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[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Two former Blackwater employees have made statements against Blackwater Worldwide and its founder Erik Prince, accusing the security company and its former CEO of murder and other serious crimes in Iraq, according to court documents filed this week. Blackwater founder Erik Prince, shown here before a congressional panel in 2007, recently left the company. The sworn affidavits by an ex-Marine who joined Blackwater and another employee -- listed in the documents as \"John Doe No. 1\" and \"John Doe No. 2\" -- are part of a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Prince on behalf of Iraqi families who say they lost loved ones at the hands of his company. Blackwater, recently renamed Xe, issued a statement Tuesday, saying it would respond \"to the anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive assertions put forward by the plaintiffs,\" in a brief to be filed August 17. The company had a security contract for operations in Iraq under the U.S. State Department until May, when the federal government declined to renew the contract. The decision did not affect other contracts Blackwater has with the State Department, a senior State department official told CNN earlier this year. Several of the plaintiffs are connected to a September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad in which the Iraqi government says security guards, then employed by Blackwater, fired upon and killed 17 Iraqi civilians. The affidavits by the two witnesses, who did not want to be identified in the court documents filed Monday for fear of retaliatory \"violence,\" paint a menacing portrait of Prince, who recently resigned from his company. \"First, he views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe. ... Second, Mr. Prince is motivated by greed,\" says John Doe No. 2. \"He sought every opportunity to deploy men to Iraq in order to earn more money from the United States government.\" He refers to another incident when he \"first arrived in Baghdad\" in which he saw fellow employees pulling weapons out of a shipment of dog food -- the allegation being smuggling. John Doe No. 1 describes witnessing one incident in Baquba, where a Blackwater employee allegedly fired into a passing single-passenger vehicle without provocation. He says he's heard of similar instances of excessive or deadly force from other Blackwater employees. However, neither gives clear details about the incidents they describe, such as specific dates or locations. The court documents filed Tuesday are in response to a defense motion to dismiss the suit. The suit says the affidavits were also submitted to the Justice Department, which is engaged in an ongoing investigation into the Blackwater case. No criminal charges have been filed against Prince. \"It is obvious that Plaintiffs have chosen to slander Mr. Prince rather than raise legal arguments or actual facts that will be considered by a court of law. We are happy to engage them there,\" the company statement said. \"We question the judgment of anyone who relies upon and [reiterates] anonymous declarations.\" Earlier this year, five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty to federal charges of manslaughter and other serious crimes stemming from a September 16, 2007, shooting. Their trial is set for February 2010." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Statements are part of civil suit brought by Iraqi families who've lost loved ones .\nThe witnesses -- \"John Doe No. 1\" and \"John Doe No. 2\" -- fear retaliatory \"violence\"\nAffidavits say founder Erik Prince \"views himself as a Christian crusader\"\nCompany statement says plaintiffs ignore \"actual facts\" and \"slander\" Prince ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors Tuesday urged a Florida judge to sentence actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison and fine him $5 million to demonstrate to taxpayers that refusal to pay income taxes carries severe penalties. Wesley Snipes was acquitted of the most serious charges against him. Snipes is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 by U.S. District Judge William Hodges in Ocala, Florida, on three counts of failure to file federal income tax returns. One week after vowing to crack down on \"tax defiers,\" the Justice Department filed court papers seeking the maximum penalty for the three misdemeanor counts on which Snipes was convicted. \"This case presents the court with a singular opportunity to deter tax fraud nationwide,\" the government said in its sentencing recommendation. Snipes had been charged with felony conspiracy counts for participating in a scheme that rejects the legal foundation of the tax system. However, a jury accepted his argument that he was innocently duped by errant tax advisers, and acquitted him on the most serious charges. \"The fact that Snipes was acquitted on two felony charges and convicted 'only' on three misdemeanor counts has been portrayed in the mainstream media as a 'victory' for Snipes,\" the government document says. \"The troubling implication of such coverage for the millions of average citizens who are aware of this case is that the rich and famous Wesley Snipes has 'gotten away with it.' In the end the criminal conduct of Snipes must not be seen in such a light.\" Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman, head of the Justice Department's Tax Division, last week promised to beef up the government's efforts to pursue those engaged in a variety of schemes making legal assertions that income taxes are either voluntary or unconstitutional. \"For nearly a decade Snipes has engaged in a campaign of criminal tax conduct combining brazen defiance with insidious concealment,\" the prosecutors say. \"By these means Snipes has escaped paying more than $15 million in income tax to the IRS and has pursued an intended fraudulent harm to the United States Treasury of more than $41 million.\" The document says Snipes shipped millions of dollars to accounts in Switzerland, Antigua and the Isle of Man to avoid taxes. \"Given defendant's income, earning capacity, and financial resources, both disclosed and undisclosed, the United States submits that a fine of at least $5 million is warranted,\" the sentencing recommendation says. The 35-page argument for the stiffest possible penalty ends with a dramatic flair. \"In the defendant Wesley Snipes, the court is presented with a wealthy, famous and inveterate tax scofflaw. If ever a tax offender was deserving of being held accountable to the maximum extent for his criminal wrongdoing, Snipes is that defendant,\" it says. The IRS is also seeking repayment of all taxes and interest through civil court proceedings. E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Federal prosecutors urge judge to sentence Wesley Snipes to 3 years .\nProsecutors also want to fine Snipes $5 million .\nJustice Dept. wants to use Snipes as example to deter tax fraud .\nSnipes was charged with conspiracy, was acquitted of most serious charges ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a graduate of Yale University. Medalist Sarah Hughes says the Games are about excellence and unity. (CNN) -- What are the first thoughts that pop into your mind when you hear the word Olympics? Probably something synonymous with excellence, greatness, excitement, achievement. Maybe it's the striking image of Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 etched in your mind, or the experience of following Michael Phelps' quest to win a record-breaking eight gold medals last summer in Beijing, China. Or is it the thrill of watching the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team winning the gold medal in Lake Placid, stacked up against unimaginable odds, that occupies that space? I could go on and on, but whatever image the Olympics has for you is probably accompanied by a feeling of pride, happiness, joyfulness, maybe even a childlike glee. Sometimes it's the simple way you can sum up your response to the question -- and perhaps that's the point of asking the question -- but it would be foolish to ignore other aspects of the Games that contribute to making the event happen. Although the presence of public officials at host-city bids shows the International Olympic Committee that they are behind the bid and will be supportive, such appearances are not required. On Friday, President Obama, a Chicago, Illinois, resident for many years, will arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark (his wife is already there), to support and try to persuade the IOC voters in favor of the 2016 Chicago bid. Obama's visit to Copenhagen will make him the first U.S. president to attend an Olympic host-city vote. His visit will not be the first by a president (or prime minister) whose country went on to win a bid for the Games. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife were in Singapore lobbying IOC members for the 2012 Summer Games host-city vote when London was awarded the event. Two years later, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to the host-city vote in Guatemala when Sochi, a relatively unknown city, won the right to host the 2014 Winter Games. The other 2016 contenders vying for votes from the 100-plus eligible members of the IOC are Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan. Michelle Obama, a lifelong Chicagoan enthusiastically championing the U.S. bid, is displaying her \"Olympic spirit.\" On Monday, the eve of her visit to Copenhagen, she spoke of being ready to woo each voter individually if need be: \"Gloves are off. I'm talking to everybody. That's what my schedule looks like.\" Sounding like an Olympic competitor already herself, she added that she didn't \"think there's one person left off.\" It is easy to come to the conclusion that I might be biased, having won a gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, but I was an American and a fan long before those Games, and I will be one long after. The memories, unity and patriotism from the Salt Lake Games wasn't about any one particular thing but about all those little \"things\" coming together: the result of what the participants -- the fans, volunteers, competitors, coaches, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, cities and nations -- created by sharing the best we have to offer with one another. That's what the Olympics are about. They are about greatness, they are about excellence, but above all, the Games are about unity. In a September 10 letter to IOC members, Obama wrote about how he \"sees the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an extraordinary opportunity for America to renew our bonds of friendship and welcome the world to our shores with open arms.\" And on Friday, when Obama arrives in Copenhagen, he will be joined by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and King Juan Carlos of Spain. Let the Games begin. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sarah Hughes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sarah Hughes: Obama is among other world leaders who have sought Olympics .\nShe says Games are about excellence and unity in support of U.S. teams .\nShe says Michelle Obama is showing she shares the Olympic spirit ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- In his first public appearance since the \"Beer Summit\" at the White House, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates joked about his controversial arrest last month in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and said he likes police Sgt. James Crowley. Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit for beers with the president and vice president Thursday. \"I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me anymore,\" Gates said. Gates was speaking Sunday at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival where he signed copies of his book, \"In Search of our Roots.\" The professor said he plans on meeting with Crowley again. \"I offered for the two of us to have lunch together, one-on-one, or go to a Red Sox game, or a Celtics games, or maybe the families can get together for dinner. Why not?\" Gates had a face-to-face meeting and a beer with Crowley at the White House last week, a move orchestrated by President Obama in an attempt to defuse racial tensions that had erupted following Gates' arrest. Gates called the president's gesture \"brilliant.\" Crowley arrested Gates on July 16 when the officer responded to a call of a possible home break-in at the Cambridge residence. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly yelling at the officer and protesting his actions. But Gates, who is black, claimed he never raised his voice and accused Crowley of racial profiling. Charges against the professor were later dropped. The tone at the book fair turned more serious when someone asked Gates how the arrest has affected him. \"I'm still trying to figure that out and processing it. It was stressful. I was worried about my daughters.\" Fortunately, he said, the press was not camped out at his family home like they were at the Cambridge residence, which is owned by the university. He admitted to receiving bomb threats and deaths threats and said the university is encouraging him to move. \"I haven't been back to the Cambridge house since I got arrested so I have to make that decision.\" He also said he has had to change his phone numbers and close his public e-mail account. \"I received thousands of fan letters but some of the e-mails were from crazy wacko people who wrote 'You should die,' 'You're a racist,'\" Still, Gates said he doesn't want to exaggerate the trauma of the arrest. \"A lot of people go through far worse. I was in jail for four hours, not four years or four months or four days,\" he said. \"The night before I went to the White House, I had a dream that I got arrested in the White House,\" he said. Then he joked, \"But it's cool; I was OK.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Professor on officer who arrested him: We could lunch or go to a Sox game .\nThe lighthearted comments came after Gates and officer met at White House .\nArrest of Harvard professor sparked discussion on race ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- \"Saturday Night Live\" was formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, the counterculture was taking over comedy, and many television viewers were seeking out something fresh and bold. Fred Armisen played Barack Obama in a talked-about sketch Saturday night on \"Saturday Night Live.\" It was a powerful combination -- and after 34 years, the combination of \"SNL\" and politics can still strike sparks among political observers. The most recent example came this past weekend when Fred Armisen, as President Obama, chided \"those on the right\" for saying that he was \"turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.\" Not true, said Armisen as Obama. \"When you look at my record,\" he said, \"it's very clear what I've done so far -- and that is nothing.\" Watch the sketch -- and the reaction » . The sketch has caused a rumble among the inside-the-Beltway chattering classes and New York news nabobs. Wrote Washington Post blogger Jonathan Capehart, \"When your 'friends' start talking about you like this -- and friends with a huge megaphone and a feel for the national mood -- the White House should listen.\" \"Humor with some truth in it is always dangerous. Make no mistake, a drumbeat of belittlement can damage a president,\" added CNN political contributor Ed Rollins in a column. The White House had no comment when asked about the sketch by CNN. \"SNL\" cast members weren't available for interviews, an NBC representative said. \"SNL\" creator Lorne Michaels also turned down an interview request but has said the show doesn't take sides. \"I think 'SNL's' role is, the moment they're in power, we're the opposition,\" he told CNN's Alina Cho last year. \"We're not partisan. We're not, you know, we're not putting on anything that we don't believe is funny.\" Video gallery: \"SNL\" takes on presidents through the years » . The recent sketch is indicative of the end of Obama's honeymoon, Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson says, but he doesn't want to read more into it than that. \"Comedy is about going after the people in power,\" he said. The president has also taken recent shots from \"The Daily Show\" and \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" \"What this says is that the comedy-industrial complex has turned its sights on the reigning president of the United States,\" he said. But, he added, \"I wouldn't put this into the meme category,\" referring to concepts that travel so quickly they take on a life of their own, such as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin sketches from last year. \"The [Obama] sketch wasn't that funny.\" Indeed, the show's overall impact is often mixed, observes Slate columnist and Rutgers media studies professor David Greenberg. It can \"capture or intensify\" a storyline that's being passed through the news media, but the show is more a barometer that can change with events. \"It's not incapable of influencing things,\" he said, noting the show's slash-and-burn '70s satire and Fey's Palin parody. \"But since the early '80s, those moments are pretty rare. ... You'll see good impersonations but not the underlying critique you had with, say, Dan Aykroyd as [Richard] Nixon.\" Besides, he added, the Obama sketch may have titillated the politico-media crowd, but he wonders whether its impact went any wider. \"I'm a political junkie,\" he said, \"and this is the first I've heard of it.\" Indeed, the ratings for the episode were a far cry from last year's Palin-fest -- from a 7.3 rating for the same week in 2008, to 4.7 -- and the Armisen sketch didn't get the frenzied online dispersion the Palin sketches did. iReport.com: 'SNL' won't hurt Obama . However, Obama should be concerned about one thing, observes Thompson. In general, \"SNL\" mocked previous presidents' personal characteristics, such as Clinton's outsized appetites or George W. Bush's struggles with spoken English. With Obama -- who lacks the same kind of easily caricatured traits, Thompson says -- the show went after his record. \"In some ways,\" Thompson said, \"he's vulnerable to more serious damage.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Recent \"Saturday Night Live\" sketch attacked President Obama .\nPolitical pundits, media seized on sketch as meaningful .\nIt marks end of honeymoon, one observer says, but probably not much more .\n\"SNL\" can \"intensify\" storylines but is mostly a barometer, says expert ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rafael Nadal's shock French Open exit at the hands of a player ranked outside the top 20 is already attracting suggestions that it may be the biggest upset in tennis history. Rafael Nadal faces media after his shock loss to Sweden's Robin Soderling at the French Open on Sunday . Nadal, the world number one had never lost a game at Roland Garros, winning the previous four titles in a row. However, Sweden's Robin Soderling proved too good for the \"King of Clay,\" beating him 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6. The official French Open Web site called it \"one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam history,\" while other news outlets have rushed to praise the Swede for the \"game of his life.\" The result leaves the men's draw at the French Open tournament wide open -- with Roger Federer and Andy Murray now the highest-ranked players remaining. Undoubtedly a massive upset, Nadal's loss also raises the question of what have been the biggest men's Grand Slam upsets in tennis history. Is this is the biggest? Below, in no particular order, are ten of the most shocking.What do you think the biggest upset in recent tennis history is? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. 1. Robin Soderling beats Rafael Nadal, French Open 2009 Spain's clay master was unbeaten at Roland Garros and looking for his fifth title in a row when he was shocked by the 23rd seed Swedish player. Soderling was too good for Nadal, and deserved the win. 2. Michael Chang beats Lendl and Edberg, French Open 1989 American Michael Chang etched his name in history by winning the 1989 French Open aged just 17 years and three months. He beat legends Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg (in an epic five set final) to win the event and he is still the youngest winner of a Grand Slam. 3. George Bastl beats Pete Sampras, Wimbledon 2002 Swiss player Bastl was ranked 145 in the world when he took on the seven-time champion of Wimbledon, Pete Sampras. Bastl, who only got into the tournament as a lucky loser after failing to qualify, beat the American in five sets. 4. Mark Edmondson wins the 1976 Australian Open The Australian only ever won one Grand Slam event, and he beat defending champion John Newcombe in the final to do it. The most remarkable point however, was that he was ranked 212th in the world when he did it. He remains the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam title. 5. Goran Ivanisevic wins 2001 Wimbledon Left-handed Ivanisevic had lost the Wimbledon final three times before he finally won it in 2001. The eventual victory was a near-miracle, as he had only entered the tournament as a wild card. Ranked outside the top 100 at the time, he became the lowest-ranked player and only wild card to win Wimbledon. 6. Mats Wilander wins the 1982 French Open The young Swede shocked the tennis world when at 17 years of age he beat the second, third, fourth and fifth seeds at Roland Garros to win the tournament. He was unseeded for the event. 7. Richard Krajicek beats Pete Sampras, Wimbledon 1996 Krajicek surprised everyone when he became the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon in 1996, but the biggest upset had come when he defeated Pete Sampras in the quarter-final. His win was Sampras' only loss at the grass tournament between 1993 and 2001. 8. Gustavo Kuerten wins the 1997 French Open It's no surprise that \"Guga\" was a Roland Garros favorite. When he won the 1997 tournament he was ranked 66th in the world and he beat three former champions along the way. He remains the third-lowest ranked Grand Slam champion. 9. Lleyton Hewitt beats Andre Agassi while ranked #550 The Australian went on to win his first ATP tour title after beating Agassi in the semi-final of the Adelaide International. The win over former world number one Agassi was remarkable given that he was ranked at 550th and only 16 years old. 10. Vladimir Voltchkov makes 2000 Wimbledon semi-final The Belarussian was ranked 237 when he managed to make it through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon -- becoming the lowest-ranked player to ever make the last four at the London tournament." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"King of Clay\" Rafael Nadal records his first loss at the French Open .\nNadal's win widely reported as one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam tennis .\nDebate: Tell us what match is your biggest tennis upset of all time ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When we requested an interview with members of the Communist Youth League, I expected an army of suits with well-rehearsed answers. Instead, we met three students casually dressed in jeans, just 18 to 23 years old. Christina Zhang wants to be a linguistics teacher or professor. She plans to attend graduate school. The interview was arranged by the State Council Information Office, in advance of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, it was not carefully choreographed or closely monitored. The students did arrive with a \"minder\" of sorts, but he was no older than them and didn't interrupt the conversation. We sat down for tea at Ritan Park in downtown Beijing. My questions seemed to be more sensitive than they expected, but the students remained poised and answered every one. All of the students are members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Youth League, the same organization that launched the successful careers of Chinese President Hu Jintao and many of China's other top leaders. \"I think Communism is an ideal state of society that everyone should pursue,\" said Natalie Chen, an 18-year-old freshman and finance major at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. \"In the Communist society, everything is fair in economics, in politics, in education. Everybody has equal opportunity and that's a great society.\" \"Do you think everything is fair in China?\" I asked Natalie. \"At present I have to say no,\" she said. \"But, we are of course making progress towards it.\" Watch Chang's interview with the students » . Young students like Chen are the future of the Chinese Communist Party, which now is the largest political party in the world with 75 million members. It has come a long way. In 1949, the Communist Party was a group of mostly revolutionary farmers, who came to power on the heels of civil war. See how China has changed over 60 years » . \"The party was a rag tag organization you might say,\" said David Shambaugh, a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and political science professor at George Washington University. \"They had no experience in ruling, but a lot of experience in fighting and they were faced with a number of problems of how to set up a government and run the country.\" The first three decades of Communist rule were tumultuous, marred by backward isolation and a destructive Cultural Revolution. However, the next 30 years transformed China from the inside out, with the implementation of new economic goals and gradual openness to the outside world. The Communist Party now is largely credited with delivering the country from isolation to economic prosperity. Despite this achievement, perhaps the party's most astounding achievement in 60 years is, quite simply, surviving as the one and only political party in a massive country. \"To be adaptable and flexible is a path to survival,\" said Shambaugh. \"So this has been a very adaptable, and I would argue, eclectic party, borrowing bits and pieces from different political systems all around the world and studying other political systems.\" Yet, in being so adaptable, analysts say the party has run the risk of having a lot of slogans and little substance. Slogans such as \"the scientific mode of development,\" \"socialism with Chinese characteristics,\" and \"harmonious society\" often cannot be explained by the average Chinese citizen. \"These are all current slogans, but people are not really sure what they mean,\" Shambaugh said. Indeed some of the party's youngest members provided vague answers when asked for what exactly the Communist Party stands. \"I think we have a goal,\" said 23-year-old Christina Zhang, an undergraduate in linguistics at Beijing Normal University. \"That is to reach a harmonious society. That is our dream ... I believe we are sure to realize our dream.\" \"We discuss science, we discuss thought, we discuss everything,\" added Lin De-yuan, a 23-year-old first-year graduate student in Marxist studies at the Chinese Youth University of Political Sciences. He also suggested I read \"the book by Karl Marx,\" referring to the Communist Manifesto. China's younger generation has been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs instead of about policy and politics. These days, it is widely regarded that many young people join the party, not because they share Communist ideals, but because it looks good on their resumes. Chen, Zhang and Lin denied joining the party for personal gain. Chen plans to become a banker or a politician, Zhang aspires to be a teacher and Lin dreams of becoming an NBA referee. However, they do acknowledge joining the party may have some benefits and some members actively use their party credentials to achieve certain career goals. \"Admittedly, some people join the party with their own purpose of getting a good job, or getting a promotion,\" Chen said. \"But that's why we are still having a fierce battle with corruption in the party.\" In fact, corruption is one of the biggest challenges the Communist Party will face in the years ahead. Young Communists like Chen, Zhang and Lin will be responsible for rising to these types of challenges and shaping the party's future. Their generation may determine whether the Communist Party is still China's one and only ruling party 60 years from now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, this one was not closely monitored .\nYoung students are the future of the Chinese Communist Party .\nYouth have been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs .\nAnalysts say the party runs the risk of having many slogans but little substance ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Tribune Media Services) -- Alexandra Seldin prepays for a rental car through Alamo's Web site. But when her flight is canceled, and she arrives a day late, the company charges her three times more than it originally said it would. Is it allowed to do that? And is there any hope for a refund? A customer's late arrival cost her an additional $1,116 for her car rental. Q: My car rental company has more than tripled the rate it charged me, and I don't know what to do. I had prepaid $390 for the car through Alamo's Web site. When my flight was canceled, I called Alamo to tell it I could not get the car until the next day. I was told that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. I picked up the car the next day and returned it on time. When I dropped off the rental, a representative said the computer system was down. But when I got my bill the next month, there was an additional $1,116 charge because of the late pick up. I believe this additional charge to be unfair and am requesting a refund. I believe Alamo should honor its promise of the prepaid amount as well as the representation that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. Can you help? -- Alexandra Seldin, San Diego, California . A: So Alamo is charging you another $1,116 even though you rented one of its cars for one day less. Where's the logic in that? The answer: It's airline logic. Air carriers have figured out a way to quadruple the price of a ticket depending on the time you bought it. So a \"walk-up\" fare purchased at the last minute can be hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars more expensive than an advance-purchase fare. But you're getting the same seat. You prepaid for your rental weeks in advance -- kind of like an advance-purchase ticket. But when you didn't show up as expected, the system reset your rate, charging you the more expensive \"walk-up\" rate. The computer problems should have been a showstopper. When a representative says the system is down, you need to get a receipt, even if it's handwritten. That way, if the company tries to double-dip, you can dispute the charge using the invoice as evidence that your bill was paid. Even if you have assurances that you won't be billed again, it's important to monitor your credit card. A car rental company isn't going to send you an e-mail letting you know that you're being charged more. It's just going to quietly take it off your credit card. As soon as you see a questionable charge on your card, mention it to the company or dispute it with your credit card company. I think you would have won a credit card dispute, by the way. You would have needed to show the prepaid voucher as proof that you had already paid for the rental, and the credit card company should have sided with you. I suggested you write a brief, polite e-mail to Alamo, asking it to reverse the charges. The response? A snippy note that said, \"Any changes to the basis of the reservation makes the rate subject to change,\" and adding, \"We are disappointed that this policy is a source of dissatisfaction for you.\" Alamo denied your request. Like you, I was unhappy with the denials by phone and e-mail. So I contacted Alamo for you. It promptly refunded the $1,116 it should have never charged you in the first place. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at [email protected]. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A customer's flight was canceled, and she arrived a day late for her car rental .\nShe called to let Alamo know and it said her reservation would be held .\nShe was charged an additional $1,116 for the rental because of the late pick up .\nAfter declining a refund, Alamo was persuaded to reverse the charges ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution extending the mandate of NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan for a year, hours after a deadly bombing near the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport Lane and the Indian Embassy. The suicide car bomb attack on Thursday left at least 17 people dead, most of them civilians, and 63 wounded. \"I think this is another reminder of the dangers that the Taliban pose to the Afghan population and to the international community in Afghanistan, and the importance of the continued international efforts there,\" said John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the world body, after the resolution was passed. The council provides international legal approval for the deployment of NATO troops to assist in the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The resolution, however, did not address troop numbers, an issue that has generated controversy since the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops. The Security Council also condemned the attack, calling for the \"perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism\" to be brought to justice. In addition to extending the mandate, the resolution stressed the need to bolster Afghan security forces to help them become self-sufficient in protecting their country. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's new leader, recently announced that NATO forces would begin training Afghan police and increase training of the Afghan National Army. Some 90,000 international forces are deployed in Afghanistan, with 35,000 serving with NATO and 65,000 with the United States. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack. The bomber had intended to strike the embassy, Indian officials said. Watch what a local shopkeeper says about the area » . \"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates,\" Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. \"The embassy was the target.\" The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the embassy's windows, according to Prakash. The bombing came a year after a similar deadly attack outside the Indian Embassy. The Thursday attack killed 17 -- most of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said. The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers. The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but \"there were no casualties on the Indian side.\" The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings. The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls. Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for survivors. A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said \"the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals.\" About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school. More than 100 were wounded in that blast. Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation. India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there. CNN's Atia Abawi and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: U.N. Security Council condemns Kabul attack, calls for justice .\nNEW: Resolution does not address troop numbers; comes hours after Kabul attack .\nBombing near Indian Embassy in Kabul killed at least 17 people .\nNATO's new leader Rasmussen recently announced training of Afghan police ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- An air traffic controller was joking with a woman about a dead cat just moments before a helicopter and small plane collided over the Hudson River in August, according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted on August 11 from the Hudson River. There were no survivors from the August 8 crash, in which three people died aboard the Piper Saratoga PA-32 fixed-wing plane that collided with a helicopter carrying six people, five of them Italian tourists. The FAA in August confirmed the air traffic controller at New Jersey's Teterboro airport, who initially handled the flight of the Piper before handing off to Newark controllers, had \"involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident.\" The controller and his supervisor, who was not in the building as required, were suspended. \"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings,\" FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said at the time. The recording, released for the first time Thursday, caught the air traffic controller at Teterboro airport having a giggly chat with the woman, suggesting she grill the dead cat she apparently found. A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the woman was the controller's girlfriend. \"That thing was disgusting,\" she says, to which the controller responds, \"Chinese people do it, so why can't we?\" The exchange, which lasts about six minutes, is interrupted by a controller at the Newark airport, who asks the Teterboro controller for help with air traffic. \"Hey, Teterboro ... would you switch that guy, maybe put him on a two-twenty heading to get away from that other traffic please?\" the Newark controller is heard saying. The Teterboro controller seems to be juggling both conversations, telling to woman to \"hold on real quick\" while asking the Newark controller to repeat the request. \"Can you switch that (Piper) PA-32?\" the Newark controller said. Neither is able to communicate with the pilot of the Piper, with the Teterboro controller saying, \"He's lost in the hertz.\" The conversation between the Teterboro controller and the woman continues as she mentions that it seems her friend is doing \"a lot of babysitting.\" Seconds later, the crash occurs with no survivors. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that before the accident, Teterboro controller had switched control of the Piper plane to Newark tower, which the pilot never contacted. Raymond Adams, head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, is representing the Teterboro controller. He declined to comment Thursday, except to say that \"the FAA has previously stated that the conversation had no connection to the crash.\" The controller is still on paid administration leave pending further investing by the FAA, he added. The helicopter was taking the tourists on a 12-minute Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tour around New York, while the plane carrying three individuals was headed for Ocean City, New Jersey. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m. as it flew at an altitude of about 1,100 feet. The FAA released the recording after a request from The Associated Press citing the Freedom of Information Act." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "FAA reveals recording of air traffic controller just before fatal crash .\nOn recording, controller joking with woman on phone about what to do with dead cat .\nFAA spokeswoman: \"The kind of conduct is unacceptable\"\nNo survivors in August 8 crash of helicopter, small plane over Hudson ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- What green gadgets are worth splashing out for? Lucy Siegle, a British journalist specializing in ecological issues and trends, told CNN which eco gizmos get her seal of approval. Solar powered tents . Solar tent: A great green gadget for occasionaly campers. Siegle: I'm not big into camping but it's a massive thing here in the UK. During the summer barely a weekend goes by without a festival of some sort. The only thing however that gets me through the frequently rain-sodden experience is the ingenuity of a solar powered tent (I love them). Fit-PC2: Small is beautiful . Siegle: I'm acutely aware of the specter of e-waste because I make films about fly tipping in beautiful parts of Wales and come face to face with mounds of dumped monitors and keyboards. We have an issue in the UK with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive as there's a lot of crime -- see as evidence how a consignment of e-waste was found in Brazil recently. It's horrible. Anyway all this makes me technologically monogamous -- I keep my machine until the bitter end. However the bitter end is approaching for my Mac Book as half the keys have sprung off so I came across this. The Fit-PC 2.0 claiming to the world's smallest fully functioning PC and also the greenest. 115mm x 101mm x 27 mm. That's tiny! I love dematerialization of these objects. It should be sustainable design realized. If the makers are to be trusted, it uses 90 per cent less energy than a standard desktop PC. It uses less energy than a low energy light bulb. The main board is lead free. View a gallery of the gadgets » . Dyson Animal hand-held vacuum cleaner . Siegle: I just got one of these, and have become quite the Stepford wife. Well, as far as crumbs are concerned - my house is a zero tolerance zone. Dyson is the most celebrated UK inventor, famous for the bagless vacuum cleaner. This offspring, the handheld, chargeable vac does some spectacular stuff. It 'spins dust and dirt out of the air' using a motor that spins ten times faster than the engine of a Boeing 747 courtesy of digital switching (subject to 15 patents). Another key factor is that this alternative motor does not cause those polluting carbon particles. All of this may sound rather energy hungry, but the new digital motor is 84 percent energy efficient. The reason I've listed it here is because it has huge potential in all sorts of applications and is a physical embodiment of Dyson's insistence that 'bigger motors don't always equal better performance'. Savaplug . Siegle: This is a retro inclusion (odd for a gadget list I know). I'm into the idea of Dynamic Demand -- regulating flow of power to our homes to even out and to make the grid more efficient (in the UK two thirds of power, mostly produced by coal fired power stations is lost before it gets to our homes). The Savaplug regulates flow on a microscale when you plug in an old style fridge. I don't need mine any more -- I have a new style, energy efficient fridge these days but keep it just in case I find someone who doesn't. Ikea Sunnan solar powered desk lamp . Lucy Siegle: Very simple, but actually very effective. I was sent this as a promotion. When you buy one, another is given free to kids in the developing world who have to study at night. A slightly mawkish, marketing stunt, but one that still appeals. I was amazed how it charged up in my kitchen, without me having to do anything. It was ready when my two year old nephew came to stay, fell out of his bed (I've subsequently got a bed guard for him) and needed the light on. The Sunnan has a warm, comforting glow. Riversimple hydrogen powered car . Lucy Siegle: I recently made a film about hydrogen fuel cells and how a British scientist, Dr Tom Bacon developed fuel cells for the Apollo 11 command center. Nixon (okay, not a president known for his probity) told Bacon that there would have been no mission without Bacon and his fuel cells. Anyway, it made me consider this technology more seriously. At Cranfield University (there are other partners too) they are perfecting a hydrogen fuel cell car. If it was funded like electric -- an easier option for the automotive industry -- it would have taken off by now (to pun from the Apollo connection). Hugo Spowers who is masterminding the project is an ethical visionary. He used to work in Formula One racing -- hardly known for its ethical outlook -- then did a Schumacher course at Dartington, famed for its deep green economics. He also has an MBA from Cranfield and is running this project as a shared commons program. Extraordinarily enlightened. The batteries are being recharged in China currently having been tested into submission, but when they come back I'm hoping for a test drive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eco journalist Lucy Siegle gives CNN her top practical green gadgets .