps of blue jeans. Energy-efficient lighting runs throughout the building. Second-hand furniture is all you will find in its offices. The mission resonates with the other artists on the label's roster. \"For me, it's so great to be a part of the label because so many people provide information about what we can do to make it better -- touring more efficiently, biodiesel -- stuff like that,\" says Jennings. \"I'm learning a ton being around those guys.\" At bottom, the atmosphere of collaboration and common purpose is rooted in the shared love of music, says Gill. \"Music is the great synchronizer. They've become quite a wonderful community to be a part of. I feel grateful to Jack for having the idea to bring together all these like-minded people to make music together,\" he says. Johnson agrees. \"It's everything. It is the whole reason to play music. I learn so much from playing with these other musicians,\" he says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jack Johnson has artist-friendly record label, Brushfire Records .\nJohnson also puts green interests at forefront .\nSinger-songwriter's new album is \"Sleep Through the Static\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- From the mid-1980s, Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist George Soros pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into foundations in Eastern Europe dedicated to promoting the idea of the \"open society\" and challenging the region's Soviet-backed regimes. Here, writing exclusively for CNN.com, he describes how the work of his foundations ultimately contributed to the collapse of communism. A Soviet tank rolls through Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist domination. I set up my first foundation in Hungary in 1984. The idea behind it was simple. The state dogma, promoted by the ruling communists, was false and by providing an alternative we could expose its falsehood. Accordingly we supported every cultural initiative that was not an expression of the established dogma. I was guided by the concept of the \"open society,\" which I adopted from the philosopher Karl Popper. I saw the open society as a more sophisticated form of social organization than the totalitarian closed societies of the Soviet bloc. The latter were trying to implement central plans; in an open society every individual or organization was supposed to implement their own plan. To make the transition from a closed to an open society would require outside help and that was what my foundations sought to provide. In Hungary the authorities insisted on having a controlling presence on the foundation's board. We eventually agreed to appoint two chief executives, one nominated by them and one by me. The project succeeded beyond my expectations. With very small amounts of money people could engage in a wide variety of civic initiatives ranging from self-governing student colleges to zither clubs. One of our first projects was to offer photocopying machines to cultural and scientific institutions in exchange for local currency. We used the money to give out local grants and support all kinds of unofficial initiatives, but the photocopying machines also did a lot of good. Up until then, the few existing copy machines were literally held under lock and key -- as more and more became available, the Party apparatus lost control of the machines and the dissemination of information. We did not have to exercise direct control. Civil society watched over the foundation. For instance, we were warned that a blind association, to whom we gave a grant for talking books, was stealing some of the money. With a budget of $3 million, the foundation had more influence on the cultural life of Hungary than the Ministry of Culture. Carried away my success in Hungary, by 1988 I had set up foundations in Poland, China and the Soviet Union. I think that I could have influenced General Jaruzelski in Poland to change his attitude toward the opposition and to see that dissidents such as Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron were also patriots despite their criticism of the ruling party. As the Soviet empire collapsed, and eventually the Soviet Union and also Yugoslavia disintegrated, we continued to expand. By 1992 there were foundations in 22 countries and expenditure had reached $53 million. A year later we were spending nearly $184 million. Right at the beginning, I had a disagreement with the Polish board about the way the foundation should be run. But that taught me a lesson. They were right and I was wrong. I realized that the people living there understood their country better than I did and I deferred to their judgment. It did not always work. In Bulgaria, a board member who made his name as a human rights activist turned out to be a racist. A Latvian businessman sought to hijack the foundation for nationalist purposes. It was the Russian foundation that gave us the most trouble; we had to reorganize it twice. But the foundations were the first out of the gate everywhere. I remembered the lesson my father who had lived through the Russian Revolution in Siberia taught me: In revolutionary times things that are normally impossible become possible. In Ukraine, we set up the Ukrainian Renaissance Foundation before Ukraine became independent. In Tajikistan, we persevered with the foundation during the five-year civil war although we had no way of controlling its activities. Our impact was the greatest during that turbulent period. When I set up the foundations in Eastern Europe I hoped the open societies of the West would follow in my footsteps, but in that regard I was disappointed. Unwilling to burden their own budgets, they gave the job to the International Monetary Fund, which was ill suited to the task. The IMF was accustomed to signing letters of intent with governments, making the continuation of their programs conditional on the governments fulfilling their obligations. The countries of Eastern Europe fared better, but in the former Soviet states one after another, the programs largely failed. East Germany was the exception: West Germany was willing to make the sacrifices that were necessary to integrate it. Eventually, the countries of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, also made the grade when the European Union gave them accession. But the rest of the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus and Central Asia never succeeded in making the transition. This has left a bitter legacy. Rightly or wrongly, both the rulers and the people of Russia harbor a deep resentment against the West, which the West has not come to grips with. The new order in Moscow that has emerged out of the chaos of the 1990s is very far from an open society. It is an authoritarian regime that preserves the outward appearances of democracy but derives its power from its control of Russia's national resources. It uses those resources to maintain itself in power, to personally enrich the rulers, and to exercise influence over its neighborhood, both in Europe and in the former Soviet sphere. But the ideal of an open society is difficult to suppress and I have not given up hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Financier George Soros funded eastern European dissident groups in 1980s .\nSoros: In revolutionary times things normally impossible become possible .\nSoros set up first foundation in Hungary in 1984; by 1992 foundations in 22 countries .\nWest failed many post-communist states; Russia again an authoritarian regime ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI says it found child pornography on a computer used by the man charged with the fatal shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum June 10. Museum shooting suspect James von Brunn remains in a Washington hospital. In court documents filed Wednesday, an investigator says the pornography was found on a desktop computer during a search of an Annapolis, Maryland, apartment where 88-year old James von Brunn had been living for the past two years. The documents did not provide details about the pornography, but investigators requested permission to make a more extensive search of the computer and others found in von Brunn's home. Von Brunn has been charged with the murder of museum security guard Stephen Johns. The white supremacist was shot in the face after two other security officers returned fire. He remains in a Washington hospital. The FBI also searched a red Hyundai that law enforcement officials say von Brunn left double-parked in front of the museum right before the shooting. In separate documents also filed on Wednesday, investigators say they found 35 rounds of live ammunition for a .22 caliber rifle. Officials allege von Brunn used a .22 caliber rifle, which was found at the scene, to shoot Johns in the chest. According to paperwork detailing the car search, investigators found business cards advertising a USS Liberty Web site that claims Israeli forces \"suddenly and brutally\" attacked the U.S. Navy vessel in international waters in 1967. Investigators also found business cards for von Brunn's own Web site, which hosts postings of white supremacist writings. Among other items found in the car were a disabled parking permit, mouthwash, a salt shaker and a roll of quarters totaling $7.25. Earlier this week investigators filed papers saying among the items discovered in von Brunn's apartment was a painting that appeared to depict Hitler and Jesus. They also found a .30-30 rifle, ammunition and a handwritten will." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Computer found in apartment of 88-year old James von Brunn .\nFBI asks for more extensive search of the computers found in von Brunn's home .\nFBI also searches von Brunn's car; finds ammunition for .22 caliber rifle ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (CNN) -- Marylisa Miller has spent much of her two decades as an Army wife bracing for the worst. But now the pressure is higher, as both her husband and their 20-year-old son are serving together in Afghanistan. Pfc. Martin Miller, left, and his dad, Sgt. 1st Class Martin Miller, serve in the same Army squadron in Afghanistan. It's rare, but not unheard of: Sgt. 1st Class Martin Miller and his son Pfc. Martin Miller have deployed as part of the same squadron of about 500 soldiers. Their brigade -- based at North Carolina's Fort Bragg -- is among the first specifically assigned to train Afghan security and military forces. \"If the phone rings in the middle of the night, I answer it no matter what,\" said Marylisa Miller. \"You never know. It could be the last call.\" Watch the Millers talk about serving together » . The Miller men -- both paratroopers -- didn't really plan to march shoulder-to-shoulder into harm's way. It just sort of happened that way. \"I pretty much have always wanted to be in the Army,\" said Pfc. Miller, who remembers watching his dad leap out of military aircraft with other soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division. \"I guess watching him do it -- it looked cool,\" he said. Shortly before they deployed in August, the Millers revisited family memories at Fort Bragg's Wilson Park -- the same spot where the couple picnicked with their toddler son and daughter years ago. Telling family stories, the Millers laughed about old snapshots showing the future private first class as a boy -- standing at parade rest while his father spoke to him. \"When I scolded him and his sister, I taught them to stand at parade rest,\" Sgt. Miller explained. \"Then their punishment would be laps, flutter kicks, push-ups and sit-ups. It taught discipline and put them in good shape.\" After high school, dad convinced his son to try a year of college first. Soldiers with college degrees go further in the service, Sgt. Miller said. But a year later it was clear the young man's interests were in the Army. After all, growing up with a warrior father tends to influence a boy. Sgt. Miller did what he could to have his son stationed at Fort Bragg. He ended up in the same squadron. The father and son describe themselves as close. \"Yeah, we're always doing something together,\" Pfc. Miller said. \"We go out and party together and we fish and ride motorcycles.\" Walking together wearing red Airborne berets marked with their distinctive squadron flashes, the Millers talked about what it means to be a military family and how this life of service often extends to civilian spouses and children. \"Back when I was a kid, there were a lot of people who saw the Army as something good,\" said Sgt. Miller, 46, who enlisted a year out of high school. \"Everybody should do a little bit for their country.\" Although the Millers serve in the same squadron, they are in different troops -- and therefore don't share the same chain of command. \"He can't work directly for me,\" Sgt Miller said. \"Family members are not supposed to work directly for other family members. But my platoon possibly would work with his.\" Unlike his previous tours of duty, Sgt. Miller now bears two heavy burdens: command and fatherhood. The possibility that his son could lose his life while serving in the same squadron has crossed his mind. \"If something happens to him, I can still function, but it won't be pretty,\" the sergeant said. \"But knowing others depend on me, I can't get all broken up about it. If something were going to happen to him, I'd probably break when I got back.\" 'Navy brat' Marylisa Miller has known the military since birth. She is the seventh of eight \"Navy brats\" born to a father who chose a sailor's life and moved his family from assignment to assignment. In the early '80s she met the man who would be her warrior husband. Shyly, she said they met in a bar. \"It wasn't a bar,\" her husband said, smiling. \"They say she's kind of like me: kind of hard-headed, a little bit stubborn and not afraid to voice my opinion.\" Marylisa laughed about their first meeting: \"I was trying to get him interested in my sister.\" Instead, she and Martin \"just clicked.\" They married six months later. Sgt. Miller has served in Cold War Europe, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He said being away from his wife doesn't get any easier. \"After you hit the 12-month mark, and then it turns into 15, it feels like forever after that,\" he said. The Millers have chosen a life in which Marylisa may not hear her husband's voice for three or four months at a time. Over the years, she said, she has learned to rely on herself. \"He would come home from deployments and say, 'Let me help you,' and I'd say 'No, because when you're not here, who's going to do it for me?' \" \"I have to learn how to be independent, so I try to tell everybody else to learn how to do it yourself,\" Marylisa said. \"You can't always rely on them.\" 'I don't want to think about if the phone's gonna ring' She stays busy. At Fort Bragg, Marylisa is the co-leader of a Family Readiness Group, the Army's support group aimed at helping spouses, children and others make the best of difficult military deployments. \"I always like to be involved in everything,\" she said, laughing. \"That way you get to hear the information firsthand.\" The network of Army families provides a conduit of information on deployments and upcoming events. FRGs offer Marylisa a way to help other families. \"We have a lot of new families in the troop,\" she said. \"Some of them are young and we try to guide them in the right direction. When someone gets hurt, we're all right there to jump in. It's like an extended family.\" She recalled an FRG request to help a young Army wife with a newborn baby. \"I jumped in and baby-sat her child,\" she said. \"She didn't know me from the man in the moon.\" Volunteering keeps her away from TV news and its reminders that terrible events could be moments away. \"I don't want to think about if the phone's going to ring or if there's going to be that knock on the door.\" 'I should have been dead' The Millers' 4th Brigade Combat Team will be the first such unit designated for \"security force assistance\" in Afghanistan, said an Army spokeswoman. The brigade will train Afghan forces to battle Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. In the past, this kind of mission was given to small teams of advisers who were trained in the United States and then deployed in the region. This is the first time an entire brigade has been given this mission, according to the Army. The sergeant has embraced the view that there's nothing much a soldier can do except depend on his or her training to stay safe. \"I've had mortars come within 20 meters of me and not get a scratch out of it. I should have been dead,\" Sgt. Miller said. \"You see something happen like that and you know it's not your time until it's your time.\" His son, not long out of jump school -- he has just seven jumps to his credit -- said he's not worried about himself or his father. \"He ain't gonna die. He's too old for it now,\" Pfc. Miller joked. \"He has deployed too many times. He knows the secrets.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Millers, father-and-son soldiers, serve in the same squadron in Afghanistan .\nFort Bragg-based brigade is among first to train Afghan forces against Taliban .\n\"I've had mortars come within 20 meters ... I should have been dead,\" dad says .\n\"Navy brat\" mom co-leads Army support group to distract her from fears ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pregnant women in Peru are dying at scandalous rates, according to the author of an Amnesty International report into maternal mortality in the South American country. Vertical births where women are kneeling or crouching and holding on to a rope are common in Peru. The report, \"Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru\" found that hundreds of poor, rural and indigenous pregnant women are dying because they are being denied the same health services as other women in the country. It also concluded that the government's response to tackling the problem was inadequate. Peruvian government figures state 185 in every 100,000 women die in child birth, but the United Nations says the number is much higher at 240, which makes it one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas. In wealthy developed nations, only nine women die for every 100,000 births. The five main causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Peru are hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, infection, complications following abortion and obstructed birth, according to Peru's Ministry of Health figures. Amnesty's Peru researcher Nuria Garcia said in a statement: \"The rates of maternal mortality in Peru are scandalous. The fact that so many women are dying from preventable causes is a human rights violation. \"The Peruvian state is simply ignoring its obligation to provide adequate maternal healthcare to all women, regardless of who they are and where they live.\" Garcia added: \"Health services for pregnant women in Peru are like a lottery: if you are poor and indigenous, the chances are you will always lose.\" Amnesty's report highlighted the case of Criselda, a 22-year-old indigenous woman from the country's Huancavelica Department, one of the poorest regions of the country. While seven months pregnant, she fell and hurt herself, and after feeling pains, she went to the health post for a check-up. The doctor said she was fine and sent her away but she miscarried two days later, according to the report. The report found that so many women are dying because they face a number of barriers, including a lack of health staff who speak indigenous languages like Quechua -- a native Andean language spoken by some five million people in Peru. However, the vast majority of Peruvian doctors only speak Spanish, as they rarely come from areas or communities where indigenous languages are spoken. Criselda told researchers she believes the doctor may not have picked up her symptoms accurately because she could not understand her, and interpreters were not available. Transport problems are also a contributing factor to the high mortality rate among Peruvian indigenous women, as most of them usually have to travel long distances to a health center to get attention, the report found. Criselda's husband Fortunato said in the report: \"There is no ambulance when there is an emergency. To go from here it takes us two or three days and sometimes they die right here because there is no vehicle or ambulance.\" According to the report, 27 percent of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes occurred during pregnancy; 26 percent occurred during the birth itself; and 46 percent during the first six weeks after giving birth. Amnesty has urged the Peruvian government to allocate resources to maternal mortality and reproductive health, prioritizing the regions with the highest mortality ratios. The organization also recommends an increase in training, particularly in indigenous languages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New Amnesty report says Peru's poor pregnant women dying of neglect .\nPeru has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas .\nIn wealthy developed nations, only 9 women die for every 100,000 births .\nProblems faced include a lack of health staff who speak indigenous languages ." } ]
[ { "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 daughter touched the hearts of millions when she bid a tearful farewell to her father at his memorial service in a rare public appearance. Paris Jackson, 11, is consoled by her uncle Marlon Jackson after delivering a tearful tribute to her father. With her brief speech, 11-year-old Paris Jackson also shocked the event's organizers, who said her appearance was not a planned part of Tuesday's star-studded tribute to the \"King of Pop\" at Los Angeles' Staples Center. \"Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,\" she said, fighting back tears as relatives consoled her. \"And I just want to say that I love him so much,\" she said as she burst into tears and sought refuge in the embrace of family members. Watch her emotional goodbye » . For many watching, Paris' appearance marked a rare glimpse of a child who has spent most of her life shielded from the public. Born to two mothers -- Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe and an unidentified woman who reportedly served as a surrogate -- Jackson's three children lived and traveled the world with him, their faces often covered by veils and masks when appearing in public. In its execution, the speech appeared to be a surprise to those onstage and off. \"It was a surprise they were there. All of us who know them were delighted they were strong enough to come and feel this love and great outpouring for their dad,\" Kenny Ortega, the choreographer (\"Dirty Dancing\") who was directing Jackson's \"This Is It\" comeback concerts in London, England, told CNN's Campbell Brown. \"We would've never expected that they had the strength. It was beautiful.\" Watch Ortega express his surprise at Paris Jackson's tribute » . Ortega, a longtime Jackson colleague who helped design the singer's 1990s tours, said planners left the end of the show open for family members to speak if they wished to, but he was surprised when the Jackson clan -- among them, his siblings and children -- went onstage for the two last songs, \"We Are the World\" and \"Heal the World.\" Marlon Jackson told the crowd that his sister, pop star Janet Jackson, wished to say some words. Instead, Janet appeared to encourage Paris to come forward from the sea of black dresses and suits and take the microphone, adjusting it and stroking the child's hair as Paris delivered her words. Ortega said he was touched by Paris' speech. \"Michael was so close with these beautiful children,\" he said. \"Little Paris was his biggest fan. ... A little girl couldn't love her papa more.\" The heartfelt display sparked a groundswell of emotion in the auditorium and around the world, where millions of viewers watched the service on television and the Internet. \"The saddest moment was when Michael Jackson's daughter spoke,\" said Angelina Martinez, who attended the service with her daughter, Jessica. \"She was really in pain. Everybody was crying inside,\" she said. \"It was beauty combined with sadness.\" Attendees, performers and speakers alike struggled for composure throughout the two-plus-hour event, which featured performances from Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson and Usher. But to many, Paris' tribute cast Jackson in the one role few have experienced him as: a father. \"It was very, very touching, and really it was an example of the good parent Michael was, because when I was at Neverland and with the kids he really was a good loving father -- they had a fantastic relationship, and they were very close-knit,\" Stuart Backerman said. \"So to see Paris come on in such an emotional moment and obviously give her heart out to her father was very, very touching.\" Others saw the tribute as a whole as Jackson's final legacy to his children. \"There are those I feel in years to come, will try to distort him to his children ... and not understand that the real challenges that Michael Jackson had to seriously face and did face and make a difference,\" the Rev. Al Sharpton said. \"And I thought it was very important to put in context for his children what he dealt with in history and what he was able to do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Planners of Michael Jackson memorial say they did not know daughter would speak .\nAppearance marks rare occasion in which Paris Jackson seen without veil .\nParis Jackson's tribute to her father strikes chord with viewers around the world .\n\"It was an example of the good parent Michael was,\" former Jackson publicist says ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- A fourth suspect has been arrested in the shooting deaths of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children, authorities said late Monday. Police say they have evidence that places Gary Lamont Sumner at the crime scene. Gary Lamont Sumner faces a murder charge for his alleged role in the deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings on Thursday, Escambia County, Florida, Sheriff David Morgan said. Sumner was pulled over in a traffic stop in Okaloosa County Sunday and arrested after authorities found he matched a description put out by Escambia authorities. Police believe six to eight people were involved in the homicides, which occurred in the couple's home in Beulah, west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line. Watch surveillance video of the home invasion » . The crime was \"a very well-planned and methodical operation,\" Morgan said. Wayne Coldiron, 41; Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., 35, and Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr., 56, were arrested over the weekend. Coldiron and the younger Gonzalez face charges of murder, robbery and residential home invasion; the elder Gonzalez faces charges of evidence tampering for allegedly trying to disguise a vehicle spotted at the home. Morgan said at least three others are persons of interests in the investigation. \"We expect more arrests to be imminent,\" Morgan told reporters. Both of the Billingses were shot multiple times, Morgan said, but he would not release further details on their deaths. Authorities released two surveillance tapes taken from the front and rear of the Billingses' home. Each shows a vehicle pulling up to the property, and five people dressed in black and wearing masks entering the home through two entrances -- including through a utility door left unlocked, something Morgan said is not uncommon in the community. Authorities believe drivers remained in both of the cars. Investigators believe one motive in the deaths was robbery, but \"we believe there are other motives,\" Morgan said. He would not say what, if anything, was taken from the home. Melanie Billings' biological daughter, Ashley Markham, told reporters the couple initially had 17 children -- two biological children each for Byrd and Melanie Billings, with the rest adopted. Three have died over the years, she said. The couple had no biological children together. Watch Ashley Markham say, \"Love was never scarce\" in Billings home » . Morgan, however, said the couple had a total of 16 children, with two that have died and others that have grown older and no longer live in the Billingses' home. Nine of the couple's children were home at the time of the incident, Morgan said, and police believe three of them saw the intruders. One managed to flee the home and seek help at a neighbor's house, the sheriff said. Coldiron and the younger Gonzalez were being held on $1 million bond, according to records posted on the sheriff's Web site. The senior Gonzalez was being held on $250,000 bond. One of the first three arrested is believed to be the mastermind behind the crime, Morgan said, but would not say which one. Watch a report on the arrests in the complex case » . Police also released a surveillance photo taken at a Wal-Mart in nearby Gulf Breeze, Florida, recently. Two of the people in the photo are Sumner and the younger Gonzalez, but authorities want to know who the other man is, Morgan said. The sheriff called the surveillance tapes \"chilling.\" He noted the vehicles were at the home less than 10 minutes, and the five people were in the house less than four minutes. \"It leads me to believe that this was a very well-planned and methodical operation,\" Morgan said. Watch experts describe the \"military-style\" attack » . Although the Billingses were well known in the community, the sheriff said authorities are still trying to unravel why they were targeted. He compared their deaths to the slaying of the Clutter family of Kansas, inspiration for Truman Capote's novel \"In Cold Blood,\" noting the Clutter murders were something the community struggled with for years. \"It will be a very long time, I believe, until we piece together the truth of why this family was selected,\" Morgan said. Police believe the suspects might have bought the clothes they wore to the home and were reviewing surveillance tapes and photos from several stores, he said. Morgan said the crime's complexity is frustrating for investigators, comparing it to a complicated mathematics or word problem that lacks complete information. \"It seems as though each phase we complete, while we answer a set of questions, it opens up an additional set of questions.\" Earlier, he said the complete story, when revealed, is \"going to be a humdinger.\" Asked whether the suspects entered the home planning to kill the couple, Morgan said authorities do not know. Markham said earlier the family does not know any of the three suspects. She said the children \"are coping very well\" and are being cared for. \"They haven't asked too many questions,\" she said, noting that several have disabilities. While the investigation continues, the family is keeping the children's whereabouts a secret. CNN's David Mattingly contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gary Lamont Sumner faces murder charge in deaths of Byrd, Melanie Billings .\nMore arrests imminent, Escambia County county sheriff says .\nSurveillance video shows 5 masked people storming home in Beulah, Florida .\nRobbery a motive, but \"we believe there are other motives,\" sheriff says ." } ]