\nSolar tent, world's smallest and greenest PC included in the list .\nSimple gadgets also on the list including energy efficient plug and solar lamp ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A Dolton, Illinois, police officer assigned to a school was placed on administrative leave and later resigned after a surveillance video surfaced of him allegedly assaulting a special-needs student, officials said. Videotape allegedly shows an unidentified police officer assaulting student Marshawn Pitts, 15. Ed Manzke, an attorney who represents the student, Marshawn Pitts, 15, told CNN Wednesday the officer beat Pitts for not adhering to the school's dress code. The incident occurred in May at the Academy for Learning, a Dolton high school for special-needs students. Pitts was admitted to the school in May after moving from Iowa, Manzke said. He suffered brain injuries as a child when he was hit by a car. The police officer, who has not been identified, reprimanded Pitts for not tucking in his shirt as school dress code and policy requires. A video, released to Pitts' parents by the school several weeks after the incident, showed Pitts talking to the officer and a faculty member grabbing Pitts' arm. Pitts pulls away and walks down the hall, with the officer and faculty member close behind. But the officer then slams him against the lockers and pins him on the floor -- breaking his nose, according to Manzke. Pitts was treated by a school nurse after the incident, then taken to the Dolton Police Department, where his mother picked him up, Manzke said. The officer was taken to a hospital and treated for an eye scratch, Manzke said. But, he said, the officer was never charged with anything and an explanation for the incident was never provided. In a written statement, Guy Lindsay, internal information officer for Dolton police, said the department was made aware of the incident and the tape on May 20. After review of the tape, the officer was removed from the school and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Lindsay said. While on administrative leave, the police officer returned to the department and voluntarily resigned, Lindsay said. The investigation continues, he said. In a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WGN, the Academy for Learning said it could not comment on an incident involving a specific student. But, the school said, \"Unfortunately, the physical restraint of a student sometimes becomes necessary. In such instances, AFL and its staff are committed to employing techniques that are safe, effective and which conform to best practice standards. \"Annually, a Behavioral Intervention Committee comprised of administrators, staff, union representatives and parents convenes to review restraint procedures. The AFL Behavior Management Team also participates in professional development and training regarding physical restraint on an annual basis. After a physical restraint occurs, the team meets to process, debrief and evaluate the incident and use of a physical restraint. AFL addresses the unauthorized or inappropriate use of a physical restraint, or improper techniques, as necessary, as an internal manner.\" Pitts' parents are considering litigation against the city of Dolton, the school and Dolton police, Manzke said. He added he is in talks with Dolton police to settle the case. If those talks are not fruitful, Manzke said, a lawsuit could be filed within a few weeks. Pitts is now living with his father and attending another school, Manzke said. CNN's Monica Trevino and Kara Devlin contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officer beat student for not adhering to school's dress code, says student's lawyer .\nIncident at Academy for Learning, a Dolton high school for special-needs students .\nStudent, Marshawn Pitts, 15, suffered brain injuries as a child in car accident .\nAcademy for Learning would not comment on incident involving a specific student ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday for their World Cup qualifier against Cyprus next week, despite being under the cloud of a drug test controversy. Fabioo Cannavaro's proudest moment came in 2006 when he led Italy to World Cup glory. It was revealed on Thursday that the 36-year-old Juventus defender recently failed a drug test after taking a medicine that contained the banned substance cortisone. Cannavaro was interviewed by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Thursday night in Turin but national coach Marcello Lippi does not expect his star to be absent from the squad. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" Lippi told reporters. \"Will he be here with us on Sunday? Of course he will. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" added national team doctor Enrico Castellacci. \"But he is calm and serene. This is just a bureaucratic case.\" Juventus claimed the defender needed cortisone treatment for an insect sting in August. The player requested an exemption from taking drugs tests on the grounds of having taken a medication in an emergency situation but his request did not include a document necessary to complete the application. While awaiting a decision, Cannavaro took an anti-doping test after a Serie A game at Roma which returned a positive result. \"When he came to the national team, after the Roma game, he told us what had happened and he told us that without the medicine that contained cortisone he would have had a reaction, an anaphylactic shock,\" Castellacci said. \"We asked Juventus for all the necessary documents regarding the medicine taken by Cannavaro and all the communication is in our possession.\" Cannavaro will not travel to Dublin for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ireland as he serves a one-match ban, but is expected to lead the Azzurri in Wednesday's qualifier against Cyprus in Parma." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday to face Cyprus .\nCannavaro tested positive for cortisone after having treatment for an insect bite .\nThe 36-year-old Juve defender has an allergy to insect bites which can be fatal .\nDefender was interviewed by Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping prosecutor ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Shortly after McDonald's celebrated its 30-year presence in France, the fast-food chain is conquering one of the country's most valued cultural institutions --the Louvre. McDonald's burgers and fries will be available under the glass pyramid of the Louvre. The restaurant will be serving its fast burgers in the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall which lies under the main entrance of the museum and which still contains an ancient wall that was discovered during construction works. McDonald's plans seem to have caused more media attention abroad than in France, but for some French outlets, the idea of combining fast food and ancient art is stomach churning. The Parisian Web site \"Louvre pour tous\" (Louvre for everyone) describes the company's plans to open a restaurant in the prestigious museum as \"bad taste\" and blamed the Louvre's directors for failing to prevent what could result in \"fragrances of fries drifting under Mona Lisa's nose\". Marion Benaiteau, spokeswoman for the museum, told CNN it was not their decision and declined to comment further on the issue. The Carrousel du Louvre mall is managed by Unibail-Rodamco, Europe's largest property company, and not the museum itself. The mall, which is situated next to the most visited museum in the world, counts 8.3 million visitors a year and enjoyed a total gross sales of $75 million in 2008. Le Parisien, a daily newspaper described the difference between McDonald's and the Louvre by comparing Ronald McDonald, the restaurant's clown character, to Venus de Milo, the famous ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite, which is on display at the Louvre. Should McDonald's be in the Louvre? Tell us what you think in the Soundoff box below. McDonald's sees the opening of its new restaurant next to the home of Mona Lisa as nothing out of the ordinary. \"There are already many other restaurants in the mall, so we will only be one of the many restaurants that offer visitors their products.\" said a spokeswoman for McDonald's in France, who declined to be named. \"There's even a Starbucks,\" she added. Museum lovers in France are shocked about the news, but not surprised, one told CNN. \"Museums have to offer services like restaurants and boutiques, it's completely normal,\" Jean-Michel Raingeard, President of the Federation of French Friends of Museums told CNN. What worries him, however, is the choice of shops. \"Museum directors seem to care more about the number of people they attract rather than the quality of people. Should a museum be a museum or an amusement park?\" asks Jean Michel Raingeard, who is also the European Vice President for The World Federation of Friends of Museums. Criticism, though fierce, has not halted the plans: construction work will start soon and the restaurant should be open \"by the end of the year,\" Mcdonald's said. The menu will also very likely stay the same. \"McDonald's functions the same way in all of France, so there will probably be no special menus,\" the spokeswoman said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "McDonald's to open restaurant in the mall of the world's most visited museum .\nDecision has attracted criticisms there will be 'unpleasant smells' in the museum .\nThe restaurant is not the only fast food joint in the shopping mall ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Switzerland's largest city has permitted the use of controversial posters which call for a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques in the European country. The Federal Commission against Racism said the posters defame Switzerland's peaceful Muslim population. The posters are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP) and feature a veiled woman against a background of a Swiss flag pierced by several minarets resembling missiles. The cities of Basel and Lausanne have described the posters as racist and banned them in publicly-owned spaces. However, Zurich is among a clutch of cities that have chosen not to prohibit them. According to the SVP, the minarets symbolize ideological opposition to the country's constitution. Switzerland will hold a national referendum on the issue on November 29. According to Agence France-Presse, an opinion poll by the daily Tages-Anzeiger showed more than 51 percent of Swiss voters are against any ban on minaret construction. The Swiss government and all the other major political parties are recommending a \"no\" vote, while local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have joined forces to reject a ban, AFP added. The mayor of Zurich, Corine Mauch, told CNN that the decision on the poster was taken on the basis of political freedom of speech in the run-up to November's vote. \"While we disapprove of the posters we took the decision after legal consultations. \"We consulted the Federal Commission against Racism and spoke to Muslim communities in the city, but decided banning the posters from public spaces would draw more attention to the issue.\" Do you agree with the Zurich decision? However, the Federal Commission against Racism said in a statement Wednesday that the posters \"defame Switzerland's peaceful Muslim population, feed prejudice, and portray the Muslim community as wanting to dominate Switzerland, oppress women and trample on fundamental rights.\" The SVP have courted controversy with their campaigns in the past. In 2007 they faced international criticism for leading an anti-immigration campaign during the federal election that featured a poster with a white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. Under party leader Christoph Blocher they went on to win the biggest share of the vote in the 200-member parliament, taking 55 seats. Earlier this year they issued a poster depicting crows pecking at a map of Switzerland, as the country prepared to vote on whether to support an extension of a free movement of labor deal with the European Union which would include new members, Bulgaria and Romania." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Posters call for a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques .\nPosters are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People's Party .\nSVP says they symbolize ideological opposition to the country's constitution .\nZurich decides against ban on posters on freedom of speech grounds ." } ]

[ { "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 small, rural town in the hills of New Hampshire was jolted by a home invasion over the weekend that left a mother dead and her young daughter severely injured. Steven Spader, 17, is accused of using a machete to kill a woman and injure her daughter. \"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said. \"This is something out of the ordinary.\" Four teenagers have been charged in connection with the incident early Sunday morning along an isolated dirt road in Mont Vernon, a town of about 2,000. In a news release Tuesday, the New Hampshire Department of Justice identified the victim as 42-year-old Kimberly Cates. The medical examiner determined that she died from \"multiple sharp injuries to the head, torso, left arm, and left leg.\" The victim's 10-year-old daughter sustained serious knife injuries that required hours of surgery. \"She's still in the intensive care unit,\" Delker said. \"Her injuries weren't life-threatening, but you shouldn't minimize the severities of the injuries she suffered.\" Delker said Kimberly Cates' husband was away on business at the time of the attack. Cates was a registered nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire. \"She worked part time in our maternal and labor department and also in our emergency department,\" Sarah Ward, director of marketing and communications for the hospital, said Tuesday. \"The staff is pretty upset about it. They were pretty close to her.\" \"The people up here aren't used to this kind of thing,\" Don Himsel, senior photo editor for the Nashua Telegraph, said Tuesday. \"This never really happens.\" Himsel also said violent crime is extremely rare in Mont Vernon. \"I think we may have had one assault in town in the last 10 years.\" The Mont Vernon Congregational Church opened its doors Wednesday for people who want to grieve, pray and meditate. \"This is a way to come together peacefully; that's what we are trying to do,\" church official Jane Nilles said Wednesday. \"The church understands that there are people hurting on both sides. This is a time to pray and ask for God's presence right now. It is a time to gather and to pray.\" On Tuesday, the state Department of Justice announced the arrests of the four teenagers accused of taking part in the crimes. Steven Spader, 17, and Christopher Gribble, 19, were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. William Marks, 18, and Quinn Glover, 17, were charged with burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and armed robbery. \"The allegations are that Spader wielded the machete and Gribble used the knife, and each of them struck the victims,\" Delker said. Delker, who described the case as being in its earliest stages, said prosecutors will evaluate whether additional charges will be brought or upgraded. \"Under New Hampshire law, anyone 17 and older is charged as an adult,\" Delker said. A probable cause hearing for the suspects will be held October 20." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Four teens charged in Sunday incident in Mont Vernon .\n42-year-old woman was killed; 10-year-old daughter severely injured .\nWoman's husband was away on business at time of incident .\n\"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" state official says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered his government to take down concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and surround whole neighborhoods, the Iraqi military announced Thursday. The walls split Baghdad along sectarian lines, shielding some from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. \"The concrete walls will be taken off from the main roads and side streets in all Baghdad areas, with no exceptions and within 40 days,\" a statement from Iraqi military's Baghdad Operations Command read. The massive concrete barriers, typically 3 meters (10 feet) tall, were quickly erected around many Baghdad buildings after the U.S. invasion in 2003. They mushroomed during the sectarian warfare that followed the 2006 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, when they were put up to separate Shiite and Sunni districts across Baghdad. While they split the city along sectarian lines, they also managed to protect neighborhood residents from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents and helped U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces manage security within them. The order does not cover the Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. Embassy, or military installations, government institutions, hotels or some private companies. The order came after meeting Wednesday with high-ranking security officials, according to the command. Iraqi forces are now calling the shots on issues related to security in their homeland since June 30, the date U.S. combat troops were mandated to leave Iraqi cities and towns pursuant to a joint security agreement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Walls will be removed from main roads, side streets within 40 days, statement says .\nThe massive concrete barriers about 10 feet tall went up after U.S. invasion .\nOrder does not cover Green Zone, military installations, government institutions .\nThe walls helped U.S. troops, Iraqi forces manage security within them ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- With the movie \"Zombieland\" sitting on top at the box office, fans of the walking dead got another grisly, ghoulish treat on Wednesday. \"He's so meticulous,\" author Max Brooks said of \"Recorded Attacks\" illustrator Ibraim Roberson: . \"The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks,\" the latest in the series of zombie chronicles by author Max Brooks, is a graphic novel that looks at the undead menace throughout history. \"When I wrote 'Zombie Survival Guide,' I always wanted to come back to the historic attacks at the end of the book,\" said Brooks, whose \"World War Z\" is in development to become a movie. View a gallery of essential zombie movies . In the book, illustrated by Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson, cavemen, the Roman legions and African slaves all battle the undead with varying degrees of success. \"More than a zombie nerd or a science fiction nerd, I'm a history nerd,\" said Brooks. \"I was a history major in college -- history is probably the only subject that allowed me to graduate high school.\" And in a move sure to please genre fans -- Brooks might say \"genre nerds\" -- there's even a scrap in feudal Japan between zombies and ninjas. \"It's never a bad thing to put zombies and ninjas together,\" said Brooks, whose father is comedy legend Mel Brooks. In looking for the right artist to set his story to a comic format, Brooks said he reviewed lots of artists before settling on Roberson. \"He's head and shoulders above most people illustrating today,\" Brooks said. \"The book itself is unique and I wanted a unique look. His artwork is unlike anything else I've ever seen, zombies or otherwise ... . He's so meticulous.\" But turning his work into a two-person job required some extra effort. The former \"Saturday Night Live\" writer said he hadn't worked with a collaborator since being on the show. Roberson was in Brazil during the writing of the book. \"It was definitely a new world for me to sharpen my communication skills,\" he said. \"Usually, the way I worked was brain to pen to paper. Now it was brain to e-mail.\" Next up for Brooks, he said, is a writing project he deems \"top secret\" and a comic-book mini-series for IDW Publishing detailing the classic comic/action figure characters of \"G.I. Joe.\" \"They're not continuing stories,\" he said of the project with the working title, \"Hearts and Minds. \"They're up-close and personal stories for G.I. Joe and Cobra characters.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks\" released Wednesday .\nAuthor Max Brooks says he's always been a \"history nerd\"\nRomans, cavemen and ninjas all get a crack at undead in graphic novel .\nBrooks and Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson worked remotely on project ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Who is stealing -- and crashing -- airplanes in Washington state? Police say they found this self-portrait of Colton Harris-Moore in the deleted file of a stolen digital camera. The 18-year-old man police call the prime suspect does not have a pilot's license. But he does have a nickname -- \"The Barefoot Burglar\" -- and a Facebook fan club, which compares him to Jesse James \"without the murders\" and exhorts: \"Fly, Colt, Fly.\" Police say Colton \"Colt\" Harris-Moore has been linked to crimes in five counties involving planes, luxury cars and boats. He's known to alternate between squatting in vacant vacation homes, which he allegedly burglarizes, and roughing it in the woods. Since November, police say, at least three small, private planes have been stolen and flown away. The latest to go missing crash-landed last week in a clearing in Granite Falls, Washington, after running out of fuel, police said. The rough landing damaged the Cessna 182, which along with its instruments is worth more than $500,000. But authorities said the plane's pilot appears to have walked away unhurt. Harris-Moore has not been charged in any of the plane thefts. But authorities are testing vomit found in the cockpit of one plane to see whether they can place the teen inside. Harris-Moore has been on authorities' radar for years. \"Colt,\" as he is called, was first arrested for burglary at age 12, said Detective Ed Wallace, a spokesman for the Island County Sheriff's Office. The break-in at a local school earned Colton a few weeks in a juvenile facility, Wallace said. Local media reports tally nine arrests for Harris-Moore before the age of 15. Now police in five counties in Washington state are looking for him. Harris-Moore dropped out of high school and, according to Wallace, police believe he spent his teens burglarizing unoccupied homes on Camano Island, a vacation community of about 15,000 people off the Washington state coast. He became known as \"the Barefoot Burglar,\" because, investigators say, he preferred to prowl shoeless. Gradually, Wallace alleges, Harris-Moore moved onto more sophisticated crimes. \"He will typically break into a home or vehicle and copy down the credit card numbers,\" Wallace said. \"He then leaves the credit cards behind so people don't realize they have been stolen.\" Wallace said Harris-Moore has charged thousands of dollars worth of video games, GPS devices and police scanners online, using stolen credit cards. When Harris-Moore wasn't squatting in homes, he took to the woods with survival gear to elude police. He's been known to hide in the trees. \"He's almost like a feral child,\" Wallace said. Harris-Moore's days of running from authorities on the 40-square-mile island appeared to end in 2007 when he was arrested and pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary. Wallace said some of the charges were dismissed as part of the guilty plea. Less than a year later, Wallace said, Harris-Moore allegedly walked away from a juvenile halfway house. Police on Camano Island again began receiving reports of thefts that fit Harris-Moore's profile, Wallace said. In 2008, a deputy said he spotted Harris-Moore in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, but he lost the suspect when he allegedly dove from the moving vehicle. After the chase, police recovered a stolen digital camera from the car. Wallace said he found a deleted self-portrait of Harris-Moore, who posed in a shirt with a telltale Mercedes-Benz insignia. The shirt also belonged to the vehicle's owner. Harris-Moore faces 10 counts in that case, as well as other thefts, Internet crimes and burglaries, Wallace said. Charges are expected soon in a dozen more cases. Harris-Moore dropped from sight for a while when wanted posters of him went up around Camano Island. Soon, though, authorities in the San Juan Islands noticed a series of break-ins and wondered whether Harris-Moore was island-hopping. The theft of a Cessna 182 from the San Juan Islands in November jogged Wallace's memory. He recalled what he had found on a computer he said Harris-Moore used. \"He had looked at flight manuals and how to fly a plane,\" he said. Another theft of a small experimental plane had been reported in September. John Zerby, undersheriff of San Juan County, said police don't think the two thefts are a coincidence. \"This doesn't happen here, that's why we think they go together,\" he said. Police consider Harris-Moore to be a fugitive. Even though Harris-Moore has no known flight training, Zerby said police are certain he is their mystery pilot. Harris-Moore's mother doubts her son learned to fly on his own. \"Any time anything is stolen, they blame it on Colt,\" Pam Kohler told the Everett Herald newspaper. \"Let's say you're the smartest person in the world. Wouldn't you need a little bit of training in flying a plane? They're not easy.\" CNN attempted to contact Kohler, but her phone was disconnected. CNN also tried to reach a former attorney for Harris-Moore but the lawyer has not returned calls requesting comment. Experts said that teaching oneself to fly is difficult but not impossible. \"It's been heard of,\" said flight instructor Devin Tolentino. \"Let's face it, the Wright brothers were able to teach themselves. Landing would be the hardest part, but if you weren't too concerned about using the plane again, it could be done.\" Meanwhile, authorities in Whatcom County are investigating whether Harris-Moore stole a boat and used it to reach Point Roberts, where burglaries at three vacation homes have recently been reported, Deputy Jeff Roberts said. Point Roberts, a small peninsula, is U.S. territory but is accessible only from the water or through Canada. From parts of Point Roberts, entering Canada is just a matter of crossing the street. Last week, law enforcement agencies got a new lead when a private plane was stolen in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, just across the border from Canada. Residents noticed a plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet as it left the area on Tuesday, said Detective Dave McClelland. The plane was found Thursday, crashed and out of fuel in a patch of cleared forest in Granite Falls, Washington. On Sunday, authorities say they received a report of a burglary. \"Blankets, shoes and food [were] taken instead of big-ticket items like TVs,\" said sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover. A gunshot rang out as deputies searched the woods and came across some of the stolen items, Hover said. No one was injured, but the SWAT team was called in. Police searched the area, using a helicopter with an infrared heat detection scanner and another Blackhawk helicopter provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Low-tech police work led to Harris-Moore's arrest in 2005. Police staked out his mother's house, waiting until someone inside ordered a pizza. Police rode in the delivery car to the house and waited for Harris-Moore to come to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Police believe Colton Harris-Moore may be stealing, crash-landing small planes .\nHarris-Moore, 18, is well-known to authorities in Washington state .\nHe allegedly has been breaking into buildings since he was 12 .\nKnown as the \"Barefoot Burglar,\" Harris-Moore has a Facebook fan club ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Abu Ghraib prison was taken over by the Iraqi government after claims of abuse by U.S. troops. Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein. A military panel found Smith guilty in March 2006 on allegations that he used his military working dog to illegally \"terrorize and frighten\" detainees as part of interrogation techniques at the U.S.-managed facility in Baghdad. But his lawyer, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Potter, told a military appeals court Thursday that the conviction was based on faulty instructions to the jury. \"Nowhere in this case did the government establish that the use of the dog was illegal,\" the defense counsel said, noting that Smith \"was not trained in interrogation techniques.\" The military's prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Karen Borgerding, argued that Smith \"would know it's unlawful\" to use his unmuzzled dog to snarl within inches of a detained prisoner's face. Smith was originally sentenced to 179 days confinement and received a bad conduct discharge. Smith was not in the courtroom for the proceedings. Potter told CNN that he was not authorized to disclose his whereabouts but confirmed that his client remains on \"appeal release\" status after completing a three-month sentence. If the appeal fails, the discharge stands. If the appeals court overturns the conviction, Smith could return to the military and may receive back pay, pension and other benefits. The judges did not indicate when they may rule after each side presented oral arguments Thursday. At the 2006 court-martial, the jury found Smith guilty of charges that he used his military dog, Marco, to terrify prisoners, allegedly for amusement and in competition with other soldiers. Smith also was found guilty of an indecent act involving his dog. A female soldier testified on the first day of the court-martial that she had allowed Smith's dog to lick peanut butter she had placed on her bare chest as part of a dare from another soldier, who videotaped the stunt. \"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile,\" Smith said of the incident, reading from a statement. \"There's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could, I would.\" Smith did not specifically express regret for the wrongdoing involving detainees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Former Sgt. Michael Smith served three months on torture conviction .\nLawyer says Smith didn't know it was illegal to use working dog to threaten detainees .\nSmith could return to military if conviction is overturned ." } ]

[ { "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) -- George Lucas didn't get to be a billionaire by delegating. George Lucas says he was \"completely surprised\" by \"Star Wars in Concert.\" Holding fast to his vision -- and his marketing rights -- for the \"Star Wars\" empire has made it the biggest franchise in history, and made Lucas one of the most powerful people in entertainment. But while he's enthusiastic about the new touring show \"Star Wars In Concert,\" it wasn't his idea, and when I talked with him before the first Los Angeles performance this week, he kept giving the credit to others. \"Star Wars In Concert\" is built around John Williams' well-known scores from the films, performed by a symphony orchestra and choir, and accompanied by specially edited clips from all six movies, displayed on a mammoth LED screen. Anthony Daniels, who has played and voiced the golden protocol droid \"C3PO\" in every film and most of the spinoffs, provides live narration -- and another reason for the \"Star Wars\" fans in the audience, especially those waving lightsabers and dressed as everything from sand people to Imperial stormtroopers, to cheer mightily, as they did the night I interviewed Lucas. iReporter praises the 'Force' of the show . George Lucas: I've seen some presentations of, you know, live orchestras with \"Star Wars\" clips, and that sort of thing. But this is so much more than that -- it's so much more emotional, because what they've done is taken the emotional content of the score ... one is obviously the Imperial March, one is obviously romantic ... and then they've cut all the pictures around that from all the movies, so that you get this really wide range of visuals going with the music, and it really is quite powerful when you see the depictions of all of the various Imperial shenanigans that were going on over the Imperial March. CNN: Obviously, when John Williams did the music for the original film, neither of you could have guessed your association would last so long, or that you'd be so identified with each other. How did he get involved originally? Lucas: What I did was, I was doing this space opera, and I was talking to Steve Spielberg and I said, \"Look, I've got to get somebody who really knows the old-fashioned music score, I really am doing some giant romantic action adventure, you know, throwback to the '30s, and who do you know that can do that?\" And he said, \"Oh, there's only one person who can do that and that's John Williams -- he did 'Jaws' and he's perfect.\" And I said OK, and I met him, and we hit it off, you know, perfectly, and doing the first film was such a great experience -- he's so wonderful to work with -- that, you know, I'll never let him go. And Steve won't let him go either! CNN: How did this show come together? Lucas: Howard! [Lucas calls over Howard Roffman, the president of Lucas Licensing.] You're the man who did the whole thing -- I've got nothing to do with it. ... We would kid him about how his concert was going and he had to get Johnny [Williams] to buy in and me to buy in. Howard Roffman: Well, he always got it from the beginning, so he was an easy sell. CNN: But what was it he \"got\"? How did you sell him on a new concept for his franchise? Roffman: I think he understood that the music was so powerful and the images are so powerful that when you put that together with a live orchestra on a big venue, I mean, who would not be thrilled to see that? CNN: It's a very different experience, being live. Lucas: It's very powerful. I was completely surprised by it. And I've seen other live orchestra performances with \"Star Wars\" images, but nothing like this -- I mean this really works, because it was edited specifically to bring out the emotion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Star Wars in Concert' features John Williams' music and scenes from films .\nGeorge Lucas supported idea, though he's quick to give credit to others .\nEffect of the arrangement? \"It's very powerful,\" says Lucas .\n\"Star Wars\" remains a tremendously successful franchise ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON (CNN) -- Did President Obama land a Nobel peace prize at such an early stage of his presidency simply because he's not George W. Bush? A \"surprised and humbled\" Obama said he would accept the Nobel peace prize as a \"call to action.\" Diplomatic circles are certainly not dismissing such a notion and a \"surprised and humbled\" Obama has himself agreed that the award (for which nominations had to be submitted only two weeks after his inauguration) can hardly have been a recognition of anything he has yet accomplished. It is a prize for aspiration rather than achievement. One of the best deliberate laughs Bush obtained in his last days in office came when he expressed himself pleased at the street reception during his attendance at a NATO summit in Romania. \"A lot of the crowd were waving... some of them with all five fingers,\" he said. Bush was acknowledging that many in Old Europe at least could not wait to say goodbye to a man whom they saw as a Cold Warrior at heart, the president who had led the world into a disastrous intervention in Iraq and a man heading a gas-guzzling nation who was not prepared to help the world cope with climate change. For many Europeans, the chief concern through the long, drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination and through the presidential election was that the result should give them anybody but Bush. Watch reaction in Europe to Obama's award . They were uneasy about his missile defense shield plans to base U.S. military installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. They felt he had never lived up to his pledge to work as hard on the Middle East peace process as Tony Blair had done on bringing peace to Northern Ireland. Especially they felt that the internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and the \"extraordinary rendition\" to countries where terror suspects might have been tortured was an affront to democracy which besmirched the reputation not only of the U.S. but of its allies, too. Europeans were alarmed that Bush seemed to be encouraging the climate change deniers. And although he became readier to listen to his European allies during his second term, they never really took to the man whose instinctive response was to use America's military might in the world's trouble spots rather than to stay at the negotiating table and who had little time for the United Nations. Couple that with the words in the Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation that the peace prize is being awarded to Obama \"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples\" and that they have \"attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,\" and the message is clear. Unusually, this is a world statesman being rewarded not for what he has done but for representing a new beginning. As Mikhail Gorbachev was quick to point out, the Obama presidency is a big signal -- \"He has given hope.\" By commenting approvingly that Obama has created a new climate in international politics, with emphasis on the role of diplomacy and of the United Nations, the Nobel Committee is clearly encouraging the new president, after just eight months in office, to continue with a style that Europeans find much more comfortable than that of Bush and the neo-conservatives. Those who worked with Bush are likely to feel aggrieved and to maintain that they, too, were working for the extension of democracy for which Obama is now being commended. As Europe digested the news of the prize, nobody wanted to go public with critical comment on a man who is still seen across Europe as a beacon of hope. But there were off-the-record mutters that this was all somewhat premature. Cool heads were noting that while intentions have been expressed, there has been no significant progress yet on the Middle East peace process. The proposed closedown of Guantanamo Bay has been announced but it has not happened. There are still large numbers of American troops in Iraq and the numbers in Afghanistan are likely to be increased. While Obama has spoken of his hope of agreeing with Russia on a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads, we are nowhere near to seeing an end to nuclear weapons, which are currently in the possession of the U.S., Russia, China, India, the United Kingdom, France, Pakistan and Israel. Obama may want the Senate to ratify the test-ban treaty but that has not happened yet and his moves on climate change, too, will require congressional compliance. The truth, say many continental commentators, is that Obama deserves a badge for effort -- an effort begun by scrapping the missile shield development in Poland and the Czech Republic -- but a peace prize is a step too far at such an early stage. He is being rewarded not for solid achievement but for creating new hope -- in effect, for not being Bush. It may well be, as President Sarkozy of France has declared, that the award \"confirms finally America's return to the hearts of the people of the world.\" But some fear that America's conservatives will take it as a sign of weakness and become more obstructive to Obama's aims. Meanwhile, others are wondering: \"What on earth will they give him when he does have a real achievement to point to?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oakley: Obama's Nobel an award for aspiration rather than achievement .\nEuropeans had hopes that Bush's successor would be different .\nNobel committee said Obama had created favorable international political climate .\nSome commentators say Obama should be saluted for effort but not yet a Nobel ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Didier Drogba came off the bench to rescue a point for Ivory Coast as they drew 1-1 with Malawi on Saturday to book their place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Didier Drogba scored for Ivory Coast as they drew 1-1 with Malawi to book their place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ivory Coast needed only a point from their match with the bottom-placed team in African qualifying Group E but found themselves a goal down in the 64th minute when Jacob Ngwira put the hosts ahead at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre. Elephants coach Vahid Halilhodzic responded by throwing on Chelsea striker Drogba who was able to level the scores in the 67th minute. Malawi pushed for a winner as the second half wore on but were unable to add to the score and Ivory Coast secured the point they required for qualification. The result brought Ivory Coast's 100 percent run in the group to an end but ensured they will feature in the World Cup Finals for a second time following their debut appearance in 2006. Malawi also improved their chances of qualifying for the African Cup of Nations by moving third with four points, just behind Burkina Faso who have six and Guinea who are now last with three points. Elsewhere in the African qualifying zone Egypt recorded a 1-0 win over Zambia in their Group C clash in Konkola to potentially set up a deciding match with Algeria in Cairo next month. Egypt were on the back foot in the first half and were indebted to goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary who frustrated the Zambia fans with several fine saves as the visitors struggled to get to grips with the pitch at the Konkola Stadium. But the Pharaohs were a much-improved side after the half-time break and Hosny Abd-Rabou secured all three points with the only goal of the game in the 68th minute. Egypt defender Sayed Moawad laid off the ball for Abd-Rabou to fire a powerful right-footed shot past Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene and into the top corner of the net. The result means qualification will go right down to the wire even if Algeria take maximum points from their clash with bottom side Rwanda on Sunday and go three points clear of Egypt at the top of the group. Cameroon moved a step closer to qualification as they remained top of Group A with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Togo in Yaounde. The Indomitable Lions took the lead in the 32nd minute through Newcastle midfielder Geremi when he smashed home the rebound after Togo goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale had saved his initial shot from the penalty spot. Lyon's Jean Makoun doubled the advantage two minutes after the interval after he tapped home following a mazy dribble by Samuel Eto'o and Achille Emana made the points safe in the 52nd minute with a low drive. Gabon remain a point behind Cameroon after they clinched a 3-1 win over Morocco in Libreville having taken the lead after Hicham Mahdoufi put through his own net moments before half-time. Eric Mouloungou and Daniel Cousin gave Gabon a three-goal lead before Adel Taarabt pulled one back for Morocco with a late consolation. Paul Le Guen's Cameroon side, who had looked doubtful to qualify when he took over, are in pole position at the top of the group with 10 points ahead of Gabon on nine, Togo on five and Morocco with three." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Striker Didier Drogba scored as Ivory Coast drew 1-1 with Malawi in Blantyre .\nThe result ensured Ivory Cost qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa .\nEgypt kept alive their qualification hopes with a 1-0 win over Zambia in Konkola .\nCameroon moved a step closer to qualification after their 3-0 win over Togo ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Atlanta rapper DeAndre Cortez Way, better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em or just Soulja Boy, was charged with obstruction after running from police despite an order to stop, a police spokesman said Friday. Rapper Soulja Boy was arrested in Georgia after allegedly running from police. The 19-year-old singer was among a large group that had gathered at a home in Stockbridge, 20 miles south of Atlanta, said Henry County, Georgia, police Capt. Jason Bolton. Way was arrested Wednesday night along with another man, Bolton said. Police said Way left jail Thursday after posting a $550 bond. Bolton said officers responded to a complaint about a group of youths milling around the house, which appeared to be abandoned. When police arrived, they saw about 40 people. Half of them ran away, including Way, Bolton said. The ones who remained told officers they were at the home to film a video. Way was arrested when he returned to the house to get his car, Bolton said. He said the house was dark inside and looked abandoned. \"He just ran from the police, and then he decided to come back,\" according to Bolton. The second man who returned for his vehicle was arrested after police found eight $100 counterfeit bills inside, according to the officer. Way broke into the music scene two years ago with his hit \"Crank That (Soulja Boy).\" The rapper also describes himself as a producer and entrepreneur." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rapper Soulja Boy arrested after allegedly running from police in Georgia .\nOfficers responded to a report of a large group gathered near a house .\nWitnesses told police the group was filming a video .\nArtist taken into custody after he returned to the scene to get his car, police say ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Iran's trial of more than 100 people who it has linked to post-election unrest is a \"sign of weakness\" and shows that the Islamic republic \"is afraid of its own people,\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Thursday. Iran is \"afraid of the truth and the facts coming out,\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. \"It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it,\" Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in a wide-ranging interview to be broadcast on his \"GPS\" program Sunday. \"It demonstrates I think better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people, and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out.\" Clinton spoke to Zakaria during her visit to Africa. Those on trial include Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who has dual citizenship in Iran and Canada, and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar. The trial, which began over the weekend, is scheduled to resume Saturday, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. This week, the State Department issued a statement expressing deep concern for Tajbakhsh. \"Given that the charges facing Mr. Tajbakhsh are without foundation, we call on Iran's leadership to release Mr. Tajbakhsh without delay,\" State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Tuesday, reading a prepared statement. \"He has played absolutely no role in the election and poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security.\" Wood said Tajbakhsh has not been provided an attorney, which he is entitled to, and warned Iran that \"the world is watching what is happening in Iran and will bear witness.\" Speaking on Thursday, Clinton said the United States also has \"expressed our concern about Mr. Bahari's confinement and trial\" to Canada's government, and offered its help. All of those on trial in Iran -- who include Iranian journalists and supporters of the opposition -- have been charged for their alleged roles in protests that followed last month's disputed presidential election. The June 12 election gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office, but it also sparked a massive opposition movement that has regularly protested against the Iranian leadership and has shaken the foundation of Iran's Islamic theocracy. Those on trial will be placed into three categories, according to Fars: the \"plotters, intriguers, and planners of the riots\"; \"the antagonists and those affiliated to foreign services\"; and \"the opportunists, hooligans, and hoodlums who set ablaze, or destroyed private and public properties, and those that have had hands in disturbing public security.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it,\" Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria .\nAmong the accused is journalist Maziar Bahari, a dual citizen of Iran and Canada .\nIranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh also is charged with crimes .\nInterview with the secretary of state will be broadcast on \"GPS\" Sunday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "VERACRUZ, Mexico (CNN) -- The dead always tell a story. And in Mexico that story is the fight for the right to meet U.S. demand for illegal drugs -- a war becoming more violent and ruthless, mostly because of one group. Suspected members of Los Zetas drug cartel are presented to reporters in Mexico City in April. Its name is Los Zetas. Imagine a band of U.S. Green Berets going rogue and offering their services and firepower to drug cartels. That's what happened in Mexico in the 1990s. Commandos from the Mexican army deserted and set up a cartel, known as Los Zetas. The U.S. government says Los Zetas is \"the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.\" Los Zetas are blamed for last week's brutal killings of the police chief in the southern Mexican city of Veracruz, his wife and four children. The way in which the killers carried out their crime sent a message. At 5 a.m. on July 29, two cars pulled up in front of the police chief's house, and eight or nine gunmen got out, armed with assault rifles and 40 mm grenade launchers. They blasted their way into the house, and it took them less than five minutes to execute Jesus Antonio Romero, his wife, also a police officer, and their son. The gunmen then set the house on fire, killing the remaining three children, all girls. Watch scenes of the escalating drug war in Veracruz » . With their fierce weaponry and military expertise, Los Zetas are considered the most formidable enemy in the drug war. \"The Zetas have obviously assumed the role of being the No. 1 organization responsible for the majority of the homicides, the narcotic-related homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico,\" said Ralph Reyes, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's chief for Mexico and Central America. The fight against Los Zetas will take years, Reyes said. \"They continue to train new recruits through several campaigns. One of them is the very open and public narco banners that they post around the country of Mexico, specifically tailored to the military and [saying] that they will offer better pay and better benefits if they join the ranks of the Zetas,\" Reyes said from his Washington office, where he directs the U.S. battle against Los Zetas. With its mastery of combat, Reyes said, the organized crime network operates more like a U.S. infantry company patrolling the streets of Falluja, Iraq, than a street gang. Newspapers in Veracruz have headlines almost every day about drug cartels' bloody violence, more often than not linked to Los Zetas. The DEA said that although the group originally was based on military lines, the cartel has been built into a business structure, with quarterly meetings, business ledgers, even votes on key assassinations. And now Los Zetas are taxing businesses beyond their drug reach -- from human trafficking across the U.S. border to, as one recent scandal showed, imposing a kind of tax on the Mexican government. The state oil company has been bleeding billions to corrupt officials linked to Los Zetas. And, as a DEA agent recently said, the American border makes no difference to Los Zetas. It doesn't matter if violence is perpetrated on the Mexican or U.S. side of the border. Inside the United States, one of the instruments of assassination Los Zetas unleashed was teenager Rosalio Reta. Given six months of military training in Mexico, he was sent across the border to target rival drug gangs. He was 13 years old when he committed his first killing. \"I loved doing it,\" Reta says in a police interrogation tape. \"Killing that first person, I loved it. I thought I was Superman.\" U.S. officials have said there are many more like him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. labels Los Zetas as Mexico's most \"sophisticated and dangerous cartel\"\nLos Zetas cartel formed by commandos who deserted from Mexican army in '90s .\nLos Zetas blamed for last week's brutal killings of police chief and family .\nAmerican border makes no difference to Los Zetas, DEA agent 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: John Feehery worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients that include News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says he's proud Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, but now the president needs to earn it. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Usually, when a president wins the Nobel Peace Prize, it is uniformly seen as a positive development for America and for the world. Both opponents and allies tend to celebrate the fact that an American president actually got recognized by a bunch of Norwegians for something he achieved. But with Barack Obama, who surprisingly picked up his first Nobel Prize on Friday, the reaction was not altogether positive from either the left or the right. You would expect that conservatives would raise questions about the president's award. Conservatives raise questions about everything the president does. But liberals also joined in. Mickey Kaus of Slate said that the president should say thanks, but no thanks. \"Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he's honored but he hasn't had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish.\" Liberal columnist Richard Cohen wrote a mocking column, comparing Obama's award to a fictional award given to Sarah Palin for promising to \"read a book someday.\" We are all glad that Norway loves Obama, but come on. Let's get serious. I am reminded of when Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf decided to retire the jersey of longtime White Sox player Harold Baines. It was a little premature for Baines to get his uniform retired when he himself was playing for another team. (Baines played a couple more years, surely the only instance where a player's uniform was retired before the player was.) Awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is similarly premature. In fact, the White House seemed as surprised as anybody about the gesture. I imagine that when Obama first picked up the line, he thought it was a crank call. \"I won what?\" he must have exclaimed. But it is no joke. It seems that President Obama won his first Nobel Peace Prize, for, well, being President Obama. Just the very idea of a President Obama is enough to make the Nobel Selection Committee swoon. The president said he was humbled by this award. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, he has much to be humble about. When it comes to peace, it is hard to see what notable accomplishments have been achieved thus far in the Obama presidency. That is not a slap at him. Peace takes time. It took John Hume and David Trimble about 30 years of really hard and dangerous work in Northern Ireland before they got a Nobel Peace Prize. And despite all of that hard work, peace and reconciliation is still elusive in that region. Mr. Obama hasn't even been able to get a peace deal between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who continue to snipe at each other over the health care public option and Afghanistan. Peace hasn't exactly broken out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, or Iran either. Nobel Prizes usually go for some fairly notable accomplishments. Nelson Mandela spent much of his life protesting apartheid and serving a prison sentence. He is a man who deserved a peace prize. Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the Soviet Union to collapse without much of a whimper. That was an accomplishment that deserved a peace prize. But what exactly has President Obama done to deserve such an award? And if he actually does something in the future, does that mean he gets another one? Apparently, the voting on the peace prize started shortly after the president was sworn in. Perhaps he is getting the peace prize because of his inaugural address. Yep, a lot of people came to that speech, and peace mostly reigned on that day (except for those people with tickets to the Inauguration who got stuck in the \"purple tunnel\" in Washington). But I don't think he deserves a peace prize for that. I guess he got the prize because he was elected president and he wasn't George Bush. Well, if that is the case, maybe all of those millions of Americans who voted for him should share the prize, because they actually did most of the work. They voted. As an American, I am proud that our president was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Now, I, like many others on the right and the left, would like to see him do something to earn it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "John Feehery: Obama's Nobel Prize win surprised the right, the left, Obama himself .\nHard to see any notable achievements for peace by Obama so far, Feehery says .\nHe says Obama won because he was elected president and wasn't George Bush .\nObama voters should share the prize, because they elected him, Feehery says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The new horror movie \"Paranormal Activity\" could be filling movie studio marketing departments with fear. \"Paranormal Activity\" tells the story of a couple determined to discover if their house is haunted. Using a campaign of limited showings, social media and word-of-mouth fan buzz, the film has managed to become a breakout hit without the aid of a glitzy marketing campaign -- or even a traditional movie trailer. According to Variety, the very low-budget film (it reportedly cost $11,000), which played in fewer than 200 theaters, raked in $7.1 million over the weekend -- a record for a limited-release film. The film had an impressive $44,163 per-screen average and placement in the top five of the box office ratings over the weekend. \"We think it's exciting that they are taking this grassroots approach to independent film because sometimes independent films do get lost in the shuffle,\" said Kevin Carr, a writer/reviewer for the site Film School Rejects. \"It's a unique test to see if people can demand things outside of standard marketing campaigns.\" \"Paranormal Activity\" bills itself as \"the first-ever major film release demanded by you.\" The movie, which was an audience favorite at the alternative Slamdance festival in early 2008, was acquired by Dreamworks (then a part of Paramount Pictures) two years ago. The studio initially planned to remake it using better-known actors. But after studio executives, including Steven Spielberg, viewed it, they decided the film could stand more or less as it was (though director Oren Peli did shorten the film and shoot a new ending). The movie gained buzz after Paramount began late-night screenings in college towns, and fans took to Twitter and other sites to hail the scary flick, which centers on a young couple who believe their house may be haunted. Paramount increased the interest by urging fans to sign on to ParanormalMovie.com and demand theaters in their locations show the film. Peli posted a video on YouTube expressing gratitude to the fans and urging them to continue rooting for the movie. \"I just wanted to take this opportunity to speak directly to the fans and thank you all for the amazing support,\" Peli said on the video. \"It's just been overwhelming especially considering the long road this film had for three years and the studio wanting to do a remake.\" More than a million people have heeded the call. The result has been a groundswell of interest rivaling that of big-budget films. Megan Colligan, co-president of marketing for Paramount, said the studio had a limited budget for advertising the film, so its marketing had to be tightly targeted. Moreover, condensing its atmosphere into a 30-second TV spot was a challenge, so executives opted to produce a trailer showing fans waiting in line for the movie and their reaction to the film, said Josh Greenstein, who also serves as co-president of marketing for Paramount. \"It was very important that we sold this as an experience and rather than just a movie,\" he said. \"When people saw the movie they loved it so much and there is such a slow build of terror that you have to sit through to experience the full effect of the movie, so we changed the marketing techniques in advertising and online to make it more experiential.\" The unique marketing campaign appears to have paid off. \"The fans have really made this their film and they are doing the bulk of the work [to market the film],\" Colligan said. \"The film is selling itself,\" Greenstein added. Critics have also taken notice, and have showered the film with good reviews. In giving the movie an A-minus grade, Entertainment Weekly film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote \"With its this-is-really-happening vibe, 'Paranormal Activity' scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés. The fear is real, all right, because the fear is really in you.\" Overall, the film has earned a strong 85 percent approval rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers agree. Rajiim Gross, an iReporter who posted a review of the film, said he found \"Paranormal Activity\" to be much better than \"Blair Witch Project,\" another indie-horror film to which it is being compared. Check out Rajiim Gross' iReport . \"It actually scared the hell out of me,\" Gross said. \"I saw it during the day and I would hate to be someone who went home after seeing it late at night.\" Gross said he believed the studio was smart to leverage the Internet to spread the word. Watch Rajiim Gross' review of 'Paranormal Activity' » . \"The best advertising is word of mouth,\" Gross said. \"People tell 10 friends, they go see it and they tell 10 more friends and soon you have an entire community who wants to see it.\" Carr, whose Film School Rejects site has been following the frenzy, said the movie \"gets inside of your head\" and benefits from the traditional fan support that horror films often enjoy. That, coupled with the big cinema thrills and chills, should add up to continued box office success, Carr said. \"Watching it with 250 strangers in a movie theater and getting everybody to jump at the same time definitely has an effect,\" he said. \"It's the event film right now of the year, which is something that needs to be experienced.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New horror film has found success with fans spreading the word .\n\"Paranormal Activity\" is using nontraditional marketing campaign .\nThe movie broke box office records over the weekend for a limited release .\nParamount executive: \"The film is selling itself\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The assault began at dawn, as bullets and rockets peppered the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. Lt. Cason Shrode said that in less than two minutes, his team's generator was hit and they were out of power. The insurgency was so fierce, according to one soldier, that the troops couldn't get to their mortars to fire back. \"They were under heavy enemy contact,\" Sgt. Jayson Souter said, describing the October 3 attack that pinned his comrades at Combat Outpost Keating, a remote base in Nuristan province. Four servicemen -- Souter, a fellow soldier, an Apache helicopter pilot, and a gunner -- talked to a military reporter about their roles during the Keating attack in an interview posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and NATO's International Security Assistance Force YouTube Channel. The United States says about 200 insurgents -- mostly local fighters, with some Taliban organizers and leaders -- had been planning the attack for days, hiding mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the mountains. Watch more about their story » . The battle started early on October 3 and lasted for 12 hours. At the end, eight American soldiers and more than 100 militants were killed and buildings at the outpost were destroyed. Fire support officer 1st Lt. Cason Shrode said the initial round \"didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.\" There was a lull and then there was a heavy attack. \"We started receiving a heavy volley of fire. Probably 90 seconds into the fight they ended up hitting one of our generators so we lost all power,\" Shrode said in the interview posted online by the Defense Department. \"At that point I knew that this was something bigger than normal.\" Troops called in air support. Helicopter gunner Chad Bardwell said he had to confirm the fighters he saw on ridgelines were the enemy because he had never seen such a large group of insurgents. \"We tried to stop them as they were coming down the hill. ... We were taking fire pretty much the entire day,\" he said in the Defense Department interview. Chief Warrant Officer Ross Lewallen, the Apache pilot, said a few aircraft were damaged in what was a \"time-consuming endeavor\" governed by tough terrain. He said the morning battle was \"significant,\" but later troops were able to identify targets and eliminate larger weapons. \"One of the primary reasons for the fight taking so long is that it is an extreme terrain,\" he said in the same interview. Lewallen said the valley sits beneath mountains to the west and north. \"There's a lot of cover so you really can't detect the enemy until they start moving again,\" he said, adding that it was tough for medical evacuation aircraft to land \"because we were still trying to control\" the outpost. The intense assault on Keating led to fires. There were five main buildings at the post and four of them burned. Soldiers eventually ended up going into one building. \"The next morning it was pretty much ash besides that one building. I mean that's the way to describe it. Most of it had burned down. So we were pretty much at one building and the rest was just a shadow of what it used to be,\" Shrode said in the Defense Department interview. Lewallen said what came together was \"air-ground integration.\" \"All the training we've done before deploying here; it really clicked that day,\" he said in the interview. \"We started realizing that the guys on the ground knew what they needed to tell us to get the job done. It made things that much easier.\" He disputed media reports suggesting that there weren't enough weapons and troops. He said 40 minutes into the fight, air power arrived. \"We had everything we needed. It was just a big attack with a lot of people. Bad things happen -- but I think we did well, under the circumstances.\" Reflecting on the fight, Souter said, \"Everybody basically came together and in the mix of it all, they were donating blood for the wounded that we had. They all pulled together to make sure that we can pull our boys out of this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soldiers describe October 3 attack at a remote base in Nuristan province .\nTheir account posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and YouTube .\nU.S.: Battle lasted 12 hours and eight American soldiers were killed ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Percy von Lipinski figures he flies about 100,000 miles a year. He knows he's going to see a healthy share of flight delays regardless of where he goes. A new study says delays will continue to frustrate fliers like this man at Washington's Dulles International Airport. But he especially anticipates them at the larger airports, such as Chicago's O'Hare International -- \"You can't possibly put that many planes there and not have a delay,\" he said -- and New York's John F. Kennedy International. So when he has a choice between two connecting cities, he said he'll generally choose the smaller one. Delays at the larger airports, he said, are compounded by other hassles such as longer distances between terminals. \"There's wear and tear on your travel psyche -- which bus you need, which terminal you should be at,\" said von Lipinski, a 54-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia, resident who owns businesses around the globe. \"By the time you get to your destination, you're bound to come up frazzled.\" Delays contribute to that frustration, and there may be more of it to go around these days. Though the percentage of delayed U.S. flights has dipped recently because fewer planes are flying during the recession, there's been a 20-year trend of increasing delays, and the increases should continue once economic growth returns, a study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution said. The average length of U.S. flight delays rose from 40.9 minutes in 1990 to 56.5 minutes in June 2009, according to the study, \"Expect Delays: An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States.\" It also found that among delayed flights, the share of those that landed at least two hours late more than doubled from 4.3 percent in 1990 to 10.1 percent in May 2009. And in a 12-month period ending in June 2009, the majority of delays was concentrated in 26 metropolitan areas, or hub cities, the study said. Of these 26 hub cities, six had worse-than-average, on-time percentages for both arrivals and departures: New York; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Francisco, California. The nationwide on-time arrival rate was 78.9 percent, and the departure rate was similar, study co-author Robert Puentes said. New York's on-time arrival rate, 66.3 percent, was worst in the nation, said the study, which analyzed air travel between metro areas rather than airports. Delays are going to get worse, study co-author Adie Tomer said. \"On-time performance has improved recently because the number of people flying is at its lowest point since 9/11, but as the economy bounces back, air passenger levels will grow, and on-time performance will likely resume its decline.\" The hub cities that did better than the national average for both arrivals and departures were Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Detroit, Michigan; and Washington. The study said on-time performance generally decreases as air travel increases. In 1990, with more than 400,000 domestic passengers nationwide, the country's on-time flight percentage was just under 80 percent. In 2007, with nearly 700,000 domestic passengers, the on-time rate was around 74 percent. The authors recommend Congress and other authorities use the findings to help decide where to invest in high-speed rail projects and other measures to ease airport congestion. Michael Boyd, president of Colorado aviation consulting firm Boyd International Group, is critical of the recommendation, saying the country could handle the current flight demand -- and cut delays -- by improving its air traffic control system. The old system, he said, is outdated, doesn't use all of the sky and directs planes to fly farther and longer than they need to. \"Instead of saying, 'Let's get a system that can handle the traffic,' Brookings wants to lessen the demand. That's a caveman mentality,\" Boyd said. Deron Lovaas, transportation policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the study \"hit the nail on the head in terms of the opportunity\" to promote alternative modes of transportation. \"The planes waste a lot of fuel idling on the tarmac and during takeoff and landing cycles of flight. So the lowest-hanging fruit available for reducing emissions -- beyond changing plane designs and changing the fuel mix in planes -- is to reduce congestion at airports and to go after short haul flights, where a greater percentage of the flight is made up of takeoff and landing cycles, where most of the emissions are,\" Lovaas said. Airplane passengers can take steps to cushion the impact of a delay or lower the chance of getting on a delayed flight, Boyd said. Passengers should only choose connection flights that depart at least an hour after their first plane's scheduled landing, he said. Also, he said, people who book a flight just a day or two in advance should look at weather forecasts. \"If there's bad weather in Chicago, don't go through Chicago\" if you don't have to, Boyd said. Von Lipinski's recommendation, besides trying to avoid busier airports, is to treat airline workers with respect. \"The agents have a lot of discretion, and they're human beings. If you treat them like dirt and are screaming [because of a delay], you know what the result is going to be,\" he said. \"If you [treat them well], you'll probably find they'll be willing to help you.\" CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Major hub cities are bottleneck for air traffic, Brookings Institution study says .\nFrequent flier advises connecting through smaller cities when possible .\nAviation expert says there's plenty of room for streamlining existing system .\nStudy's authors advocate using high-speed rail to alleviate runway congestion ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: David B. Givens is Director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of \"Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship\" (St. Martin's, New York, 2005), \"Crime Signals: How to Spot a Criminal Before You Become a Victim\" (St. Martin's, 2008), and the forthcoming \"The Body of Work: Sightreading the Language of Business, Bosses, and Boardrooms.\" His online Nonverbal Dictionary is used around the world as a reference tool. Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate winning the Democratic nomination with a fist bump in 2008. SPOKANE, Washington (CNN) -- The H1N1 swine flu virus is putting our most familiar gesture of greeting -- handshakes -- at risk. As an anthropologist who watches people for a living, I can tell you that human beings touch their own faces with their own fingertips hundreds, if not thousands of times a day. Repeated face touching -- especially finger contact with eyelids, lips, and nostrils -- is as predictable as blinking. You'll observe hand-to-face gestures in every culture and society, as well as in our closest primate relatives, the monkeys and apes. There's nothing wrong with face touching. Nothing, that is, unless you're afraid of germs. And today, many of us around the world are terrified by these tiny organisms, especially ones that cause swine flu. Merely by shaking the hand of someone infected by the swine-flu virus, we risk infection each time we inadvertently reach up and touch our faces. Physicians urge that we wash right after shaking hands. But since the anthropologist in me knows that, as a primate, you'll touch your face before washing, germs will inevitably visit unsuspecting lids, lip, and noses. The human handshake itself, meanwhile, is a widespread gesture used for meeting, greeting, and sealing a deal. It's a ritualized gripping of another's hand, with one or more up-and-down (or, in Texas, sideways) motions followed by a quick release. Since the fingertips and palm of the hand are exquisitely sensitive, the shake itself can be deeply personal. We instantly feel the warmth or coolness, dryness or moistness, and firmness or weakness of another's grip. Sensory input from a hand's thermal and pressure receptors to the brain's sensory cortex and then to deeper, emotional brain areas can be intense. If you travel to France, be prepared to shake hands dozens of times a day. Office workers in Paris, for example, may shake in the morning to greet, and in the afternoon to say goodbye, to colleagues. Outside vendors and technicians will handshake with everyone present when they enter or leave an office. The risk of hand-carried flu virus is thus greater here than it is in the United States, where handshaking is far less frequent. Contrast this to the Japanese practice of giving fewer handshakes, still, in favor of polite bows of the head. In all three nations, casual face touching is frequent, but germs in Tokyo are less apt to spread through handshakes. In Islamic nations, it is strictly taboo for men to shake hands in public with women. So, Muslim couples are less likely to exchange swine-flu germs through manual contact than are business men and women in, say, Seattle, Washington. Since in much of the world a handshake is both a visual and a tactile index of your concern for other people, it's hard to hold one back. In North America, Latin America, and Europe, when someone holds out a hand, it's difficult not to just take a step forward and shake. You don't want, after all, to seem rude. In Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, handshaking may be more nuanced than in the West, or even absent. An Asian namasté, with your palms and fingers pressed together in front of your chest, given with a slight bow -- or a Muslim salaam, in which your right hand touches your forehead, also given with a slight bow, may be proffered instead of a handshake. While you'll see the same incidence of facial touching -- to wipe a lip, relieve tension, or scratch an itch -- the fingertips themselves won't carry germs born of handshakes. So, what are we face-touchers in the rest of the world to do? Are we doomed to spread flu germs through our practice of ritually of gripping each other's hands? The short answer is no. Thanks to a pair of the planet's most well known human primates, we now have a healthier hand sign with which to meet and greet. Since the Obama-Lama \"fist bumps\" have been so well publicized of late, I'm sure you've seen it in newspapers and magazines and on Web sites and TV. Primates are the most imitative of all of Earth's animals, so don't be surprised if you find yourself bumping fists -- a lot -- in the weeks and months ahead. On September 22, 2009, the Dalai Lama was welcomed to Memphis, Tennessee, not with a handshake but with a fist bump from interim Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader balled up his fist and reached it forward to make friendly contact with the mayor's own proffered balled-up fist. From his smiling face, I could tell the Dalai Lama enjoyed his new greeting ritual. It looked as if he were playing with the cue. Though it was unclear if either of the fist-bumpers had flu phobia, that they touched with the knuckles instead of the fingertips rendered disease transmission far less likely. A year earlier, on June 3, 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama tenderly fist bumped with his wife Michelle, in what The Washington Post called \"the fist bump heard 'round the world.\" That a U.S. president publicly performed the fist bump -- a gesture that originated partly from the sportsman's palm high-slap of victory and partly from the Black Power fist of the 1970s -- has given the gesture staying power, even though some people were critical of its use. It will last considerably longer than Andy Warhol's \"15 minutes of fame.\" Thanks to Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, and the swine flu, the fist bump will surely show up at a greeting near you. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Givens." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David Givens: H1N1 flu is prompting focus on how we greet each other .\nHe says handshakes create risk of spreading the flu virus .\nFist bumps are a less risky way of greeting people .\nGivens: Obamas and Dalai Lama have popularized the fist bump ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, twice nominated for a Nobel Peace prize, died Thursday at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was 91. Helen Suzman, pictured at her Johannesburg home in November 2007. Suzman, a constant thorn in the side of South Africa's apartheid governments, was one of the leading white opponents of the segregationist regime and the only opposition lawmaker for 13 of the 36 years she served in parliament. She was particularly instrumental in exposing the indignities of the pass laws, which curtailed the movement of black South Africans. The Nelson Mandela Foundation, in a statement Thursday, called Suzman \"a great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid.\" Send your tributes to Helen Suzman. The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, also paid tribute, saying: \"As a member of parliament and a vocal critic against apartheid, the ANC remembers and respects the contribution of Suzman towards the demise of apartheid.\" Suzman told CNN in an interview in 2008 that she was \"persistent\" in her fight against the injustices of apartheid and used her position to constantly ask uncomfortable questions. Watch Suzman's fight against apartheid. » . \"I used to put 200 questions a session,\" she said. \"They were all of course designed to expose the atrocities. I made good use of my parliamentary position.\" A hugely influential advocate for prisoner's rights, Suzman was one of the first people to visit future South African President Nelson Mandela in jail on Robben Island in 1967, shaking hands with him through his cell bars. \"I knew immediately that this was a man of considerable courage,\" she said. Suzman continued to work for his release, visiting him frequently in the 27 years he was imprisoned. Mandela and Suzman remained friends after his release in 1990, often having lunch at her home in Johannesburg, where she said she would serve him \"his favorite dish, oxtail.\" After she retired from parliament, Suzman continued to play an active role in South Africa's new democracy and was honored by numerous prestigious universities, with 27 honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Columbia among others. In a nod to Suzman's tenacity and legendary sense of humor, the Helen Suzman Foundation Web site writes that one \"honor\" Suzman was \"inordinately proud\" of was being declared an \"Enemy of the State\" by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2001. Suzman's family has said that there will be a private funeral this weekend, to be followed by a memorial service in February." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Apartheid foe Helen Suzman campaigned for release of Nelson Mandela .\nConstant opponent of South African apartheid regime protested against pass laws .\nFor more than a decade she was the only opposition member of parliament .\nSuzman's family says that there will be a memorial service in February ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Public Utility Commission of Texas will review the case of a cancer patient fighting to keep her electricity on to power her oxygen machine, the commission told CNN on Wednesday. Mable Randon, who has stage 4 cancer, was denied help paying for electricity, which she needs to power her oxygen tank. CNN affiliate KHOU of Houston, Texas, said calls poured in from as far away as Connecticut after the station aired its story on Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient who received a cutoff notice after she fell behind on her bills. \"I'm on a set income,\" she told KHOU. \"My husband lost his job. He finds a little work every now and then, but it's hard.\" She applied to CenterPoint Energy's Critical Care Program which helps maintain service for people who depend on electric-powered life support systems, but she was rejected. \"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me,\" said Randon, who uses a wheelchair. \"I just thought they'd make some kind of exception for me.\" Randon's power will stay on until the commission examines the facts in the case, said Terry Hadley, spokesman for the commission. CenterPoint told Randon she failed to meet the criteria. Spokeswoman Alicia Dixon told KHOU that Randon could have bought a battery-powered oxygen machine. The critical care program has thousands of applicants, and only 300 of them have been accepted, she said. \"This program is a communication program, not a guarantee of uninterrupted power, even to customers who are on the list,\" she said. Since the rejection, Randon said she is \"up and down all night,\" partly because she is worried about whether the power will be on when she wakes up. \"They have no consideration for life,\" she said. \"It's just like they don't care.\" CenterPoint spokeswoman Leticia Lowe said the company does not send electric bills; it merely owns the wires and poles and is directed to disconnect power by retail electric providers. Randon's electric company is Freedom Power, she said. CNN's attempts to contact Freedom Power were unsuccessful Wednesday. As of Tuesday, CenterPoint had not received a notice from Freedom Power to disconnect Randon's service, Lowe said. Following the KHOU report, CenterPoint received calls from viewers, she said. But the company can do nothing since they don't bill Randon. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient, got a cutoff notice after falling behind on bill .\nShe applied for critical care program, was told to buy battery-operated oxygen tank .