[ { "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 father says he is concerned about the last moments of his son's life and about the personal physician who found the pop icon unconscious at the singer's estate. Singer Ne-Yo (L) and host Jamie Foxx pay tribute to Michael Jackson at 2009 BET Awards in Los Angeles. \"I have a lot of concerns,\" Joe Jackson told CNN's Don Lemon on the red carpet leading up to the BET Awards ceremony Sunday night. \"I can't get into that, but I don't like what happened.\" Michael Jackson's personal physician, who was questioned extensively by investigators over the weekend, found the singer not breathing in bed when he entered the singer's estate last week, according to the law firm representing the doctor. However, Jackson did have a slight pulse when Dr. Conrad Murray discovered him Thursday, and Murray tried to resuscitate the singer as he awaited paramedics, a representative with the law firm of Stradley, Chernoff and Alford law firm in Houston, Texas, told CNN Sunday. Attorney Edward Chernoff is representing Murray. The law firm said reports that Murray injected Jackson with powerful painkillers, such as Demerol or Oxycontin, were false. Funeral arrangements for Jackson were pending Sunday. \"We haven't gotten to that yet -- we're working on that,\" Joe Jackson told CNN's Lemon. Watch Joe Jackson talk about the death of his son » . Murray voluntarily met for several hours with detectives, the Los Angeles Police Department said late Saturday night. \"Detectives assigned to Robbery-Homicide Division met with Dr. Murray and conducted an extensive interview,\" a police statement said. \"Dr. Murray was cooperative and provided information which will aid the investigation.\" Watch attorney for Jackson's doctor say his client is not a suspect » . Jackson's family suspects that Murray can answer some lingering questions about the singer's last hours, but they have been unable to contact him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday. \"The routine inquiry is now an investigation,\" Jesse Jackson said. \"They (Jackson's family) didn't know the doctor. ... He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.\" Watch latest developments in Jackson's death investigation » . Jackson family attorney L. Londell McMillan told CNN that a second autopsy is \"under way.\" \"We'll let that process take its course,\" McMillan, who accompanied Joe Jackson to the BET Awards, told CNN. McMillan said a will has not surfaced since Michael Jackson's death and that the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, is seeking custody of his two children. \"Well, if there is no will, then under the state of California it goes to the next of kin. That's an adult to administer and oversee the best interests of the children and that would be Mr. and Mrs. Jackson,\" McMillan said. \"And Katherine Jackson is the duly appointed person.\" He added, \"She will seek custody of the children. That's who Michael would have wanted to have the children, she loves them dearly.\" On Saturday, the founder of 1-800-AUTOPSY, a private firm that conducts autopsies, told CNN that the Jackson family had contacted the business to inquire about possibly having a second autopsy done there. Jesse Jackson added on Saturday that the family needed \"an independent autopsy to get even more answers to questions that are now being driven by the gap between when Michael was last seen alive and was pronounced dead.\"iReport.com: Tributes pour in for Jackson . There are lingering questions, including: \"How long had he stopped breathing? How long had he been unconscious?\" Jesse Jackson said. Michael Jackson was discovered unconscious Thursday by paramedics at his home, where Murray apparently had tried to revive him. He was rushed to a Los Angeles medical center, where he was pronounced dead. Listen to the 911 call » . An autopsy performed by a county medical examiner was inconclusive -- although officials said there were no indications of external trauma or foul play. The Los Angeles County coroner's office has said more tests are needed before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks. Detectives impounded Murray's car, which was parked at the singer's rented home, because, they said, it may contain evidence related to Jackson's death, possibly prescription medications. Police have released no information on what they may have found. CNN's Ted Rowlands, Traci Tamura, Drew Griffin and Anna Coren contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Conrad Murray found Jackson not breathing but with a slight pulse .\nMurray believed to be last person to see Michael Jackson alive .\nJackson's father concerned about his son's last moments .\nPolice conduct \"extensive interview\" with Murray ." } ]
[ { "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. He is the co-editor of \"Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s\" and is completing a book on the history of national-security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian Zelizer says Obama and Congress must decide whether to rein in presidential power. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Executive power has been one of the defining characteristics of President George W. Bush's administration. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and many members of the White House pushed to expand executive power -- as much as any specific domestic or foreign policy -- from the beginning of the administration. The Bush administration formed in a direct conversation with the presidential politics of the 1970s. Several members of the Bush administration came of professional age working in the Nixon and Ford administrations. They watched an assertive Congress respond to the Watergate scandal by revitalizing legislative power through the War Powers Act of 1973, the Budget Reform of 1974, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Independent Counsel Act in 1978. The Bush administration thought vesting Congress with so much power was dangerous, because it saw the legislative branch as inefficient. Building on efforts since President Ronald Reagan to reverse the congressional reforms of the 1970s, the current White House spent enormous political energy, before and after 9/11, trying to reclaim power for the executive branch. The expansion of presidential power is not unique to the Bush administration. It began early in the 20th century and, despite some exceptional periods such as the 1970s, continued steadily throughout. But in several respects, this expansion was bigger in scale and scope than under previous presidents. For example, as a way to agree to legislation without agreeing to follow the intention of Congress, Bush issued statements when he signed bills -- doing so far more frequently than preceding presidents. When Congress passed a bill banning the use of torture in December 2005, Bush added a signing statement allowing him to bypass the law in his role as Commander-in-Chief. Bush also used executive orders to achieve policy objectives without obtaining congressional consent. Most of the president's national security programs were also conducted under high levels of secrecy and sometimes ignored rules such as those spelled out by FISA. Even when Republicans controlled Congress between 2002 and 2006, the president barely consulted with the leadership. After the 2000 elections, many Republican moderates were optimistic they would have more power than ever because the White House would be forced to court their vote in the evenly divided Senate. But they were wrong. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said he was disillusioned early in the Bush administration when Cheney met with a group of Republican moderates. Cheney simply listed the bills the administration would pursue -- such as canceling U.S. support for the International Criminal Court and cutting taxes -- and informed them the president expected their vote. The chances for restoring a better balance of power remain unclear. There was a notable silence on the issue during the 2008 presidential campaign. Congressional Democrats and President-elect Barack Obama have been extremely critical of Bush's muscular approach to the executive branch. But though Obama has promised to reverse a number of executive decisions made by Bush, it is hard to tell how far he will go. Most important, it is extremely rare in the postwar period for presidents to voluntarily relinquish power. Democrats in Congress might not be willing to do to Obama what they did to Richard Nixon or even Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. After decades of Republican rule, Democrats now believe they have an opportunity to build a new majority. In addition, in a time of true crisis there will be less incentive to challenge the institutional prerogatives of their president. But Congress and the White House must do something to reverse the trends of the past eight years. We need an executive branch that is accountable and a Congress that is active. So what can be done? The first solution is informal. The White House must alter the dynamic with Congress and create strong lines of consultation with legislative leaders. President Franklin Roosevelt worked closely with legislators during the New Deal to develop economic ideas and figure out the nuts and bolts of legislation. Obama must do the same. The second solution is legislative. Congress should not be timid about passing legislation to empower the legislative branch. After The Boston Globe reported the extensive use of executive signing statements by the Bush administration, there was discussion about legislation to curtail the power, but proposals for the legislation faded away. Congress needs to consider passing measures in this and other areas, such as further defining what kinds of interrogation techniques can be used by the U.S. military and intelligence services. The final solution involves oversight. There has been a dramatic increase in congressional oversight since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Legislators have been more willing to hold hearings and conduct investigations into everything from the ethical conduct of the White House to the administration of key government programs. But oversight under divided government is easier politically than under the united government -- Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress -- we will have after January 20. The aim of stronger oversight is to avoid failures such as FEMA's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina or the politicization at the Department of Justice. The fact that Democrats control the White House is no excuse for the party's leaders in Congress to become lapdogs. Obama must be held responsible as well. While presidents don't like to give up power, maybe this president will be different. At a minimum, Obama should avoid the techniques used so often in recent years to circumvent legislative will. It is not enough to reverse Bush's executive orders -- the crucial question is whether Obama uses such orders as frequently himself. If the nation can create a better balance between the executive and legislative branches, the country will benefit. The New Deal proved when both branches work together, the nation can produce some of its finest and most effective programs. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Julian Zelizer: Bush administration sought to rebuild presidential power .\nHe says they wanted to reverse Watergate-inspired reforms from the 1970s .\nZelizer says Congress' role was diminished during the Bush administration .\nHe says Obama, Congress must decide whether to strengthen legislative role ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- Ricardo Martinelli, the multimillionaire owner of a supermarket chain, was inaugurated as president of Panama on Wednesday. Ricardo Martinelli is a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party. National Assembly President Jose Luis Varela performed the swearing-in and placed the presidential sash on Martinelli, a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party in May. The citizens of Panama \"want things to be done differently,\" Varela said at the inauguration. \"An attitude of change starts today.\" In his first speech as president, Martinelli promised a smaller government budget but raises for public workers. Public safety, an issue that the outgoing administration of Martin Torrijos struggled to maintain, will be a priority, Martinelli said. \"Our prisons will be rehabilitation centers, not schools for criminals,\" he said. Panama will also work with Mexico and Colombia to combat drug trafficking in the region, Martinelli said. Among the dignitaries at the inauguration was deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-led coup Sunday. The Organization of American States has condemned the coup, and Zelaya has continued to carry out his presidential duties. The son of Italian immigrants, Martinelli, 57, is a self-made businessman who is chairman of the Super 99 supermarket chain, one of the largest private companies in Panama. The U.S.-educated president previously served as minister and chairman of the board of directors of the Panama Canal Authority and formerly was director of social security for Panama, according to his Web site. Martinelli won the presidency with 60 percent of the votes in a race against ruling-party candidate Balbina Herrera." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Deposed Honduran president attends ceremony .\nSupermarket chain owner Ricardo Martinelli inaugurated .\nMartinelli promises smaller government budget, raises for public workers .\nNew president says Panama will fight drug trafficking in region ." } ]
[ { "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) -- Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched a Beverly Hills pharmacy Friday in connection with the investigation into the death of Michael Jackson, an agency spokesman said. Dr. Arnold Klein denied in a CNN interview last month that he had given Jackson dangerous drugs. The agents executed a federal search warrant at the Mickey Fine Pharmacy and Grill, and were expected to seize pharmacy records, said DEA spokesman Jose Martinez. The pharmacy is in the same building as the office of Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. Shortly before his death, Jackson visited the building several times to see Klein. The store remained open for business, giving journalists who chose to dine at its lunch counter an unusually close look at the searchers at work. Several DEA agents crowded behind the pharmacy counter, shuffling through paper documents, while pharmacy employees stood by to answer questions. Jackson had been sued by the pharmacy, which claimed the pop singer had not paid a $100,000 bill, but the dispute was later settled. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office visited Klein's office. \"We wanted some additional information and they provided it,\" said Ed Winter, coroner's spokesman. He said Klein's staff and attorneys cooperated with the requests. The coroner's office said more than a week ago that a \"thorough and comprehensive\" report into the death of Michael Jackson is complete, but police have requested that it not yet be released because of the ongoing criminal investigation. The coroner's office said it would abide by the request that \"the cause and manner of death remain confidential,\" and referred all questions to Los Angeles police. The DEA search did not involve detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, although Martinez said the federal agents would share their findings with them. Jackson's June 25 death is also the focus of an investigation by Los Angeles police and the state attorney general's office. Klein, who treated Jackson for decades, denied in a CNN interview last month that he had given Jackson dangerous drugs. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beverly Hills pharmacy is next door to Dr. Arnold Klein's office .\nDEA search in connection with Michael Jackson investigation .\nKlein was Jackson's dermatologist ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Arriving at the London premiere of his self-titled mockumentary dressed in an enormous bearskin hat, cropped red army tunic and barely there hot pants, flamboyant Austrian fashionista, \"Bruno,\" paid sartorial tribute to the British as only he knows how. Bear-ing all: British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comic creation Austrian fashionista, Bruno, hits the red carpet. Waxed to perfection and flanked by a group of muscular black men dressed like a camp Queen's Guards, the gay fashion reporter flounced down the carpet to greet his public. \"Vassup CNN! Lookin' hot,\" Bruno said to CNN. \"I don't want any attention; I'm not here to promote my movie.\" \"Bruno,\" which hits cinemas in most territories next month, is the latest comic creation of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who last shocked, insulted and delighted audiences in 2006 with Borat, Kazakhstan's \"Most Famous Broadcaster.\" Bruno continues the unique approach to comedy Baron Cohen honed with characters like uneducated, loutish jungle music fan Ali G and then homophobic, anti-Semitic Kazakh journalist Borat. Watch \"Bruno\" on the red carpet » . His specialty is characters who say the unsayable: like Bruno's carpet quip that his new film is \"the most important movie starring a gay Austrian since 'Terminator 2,'\" in joking reference to the married (and firmly heterosexual) Austrian Terminator star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California. In pictures: Bruno offers fashion advice to CNN » . Baron Cohen puts his creations in real-life situations and uses them to draw unsuspecting participants into letting well-hidden prejudices slip out, engage in embarrassing behavior or contradict themselves. Characters like Bruno and Borat \"essentially work as a tool,\" Baron Cohen told UK paper The Observer in a rare out-of-character interview: \"By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice.\" Baron Cohen's approach courts controversy. \"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan\" opened to a wave of outrage from race-relations campaigners. This time it is gay-rights campaigners who are up in arms. \"Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others,\" Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation told the New York Times. While some critics may suggest that his films may reinforce prejudices, others disagree. \"It is difficult to accuse Cohen of making films that are racist or homophobic,\" Aubrey Day, Editor-in-Chief of Total Film magazine told CNN. \"He takes characters and exaggerates them for broad comic value, but I don't think there's any credence in the idea that he supports any of those ideals.\" But Baron Cohen certainly knows how to manipulate the media. The 37-year-old has been whipping up anticipation for \"Bruno\" with a series of attention-grabbing, hilarious stunts. In September last year, he brought chaos to the hallowed fashion shows of Milan when he stormed the catwalk of designer Agata Luiz de la Prada's show dressed in a Velcro suit with clothes from backstage stuck all over it. Most recently, he descended from the ceiling at the MTV Movie Awards wearing nothing but a pair of angel's wings and a skimpy thong before \"falling\" onto irate rapper Eminem's face. Eminem stormed out of the awards but later admitted he knew about the stunt beforehand. \"Borat\" debuted at number one in the U.S. box office and went on to gross $300 million in box office and DVD sales. Industry experts are predicting an even bigger return for \"Bruno.\" The secret of the Baron Cohen comedy phenomenon may lie in his combination of laughs with something a bit deeper: namely his ability to highlight prejudices and hypocrisies. \"What he does very well is hold a mirror up to a lot of society's current ideals and expose them for what they are,\" Day told CNN. \"That is one of the joys of his films. \"You can enjoy them on a simple level, in that they are very funny, but hopefully you also come away thinking, or maybe re-thinking some of your attitudes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bruno\" paid tribute to British icons in a bearskin hat at London movie premiere .\nThe Austrian fashionista is UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest creation .\n\"Bruno\" has already caused controversy with gay rights campaigners .\nBaron Cohen's comedy holds a mirror up to many of society's ingrained prejudices ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Authorities are asking for the public's help in finding an eighth suspect accused of being a member of a North Carolina group that allegedly plotted \"violent jihad\" overseas. Authorities are searching for North Carolina resident Jude Kenan Mohammed. \"The Raleigh Joint Terrorism Task Force is seeking any information the public may have regarding the whereabouts of Jude Kenan Mohammad,\" the FBI said in a statement. Federal authorities had said earlier that they believed Mohammad, 20, was in Pakistan. Seven other suspects are in custody. All eight are accused of plotting \"violent jihad\" overseas, according to the indictment, and are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people. The indictment identifies Mohammad as a U.S. citizen and a North Carolina resident. It says he traveled to Pakistan in October 2008 to \"engage in violent jihad.\" No further details are offered. A federal judge denied bail last week for six of the men, but expressed skepticism about the charges against them. Magistrate Judge William Webb said the defendants had made a number of statements espousing holy war, and said the statements could be interpreted in isolation as braggadocio. But because some group members had amassed a large arsenal and ammunition and had engaged in firearms training, Webb found there was reason to believe that they harbored criminal intent and presented a flight risk or a possible danger to the community. Bail was denied for the seventh man, Anes Subasic, on Monday, CNN affiliate WTVD reported. Five surreptitiously recorded audiotapes were played in a court hearing last week, along with a cell phone video showing someone firing an AK-47. On a tape made in May 2009, one of the suspects, Daniel Patrick Boyd, talks about getting the money needed to wage jihad and hitting Wells Fargo trucks and banks. He makes reference to how he had robbed a bank in Pakistan. Boyd's sons, Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as \"Mohammed,\" and Zakariya Boyd, 20, also are among the eight charged. Federal agents discovered in the Boyd house, among other items: several weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, $13,000 cash, gas masks, and a document described as a fatwa (Muslim religious edict) of jihad (holy war), the FBI said. They also found a trench under the deck of the house, which a witness told the FBI was a bunker to store and conceal weapons, and a plywood plank placed in a tree so that someone sitting there could see anyone approaching the house, FBI special agent Michael Sutton said. Sabrina Boyd -- the wife of Daniel Patrick Boyd and the mother of the two younger Boyds -- has said the allegations against her family are false." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Authorities looking for whereabouts of 20-year old Jude Kenan Mohammad .\nMohammad accused of being a member of group that allegedly plotted \"violent jihad\"\nFederal authorities said earlier they believed Mohammad was in Pakistan .\nSeven others in custody facing conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder charges ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WEST POINT, Georgia (CNN) -- A community that seemed on the road to becoming a ghost town has taken a turn toward prosperity despite the recession, thanks to an automaker. A roadside sign in West Point, Georgia, expresses support for Kia's new factory. Korean car manufacturer Kia plans to open a sprawling automobile factory in tiny West Point, Georgia, by the end of the year. The boon has already spurred economic growth -- and just plain excitement -- among residents, said Mayor Drew Ferguson. \"We jokingly call it Kia-ville,\" said Ferguson, a 42-year-old dentist helping to oversee expansion of West Point, population 3,500. The announcement is drawing workers and businesses to the community about 80 miles south of Atlanta. \"The revitalization of the community is touching every aspect,\" Ferguson said. \"We have infrastructure projects, new subdivisions going up, hotel professional services that are all needed to support the massive manufacturing.\" The plant, which will make Kia's Sorento sport utility vehicle, has hired 500 workers. By the time the factory opens, Kia hopes to hire 2,000 more. A smattering of Kia supply companies will eventually employ 7,500 additional workers. Watch the town's excitement about the new factory » . \"A lot of people feel that we are the savior for this area, which I hope we will be,\" said Randy Jackson, director of human resources for the manufacturing plant. \"We got 43,013 applications; 75 percent of those applications came from Georgia, and about 20 percent came from our neighboring state of Alabama.\" Some of those applications are coming from auto workers around the country, including Detroit, Michigan, Jackson said. Overall, West Point stands to gain 20,000 jobs as a result of the factory during the next five years, Ferguson said. Georgia's 9.7 percent unemployment rate reported in May is about the same as the June national average of 9.5 percent, according to federal statistics. The U.S. Department of Labor reported unemployment in a five-county region including West Point at 8.6 percent. To secure the $1.2 billion Kia plant, state and local officials helped assemble land from a former cattle farm to create a 2,200-acre industrial park. They also locked in about $400 million in tax breaks and other economic incentives. \"We think the investment will pay off big time,\" Ferguson said. \"We're already seeing it. But it's not only in the dollars, but in the hope and opportunity, and the ability to create new jobs.\" Ruthann Williams invested her life savings to buy and open the Irish Bred Pub on West Point's Main Street. Now she commutes to work 45 minutes a day from her North Georgia home. \"I came here because of Kia,\" Williams said. \"We jumped in with both feet and have not looked back one time.\" 'My little town was gonna die' Plans for the new factory have transformed a community that during the past ten years has been becoming a ghost town. Textile mills that once defined West Point shut down in the 1990s, leaving many out of work. Debbie Williams, co-owner of the popular Roger's Bar-B-Que, was worried her business would go under. \"We'd go downtown and there was nothing there,\" Williams said. \"I thought my little town was gonna die.\" Margaret McManus was laid off last year when the textile mill she worked for closed. The 52-year-old went back to school to study information technology. In April she landed a job as a trainer with Daehan Solutions Georgia, a parts supplier for Kia. McManus said she didn't think in a million years she'd be making car parts. \"The job that I used to do for a long time, we thought we'd retire there,\" McManus said. \"It feels good to go to work everyday and have something to do.\" The signs of transformation in West Point are everywhere. There's new construction, including the city's first new subdivision in 25 years. And businesses that once struggled are feeling the uptick. Williams recently replaced her restaurant floor because of all the new foot traffic. \"We see a lot of people we don't know now. They want to see where the Kia site's gonna be built,\" Williams said. \"We always say if we can get them in here one time, we can get them back, and they come. They're coming back.\" Tom Oswald, owner of West Point Shoe Outlet, said last year was his best year ever. \"Once Kia announced they were opening we've sold mostly steel-toed shoes for construction workers,\" he said. \"Now we're selling wingtips for men and heels for ladies.\" And Malcolm Malone, who runs M&M Car Wash, said business is booming. \"It's been up at least 70 percent,\" said the 44-year-old West Point native. \"It's like Christmas.\" Or perhaps a little divine intervention deserves credit, as a West Point sign pointed out: \"Thank You Jesus For Bringing Kia to Our Town.\" New flavors . On Main Street, residents are sampling new flavors that have come to West Point since the announcement. Asian restaurants and businesses are popping up. The old Pizza Hut has transformed into a Korean Bar-B-Que, and the southern staple KFC is now a popular Korean eatery called Young's Garden. Resident Christy Magbee said West Point is starting to feel like a melting pot. \"You got the culture coming in. You don't have to travel to Atlanta anymore. It's starting to come here,\" she said. \"The old downtown is new again. It's an exciting time,\" Ferguson said. \"For us there's a light at the end of the tunnel.\" CNN's Alina Cho contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mayor: West Point, Georgia, could get 20,000 jobs resulting from Kia car plant .\nBefore Kia announcement, business owner thought town was \"gonna die\"\nNews spurs construction of West Point's first new subdivision in 25 years .\nAuto workers from Detroit, elsewhere applying for jobs at plant, mayor says ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Rudy Ruiz founded RedBrownandBlue.com, a site featuring multicultural political commentary. He is host of a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show and wrote a guide to success for immigrants (\"¡Adelante!\" published by Random House). He is co-founder and president of Interlex, an advocacy marketing agency based in San Antonio, Texas. Rudy Ruiz says the lives of U.S. presidents can make them positive role models for students. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- Perhaps we got too used to living in a nation where the president inevitably becomes persona non grata. Maybe after the Clinton and Bush years, we forgot how to give a president a chance to serve not just as a punching bag but also as a role model. Have we become so disenchanted and polarized we can't give our own president a chance to teach our children something about what it takes to succeed? As a small-town boy, I drew inspiration from presidential biographies. As I got lost in the adventures of Teddy Roosevelt, the spirit of George Washington and the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, I found kernels of America's greatness. In those pages, I unearthed a yearning to dream beyond my surroundings, to strive for more, to seek a way to contribute to our nation. Many of the leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin in Kentucky, ascended from humble beginnings on the wings of education to guide America forward. Devouring their stories, it ceased to matter where I was from or how far removed I was from the centers of power. With an education and a dream -- in America -- anything was possible. Whenever President Obama addresses our youth, he embodies the power of education. Education is the cornerstone of our democracy, the key to upward mobility, a linchpin to transforming whimsical dreams into actionable goals. Ask Bill Clinton. Raised by his widowed mother in Arkansas, he became a Rhodes Scholar. Look at Barack Obama. Emerging from a broken family, he built on degrees from Columbia and Harvard in his odyssey to the White House. Remember Dwight Eisenhower. Hailing from Kansas, he attended West Point on his way to heroism. From both sides of the aisle, education has propelled the career trajectories of our nation's leaders. Even if we disagree with a president's policies, we should accept he can serve as a role model in a broader way. For example, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Nobody would argue this was admirable. But Jefferson was also a great thinker, diplomat and strategist. He co-authored the Declaration of Independence and helped America become a global power by engaging Europe and transacting the Louisiana Purchase. Was he perfect? Of course not. Would we want our children to emulate his every action. No way. But has he been an inspirational role model over time? As a parent, I understand people's concerns about the concepts to which their children are exposed. But the content of the president's speech to students should assuage any worries regarding his motives. Clearly, his agenda is to inspire kids to make the most of education in building a better life, not to brainwash a generation to do his bidding. Pointing to his own experiences, as well as those of others from diverse and modest origins, his remarks convey the importance of personal responsibility, perseverance and education in fulfilling one's potential while contributing to our nation's future. The only way to argue with that is by confusing the issues, twisting the situation into something it was never intended to be. It's gotten so bad, some folks don't want their kids exposed to the president because they're afraid he'll teach them socialism. My answer is that even if he did plan to discuss socialism, they should let their child listen. Of course, the president wouldn't do that, but why is that my answer? Because, as another role model -- President Reagan -- once said: \"All great change in America begins at the dinner table.\" In that light, the president's speech isn't a threat but an opportunity for families to engage their children on the issues. If parents disagree with the president's views, they can sit down at the dinner table with their kids and explain their divergence. They may even find, when it comes to the value of education, President Obama might say something worth hearing. In the process, parents will teach their children: . • That we should listen respectfully to others. Doing so, we might realize that we can appreciate certain aspects of a person while disagreeing with others, and that partial differences of opinion needn't always spur absolute rejection. • That we should respect the president because, even if we didn't vote for him, we're still one nation. • That we should give our president an opportunity to lead by example. Obama's presidency is still young. We don't know what shape his legacy will take. But given his resume, regardless of politics, he's an excellent role model on the value of education. Why not give him a chance to serve in that capacity? iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's speech . Just as I found inspiration in those biographies during my childhood, our youth might be moved by the president's words and stories to cherish knowledge and learning, harnessing the power of education to grow into productive, exemplary Americans in their own right. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rudy Ruiz: After Clinton, Bush years, presidents aren't viewed as role models .\nHe says he drew inspiration from the lives of American presidents .\nHe says Obama and others show the power of education to improve society .\nHe says letting students hear Obama's speech can give them a positive message ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Taliban official Hakeemullah Mehsud has been selected the new head of the Pakistani Taliban, a local Taliban commander in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas told CNN Saturday. Baitullah Mehsud, right, former leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and a bodyguard in Pakistan, in 2004. Mehsud was selected Friday by a 42-member Taliban council, or shura, according to Taliban commander Qari Haris. Another Taliban official -- Maulvi Faqir Mohammad -- had been tapped as Mehsud's deputy, Haris said. Mohammad had named himself acting head of the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday. A third official -- Hazem Tariq -- was named the group's new spokesman, Haris added. The announced selection underscored the contention by Pakistani and U.S. officials that the group's former leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan. Both Mohammad and Haris claim Mehsud is alive but ill. Pakistani officials announced Tuesday that two top figures in the Pakistani Taliban had been arrested. Saif Ullah is believed to have been Baitullah Mehsud's right-hand man, and Maulvi Umar is the well-known spokesman for the militant group. Umar recently declared that Mehsud had not been killed in a drone strike on his father-in-law's house, but a senior Pakistani official said that Umar had admitted under questioning that Mehsud was dead. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, told CNN that the Pakistani Taliban had not confirmed Mehsud's death because of an ongoing power struggle over his successor. Journalists Janullah Hamizshada and Nazar ur Islam contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taliban official Hakeemullah Mehsud was selected Friday by 42-member panel .\nTaliban officials say former leader Baitullah Mehsud is alive but ill .\nTaliban official Maulvi Faqir Mohammad tapped as new leader's deputy ." } ]
[ { "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 man Gary McKinnon appeared in court Tuesday to try to prevent his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into U.S. government computers at the Pentagon and NASA. Briton Gary McKinnon is accused of carrying out the biggest ever U.S. military hacking operation. McKinnon, who has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, wants to be tried in Britain rather than the United States. He is asking judges at the High Court to review a decision by the director of public prosecutions not to pursue legal action in Britain, a spokeswoman at the prosecutor's office told CNN. The prosecutor's decision effectively cleared the way for McKinnon's extradition, and McKinnon is hoping it will be overturned. It is not clear when the judges will make a decision on McKinnon's request. Prosecutors made their decision in February despite saying there was sufficient evidence to prosecute McKinnon. But they said their evidence did not reflect the level of criminality alleged by U.S. authorities, so they would allow him to be tried in America. The U.S. government says McKinnon carried out the biggest military computer hacking of all time, accessing 97 computers from his home in London for a year starting in March 2001 and costing the government about $1 million. McKinnon, currently free on bail in England, has said he was simply doing research to find out whether the U.S. government was covering up the existence of UFOs. Prosecutors in the United States and Britain disagree. \"These were not random experiments in computer hacking, but a deliberate effort to breach U.S. defense systems at a critical time which caused well-documented damage,\" Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service said in February. \"They may have been conducted from Mr. McKinnon's home computer -- and in that sense there is a UK link -- but the target and the damage were trans-Atlantic.\" U.S. federal prosecutors accuse McKinnon of breaking into military, NASA and civilian networks and accessing computers at the Pentagon; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Meade, Maryland; the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck, New Jersey; and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, among others. In one case, McKinnon allegedly crashed computers belonging to the Military District of Washington. McKinnon is believed to have acted alone, with no known connection to any terrorist organization, said Paul McNulty, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. A U.S. federal grand jury indicted McKinnon on seven counts of computer fraud and related activity. If convicted, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine. McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, has complained that the United States has never provided evidence to prosecutors or McKinnon's legal team to support their extradition request -- and in fact, under Britain's Extradition Act of 2003, U.S. prosecutors are not required to. McKinnon has previously said it was easy for him to access the secret files. \"I did occasionally leave messages in system administrators' machines saying, 'This is ridiculous,'\" McKinnon has said. \"(I left) some political diatribes as well, but also a pointer to say, you know, this is ridiculous.\" McKinnon was on the brink of extradition in August 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, refused to reconsider the decision to send him to the United States, effectively clearing the way for his transfer. Shortly after that decision, however, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and he claims that diagnosis changed the case for extradition. It was on that basis that McKinnon made his appeals in Britain. Asperger syndrome is a form of autism that affects a person's social communication and interaction, according to Britain's National Autistic Society. Those affected often are of above-average intelligence and have fewer problems speaking than do those with autism. They sometimes have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and can be very literal in what they say, with difficulty understanding jokes, metaphors and sarcasm. In addition, some people with Asperger syndrome develop an intense, sometimes obsessive interest in a hobby or subject, the National Autistic Society said. \"He says what he thinks to his own detriment,\" a friend of McKinnon's told CNN in January. He said McKinnon fears that his compulsion to say what he thinks would land him in trouble in an American prison." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Briton in court in bid to prevent extradition to U.S. for allegedly hacking computers .\nGary McKinnon admits intentionally gaining access to government systems .\nBriton accused of carrying out biggest ever U.S. military computer hacking .\nHe says he was researching whether U.S. was covering up existence of UFOs ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Cape Verde on Friday, the final stop on her seven-nation Africa tour in which she emphasized good governance and urged officials to implement reforms. Hillary Clinton was in Cape Verde on Friday on the final leg of her Africa tour. Clinton is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Pedro Maria Neves before returning to the United States. The Obama administration describes the island nation on the western coast as an African success story. \"Cape Verde enjoys a stable democratic system, high transparency and low corruption,\" said Marianne M. Myles, the U.S. ambassador to Cape Verde. The relationship between the two countries is based on a long history of partnership, which started in 1818 when the first U.S. consulate in sub-Saharan Africa was established in the country, Myles said. Clinton's 11-day trip started in Kenya, and has included stops in South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Liberia. She arrived at Cape Verde from Liberia, where she applauded the work of pro-American president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman elected head of state in Africa. \"Today, (Liberia) is a model of successful transition from conflict to post-conflict, from lawlessness to democracy, from despair to hope,\" Clinton said. \"For the last three years, the people of this country have been working to promote reform, reconstruction and reconciliation. Liberia has adopted sound fiscal policy and seen strong economic growth.\" Clinton's trip comes after President Obama's visit to Ghana in July, where he urged African leaders to improve government stability. During her visit, Clinton echoed Obama's sentiment on government reform. Like Obama, Clinton made it clear that America is willing to help, but from the background. African leaders must take the lead in reforming their own countries, she said. Clinton's message was a mix of praise and criticism. She also addressed other issues including democracy, trade and sexual abuse. Hours before her arrival in Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said that Africa did not need another lecture on good governance. But Clinton said she was delivering a \"tough but lovingly presented\" message to the East African nation. \"As President Obama pointed out in his speech in Ghana, Kenya has not fulfilled its economic promise because it hasn't yet realized fully what it means to have a functioning, dynamic democracy, and a free press and an independent judiciary,\" she said. She urged Angolan officials to adopt a new constitution and hold a proper presidential election. However, she also lauded the nation's commitment to fighting HIV as the two countries signed a partnership to combat the epidemic. At a town hall meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, Clinton talked about the importance of democracy and warned that though Nigeria produces 2 million barrels of oil a day, its poverty rate has gone up over the past 13 years. She blamed the lack of progress on corruption. \"The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria's wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the local, state, and federal level,\" she said. Watch Clinton compare election to 2000 U.S. presidential election » . During a visit to Congo, Clinton denounced sexual attacks on women and announced $17 million in funding to help fight abuse in the country. \"In the face of such evil, people of good will everywhere must respond,\" she said. \"The United States is already a leading donor to efforts aimed at addressing these problems.\" Clinton also met with the leaders of Somalia's transitional government in neighboring Nairobi. The country has been waging a bloody battle against al Qaeda-linked militants with help from the United States. The State Department notes it is the earliest trip by a secretary of state and a president to Africa of any previous U.S. administration." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton winds up 11-day Africa trip with Cape Verde visit .\nClinton's visit has included stops in Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria .\nClinton has urged African leaders to continue government reforms ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Richard M. Nixon and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici, in 1971 discussed ways their countries could work together to overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, according to a newly declassified document. President Richard M. Nixon, right, and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici. During a meeting of the two leaders at the White House on December 9 of that year, Medici was discussing the possibility of a coup by the Chilean military with assistance from Brazilian military officers when Nixon said that it was \"very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field,\" according to the document. Nixon offered money or other discreet aid for the effort if it could be made available, the document shows. \"We must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros, and try where possible to reverse these trends,\" Nixon said. Medici said he was \"happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions and views\" were so close. The declassified document, a previously top secret memorandum for Nixon's file written by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, was published by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute in Washington. The memorandum, along with other documents, were declassified in July as part of the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. \"This is an explosive document that details collusion between the colossus of the North [the United States] and the colossus of the South [Brazil],\" said Peter Kornbluh, the director of a Chile and Brazil Documentation Project for the National Security Archive. He called it \"a smoking gun of confirmation of Brazil's effort to engage in operations to overthrow the government of Chile and a discussion of collusion with the United States.\" The two leaders also discussed the creation of a back channel for direct communication outside normal diplomatic protocols, according to the document. Each designated personal aides to carry handwritten communications back and forth to keep discussions out of official records. \"I think there is precedent, but we've never seen it detailed in a document this way, in which two presidents set up the utmost secret of back-channel communications so they can discuss the most sensitive aspects of collusion and collaboration in efforts to challenge the left in Latin America and change the futures of select Latin American governments,\" Kornbluh said. He added that \"there's a significant paper trail of evidence of what that collusion was that remains secret, and we're going to have to press Brazil and Washington to recover those documents.\" Despite the leaders' effort to keep the subject of their talks secret, word got out. A declassified CIA memorandum written some time after the Nixon-Medici meeting in Washington said that word of the secret talks between the two leaders about shaping Brazilian foreign policy filtered down to Brazilian military officers by a \"Cabinet leak.\" Gen. Vicente Dale Coutinho, commander of Brazil's 4th Army, reacted to this by saying that the United States obviously wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work,\" it said. A declassified CIA national intelligence estimate written in 1972 concluded, \"Brazil will be playing a bigger role in hemispheric affairs and seeking to fill whatever vacuum the U.S. leaves behind. It is unlikely that Brazil will intervene openly in its neighbors' internal affairs, but the regime will not be above using the threat of intervention or tools of diplomacy and covert action to oppose leftist regimes, to keep friendly governments in office, or to help place them there.\" The newly published documents do not offer any conclusive proof of Brazilian involvement in the Chilean coup of 1973, which the Nixon administration supported. Kornbluh said that with the passage of time and change in governments in all of the countries involved, the real story of diplomatic and covert collusion between the United States and Brazil in Chile can finally be told. The National Security Archive will push for the declassification and publication of more top-secret documents from the Nixon library, he said, and will approach Brazilian government officials to ask for their cooperation in getting documents released in Washington and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Kornbluh said he also hopes that surviving Chilean government and military officers from the era who knew of any arrangements with the Brazilian government will come forward and tell their stories. \"This is history for history's sake, but history will not find closure until it's fully aired,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Document shows Richard M. Nixon, Emilio Medici had like-minded goals .\nIt says two leaders met at White House, Nixon offered money or other discreet aid .