\n\"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me\"\nPublic Utility Commission of Texas reviewing Randon's case ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill commemorating Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office in the state, a spokesman for the governor said Monday. Stuart Milk, nephew of Harvey Milk, sits next to a photo of the gay rights activist in March. \"He really saw this signing as a way to honor the gay community in California,\" spokesman Aaron McLear told CNN in a telephone interview. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying he believed Milk should be recognized at the local level. But since then, \"Milk has become much more of a symbol of the gay community,\" McLear said, citing the eponymous movie starring Sean Penn, Milk's posthumous receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and his induction into the California Hall of Fame. Milk served briefly as San Francisco's supervisor before he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in 1978 by Dan White, a city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Under the measure, the governor each year would proclaim May 22 -- Milk's birthday -- as a day of significance across the state. The bill was one of 704 signed Sunday -- most of them near the midnight deadline -- by Schwarzenegger, said spokesman Aaron McLear. The legislation passed the state Senate in May and the state Assembly last month. The legislation has been divisive, with the governor's office receiving more than 100,000 phone calls and e-mails, most of them in opposition, spokeswoman Andrea McCarthy said last month. But she added that most of the Twitter posts the governor received were in favor of the bill. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying he believed Milk should be recognized at the local level. Milk was a \"unique\" historical figure who led a civil rights movement and then was \"assassinated in his public office for being who he was,\" State Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat, told CNN last month. The day of significance would not close schools or state offices, according to its text. However, Randy Thomasson, the president of SaveCalifornia.com, said the bill was vague and could allow for a number of things at schools, including gay pride parades or \"mock gay weddings.\" \"Harvey Milk was a terrible role model for children,\" said Thomasson, whose organization opposed the bill. \"The reality is Harvey Milk is a hero to so many people and a great role model,\" said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, the group that backed the bill introduced by Leno. \"It's very appropriate that the state he worked in and passed the first gay rights bill in the country should honor him.\" He said the bill marks the first time any state has officially honored an openly gay person. Leno said that claims that the bill would lead to schools holding gay-pride parades and similar activities were \"hyperbole.\" The bill \"mandates nothing,\" he said, although it \"affords an educational opportunity.\" President Obama posthumously honored Milk with a Presidential Medal of Freedom this year, and Sean Penn portrayed him in the 2008 film \"Milk,\" for which he received an Oscar for best actor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill commemorates Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected in California .\nEach year, governor would proclaim May 22 as day of significance across state .\nMilk, a San Francisco supervisor, and Mayor George Moscone assassinated in 1978 .\nSchwarzenegger got more than 100,000 e-mails, phone calls about bill ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Investigators have raised the wreckage of the helicopter involved in Saturday's deadly mid-air collision over the Hudson River, but they were still looking for the small plane involved in the crash, authorities said Sunday. Divers unload a body from their raft onto a police boat Sunday. Nine people are believed dead in the crash. New York police said they believed side-scan sonar pointed them to the wreckage of the Piper Saratoga PA-32 just north of where the helicopter went down, but Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said swift current and low visibility were hindering divers. The search stopped as a storm approached Sunday evening and will resume Monday morning, police said. Nine people, including five Italian tourists, were aboard the two aircraft when they collided over the river shortly before noon Saturday. Seven bodies had been pulled out of the river by Sunday afternoon, Hersman said. Authorities believe none of the nine people aboard the two aircraft survived the crash. Neither aircraft was required to carry electronic \"black boxes\" that record cockpit voices and flight data on larger planes, but electronic navigational devices on board might retain some information that could help the probe, Hersman said. Investigators are trying to establish the facts of the crash but won't determine the probable cause for some time, Hersman said. See where the collision occurred » . \"We are looking at everything. Nothing has been ruled out at this point in time,\" she said. Most of the Eurocopter AS350 had been lifted out of the Hudson on Sunday and taken to a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, for examination, Hersman said. The helicopter was taking the five Italians on a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York and had taken off from a heliport in midtown Manhattan shortly before the crash, she said. Watch crews search for victims » . New York police identified the pilot of the helicopter as Jeremy Clark, 32. He had worked for the operator, Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, for about a year and a half and had 2,700 helicopter flight hours, Hersman said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send images . His passengers were Michele Norelli, 51; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; Filippo Norelli, 16; Giacomo Gallazzi, 15; and Tiziana Pedroni, 44, all of Bologna, Italy. The plane took off from a Philadelphia-area airfield Saturday morning, landed at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey, with three people aboard -- the owner and pilot, Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pennsylvania; his brother, Daniel Altman, 49, of Dresher, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Altman's son Douglas, 16. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m., when it was at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, Hersman said. View images from the scene » . Hersman said the NTSB has recorded eight accidents and one \"incident\" involving Liberty, but Saturday's crash was the first to involve fatalities. Previous accidents included a 2007 case in which a helicopter crash-landed in the Hudson from a height of 500 feet, but without injuring passengers; a 2008 incident in which one helicopter taking off clipped another on the ground; a 2008 incident in which a pilot caused \"substantial damage\" to a helicopter while landing during an instructional session. In 2001, a Liberty pilot made an \"improper decision\" to continue flying in poor weather at night, causing the helicopter to hit trees, according to the NTSB. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the tour operator, said Liberty executives \"are cooperating fully\" with investigators. \"Right now, the company is focusing its efforts on cooperating with the NTSB and giving as much information as it can,\" Horowitz said. \"At this time, their priority is to help with the family of their pilot, and of course the families that were involved in the accident.\" Investigators will focus on radio communications along the congested air corridor at the time of the crash and examine any pictures or video contributed by the public, Hersman told CNN earlier. Witness accounts and still photographs already provided \"good information\" to investigators, she said. A witness told investigators he saw the airplane approach the helicopter from behind, and the plane's right wing make \"contact with the helicopter,\" Hersman said. The witness, another Liberty pilot who was refueling at a nearby heliport, said he tried to warn the helicopter pilot but got no response. Other witnesses reported seeing debris flying from the helicopter as it slammed into the water. Arnold Stevens, who saw the collision from the W Hotel in Hoboken, said the helicopter \"dropped like a rock,\" while one of the plane's wings was sheared off and it began \"corkscrewing\" into the water, he said. The busy airspace surrounding Manhattan has been the site of several recent aeronautical accidents. Earlier this year, a US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into the Hudson after apparently striking birds upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, officials said. Capt. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger's landing, which resulted in no deaths or serious injuries, was captured on closed circuit television. In 2006, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, and his flight instructor were killed when the ballplayer's plane crashed into a high-rise apartment building near the East River, city officials said. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Seven bodies pulled from water; two others believed dead .\nSearch stops Sunday evening because of weather, will resume Monday .\nAuthorities investigating Saturday's collision of helicopter, plane over Hudson River .\nPilot on ground says he tried to warn helicopter before accident ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- A leading UK hospital has defended its practice of using organs donated by smokers after the death of a soldier who received the cancerous lungs of a heavy smoker. A close up X-ray view of a cigarette smoker's lungs. Corporal Matthew Millington, 31, died at his home in 2008, less than a year after receiving a transplant that was supposed to save his life at Papworth Hospital -- the UK's largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital, in Cambridgeshire, east England. Papworth Hospital released a statement saying using donor lungs from smokers was not \"unusual.\" The statement added that the hospital had no option but to use lungs from smokers as \"the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower,\" if they didn't. Should hospitals use smokers' lungs in transplants? An inquest held last week heard that Millington, who served in the Queen's Royal Lancers, was serving in Iraq in 2005 when he was diagnosed with an incurable condition that left him unable to breathe. He was told he required a transplant and in April 2007 received a double lung transplant at Papworth Hospital. Less than a year later, doctors discovered a tumor in the new lungs. Despite radiotherapy, Millington died on February 8, 2008, at his family home near Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire. The inquest found a radiologist failed to highlight the growth of a cancerous tumor on the donor lungs. Tests found that he had received the lungs of a donor who smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day, the inquest at North Staffordshire coroner's court heard. The hospital said in the statement: \"This is an extremely rare case. Papworth Hospital has a very strong track record of high quality outcomes and this is an extremely rare case. \"Patients who are accepted on to the transplant waiting list have no other option open to them, however, we must stress that all donor organs are screened rigorously prior to transplantation. \"Using lungs from donors who have smoked in the past is not unusual. During 2008/09 146 lung transplants were carried out in the UK. \"During the same period 84 people died on the waiting list. If we had a policy that said we did not use the lungs of those who had smoked, then the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower.\" The tumor's growth was accelerated by the immuno-suppressive drugs Millington was taking to prevent his body rejecting the transplanted lungs, the inquest heard. North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith recorded that Millington, had died of \"complications of transplant surgery and immuno-suppressive drug treatment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iraq veteran Matthew Millington died after transplant using cancerous lungs .\nLeading UK hospital defends practice of using organs donated by smokers .\nInquest found a radiographer failed to find cancerous tumor on donor lungs ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new bill into law Sunday that will fine paparazzi for taking photos that invade a celebrity's right to privacy. The law also targets media outlets who purchase the photos. Singer Britney Spears' run-ins with paparazzi took center stage a few years ago when she took an umbrella to a photographer's SUV. Throngs of photographers often jockey to get the perfect shot of a celebrity, but that doesn't mean it's welcomed. Britney Spears famously had enough one night, taking an umbrella to a photographer's SUV. In 1998, Schwarzenegger himself had his car swarmed by paparazzi while he was picking up his child from school. Jennifer Aniston received $550,000 and an apology from a photographer who used a high-powered telephoto lens to shoot her in the backyard wearing only panties. Watch how stars impact paparazzi » . While paparazzi may get a bad rap for their methods, celebrity columnist Ben Widdicombe said things are not always what they seem. \"A lot of times the shot you see in the magazine is actually orchestrated by the celebrity themselves,\" said celebrity columnist Ben Widdicombe. \"Celebrities like Britney Spears, for example, are infamous in the industry for letting their assistants tell the paparazzi when they'll be leaving the gates.\" Celebrity photos can be big business, especially when it comes to major milestones. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher reportedly pocketed $3 million from OK for their 2005 union. Eva Longoria and Tony Parker received $2 million from OK for photos of their lavish Paris, France, wedding. Expectant celebrities can also rake in big bucks. People magazine reportedly paid $14 million for the first pictures of the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie twins. The new California law makes it a crime to take and sell unauthorized photos of celebrities in \"personal or familial activity.\" Violators face fines up to $50,000. The anti-paparazzi amendment takes effect in January." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Under new California law, paparazzi can be sued for taking unauthorized photos .\nMedia outlets who use photos could also be subject to fines .\nCelebrity columnist claims some photos are planned in advance by celebrities ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Last year's inaugural Prix Pictet photography award for environmental sustainability produced a stunning shortlist of photos. Ed Kashi has documented the impact oil has made on the Niger Delta in Africa. This year is no different with 12 photographers in the running for the first prize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500). The theme in 2009 is described simply as \"Earth.\" The aim is to highlight how man exploits the planet's resources and how this impacts the landscapes and communities surrounding them. In an extraordinary series of photos Canadian Christopher Anderson captures how the quest for raw materials affects Venezuela. In \"The Diminishing Present,\" Portuguese-born Edgar Martins records forest landscapes in the moments before they are engulfed by flames. In \"Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta,\" Ed Kashi captures the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria's environment and people since it was first discovered five decades ago. Kashi, an American photojournalist, spent three years compiling his photos of the Niger Delta, making a total of five trips to the troubled region. Kashi told CNN: \"It was truly one of the most graphic examples of economic inequity that I have ever seen. Especially with the backdrop of hundreds of billions of oil wealth that has been generated over the previous 50 years.\" As a result of his work, Kashi says that his photos are now being used by universities and NGOs to raise awareness to try and effect change. To him, this has been one of the most gratifying and exciting by-products of his work. One of this year's most intriguing entries is by Sammy Baloji, who superimposes colonial black and white archive photos of Belgian-run mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and places them over his color images of the decaying mines as seen today. Nadav Kander's images of China's Yangtze River depict communities adjusting to the changes caused by the re-routing of the country's largest river. And, Andreas Gursky has captured an extraordinary image of an ocean of rubbish at a landfill site in Mexico City. Darren Almond's ethereal images of China's Yellow Mountain Range are made all the more magical through the knowledge that they were shot using only the light of the Moon. All the nominees' pictures showcase the power of the camera when in the hands of master craftsmen. Click here to view some of the short-listed images » . The winner will be announced by Prix Pictet honorary president, Kofi Annan, on October 22 at the Passage de Retz gallery in Paris. All the short-listed photos can be seen at the same gallery for one month after the award. Further exhibitions are planned in Greece and Dubai and the Netherlands. If you can't attend the exhibitions, there is a book entitled \"Earth,\" published by teNeues which showcases the work of all Prix Pictet nominees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shortlist for Prix Pictet photography award highlights destruction of natural resources .\nTwelve world-renowned photographers are up for the award .\nPrize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500) goes to the winner announced on October 22 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says ordinary life stops when Muhammad Ali appears anywhere. (CNN) -- It was still early enough in the evening that the main dinner crowd had not yet started to show up; the restaurant, east of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, was less than half-filled. The party of 10 at the table by the front window had arrived promptly for their 6 p.m. reservation. Nine of the 10 studied their menus, but the 10th, the man at the head of the table, did not. Muhammad Ali, 67, stared down toward the white tablecloth and drew on a piece of paper. He sketched a picture of a mountain. There are a handful of men among us who, simply by appearing out of nowhere, make other men and women pause involuntarily to consider the long paths of their own lives. It is as if these men have always been with us, and if you should unexpectedly spot Bob Dylan in an airport, if you should see Paul McCartney walking through a hotel lobby, if you should encounter Sean Connery entering an office building, it will bring you up short. It's like opening a diary, even if you have never met them, even if you have never seen them except on a television set or a movie screen. Yet Ali is different even from them. Ali -- his story so complicated, his health failing, his imprint on the world so indelible -- makes people mist up the moment they lay eyes on him. It was happening tonight inside this restaurant called the Rosebud Steakhouse; diners at their own tables, not quite sure for a second that they were really seeing what they were seeing, let their gazes linger and could not look away. Ali drew. The other men and women at his table -- this was a gathering of family and friends to celebrate a birthday, and Ali had come into Chicago from his farm in Michigan -- talked animatedly and laughed. Ali did not speak. He wore a blue-and-white Hawaiian-style shirt; someone had tucked a white napkin into the space above the top button. Over the speaker system of the restaurant, a slowed-down acoustic knockoff of the old Tom Petty hit \"Free Fallin' \" was playing softly: . \"She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis ...\" A family, across the way, talked spiritedly among themselves. They were deciding something. The father and the children stood up. From the ceiling, the song: . \"... and I'm free, free fallin' ...\" They walked over to Ali's table. \"We apologize for the intrusion,\" the father said. Ali looked toward them, showing a gentle expression. The father had a camera. He said to his children: \"This is the most famous face in the world.\" It is difficult to know what the children made of this. Youth and strength and beauty are so fleeting. The man in the Hawaiian shirt once embodied all of those things, before these children were born. Three times the world heavyweight boxing champion, the center of global fascination and frenzied controversy after winning his first title and then changing his name from Cassius Clay, endlessly mesmerizing with his float-like-a-butterfly, sting-like-a-bee ring style, called \"the greatest of all time\" so often that the words became almost an official designation, the sight of his flawless face and the sound of his confident-beyond-all-dispute voice a sustaining part of the very atmosphere. ... But his road has turned hard, and here were these children, who were not around for any of that, standing with their father next to the table. Ali's family members and friends said it would be all right for the father to take some photos, so he did. When he left, Ali went back to his drawing. More diners were beginning to arrive at the restaurant. Their evenings changed the moment they caught sight of him. Some pulled out cell phones to call people across the nation; others quietly debated whether to approach him. Many years ago, I traveled the country with him to prepare a magazine profile for a special issue on the 50 men and women judged to have had the greatest impact on society during their time on Earth. Everywhere Ali went, he was mobbed; people grabbed at him, people cried out, people attempted to touch his face. In the middle of all this one day, he said to me, almost in a whisper: . \"This is the whole world. This is what my whole life is like.\" That hasn't changed, although his ability to speak aloud about it has. The food began to arrive at his table. The people to his right and to his left helped him with his. He demonstrated not the least sliver of self-consciousness; this is part of his life now, and he knows how much he is loved. He handed something to a man named Cleve Walker, who has been his friend for 50 years. It was a drawing that a young girl had brought over to him earlier. She had made a picture of a butterfly and had presented it to him. Now Ali gave it to Walker, who took it across the restaurant to where the child was sitting with her family. Ali had signed his name to it. Walker handed it to the little girl. Her face lit up. Outside the restaurant, on Walton Street, a group of young men walked by, wearing officially licensed jerseys bearing the names and uniform numbers of their favorite current-day sports stars. One of the young men glanced through the windowpane but did not register that the man at whom he was looking was Ali. Ali studied the tablecloth, and a birthday cake arrived, and the others at the table began to sing in the direction of one woman among them: . \"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you ...\" Ali did not sing nor did he look up. But then the others reached the penultimate line of the song: . \"Happy birthday, dear Marilyn ...\" And with that Ali lifted his head and gazed directly at her, right into her eyes, and smiled the most luminous smile toward her. \"... happy birthday to you.\" Soon they rose to depart. Some in the restaurant, now more crowded, applauded. Ali did not react. And then he was out on the street and in a moment out of sight. Around the next corner, although they did not yet know it, people would soon be stopping in their tracks. He may be the only one who remembers his life when it was any other way. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bob Greene: Muhammad Ali's extraordinary life brings him instant attention .\nGreene: Ali embodied youth, strength and beauty in his remarkable career .\nHe says Ali drew attention of everyone in a Chicago restaurant ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- \"China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall,\" says Sherman So, co-author of \"Red Wired: China's Internet Revolution.\" Sherman So, author of \"Red Wired,\" talks about China's online habits and Internet culture. With 338 million Internet users in June 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China is no longer a niche market of the online industry. Chinese is the second most common language on the Internet, according to The Economist, and quickly gaining ground on English. As the former technology writer for Hong Kong's daily English-language newspaper, South China Morning Post, So has been following closely China's exponential Internet developments over the past decade. What inspired her to write \"Red Wired\" was the chasm in online culture on either side of China's carefully controlled borders. \"The information gap between those who are from this part of the world and who know Chinese and those who are from another part of world and who don't is just so huge,\" observes So. \"I've talked to lots of investors, analysts, visitors to Hong Kong, and they really don't know what's happening in China. They ask the silliest questions about China and the Internet.\" \"Red Wired\" tells the stories behind China's homegrown online start-ups, often overtaking dominant start-ups that have been successful in the West but which flailed after venturing into Chinese territory. One anecdote involves an advertisement by Baidu, China's most popular search engine, teasing Google China for not knowing Chinese. Google focused on high-end technology rather than Chinese linguistics. From 2002 to 2005, Google's Chinese site also suffered interference from the Chinese government, which redirected users to Baidu whenever Google's search results failed to comply with China's censorship rules. Although Google China has since learned the lingo and learned to cooperate with the higher order, it still trails Baidu with only 28 percent of the search-engine market share, compared to Baidu's 63 percent, according to a 2008 study by Analysys International. Conquering the Internet with Chinese characteristics . So what are the unique characteristics of China's Netizens? While 25.5 percent of the Chinese population is now online, CNNIC's 2008 statistics sketch a relatively coherent portrait of the mainstream majority of them: 67 percent are below the age of 30; 73 percent have only a high school education or lower; 33 percent are students; and 28 percent fall into the lowest income bracket of under $75 per month. Moreover, 78 percent go online at home and 42 percent log on at an Internet cafe. Once connected, 84 percent listen to music, 75 percent instant-message, 63 percent play online games, and only 57 percent e-mail. In short, for the vast majority of Chinese, Internet means play, not work. One could conclude that an Internet entrepreneur's target audience in China is teenage and twenty-something students, low-end consumers in search of entertainment with plenty of time to kill. Among the most salient of China's Internet start-ups are those that innovated on proven Western models by successfully adapting them to the Chinese market. Tencent, with a 77 percent market share of instant messaging services nationwide, is one of the start-ups that gets it. Tencent is now the largest Internet company in China. \"What really made [Tencent founder] Pony Ma stand out is that he viewed his QQ instant messenger differently from other IM services such as MSN and Yahoo,\" says So. \"They viewed IM as a two-way communication, so made it as efficient as possible. They targeted the high-end white-collar users, thinking they're rich, advertisers will love them, they'll buy additional services. \"Ma thought differently. QQ was a community targeting low-end users -- kids, factory workers. They don't need efficiency, they come online to kill time, to be entertained, to talk with friends, not to do work.\" In a China where economic growth comes at different speeds, So believes that the Internet has leveled out the playing field. \"The online population in China comes from very modest families,\" she says. \"Forty percent go online at Internet cafes, which is the cheapest entertainment alternative you can find. It costs just 30 cents per hour. The poorest kid can afford that, and these Internet cafes can be found in the most remote regions. \"So actually the Internet is flattening out this information gap, if not material gap, because even the poorest kid in China can go online and get information. And because of piracy, they can also download lots of stuff for free.\" Sea turtle power . Another recurring factor of success among Chinese Internet start-ups is their founders' extensive experience working in Silicon Valley before returning to China to launch their own business. A person who has returned to China from overseas is known in Mandarin as \"hai gui,\" which sounds the same as the Mandarin words for \"sea turtle.\" Such entrepreneurial returnees include Baidu's Robin Li, Sohu's Charles Zhang and Ctrip's James Liang. \"Sea turtles bring in new ideas,\" says So. \"Like what is a search engine?\" \"Robin Li was an engineer with a patent on search mechanism, and he wanted to build a Chinese search engine. He brought in the idea, the technology and the funding. While he was still working for Infoseek in Silicon Valley, he got $1.2 million from former executives of Inktomi. Then he went back to China and recruited students and teachers from Peking University, and he built Baidu in a year. \"Finally [the sea turtle CEOs] go to the Nasdaq for IPO listing, because that is where the market really understands the Internet and can appreciate what they did.\" Likewise, China is growing from both foreign interaction and the new technological and political challenges of online culture and commerce. As the \"Great Intranet\" continues to expand and evolve, China continues to explore the fragile balance between censorship and control, and enterprise and innovation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "China counts 338 million Internet users, but only 25.5 percent of its population .\nMajority of Chinese Netizens are low-end users in search of entertainment .\nInternet in China has made information and popular culture accessible to all .\nChinese \"sea turtles\" bring back knowledge and resources from Silicon Valley ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The sights and sounds of rocks rolling down mountainsides are common but still captivating phenomena for the residents of the Nile Valley in central Washington state. The landslide covered up to a half-mile of Washington state Route 410 with rock up to 30 feet deep. \"Every morning I hear big rocks coming down,\" said longtime valley resident Frank Koch. But a landslide over the weekend was more than Koch and the other 1,500 people in the Nile Valley bargained for. \"We just had the whole face of the mountain just pretty much come off,\" said Valerie Royster, manager of the Woodshed Restaurant, which sits just across the road from the edge of the landslide. The slide covered a quarter-mile to half-mile of State Route 410, which connects Yakima with Mount Rainier National Park, with rock up to 30 feet deep, said Washington state Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Westbay. Westbay said 25 homes had been affected by flooding and five by the landslide itself, including a mobile home that was demolished. See how slide blocked roads, moved homes » . Damage was estimated at $20 million, but that would likely increase, said Jim Hall, director of emergency management for Yakima County. Watch aerial shots of landslide area » . \"My bet is it's probably going to be a lot more than that,' Hall said. Roads would needed to be rebuilt or rerouted, he said, and tons and tons of rock and debris moved. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, videos . The mountain's movement attracted dozens of residents to the parking lot of the Woodshed, which Royster calls the hub of the community, on Sunday morning to take in the spectacle. \"It was a slow slide,\" she told CNN by telephone Monday morning, which meant residents had enough warning to get out of their homes and to the Woodshed's parking lot to watch nature's majesty and fury. \"It was very loud. You could watch trees coming down\" as the slide pushed the rocks in the valley's riverbed 30 to 40 feet up the opposite bank, Royster said. Afterward, residents found river fish high and dry on the hillside, she said. Westbay said the slide was like nothing the state has seen before, in that it wasn't the result of a weather or seismic event. \"We've had rockslides, mudslides, avalanches, but nothing like this,\" he said. Geologists were calling it a \"natural land movement,\" he said. Westbay said the rocks had stabilized by Tuesday morning, and crews had begun work on a temporary gravel road to restore access to residents. Flooding was the biggest obstacle to that; the slide changed the course of the Naches River, he said. For all the spectacle of the weekend, local resident Koch was impressed by something else Tuesday morning -- the government response. \"They're out there kicking bootie today,\" he said of the repair crews. \"It's pretty amazing to see government moving that fast.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Landslide covers half-mile of highway up to 30 feet deep .\nDamage estimated upwards of $20 million in Yakima County, Washington .\nSlide changed course of Naches River .\n\"They're out there kicking bootie,\" resident says of government response ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shouting from the audience. Holding up signs blasting the health care reform bill before Congress. Frequent hissing and booing. Many Facebook and Twitter users condemned Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst toward President Obama. Though it sounds like behavior at one of the health care town hall meetings last month, it was how some Republicans reacted to President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. But Norm Ornstein, a longtime observer of Congress and an expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the tone and behavior from members of Congress are not necessarily new. \"A lot of what went on [Wednesday] night has become fairly typical of what we've seen in the State of the Union messages over the last 10 or 12 years, where it's one side jumping up wildly and the other side sitting on their hands in stony silence.\" The most memorable moment came from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, who shouted \"You lie\" after the president said that a Democratic-sponsored health care bill would not cover illegal immigrants. Ornstein said that in addition to being beyond the bounds of what is typical, Wilson's comment is \"just sort of stunning in the level of disrespect for not just the president but the presidency.\" Watch more of Wilson's outburst » . During several moments in Obama's speech, members of the GOP hissed and yelled at the president as he laid out his plan for reform. One Republican held a sign saying, \"What bill?\" House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, was seen several times typing on his phone during the speech. Vice President Joe Biden told ABC's \"Good Morning America\" on Thursday that he was \"embarrassed for the chamber and a Congress I love.\" Observers said the behavior is probably indicative of the vitriolic sentiments found during town hall meetings. \"I think a lot of those Republican members went home to their district and were met with very angry reaction from their constituents. Congress, as you know, is pretty polarized,\" said Kasie Hunt, a health care reporter for National Journal's Congress Daily. \"I think, in some ways, that's what you really saw last night: the degree of acceptance of that angry discord that we've really hadn't seen in a long time.\" Hunt said there is still a lot of misunderstanding among Republican members of Congress. John O'Connor, who covers politics for The State newspaper in South Carolina, said that a lot of Wilson's anger mirrors what many feel in his home state. \"I think he feels the way a lot of people in South Carolina feel about [health care reform]. They're suspicious. They're worried. There's some fear out there about what could happen.\" But O'Connor points out that South Carolina tends to be more conservative than other states, and Wilson's town halls were generally civil. \"Rep. Wilson, however, held a town hall meeting in Columbia where, for the most part, there was a pretty reasoned debate,\" he added. \"There were folks on both sides raising issues, asking questions.\" Still, it might have been Wilson's constituents' anger and distrust that contributed to the outburst in Congress, O'Connor noted. \"His takeaway from that was that people support his stance, which was to oppose any version of what he's calling Obamacare,\" he said. \"So despite the fact that there was clearly some support in that audience for doing something about health care and health insurance, he kind of had a different impression of what the majority of the crowd thought.\" Could Wilson face any trouble for his comments Wednesday night? Unlikely, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi said Thursday that there is a procedure that could have been implemented to strike Wilson's \"lie\" comment from the record. But she said the president did the right thing in continuing on and not giving it \"any more attention than it deserved.\" Pelosi indicated that she would not press the issue farther. \"As far as I'm concerned, the episode was unfortunate. Mr. Wilson has apologized. It's time for us to talk about health care and not Mr. Wilson,\" she said. Political observers in South Carolina opine that the comment heard around the world \"was a little surprising.\" \"This is not his personality. He's not a guy who tends to make a lot of inflammatory statements. You expect that a lot more from Rep. DeMint [Republican from South Carolina] than Wilson for sure,\" O'Connor added. Wilson said Thursday that his outburst was simply \"spontaneous.\" Watch Obama's full speech » . Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding him -- and anger on both sides of the aisle to his statement -- has helped his opponent in the 2010 midterm election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Thursday afternoon that since Wilson's comment, his Democratic opponent, former Marine Rob Miller, received 11,000 individual grass-roots contributions and raised more than $400,000. During the 2008 election, when support for Democrats and Obama was high, Wilson faced a tough slog against Miller. The Republican, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, including most of Columbia and parts east, won 54 percent of the vote to Miller's 46 percent. Ornstein added that Wilson's comment was an \"incredibly dumb thing to do\" for the broader picture of the Republican Party. \"It was a gift, in a way, to Barack Obama,\" he said. \"To independent voters out there, this just underscored the notion that you've got a party that is unremittingly hostile to the president that has no interest in negotiating or finding common ground.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Obama delivered his health care reform plan to Congress on Wednesday .\nGOP Rep. Joe Wilson yelled out \"you lie\" during Obama's speech .\nS.C. observer says his view might be echoing sentiment from voters ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. With money a bit tight these days, many people searching for jobs would like a salary of $80,000 a year. (CareerBuilder.com) -- Let's be honest: Sometimes you don't care about the job -- you just care about the salary. But it's awfully hard to look for a job that fits both your salary requirements and your skill set. Not to mention that we always tell you that your work and career should be something you love. Ideally, money is just an added benefit. That being said, we're also realists. We know that times are tough and at this point, some people just need to get paid. We went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at the latest (May 2008) salary information for the United States and found 30 occupations pay in the $80,000 range based on national averages. 1. Administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers Do this: Conduct hearings to rule on government-related claims; determine penalties and liability; and help to craft settlements. Get paid: $80,870 . 2. Biomedical engineers Do this: Design and develop devices and procedures to help solve health-related problems. Projects might include information systems, artificial organs or artificial limbs. Get paid: $81,120 . 3. Chiropractors Do this: Diagnose and treat musculoskeletal conditions of the spinal column to prevent disease and alleviate imbalance, pain and pressure believed to be caused by interference with nervous system. Get paid: $81,340 . 4. Atmospheric, earth, marine and space sciences teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in the physical sciences, except chemistry and physics. Get paid: $81,470 . 5. Agents and business managers of artists, performers and athletes Do this: Represent and promote their client's business while handling business matters and contract negotiations. Get paid: $81,550 . 6. Materials scientists Do this: Study the chemical composition of various materials and figure out ways to develop new materials and improve existing ones; also determine ways to use materials in products. Get paid: $81,600 . 7. Physician assistants Do this: Perform health-care services and provide treatment plans under a physician's supervision. Get paid: $81,610 . 8. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists Do this: Research and investigate human diseases and how to improve human health. Get paid: $81,870 . 9. Physics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics pertaining to the laws of matter and energy. Get paid: $81,880 . 10. Atmospheric and space scientists Do this: Study the effects the atmosphere has on the environment, most commonly through weather forecasting. Get paid: $82,080 . 11. Management analysts Do this: Figure out best practices of management by conducting studies and procedures to help companies figure out how to operate more effectively. Get paid: $82,920 . 12. Producers and directors Do this: Produce or direct, and make all creative decisions for stage, television, radio, video or motion picture productions. Get paid: $83,030 . 13. Biological science teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in biological sciences. Get paid: $83,270 . 14. Materials engineers Do this: Develop new uses for recognized materials, and develop new machinery and processes to make materials for use in specialized products. Get paid: $84,200 . 