\nCIA memo says Brazilian general thought U.S. wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work\"\nMemo, other documents were declassified in July of this year as part of project ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong brought a Scottish town center to a standstill on Tuesday when hundreds of people joined him for a group bike ride. Lance Armstrong's appearance in Paisley, Scotland, saw around 200 people joining him on a bike ride. The seven-times Tour de France winner used social networking site Twitter to invite fans to take part in the event in Paisley, Scotland and -- as a result -- around 200 people gathered in the town's High Street. Fans took photographs and asked for autographs from the American and the watching crowd applauded and cheered as the group set off on their ride. Asked whether he was surprised to see so many people turn out, Armstrong told reporters before climbing on to his bike: \"Yes. It's a chance to meet lots of people. We made up our mind to come and see a show two nights ago and I said hey let's have a bike ride,\" he added. Watch the chaos as Armstrong starts to ride » . Asked whether he knew much about cycling around Paisley, he smiled and said: \"I know nothing about it.\" In the Twitter messages before the gathering, Armstrong wrote: \"Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way. Who wants to go for a bike ride with me??\" Followed by: \"Hey Glasgow -- ride is at 12 noon. Stay tuned and yes, I have my rain coat!\" iReport: Did you see Lance? Send pics, video . Cyclists and fans started to gather before 11am ahead of Armstrong's arrival at around 12.20pm. After the group cycle, Armstrong told fans through Twitter: \"Thanks to everyone who turned up to ride in Paisley! I figured we'd have a nice ride for a dozen or so. But 100's came. Haha! Awesome!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lance Armstrong brought a Scottish town center to a standstill on Tuesday .\nThe American announced on Twitter that he wanted people to join him on ride .\nA group of 200 people gathered in Paisley High Street to ride with Armstrong ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Nelson Piquet Jr admitted he will have to wait until the dust has settled on the \"crashgate\" scandal before he can attempt a return to Formula One. Nelson Piquet Jr has not ruled out a return to Formula One. The 24-year-old Brazilian attended a Motor Sport Council hearing on Monday over the conspiracy which saw him crash his Renault in the Singapore Grand Prix last year, where he subsequently revealed he is keen on a F1 comeback. Piquet, who was granted immunity by motorsport's world governing body (FIA) for his testimony, believes his talent was not appreciated by former team boss Flavio Briatore. Despite the furor surrounding the affair the Brazilian hopes he can return to F1, but added there may be other options too. \"I am aware that because of this (scandal) it will be difficult,\" Piquet told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. \"Some people will be afraid that the same thing will happen. But it was a unique case and I have learned from it. \"If I can't find a place in F1, perhaps for one year I will go to America and try to do a good job there until the waves have calmed down a bit. \"I was there in August for a week and spoke with some teams.\" Renault have confirmed that they intend to continue racing in F1 for the future and also have appointed Bob Bell as the acting team principal for the remainder of the season. A statement on the Renault Web site said: \"Following the unfortunate recent events, the Renault F1 Team has reacted swiftly by implementing a new temporary management team structure, which will be in place from today until the end of the 2009 season. \"Bob Bell, currently technical director, takes on the duty of team principal and chief technical office. Bell will attend all the remaining races of the season and will be the team's spokesperson on all sporting and technical matters . \"The Renault F1 Team is now ready to concentrate on the future.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nelson Piquet Jr is keen to make a comeback to Formula One in the future .\nThe Brazilian's reputation is tarnished after his part in the \"crashgate\" scandal .\nRenault confirmed Bob Bell will be acting team principal for rest of the season ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Richard M. Nixon and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici, in 1971 discussed ways their countries could work together to overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, according to a newly declassified document. President Richard M. Nixon, right, and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici. During a meeting of the two leaders at the White House on December 9 of that year, Medici was discussing the possibility of a coup by the Chilean military with assistance from Brazilian military officers when Nixon said that it was \"very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field,\" according to the document. Nixon offered money or other discreet aid for the effort if it could be made available, the document shows. \"We must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros, and try where possible to reverse these trends,\" Nixon said. Medici said he was \"happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions and views\" were so close. The declassified document, a previously top secret memorandum for Nixon's file written by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, was published by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute in Washington. The memorandum, along with other documents, were declassified in July as part of the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. \"This is an explosive document that details collusion between the colossus of the North [the United States] and the colossus of the South [Brazil],\" said Peter Kornbluh, the director of a Chile and Brazil Documentation Project for the National Security Archive. He called it \"a smoking gun of confirmation of Brazil's effort to engage in operations to overthrow the government of Chile and a discussion of collusion with the United States.\" The two leaders also discussed the creation of a back channel for direct communication outside normal diplomatic protocols, according to the document. Each designated personal aides to carry handwritten communications back and forth to keep discussions out of official records. \"I think there is precedent, but we've never seen it detailed in a document this way, in which two presidents set up the utmost secret of back-channel communications so they can discuss the most sensitive aspects of collusion and collaboration in efforts to challenge the left in Latin America and change the futures of select Latin American governments,\" Kornbluh said. He added that \"there's a significant paper trail of evidence of what that collusion was that remains secret, and we're going to have to press Brazil and Washington to recover those documents.\" Despite the leaders' effort to keep the subject of their talks secret, word got out. A declassified CIA memorandum written some time after the Nixon-Medici meeting in Washington said that word of the secret talks between the two leaders about shaping Brazilian foreign policy filtered down to Brazilian military officers by a \"Cabinet leak.\" Gen. Vicente Dale Coutinho, commander of Brazil's 4th Army, reacted to this by saying that the United States obviously wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work,\" it said. A declassified CIA national intelligence estimate written in 1972 concluded, \"Brazil will be playing a bigger role in hemispheric affairs and seeking to fill whatever vacuum the U.S. leaves behind. It is unlikely that Brazil will intervene openly in its neighbors' internal affairs, but the regime will not be above using the threat of intervention or tools of diplomacy and covert action to oppose leftist regimes, to keep friendly governments in office, or to help place them there.\" The newly published documents do not offer any conclusive proof of Brazilian involvement in the Chilean coup of 1973, which the Nixon administration supported. Kornbluh said that with the passage of time and change in governments in all of the countries involved, the real story of diplomatic and covert collusion between the United States and Brazil in Chile can finally be told. The National Security Archive will push for the declassification and publication of more top-secret documents from the Nixon library, he said, and will approach Brazilian government officials to ask for their cooperation in getting documents released in Washington and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Kornbluh said he also hopes that surviving Chilean government and military officers from the era who knew of any arrangements with the Brazilian government will come forward and tell their stories. \"This is history for history's sake, but history will not find closure until it's fully aired,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Document shows Richard M. Nixon, Emilio Medici had like-minded goals .\nIt says two leaders met at White House, Nixon offered money or other discreet aid .\nCIA memo says Brazilian general thought U.S. wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work\"\nMemo, other documents were declassified in July of this year as part of project ." } ]
[ { "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) -- An undersea cable plugging east Africa into high speed Internet access went live Thursday, providing an alternative to expensive satellite connections. The cable links southern Africa to Europe and Asia. SEACOM, the cable provider company, opened its 17,000 kilometer submarine cable, capable of 1.28 terabytes per second, allowing the region true connectivity. Most Africans rely on expensive and slow satellite connections, which make the use of applications such as YouTube and Facebook extremely trying. \"This is going to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa, within Africa and with international parties\" said Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM spokesman in South Africa. \"The cable is as thin as a hair strand, and in one second it can download the same amount of data that 160 people use in a month.\" SEACOM, privately funded and 75 percent African owned, will provide retail carriers with open source access to inexpensive bandwidth. It has taken less than three years to complete the mammoth project, providing landing stations at South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and other points along the east coast of Africa. But telecoms analyst James Hodge said that some of the more ambitious hopes for the system -- such as impacting the continent's socioeconomic problems -- will be long-term, and that initially it will be those already connected who will see the benefits. The launch was delayed by a month because of increased activity by pirates along parts of the African coast. Security teams were beefed up to protect the slow moving cable layers. Neotel, a South African communications network operator, is the largest SEACOM customer in South Africa and is the country's landing partner, providing both the coastal landing station and Johannesburg data center for the submarine cable. Neotel managing director Ajay Pandey is excited about the opportunities for growth presented by the SEACOM cable. \"With this cable coming in, the pipe size opens up, so more and more people are able to get faster and better connectivity, hopefully at a lower price. It can't be more expensive than what it is today.\" SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Brian Herlihy added: \"Turning the switch 'on' creates a huge anticipation, but ultimately, SEACOM will be judged on the changes that take place on the continent over the coming years.\" South Africa has been hobbled by high costs and extremely slow bandwidth, effectively keeping the country on an information back road rather then the superhighway. There is much anticipation and hope that the cable will ensure Africa keeps up with the developed world in Internet connectivity, providing greater speed, flexibility and, potentially, a complete socioeconomic transformation. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in his opening address: \"It's the ultimate embodiment of modernity.\" His speech was beamed via SEACOM from a launch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to the simultaneous launch in Johannesburg, South Africa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Undersea SEACOM cable links southern and east Africa to Europe, Asia .\nSystem provides cheaper alternative to satellite connections .\n17,000 km cable capable of 1.28 terabytes per second .\nSEACOM spokesman: This is going to reduce the cost of doing business ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Demand for the world's largest, most expensive yachts is on the rise ahead of the Monaco Yacht Show this week. Ships moored at the Moncao Yacht Show. \"We've gotten the strongest forward order book that we've ever had. It's the best outlook we've ever had since we've started the company,\" said Toby Allies, Sales and Marketing Director for Pendennis, a leading British manufacturer and re-fitter of superyachts. Amid the global recession, the worldwide market for luxury goods has plummeted over the last year, expected to shrink 10 percent for 2009 according to global business consultants Bain & Company. A few sectors, though, have shown surprising strength and even growth amid the downturn, including British-made superyachts. The British market for superyachts grew more than 15 percent during the fiscal year ending June 1, 2009, according to a new survey. Overall revenue increased to a record $663 million (£410 million) and jobs across the industry increased five percent, according to Superyacht UK, the trade group who conducted the survey. Since last September, yacht sales tanked in many parts of the world, particularly as cash dried up among clients from Russia and the Middle East. \"It was a difficult year, many manufacturers had to cut down on production numbers and give larger discounts,\" said Georges Tchoumak, Head of Sales and Marketing for Numarine, a manufacturer of superyachts based in Turkey. In France three of the four publicly-traded yacht companies who make yachts that cost more than $40 million took advantage of the country's bankruptcy laws to stave off collapse, including Rodriguez Group, the company who built Bernard Madoff's yacht \"Bull.\" Though affected by the recession, the UK industry managed to buck that trend, buoyed by a decline in the pound. \"In the last quarter of 2008 through the end of first quarter 2009 there was virtually zero activity in the large yacht sector,\" said Tim Wiltshire, Director of Burgess Yachts, a UK-based high-end boat manufacturer. Wiltshire said that at their worst, transactions were down 60 percent compared with the previous year, but that volume had recently returned, particularly in brokerage sales of used yachts. Heading into Monaco, manufacturers around the world including the UK now appear poised for a robust rebound. \"There have been a dozen significant sales in the past quarter ... enough of our customers think it's unlikely to get much worse.\" But whiles sales have picked up, Wiltshire predicted it could take years for sale prices to reach the premiums of only a few years ago: \"Since early summer [business] has picked up significantly ... We are back on par with 2007, albeit at reduced values,\" he said. Manufacturers across the UK share Wiltshire's optimism, according to the survey. Ninety-five percent of UK companies questioned rated their prospects for the year ahead either \"good or excellent\" (56 percent) or \"OK\" (39 percent). At Numarine \"things are looking better for the last three months,\" Tchomak told CNN. \"We've had more sales in the past three months than in the previous 12 months,\" he wrote in an email. At Pendennis, directors have changed their business strategy to accommodate the anticipated growth. \"We've increased our investment in infrastructure for large yachts,\" said Ailes. \"Improving facilities and looking to recruit more people to work on boats up to 70 or 80 meters.\" One of the reasons cited for the strength in Britain's superyacht business compared with manufacturers in other European countries has been the declining value of Sterling against the Euro. Hugo Andreae, Editor-in-Chief of Superyachtworld magazine said that the exchange rate helped, but the high quality of British boats and sustained demand among the world's wealthiest had helped hold up sales. Andreae also explained that one of the effects of the recession has been to shift demand from new builds to the used boat brokerage and chartering markets. \"There are signs that things are picking up ... Monaco is the premiere big yacht show and it's the real acid test of whether [the rebound] is the odd sale being picked up at a good price, or if the market has reignited properly,\" explained Tom Chant, International Commercial Manager for Superyacht UK. If interest in the Monaco Yacht Show is any indicator, then sales can be expected to meet bullish expectations. The annual end-of-summer yachting industry and yacht owners' conference is fully booked this week. The number of double-decker pavilions has doubled since last year, but in spite of the event's increased provision of these more expensive, higher visibility exhibition spaces supply still fell short of demand. In the United States yacht manufacturers also say they've seen a recent surge in interest in new construction of yachts over 150 feet. \"Over the last 45 days, all of a sudden, the inquires have started coming along really strong. That bodes well for the Monaco Yacht Show,\" said William Smith, V.P. of Sales and Marketing for Trinity Yachts. \"It's fair to say sales came to a shuddering halt after the Monaco show last year.\" In another sign that interest in the top-end of the yacht market is back, Luxury retailer Hermes recently announced plans to team up with Wally, the Monaco superyacht company, to build a $145 million (€100 million) yacht. Sales to Russia, the Middle East and other developing countries have rebounded more quickly than sales to Europe and the U.S., according to Smith, as uncertainty about the markets has subsided and boosted consumer confidence. In the past six months, Trinity had only had one inquiry from an American, which came in the last few weeks. Trinity, the largest U.S. retailer of megayachts, has had two projects out of 17 builds stall due to the recession, both about 164 feet long. Smith said the owners can either come back and pay for them to finish the work or let Trinity sell them. Throughout the downturn Trinity was able to continue to deliver ships at a record pace, thanks to a hearty backlog of orders placed during the markets peaks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The British market for superyachts grew more than 15 percent last year .\nAfter a year of steep declines, sales for new yacht constructions are picking up .\nThe Monaco Yacht Show is fully-booked this week, showing renewed interest .\nHermes teams up with Wally to build $145 million ultra luxury yacht ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Lined up next to Pittsburgh police officers protecting a downtown office building Thursday morning were officers who traveled a little farther to get to work. Police officers from Tucson, Arizona, left, talk with a Pittsburgh officer Thursday outside the G-20 summit. About 2,000 miles farther. Thirty-six officers from the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department are in Pittsburgh as part of the G-20 security force. They were asked to assist by Pittsburgh officials as part of a Department of Homeland Security rapid response team. Officers from departments in several cities, including Cleveland, Ohio; Miami Metro Dade, Florida; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois, were sworn in as part of the massive security effort, but Tucson wins the prize for the greatest distance traveled. Watch how Pittsburgh has prepared for protests » . \"There's a standardization in training,\" Tucson Lt. Paul Sayre said. Departments brought in to assist have undergone similar preparations in techniques and crowd control. The Arizona officers were asked to come to Pittsburgh after taking part in the protection effort at the Republican National Convention in 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The downtown Pittsburgh street on a morning with temperatures in the 50s was nothing like a typical day for the officers. \"It's a different environment,\" Sayre said -- but the job was the same. \"We're excited to be here. It's a lot of fun.\" \"Our role is to support Pittsburgh,\" said Capt. Perry Tarrant, commanding the Tucson team. The additional help protecting downtown locations \"gives Pittsburgh the flexibility to send its officers where needed,\" Sayre said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police officers from around country join G-20 security effort in Pittsburgh .\nDepartments involved include Miami, Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland .\nCops from Tucson, Arizona, find chilly temps a change, but say \"It's a lot of fun\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. MIT researcher Pablo Valdivia Alvarado works in his lab on a robotic fish he co-created. MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish. And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school. \"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,\" Alvarado said. \"Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.\" MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation -- modeled after bass and trout -- cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna. At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans. \"Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,\" said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. \"We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.\" The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level. The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish. MIT's mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander. CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Engineers at MIT have created a new generation of robotic fish .\n'Robofish' could be used to map the ocean floor, inspect submerged boats or pipes .\nMIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994 .\nNew robofish are modeled after bass and trout and cost only a few hundred dollars ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Abayte Ahmed and her husband learned of their son's death in the most heinous fashion. A family acquaintance called and told them to click on an Internet site. There on the screen were photographs of their 20-year-old son -- the boy with the movie-star looks -- shot through the head thousands of miles away in Somalia. Jamal Bana died in Somalia. Several missing Somali-Americans are believed to have fought there. \"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated, because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all,\" his mother said, fighting back tears and barely able to speak about her eldest son. Jamal Bana had been missing for months from his Minneapolis home. His family is still grappling with the circumstances surrounding his death in a land they had fled -- an African nation wracked by chaos and violence. The FBI said Bana's death is part of a sweeping federal investigation into a recruiting effort in the United States by a Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months. At least three, including Bana, have ended up dead in Somalia, community leaders say. Watch the harrowing saga of Jamal Bana » . Bana was the kind of son a modest immigrant family pins its hopes on. He was the eldest of seven and studying engineering at local colleges. But last fall, his family said, he disappeared without any warning. A few days later, the phone rang. All that could be heard was a quick sentence. \"I'm in Somalia,\" his mother quoted him as saying. He then hung up. Communication from then on was scarce. In calls or text messages, the family said, Bana was guarded, as though someone was watching or listening to him. On July 11, the family received the call telling them to look on the Internet. Bana's father broke down in tears when he saw the photos. One image was a close-up of his son's face, a bullet wound on one side of his head. Another showed the body being carried through the streets of Mogadishu on a stretcher. His parents said they believe their son was brainwashed and recruited to fight in the civil war between Somalia's unstable transitional government and Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab remains entrenched in northeast Somalia and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. The question immigrants in the United States want answered is: How have their youth ended up so far away? One of the missing youth, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew up himself and 29 others last fall in Somalia in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen. Ahmed had traveled from Minneapolis. The attack raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Just weeks ago, community activist Abdirizak Bihi lost his 17-year-old nephew, Burhan Hassan, in Somalia. Asked if his nephew had been kidnapped from Minneapolis, Bihi said, \"They kidnap them in the sense of mental kidnapping, not physically. But they play a male role of mentor.\" Bihi and community leader Omar Jamal said they hold one place at least loosely responsible: the Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minneapolis. \"All these kids missing, they all have one thing in common: They all participated in youth programs in that mosque,\" said Jamal. Jamal and Bihi said leaders of the mosque, at the very least, allowed people to come around their facility and recruit young men to fight in Somalia -- a charge the head imam denies. CNN was not allowed inside the mosque, but was granted an interview with the imam at a different location. \"This is the baseless accusation really,\" said Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmed. \"The mosque -- the mission of the mosque -- is to worship. And people come to worship and go. We don't have any control over what comes through everybody's mind or ideology.\" Sheikh Ahmed said at least two of the young men who died in Somalia did worship at his mosque. But he said no recruiters came around the mosque to pull them away, and said his mosque does not support Al-Shabaab. He added that he has encouraged local families to keep their young sons from going to Somalia. Federal authorities recently made their first arrests in the case, charging two Minnesota men, Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, according to the indictment. CNN could not reach Salah Osman Ahmed's attorney for comment. Published reports indicate he planned to plead not guilty. Isse has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal authorities, officials said. In court papers obtained by CNN, Isse's attorney said, \"Mr. Isse will not be the last defendant indicted.\" A local attorney involved in the case said at least seven Somali-Americans have been questioned by a grand jury. An FBI official said the bureau cannot rule out the possibility that some of the young men involved could be trained to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, CNN has learned more about how Shirwa Ahmed and Burhan Hassan made their way overseas. A travel agent in Minneapolis, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two men paid about $1,800 in cash for tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, or to Dubai, U.A.E. The travel agent said he thinks the two men then made their way to Mogadishu from those cities on a Somali carrier. For Bana's family, it's all too much to bear. Omar Boley is a close friend who grew up in the same tribe as Bana's family. He said Bana's mother is having difficulty coping with everything that has happened in recent months. \"She doesn't want to hear the story again,\" he said. \"She told me, 'Whenever I see someone talking about my son, I feel bad. I can't sleep. I feel sick. So this happened, nothing I can do. We pray for him.' That's what she said, and that's what I believe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jamal Bana had been missing for months; family learns of his death via Internet .\nDeath is part of wider federal inquiry of terror recruiting by Somali group in U.S.\nImam of Minneapolis mosque says terror recruiters are not at his mosque .\nTwo men charged in U.S. with providing material support to terrorists ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- A top Baha'i official has criticized Iran's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has been accused of trying to eliminate the Baha'i community. Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, called Iran's assertion \"utterly baseless.\" \"The allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue,\" Dugal said on Wednesday, quoted in a news release issued by the Baha'i movement. \"The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha'i community, and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this plan.\" Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the people were detained for \"security issues\" and not their faith, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said. Elham said on Tuesday that the Baha'is were members of a group working together \"against national interest.\" \"The group is an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular,\" he said. The arrests of the six last week and another Baha'i leader in March sparked sharp condemnation by the Baha'is, the United States, Canada, the European Union and humanitarian groups. The Baha'is say the latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution since 1979, when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created in the predominantly Shiite nation. The Baha'is say they have been killed, jailed and \"otherwise oppressed\" only because of their religion. \"The best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam, an option few have taken,\" Dugal said. Dugal said Iran's practice of connecting the group to Zionism, the underlying political philosophy of the Jewish state, was a \"distortion\" and an attempt to \"stir animosity\" among the Iranian public. The Baha'i World Center, which the movement refers to as its \"spiritual and administrative heart,\" is in the Acre/Haifa area in northern Israel -- a location that predates the founding of the state of Israel since it was formed during the Ottoman Empire's rule of Palestine. The Baha'is explain that their founder, Baha'u'llah, \"after a series of successive banishments from his native Persia, was exiled, with members of his family and a small band of his followers, to the Turkish penal colony of Acre in 1868.\" Dugal said the Iranian actions were the \"most recent iteration in a long history of attempts to foment hatred by casting the Baha'is as agents of foreign powers, whether of Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States and now Israel all of which are completely baseless.\" Dugal said the government's philosophies are based largely on the idea that there can be \"no prophet following Mohammed\" and that the faith \"poses a theological challenge to this belief.\" They say Baha'u'llah is regarded by Baha'is as \"the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Mohammed.\" The Baha'is-- regarded as the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran -- say they have 5 million members across the globe, and about 300,000 in Iran." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baha'i official denies Iran claim that six of its leaders held for security reasons .\nThe religious minority's leaders were arrested at their homes last week .\nBaha'i representative to U.N. says Iran's claim is \"utterly baseless\"\nBani Dugal says Muslim-run government is trying to destroy Baha'i community ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. officials urged American citizens in Germany to keep a low profile and remain wary of their surroundings after the terrorist organization al Qaeda posted a video message threatening attacks in the country. German special police patrol in Berlin last month during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu. A State Department travel alert, issued Wednesday, remains in effect until November 11 -- two weeks after Germany holds its federal elections on Sunday. Al Qaeda posted its video threat on the Internet on September 18, vowing attacks if the elections do not come out the way it wants. The same day, the German government reacted to the video by raising its own alert level and heightening security. The British Foreign Office has also issued an advisory to its citizens living and traveling to Germany. The State Department travel alert asks Americans to keep abreast of news reports and consider the security procedures in place when they visit public places or pick hotels and restaurants. Germany's interior ministry said earlier this month that the country has noted an increase in threats by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups since the beginning of the year. In the nearly 26-minute video statement, a man identified as Bekay Harrach, using the pseudonym Abu Talha and speaking in German, said that, if the September 27 elections vote into power parties that do not pledge to pull German troops from Afghanistan, there will be a \"rude awakening.\" The speaker called on Muslims living in Germany to stay away from public life during the first two weeks after the elections, implying that any attacks would take place then. The speaker repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also criticized Merkel's rivals, the Social Democrats, but offered the possibility of a \"peace offer.\" \"If the German people vote for peace, then the Mujahedeen will choose peace with Germany as well,\" he said. \"And with the withdrawal of the last German soldier from Afghanistan, the last Mujahed will also leave Germany. Al Qaeda gives you their word.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Al Qaeda terror group posts video message threatening attacks in Germany .\nU.S. officials urge their citizens in Germany to keep low profile and be wary .\nGermany's interior ministry report increase in threats by al Qaeda this year .\nMessage criticizes Chancellor Merkel over wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Myron Lowery is mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery fist bumps the Dalai Lama on his arrival in the Tennessee city. MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- \"Hello Dalai, . Well, hello ... Dalai!\" It seemed like a good idea at the time. And with hindsight being 20/20; it still does. How often do you get to meet an international figure as captivating as the Dalai Lama? I wanted to make an impression, and break the ice, in my Southern hospitality sort of way. So enter the lyric from the song and the fist bump now heard round the world. I had been told by his representatives that the Dalai Lama had a wonderful sense of humor, and would enjoy the exchange. Indeed, he did. His Holiness laughed, returned the gesture, and gave me his blessings. And in our brief time together, I saw in his eyes the sparkle of kindness, love and good humor. It's unfortunate that not everyone could allow themselves to enjoy the moment, as we did. Barely an hour passed before reporters began calling to say my fist bump with the Dalai Lama was \"disrespectful,\" unusual and perhaps inappropriate. Why would I do that, they asked? Well to answer that, I would have to go back a couple of weeks or so. One of my assistants in the mayor's office began feeling ill. After a couple of days off work, she was diagnosed with the H1N1 flu. She sits 10 feet away from me. The swine flu story was hitting close to home in a major way. As the leader of a major city, I had to step forward and deal with fears about a virus that has never been known to man. Watch the Dalai Lama's fist bump » . So I rolled up my sleeves and took a shot for the seasonal flu. I encouraged everyone to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available. I urged people to cough politely into a napkin or their sleeve. I had hand sanitizer installed in the common areas at city hall. I greeted the Chairman of the City Council with a fist bump and it made the local news. It became a running theme in City Hall. The mayor would greet you with a fist bump. A day before His Holiness came to the city, I spoke to the Dalai Lama's protocol team and they said he would not be upset or offended being greeted this way. In fact it has happened in the past. So, armed with this information I decided to greet him when he arrived Tuesday in a similar fashion. Not because of any concern about H1N1. I greeted him this way because I'm a down to earth guy, who was raised by a single mother with four sons in public housing. I still tell everyone to call me Myron. I am now living a dream as the mayor of Memphis. And Wednesday, as I sat and watched His Holiness accept an award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the gravity of the moment was in no way lost on me. An international crusader for peace was here on the hallowed ground where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took his last breath. He offered his blessings, walked into the crowd, touched people. He carried himself humbly, not as one to be feared, but as a man, sharing his humanity, making us all better for it. So in the final analysis, I know His Holiness is always happy to participate in local customs, however obscure. He is about peace and harmony, and a fist bump is just another expression of warm friendship that he again returned to me before he left. And the \"Hello, Dalai?\" Well, that was just a bonus. He knew it was coming and we all laughed together. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Myron Lowery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Myron Lowery: I greeted the Dalai Lama with a fist bump and a pun .\nHe says H1N1 virus led to fears about spread of the new disease .\nHe says he's been encouraging people to use fist bump to reduce spread .\nLowery: \"A fist bump is just another expression of warm friendship\"" } ]
[ { "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 number of people killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan's capital rose to 26, including six Italian soldiers, Afghan authorities said Saturday. The coffins of six Italian soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul return to Rome. Sixteen people died in the blast Thursday, and at least 55 Afghan civilians were wounded. Ten have died from their injuries since the bombing. The explosion Thursday targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul, a witness said. The bodies of the Italian soldiers killed in the blast returned to Italy Sunday, their coffins draped in the red, green and white Italian flag. Dignitaries, relatives and row upon row of uniformed troops stood on the airport tarmac as the coffins were carried off the plane, television pictures from the scene showed. Watch more about Italy in mourning » . Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano gently touched the caskets perched on the shoulders of grim-faced soldiers at Rome's Ciampino military airport. Nearby, a woman shook uncontrollably as a baby sported a maroon beret -- the kind worn by the paratroopers killed in the Kabul attack. The six deaths marked largest number of Italians killed in a single day in Afghanistan. Watch more about Italy's Afghan mission » . Before the remains left for Rome, the Italian military, international troops and dignitaries held a service in the Afghan capital. \"It's a tragedy for us,\" Lt. Col. Renato Vaira of the Italian military said at the Kabul service. \"But this is a point to continue our mission.\" \"We'll miss them. They're not the first. I hope it will be the last,\" said Maj. Gen. Tommaso Ferro of the Italian military. The arrival of the soldiers' remains was televised nationally in Italy. The bodies were taken for an autopsy. A day of mourning is scheduled in Italy on Monday, the same day as the burial service. After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be \"best\" for the country's troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal, but said any pullout would have to be coordinated with allies. The 500 troops Italy sent to Afghanistan this summer will be home by Christmas, Ignazio La Russa, Italy's defense minister said. The troops were sent ahead of the Afghan presidential election August 20. The rest of Italy's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will withdraw only when NATO calls for it, La Russa said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Explosion targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul .\nBodies of six Italian soldiers who died returned to Italy Sunday .\nItalian Prime Minister says it would be \"best\" for country's troops to leave Afghanistan .\nDeaths were the highest single-day death toll for Italy in the Afghan mission ." } ]
[ { "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 43-year-old woman convicted in the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Wednesday ended her hunger strike after authorities agreed to review her demand for early release. Nalini Sriharan received a death sentence in 1991 for plotting to murder former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Nalini Sriharan, who has been in jail for 18 years, went on a fast Monday, said Jaya Bharathi, superintendent of Vellore prison in southern India. Convicted of plotting the murder of Gandhi in a suicide bomb attack in 1991, she received a death sentence along with her husband and two others. Sriharan's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on a mercy petition by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the slain former prime minister. The other three remain on death row. In India, a lifer becomes eligible for early release after serving 14 years, Bharathi said. Authorities would consider setting up an advisory board on Sriharan's demand, Bharathi added. \"She ended her fast today and had her breakfast and lunch,\" Bharathi told CNN. India accused Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels of ordering the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, who had sent Indian peacekeepers to the restive island nation while in power." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Authorities have agreed to review case of 43-year-old prisoner Nalini Sriharan .\nSriharan started a hunger strike on Monday to seek early release from jail .\nShe has been in jail for 18 years, convicted of plotting murder of Rajiv Gandhi .\nFormer Indian PM Gandhi was killed in a suicide bomb attack in 1991 ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- At least 24 people have been killed and hundreds rendered homeless in the worst floods to hit land-locked Mongolia in 40 years, emergency officials said Tuesday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was working with local authorities to distribute emergency goods to the flood-ravaged victims. Workers fear that without adequate food and shelter, the situation would worsen when winter arrives in three months, said Francis Markus of the Red Cross. The floods struck last week in the Asian nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar, and a province in the west. It was the worst to hit the country since 1966, Markus said. See images of flood victims » . The government issued televised broadcasts ahead of the rainstorms but many children and elderly could not be evacuated in time, Markus said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Red Cross working with local authorities to distribute aid to flood victims .\nRelief workers say winter poses major threat unless food and shelter in place .\nGovernment warned of floods but many people could not be evacuated in time ." } ]
[ { "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 feared his father so much he would faint or vomit sometimes when his father entered the room -- even when the pop singer was an adult, according to a book written by a former Jackson confidant. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Michael Jackson's confidant, sat down with the King of Pop and taped 30 hours of interviews. \"The Michael Jackson Tapes\" includes Jackson talking about his fear of growing old, his relationship with children, his friendships with Madonna and Brooke Shields, and his remarkable shyness around people that made his surround himself with mannequins. Jackson opened up to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for 30 hours of interviews, which were taped nine years ago and intended for a book Jackson wanted written, Boteach said. \"He was trying to reclaim his life,\" Boteach said Friday in an NBC \"Today Show\" interview. Jackson, who died on June 25 of what the coroner found to be a deadly combination of drugs, \"lost the will to live, I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end,\" Boteach told NBC. CNN has not independently confirmed Jackson's quotes in the book, but Boteach was known to be a spiritual adviser to Jackson for several years beginning about 1999. Ken Sunshine, spokesman for the family, including the singer's father, Joe, issued a statement on the book. \"We are not going to dignify this with a comment,\" he said. The book was not published during Jackson's lifetime because of the pop star's child molestation trial, which ended with an acquittal in 2005, the author said. The author said Jackson's arrest ended any interest in a book about him. \"I don't want to grow old,\" Jackson is quoted as saying in one interview with Boteach. \"When the body breaks down and you start to wrinkle, I think it's so bad,\" Jackson said. Jackson talked to Boteach about why he was drawn to children, especially those who were sick. \"I love them. I love them,\" he said. Helping children enjoy their childhood is his mission, Jackson said. \"I feel that this is something really, really in my heart that I am supposed to do, and I feel so loved by giving my love, and I know that's what they need,\" he said. Jackson said that while adults \"appreciate me artistically as a singer and a songwriter and a dancer and a performer,\" children \"just want to have some fun and to give love and have love and they just want to be loved and held.\" Boteach, in an interview about two years before Jackson's November 2003 arrest, asked Jackson about the young cancer patient who would later become his main accuser. \"He's special,\" Jackson said. Boteach asked Jackson whether by speaking to people like the boy \"part of the pain goes away for them.\" \"Absolutely,\" Jackson said. \"Because every time I talk to him he is in better spirits. When I spoke to him last night he said, 'I need you. When are you coming home?' I said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'I need you, Michael.' Then he calls me 'Dad.'\" Michael Jackson's taped statements about his father's treatment of him as a child echoed what he has said previously. \"He was rough, the way he would beat you, you know, was hard,\" Jackson said. \"He would make you strip nude first. He would oil you down. It would be a whole ritual. He would oil you down so when the flip of an ironing cord hit you, you know, and, it was just like me dying, and you had whips all over your face, your back, everywhere. And I always hear my mother like, 'No, Joe, you're gonna kill him. You're gonna kill him. No.' And I would just give up, like there was nothing I could do. And I hated him for it. Hated him.\" Joe Jackson has denied physically abusing his son. \"Now, Michael was never beaten by me, I've never beaten at all,\" he told CNN's Larry King in July. He did suggest he used spankings for disciplining his children. Another Michael Jackson quote from the book alleged emotional abuse by Joe Jackson: . \"God bless my father because he did some wonderful things and he was brilliant, he was a genius, but one day he said, 'If you guys ever stop singing I will drop you like a hot potato.' It hurt me. You would think he would think, 'These kids have a heart and feelings.' Wouldn't he think that would hurt us? If I said something like that to Prince and Paris, that would hurt. You don't say something like that to children and I never forgot it. It affects my relationship with him today.\" Jackson told Boteach he was still \"scared of my father to this day.\" \"My father walked in the room -- and God knows I am telling the truth -- I have fainted in his presence many times. I have fainted once to be honest. I have thrown up in his presence because when he comes in the room and this aura comes and my stomach starts hurting and I know I am in trouble. He is so different now. Time and age has changed him and he sees his grandchildren and he wants to be a better father. It is almost like the ship has sailed its course, and it is so hard for me to accept this other guy that is not the guy I was raised with. I just wished he had learned that earlier.\" In the excerpts provided to CNN by the book's publisher, there were no quotes from Jackson discussing his drug use, but Boteach does write about what he saw during the several years he was Jackson's spiritual adviser, starting in 1999. While Boteach said he never personally saw Jackson use drugs, he did suspect it. \"In the time that I knew him, he always seemed intent on me having a positive view of him and nothing untoward was ever done in my presence,\" he wrote. While their close relationship ended around the time of the molestation charges, Boteach said Jackson's parents reached out to him later for help in convincing him to enter drug rehab. \"Perhaps I could inspire Michael to make that decision, and his parents thought I could at least help,\" Boteach said. \"But I knew they were wrong. Michael had long since ceased taking my counsel. He found my advice too demanding. I was an irritant and was treated as such.\" He said he told Joe and Katherine Jackson that \"it was imperative for them to save their son's life by becoming available parents in his greatest hour of need.\" Sometimes those closest to Jackson were not people -- but mannequins, the book said. Jackson said he was so shy at times he surrounded himself with dummies. \"Because I felt I needed people, someone, and I didn't have,\" he said. \"I was too shy to be around real people.\" Boteach, in the NBC interview Friday, said it made his skin crawl to hear that. \"His celebrity had created a degree of isolation where he could not simply feel comfortable around other people,\" Boteach said. \"He thought that everybody wanted something from him. He felt that he was trapped in this cocoon of fame and that there was some exploitative relationship with virtually everyone that he met.\" The book does offer insight into Jackson's dating of celebrity women, including actress Brooke Shields. \"That was one of the loves of my life,\" Jackson said. \"I just wished she loved me as much as I loved her, you know.\" He told Boteach one problem he had with women was their jealousy of his fame. \"They admire you and know you're wonderful and great, but just they're jealous because they wish they were in your place, with they were in your shoes. And 'M' is one of them -- Madonna. Hate to say that on tape.\" CNN asked Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg for a response: . \"Madonna was very fond of Michael Jackson (as she clearly expressed in her tribute to him at the VMA's) and I doubt anything in the book will change her mind,\" Rosenberg said. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Former confidant's book based on 30 hours of interviews with Michael Jackson .\nJackson told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach he was still \"scared of my father to this day\"\nJackson said Brooke Shields \"was one of the loves of my life\"\nKing of Pop said father would strip him naked and beat him, according to book ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN Student News) -- Students will investigate the contributions of Hispanic Americans to U.S. culture, and what it means to be an Hispanic in America today. Procedure . Point out to students that Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) celebrates the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, \"September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.\" In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, send student groups on a multimedia scavenger hunt to investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture, and the opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America today. Pose the following questions to guide students' research: . 1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, what is the estimated Hispanic population of the United States? What percent of the total U.S. population does this number represent? 2. What aspects of Hispanic culture can be found in the U.S? 3. Who are some Hispanic Americans who have had an impact in U.S. politics and government? 4. Who are some famous Hispanic-American musicians, artists, writers and actors? How have they impacted U.S. culture? 5. What Hispanic businesses exist in your community and other parts of the U.S.? How have these businesses contributed to the U.S. economy? 6. What issues have you seen or heard about in recent news that are of interest to the Hispanic community? Have groups share and discuss their findings with the class. Extension . Instruct each student to interview several Hispanic-American teens and adults to get their responses to the following question: What would you like other Americans to know about what it means to be Hispanic in America today? Have students summarize the interviewees' responses and share them with the class. Correlated Standards . Social Studies . I. Culture . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity. V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/ are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http://www.socialstudies.org)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Students will investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture .\nStudents will identify opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- For Dr. Lisa Newman, a 16-hour trip over two days from Michigan to Ghana in Africa is just part of the journey in uncovering clues about a rare form of breast cancer. Dr. Lisa Newman hopes to uncover clues in Ghana about an aggressive and rare form of breast cancer. Newman, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at the University of Michigan, collaborates with doctors in Kumasi, Ghana, in hopes of discovering the origins of an aggressive and difficult to treat form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects black women. It is called triple negative breast cancer or TNBC. \"The women that are most likely to be afflicted with the triple negative breast cancers are younger aged women, women in the pre-menopausal age range, and women with African ancestry,\" says Newman. According to the American Cancer Society, 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States in 2009. Triple negative breast cancer represents approximately 15 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States. As an African-American female surgeon, Lisa Newman is a rarity in the United States. African-Americans make up less than 5 percent of physicians in this country, according to the American Medical Association. Newman, who is also the director of the Breast Care Center for the University of Michigan, recalls her early days during the '90's as a general surgeon in Brooklyn, New York. \"It was just heartbreaking every day in the clinic to continuously be seeing African-American women that seemed to be disproportionately afflicted with breast cancers at younger ages, and more advanced stages of disease.\" Little is known about what causes TNBC. But statistics show that black women are twice as likely as white women to get it. When diagnosing breast cancer, doctors look for three markers: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and the HER2/neu receptor. These markers show where the cancer is most vulnerable and help determine how best to treat it. The most successful treatments for breast cancer are drugs that specifically target these markers. Doctor travels to Ghana for cancer clues » . However, triple negative breast cancer is negative for all three markers, hence the name, making it very difficult to treat and more likely to recur. With the devastating statistics and grim reality of this disease, Newman began her journey about five years ago to learn more about it. Triple negative breast cancer survivor finds life's purpose . \"We are very interested in looking at whether or not African ancestry in and of itself might actually predispose women to a biologically more aggressive form of breast cancer, such as the triple negative breast cancer.\" Sixty percent of Ghanaian women who have breast cancer have triple negative breast cancer, according to Newman. \"Western sub-Saharan Africa is an important geographic location to focus on because that's where many of the slave colonies were located several hundred years ago,\" says Newman. To test her theory, Newman sets off for Ghana. Three flights and two days later, she arrives at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the city of Kumasi. Newman is convinced there's a profound link between Ghanaian women and African-American women afflicted with TNBC. She hopes her trips each year to the African country could lead to clues about the origins of TNBC or perhaps pave the way to finding a cure. On each trip Newman gathers genetic evidence and tissue samples for her study. But she also believes there's a cultural and educational benefit for herself and her colleagues through this exchange. \"We bring medical students and trainees with us to Ghana and they get to see what the health care system is like in a medically underserved part of the world,\" she says. \"And our colleagues from Ghana have opportunities to visit with us at the University of Michigan, and to learn more about westernized practices in terms of multidisciplinary care of breast cancer patients. So, it allows trainees and cancer specialists on both sides of the ocean to learn more about each other and about what's available in different parts of the world.\" Working with her Ghanaian colleagues, Newman sees a wide range of patients. Some women need biopsies on undiagnosed breast abnormalities, while others have diagnosed tumors that have gone untreated for some time. In addition, Newman and her Ghanaian counterparts discuss the day's cases, a critical step to establishing individualized courses of treatment. Dr. Newman has her own scare with breast cancer » . \"It's heartbreaking that we see many advanced stage of cancers in the women of Ghana, but it's a tremendous opportunity to make a difference and to be able to share what we have in the United States with the women here, with our family, our extended family,\" says Newman. Back in the United States, Newman gathers samples at a local Detroit, Michigan, hospital and at events held by the Sisters Network, an organization for black breast cancer survivors. She runs DNA comparisons to the samples gathered in Ghana and one day hopes to correlate African ancestry with the risk of being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in African-Americans. If this happens, according to Newman, it will open doors to new treatments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Lisa Newman travels 16 hours from Michigan to Ghana in search of cancer clues .\nShe collaborates with doctors to find origins of triple negative breast cancer .\nNewman: Women most affected are younger, pre-menopausal with African ancestry .\nShe believes there's a link between Ghanaian, African-American women with TNBC ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Sodden and crumbling, the Pin Oak levee was the only thing standing between Winfield, Missouri, and the flood-swollen Mississippi River on Wednesday. James Burt sits on an embankment near a neighborhood inundated with floodwaters in Winfield, Missouri. \"The currents are already doing enough to our levees, but a 2-inch wake can cause an entire levee to break,\" said Andy Binder, public information officer for Lincoln County Emergency Operations Command. \"Right now, we are using the Missouri State Water Patrol to keep people from using their boats around the levees.\" On Tuesday, the 2½-mile levee was hit by a \"down slide\" along a 160-foot section of its northern wall. The Army Corps of Engineers rushed in with sandbags and extra dirt for the base to keep the soil from slipping further. The Army Corps of Engineers and Army National Guard announced Wednesday that the troubled section had been fixed, but a 100-foot-long slide west of the original was starting to crumble. Watch the Mississippi's waters rise » . For the 5,000 residents of Lincoln County, it is now a matter of waiting and hoping the levee holds until the Mississippi crests and begins to fall. The river level stood just above 37 feet Wednesday on its secondary crest, 11 feet above flood stage, and is expected to crest again Saturday afternoon at 37.5 feet, The Associated Press reported. At Winfield High School, halls normally dominated by teens are being shared with volunteer workers and evacuated families in the school's gymnasium, which has served as an American Red Cross rescue shelter since June 16. Floodwaters have damaged 692 homes. \"Right now, I'm feeling pretty desperate and in need,\" said Sam Payne, who is staying at the high school with his wife and two children. Payne, who left his home June 17, watched as water rose to the roof after one of the first levee breaches. \"It's positive that my family is still together,\" he said. \"We're trying to hold back [our emotions]. The hard part -- the working part -- is going to be after the water finally recedes.\" About 20 Lincoln County residents are completely dependent on the emergency center at the high school, according to the American Red Cross. \"What we have been doing is feeding people three times a day, even those who aren't sleeping in the gym, and giving others food and snacks to take home with them,\" said Dan Flippen, the shelter's manager. \"Luckily, the turnout of the businesses have been outstanding up here, and the school's principal and staff have been gems for us.\" iReport.com: Take a flood tour of Lincoln County, MO . The administration and staff memberse have been cleaning, cooking and making space inside the school for people who have been displaced by the flooding. Students have also been taking time to help. \"The students here are constantly trying to help out in the gym,\" Flippen said. \"We have to turn anyone who isn't 18 away, but most of those kids just go outside and sandbag.\" While the gym has been turned into a makeshift headquarters for the Red Cross and Salvation Army, the Army Corps of Engineers has created a loading depot for levee sandbags behind the school. Rescue officials were rushing to fill to 50,000 sandbags to fortify the levee. They brought in 200 tons of sand and called on anyone who wants to volunteer in the sandbagging effort to report to the high school. Their efforts have been vital to keeping the Pin Oak levee intact and protecting the southern end of Winfield. But with the river approaching its cresting level, sandbagging activities at the high school will stop Sunday afternoon, according to Binder. While they wait, officials watch the water levels and keep boats away from the levee. The Missouri State Water Patrol is also looking out for potential looters and people breaking into unattended cars. Only a few incidents have been reported, and law enforcement released a statement saying those caught looting flood victims would be prosecuted \"with the utmost prejudice.\" Evacuations are still being scheduled for people in areas close to the rising water, and the Red Cross and Salvation Army are stocking up on supplies from individual donors, local businesses and the St. Louis Red Cross chapter. Pending the rains, the weather service said the river wouldn't begin to recede at St. Louis -- where there is flooding, but it is not significant -- until Thursday night. Forecasters said the last point on the river to finish cresting would be near Chester, Illinois, about 80 miles south of St. Louis, on Friday. On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Lincoln County. Early Tuesday, water broke through one of the main levees in neighboring St. Charles County. Officials working around the levee are required to wear life jackets, with the levee now able to \"go at any time,\" according to Binder. Meanwhile, President Bush declared 22 Missouri counties to be disaster areas on Wednesday. The declaration makes federal funding available to state and local governments for disaster-related damages. Even with the approaching water, residents are trying to remain optimistic. \"There have certainly been some tears shed here,\" Flippen said. \"But people here are used to getting flooded, and they'll try to do the best they can. \"Just the other day, we had a a couple of guys who were driving from Oklahoma just to sandbag. It shows the type of effort people are putting in to help us out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Town of Winfield, Missouri, hopes crumbling Pin Oak levee holds until river crests .\nMississippi expected to crest Saturday at more than 11 feet above flood stage .\nWinfield High School becomes staging ground for relief efforts, temporary shelters .\nFloodwaters have damaged 692 homes in Winfield ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day before the United Nations held a climate change summit, New York City was blanketed with 100,000 fake copies of the New York Post tabloid, filled with content related to climate change. The Yes Men activist group says everything in the bogus edition of the tabloid is \"100 percent\" true. But the Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., wasn't impressed, calling the effort by perennial pranksters the Yes Men a \"Witless Spoof in Flawless Format\" in a statement released Tuesday, a day after the faux Post hit the streets. The overall endeavor, the Post said, was a \"limp effort,\" and the fraudulent newspaper \"has none of the wit and insight New Yorkers expect from their favorite paper. The Post will not be hiring any of their headline writers.\" A phony \"Early City Special\" edition of the popular tabloid greeted millions of New York City commuters early Monday with a blaring \"WE'RE SCREWED\" headline. The headline and everything else in the 32-page publication, including some bogus advertisements and comics, revolved around climate change. Even the Post's notorious \"Page Six\" gossip and \"Best Sports in Town\" sections were spoofed with various true celebrity and sports articles connected to the green movement and climate change awareness. A statement released by the Yes Men, an activist group whose members have posed as officials and spokesmen of various organizations, companies and agencies, said that although their version of the New York Post is a fake, \"everything in it is 100 percent true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.\" Watch protesters don \"SurvivaBalls\" near U.N. » . The Post parody appeared a day before Tuesday's U.N. climate change summit, \"where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December,\" the group said. The United Nations said that 54 presidents, 35 prime ministers and one prince were attending Tuesday's events. Former Vice President Al Gore and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also were involved. Yes Men spokeswoman Natalie Johns said the aim of the stunt was to \"report really important and relevant issues that have not been in the press a day before a U.N. climate meeting.\" Johns said the fake New York Post printing cost between $30,000 and $40,000, and was funded by numerous private donations of various amounts. On November 12, 2008, New Yorkers awoke to the organization's first prank-in-print, finding strategically located \"special editions\" of The New York Times around the city. The counterfeit Times, dated July 4, 2009, centered on the fictitious conclusion of the Iraq war, as well as other matters connected with the end of the Bush administration. The Yes Men also have posed as spokesmen for organizations including the World Trade Organization and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Their activities were documented in the 2003 film \"The Yes Men.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fake edition of New York Post has ads, \"Page Six\" column related to climate change .\n10,000 copies blanket city a day before United Nations climate change summit .\nActivist group Yes Men says aim of the stunt is to reveal underreported issues .\nNews Corp., owner of the real New York Post, calls endeavor a \"limp effort\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Just as there are many choices of drivers, putters, balls, and other equipment, there are just as many choices of golf instructors. The process of how you choose your golf instructor is as unique as your finger prints. However, just like there are certain things you want to know before choosing your doctor, there are certain items you should inquire of your instructor. Compatibility - It is your responsibility to insure that there is a fit between you and your instructor on all levels, personality type, mutual goals, similar outlooks on the game, and your instructor's ability to relate to your individual needs. Before throwing a dart in the phone book under \"golf instruction\", research the professionals in your area. One way is to ask friends and playing partners for referrals of good instructors in your area. Ask them about pricing, reputation, location, and their improvement under the instructor's tutelage. If you get along with your playing partners and the instructor does too, odds are you have found a fit. Then, call the instructor and ask if they have time to talk to you about your game and improvement goals. A good instructor will be happy to talk to you about your game, and get to know you as an individual, prior to helping you with your golf game. Accreditation and Experience - Does your golf instructor have the education and experience to take your game to any level you desire? Many individuals claim to be golf instructors. Many of these individuals are self-proclaimed \"experts,\" or had enough money to take a one to two week course on how to teach golf and make more money. In seeking a golf professional to help you with your game, insure that the individual has an active accreditation with the PGA or LPGA, or, has demonstrated an inarguable ability to help players of many levels improve through many years of practice. Other associations claim they produce golf instructors. However, these organizations have one focus, to make money, not to produce solid golf instructors. Inquire of your instructor their accreditation, as well as their education both on and off the golf course. Check with the LPGA or PGA websites to confirm your potential golf instructor's accreditation with that organization, and, how much experience the instructor possesses. Inquire of the instructor's philosophy and past success stories. If needed, ask for references of students from all skill levels that you can contact. Video - Video swing analysis has become a staple for all golf instruction. It is no longer an option. If you are paying for instruction that does not include video review of your game, you should reconsider why you are paying for golf instruction. Video, when used correctly, is a third pair of eyes (you and your instructor are first and second). This is similar to a doctor using an X-Ray or M.R.I, to diagnosis a health issue. Your golf instructor should be using video in the same manner. Video should confirm the diagnosis to you, not the instructor. A good golf instructor has the ability to see the flaw first, and use his or her knowledge of that flaw to diagnose a cure or drill for you to practice to realize improvement. If your golf instructor is relying solely on video to tell what is happening in your swing, you will eventually lose trust in the instructor's ability to help you. You would second guess a doctor's ability to help you if he or she did not use their ability first and confirm their thoughts with tests. Then why would you rely on an instructor who is not \"practicing\" golf instruction in the same manner? Follow-up Communication - Your golf instructor should have a program available for you to utilize to ask questions, give feedback, receive follow-up instructions, schedule lessons, or make other inquiries after your lesson. Some instructors offer their phone numbers after hours. Others utilize the internet for follow-up and communication purposes. Regardless of what form of communication is available to you after the lesson, your instructor should be available, at no extra charge, within a reasonable amount of time, to answer your questions and take interest in your concerns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Handy hints from the PGA to help secure the right golf coach for your game .\nPersonality type and mutual goals are crucial to get the best from a coach .\nCheck your instructor has the education and experience to improve your game .\nYour instructor should be available, at no extra charge, to answer concerns ." } ]
[ { "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) -- Doctors gave Anna Nicole Smith a long list of dangerous drugs over the three years before her death, including while she was pregnant, according to sworn statements by investigators from state agencies. Dosages prescribed to Anna Nicole Smith were \"dangerously high,\" a drug expert says in an affidavit. Two doctors charged in connection with Smith's death allegedly also crossed professional lines by having personal relationships with their patient, the court documents released Tuesday said. Smith died in a Hollywood, Florida, hotel on February 8, 2007, of what was later ruled to be \"acute combined drug intoxication.\" One affidavit quoted a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription written for Smith as saying he warned one doctor he would not give her the drug \"unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer.\" One investigator described the former Playboy model and reality show TV star as a \"drug seeker.\" Her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors -- Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor -- were charged with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007. All three defendants entered not-guilty pleas in May. A preliminary hearing is set for next month in the case. Smith, whose real name was Vickie Lynn Marshall, \"was given drugs in excessive amounts,\" according to a medical expert consulted and quoted by a state medical board investigator. Dr. Jill Klessig also told an investigator that \"in addition to the prescribing issues, there appears to have been a personal relationship\" between Smith and the two doctors that crossed the boundaries of professionalism. The affidavit references a video clip of Kapoor \"kissing and snuggling\" with Smith \"in a reclined position in a nightclub setting.\" Eroshevich traveled to the Bahamas to visit Smith and was with her for four days in Hollywood, Florida, four days before her death, an investigator said in an affidavit. The doctor personally visited a Burbank, California, pharmacy in September 2006 to get a sleep aid -- chloral hydrate -- for Smith to use in the Bahamas. It was just four days after Smith gave birth to a daughter in Nassau. \"I wouldn't give her chloral hydrate unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer,\" pharmacist Steve Mazlin told Eroshevich, according to the affidavit. The affidavit from Jon Genens, a senior investigator with the California medical board, detailed dozens of prescriptions written for Smith -- under several aliases -- for a long list of narcotics and sleep aids. Genens said even during the time she was pregnant -- starting in January 2006 -- Kapoor prescribed an average of 10 tablets of Methadone per day for Smith. He noted that Kapoor lowered the dosage in the last three months of her pregnancy. The volume of dangerous drugs being ordered by doctors spurred the chief pharmacist at the store where most of the prescriptions were filled to call a drug expert for advice in late 2006, according to a sworn statement by California Department of Justice Special Agent Jennifer Doss. Dr. Greg Thompson told Doss he recalled the dosages were \"dangerously high.\" \"Dr. Thompson stated they might work for a drug addict under supervised care, or with a dying cancer patient in a hospital, or 'if you were going to kill someone,' \" Doss said. Thompson told Doss he later \"admonished Dr. Eroshevich\" about the drugs she was requesting for Smith. \"Dr. Thompson stated Dr. Eroshevich was obviously not familiar with a lot of medications she was prescribing for ... Smith,\" Doss said in her affidavit. The Doss affidavit said the doctor used Smith's boyfriend as a cover to get the prescriptions filled. \"Of the 12 medications found in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room at the time of her death, seven medications were prescribed the name of Howard K. Stearn [believed to be Howard K. Stern] by Dr. Eroshevich,\" Agent Doss said. The drugs were apparently personally delivered to Smith in the Bahamas and Florida by her doctor, Doss said. \"It is reasonable to believe that Dr. Eroshevich provided Anna Nicole Smith prescription medications and controlled substances by transporting them from California to Nassau, Bahamas with her on her travels to visit Anna Nicole Smith,\" Doss said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Doctors' relationships with Smith crossed professional lines, affidavits say .\nInvestigator says Anna Nicole Smith was \"drug seeker,\" court documents say .\nFormer Playboy model died of drug intoxication in 2007 .\nPharmacist refused to fill one prescription, warned doctor, affidavit says ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(OPRAH.com) -- At 13 he was selling crack. By 30 he was a hip-hop legend -- having gone, in his words, \"from grams to Grammys.\" Jay-Z tells Oprah Winfrey a conversation with his father freed him \"one hundred percent.\" Now Jay-Z charts his escape from the hard-knock life, describes the reunion that healed the wounds of his childhood -- and even reveals his personal creed. The rapper, now 39, was born Shawn Carter in Brooklyn, New York. His albums include \"Reasonable Doubt,\" \"The Black Album\" and the just-released \"The Blueprint 3.\" Jay-Z also owns a portion of the NBA's New Jersey Nets and founded, with Damon Dash, the clothing line Rocawear. Jay-Z spoke with Oprah Winfrey about his father, his anger and his old life. The following is an edited version of the interview. Oprah Winfrey: When you were 5, your family moved to the Marcy projects -- and then your father left when you were 11. When you look back at that, what did your 11-year-old self feel? Jay-Z: Anger. At the whole situation. Because when you're growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you've let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. Never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again. I carried that feeling throughout my life, until my father and I met up before he died. Oprah: Wow. I've never heard a man phrase it that way. You know, I've done many shows about divorce, and the real crime is when the kids aren't told. They just wake up one day and their dad is gone. Did that happen to you? Jay-Z: We were told our parents would separate, but the reasons weren't explained. My mom prepared us more than he did. I don't think he was ready for that level of discussion and emotion. He was a guy who was pretty detached from his feelings. Oprah: Did you wonder why he left? Jay-Z: I summed it up that they weren't getting along. There was a lot of arguing. Oprah: And did you know you were angry? Jay-Z: Yeah. I also felt protective of my mom. I remember telling her, \"Don't worry, when I get big, I'm going to take care of this.\" I felt like I had to step up. I was 11 years old, right? But I felt I had to make the situation better. Oprah: How did that change you? Jay-Z: It made me not express my feelings as much. I was already a shy kid, and it made me a little reclusive. But it also made me independent. And stronger. It was a weird juxtaposition. Oprah: I've read that when you were 12, you shot your brother in the shoulder. Did your father's leaving have anything to do with that? Did it turn you into the kind of angry kid who would end up shooting his brother? Jay-Z: Yes -- and my brother was dealing with a lot of demons. Oprah: How old was he? Jay-Z: About 16. He was doing a lot of drugs. He was taking stuff from our family. I was the youngest, but I felt like I needed to protect everybody. Oprah: So how did you get back in touch with your father? Jay-Z: My mom set up a meeting. And now I realize why -- it makes all the sense in the world. I remember very distinctly that I had a conversation with her in my kitchen. I was saying, \"You know, Ma, I've really been trying to look inward, and maybe I'm just not meant to fall in love like other people do.\" She just looked at me like, \"Hush up, boy.\" Oprah: Wow. Jay-Z: And I guess from that point, she figured out what was wrong with me, and she planned a meeting between me and my father. I was like, \"Ma, I'm a grown man. I don't need a dad now.\" Oprah: You didn't feel a hole in your soul? Jay-Z: I never looked at that. I guess I didn't want to deal with it. Because, you know, once I looked, I'd have to do something about it. And I guess I still had too much resentment and anger. Oprah: In one of your songs, you wrote that you weren't sure if your father even remembered your birthday is in December. Jay-Z: I believed that. When I was a kid, I once waited for him on a bench. He never showed up. Even as an adult, that affected me. So when my mom set up this meeting, I told her he wouldn't come -- and the first time, he didn't. At that point, I was really done, but Mom pushed for another meeting, because she's just a beautiful soul. Oprah: The second time, your father showed up. Jay-Z: He showed up. And I gave him the real conversation. I told him how I felt the day he left. He was saying stuff like \"Man, you knew where I was.\" I'm like, \"I was a kid! Do you realize how wrong you were? It was your responsibility to see me.\" He finally accepted that. Oprah: Where had he been? Jay-Z: At his mom's house 10 minutes away from me. That was the sad part. Oprah: Was there any explanation he could have offered that would have satisfied you? Jay-Z: Yes -- and that's why we were able to mend our relationship. Oprah: What was his reason? Jay-Z: When I was 9, my dad's brother got stabbed, and my dad went looking for the guy who did it. People would call in the middle of the night and tell him, \"So-and-so is out here.\" So my dad would get up, get his gun, and go outside to look for the guy. After a while, my mom was like, \"Hey, this is your family now. You can't do that.\" But this was my dad's baby brother. And my dad was in so much pain that he started using drugs and became a different person. So I understand that the trauma of the event, coupled with the drugs, caused him to lose his soul. Oprah: When you saw him again, had he come back to himself? Jay-Z: He was broken. He had a bad liver, and he knew that if he continued drinking, it would kill him. But he didn't stop. Oprah: How soon after you saw him did he die? Jay-Z: A couple of months. I got him an apartment, I was buying furniture. And he passed away. Oprah: Did you instantly make peace with him during that conversation? Jay-Z: Pretty much. I felt lighter. Oprah: The conversation freed you in ways that you hadn't been free before? Jay-Z: One hundred percent. Oprah: Did it open the door for you to have a life with love in it? Jay-Z: Absolutely. Oprah: So what's your personal creed? Jay-Z: Be true to yourself -- and keep things simple. People complicate things. Oprah: My creed is that intention creates reality. Jay-Z: Now I'm having an aha moment! That's true. OPRAH.com: The top 20 things Oprah knows for sure . Oprah: What's the basis of your spiritual belief? Jay-Z: I believe in karma: What you do to others comes back to you. Oprah: But don't you think we're responsible only for what we know? Otherwise, you'd be facing karma for every person you sold drugs to. Jay-Z: As a kid, I didn't know any better. But now, if I were to act as if what I did wasn't bad, that would be irresponsible. And I'd have to bear the weight of that. Oprah: Maya Angelou always says, \"When you know better, you do better.\" Do you still think back on that time in your life? Jay-Z: All the time. When you make music, you're constantly on the psychiatrist's couch, so to speak. That's an outlet for me. Because I'm not normally a talkative person. I don't have conversations like this for no reason. OPRAH.com: Read the entire exclusive interview from O, The Oprah Magazine . By Oprah Winfrey from O, The Oprah Magazine, September 2009 © 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & © 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jay-Z rose from a life of hardship to superstardom .\nThe rapper discusses how he reunited with his estranged father .\nSays he believes in karma ." } ]