15. Transportation, storage and distribution managers Do this: Oversee transportation, storage or distribution activities in accordance with governmental policies and regulations. Get paid: $84,520 . 16. Financial analysts Do this: Assess the financial situations of an individual or organization. Get paid: $84,780 . 17. Electrical engineers Do this: Design, develop and test the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment. Get paid: $85,350 . 18. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school Do this: Oversee all activities of public or private elementary or secondary schools. Get paid: $86,060 . 19. Industrial-organizational psychologists Do this: Work with companies to solve problems within the company. You may help with policy planning; employee screening, training and development; and organizational development and analysis. Get paid: $86,460 . 20. Computer software engineers, applications Do this: Build computer applications software and code; ensure that all software projects adhere to a company's technology and business standards. Get paid: $87,900 . 21. Economics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in economics. Get paid: $88,330 . 22. Biochemists and biophysicists Do this: Study the chemical composition and physical principles of living cells and organisms, their electrical and mechanical energy, and related phenomena. Get paid: $88,450 . 23. Art directors Do this: Create design concepts and presentation in artwork, layout design and copywriting for visual communications media. Get paid: $88,510 . 24. Electronics engineers, except computer Do this: Design, develop and test a wide range of electronic equipment, from CD players to global positioning systems. Get paid: $88,670 . 25. Medical and health services managers Do this: Supervise medical and health services in hospitals, clinics and similar organizations. Get paid: $88,750 . 26. Chemical engineers Do this: Design chemical plant equipment and create processes for manufacturing chemicals and products. Get paid: $88,760 . 27. Geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers Do this: Study the composition, structure and other physical aspects of the Earth. Get paid: $89,300 . 28. Veterinarians Do this: Provide health care for family pets, livestock and zoo animals. Provide check-ups, treat diseases and advise caretakers on how to best raise their animals. Get paid: $89,450 . 29. Construction managers Do this:Oversee all activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities and systems. Get paid: $89,770 . 30. Sales engineers Do this: Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a bachelor's degree in engineering. Get paid: $89,770 . Jobs by Salary, a new salary tool from CBSalary.com, allows you to search for jobs by salary based on where you live or work in the United States . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 report lists dozens of jobs paying at least $80,000 .\nPhysics and post-secondary biology teachers can earn as much as $81,880 .\nSales engineers get paid the most on the list, at $89,770 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen and Innosight Institute Executive Director of Education Michael B. Horn are the co-authors along with Curtis W. Johnson of \"Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.\" Clay Christensen says the sudden burst of federal spending on schools holds great danger. (CNN) -- Historically the federal government has been a small investor in the nation's education system. With the recent economic stimulus bill, however, this changed virtually overnight. There is great danger in the sudden and massive amount of funding -- nearly $100 billion -- that the federal government is throwing at the nation's schools. District by district, the budgetary crises into which all schools were plunging created the impetus for long-needed changes. The most likely result of this stimulus will be to give our schools the luxury of affording not to change. This is borrowed money that we're pumping into our schools, and it comes at a price. Charging education isn't changing it. That our schools need to change should not be surprising. Just walk into your local school and enter a classroom. Odds are high that it won't look too different from a classroom from a generation or two ago. Sure, there might be some computers in the back of the room and perhaps an interactive white board instead of a chalkboard, but chances are high that students will still be sitting at desks lined up in neat rows with a teacher at the front delivering the same lesson on the same day to all the students. This might be acceptable if society and the skills many people need to succeed in today's economy hadn't changed either, but they have. While U.S. schools stand still, the rest of the world is moving forward, and this has a price tag -- not just for individual children, but also for the nation. We urge the federal government to consider four criteria when creating new programs or grants for states and districts to help transform an outdated educational system into one fit for the 21st Century. First, don't fund technology that simply shoves computers and other technologies into existing classrooms. We've spent well over $60 billion in the last two decades doing just that, and there is now overwhelming evidence that when we do it, the current unsatisfactory system co-opts the technology to sustain itself. We should instead use technology funding to bolster new learning models and innovations, such as online-learning environments, to level the playing field and allow students from all walks of life -- from small, rural communities to budget-strapped urban schools -- to access the rich variety that is now available only to children in wealthy suburban districts. Second, don't fund new school buildings that look like the existing ones. If the architecture of new buildings is the same as that of existing schools -- designed around teachers delivering monolithic, one-size-fits-all lessons to large batches of students -- it will lock students into another century in which the physical infrastructure works against the flexibility needed for student-centric learning. Instead, invest in bandwidth as an infrastructure of change. The government has a productive history in investing in infrastructure that creates change and innovation -- from allocating land to those building the transcontinental railroad and the land-grant colleges in 1862 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funding the creation of the Internet. To allow all districts to realize the power of online learning to advance us toward a student-centric system, the federal government should help deliver broadband capabilities necessary not just for today's needs, where schools already lag, but also in anticipation of tomorrow's. Third, don't fund the institutions that are least likely to change. Our research shows that institutions are good at improving what they are structured to do, but that transformative innovations that fundamentally change the trade-off between cost and quality -- disruptive innovations -- come from start-up institutions. This means that there is a high probability that spending money on existing schools of education will only result in their doing more of the same, for example. Meanwhile, there are a host of disruptive training organizations that are providing comparable educators at lower cost, such as Teach for America, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and New Leaders for New Schools. Alternative certification, including alternative programs from existing schools of education, has grown at a 29 percent compound annual growth rate since 1997. The government must embrace this and back the winners, not defend the old institutions. Fourth, direct more funds for research and development to create student-centric learning software. Just a fraction of 1 percent of the $600 billion in K-12 spending from all levels currently goes toward R&D. The federal government should reallocate funds so we can begin to understand not just what learning opportunities work best on average but also what works for whom and under what circumstance. It is vital to fund learning software that captures data about the student and the efficacy of different approaches so we can connect these dots. Transformation of any existing system isn't an easy process, but ignoring the laws of innovation, although it may be perhaps politically expedient in the short run, will only make it more difficult. When the federal government directs future funds toward education, having these principles in place will go a long way toward making sure we're not simply charging education, but that we have a fighting chance of changing it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Christensen, Horn: Federal spending on schools is set to jump .\nThey say it would be a big mistake to use money to let failing schools resist change .\nCo-authors: Federal money should go to innovators challenging traditional ways .\nThey say technology should be used to create new forms of schooling ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Like a lot of people, Anna Owens began using MySpace more than four years ago to keep in touch with friends who weren't in college. Our real-world friendships are often a reflection of who we connect with online, experts say. But soon she felt too old for the social-networking site, and the customizable pages with music that were fun at first began to annoy her. By the time she graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Owens' classmates weren't on MySpace -- they were on Facebook. Throughout graduate school and beyond, as her network began to expand, Owens ceased using MySpace altogether. Facebook had come to represent the whole of her social and professional universe. \"MySpace has one population, Facebook has another,\" said the 26-year-old, who works for an affordable-housing nonprofit in San Francisco, California. \"Blue-collar, part-time workers might like the appeal of MySpace more -- it definitely depends on who you meet and what they use; that's what motivates people to join and stay interested.\" Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace. More specifically, almost 23 percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to slightly more than 16 percent of MySpace users. On the other end of the spectrum, 37 percent of MySpace members earn less than $50,000 annually, compared with about 28 percent of Facebook users. MySpace users tend to be \"in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods,\" said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. \"They're on their way up, or perhaps not college educated.\" By contrast, Mancini said, \"Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs,\" driven by a demographic that for Nielsen is represented by white or Asian married couples between the ages of 45-64 with kids and high levels of education. Even more affluent are users of Twitter, the microblogging site, and LinkedIn, a networking site geared to white-collar professionals. Almost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year. Nielsen also found a strong overlap between those who use Facebook and those who use LinkedIn, Mancini said. Nielsen isn't the first to find this trend. Ethnographer danah boyd, who does not capitalize her name, said she watched the class divide emerge while conducting research of American teens' use of social networks in 2006. When she began, she noticed the high school students all used MySpace, but by the end of the school year, they were switching to Facebook. When boyd asked why, the students replied with reasons similar to Owens: \"the features were better; MySpace is dangerous and Facebook is safe; my friends are here,\" boyd recalled. And then, boyd said, \"a young woman, living in a small historical town in Massachussetts said to me, 'I don't mean to be a racist or anything, but MySpace is like, ghetto.'\" For boyd, that's when it clicked. \"It's not a matter of choice between Facebook and MySpace, it was a movement to Facebook from MySpace,\" she said, a movement that largely included the educated and the upper-class. So why do our online worlds, unencumbered by what separates us in daily life, reflect humans' tendency to stick with what -- and who -- they know? A lot of it has to do with the disparate beginnings of MySpace and Facebook, said Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of Mashable, a blog about social media. Facebook originated at Harvard University and was limited at first to students at approved colleges before opening itself to the public in September 2006. MySpace, on the other hand, had a \"come one, come all\" policy and made a mad dash towards monetization, Ostrow said. \"They used a lot of banner ads without regard to the quality, and it really diminished the value [of the site] for the more tech-savvy demographic.\" And while the Internet can build bridges between people on opposite sides of the globe, we still tend to connect with the same people through online social networks who we connect with offline, said technology writer and blogger Sarah Perez. \"It's effectively a mirror to our real world,\" she told CNN. \"Social networks are the online version of what kids do after school.\" These social-networking divides are worrisome to boyd, who wrote \"Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics.\" Instead of allowing us to cross the boundaries that exist in our everyday lives, these online class differences threaten to carry those boundaries into the future. \"The social-network infrastructure is going to be a part of everything going forward, just like [Web] search is,\" boyd said. \"The Internet is not this great equalizer that rids us of the problems of the physical world -- the Internet mirrors and magnifies them. The divisions that we have in everyday life are going to manifest themselves online.\" Jason Kaufman, a research science fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, examined the Facebook profiles of a group of college students over four years and found that even within Facebook, there's evidence of self-segregation. Multiracial students tended to have more Facebook friends than students of other backgrounds and were often the sole connection between white and black circles, Kaufman said. Nonetheless, Kaufman feels that social networks may one day help us overcome our instinct to associate with those who share our income level, education, or racial background. \"I think it's fair to say that the Web has great potential to at least mitigate everyday tendencies towards self-segregation and social exclusion,\" Kaufman said. \"In some ways, [Facebook] levels the playing field of friendship stratification. In the real world, you have very close friends and then there are those you just say \"Hi\" to when you pass them on the street. \"The playing field is a lot more level in that you can find yourself having a wall-to-wall exchange with just an acquaintance. If you pick up the unlikely friend, not of your race or income bracket, the network may [help you] establish a more active friendship than if you met them in real life.\" But MySpace's users still find something appealing about MySpace that they don't about Facebook, and it may have nothing to do with class or race, blogger Perez said. \"It's not just the demographics that have people picking one over the other,\" Perez said. \"It also comes down to what activities you like. If you like music, you'll still be on MySpace. If you're more into applications, then you might go to Facebook because you're addicted to Mafia Wars or whatever.\" In the end, boyd isn't as concerned about the reasons behind these divisions online as she is about the consequences of people only networking within their chosen social-media groups. \"Friendships and family relationships are socially divided; people self-segregate to deal with racism sometimes,\" she said. \"Okay, fine: We've made a decision to self-segregate, but what happens when politicians go on Facebook and think they're reaching the whole public? What happens when colleges only go on Facebook to promote?\" When and if that does happen, Mashable's Ostrow said, we'll know perhaps we've given social networks more credit than they're worth. \"When it comes to information, I don't think social networks are the best source for that. The Internet is so open,\" said Ostrow, who believes users would go beyond their networks to search out information online. If you're looking to branch out of your social network box, your best option may be Twitter. Nielsen's survey didn't find a dominant social class on Twitter as much as they found a geographical one: Those who use Twitter are more likely to live in an urban area where there's greater access to wireless network coverage, Mancini said. \"The simplicity of Twitter definitely creates less of a divide, because it's not a relationship like it is on MySpace or Facebook,\" Ostrow said. \"If you live in the middle of nowhere or you live in a city, you can follow anyone about anything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A recent Nielsen study finds class differences between online social networks .\nWealthier people are more likely to use Facebook; the less affluent, MySpace .\nAlmost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year .\nA researcher found that college students tended to self-segregate online ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jury selection is set to start Monday in a trial pitting two children of Martin Luther King Jr. against their brother, whom they accuse of mishandling the late civil rights leader's estate. Bernice King and her brother Martin Luther King III say Dexter King took funds from their father's estate. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III sued their brother Dexter King in July 2008, one month after accusing him of converting \"substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America\" for his own use, according to the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is the Martin Luther King Jr. estate, which is incorporated. Dexter King is the corporation's president and chief executive, in addition to being the estate's administrator. The three are the only shareholders in the corporation, and the plaintiffs hold at least 20 percent of its outstanding shares. The lawsuit contends Dexter King illegally and fraudulently converted estate funds and should be forced to repay the money and reimburse the plaintiffs' legal costs. The document, which lists five counts, does not say how much he is accused of taking. Dexter King has denied the accusations. The lawsuit reveals a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. The three are the only surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, and Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006. Their oldest child, Yolanda King, died in 2007. Bernice King administers her mother's estate. In a countersuit, Dexter King has asked a judge to force Bernice King to turn over their mother's personal papers, including love letters central to a now-defunct $1.4 million book deal. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King complained that Dexter King refused to hold shareholders meetings, which they said was another example of his lack of transparency in handling their father's estate. There had been no shareholders' meeting of the corporation since 2004, something that Dexter King blamed on the distraction caused by the deaths of his mother and sister. Judge Ural D. Glanville ordered a meeting, which was held last week. In a hearing held in late September, Glanville, who will preside over the trial in Fulton County Superior Court, also expressed serious concern about governance of the King estate. The judge issued an order saying \"the court is extremely troubled.\" He noted that Dexter King, as the majority shareholder, wields significant power in the corporation because he holds 80 percent of its shares. He alone can constitute a quorum for transacting business, the order says. The judge warned all three Kings that any failure to comply with the Georgia Corporation Code could result in the dissolution of the corporation and the appointment of a receiver." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bernice King, Martin Luther King III accuse brother of taking estate funds for own use .\nDexter King, administrator of Martin Luther King Jr. estate, denies accusations .\nDexter King files countersuit, wants sister to turn over mother's personal papers .\nJudge's order says \"the court is extremely troubled\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- It's the most complex construction project in history. NASA's funding of the international space station is scheduled to end in 2016. Flying 250 miles overhead, the international space station can be seen with the naked eye, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, usually carrying a crew of six. Now, before construction of the station is even complete, there is already talk of when the lights will be turned off. NASA is waiting for the Obama administration to decide how much longer the station will fly and exactly which direction the U.S. space agency will take next -- a return to the moon, or maybe a trip to Mars? The initial phase of the international space station was launched in 1998, although the station is still being expanded. The U.S. is one of 16 countries that help build and operate the station, whose laboratory runs a number of science experiments, including measuring the effects of space conditions, such as weightlessness, on humans. The U.S. contribution to the space station so far: $44 billion. (NASA says it does not keep track of contributions from the other 15 partners.) NASA's funding of the space station is currently scheduled to end in 2016. \"The general idea that we would spend approximately 11 years building the space station, get it to its full operational capability, and then kind of abandon it a few years later ... doesn't make a lot of sense,\" said Robert Braun, a former NASA chief engineer. Braun currently is the director of Georgia Tech's Space Systems Design Laboratory. An independent committee reviewing the future of U.S. human spaceflight recently recommended to the White House that the station's life be extended to 2020. Watch more on the future of the space station » . \"You've got all of these different countries working together on this common project in space. And if we go ahead and stop ... it's going to break up that framework,\" said Leroy Chiao, a former space station commander and shuttle astronaut who sits on the advisory panel. \"The different countries around the world will lose confidence in the U.S. as a leader in space exploration,\" he said. But the committee also found that the U.S. space program appears to be pursuing goals that exceed current funding levels. So it will be up to the Obama administration to chart a new course. NASA has been planning on retiring the aging space shuttle fleet upon completion of the space station in 2011. That shuttle funding was to be used instead for NASA's next great endeavor -- the Constellation Program, which would take astronauts back to the moon. But that means NASA would no longer have its own spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station. Until a new space vehicle is ready to fly, the U.S. will have to hitch a ride on Russia's Soyuz capsule. One of the options the advisory committee has recommended is that NASA fly shuttles on a reduced schedule through 2015 to help close that gap, Chiao told CNN. \"That gap is real,\" he said. \"It's going to be there, and the only access we're going to have [to the space station] is to buy seats on the Russian Soyuz.\" Part of the problem with the U.S. space agency's funding gap, according to some experts, is that NASA's culture is to build. \"We're always looking for that next engineering or construction project,\" said Marco Caceres, a senior analyst on aerospace at the Teal Group. \"But the big thing is the science, and you can't sell that to the public. It's not sexy,\" he said. \"So NASA keeps moving on to other things, without putting the really hard work into doing what will benefit the people the most -- doing the things that station was designed to do in the first place.\" Until now, the majority of the science done in space involves human experiments with microgravity. Such research is considered essential for long-duration missions on the space station, or for future trips to the moon or Mars. Biomedical challenges such as bone loss, cardiovascular issues, psychosocial issues and exposure to radiation must be resolved before humans can venture too far from Earth for too long. While promised space research on diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's hasn't happened yet, some space science has brought encouragement. Astrogenetix, a private company, has used the zero-gravity environment aboard space shuttle flights to develop a salmonella vaccine, which is moving through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process. Growing the bacteria in space is much easier than it is on Earth. \"That process on Earth ... can take up to 10 years. And we send it up to space, for really three trips, and we found that we already had a vaccine for salmonella,\" said company Chairman Thomas Pickens. Astrogenetix also conducted an experiment on the last shuttle flight aimed at producing a vaccine for MRSA, a highly resistant staph infection. Pickens said that up until now, the space station hasn't been a viable location for long-term, commercialized experiments. \"They've been under construction, and you wouldn't do heart surgery in the middle of a construction site for a skyscraper,\" he said. Now all NASA needs is direction from the White House -- and, of course, money. The station's backers say you don't spend a fortune constructing a customized house only to knock it down. But NASA also may need to conserve funds for a possible mission to Mars. Observers should find out soon whether the hope of groundbreaking science is enough for Obama to keep the space station aloft." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "President Obama must decide how long to fund the international space station .\nNASA's funding of the space station is currently scheduled to end in 2016 .\nThe station's laboratory can conduct valuable science experiments .\nObama may wish to shift NASA funding instead to missions to the moon or Mars ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Rap star T.I. threw himself a going-away party Sunday night, less than two days before he was scheduled to begin serving a prison sentence on federal weapons charges. T.I. performed to a packed crowd Sunday, days before he was to start a prison term. The Grammy-winning rapper performed at Atlanta's Philips Arena before a packed house. He is scheduled to head to prison Tuesday to start a 366-day sentence. During Sunday's concert, the 28-year-old reiterated a message that's become familiar in recent weeks: He wants others to learn from his mistakes. \"I'm doing the best I can to get out there, man, and put something positive on these young kids, man,\" T.I. said during the show. \"I try my best. I need y'all help, though.\" The rapper played to a sell-out crowd of 16,000 people, said Kenan Woods, a spokesman for the arena. T.I., whose given name is Clifford Harris, played through much of his catalog, including the hits \"Whatever You Like,\" \"Live Your Life\" and the Grammy-winning \"Swagga Like Us,\" Woods said. At times in the show, Harris was joined on stage by fellow rapper Soulja Boy and by his five children and mother, Woods said. He was greeted by a welcoming crowd, and some members of the audience held up signs supporting him. Tickets for the show started at just $10, according to the arena, which called the event \"T.I.'s Final Goodbye Bash.\" Harris has been the subject of an MTV reality show, \"T.I.'s Road to Redemption,\" in the lead-up to the prison term. He was sentenced in March on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers. In addition to serving prison time, T.I. was placed on house arrest, was given community service and was ordered to pay a $100,300 fine. Though he had been in legal trouble before, Harris' current situation began when he was arrested just hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper had provided a bodyguard with $12,000 to buy weapons. Harris was not permitted to own any guns, however, because he was convicted in 1998 on felony drug charges -- possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute -- in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta. After his arrest, he entered a plea agreement, which federal authorities called unique because it allowed the rapper to remain out of prison for a year while he performed community service. Harris has already left a strong mark on the hip-hop genre, music experts told CNN, which should position his career well when he is released. Harris had been named to the Forbes list of top-earning rappers, making an estimated $16 million in 2006. Some music industry observers have said T.I.'s prison term will only make him more popular. \"I think that if anything, it will gain him more fans and actually support his fan base, because he's talked about making a mistake,\" Emil Wilbekin, editor in chief of Giant Magazine, told CNN. \"He's talked about taking care of the error of his ways.\" The Atlanta rapper has expressed remorse for the situation. \"I would like to say thank you to some and apologize to others,\" he said at his sentencing in March. \"In my life, I have been placed in the worst-case scenario and had to make the best of it.\" In a March interview with CNN's T.J. Holmes, Harris said he no longer felt like he needed to carry weapons to protect himself. He said people should not idolize him for what he's gone through, but should take note of the fact that he has taken responsibility for his actions. \"You shouldn't take the things that I've gone through, and the negative parts of my life, and admire me for that. If anything, admire me for how I've accepted responsibility for the part I played in placing myself in these situations, and what I've done to recover from it,\" Harris said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "T.I. performed Sunday, less than two days before his prison term starts .\nThe rapper has been sentenced in connection with federal weapons charges .\nHis prison term of one year and one day starts Tuesday ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attorney for convicted Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, who is scheduled to be executed November 10, will seek clemency from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on October 22. John Allen Muhammad listen to testimony from victims' relatives during his 2004 sentencing. Jonathan Sheldon said he will also file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on November 2. He posted the dates Tuesday on his law firm's Web site. During a three-week period in October 2002, police say, Muhammad and young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo shot 13 people, killing 10. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was convicted in one shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad is to be executed for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, gas station. Meyers was killed by a single bullet, which became the signature of the two-person sniper team. Kaine told CNN affiliate WTOP Radio during its \"Ask the Governor\" program last month that he couldn't imagine a circumstance under which he would grant clemency. \"I know of nothing in this case that would suggest that there is any credible claim of innocence or that there was anything procedurally wrong with the prosecution,\" Kaine said. Under Virginia law, condemned prisoners can choose to die by electric chair or by lethal injection. If the inmate does not state a preference, he or she is executed by lethal injection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "John Allen Muhammad is to be executed November 10 for a Virginia slaying .\nPolice say Muhammad and an accomplice killed 10 people in October 2002 .\nGov. Tim Kaine has said he couldn't imagine a circumstance for clemency .\nOn his firm's Web site, attorney says he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Noah Gotbaum told a Phoenix airport operator that his wife was distraught after being bumped from a flight and that her situation was a \"medical emergency,\" not a case of \"some lout who's just drank too much.\" Video shows Carol Ann Gotbaum being arrested at a Phoenix airport shortly before she died while in custody. His wife, Carol Ann Gotbaum, died in a police holding cell at the airport, apparently strangling herself as she tried to maneuver her way out of handcuffs that were secured behind her back. Police have released a video showing officers arresting the 45-year-old woman at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport just before she died on September 28. Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Hill said: \"Officers had no information ... that Ms. Gotbaum had traveled unescorted and alone from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona, in order to seek treatment for a substance abuse issue. \"The officers had no knowledge of any of Ms. Gotbaum's personal issues. They had not been apprised of any calls from the family to the airport seeking to locate Ms. Gotbaum.\" Michael Manning, a Phoenix attorney whom Gotbaum's family has retained, told CNN Gotbaum was calm, sober, and committed to alcohol treatment when she arrived at the Phoenix airport that day. \"By the time she reached the gate and found out she was denied boarding, she had a very, very strong emotional reaction to that, and we believe that that wasn't just a result of her being upset because of her determination to get well. We believe she may have been drinking,\" Manning said. According to the police report released Thursday, Gotbaum's husband, Noah, called the airport several times that day, trying to reach his wife or the airport police, telling them they didn't know the circumstances involving his wife, whom he described as suicidal. Noah Gotbaum on Thursday claimed his wife's body in Phoenix after an autopsy, and the body was to be returned to New York. In a statement Wednesday, police said they attempted to calm an irate Gotbaum before arresting her. They also said authorities had no idea of her \"personal issues,\" including her plans to check into an alcohol treatment center. Sgt. Hill said Thursday that there were indications alcohol may have played a role in the incident. Toxicology tests administered during the autopsy would determine if that were the case, but results of such tests typically take weeks. Gotbaum, who was flying through Phoenix on her way to Tucson, became angry when she was denied access to her flight and argued with a gate attendant, police said. According to the police statement, Gotbaum \"became agitated and loud\" and threw her hand-held PDA, which shattered after narrowly missing a person. She then left the gate area, but the attendant summoned police. The video showed Gotbaum after she apparently had just left the gate area. She was by herself, standing in the middle of a concourse, doubled over, and she seemed to be screaming. Watch how the arrest video answers some questions, raises others » . The video contains no audio, but witnesses -- including a federal police officer -- said Gotbaum was \"screaming at the top of her lungs, 'I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a terrorist,' \" according to Sgt. Mike Polombo, who is investigating the death. In the video, Gotbaum backs away from an officer who reaches for her, and she becomes combative before dropping to the ground. With officers on the ground attempting to handcuff her, she continues to scream profanities, Polombo said. Gotbaum was placed in a holding room, and a female officer searched her, but she \"continued to be uncooperative,\" the police statement said. \"Ms. Gotbaum was handcuffed with her hands behind her back, and additionally those handcuffs were attached to a shackle that kept her attached to the bench,\" the report says. Phoenix police policy is that prisoners can be left alone in holding rooms as long as they are checked every 15 minutes. Department policy bans cameras in holding rooms to protect detainees' privacy. After officers left, Gotbaum continued to scream, the police statement said. However, police checked on her when she fell silent and found her unconscious. \"Initial information ... indicated that Ms. Gotbaum had somehow worked the handcuffs to the front of her body, probably from under her legs, and had pulled the chain from the shackle across her neck area,\" the statement said. Officers used cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a defibrillator and other measures in futile attempts to save her life. Firefighters arrived and pronounced Gotbaum dead. The officers involved \"are still very upset about what happened,\" Hill said. \"They did everything they could to save Ms. Gotbaum.\" Hill said police are not aware of any policy violations, but he said the death remains under investigation, as any in-custody death would be. CNN security analyst Mike Brooks, a law enforcement veteran, said it appeared from the video that Phoenix police did everything by the book. \"It looks like they did everything they could to calm her down, and then she was still combative,\" Brooks said. \"We didn't see any use of any TASER, no pepper spray, and in my opinion, no excessive force was used here.\" E-mail to a friend ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Family attorney says woman may have been drinking before arrest .\nHusband called airport saying his wife was suicidal, police report says .\nVideo shows woman apparently yelling before officers approach her .\nCarol Ann Gotbaum, 45, dies in custody September 28 at Phoenix airport ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Health.com) -- An analysis of the sickest swine flu patients in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand suggests that relatively healthy adolescents and young adults are among the most likely to get very sick after an H1N1 infection, a pattern similar to that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic. The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, Dr. Neil Schachter said. Almost all critically ill patients in the studies were sick for only a few days before rapidly progressing to more severe symptoms and respiratory failure, which required treatment with a breathing machine, according to three studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent, depending on the country. The findings may help shine some light on what the 2009 H1N1 flu season may bring, and who may be hit the hardest by the swine flu during the next few months. \"These studies are telling us that young people are at risk for bad complications of H1N1 and under usual circumstances, [seasonal] flu does not cause acute respiratory failure in younger people,\" says Dr. Neil Schachter, the medical director of the respiratory care department at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu. The analysis of cases in Australia and New Zealand looked at people who developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid) and were put on a life-support system known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This artificial heart and lung machine system, which puts oxygen into the blood and then carries this blood to the body tissues, is considered risky and expensive; as a result, it is not readily available in every hospital. The mortality rate was 21 percent for these patients, although it may have been higher without this treatment, the authors say. Health.com: 8 ways swine flu is changing society . \"These studies provide important signals about what clinicians and hospitals may confront in the coming months,\" Dr. Douglas B. White, and Dr. Derek C. Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, write in an editorial accompanying the new studies. In young, healthy patients, H1N1 can quickly cause respiratory failure that can't necessarily be reversed with mechanical ventilation, although such patients are not currently a priority group for H1N1 vaccination, they note. In the Canadian study, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the patients had lung disease, were obese, or had high blood pressure, a history of smoking, or diabetes. Overall, 14.3 percent of 168 critically ill people with confirmed or suspected H1N1 died within 28 days. The mortality rate in the Mexican study was strikingly higher. In Mexico City, where the H1N1 pandemic was first reported, 41.4 percent of 58 critically ill people died within 60 days of developing the flu. Health.com: 10 best big cities for people with asthma . Those people who died from H1N1 got sicker earlier in the course of their illness, had extremely low levels of oxygen in their blood, and had multiple organ failure. Their average age was 44 years old, and 54 of 58 patients needed mechanical ventilation. Other signs of more severe H1N1 included fever and severe trouble breathing. Health.com: 10 ways you put yourself at risk for swine flu (without realizing it!) In the Canadian study (in which the average age was 21.4), the critically ill tended to be hospitalized within four days of developing flu symptoms, and there was about a one-day lapse between hospital admission to intensive care unit (ICU) admission. As in the Mexico City study, younger patients with low blood oxygen and multisystem organ failure were hardest hit. What's more, the critically ill tended to require mechanical ventilation and rescue therapies to aid in breathing. Health.com: 8 causes of chronic cough . In both countries, the H1N1 outbreak lasted about three months. \"It is not clear of hospitals' need to invest in this ECMO technology because this has not proven very successful in other respiratory illnesses,\" says Schachter. \"We do know that treating H1N1 with antivirals such as Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) did help improve mortality.\" The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, which is safe, he says. \"The technology for making swine flu vaccine is no different than that used to make the regular flu vaccine, so in principle, there should be no differences in terms of safety,\" he explains. \"Recent surveys have shown that Americans are iffy about whether they will let their children receive this novel vaccine.\" Dr. James B. McAuley, the director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, Illinois, notes that the studies focused on the sickest of the sick patients. Health.com: 7 surprising triggers of lung trouble . \"The mortality rate can be high for a small subset of people, but the overall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003,\" he says. \"This is a serious flu and there is mortality, but it is about the same as with the seasonal flu -- maybe a little worse.