[ { "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 may soon return to the stage, at least for a \"special announcement.\" Pop star Michael Jackson has been the subject of recent rumors about his health and about a comeback. The pop star has scheduled a news conference Thursday at London's O2 arena, the same venue where Prince sold out 21 nights in 2007, according to London's Outside Organisation. Although the short statement announcing Jackson's news conference did not reveal any details, Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday that the 50-year-old King of Pop has agreed to a series of summer concerts at the O2. Rumors have circulated for years about a possible Jackson concert comeback, just as speculation has abounded about his physical and financial health. Jackson's reclusive lifestyle -- and a photo last year of him being pushed in a wheelchair -- created fertile ground for health rumors. When a London tabloid reported in December that Jackson was battling a potentially fatal disease that required a life-saving lung transplant, his publicist responded that he was \"in fine health\" and that the story was \"a total fabrication.\" Jackson's financial troubles in the past year have included the near-foreclosure of his Neverland Ranch in California, which he later sold. Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 2005, after a Santa Barbara County jury found him not guilty of child molestation charges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musician schedules news conference for Thursday at O2 arena .\nOne news outlet says he will hold series of summer concerts .\nJackson's physical and financial health have been subject of rumors ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday to try to recoup bonuses paid to Wall Street executives with taxpayer money. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House members Wednesday announce tax proposals affecting bonuses. The measure passed, 328-93; most Democrats supported the measure, while Republicans were sharply divided. A two-thirds majority among all members voting was required for passage. The measure would tax individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate. \"Today's vote rightly reflects the outrage that so many feel over the lavish bonuses that AIG provided its employees at the expense of the taxpayers who have kept this failed company afloat,\" President Obama said. \"I look forward to receiving a final product that will serve as a strong signal to the executives who run these firms that such compensation will not be tolerated.\" The measure now moves to the Senate, which is considering a bill to tax retention bonuses paid to executives of companies that received federal bailout money. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday failed to get that bill passed by unanimous consent when Republican Whip Jon Kyl objected. Kyl wants \"to understand the root and cause of what happened here before we haphazardly rush and approve what we think is the remedy,\" his spokesman Ryan Patmintra said. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-New York, told reporters Wednesday, \"We can't have any concept of we're getting even, but we must have a concept that we're trying to show that Congress ... cannot tolerate that.\" The vote comes one day after AIG chief executive Edward Liddy testified before Congress that he has asked employees of the bailed-out insurer who took home more than $100,000 in bonuses to return at least half. Liddy, saying he knew that the public's patience is \"wearing thin,\" said some employees have decided on their own to return their entire bonuses to the company. More than $165 million has been slated for bonuses to AIG's senior executives; the federal government rescued the company from financial ruin with more than $170 billion in taxpayer assistance. Referring to the AIG executives who received bonuses, Rangel said, \"I don't think these are the type of people to [whom you can] make an appeal to equity and justice. I don't think they really know the difference. I don't really think they've had life experience to allow them to believe the pain that they've caused for millions of Americans.\" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said the bill was necessitated by the poor judgment shown by firms receiving bailout money. \"We must stabilize the financial system in order to strengthen our economy and create jobs,\" she said. \"We must also protect the American taxpayer from executives who would use their companies' second chances as opportunities for private gain. \"Because they could not use sound judgment in the use of taxpayer funds, these AIG executives will pay the Treasury in the form of this tax.\" A similar proposal in the Senate would attempt to recoup bonuses by taxing both individuals and companies, but Rangel said House leaders decided against penalizing companies because they could simply ask for more taxpayer money. Earlier Wednesday, President Obama also lashed out at the bonuses given to AIG executives, calling them \"outrageous.\" \"People are right to be angry. I am angry. ... People are rightly outraged about these particular bonuses,\" he said. \"But just as outrageous is the culture that these bonuses are a symptom of, that [has] existed for far too long; a situation where excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk-taking have all made us vulnerable and left us holding the bag.\" CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: House passes measure to recoup bonuses with a vote of 328-93 .\nBill would tax bonuses of people in firms that received at least $5 billion in bailout .\nPeople with incomes over $250,000 who received bonuses would be taxed at 90% .\nA similar Senate bill aims to recoup bonuses by taxing individuals and companies ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As Democrats continue to splinter over President Obama's proposed health care reform plan, Republicans are taking the opportunity to home in on a key argument: A good bill deserves more time and deliberation. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, says his party may have enough votes to stall Democratic health care reform. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Georgia, said Friday that Obama's rush to put a bill together is \"totally irresponsible.\" \"Most of us believe that the decision as to major reform of how Americans get their health care in this country deserves at least as much time and deliberation as it would take to select a puppy to live in the White House,\" he said. \"It took the president six months to decide how long and which puppy he was going to have. ... To expect Congress to do something on major health care reform in six days is totally irresponsible.\" Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, speaking on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio show recently, was asked about whether his party had enough votes to block health care from going forward. His answer: \"I think so. I really do.\" \"If he is unsuccessful, which I anticipate and will predict he is, on getting a vote prior to the August recess, then I would say there's no way in the world they're going to get this done this year,\" he added. Obama's fight to get health care reform through Congress hit a major snag this week -- facing opposition from Republicans and fiscally conservative \"Blue Dog\" Democrats worried over the costs -- estimated to be around $1 trillion. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced that the Senate would not take up a vote before August recess -- a deadline that Obama had originally wanted. Watch a GOP senator lash out at Obama's plan » . Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas responded to Democratic criticism that the GOP has failed to present a viable plan. \"When the Democrats say we don't have a plan ... where's their plan? If they can't get a bill out of committee, where's their plan?\" he said. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said it's hard to combat the Democrats' proposed legislation when it changes \"by 100 pages every time you walk into the room.\" The GOP's fight is also getting political, namely looking ahead to the upcoming midterm election. \"I just hope the president keeps talking about it, keeps trying to rush it through. We can stall it. And that's going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election,\" Inhofe said. Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, was quoted as telling the group Conservatives for Patients' Rights, which opposes Obama's health care plan, that \"if we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.\" Obama debunked DeMint's claim during a live prime time news conference Wednesday night at the White House. \"I've heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it's better politics to 'go for the kill.' Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about 'breaking' me,\" he said. \"Let me be clear: This isn't about me,\" Obama said, noting that he and every member of Congress -- including those trying to scuttle health care reform legislation -- \"have great health insurance.\" Obama's chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel, took a swipe at the GOP's political maneuvering. \"At least they're honest about their motivation,\" Emanuel told National Public Radio Friday. \"Their view about health care is about defeating President Obama. Politically, I actually appreciate what they said.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "GOP Rep. Deal: Obama spent more time picking a dog than health care plan .\nObama's health care fight hit a major snag this week .\nSen. Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, says it's unlikely the president will get a bill this year .\nInhofe says stalling health care reform could be good for GOP in 2010 ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Rich Roll, one of Men's Fitness magazine's \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\" in 2009, was the first athlete to compete in the Ultraman World Championships on an entirely plant-based diet. He's sharing insights today as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's \"Four Months to Fitness\" effort. Before: At 40 years old, Rich Roll called himself \"fat, unhappy and fed up.\" (CNN) -- I can still remember it, vivid as yesterday. It was the eve of my 40th birthday, and I walked upstairs to take a shower. And I was winded. I mean very winded. As I was trying to catch my breath, I took off my shirt, looked in the mirror and tried to convince myself that I was still that fit guy I had always thought I was. Somehow, I had been able to skate by on this delusion for all too many years. But the denial had finally caught up to me. I saw my true reflection, and I couldn't lie to myself anymore. I was in the worst shape of my life. I was fat, unhappy and fed up. It's the typical story. First it's the career. Then comes marriage, followed by kids. Your time is no longer your own, and you resign yourself to \"maturity,\" \"filling out\" or whatever euphemism for middle age that soothes that idea that you are simply overweight, unfit and unhealthy. I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be that way. I don't care how busy you are. I don't care how old you are, how many kids you have or how little time you think you have. The power rests within yourself to enact any change in your life you desire. And I can say this because I have seen it happen in myself and countless others. After that fateful day of clarity, I made a decision to change my life. Not a vague, wishy-washy notion that I should \"get in shape,\" maybe \"eat better\" or possibly \"go on a diet,\" but rather a specific long-term plan to enhance my wellness in a way that would not only stick, but fit within the parameters of my busy life as a full-time lawyer, husband and father of four small children. In my case, it began with a well-researched and supervised seven-day fruit and vegetable juice cleanse (during which time I weaned myself off caffeine), followed by an entirely plant-based nutrition program -- an animal-product-free regimen I have adhered to ever since. The immediate result was a rather surprising and unexpected increase in my energy levels, leading to a very gradual return to exercise, building up slowly over an extended period of time. The results were hardly overnight. But two years later, I had lost well over 30 pounds. And not only did I keep the weight off, I was the most fit I had ever been in my life. At 42 years old, I competed in the Ultraman World Championships, a grueling three-day uber-endurance triathlon circumnavigating the Big Island of Hawaii that involves 6.2 miles of swimming, 260 miles of cycling and culminates with a 52.4-mile double marathon run. I placed 11th overall and was the third-fastest American. To top it off, Men's Fitness magazine recently named me one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World.\" (Not that I actually believe I deserve such an honor!) Quite an extreme contrast from that day I looked in the mirror. I'm not advocating that everyone should test himself or herself so severely. But my point is that change starts with a decision followed by baby steps along a new, consistent trajectory that, over time, can lead to dramatic results. I'm nothing special. I'm not a professional athlete. I'm just a normal family guy. But if I could experience such a vast transformation in my own life, I know with certainty that everybody has within himself the power to enact his own well-balanced transformation. Change is never easy. And despite what you may see advertised, I'm sorry to say there is no secret diet, mystery pill or overnight miracle that will do it for you. But there is a solution. Here are some helpful tools I employed along the way that can help you get started: . Set a goal: Vague, nonspecific notions of \"getting fit,\" \"going to the gym,\" or \"eating better\" are all fine, but they are not true \"goals\" and all too typically devolve, paving the way for relapse to old habits. Instead, establish something very concrete you would like to achieve on a future date. The more specific, the better. Then create a solid plan with reasonable interim \"steppingstone\" milestones along the way to achieving the larger goal. Chart your progress, as meeting interim milestones will boost your confidence and invest you more deeply in the ultimate goal. Create community and accountability: If you go public with your quest, then you are on the hook. A good support network is a key to success. But beware of the negative dream crushers. Be selective, surrounding yourself with people who encourage your success. Do what you love: When it comes to exercise, it shouldn't be too painful. Ideally, it should be fun. If you absolutely hate running, find something else you enjoy. Otherwise, you set yourself up to fail. And don't be too rigid -- mix it up with a variety of activities you like to keep it interesting and fresh. Don't diet: Instead, get honest about your habits and embark on implementing healthy, lasting changes in your nutrition. I feel quite strongly that a nutrition program built entirely around plant-based foods and completely devoid of animal products is optimal. Conventional wisdom would say that an athlete cannot perform on plants alone. But I am living proof that this is false, and I have ample research to support this position. Personally, I cannot overemphasize the difference this has made in my own life, a secret weapon for enhanced athletic performance and overall long-term wellness. (In the last two years, I have not gotten sick or even suffered a cold.) I realize, of course, that not everyone is ready to go 100 percent vegan, but a program built on a strong foundation of fresh organic vegetables, fruits and grains should be the focus. Don't skip meals, but reduce your portions slightly. Read the labels and educate yourself. Avoid saturated fats, processed foods and soft drinks, all of which are entirely devoid of nutritional value. Eating whole fresh foods high in nutritional content will also stave off those unhealthy urges to binge. One day at a time: Large goals can seem insurmountable. The idea that you can never eat a cupcake or sleep in again is daunting at best. Instead, just focus on what is happening today, even if it's hour to hour, and don't worry about tomorrow. \"Today, I'm not going to eat that cupcake. Maybe I'll eat it tomorrow, just not today.\" And if you miss a beat, don't flog yourself; it only leads to discouragement and quitting altogether. The important thing is to make sure you get right back on it the next day -- don't let another day go by. Prioritize: Take an honest look at your average week, identify your inefficient uses of time and eliminate the things that don't serve your goals. No matter how busy you are, if you are truly honest about this inquiry, I guarantee you can make some cuts and carve out some time. Remember: Nothing changes if nothing changes. Be consistent: It's not about how much you do in a given workout or how hard it is. Ten minutes of core exercises four to five times per week is far better than one long run a week. Establishing a consistent rhythm of repetition is key, and another reason that your choice of exercise should be something you truly enjoy. Let's join together to shift the world's perspective on long-term health and wellness. No matter how old, overweight or out of shape you are, you have the power to make a decision, set a goal and create a plan. Positive change is always within your grasp, and today still remains the first day of the rest of your life. Make it count! The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Rich Roll." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rich Roll: Approaching 40, \"I was in the worst shape of my life\"\nTwo years later, he was the most fit he'd ever been .\nThis year, Men's Fitness named Roll one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\"\nTo become fit, set a specific goal, be consistent and take it one day at a time, he says ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- As voting was taking place in the German general election Sunday, attention was already turning to what coalition will rule the country. Social Democrats handing out flowers hope their party will stay in the ruling coalition. Few doubt that Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, CDU, will win most votes. So, will Merkel continue the current center right-center left \"grand coalition\" with the Social Democrats or will the votes suffice for a coalition with the business liberal but centrist Liberal Democrats or the FDP, a constellation Germans refer to as \"Black-Yellow.\" At a press conference ostensibly to outline Germany's position at this week's G-20 summit Merkel apparently let the cat out of the bag. \"We are in a time of crisis,\" she said, \"and I believe we can pull out of the crisis faster with a Black-Yellow government.\" But some political analysts believe she would prefer to keep the Social Democrats as the junior coalition partner. Polls indicate the CDU and FDP could gain a razor thin majority to form a governing coalition. Recent polls put their combined tally at around 48 percent. That is not exactly a large majority, but it's two percent more than the left of center parties, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, and the left wing \"Die Linke,\" who would reach about 46 percent if polls are accurate. The Liberal Democrats have been in opposition since 1998 and at a rally in Berlin, their leader Guido Westerwelle was sure his time has come. \"I think the voters won't allow a coalition of the left to be in power. I think they want a conservative government and they will vote to put us in power,\" he said. Westerwelle is eyeing the post of foreign minister under a future Merkel government. What's at stake in the German election » . A government of CDU and FDP, conservatives and liberal would probably be more business friendly than the current grand coalition. Both the CDU and FDP want to cut taxes to further jumpstart Europe's largest economy which emerged from its deepest recession only a few months ago. But even optimistic economists believe cutting taxes will be all but impossible for a government which will inherit the largest public deficit in German history after the current government was forced to ruin in its public finances to bail out banks and industrial companies in the wake of the international financial crisis. And it appears more trouble lies ahead. \"After the economic crisis we will see a social crisis,\" says Henrik Enderlein an economics professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Enderlein believes a coalition with the liberals would put Merkel under pressure to implement wider ranging tax breaks than she feels are sustainable. That is why some believe Merkel would not mind continuing her coalition with the Social Democrats who oppose tax cuts and call them irresponsible in a time of disastrous public deficits. The Social Democratic contender running against Merkel, Frank Walter Steinmeier, however, has all but given up any hopes of winning. \"We want to prevent a \"black--yellow\" coalition,\" he keeps repeating at rallies. Confidence sounds different. Polls currently have the Social Democrats at around 26 percent of the vote, a disastrous figure for a party that in 1998 gained more than 40 percent. But the Social Democrat ranks were decimated in the seven years they ruled the country under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Many traditional left wing SPD voters felt Schroeder betrayed the powerful labor wing of the party by cutting social benefits while making it easier for companies to fire employees in times of crisis. The SPD was further hit when many loyal members splintered off and joined the left wing party die Linke which also incorporates remnants of the former communist party that rules East Germany. Now Steinmeier is trying to lead the Social Democrats out of the impasse and he realizes his real chance to stay in power would be as the junior partner to Merkel. Steinmeier would keep his post as foreign minister and many political experts in Berlin think this might be what both Merkel and Steinmeier are really striving for. \"They worked very well together,\" said Gero Neugebauer of the Freie Universitat Berlin. \"The atmosphere was very good and that is very important for such a coalition.\" For Germans it seems like the two choices are realistic: A coalition of CDU and FDP, or a grand coalition of CDU and SPD, like the one that is currently governing the country. Those options haven't exactly fired up the election campaigns. Both Merkel and Steinmeier were loath to attacking each other and both of them cancelled several scheduled TV appearances which would have seen them go head to head. \"This election seems kind of lame,\" one young summed it up when I asked him near Berlin's technical university. International experts have a similar opinion. One issue they feel has gotten short shrift was the war in Afghanistan. Germans have the third largest troop contingent in the country with about 4,200 soldiers stationed in the north. But Afghanistan played only a minor role in the election campaigns and in their only televised debate, Merkel and Steinmeier devoted less than three minutes to the issue, less than a week after a German ground commander had called an air strike that killed almost 100 Afghans and possibly also civilians. \"It is simply not high on the political agenda,\" says Jan Techau of the German Council on Foreign Relations., \"Most Germans are against the war in Afghanistan and having German troops there, but they don't care about it enough for it to influence the way they vote.\" So Merkel and Steinmeier were careful to keep Afghanistan off the campaign agenda as best they could because they agree German troops need to stay in Afghanistan like they agree on so many topics. That did not make for an exciting campaign, but it could make for a good continuation of the grand coalition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angela Merkel's CDU are favorites to win the election .\nBut they will need a coalition partner to rule .\nMerkel has publicly named the Liberal Democrats as her preferred choice .