\" As to why younger people seem to be hit hardest, the current school of thought is that perhaps a similar virus circulated 50 or 60 years ago, so older people could have immunity to H1N1. McAuley's advice? \"Definitely get the vaccine,\" he says. (He says his own children have already received the H1N1 vaccination.) The editorialists write that the burden is on the public health system to heed the warnings in the new studies and prepare for the coming flu season: \"Any deaths from 2009 influenza A(H1N1) will be regrettable, but those that result from insufficient planning and inadequate preparation will be especially tragic.\" Such planning should include widespread availability of antivirals, antibiotics, and mechanical ventilation systems. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In sickest H1N1 patients, mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent .\nOverall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than SARS, doctor says .\nOlder people could have immunity to H1N1 because of virus 50 to 60 years ago .\nDoctor: \"Definitely get the vaccine\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A Mississippi schoolteacher was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for shooting and stabbing to death her lover's pregnant fiancee in 2006. Carla Hughes met the victim's fiance at the middle school where she was a teacher. The same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of two counts of murder Tuesday for the death of Avis Banks spared her life, declining to impose the death penalty. Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest asked the panel of nine women and three men to sentence Hughes to death based on the gruesome nature of Banks' murder. Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Keyon Pittman, the father of her unborn child. She was five months pregnant. She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Hughes killed Banks so she could have Pittman, a colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, to herself. \"She took Avis Banks' life and the life of her unborn child because she wanted that life,\" the prosecutor said. The jury deliberated Wednesday for about an hour to decide on the sentence after hearing emotional testimony from seven defense witnesses, including her parents. \"Carla has been a kind, loving person all her life,\" said Carl Hughes, who adopted his daughter when she was 6 weeks old. \"I'm not asking you, I'm pleading with you, to spare my daughter's life,\" said Hughes, who is also a teacher. He said that the person portrayed by prosecutors as a cold-blooded killer was completely different from the accomplished honors student, equestrian and beauty pageant contestant that he knew and loved. Hughes' pastor and friends also took the stand to describe her work mentoring youths, volunteering at church and at the school where she met the victim's husband. Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. A key prosecution witness, Pittman told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes' home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex. Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood. Prosecutors alleged the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Banks' death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Banks' body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police. None of Banks' relatives testified at the sentencing. Instead, the jury heard from a forensic pathologist, who described the nature of Banks' injuries. Madison County Deputy District Attorney John Emfinger urged the jury to look past Hughes' prior achievements and focus on the crime in rendering its sentence. \"In my mind, this overshadows everything else she's done in life. She took the lives of two people in that garage,\" he said in his closing argument Wednesday. \"When that door opened, (Avis Banks) was not met by a beauty pageant winner, she was not met by a member of the mayor's youth council, she was not met by a peacemaker. ... She was met by a stone-cold killer,\" he said. In Session's Jean Casarez contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of murder declines to impose death penalty .\nProsecutors said gruesome nature of crime warranted death sentence .\nAvis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot, stabbed multiple times .\nProsecutors alleged Hughes killed rival so she could be with Keyon Pittman ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Jennifer Schuett didn't know it, but the DNA of the man suspected of attacking her in 1990 was sitting in an FBI database for at least 13 years, just waiting for a connection to be made. Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, was arrested after DNA allegedly tied him to the crime. She was 8 and had been abducted from her room, raped and left for dead in a field. All she knew about the man who kidnapped her was that he called himself Dennis. His DNA was found on underwear left behind, but the sample was too small at the time to get a match. Schuett helped police create a detailed sketch of the man who attacked her. CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story and her name to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker. For nearly two decades, there were no answers. But with technological advances, authorities were able to retest the small sample of the attacker's DNA last year. With those results, a suspect would be found -- and it would all be because he was convicted for an eerily similar crime. Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, was arrested Tuesday in connection with Schuett's abduction and attempted murder. Authorities believe he was the man who kidnapped Schuett from her Dickinson, Texas, home, choked her, dragged her from his car and slashed her throat in 1990. Watch the sketch artist's memories of Schuett at 8 » . Years later, Bradford was arrested for a similar crime, court records show. On April 16, 1996, Bradford walked into Gator's Bar in Garland County, Arkansas, and offered to buy a woman a beer. They played pool for a while until she was ready to leave, and he offered her a ride. He wanted to spend more time with her, so he asked if she wanted to ride around in his car for a while and listen to an Ozzy Osbourne tape, the woman told police, the documents show. About 20 to 30 minutes later, he said he wanted to show her some property. According to the court documents, he stopped the car, began choking her and beat her in the head. \"He dragged her from the car into the woods and threw her to the ground,\" according to the court documents. They go on to say that he beat her and choked her again, at one point knocking her unconscious, she told police. He stripped her naked and put a knife to her throat. Bradford told her \"he was going to kill her, that he was going to put the knife in her eye and was going to cut her jugular,\" court documents show. Then, according to the documents, he raped her. He ordered her to stay still, gave her a towel to clean herself up and took her to a nearby creek and helped her finish bathing, court documents said. As they got back into the car and drove toward the Oaklawn Race Track, he said again that he had planned to kill her, the court documents show. This time, she asked him why he didn't. She told police he said he got scared. Bradford began apologizing repeatedly, the victim said, until he stopped the car at the track and let her out. That's when she turned and saw his license plate as he drove off into the distance. When Bradford was arrested in 1996, police took his DNA, which was entered into the FBI database. It remained there for years, until technology would catch up. A Garland County Circuit Court jury found Bradford guilty of kidnapping but was not able reach a verdict on the rape charges. Arkansas corrections officials said Bradford entered prison in march 1997, facing a 12-year-sentence, and was paroled in February 2000. In March 2008, in Houston, Texas, FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison, Dickinson Police Department Detective Tim Cromie and a Galveston sheriff's deputy met to discuss Schuett's 1990 case. Cromie asked if the FBI could see if new methods of DNA testing might help find a match for Schuett's attacker. In July 2008, the evidence from Schuett's attack was sent for analysis, and on September 22, 2009, authorities say they received word there was a match. The FBI lab informed them that the DNA in the attacker's underwear matched Bradford's DNA profile. Bradford was arrested Tuesday morning on his way to work in Arkansas. He appeared in court in Little Rock on Wednesday and waived extradition to Texas. Attorney Mark Jesse, who represented Bradford at the hearing, said plans were in place to fly him to Texas later in the day. Earlier, the FBI said Bradford would arrive in Texas as early as Wednesday night and no later than Friday. Though it may have taken 19 years to find a suspect, Schuett's story came full circle this week with Bradford's arrest. \"I hope that my case will remain as a reminder to all victims of violent crime to never give up hope ... \" she said. \"With determination and by using your voice to speak out, you are capable of anything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "DNA from suspect in 1996 case leads to arrest in 1990 rape case .\nDennis Earl Bradford arrested for rape, attempted murder of Jennifer Schuett .\nBradford convicted of kidnapping, slashing woman in 1996 in similar manner .\nBradford's DNA sat in database for 13 years before connection was made ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Emblazoned on a long, tall, concrete barrier in the midst of a rocky Middle Eastern landscape is this spray-painted message: \"Mirror, mirror on the wall. When will this senseless object fall?\" Messages of peace, marriage proposals and jokes are among the most popular graffiti requests. It's one of more than 900 graffiti messages that have been spray-painted by Palestinians on the controversial wall that separates Israel and the West Bank. The painters take orders through a Web site that lets customers get a message on the wall. For the equivalent of $40, a Palestinian will spray paint the message and send three digital photos of it. Anything goes -- marriage proposals, jokes, notes to friends -- as long as it isn't extremist, hate-filled, or pornographic, said Faris Arouri, one of the founders of the site. \"Trying to imagine a clear view between Palestine and Israel,\" one message reads. \"If all humans are equal, why do they have to live separated?\" says another. And another simply shouts: \"Get along with each other!\" \"This is an alternative way to send your message to whoever you're sending it to,\" Arouri told CNN from Ramallah. \"It is there physically and it will stay there until someone sprays over it or someone decides to demolish that wall ... Hopefully it won't stay forever, because hopefully this wall will be removed sometime soon.\" The Israeli government began building the barrier in 2002, about two years after renewed violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In some areas, it takes the form of a tall concrete wall; in others, it is more of a fence. Israel says the barrier has been successful in preventing terrorist attacks by Palestinians. But Palestinians say it amounts to an illegal land grab of Palestinian territory because it does not match the line of Israel's border with the West Bank before the 1967 Six Day War. The barrier cuts so far into West Bank territory at some points that the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe and five Palestinian villages are actually now on the Israeli side of the wall. Palestinians in those villages contend they are cut off from both Israel and the West Bank because they are not allowed to travel into Israel and they must pass through military checkpoints to reach other West Bank villages. The Sendamessage Web site says other families cut off by the barrier are deprived of their livelihoods. The site describes how the wall separated a family from the hotel they owned and kept farmers away from their 500 olive trees. Israel's supreme court has twice ruled that the government must reroute sections of the barrier to avoid infringing on the lives of thousands of Palestinians. Arouri represents a Palestinian non-profit group, the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum, that works on the social and political issues facing young people in the West Bank. About two-thirds of the money raised through the site goes to the group, which uses it to pay for projects like building a playground, buying bicycles, or establishing laundry facilities for university students in Bir Zeit, near Ramallah. The group says it only works with organizations that are legal in the Palestinian territories and allowed to operate by the Israeli government. The rest of the money goes to the group's partners in the Netherlands, who maintain the Web site, accept payments, and manage the paperwork. First conceived at a Dutch-Palestinian workshop in Ramallah two years ago, the site has gone on to attract customers from around the world. There have been 910 orders so far, said Justus van Oel, a Dutch screenwriter who volunteers his time maintaining the site in the Netherlands. Spray-painting on the wall is a peaceful way for Palestinians to protest the barrier, Arouri said. \"You're not only defying the existence of the wall, but you're also showing the international community our refusal, first of all, to such a structure,\" he said. \"Also, it's an attempt to humanize the Palestinian society in the eyes of the world, showing that the Palestinians are not just militants who are violently resisting occupation.\" There are other benefits to the project, too, Arouri said. The rest of the world can get a glimpse, however small, into the Palestinians' lives behind the wall -- and the Palestinians get a sense that they're not forgotten, Arouri said. \"There's no big concept,\" van Oel told CNN. \"The wall won't fall because texts are on it, but the people behind the wall, they will have a face. It's also about beauty and poetry. It inspires people.\" Poetry is indeed on the wall, as are emotional pleas to take the wall down. Marriage proposals are a frequent order, Arouri said, but so are jokes and funny messages. \"We had a series of obviously French (people) making silly jokes about each other, because the names were just being repeated and repeated,\" he said. \"We also got a message supposedly from a dog, asking the neighbor's dog to come out and play in the sun.\" The diversity of the messages is something Arouri says he finds incredible. \"We've covered most of the aspects of human life,\" he said. Caspar Nieuwenhuis, a Dutch theater director, used the site to propose to his girlfriend. His plan was to feature a picture of the spray-painted proposal on a Dutch news broadcast about the wall and make sure his girlfriend, a journalist, was watching -- but the picture never aired. \"Then I thought, well, I have this photo of a Palestinian boy who's writing my proposal on the wall,\" Nieuwenhuis wrote to CNN. \"I've got a notebook (computer). I could save the photo (onto) my desktop and show it to my girlfriend, just that plain and simple. \"So I did. And when she saw this, she said 'yes' and cried,\" he said. Nieuwenhuis said he heard about the site through van Oel, a friend, and liked the idea right away. \"I thought it was a brilliant idea to have something beautiful written on an ugly wall,\" he told CNN. The Sendamessage Foundation is also planning to spray-paint an entire letter written by South African human rights activist Farid Esack next month. It's looking for customers to sponsor a portion of the letter in exchange for having their name signed onto the end. In the letter, Esack compares the situation in the Palestinian territories to South Africa under apartheid, the Web site says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Web site takes orders for graffiti messages to be sprayed on Israeli barrier .\nSecurity barrier separates Israel from Palestinian West Bank .\nMessages of peace, marriage proposals, jokes among most popular slogans .\nActivists says spray-painting is a form of peaceful protest for Palestinians ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Diane Sawyer will take over nightly news anchor duties for ABC when Charlie Gibson retires from \"World News\" at the end of this year, a network spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer worked together on \"Good Morning America.\" Sawyer, 63, will be the second woman to be the solo host of an evening newscast for an American broadcast TV network. Sawyer will take the chair in January, ABC's Jeffrey Schneider said. Gibson, 66, and Sawyer worked together for years on ABC's morning show -- \"Good Morning America\" -- before Gibson was promoted over Sawyer to anchor ABC's \"World News\" in May 2006. Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchored the newscast before Gibson. That duo came to an end after Woodruff was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Maria Brennan, president of the Washington-based American Women in Radio and Television organization, called the announcement a \"watershed moment\" and said Sawyer was the \"obvious choice\" to take over ABC's anchor chair. Asked about the significance of two out of three network nightly news anchors being women -- the other being CBS' Katie Couric -- Brennan said, \"It comes with some excitement and some glee for groups like ours, who have worked for years to ensure that women have parity with their male counterparts.\" \"When we get to a point in time when we don't even notice the gender, we can really celebrate,\" Brennan said. Sawyer worked for President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, first in his White House press office and later helping him write his memoirs after his resignation. After a stint with CBS News -- including five years as a \"60 Minutes\" correspondent -- Sawyer joined ABC News in 1989. She worked on news magazines for ABC -- including \"Primetime Live\" and \"20/20\" -- before being assigned to co-host \"Good Morning America\" with Gibson in 1999. CNN's Albert Lewintinn contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson retiring at end of the year .\nDiane Sawyer will take over \"World News\" beginning in January .\nThe pair worked together for years on \"Good Morning America\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The family behind a dramatic flight of a helium balloon that floated free appeared on a reality show that highlighted concerns about the children's safety. The Heene family appeared on two episodes of ABC's \"Wife Swap.\" Richard and Mayumi Heene and their three sons were featured on the ABC show \"Wife Swap,\" in which the mothers of two often opposite families switch places for two weeks. Mayumi Heene traded places with Karen Martel, whose husband runs a child-proofing business intended to keep children safe, according to a recap posted on Reality TV Magazine. In listing information on the Heene family, ABC's \"Wife Swap\" Web site described them this way: \"When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm.\" The description of the episode from ABC that appears on the Web site said \"[Martel] is shocked as the Heene kids jump off banisters and run wild, and appalled by Richard's attitude to women.\" \"Meanwhile at the Martels', Mayumi Heene sees safety gates everywhere and wonders how the family have fun. She asks the kids about their anxieties and confronts Jay about the climate of fear in his house.\" The Heenes reportedly allowed their children to accompany them as they tracked Hurricane Gustav. A YouTube video of the family appearing on Denver, Colorado's KMGH local newscast features two of the Heene sons briefly discussing chasing the Hurricane. \"What my kids learn from these storms and what they walk away with is the fact that these storms can be very deadly,\" Richard Heene told the KMGH reporter. According to the newscast, the family track 30 to 40 weather activities a year. The family was invited back by ABC to appear on the 100th episode of \"Wife Swap,\" where Mayumi Heene switched places with Sheree Silver, a psychic. A Los Angeles Times story documented the show by saying \"The Heene family, with its three rowdy boys, is anchored by father Richard, whose anger arrives in sudden bolts between his fringe science projects.\" \"The Silvers, who have two quirky, artistically inclined sons, revolve around the mother, Sheree, who is a psychic and who initially fails to impress Richard. 'Sheree's like a clogged drain, OK? Things aren't happening,' he barks. 'I'll bet you the heaviest thing she lifts is the fork to her mouth.' \" Mayumi Heene reportedly found it difficult on the show to adjust to Silver's household. \"It's their spouses who struggle most,\" the Los Angeles Times story said. \"Richard's wife, Mayumi, finding Sheree's 'househusband,' Sam Castiglia, to be 'a very feminine husband' and finds it tough to even tolerate the quirks of the Silver children, who are so unlike her own, seeming less like a parent than a conspirator against the alien family. So much for learning.\" A balloon that was set adrift from the Heenes' Fort Collins, Colorado, home was empty when it landed, and authorities later found one of the Heene sons -- who initially had been thought to be in the balloon -- safe on the ground. Officials said he had been hiding in the attic of the family's garage. What appears to be the three Heene boys are featured in a YouTube rap music video that seems to spoof overprotective parents." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Heene family of Fort Collins, Colorado, appeared on \"Wife Swap\" twice .\nOne episode had mother trading places with wife of child-proofing business owner .\nThat mother reportedly \"shocked\" by the Heene kids' behavior .\nHeene family chases storms together ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- Michelle Mack has turned medical thinking upside down. The right side of Michelle Mack's brain rewired itself to take over functions controlled by the left. Born with only half a brain, Mack can speak normally, graduated from high school and has an uncanny knack for dates. At 27, doctors determined that the right side of her brain had essentially rewired itself to make up for function that was likely lost during a pre-birth stroke. But her childhood and young adult years were fraught with frustration. \"It was very hard for me,\" Mack said. \"It was very hard for me growing up. No one knew the truth about my brain.\" Mack's parents, Carol and Wally, realized shortly after her birth that something was wrong. \"There wasn't a group to turn to,\" said Carol Mack. \"Michelle didn't have cerebral palsy, I knew that. She didn't have Down's syndrome, I knew that. I had no place to turn.\" Ten years ago, Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institutes of Health, finally diagnosed the problem. Watch how Mack's brain healed itself » . An MRI scan revealed she was missing nearly all the left side of her brain. While it was clear Mack has some problems, Grafman said he and the family were shocked by the extent of the damage. \"We were surprised to see the extent of the lesion in her brain, which basically took away the left side of her brain,\" said Grafman. \"There's some very deep structures remaining, but the surface of her brain, the cortex is 95 percent gone and some of the deeper structures, structures that control movement, are missing. These are all structures that are important for movement, behavior, cognition.\" The only answer, Grafman said, was that Mack's brain has rewired itself. The remaining half took over some of the essential functions that are normally done by the left, such as speaking and reading. That rewiring, however, came at a cost. \"Michelle has fairly normal language abilities, certainly basic language abilities, she can construct a sentence, she can understand instructions, she can find words when she's talking, but actually she has some trouble in some aspects of visual-spatial processing,\" said Grafman. \"It's quite possible that in her learning, in her development, when the right hemisphere either took over or developed some of the language abilities that it cost her in some of the skills that are normally mediated by the right side of the brain,\" added Grafman. In the 10 years since Grafman first diagnosed Mack, she has seen some intellectual functions improve, the doctor said. Recovery has not been perfect, however. Mack still struggles with abstract concepts and becomes easily lost in unfamiliar surroundings. The diagnosis explained why Mack had experienced a lifetime of difficulty controlling her emotions. \"He's helped us understand the reason why I tend to throw fits, temper tantrums,\" she said. \"It was because I was missing half my brain.\" Mack will always have some problems, but dad Wally Mack said that Grafman's diagnosis and treatment answered a lot of questions and gave him hope. \"Dr. Grafman explained that the right hemisphere is taking over, and it might take her a little while longer to get there with all the rewiring that has to take place,\" he said. \"But that told us all these bad days are behind us and there are nothing but good days ahead.\" Michelle Mack is now 37 and lives with her mother and father. She works from home doing data entry for her church. She is fairly independent, pays rent and can do most household chores. She realizes she'll need help for the rest of her life but wanted to tell her story to make it clear that she is not helpless. \"I wanted to do this so people like producers, photographers and security guards and police officers learn about people like me,\" she said, \"that I'm normal but have special needs, and that there are a lot people like me, so that they could be more understanding.\" CNN's Campbell Brown contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Doctor: Lesion \"basically took away the left side\" of Michelle Mack's brain .\nRight side of her brain essentially rewired itself to take over left-side functions .\nShe lost some language ability, emotional control because of the rewiring .\nMack's message to the world: \"I'm normal but have special needs\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The FBI wants to question two men who were described as behaving oddly on a Washington state ferry earlier this summer. The FBI wants to speak with these two men seen on a ferry in Washington state earlier this summer. Members of the public and ferry workers reported the men to authorities after the two were seen pacing in areas of the boat, including a cargo hold, as if trying to measure distances, FBI Special Agent Larry Carr said Tuesday. The men were also seen about two months ago taking photographs of the ferries -- including restricted areas -- and studying an emergency evacuation poster. The men were spotted on multiple ferries and ferry routes, Carr said. The FBI wants to question the men to determine if their behavior was harmless or whether they were surveilling the ferries and ferry terminals for nefarious purposes. A ferry worker snapped photos of the men using a cell phone camera and gave the stills to law enforcement. The photos were shown to police and ferry workers, but no one could identify the men, so authorities called on the public for help. Pictures of the men have appeared in media outlets for more than a week. None of the 200 tips that have come in so far has led investigators to the men. Some news organizations have refused to publish the photos, saying the men have not been accused of a crime. It appears the men could be of Middle Eastern origin. Although the initial FBI news release on the men did not discuss their possible ethnicity, \"We just want to ensure that there is just one standard being implemented for suspicious behavior for both people who appear to be Middle Eastern and those who appear not to be Middle Eastern,\" said Naseem Tuffaha of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Carr said the FBI made the photos public because \"the result of not doing anything at that point in time is a ferry blowing up and thousands of people losing their lives. We can't let that happen.\" More than 25,000 people commute daily through the Seattle Ferry Terminal and more than 9 million people travel through the terminal annually, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation web site. But various FBI officials have stressed the agency is acting out of an abundance of caution and that the men seen on the ferry could have a logical and harmless explanation for what they were doing. Robbie Burroughs, also with the FBI in Seattle, said the ferry system could be an attractive target to terrorists. \"Here the ferries are the equivalent of subways, so we are cautious,\" Burroughs said last week when the effort to identify the men began. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. law enforcement has emphasized the need for the public to report suspicious behavior. Many such reports turn out to be nothing of concern. However, seizures of al Qaeda materials overseas have turned up reconnaissance photos taken in the United States. E-mail to a friend . CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve and senior producer Carol Cratty contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "FBI: Two men seen taking photos of Washington ferries, pacing a cargo hold .\nFBI asking public to help find men so agents can question them .\nSome media refuse to run photos of the men, saying men not accused of crime .\nIn Seattle \"ferries are the equivalent of subways,\" official says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The mayor of a small town in the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico was found shot dead Tuesday, apparently among the latest victims in the fight against organized crime in the region. Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, was mayor of Namiquipa, a small town in the state of Chihuahua. The body of Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, mayor of Namiquipa, was found inside his SUV on the side of a road on the outskirts of the rural town of 20,000, said Eduardo Esparza, spokesman for the attorney general in the state of Chihuahua. \"He was on his way to work in the morning,\" said Esparza. \"We are still trying to confirm if there was a police escort with him at the time.\" The incident has put other officials in the region on alert. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told CNN during a phone interview that death threats are common in his town on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. \"It's very sad,\" he said. \"This mayor was fighting crime, he had received several threats, but he was brave. Several of the mayors have received threats and we take them seriously.\" Reyes Ferriz said the mayors of the state's large cities have the resources to take sufficient precautions, but for the mayors of smaller towns like Namiquipa, such security is a luxury they often cannot afford. The mayor of Juarez and his family are protected by a 24-hour security detail and are driven in bulletproof vehicles. \"Sadly, this has become part of the process in the fight to regain security in the cities,\" Reyes Ferriz said. Asked whether he feared for his life or those of his family, he would not say. \"All the fears of a public servant are private,\" he answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, was mayor of Namiquipa in northern Mexico .\nFellow mayor: He \"was fighting crime, he had received several threats\"\nUnlike mayors of bigger cities, mayors of smaller towns often can't afford security .\nThe incident has put other officials state of Chihuahua on alert ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Editor's note: Erica Williams is deputy director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based organization that describes itself as dedicated to progressive causes. She works to engage the millennial generation and communities such as people of color, women and people of faith in the political process. She can be found at ericawilliamsonline.com and on Twitter at @ericawilliamsdc. Erica Williams says the idea that young people don't care about the health care issue is wrong. (CNN) -- As Congress returns to Capitol Hill, back from a recess of contentious town halls on health care reform, one new voice has the potential to break through the seemingly endless deadlock: the voice of young Americans. Just Thursday, there were more than 880,000 Facebook status updates posted with the meme of a demand for health care reform, generated organically and spread virally from young people and other Facebook users across the country. Some are regarding this as the first symbolic demonstration of young people's engagement in the debate despite the common, and categorically false, notion that young people \"don't care about health care reform.\" Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent nearly a third of the entire uninsured population, and two-thirds of those uninsured young people reported going without necessary medical care because of costs in 2007, according to research for the Commonwealth Fund. More than half of all young adults have low incomes (below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, $21,660 for a single person in 2009), and low-income young adults are more than 2.5 times as likely to be uninsured as higher-income young adults, according to the Urban Institute. And contrary to popular belief that young people see themselves as invincible college students who choose to remain uninsured, 56 percent of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are full-time workers who are half as likely to be covered by their employer as older workers. Millennials regarded health care reform as one of their top concerns during the 2008 election campaign, according to the Rock the Vote Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds, conducted in February 2008 by Lake Research Partners. Whether it is the 25-year-old freelancer with a pre-existing condition who can't purchase insurance in the individual market, the 20-year-old line cook who doesn't receive insurance through her job or the 28-year-old bank employee who is insured but is worried about the rising costs of premiums, young Americans experience the deficiencies of our health care system on a daily basis. Nevertheless, despite a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey showing that 60 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 support Obama's reform plan, the voice of young Americans has been strikingly absent from the public, televised national debate. And that silence is a dangerous state of affairs for the larger dialogue around reform. Young Americans have the most at stake and the longest to live with the result, and they are often the primary voice of a moral imperative (the idea that health care reform is not only economically necessary but the just and fair thing to do). Without their voices, the health care reform debate will continue to be stalled and hemmed in by older Americans who are in a better economic position than young people and who are afraid to change the status quo, despite all signs that it is rapidly failing. Young people were such a vital force during the election, not simply because of their own voting turnout but because of their ability to reach out to their elders and persuade them. And what could be more needed now? But if health care reform matters so much to young people and their voice is so crucial in the debate, why the silence? Why does it appear as if young people aren't interested in the debate that will inform so much of their future? Well, if we are gauging America's overall interest in the debate by the aforementioned displays of partisan yelling, screaming and death panel-ing at some town halls, no wonder we think young people don't care. Those sideshows were a clear turnoff to a population that voted overwhelming for less partisanship and \"drama\" in its politics. Or perhaps it is because this administration did little in the early stages of the debate to engage and activate a \"fired-up and ready to go\" base of young people that saw health care reform as a top concern at the polls. Obama rarely highlights the fact that reform would provide protections against price differentials that often result in discrimination based on age and gender. Or what about the fact that the president's reform proposal would mean that a young person can be covered up until the age of 26 by a parent's plan, rather than the current limit of 19 for those who don't attend college? This is what young people should have been told. But it isn't too late. As 2008 showed, young people, like all other constituencies, speak when spoken to. As the debate slogs into what is sure to be the most consequential stage of the battle, President Obama has a prime opportunity to speak directly to those who should have been the base of this issue all along. It is beyond time for the White House, and other organizers working to support reform, to hit college campuses and other community centers where young people can be found, both on- and offline, and empower them to make their voices heard. In the meantime, young people are doing it themselves. Students across the country are beginning to plan their own town hall events and forums, designing health care T-shirts and sending in photo petitions to their elected officials. They are demanding real reform and trying to get the health care debate back on track. In order to succeed, the fight for bold health care reform needs the enthusiasm, support and perspective of young people. And time is running out. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Erica Williams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Erica Williams: There's a myth that young people don't care about health care .\nShe says young people showed concern about the issue in 2008 .\nShe says they overwhelmingly support Obama's health care plans .\nWilliams: Reform fight needs enthusiasm and perspective of young people ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 35,000 fugitives across the United States were arrested in June as part of an annual sweep that teams the U.S. Marshals Service with local law enforcement in a summer push to clean up the streets, U.S. Marshals said Thursday. U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark says unregistered sex offenders were a major target. Among the 35,190 fugitives apprehended during Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Operating Nationally) were 2,356 fugitive sex offenders, the service said. \"This might be considered the cream of the crop for the most violent felons that are out there. For example, we arrested 433 murder suspects,\" said U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark at a Chicago, Illinois, news conference. In the course of the operation, the marshals also confiscated 582 firearms and 2,400 kilograms of narcotics. \"Often when we find fugitives in hiding, we have other fruits of their crimes: firearms, drugs, some other evidence of some type of criminal activity,\" Clark said. Unregistered sex offenders were a major target, Clark said. \"We highlighted one [case] here in the Chicago area. It involved an individual who was alleged to have molested a 9-year-old girl. He had violated his parole, and after an investigation he was located,\" he said. \"There's evidence of further crimes that happened since he didn't register as a sex offender. This is typical of the type of individual who is out there, somewhere on the streets of America, and is often harming children or others.\" One operation involved a Cleveland, Ohio, Police SWAT team and the U.S. Marshals, who were following a lead on Jeremiah Jackson, 29, who was wanted for murder, accused of shooting a woman in the back during a robbery. On June 9, the team surrounded a house where an intelligence surveillance team said Jackson might be. Jackson was reported to be armed and dangerous. But Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Koerbel said once Jackson saw the team, it had its man. \"When he saw he really had nowhere to go, he gave himself up,\" said Koerbel. \"He made the statement, 'I'm the guy you're looking for and I'll come right down.' \" In Cleveland, Koerbel said, the program was a success. \"We were able to arrest 1,211 people in a 30-day period. Five were for homicides,\" he said. Typically, the U.S. Marshals office in Cleveland arrests about 100 fugitives in any given month. \"This is just the type of operation that brings us all together and shows we're a force of one and shows the community we're here and this is a safe place to raise a family,\" Koerbel said. Jackson was jailed on $10 million bond. He has not entered a plea on the murder charge, but his father, Willie James Jackson, told CNN affiliate WJW the police have the wrong man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "U.S. marshals team with local law enforcement for annual sweep .\nNationwide operation apprehends 2,356 fugitive sex offenders, officials say .\nRaids also net 433 murder suspects, 2,400 kilograms of narcotics .\nIn Cleveland, Ohio, officials arrest 1,211 people in 30 days ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "DOBBS FERRY, New York (CNN) -- Jude Ndambuki teaches high school chemistry, but when he's not in class, you might find him Dumpster diving for discarded computers. Jude Ndambuki's Help Kenya Project provides refurbished computers for Kenyan students. For the past eight years, the Kenya native has been refurbishing computers, printers and other electronic educational resources otherwise headed for landfills, then sending them to grateful students back home. \"The children in Kenya have very few resources; even a pencil is very hard to get,\" said Ndambuki, 51, who lives in the New York City suburb of Dobbs Ferry. \"Being one of the kids who actually experienced very dire poverty in Kenya, I feel any part that I can play to make the life of kids better, I better do it.\" In lieu of compensation for the considerable time, expertise and expenses he devotes to his Help Kenya Project, Ndambuki asks that recipients plant 100 trees for every computer they receive. By connecting computer recycling, educational development and environmental conservation, he hopes to encourage a greener, more prosperous future for his country. The Help Kenya Project has provided more than 2,000 refurbished computers to Kenya's schools and planted more than 150,000 trees. Watch Ndambuki and his Help Kenya Project in action » . \"Many of the schools that I give computers [to] in Kenya have not seen computers before. So we're bringing them closer to the development,\" explained Ndambuki, adding that without this opportunity, some of those schools might have gone another 20 years without touching a computer. \"It's like giving the kids new life,\" he said. \"Computers are getting new life, and trees are being planted to bring a new life, too. It's all connected.\" Finding treasure in the trash . \"Growing up was not easy\" for Ndambuki, who said he became a teacher to help children who are struggling the way he did. The second of eight children raised by a widowed mother, Ndambuki attended school at the expense of his older brother; he quit because the family couldn't afford both boys' education. Ndambuki was appointed principal at a Kenya high school where he befriended American exchange students who helped bring him to the United States to further his education. In 1997, he arrived with his wife and two children for his new teaching post in a Dobbs Ferry private school. On a late-night walk home from continuing-education classes, he passed a computer thrown out on the curb for trash collection. He brought it home, where he found it was in perfect working order. It struck Ndambuki that the machines ending up in landfills could offer life-altering opportunities for children in his homeland. \"It all came together,\" recalled Ndambuki. \"Kids in Kenya need to know technology. It's the way of the world, and they will be left behind without it. I am determined to prepare them for office jobs instead of field work.\" The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that 98 percent of Kenya's public primary schools and 80 percent of public high schools lack computers. And 70 percent of Kenya's energy is derived from charcoal and firewood culled from the country's forests, according to the UN Environment Programme. \"There's a lot of trees that are cut every year,\" Ndambuki said. \"We find the land becomes bare, a lot of erosion of the soil takes place. So we need trees to be planted.\" The trees also help protect the computers from dust blowing in through the classroom windows, he said. Ndambuki ships a 40-foot container loaded with hundreds of refurbished computers to Kenya for distribution once a year. He and a few of his chemistry students often tinker with computer parts after classes, spending hours refurbishing, packing and preparing the shipments. Each Kenya school receives an average of five computers. To ensure that private data of the computers' former owners is not accessible to new users, the Help Kenya Project wipes that information from the machines, loads them with necessary memory and restores them to functioning order. Every two years, Ndambuki visits recipient schools to show teachers and students the basics of computer programming and maintenance. Some of his American students accompany him and help teach the computer classes. Watch Ndambuki trade technology for trees in his native Kenya village » . In addition, Ndambuki joins students, teachers and members of their communities to plant trees. \"While I'm doing this project, I feel so much connection with the kids in Kenya,\" he said. \"I'm not just gone to America to enjoy the good life. This has been a very nice bridge for me so that I can feel I've not left them.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Help Kenya Project and see how to help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jude Ndambuki's Help Kenya Project sends used computers to Kenyan students .\nIn exchange, recipients plant 100 trees for each computer .\nGroup has sent more than 2,000 computers, planted more than 150,000 trees ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Authorities in Colorado say criminal charges are expected to be filed against Richard Heene, a storm-chasing father whose giant Mylar balloon ascended into the sky earlier this week, sparking fears that his 6-year-old was aboard. Richard and Mayumi Heene leave the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Saturday. \"We do anticipate at some point in the future, there will be some criminal charges filed with regards to this incident,\" Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said. The saga captured the nation's attention early Thursday afternoon, after authorities reported the family's homemade helium balloon was set adrift, apparently with young Falcon Heene inside. Since then, speculation has mounted over whether the incident was a hoax by the father, who has appeared with his family on ABC's \"Wife Swap,\" and posted videos of storm chasing and other activities online. Earlier Saturday, in an impromptu press conference outside his home, Heene told reporters the runaway balloon incident was \"absolutely no hoax.\" The incident prompted a widespread search in northern Colorado that included law enforcement from several counties, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Colorado National Guard. It ended when Falcon climbed down from the attic above the garage at the family's Fort Collins, Colorado, home. If the incident was a hoax, the only charge local authorities could press would be making a false report to authorities -- a Class 3 misdemeanor, Alderden told reporters Saturday. However, a misdemeanor \"hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,\" the sheriff said. \"We certainly want to talk to FAA officials and federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that would be more appropriate in the circumstances than what we're able to do locally,\" he said. He said further details would be disclosed Sunday morning, and that neither Richard nor Mayumi Heene, who came in voluntarily Saturday, was under arrest. The couple emerged Saturday evening from the sheriff's office after several hours of interviews with investigators. \"I was talking to the sheriff's department just now to further things along,\" Richard Heene told reporters outside the building. \"We're doing well.\" He refused to take questions before the couple drove away in their minivan. Earlier Saturday, Heene emerged from his house and offered a cardboard box for the media to submit questions. Watch Heene reveal question box » . \"I got people e-mailing me, calling me; they've got a lot of questions, and I don't know how to quite frankly answer any of them other than I've got a box,\" Heene said around 10 a.m. He said he'd answer the questions later Saturday night. \"I'm going to place the box up front. Please write your questions down,\" he said. \"I have no idea what the news are saying. I don't have cable.\" Speculation began to mount over whether the incident was staged after the family appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Thursday night. Heene asked Falcon why he had not come out from hiding when his parents were calling for him. \"You guys said we did this for the show,\" the boy said. Heene said his son was confused when he made the \"show\" remark. There were media assembled on the front lawn asking all sorts of questions, and that's what Falcon was referring to, Heene said. Alderden said Friday that -- based on reports that the parents \"took these children into potentially dangerous situations\" with tornado chases, the experimental balloons and other activities -- it would be \"appropriate to involve child protection [services] to at least see what the family situation is and whether the children are in a safe condition.\" Earlier, the sheriff told reporters his department contacted child protection officials but asked them not to contact the family until investigators had a chance to re-interview them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Criminal charges expected \"sometime in the near future,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Sheriff says he wants to consult FAA to see if federal charges apply .\nFather of boy thought to be in runaway balloon says he'll answer questions .\nRichard Heene sets box in front of home to receive reporters' queries ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Some issues, it seems, still transcend America's increasingly bitter partisan divide. Ex-President George H.W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates smile during Obama's speech Friday. President Obama attended a community service forum at Texas A&M University on Friday hosted by one of his Republican predecessors, former President George H.W. Bush. Obama took the opportunity to emphasize that, regardless of partisan politics, the government can only do so much with the challenges facing Americans. \"We face threats to our health, our climate and, of course, our security that have left many of our young people wondering what kind of future they will be leaving for their own kids,\" Obama told the audience, which including the former president and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. \"Anyone here thinks that our government always has the solutions, President Bush and I will be the first to tell you that you'll be sorely disappointed.\" \"The government can build the best school, with the best teachers, but we can't run the PTA ... we can pass the most comprehensive health care reform bill, but Congress can't be on the ground in our communities caring for the sick and helping people lead healthy lives.\" The two leaders met at Bush's presidential library to celebrate almost two decades of work from the Points of Light Institute, which was founded with Bush's encouragement in 1990 to \"encourage and empower the spirit of service,\" according to the group's Web site. The Institute takes its name from Bush's 1989 inaugural address, where he referenced \"a thousand points of light ... all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.\" Obama lauded the former president's lifetime of service -- from his enlistment at 18 to his community work during retirement -- noting that Bush was the first president to create a White House office devoted to promoting volunteer work. The president said Bush's legacy of service affected the life of his own family. \"It's a vision that's changed lives across this country, including that of a young woman who went to work for an organization called Public Allies to prepare young people for public service careers -- an organization initially funded by the Bush administration,\" Obama said. \"Her experience there inspired her to devote her own life to serving others, and that young woman happens to be my wife, Michelle Obama.\" Obama latched onto the community service theme during last year's presidential campaign. He signed a measure in April designed to strengthen national community service efforts by boosting federal funding for thousands of volunteers in fields ranging from clean energy to health care and education. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, renamed to honor the late senator's sponsorship of the measure, will more than triple the number of positions in the AmeriCorps program, from 75,000 to 250,000, by 2017. \"Our government can help to rebuild our economy ... [but] we need Americans willing to mentor our eager young children, or care for the sick, or ease the strains of deployment on our military families,\" Obama said when signing the bill into law. The law created four national service corps and launched several other initiatives, including, among other things, a \"Summer of Service\" program to spur greater community outreach by middle- and high-school students. Older Americans were encouraged to volunteer more through the creation of a \"Silver Scholars\" program, under which individuals 55 and older who perform 350 hours of service receive a $1,000 award. The law increased the existing AmeriCorps educational stipend offered to volunteers to $5,350 -- the same amount as the maximum Pell college grant. Some critics have contended the measure, expected to cost roughly $6 billion over the next five years, is fiscally irresponsible in light of the current economic downturn. They also argue that the concept of volunteerism is undermined by providing financial compensation for community service. Points of Light Institute CEO Michelle Nunn, however, praised the legislation for encouraging people to \"volunteer their time and talents to positively impact the nation's largest problems.\" CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Obama speaks at forum hosted by ex-President George H.W. Bush.\nNEW: 44th president praises 41st for \"thousand points of light\" ethic .\nNEW: Obama: It \"changed lives across this country,\" including Michelle Obama's .\nObama: \"You'll be sorely disappointed\" expecting government to solve all problems ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The driver who collided with a vehicle driven by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps will be cited for failure to stop at a red light, police said Friday. Michael Phelps' black Cadillac Escalade collided with another vehicle at an intersection, police say. But the gold medal winner will also be cited -- for failure to present a valid driver's license and for failure to establish a Maryland residency and obtain a Maryland driver's license -- in connection with his involvement Thursday in a car wreck, police said Friday. At the scene, he presented a Michigan driver's license, which police determined \"was not valid,\" said Baltimore, Maryland, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Phelps was driving one of two vehicles that collided at an intersection about 9 p.m., Guglielmi said. The female driver of the second vehicle was transported to a local hospital as a precaution, Guglielmi said. Phelps and his two passengers were uninjured. Video from CNN affiliate WBAL showed Phelps' black Cadillac Escalade at the crash site. Watch wrecked cars at the intersection » . Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Earlier this year, he was suspended from organized competitive swimming after a photo of him holding a bong -- a device commonly used to smoke marijuana -- surfaced in February. CNN's Scott Spoerry contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Michael Phelps will be cited for failure to present a valid driver's license .\nOlympic champ driving one of 2 vehicles in Baltimore crash .\nFemale driver of 2nd vehicle taken to a hospital as a precaution, police say .\nCrash is under investigation, police spokesman says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- America's most recent war dead lie in a quiet patch of ground at Arlington National Cemetery known as Section 60. A soldier places flags alongside tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery. In that parcel are 485 men and women who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most tourists keep to other paths at the cemetery, visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns or President John F. Kennedy's gravesite. However, especially on Memorial Day weekend, relatives and friends pay their respects at the graves in Section 60. \"I wish that everyone in their lifetime could come here at least once,\" said David Christoff of Rossford, Ohio, as he stood where his son is buried. Marine Sgt. David Christoff Jr. died in Iraq two years ago at age 25. As his father's arms swept toward the rows of white granite gravestones, he said, \"You can see the cost of freedom. It's not free, by any means.\" \"These are all heroes. This is why we're free today. This is why my son was there.\" According to the latest numbers from the Department of Defense, 4,080 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq and 423 in Afghanistan. Arlington is one of more than 100 national cemeteries in the United States where there are military graves. Some families turn down the opportunity to have a loved one buried at Arlington, opting instead to have the grave closer to home. \"It's a hard place to be -- very emotional,\" said Jerry Fowler of Los Altos, California, while visiting the grave of her nephew, Army Sgt. Dale Brehm. He died in Iraq two years ago. \"All these people who lost their lives,\" Fowler said, \"and we just walk by like it's nothing. They meant something.\" \"When you walk down these rows,\" she added, \"you learn to respect every single person in this row, not just the person you came to see -- every one.\" At least 4 million people visit the cemetery each year, according to its Web site, and officials say Arlington, sadly, is running out of space for graves. There are more than 290,000 bodies buried there. Plans to expand the cemetery include seven areas where urns can hold the ashes of more than 100,000 people. Stepping lightly with heavy boots along the row of graves, Army medic Andrew Harriman of the 82nd Airborne dropped to one knee at several. \"We lost 22 guys from our unit,\" said the soldier, who was wounded in Iraq. He was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his valor. \"Every time I come to town, I stop by.\" Four of Harriman's friends are buried in Section 60. \"I don't think people realize how hard it is for the families and the co-workers or friends of these guys,\" he said. Also buried in Section 60 is Ross Andrew McGinnis of Knox, Pennsylvania. The 19-year-old Army specialist died in Baghdad when he threw himself on a grenade that had been tossed into his Humvee. He saved four fellow soldiers. Next month, McGinnis will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for his bravery. Not far from his resting place is the burial site of Capt. Maria Ines Ortiz, who became the first Army nurse killed in combat since Vietnam when she died in Iraq last year. Particularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves -- photographs of wives and children, children's drawings, coins, greeting cards, notes, stones and even unopened beer bottles. Nino Livaudes was killed in Iraq in April 2003. At his grave is a multicolored, handmade card bearing the message: \"You are my hero, Daddy. I am 4 years old, and I miss you and love you very much, Grant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than 290,000 veterans are buried at Arlington National Cemetery .\nSection 60 is final resting place for troops killed most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan .\nParticularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves .\n\"You are my hero, Daddy. ... I miss you,\" reads one handmade card ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from the housing projects of the Bronx to the top of the legal profession, made history Thursday when the Senate confirmed her to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Sonia Sotomayor, 55, will be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was easily confirmed in a 68-31 vote. Nine Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting her nomination. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, supported Sotomayor but was not present for the vote because of illness. Sotomayor, a 55-year-old federal appeals court judge, will be the 111th person to sit on the high court and the third female justice. She will be sworn in at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday. President Obama, who selected Sotomayor on May 26, said he was \"deeply gratified\" by the Senate vote. \"This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America,\" Obama said at the White House. Watch Obama's remarks » . Watching the final vote with friends and family at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Sotomayor was confirmed after senators spent a final day of debate rehashing arguments for and against her. Democrats continued to praised Sotomayor as a fair and impartial jurist with an extraordinary life story. Many Republicans portrayed her as a judicial activist intent on reinterpreting the law to conform with her own liberal political beliefs. Among other things, Republican opponents emphasized concerns over her statements and rulings on hot-button issues such as gun control, affirmative action and property rights. See how Sotomayor measures up with her new colleagues » . They also raised questions about some of her most controversial speeches and statements, including her hope that a \"wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences\" would reach a better conclusion than a white man \"who hasn't lived that life.\" Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped close the debate by stressing the historic nature of the nomination. \"It is distinctively American to continually refine our union, moving us closer to our ideals. Our union is not yet perfected, but with this confirmation, we will be making progress,\" Leahy said on the Senate floor. \"Years from now, we will remember this time, when we crossed paths with the quintessentially American journey of Sonia Sotomayor, and when our nation took another step forward through this historic confirmation process.\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, took aim at what he claimed was Sotomayor's inability to refrain from bringing her personal political opinions to bear on her rulings. \"This is the most fundamental test for any judge and all the more so for those who would sit on our nation's highest court, where a judge's impulses and preferences are not subject to review. Because I'm not convinced that Judge Sotomayor would keep this commitment, I cannot support her nomination.\" Several Republicans, however, bucked party leadership by voting in favor of Sotomayor. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced Thursday morning that he had decided to back Sotomayor after weighing a range of factors, including her education, experience and temperament. \"Judge Sotomayor is not the nominee I would have selected if I were president, but making a nomination is not my role here today,\" Voinovich said. \"My role is to examine her qualifications to determine if she is fit to serve. ... Based on my review of her record, and using these factors, I have determined that Judge Sotomayor meets the criteria to become a justice on the Supreme Court.\" Voinovich was joined by Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, New Hampshire's Judd Gregg, Indiana's Richard Lugar, Missouri's Kit Bond, Florida's Mel Martinez, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander. Watch the Senate vote » . In a telling political sign, none of the Republicans who voted for Sotomayor is seeking re-election in 2010. Conservative activists, including the powerful National Rifle Association, mounted a concerted effort to rally GOP opposition to Sotomayor. The abortion issue also played a significant role in the nomination, with abortion-rights supporters backing Sotomayor and opponents urging her defeat. \"Today's historic vote is a sign of progress for Americans who want a Supreme Court that values individual freedom and privacy,\" said Nancy Keenan, head of the group National Abortion Rights Action League Pro-Choice America. Charmaine Yoest, head of Americans United For Life, praised the 31 Republican senators who opposed Sotomayor for a \"stunning vote of 'no confidence' in a nominee whose background of abortion advocacy and record of judicial interventionism raise serious questions about her fitness for the high court.\" Underlying the debate over Sotomayor was the larger political question of whether the Republican Party risked alienating Hispanic voters by opposing the first Latina nominee. The party's share of the Hispanic vote dropped sharply in last year's presidential election. \"If you meet all of the challenges that you are told you need to meet and still you can be told no, despite fidelity to Constitution, the law and precedent, then it sends a tough message to us as a community,\" said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey. Sotomayor's confirmation capped an extraordinary rise from humble beginnings. Her parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father worked in a factory and didn't speak English. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in a public housing project, not far from the stadium of her favorite team, the New York Yankees. Her father died when she was 9, leaving her mother to raise her and her younger brother. Her mother, whom Sotomayor has described as her biggest inspiration, worked six days a week to care for her and her brother, and instilled in them the value of an education. Sotomayor later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and went on to attend Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. She worked at nearly every level of the judicial system over a three-decade career before being chosen by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Accepting the nomination, Sotomayor thanked Obama for \"the most humbling honor of my life.\" After the selection, Sotomayor was touted by her supporters as a justice with bipartisan favor and historic appeal. She has served as a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1998. She was named a district judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and was elevated to her current seat by President Clinton. Sotomayor presided over about 450 cases while on the district court. Before her judicial appointments, she was a partner at a private law firm and spent time as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes. CNN's Lisa Desjardins, Kristi Keck and Bill Mears contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NEW: Abortion opponent praises 31 Republican senators who voted \"no\"\nSonia Sotomayor wins confirmation by 68-31 vote .\nShe will be the 111th justice, the third woman and first Hispanic on high court .\nNine Republicans join unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting nomination ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Amanda Knox's parents are hopeful that an Italian court's decision not to re-evaluate the evidence against their daughter means she will be found not guilty of killing her roommate. Edda Mellas and Curt Knox say they have never believed their daughter was guilty. \"We asked for the independent review because we were sure that anybody [who] independently looked at it would support our position,\" Edda Mellas, Knox's mother, told CNN's Larry King in an interview to air Friday night. \"Now, maybe the court decided that they don't even need that support. That our arguments have already been good enough.\" Knox, of Seattle, Washington, has been in an Italian jail and on trial for nearly two years on charges that she helped murder her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher. Knox's defense lawyers had asked the court for an independent review of the evidence, which can be requested if there is contested or contradicting evidence. Prosecutors say a kitchen knife, allegedly the murder weapon, has Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade. The defense disputes that, but last Friday, the court denied the request for a review. Closing arguments in the trial are expected at the beginning of November, and Knox's parents hope a verdict will finally vindicate their daughter. Watch Curt Knox say why he thinks his daughter was arrested » . Her father, Curt Knox, told CNN that he thinks Amanda Knox was targeted as a suspect from the beginning. Within days of Kercher's murder, Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were questioned and portrayed in the media as the undisputed killers. \"I believe that there was a huge mistake made very, very early on by, you know, having a -- literally a 'case closed,' you know, presentation by the police over there,\" he said. Prosecutors held news conferences weeks after the killing, declaring the case solved. Knox, Sollecito and bar owner Patrick Lumumba were believed to have killed Kercher during a sexual game gone horribly awry. Knox was criticized in newspapers and tabloids around the world for her demeanor after the killing, which included photos of her and Sollecito comforting each other as crime scene investigators looked for clues in her house. Knox's mother told King that those headlines couldn't be further from the truth. \"You know, she's very much a person who internalizes,\" Mellas said. \"She was extremely upset, and her roommate testified that when she found out it was Meredith that was killed, she was very upset. She cried; she did all of that. But by the time those photos were taken, it was hours later, and she was being comforted by Raffaele.\" As the investigation went on, the scenario of what happened changed. Lumumba was released because he had an airtight alibi, and DNA evidence from the crime scene soon pointed to a different suspect: Rudy Guede. Guede was sentenced to 30 years for the murder in a separate trial and is appealing the verdict. Knox's parents believe that Guede is the sole killer, but because the prosecution hammered the idea that Knox and Sollecito were guilty, they couldn't back away from it. \"They were just too far into it, and they've been trying to press it ever since,\" Curt Knox said. Knox's family and friends insist that the girl they know wouldn't kill anyone. Her parents say they never believed that she was guilty. After the murder, Mellas said, friends and family told Knox to leave Italy -- to either come home or stay with relatives in Germany -- but Knox refused because she wanted to help find the killer and prove that she had nothing to do with it. \"Many people asked her to leave, but she said no. 'I'm going to stay. I'm going to try and help. I'm going to try and finish school,' \" Mellas said. Looking back, her parents wish Knox had left. Now, all they can do is wait -- and hope things turn out how they believe they should. \"We have to believe that what they're hearing in court -- and it's so clear that she had nothing to do with it -- then they'll come out with the right answer,\" Curt Knox said. \"I mean, that's -- that's what we have to believe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Knox is on trial in Italy, accused of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher .\nItalian court refused defense request to re-evaluate evidence .\nAmanda Knox's parents hope that means she will be found not guilty of murder ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In this new weekly feature, CNN.com highlights five recommended Twitter feeds about a hot topic in the news. Despite her importance in the health care debate, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is not on Twitter. (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate Finance Committee this week passed a 10-year, $829 billion health care reform bill -- partly because of a \"yes\" vote from a lone Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. Snowe doesn't appear to be on Twitter. Too bad. But plenty of other people are posting about health care reform and the U.S. health care system on the micro-blogging site. This list of health care twitterers is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to tell us about your favorites in the comments section below. 1. PolitiFact: The health care reform debate has been nothing if not confusing. \"Death panels,\" \"tea parties,\" Rep. Joe Wilson shouting \"You lie!\" at the president. It's a mess to sort through, especially on a vat of commentary and opinion like Twitter. Luckily, there are feeds like @PolitiFact to help. This Pulitzer-Prize-winning news group, which is part of the St. Petersburg Times, sorts fact from fiction on the health care debate and other topics. That \"You lie!\" comment, for instance? A lie, Politifact says. Followers: More than 4,800 . Sample tweet: We fact-check whether the Baucus #healthcare bill would tax medical devices such as X-ray tests and surgical needles http://bit.ly/dzZdu . 2. SusannahFox: Fox is a researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Doesn't sound very health-care-relevant, huh? But Fox's Twitter feed is packed with anecdotes and statistics about how social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are changing doctor-patient relationships and the state of health care at large. Followers: More than 2,150 . Sample tweet: Pew Internet: 38% of internet users look online for information about hospitals or other medical facilities http://bit.ly/oS9mq . 3. kevinmd: Blogger and doctor Kevin Pho offers up commentary on his life as a physician and the health care system. His random tidbits of medical information can be a riot, especially if you're looking in from outside the medical community. Followers: More than 15,300 . Sample tweet: Should medical journals use the term nauseous, nauseated, or nauseating? http://bit.ly/1yffx . 4. whitehouse: Buildings can type? Apparently. The official White House Twitter feed covers a slate of topics, but heath care has been especially big on the administration's recent tweeting agenda. Followers: More than 1.3 million . Sample tweet: Jibber jabber on costs in reform from protectors of the status quo. Take it from the expert instead: http://bit.ly/4CGmMs . 5. AmerMedicalAssn: This doctors' group tries to spice up the health care debate with its purple font! Oh, and tons of newsy updates on the latest votes, disputes and developments. Followers: More than 5,600 . Sample tweet: Why do #healthcare costs keep rising? An in-depth analysis of America's health system. @ThisAmericanLife http://ow.ly/u0JX ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On \"Follow Friday,\" CNN.com recommends Twitter feeds on a news topic .\nThis week's topic: The U.S. debate over health care .\nSusannahFox comments on health care and social media .\nkevinmd posts insights from his life as a physician ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(The Frisky) -- Virgin Airlines heir Sam Branson was hanging out with Andy Roddick, and couldn't resist challenging him to a bet. Andy Roddick played left-handed against Sam Branson and still won. Branson wagered $150 that he could beat Roddick in a tennis match, as long as the right-handed sports star played with his left hand. Even as a leftie, Roddick cleaned up. They played one set and Branson didn't score a single point. Since celebrities have so much money to throw around, they often amuse themselves by placing weird bets. Peep a few more who've put their money where their mouth is. 1. George Clooney was so convinced he'd still be childless and unmarried when he hit 40 that in 2001, he bet Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer $10,000 each. The two gals just couldn't believe that this hunky dude wouldn't be tied down. But they were wrong. That's $20,000 for bachelor George! The Frisky: They dated? Hollywood's oddest hookups . 2. Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry made a bet on the set of \"The Whole Nine Yards.\" Perry allegedly thought the film would open at the top of the charts in the U.S. but Willis wasn't feelin' it. When Bruce lost, he had to do a cameo on \"Friends.\" Doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, he had to give away all the money he made. The good news is, he gave it to charity. The Frisky: Celebs whose new loves look just like their exes . 3. Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio each bet $25,000 that the other would become a father first. The Frisky: Hollywood hotties set to play historical figures . When Maguire's fiance had their first kid, the actor had to pay up. He gave DiCaprio the cash, but didn't mind. Cause, uh, he was a dad. TM & © 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Celebs have so much money they amuse themselves sometimes by placing bets .\nSam Branson bet Andy Roddick he could beat him at a tennis match .\nGeorge Clooney bet two actresses he'd still be childless at 40 .\nBruce Willis lost a bet to Matthew Perry and had to appear on \"Friends\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A woman hospitalized after spending time in a sauna-like \"sweatbox\" has died, bringing the total fatalities to three, authorities said late Saturday. Retreat participants spent up to two hours inside the sweatbox, the sheriff's office said. In addition to the deaths, 18 others were injured at the October 8 event at Angel Valley Retreat Center near Sedona, Arizona. The latest victim, Lizabeth Neuman, 49, was a Minnesota mother of three. She died at the Flagstaff Medical Center, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. There were up to 65 visitors, ages 30 to 60, at the resort attending the \"Spiritual Warrior\" program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, according to authorities. Participants spent up to two hours inside the sweatbox, a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets, the sheriff's office said. Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in the enclosed environment. Neuman's attorney, Lou Diesel, told CNN her family is cooperating with the investigation and once it's complete, he will \"take all the appropriate actions in response to those responsible for Liz's death.\" Fire and rescue officials received an emergency call from the resort and transported the injured by air and land ambulances to nearby medical facilities, the sheriff's office said. Two people were pronounced dead shortly after arrival at a local medical center. A homicide investigation into the incident is under way, authorities said. The other retreat participants who were hospitalized have since been released. Ray is widely known for programs that claim to teach individuals how to create wealth from all aspects of their lives -- financially, mentally, physically and spiritually. He has appeared on various national programs, including CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sweatbox\" retreat claims third victim, a Minnesota woman .\nRetreat participants fell ill after spending hours in hot, dome-like structure .\n\"Spiritual Warrior\" program was led by self-help guru James Arthur Ray .\nPolice are conducting a homicide investigation into \"sweatbox\" deaths ." } ]