\nBut the current partner, the Social Democrats, may be the end result ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani forces in the last month foiled a planned attack on the parliament building, the intelligence agency and other federal institutions, the country's interior minister told CNN Sunday. Pakistan's parliament building was one target of a planned attack, an official says. In the last four weeks, authorities arrested three men with suicide vests who were plotting to carry out the attacks, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Malik would not say exactly when the men were caught. Pakistan is in the midst of an intense military offensive against Taliban militants. The militants are suspected of launching attacks inside Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan from their haven in the mountainous tribal region along the northwestern border. On Sunday, a suicide bomber in volatile northwestern Pakistan killed at three people and wounded 15 others, police said. The bombing rocked the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. The incident took place when police approached a man acting suspiciously. The man ran away, police chased him and a gunfight ensued. The man ran out of bullets and blew himself up. Two women and seven children were among the injured. Remains of the alleged attacker were found, police said. Five houses were destroyed. The incident follows a car bombing on Saturday in Peshawar that killed two people, including the spokesman for an extremist group called Ansar ul Islam. Two suspects are in custody. Malik said Sunday the government's anti-Taliban operations will continue during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month considered to be a time of peace. Militants in North Waziristan, part of the tribal region, have said they will observe a unilateral ceasefire throughout the month. \"There will not be a ceasefire during Ramadan. We are not interested in a ceasefire,\" Malik said. \"They haven't kept their commitment in the past. We will continue targeted actions against the Taliban.\" Malik also said the Taliban killed the father-in-law of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and several other relatives, accusing them of leaking information about his whereabouts. Pakistan and U.S. officials contend Mehsud was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan at his father-in-law's house. The Taliban claims Mehsud is alive but ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan kills at least three, authorities say .\nNEW: Suspect blew himself up after running out of bullets in gunfight, police say .\nPakistani authorities say they stopped plot on government buildings .\nThree men plotted to carry out attacks, says Interior Minister Rehman Malik ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year, Human Rights Watch alleged Monday. Anti-riot policemen patrol the streets in Jos, Nigeria, following riots between Christians and Muslims. Most of the victims of violence by security forces were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence last November, the group said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. A 26-year-old mechanic described seeing anti-riot police known as MOPOLs hunting down people near where he worked. \"I saw them enter one house just across the street from us,\" the unnamed witness said. \"We heard shots and later we saw five bodies there. Anyone they found hiding in the garage, they shot them. They combed the garage hunting for people. This went on for about 10 minutes or so. Then they returned to their truck and left.\" Another witness described police units going from house to house, summarily executing unarmed men and boys. A third said he saw an unarmed shopkeeper plead for his life. Police ordered him to lie down on the ground, the witness said. \"He kept saying, 'Please God, allow me to live.'... One of them said, 'Today you go die,' and then he shot him in the side. Then the same MOPOL shot him again. As he was going to shoot him a third time, the other MOPOL said ... 'Leave it, he's already dead.'\" The shopkeeper managed to drag himself to a neighbor's house, where the neighbor tried to stop the bleeding from wounds to the back and abdomen. Police then returned and shot tear gas into the neighbor's house, he testified. The shopkeeper \"died a short time later,\" the neighbor said. In the report, released Monday, Human Rights Watch says it \"documented 133 of these killings but believes that the actual number of arbitrary killings by security forces may be substantially higher than these figures.\" James Manook, a spokesman for Plateau State where the violence occurred, said the Human Rights Watch claims are \"one of the issues that the commission has under inquiry, and given that - I do not want to comment while it's under investigation.\" However, he added, \" I assure you that we remain respectful of the rule of law.\" The clashes followed a dispute over an election that pitted a Christian candidate against a Muslim one in late November 2008. Police and soldiers responded to the riots with deadly force, on the same day the governor of the state issued a \"shoot-on-sight\" order, Human Rights Watch said. The group based its allegations on 151 interviews in the city of Jos in Nigeria's Plateau State, it says in the report. It withheld the names of many of the people it interviewed over the course of 18 days in December 2008 and February 2009. The report includes photographs of burned-out mosques, Christian boarding schools, and homes and businesses. The rights group said the state commission examining the riots should investigate and call for the prosecution of security forces involved. \"At least 130 men were killed by members of the very institutions charged with protecting them,\" said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. \"These investigative bodies owe it to the victims and their families to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these extremely serious allegations.\" Eric Guttschuss, a Human Rights Watch researcher, testified before the commission Monday. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. Local religious leaders in Jos have been trying to bridge the differences, including setting up a soccer league with teams on which Christians and Muslims play side-by-side. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nigerian police, soldiers accused of killing 133 during riots in November 2008 .\nU.S.-based Human Rights Watch says main victims were young Muslim men .\nWitnesses say police units summarily executed unarmed men and boys .\nHRW says death toll could be \"substantially higher\" than documented cases suggest ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A high-speed passenger train left its tracks on the outskirts of Split, Croatia, Friday, killing at least six people and injuring 45, according to Croatian police. The high-speed train derailed on the outskirts of Split, Croatia, about noon on Friday. The train was on its way from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, when it derailed about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from it's destination of Split about noon, said Marina Kraljevic-Gudelj, a spokeswoman for police in Split. \"This is a huge tragedy, so there is no place for speculation,\" she said. Police had launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "High-speed passenger train leaves its tracks on the outskirts of Split, Croatia .\nAt least six people killed and 45 injured, according to police .\nThe train was on its way from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, to Split ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A passenger plane skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 20, according to government-backed Press TV. Aryan Airlines Flight 1625 skidded off the runway and burst into flames Friday in Mashhad, Iran. There were 150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. There was no immediate information on the number of crew. An Iranian official said those aboard had been evacuated. Ghahraman Rashid, deputy governor-general of Khorasan province, said the plane had flown from Tehran, IRNA reported. \"All those killed and injured and the rest of the passengers had been evacuated from the plane and the fire on board had been brought under control,\" IRNA quoted the official as saying. He said the plane was a Russian-made Ilyushin. Watch video of the plane » . This is the second deadly plane crash in Iran this month. On July 15, a Caspian Airlines passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed in northwestern Iran, killing everyone on board, including 10 members of the country's youth judo team: eight athletes and two coaches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Passenger plane skids off runway and catches fire in Mashhad .\n150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to news reports .\nFlight had originated in Tehran, official says .\nOn July 15, a passenger plane crashed in northwest Iran, killing all 168 aboard ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Boris Kodjoe owns a mansion in Atlanta. But when he goes to answer his door, the black actor knows what it's like to be an outcast. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct. \"When I'm opening the door of my own house, someone will ask me where the man of the house is, implying that I'm staff,\" said Kodjoe, best known for starring in Showtime's \"Soul Food.\" It's a feeling some African-Americans say is all too common, even to this day in America: No matter your status or prominence in society, you're still typecast. That's why the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent African-American scholars, has stirred outrage and debate. Jelani Cobb, an author and professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, says it's troubling on many levels when \"one of the most recognizable African-Americans in the country can be arrested in his own home and have to justify being in his own home.\" Watch arrest of a Harvard scholar » . \"It's really kind of unfathomable,\" Cobb said. \"If it can happen to him, yeah, it can happen to any of us.\" That's a sentiment echoed by Jimi Izrael. \"If a mild-mannered, bespectacled Ivy League professor who walks with a cane can be pulled from his own home and arrested on a minor charge, the rest of us don't stand a chance,\" Izrael wrote Tuesday on The Root, an online magazine with commentary from a variety of black perspectives that's co-founded by Gates. \"We all fit a description. We are all suspects.\" In an interview with The Root, Gates said he was outraged by the incident and hopes to use the experience as a teaching tool, including a possible PBS special on racial profiling. \"I can't believe that an individual policeman on the Cambridge police force would treat any African-American male this way, and I am astonished that this happened to me; and more importantly I'm astonished that it could happen to any citizen of the United States, no matter what their race,\" Gates said. \"And I'm deeply resolved to do and say the right things so that this cannot happen again.\" Voices of black America: What it's like being black in America . Gates was arrested last Thursday in broad daylight at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home for disorderly conduct -- what the arresting officer described as \"loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space.\" The charge was dropped Tuesday on the recommendation of police, and the city of Cambridge issued a statement calling the incident \"regrettable and unfortunate.\" Gates had just returned from a trip to China when a police officer responded to a call about a potential break-in at his home that was phoned in by a white woman. According to the police report, Gates was in the foyer when the officer arrived. The officer asked Gates to \"step out onto the porch and speak with me,\" the report says. \"[Gates] replied, 'No, I will not.' He then demanded to know who I was. I told him that I was 'Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police' and that I was 'investigating a report of a break in progress' at the residence. \"While I was making this statement, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, 'Why, because I'm a black man in America?' \" Have race relations improved since the election of President Barack Obama? According to the report, Gates initially refused to show the officer his identification, instead asking for the officer's ID. But Gates eventually did show the officer his identification that included his home address. \"The police report says I was engaged in loud and tumultuous behavior. That's a joke,\" Gates told The Root. \"It escalated as follows: I kept saying to him, 'What is your name, and what is your badge number?' and he refused to respond. I asked him three times, and he refused to respond. And then I said, 'You're not responding because I'm a black man, and you're a white officer.'\" Known as Skip by friends and colleagues, Gates is the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, and an acclaimed PBS documentarian. While Gates' arrest lit up talk radio and blogs, it prompted others to defend the police against charges of racial profiling. \"I'd be glad if somebody called the police if somebody was breaking into my house,\" neighbor Michael Schaffer told CNN affiliate WHDH. For others, the incident symbolized something more. Seeing the police mugshot of Gates brought some African-Americans to near tears. Kim Coleman, a Washington radio host, cultural commentator and blogger, said she grew numb when she saw the mugshot. \"I was not prepared for that,\" she said. \"To see one of my heroes in a mugshot was not something that I was expecting. ... It just tells me we're not in a post-racial society.\" She said there's a reason why you don't hear about prominent white people arrested in their homes: \"because it doesn't happen.\" It's time for America to have a long overdue national conversation about race, Coleman said. \"When are we going to have that,\" she said. \"When are we really going to sit down and strip down and say, 'This is what I feel about you and this is what you feel about me. Now, how are we going to get over that?' \" Rebecca Walker, an award-winning author, said the arrest was devastating to scholars, writers, and artists \"who work so hard to keep a free flow of information.\" \"It seems eerily ironic Mr. Gates was returning from China, where surveillance is so high and freedom of speech and ideas so curtailed,\" Walker said. \"To see the mugshot of Skip was a blow to all of us who feel some sense of safety based on our work to try to mend all of these broken fences in America -- to make ourselves into people who refuse to be limited by race and class and gender and everything else.\" \"To end up, at the end of the day, treated like a criminal, unjustly stripped of our accomplishments and contributions even if only for a moment, is profoundly disturbing. We must ask ourselves what it means, and to allow ourselves to face various scenarios regarding power and freedom and how these will intersect in the coming years.\" Last week, President Obama spoke at the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, saying that while minorities have made great strides \"the pain of discrimination is still felt in America.\" \"Even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks -- we know that too many barriers still remain,\" the president said. Kodjoe, the actor, said Obama \"has affected a change in people's consciousness regarding such issues as racism and prejudice.\" But he said the arrest of Gates underscores that there's more work ahead. \"I think we're moving in the right direction. But no doubt, there still is a lot of work to be done,\" Kodjoe said. \"It's not just a problem here. It's a problem worldwide. Racism is universal.\" Gates said he has a newfound understanding of exactly what that means. \"There's been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama,\" he told The Root. \"But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Boris Kodjoe: Arrest of Harvard prof underscores how blacks are typecast .\nActor Kodjoe says deliverymen often think he's hired staff at his house .\n\"If it can happen to him, yeah, it can happen to any of us,\" scholar says .\nCultural commentator says it was shocking \"to see one of my heroes in a mugshot\"" } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Some families long separated by the Korean War saw their loved ones Saturday for the first time in years near the border between North and South Korea. South Korean Yoon Ki-Dal, right, meets the children he left behind as babies during the Korean War. Yoon Ki-Dal, 88, of South Korea thought such a moment would never come. After leaving his son and daughters when they were babies during the Korean War, he was able to hold the hands of his North Korean children on Saturday. \"Father, we thought you were dead,\" his daughter, now in her 60s, told him, her face trembling. Their family was one of 97 reunited Saturday on Mount Keumgang, a North Korean resort near the eastern part of the border, after decades of separation by war and ideology. And soon these families will be separated again. They are allowed to be together for a few days. Then the South Koreans must return home. The reunions -- the first in nearly two years -- are taking place through October 1. Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire and no formal peace treaty. No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border. The agreement to hold the reunions came after North and South Korea held three days of talks, mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, last month, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported at the time. About 10,000 people applied to take part in the reunion, but fewer than 200 families were allowed to participate. In addition to the 97 families who met Saturday, another 99 families are expected to meet next week, authorities said. Watch families share hugs, tears » . Participants are selected randomly, and there is no date set for a further reunion, which means the tens of thousands of others who were separated by the Korean War have no idea when they may get a chance to see their loved ones -- if ever. For the many separated family members who are elderly, a reunion may never be possible. Reunions between North and South have been taking place off and on since 2000 after an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, Yonhap says. The last reunion took place in October 2007. Rapprochement talks between the two Koreas have hit a wall since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a tougher stance toward the North than his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-Hyun. The two Koreas have remained in conflict since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953. Last month, officials from both sides had the first high-level, cross-border contact in nearly two years when South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek met with North Korean unity leader Kim Yang Gon. The meetings and reunions are in stark contrast to the tense public statements each side made about each other earlier this year. Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan, also referred to as the East Sea. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. South Korea condemned the action, calling the launches \"unwise.\" Journalist Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Families have reunion meeting at resort in North Korea, near border .\nThe South Koreans must return home in a few days .\nMillions of Koreans were separated following Korean War cease-fire in 1953 .\nAbout 10,000 people applied to participate; fewer than 200 families approved ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Images of a blazing car at the entrance of the terminal building at Glasgow airport were splashed across the front pages of Britain's Sunday papers, with many warning that Britain is under attack from a new wave of terrorism. How the British press reported the Glasgow attack. The Sunday Mirror published dramatic pictures of a burning man trying to ignite explosives in the vehicle while being sprayed with water by an off-duty policeman. The News of the World had a picture of a \"hero\" police officer pinning down a smoldering bomber. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said Britain was feared to be under terrorist attack for the third time in 36 hours after the attack, and following the discovery of two cars packed with explosive material and nails in London. In an editorial, The Sunday Times newspaper says London and Glasgow appeared to have had a lucky escape. \"The people behind these attempted atrocities clearly have twisted minds. How else to explain an attack directed at \"ladies night\" at the Tiger Tiger nightclub? \"For Islamists -- and there seems little doubt that Muslim extremists were behind the plot -- young women drinking, dancing and enjoying themselves embodies everything they find repulsive about western society. \"There will be other weekends when we fear we will be commenting not on close shaves but on completed terrorist attacks.\" The Observer newspaper said Friday's aborted London bomb attack was \"al Qaeda inspired\" and may have been linked to five terrorism suspects who have escaped Home Office control orders and are on the run. The newspaper also reports that former British prime minister Tony Blair had launched a powerful attack on \"absurd\" British Islamists who have nurtured a false \"sense of grievance\" that they are being oppressed by Britain and the United States. Blair warns that Britain is in danger of losing the battle against terrorists unless mainstream society confronts the threat. \"The idea that as a Muslim in this country that you don't have the freedom to express your religion ... I mean you've got far more freedom in this country than you do in most Muslim countries,\" Blair told Observer columnist Will Hutton. In an editorial, the newspaper says: \"Some believe that the solution to terrorism is to resolve the myriad grievances the terrorists broadcast so violently. This is a mistake. Many such grievances are imagined -- the West does not want to 'dominate the lands of Islam,' for example. \"Many more are simply not Britain's fault; we are not to blame for the parlous economic state of many Islamic countries. Instead, we should remember that it is our way of life, and the attraction it holds, that remains our best weapon. \"The truth is that our democratic structures, our economy, our values and the society we have built upon them are much stronger than we often think.\" E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Photos of burning cars and burned bombers splashed across UK press .\nNewspapers say they fear a \"new wave\" of car bombings and terrorism .\nFormer British prime minister Tony Blair attacks \"absurd\" British Islamists ." } ]
[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A videotape on a Russian Web site allegedly showing a State Department employee having sex with a prostitute is a \"smear campaign\" meant to discredit the man, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. The State Department has said the tape allegedly showing an employee having sex with a prostitute is a fake. The employee, Brendan Kyle Hatcher, denied any encounter with a prostitute to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, another State Department official said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, \"supports\" Hatcher, who remains at his job at the embassy. Hatcher had previously worked in the sensitive area of religious and human rights in Russia, the spokesman said. \"Mr. Hatcher ... enjoys the full confidence of Ambassador Beyrle and fully intends to serve out the rest of his tour in Moscow,\" Kelly said at an afternoon briefing at the State Department. The United States \"deplores this type of campaign and use of the Internet to smear a foreign service officer of good standing,\" he added. Watch why the U.S. says the tape is doctored » . Beyrle was unequivocal in expressing his support in an interview with ABC News. \"Kyle Hatcher has done nothing wrong,\" he said. \"Clearly, the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated.\" A senior State Department official said, \"It's a doctored tape and a set-up designed to implicate someone working as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia.\" The official said Hatcher, who is married, \"was approached by Russians; they tried to blackmail him, but he did everything correctly,\" reporting the incident to his supervisors at the Embassy. The tape then appeared on the tabloid newspaper Web site Compromat.ru and was picked up by other outlets. Diplomatic sources who declined to be named said Compromat.ru has a history of ties to Russia's security services. Russia's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about the video. Another senior State Department official, who has seen the video, said \"it's clear to me that it's him,\" referring to portions showing Hatcher alone in the hotel room. \"But then the lights go down,\" and the footage from there on is faked, that official said. The video of Hatcher in the hotel room was taken last year, \"somewhere in Siberia,\" said the senior State Department official who watched the video. It was shot in a hotel that Hatcher visited, the official said. When questioned about the possible motivation for creating the video, the official said it's presumed \"it was done because of his human rights work,\" in Russia. The official doubted the incident will have any effect on U.S.-Russian relations and noted that the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have both been \"very cooperative\" in the months since the footage came to light. \"The vast majority of people there are working toward better relations,\" the official said. Another official said Hatcher is a \"great officer\" who, until last summer, was a political reporting officer focusing on religious freedom issues in Russia. The assignment lasts two years: one year in that specialty and a year on the visa-issuing line at the embassy. Last year, this official said, Hatcher was the lead officer compiling the State Department's Religious Freedom report and was given an award for his work by the ambassador. Another official confirmed that Hatcher received a meritorious honor award in 2009 and a group award in 2008. Hatcher, one official said, worked with religious groups that are considered \"outside the mainstream\" in Russia, such as Protestants and non-Christians. Such faiths often face official and unofficial discrimination in the largely Russian-Orthodox society. Another senior State Department official said, \"there is a lot of inertia\" among some special security services in Russia. \"They are pretty much unreconstructed,\" he said. The security services may have wanted to compromise Hatcher's ability to work with religious groups, he says, \"or they may have wanted to throw a stick into the spokes\" of the U.S.-Russia relationship. \"Some in Moscow,\" he said, \"are looking to integrate with the West, and others are trying to stop that.\" The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow and Paul Courson in Washington contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Russian officials are being \"very cooperative,\" U.S. official says .\nRussian site allegedly shows State Department employee having sex with prostitute .\nU.S. ambassador says video clips \"clearly fabricated\"\nOfficial: Tape meant to discredit employee working in religious and human rights ." } ]

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