[ { "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 doctor who implanted six embryos in octuplets' mother Nadya Suleman last year has been expelled from a fertility medical society, a spokesman for the group said. Nadya Suleman gave birth to eight babies after being implanted with six embryos by Dr. Michael Kamrava. Dr. Michael Kamrava demonstrated \"a pattern of behavior that violated the group's standards,\" American Society for Reproductive Medicine spokesman Sean Tipton said. An employee at Kamrava's Beverly Hills, California, clinic -- the West Coast IVF Clinic -- said the doctor would not be commenting on the expulsion. The expulsion, which was imposed last month and just announced, does not affect Kamrava's ability to practice, because affiliation with the professional association is voluntary. Suleman was 33 years old in January 2009 when she gave birth to eight babies. She was a single woman who already had six young children conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The reproductive medicine society recommends no more than two embryos for women under 35 years old and no more than five for women over 40, for whom it is harder to get pregnant, according to guidelines published on its Web site. Suleman, in an interview in February on NBC, said Kamrava told her about risks for the children, but she did not want to have only one or two embryos implanted. \"Of course not, I wanted them all transferred,\" she said. \"Those are my children. And that's what was available and I used them. I took a risk. It's a gamble. It always is.\" Two of the six embryos split in utero, resulting in the birth of eight babies. Doctors say giving birth to extreme multiples comes with tremendous risks for the mother and the babies. Risks for the children include bleeding in the brain, intestinal problems, developmental delays and lifelong learning disabilities. Suleman's children, six boys and two girls born nine weeks premature, all went home after an extended stay in the hospital. No indication has been given on whether any problems have emerged. Suleman and her children will star in a \"quasi-reality TV series\" about the family, it was announced in June. CNN's Carey Bodenheimer contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reproductive medicine society: Dr. Michael Kamrava \"violated\" standards .\nKamrava implanted Nadya Suleman with six embryos before octuplets' birth .\nExpulsion from group does not affect Kamrava's ability to practice .\nGroup advises no more than two embryos for women under age 35 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has granted a condemned Georgia inmate's request that his execution be delayed as he attempts to prove his innocence. Troy Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. The inmate, Troy Davis, has gained international support for his long-standing claim that he did not murder a Savannah police officer nearly two decades ago. Justice John Paul Stevens on Monday ordered a federal judge to \"receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at trial clearly establishes petitioner's innocence.\" Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer supported the decision. Sonia Sotomayor, who was sworn in August 8 as the newest member of the high court, did not take part in the petition. Davis' case has had a dramatic series of ups and downs in the past year. He was granted a stay of execution by the Supreme Court two hours before he was to be put to death last fall. A month later, the justices reversed course and allowed the execution to proceed, but a federal appeals court then issued another stay. The high court's latest ruling means Davis will continue to sit on death row. Stevens said the risk of putting a potentially innocent man to death \"provides adequate justification\" for another evidentiary hearing. His supporters in June delivered petitions bearing about 60,000 signatures to Chatham County, Georgia, District Attorney Larry Chisolm, calling for a new trial. Chisolm is the county's first African-American district attorney. Davis is also African-American. Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. Witnesses said Davis, then 19, and two others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King restaurant parking lot when the off-duty officer arrived to help the man. Witnesses testified at trial that Davis then shot MacPhail twice and fled. But since his 1991 conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman. The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board last year held closed-door hearings and reinterviewed the witnesses and Davis himself. The panel decided against clemency. MacPhail's mother, Annaliese, told CNN at the time, \"This is what we were hoping for, and I hope pretty soon that we will have some peace and start our life, especially my grandchildren -- my grandson and granddaughter. It has overshadowed their lives.\" After the justices in October refused to grant a stay of execution, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, told CNN she was \"disgusted\" by the decision. \"It doesn't make any sense,\" she said. \"We are praying for a miracle or some kind of intervention. We will regroup and fight. We will never stop fighting. We just can't be discouraged. The fight is not over till it's over.\" Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision Monday, calling it a \"fool's errand.\" \"Petitioner's claim is a sure loser,\" wrote Scalia. \"Transferring his petition to the [federal] District Court is a confusing exercise that can serve no purpose except to delay the state's execution of its lawful criminal judgment.\" Ten days after the high court refused last October to intervene, a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution. Since then, further appeals by Davis' legal team have dragged on for nearly a year. Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial. Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Supreme Court's latest ruling means Troy Davis will continue to sit on death row .\nDavis was convicted in 1991 of murdering a Savannah, Georgia, police officer .\nSince his conviction, 7 of 9 witnesses against him have recanted their testimony .\nJustices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson ended a trip to the Ivory Coast on Friday, after he spoke to leaders from the nation's political parties and was honored as a prince by a tribe in the West African nation. Jesse Jackson says ceremony to name him a prince of the Agni people was \"very exciting.\" Jackson said he met with President Laurent Gbagbo and leading members of two opposition parties, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. Bedie is a former president of the nation and Ouattara is a former prime minister. Jackson said his mission was not to endorse a candidate, \"but a process.\" \"I wanted the three of them to agree ... [to] campaign vigorously ... not to create divisive language, to each agree to support the winner, [and] end the [U.N.] sanctions,\" he said. \"I think there's a common agreement on these points. This country has so much to offer the world and Africa.\" The United Nations imposed sanctions on the nation in 2004, among them, a ban on arms and diamond trades, a travel ban and asset freezes for some individuals. The sanctions, renewed last year, are in effect until October 29. Earlier in Jackson's trip, Amon N'Douffou V, king of the Krindjabo kingdom, named Jackson a prince of the Agni people, news reports said. Jackson said it was a \"very exciting ceremony.\" Jackson's wife, Jacqueline, suffered a broken leg during the trip when a stage she and her husband were on collapsed, Jackson told CNN in a telephone interview. \"We had excellent medical care,\" the pastor said, adding that the collapse was \"not the fault of the organizers,\" but that too many people had gathered on the stage. Official news agency Agence Ivoirienne de Presse reported that the stage collapse occurred in a sports complex in Yopougon, north of Abidjan. A doctor was to accompany them on their Friday night flight back to the United States, Jackson said. The coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials. In a July 30 statement, the U.N. Security Council said \"any postponement of the elections of 29 November would be inconsistent with a credible process\" and with a peace agreement that had followed an armed rebellion in 2002 that had divided the country in two. The Security Council said it would review progress toward elections before October 15. In March, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the \"United States believes that long-delayed presidential elections are still technically possible in 2009 and calls on all parties to take every step necessary to ensure that credible elections go forward as promised.\" The statement said more than 5.7 million people had been enrolled as voters on a \"preliminary basis.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials .\nJackson meets with president, opposition leaders in trip to West African nation .\nLeader of Krindjabo kingdom reportedly names Jackson a prince of the Agni people .\nJackson: Wife received \"excellent medical care\" after breaking leg in stage collapse ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Two international staffers supporting the peacekeeping mission in the volatile Sudanese region of Darfur were kidnapped Saturday morning, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force told CNN. Soldiers with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) pictured in June. The man and the woman, whose identities and nationalities were withheld, worked for UNAMID, a U.N. and African Union force designated to keep peace in Darfur. \"Our people have been able to establish contact with the people responsible for the abduction,\" said UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni, but he declined to identify the abductors. The organization is \"asking for their immediate release,\" Mezni added. The peacekeeping force began operations in Darfur in December 2007 and is expected to remain there until July 2010, according to UNAMID's Web site. As of July 31 its force is comprised of more than 13,000 troops from 39 countries. As of June 30, 999 international civilian personnel were on staff, according to the site. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan denies the death toll is that high. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Arab militias with ties to the Sudanese government went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "United Nations estimates 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur .\nForce began operations in Darfur in December 2007, expected to remain till 2010 .\nViolence erupted in 2003 after rebels began uprising against Sudanese government ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Mental Floss) -- Because you weren't going into botany, the priesthood, or coin manufacturing, you thought you were safe to dismiss Latin as a dead language. Obviously, you didn't graduate cum laude. I think, therefore I am the famous statue \"The Thinker\" by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Latin is about as dead as Elvis (who, by the way, made $54 million in 2004). Whether you're deciphering a cryptic state seal or trying to impress your Catholic in-laws, knowing some Latin has its advantages. But the operative word here is \"some.\" The ability to translate The Aeneid probably isn't going to come in handy anytime soon, so we'll start you off with 9 phrases that have survived the hatchet men of time (in all their pretentious glory). Caveat Emptor: (KAV-ee-OT emp-TOR): \"Let the buyer beware\" Before money-back guarantees and 20-year warranties, caveat emptor was indispensable advice for the consumer. These days, it'd be more fitting to have it tattooed on the foreheads of used-car salesmen, infomercial actors, and prostitutes. For extra credit points, remember that caveat often makes solo appearances at cocktail parties as a fancy term for a warning or caution. Oh, and just so you know, caveat lector means \"let the reader beware.\" Persona Non Grata: (puhr-SOH-nah non GRAH-tah): \"An unacceptable person\" Remember your old college buddy, the one everybody called Chugger? Now picture him at a debutante ball, and you'll start to get a sense of someone with persona non grata status. The term is most commonly used in diplomatic circles to indicate that a person is unwelcome due to ideological differences or a breach of trust. Sometimes, the tag refers to a pariah, a ne'er-do-well, a killjoy, or an interloper, but it's always subjective. Michael Moore was treated as a persona non grata at the Republican National Convention. Bill O'Reilly would experience the same at Burning Man. Habeas Corpus: (HAY-bee-as KOR-pus): \"You have the body\" When you wake up in the New Orleans Parish Prison after a foggy night at Mardi Gras, remember this one. In a nutshell, habeas corpus is what separates us from savages. It's the legal principle that guarantees an inmate the right to appear before a judge in court, so it can be determined whether or not that person is being lawfully imprisoned. It's also one of the cornerstones of the American and British legal systems. Without it, tyrannical and unjust imprisonments would be possible. In situations where national security is at risk, however, habeas corpus can be suspended. Cogito Ergo Sum: (CO-gee-toe ER-go SOME): \"I think, therefore I am\" When all those spirited mental wrestling matches you have about existentialism start growing old (yeah, right!), you can always put an end to the debate with cogito ergo sum. René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher, coined the phrase as a means of justifying reality. According to him, nothing in life could be proven except one's thoughts. Well, so he thought, anyway. E Pluribus Unum: (EE PLUR-uh-buhs OOH-nuhm): \"Out of many, one\" Less unique than it sounds, America's original national motto, e pluribus unum, was plagiarized from an ancient recipe for salad dressing. In the 18th century, haughty intellectuals were fond of this phrase. It was the kind of thing gentlemen's magazines would use to describe their year-end editions. But the term made its first appearance in Virgil's poem \"Moretum\" to describe salad dressing. The ingredients, he wrote, would surrender their individual aesthetic when mixed with others to form one unique, homogenous, harmonious, and tasty concoction. As a slogan, it really nailed that whole cultural melting pot thing we were going for. And while it continues to appear on U.S. coins, \"In God We Trust\" came along later (officially in 1956) to share the motto spotlight. Quid Pro Quo: (kwid proh KWOH): \"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours\" Given that quid pro quo refers to a deal or trade, it's no wonder the Brits nicknamed their almighty pound the \"quid.\" And if you give someone some quid, you're going to expect some quo. The phrase often lives in the courtroom, where guilt and innocence are the currency. It's the oil that lubricates our legal system. Something of a quantified value is traded for something of equal value; elements are parted and parceled off until quid pro quo is achieved. Most recently, Arizona Senator John McCain co-opted the phrase to describe campaign finance and influence pedaling because he believes that one doesn't give major milk to a campaign without expecting major cheese in return. Ad Hominem: (ad HAH-mi-nem): \"To attack the man\" In the world of public discourse, ad hominem is a means of attacking one's rhetorical opponent by questioning his or her reputation or expertise rather than sticking to the issue at hand. Translation: Politicians are really good at it. People who resort to ad hominem techniques are usually derided as having a diluted argument or lack of discipline. If pressed, they'll brandish it like a saber and refuse to get back to the heart of the matter. Who said the debate team doesn't have sex appeal? Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: (ad-MA-yor-em DAY-ee GLOR-ee-um): \"All for the Greater Glory of God\" Ad majorem dei gloriam is often shortened to AMDG. In other words, it's the WWJD of the Jesuits, who've been drilling the mantra into their followers since (Saint) Ignatius of Loyola founded the Catholic Order in 1534. They believe all actions, big or small, should be done with AMDG in mind. Remind your Jesuit-educated buddies of this when they seem to be straying from the path. (Best used with a wink and a hint of irony.) Sui Generis:(SOO-ee JEN-er-is): \"Of its own genus,\" or \"Unique and unable to classify\" Frank Zappa, the VW Beetle, cheese in a can, that feeling you get when the Red Sox win the World Series: Sui generis refers to something that's so new, so bizarre, or so rare that it defies categorization. Granted, labeling something \"sui generis\" is really just classifying the unclassifiable. But let's not over-think it. Use it at a dinner party to describe Andy Kaufman, and you impress your friends. Use it too often, and you just sound pretentious. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nine Latin phrases commonly used today .\nPersona non grata: Person unwelcome due to ideological differences .\nQuid pro quo refers to a deal or trade .\nSui generis refers to something so new or bizarre it defies categorization ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- He armors himself, keeps other people guessing and likes to wear a mask. Christian Bale is known as a hard worker who immerses himself in his characters. Batman? Try Christian Bale. Though in his case the armor and mask are metaphorical, the 34-year-old \"Dark Knight\" star likes to keep his personal life as shadowy as a superhero's back story. He's been known to keep a low profile -- \"You will never see me at a party,\" he told the Times of London -- and delights in concocting stories about his life. \"I make up [things],\" he told Details magazine earlier this year. \"Absolutely. I'm an actor -- I'm not a politician. I always kick myself when I talk too much about family, or personal things. I'll enjoy chatting now and then later I'll regret it.\" But with the explosive impact of \"The Dark Knight\" -- the film has set box office records in the 10 days since its release, becoming the fastest film to reach the $300 million mark in history -- and the forthcoming release of the fourth \"Terminator,\" which will star Bale, he may find his privacy limited. (\"The Dark Knight\" is a Warner Bros. film. The studio, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.) \"Can he stand the glare of the spotlight?\" a rival studio executive asked Entertainment Weekly. \"Being put in major roles and major films?\" Already there are signs that Bale has made the jump from actor to movie star. Last week, news of an alleged hotel-room tussle between the actor, his mother and his sister made headlines around the world. Bale, who has denied the allegations, described the incident as \"a deeply personal matter\" and asked the media to \"respect my privacy in the matter\" at a press conference. Watch the latest on the incident » . In general, he's been successful at making sure his personal matters are off-limits. Though willing to do interviews about his films -- the Internet is filled with them -- he usually sticks to talking about their production and his performances, reluctant to bring up his personal life. A few facts are well established: Christian Bale was born January 30, 1974, in Wales. His father, a former RAF pilot, once served as a film double for John Wayne; his mother was a one-time circus performer. (After divorcing his mother, Bale's father later married women's-rights advocate Gloria Steinem.) The family moved often, with Bale estimating he lived in 15 different places in his first 15 years. He started his acting career while still a child. He received his first acting break appearing opposite Rowan Atkinson (\"Mr. Bean\") in the London stage show \"The Nerd\" in 1984, followed by two British TV miniseries. At 12 he was plucked from 4,000 hopefuls to star in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film \"Empire of the Sun.\" (According to the Times of London, he was recommended by Spielberg's then wife, Amy Irving.) Even then he disliked dealing with the press: he abruptly walked out of a Paris press conference for \"Empire\" while promoting the film. \"Empire\" was followed by an eclectic filmography: Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation \"Henry V\" (1989); the musical \"Newsies\" (1992); the historical drama \"Swing Kids\" (1993); and the 1994 version of \"Little Women,\" which made him a sex symbol to a group of \"Baleheads.\" (He was one of the first stars to have a fan site devoted to him.) Through the latter, he also met his future wife, Sandra Blazic, a onetime assistant to \"Little Women\" star Winona Ryder. The two have been married for eight years, and have a 3-year-old daughter. By the late '90s, he was acting in a number of independent films, including \"Metroland\" (1997), based on a Julian Barnes novel about London yuppies; \"Velvet Goldmine\" (1998), the Todd Haynes film that starred Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as early-'70s rockers; and, most infamously, \"American Psycho\" (2000), based on the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel about a vicious serial killer who hides behind a bland investment banker persona. iReport.com: Your thoughts on 'Dark Knight' Bale has said he was more affected by trying to get the \"Psycho\" part than the role itself. He was strung along -- the studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio, who was slated for it but walked after contract negotiations broke down -- and put a number of projects on hold while hoping the role would come through. But making the movie, which was given an NC-17 rating by the ratings board for its (often implied) violence and sex -- was fairly easy, he told Entertainment Weekly in 2000. \"I can't say I felt queasy once making this movie. ... I slept really well,\" he told the magazine. \"I played Jesus in this TV thing [NBC's 'Mary, Mother of Jesus'] after doing 'American Psycho' -- I had nightmares the whole time, like I haven't had since I was 10 years old. ... But ['Psycho' character] Patrick Bateman? Nothing.\" Since \"American Psycho,\" Bale has become as known for his work ethic as his performances. He dropped 60 pounds for \"The Machinist,\" about a blue-collar worker afflicted with insomnia, and then bulked up again for \"Batman Begins,\" his first go-round at the Batman role. He played a disturbed military veteran in \"Harsh Times\" (2006), investing the role with such intensity that he shocked director David Ayer, and ate worms in \"Rescue Dawn,\" which he made for the equally intense director Werner Herzog. He changes his natural English accent for each role, to the extent of doing publicity in his character's voice. He's said on many occasions that he tries many roles for \"the experience.\" But it's \"The Dark Knight\" that has everybody buzzing. In interviews for the movie, Bale has been eager to shine the spotlight on his fellow cast members, notably the late Heath Ledger and co-star Michael Caine, and even his stunt double. Watch Bale talk about the film and Ledger » . But director Christopher Nolan -- who's now directed Bale in three films (the two Batmans and \"The Prestige\") -- says the actor deserves praise in his own right. \"I knew I wanted to work with him when I saw him in 'American Psycho,' \" he told USA Today. \"You have to be extremely talented to take that kind of absurd violence and make it funny. That's what I wanted for Batman, too.\" With \"The Dark Knight\" earning raves and raking in money, Bale would seem to have his pick of future roles. He loves working with Nolan -- he's intimated that he'd sign on for \"Batman 3\" if Nolan's on board -- and doesn't seem to care if the role is for a small-scale indie or a big-budget summer blockbuster. But give people a bigger glimpse of Christian Bale? That's not going to happen if he can help it. Indeed, he takes pride in his anonymity. He told Details of two incidents -- one in which an agent didn't recognize him, another with a casting director who confused him with Christian Slater -- that encouraged him, and told the Los Angeles Times he will continue to make things up to entertain himself during endless movie junkets: \"I have no desire for people to get their facts right about me,\" he said. What finally matters, he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune while promoting \"The Prestige\" (a film in which he convincingly played a magician), is the work. Acting, he pointed out, has its blessings. \"We're fortunate that it's easy for us to disappear inside our characters,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Christian Bale prizes his privacy .\nActor has been known to make up stories about himself .\nWith success of \"Dark Knight,\" he may find spotlight shining more brightly ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's long simmering battle against corruption has come to a boil, this time in Chongqing, the largest megalopolis in the world. A massive crackdown has implicated millionaires, gangsters, and even police officers. Known as \"dahei\" (combat triads), the campaign has put the spotlight on organized crime and how it has infested local bureaucracy and businesses through bribery, extortion, blackmail and violence. The anti-triad campaign in Chongqing is being led by Bo Xilai, the city's party chief. Criminal trials are underway following months of police investigation. Details of murky cases are trickling out. Among those on the dock is Xie Caiping, a portly woman believed be the \"mama san\" of one of Chongqing's notorious triads. Xie is accused of operating gambling dens, drug trafficking, giving and collecting bribes and terrorizing people, including policemen who had tried to investigate her illicit activities. More trials are expected as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs. Given China's opaque political world, it is notable that the ongoing trial is extensively covered by the Chinese media. For years after the Cultural Revolution, Chongqing languished as a decrepit mountain-city in Sichuan province, better known for its spicy food and poor farmers carrying goods on bamboo poles. It became the world's largest city in 1997 when the central government, by administrative edict, incorporated a huge area adjacent to the city into what is now the Chongqing municipality. China's goal was to build up Chongqing into a modern mega-city that will later serve as the new economic engine in central China. Over the years, thanks of the influx of corporate investments and central government funding in infrastructure projects, the city of 31 million has become a center of an economic boom. But the economic boom has also led to the resurgence of local gangs engaged in human and drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion and protection rackets. Gangsters were blamed for heinous crimes of murder and kidnapping. Local officials were accused of \"economic crimes\"-- bribery, profiteering and malversation involving public funds and property. Such abuses have prompted popular anger and social unrest. Communist Party officials are under pressure to clean up or perish. \"The life or death of the party depends on whether or not we have a strong will to punish and prevent corruption,\" Chinese President Hu Jintao told a meeting of the party elite last September. Party leaders pledged to attack the \"acute problems\" of corruption, the gap between the rich and the poor, and the lack of democracy within the party's own ranks. At the meeting, they outlined an anti-corruption directive that would compel officials and their families to disclose their property holdings and investments. \"The new transparency rules are meant to curb abuse of power,\" says political analyst Wenran Jiang. \"It's also aimed at appeasing public discontent over corruption.\" In Chongqing, police operations started in June, leading to the arrest of over 4,800 suspected gangsters and the confiscation of 1,700 illegal firearms. Investigations led to many city officials, including police officers. They include Wen Qiang, Xie Caiping's brother-in-law, who is now accused of colluding with gangsters. Highly regarded as an ace investigator, Wen was the deputy police commissioner and head of the city's justice bureau. Last August, he was stripped of his posts, detained and charged of accepting over 100 million yuan in bribes in exchange for giving gangs a \"protective umbrella\". Local media reports say Chongqing residents celebrated Wen's arrest by setting off firecrackers. The \"dahei\" campaign is led by Bo Xilai. 60, the city's party chief who also sits on China's ruling politburo. Son of a revolutionary veteran, Bo had served as Dalian city mayor, Liaoning provincial governor and China's minister of commerce. An outsider in Chongqing, Bo has had to bring in his trusted protégé, Wang Lijun, to replace Wen Qiang as chief of police and clean up the city. Wang made his name as a tough, upright police commissioner in Liaoning province, Bo's former turf. In response, the gangs have reportedly put a 12 million yuan bounty on Wang's head. \"It not us who took the initiative to fight the underworld,\" Bo Xilai told the Chongqing media. \"It's the underworld who has compelled us to do so. The public has been gathering at the gate of our government building, holding blood-stained pictures, deeply distressed. The underworld has killed innocent people with machetes, like butchers killing pigs -- too horrible to see.\" Bo said the campaign is aimed at restoring economic order and winning people's trust. Bo's get-tough stance has earned him praises, especially among the Netizens. \"Chongqing's experience should be popularized nationwide,\" wrote a Netizen from the eastern province of Zhejiang. \"Bo should be China's leader in the new era,\" wrote another. Some political observers think success in Chongqing could catapult him as a \"dark horse\" in the next round of political transition, when the next generation of leaders take over in 2012. \"Whatever his motives, the impact is not local but national,\" says Wenran Jiang. \"Clearly, there is public support for such bold actions.\" Jiang, who was Bo's college classmate at Peking University in the late 1970s, remembers Bo as \"a smart student of Chinese and world history who always want to do the right thing.\" It remains unclear if the current house-cleaning in Chongqing will spread nationwide. Cynics doubt if the Communist Party leaders have the stomach to genuinely root out the evil of corruption wherever investigations find them. \"These crackdowns are like swatting flies while ignoring tigers,\" shrugs a white-collar worker in Beijing. Some see progress. \"At least they realize that the problem is very acute,\" says a government functionary [who asked to remain anonymous]. \"We cannot speak of a harmonious society unless the people are treated equally before the law.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anti-corruption drive in Chongqing implicates millionaires, gangsters, police .\nCampaign has spotlighted organized crime, how it has infested local bureaucracy .\nCity's economic boom has led to the resurgence of local gangs .\nCriminal trials are underway as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- There are several definitions of where the Northwest Passage begins and ends, but using the Arctic Circle is certainly the most encompassing, so we've been holding our breath until we crossed this line. The crew has negotiated some stunning and treacherous waters to sail the Northwest Passage. The Arctic Circle (66 30N) marks the lowest latitude at which the midnight sun is ever seen. We've had some stormy weather along the Baffin Island coast. We had waves up to 8m high and winds over 40 knots. Silent Sound was being tossed around a lot, and I was thrown clear across the cabin on one occasion, suffering a minor concussion that kept me in my bunk for several days. Now that we're out of the Arctic Archipelago and into the open sea, we are seeing more icebergs, instead of ice floes. Ice floes are frozen seawater while icebergs are chunks of ice broken off glaciers in the High Arctic. Bergs begin as snow falling on land, which is then compressed into ice. Even though the icebergs we see are easily 20 or 30 meters high, most of their volume is below water. Only about one third of their entire volume is visible above water. This means you have to stay well clear of them because they may spread out under water, like an upside down mushroom. We've also started thinking about what we've experienced and learned this summer. By far the most impressive feature of the Arctic has been its people. In every town we visited we met complete strangers who offered us help, welcomed us into their homes and provided us with hot showers and food. So many people showed genuine interest in our journey and generously told us about their lives, and we left nearly every town with a few fish or other wild game in our fridge. Our mission when we left Victoria, British Columbia in June was to find out how climate change is impacting Arctic communities. We saw and heard about the impacts, from slumping land due to the melting of permafrost to hunter stories about the northward migration of species and the challenge that early ice break up poses for transportation. But more importantly, I'm leaving the Arctic with a sense that its communities are at a crossroads. They underwent a rapid change in the 1950s and 60s when people moved off the land and into settlements. Now, those settlements are bracing themselves for unprecedented change due to resource exploration, economic development, political wrangling and an influx of new wealth, people and social forces. They're all tied to climate change in one way or another, and they leave Arctic community leaders with a big job ahead of them. Climate change is turning the spotlight on the Arctic, and hopefully that will mean federal government help where it is needed to aid the Inuit in making wise choices for their future. I've been struck by how although the Arctic is very different place than the urban habitat most of us occupy, it is not in a different time. To maintain a romantic notion of the Arctic as a place time has forgotten where life is simple and basic would be an insult to the people that call it home and be a mistake. Many of the challenges brought to the Arctic by climate change and economic development are the same as those faced around the world. It's just a little colder, and a little more remote. While we've begun mulling over our experiences this summer, it's too soon for the crew of Silent Sound to relax. We are still about three weeks from our final port. And the sailing is getting cold and tiring. The nights are very dark at sea, and temperatures are hovering just above zero degrees Celsius. On many days we are sailing in snow, rain and sleet. Our onboard heater has broken down, so we have to wear extra layers in our sleeping bags to keep warm. This also means that the condensation builds up in the boat and it gets pretty damp, making it hard to dry our socks and gloves. But Halifax is in sight, and we can get some comfort from our accomplishment of completing the Northwest Passage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Crew of Silent Sound complete the Northwest Passage, heading for Halifax .\nCrew have faced dangerous ice bergs and waves up to 8 meters high .\nArctic communities at a crossroads, directly and indirectly from climate change ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somalia-born writer, activist, and former member of the Dutch Parliament. She is an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Islamic society and a strong critic of Muslim extremism. Outspoken critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali . Hirsi Ali fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage in Africa, and served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. In parliament, she promoted the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and defending the rights of women in Dutch Muslim society. In 2004, she worked with the late director Theo Van Gogh on the film \"Submission,\" which highlighted the oppression of women in conservative Islamic societies. The airing of the film on Dutch television resulted in the assassination of Mr. Van Gogh by an Islamic extremist, and she went into hiding. Her memoir, \"Infidel,\" published in 2007, recounts her decision to denounce Islam and become an atheist, and her transformation, she says, from \"the world of faith to the world of reason.\" Ayaan was named one of Time Magazine's \"100 Most Influential People of 2005,\" one of the Glamour Heroes of 2005, and Reader's Digest's \"European of the Year.\" She has also received Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirsi Ali is an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Islamic society .\nSomali-born activist went into hiding after death of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh .\nHirsi Ali served as Dutch lawmaker from 2003 to 2006 .\nShe was Anamed one of Time Magazine's \"100 Most Influential People of 2005 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide -- more than any other drug -- and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the eight-year total of NATO troops killed in Afghan combat, the United Nations said Wednesday. An Afghan police officer digs up a field of opium poppies in April. About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market for the drug and also fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised $450 million to $600 million over the past four years by \"taxing\" opium farmers and traffickers, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a report. Not all the money is going into the pockets of rebels or drug dealers; some Afghan officials are making money off the trade as well, he said. \"The Afghan drug economy generates several hundred million dollars per year into evil hands: some with black turbans, some with white collars,\" Costa said. The latter reference is \"to officials in the Afghan administration, federal government of Kabul or the provinces or the army or the police,\" Costa told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Watch Costa talk about the problems » . And the problem is spreading, he added. Drug money is funding insurgencies in Central Asia, which has huge energy reserves, Costa said. \"The Silk Route, turned into a heroin route, is carving out a path of death and violence through one of the world's most strategic yet volatile regions,\" he said. Authorities are seizing too little heroin, intercepting only about 20 percent of opiate traffic around the world, according to the U.N. report, \"Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: the Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium.\" It comes on the heels of a U.N. warning last month that two years' worth of opium is effectively \"missing,\" probably stockpiled by the Taliban and criminal gangs. More than 12,000 tons of opium, which can be consumed as a narcotic itself or turned into heroin, is unaccounted for, the United Nations estimated in September. It is not clear who has it or why, but the United Nations speculates that criminals could be holding it as a hedge against falling prices or that insurgents or terrorists could be stockpiling it to fund attacks. The latest report claims to be the first systematic attempt to track where Afghan opium ends up. See how Afghan heroin reaches Europe and the West » . Europe and Russia together consume just under half of the heroin coming out of Afghanistan, the United Nations concluded, and Iran is by far the single largest consumer of Afghan opium. Afghanistan is also probably supplying an increasing share of the heroin in China -- perhaps as much as a quarter, the report said. Afghanistan is by far the world's largest producer of opium, although Laos, Myanmar and Latin America produce small quantities, it said. The United Nations found that Afghanistan may be supplying more heroin to the United States and Canada than had been suspected. The two North American countries consume more than twice as much heroin as Latin America produces. That means either that more Afghan heroin is making its way to North America than had been known or that Mexico and Columbia are producing more than was realized, the United Nations said. The report confirmed an estimate that $400 million in drug profits goes to the Taliban, Costa said. The Taliban \"are deeply involved\" in processing, in protecting farmers and in exporting, he said. The solution \"is very clear,\" he said. \"We need a much greater effort and commitment by governments to prevent drug addiction, to take care of drug addicts ... to reduce demand.\" But the popular will for change needs to increase, he said, noting that the Security Council in 2006 and 2007 passed resolutions inviting member states to give the names of drug traffickers to authorities so that their ability to travel can be curtailed and their assets seized. \"So far, much to my dismay, not a single name was provided to the Security Council,\" he said. The report offered little new in the way of possible solutions, said Ethan Nadelmann, founding executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes alternatives to the war on drugs. \"It's very good at describing a problem,\" he said. \"But it truly is devoid of any kind of pragmatic solution, and it essentially suggests that the answer is to keep doing more of what's failed us in the past.\" So long as there is a global demand for opium, there will be a supply, he said. \"If Afghanistan were suddenly wiped out as a producer of opium -- by bad weather or a blight or eradication efforts -- other parts of the world would simply emerge as new producers, \"creating all sorts of new problems,\" he said. And Afghanistan itself would not be helped either, he said. \"You would see in Afghanistan millions of people probably flocking to the cities unable to make a living and probably turning more to the Taliban than they are now,\" he said. He listed three possible options. The first, global legalization and control, \"is not happening, not any time soon,\" he said. The second option is to increase drug treatment for addicts who want it and to provide legal access to the drug, as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Spain and Canada have done, he said. \"In all of these places, there are small, growing programs of heroin maintenance that allow addicts to obtain pharmaceutical-grade heroin from legal sources rather than from the black market,\" he said. But Nadelmann added that more people died of opiate overdose last year involving pharmaceutical opiates than died from illegal heroin. A third possibility, he said, would be to view Afghanistan as essentially a red-light zone of global opium production and to think about the solution as a vice-control challenge, \"which means acknowledge that Afghanistan is going to continue to be the world's supplier of illegal opium for the foreseeable future and then focus on manipulating and regulating the market participants, even though it is still illegal.\" He added, \"That, I think, is in some respects the de facto strategy, even though it cannot be stated openly, for political reasons.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Afghan heroin trade funds terrorism, insurgencies, U.N. report says .\n12,000 tons of opium missing, probably stockpiled by Taliban, gangs, U.N. says .\nAfghanistan is world's largest producer of opium, from which heroin is made .\nIran is by far largest consumer of Afghan heroin, U.N. report says ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past. Musk ox in the Arctic check the spread of shrubs to the High Arctic, but promote grass growth. That's the message from Eric Post, lead scientist of a new report into the effects of climate change on life in the Arctic. Published in \"Science\" magazine, Post and his team of international scientist conducted the study during the fourth International Polar Year that ended in 2008. \"It seems no matter where you look -- on the ground, in the air, or in the water -- we're seeing signs of rapid change,\" said Post in a press statement. The report found that flora and fauna of the Arctic are responding in various ways to the region's changes in climate over the last 150 years, and more recently the 20 to 30 years where seasonal minimal sea ice coverage has declined by 45,000 square kilometers per year. With the decline in sea ice and snow, animals usually seen at lower latitudes are being found in more northerly regions, including red foxes that have been displacing native Arctic foxes. View the gallery of Arctic life affected by climate change » . The report found that some native Arctic species have also benefited from climate change, including wild reindeer on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. With less snow cover and a longer growing season, these non-migratory reindeer have taken advantage of the increased plant abundance, with the result that reindeer populations and their ability to reproduce are up, while mortality is down. But other animals are not adapting well to rising temperatures and the effect on delicate ecosystems. Migratory caribou in low Arctic Greenland and elsewhere are declining in number as they have not been able to keep their calving season in synch with changes in plant growth. With the decline in caribou comes a knock-on effect to native Inuit hunters, according to the report's authors. Hotter summers could result in more insects and parasites that prey on the caribou, which could then also reduce the annual caribou harvest by local indigenous peoples. \"Inuit hunters at my study site in Greenland have all but given up on hunting caribou there. What will be the next component to disappear from their traditional lifestyle, a lifestyle that has worked for thousands of years?\" said Post. Iconic Arctic animals dependent sea ice, including Pacific walrus, ringed seal, hooded seal, ivory gull, narwhal and polar bear, are faring especially badly, said the report. The researchers found that polar bears and ringed seals, both of which give birth in lairs or caves under the snow, lose many newborn pups when the lairs collapse in unusually early spring rains. These species may be headed for extinction, said the report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New study on Arctic changing temperatures finds dramatic changes to region .\nConducted during Fourth International Polar Year that ended in 2008 .\nSome animals and plant life benefiting from rising temperatures .\nDramatic decline in sea ice threatening iconic species like polar bear ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- There is a region of the world where the weather is always hot and humid and it rains almost every day of the year. Sounds predictable, right? But weather in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, can be volatile and dangerous. Air France Flight 447 went down in a volatile zone along the equator between South America and Africa. The Intertropical Convergence Zone, which circles the Earth near the equator, is where officials say Air France Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. While weather has not been cited as a reason for the plane's crash, the tragedy does call attention to the region. The ITCZ is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet. Clouds and storms form along it because it is literally where the winds of the world's hemispheres meet. High pressure in the Northern Hemisphere churns air from the northeast toward the equator. On the flip side, air is steered from the southeast by high pressure in the Southern Hemisphere. The winds that move this air toward the equator are also known as \"trade winds\" and converge in the middle of the tropics. That's where the Intertropical Convergence Zone name comes from. Here, air and water temperatures are typically in the mid-80s. The warm, moist air is heated further by the blazing tropical sun. Steamy air, coming off the ocean, rises until it hits cooler, drier air aloft, forming clouds and thunderstorms. These gigantic storms contain volatile updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph. The height of these storms also can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked two dozen of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ. Former Air Force meteorologist Tim Vasquez wrote about thunderstorms over the Atlantic at the time of the Air France plane's disappearance on his Web site, weathergraphics.com. \"Based on the infrared satellite imagery, I was able to. . .estimate the altitude of the thunderstorms at around 51,000 feet,\" he told CNN in a phone interview. Vasquez himself has flown through the ITCZ at least half a dozen times. \"I remember flying from Guam to the Philippines, constantly weaving around the thunderstorms. Sometimes, though, pilots are forced to fly through them,\" he said. That's because commercial airliners cannot fly above 50,000 feet. In addition, ITCZ thunderstorms can merge with one another to stretch far and wide, covering hundreds of miles. The crew of Air France Flight 447 reported severe turbulence shortly before the plane disappeared. How did the plane break into pieces? » . When it's not storming in the ITCZ, the weather can be completely calm, with little to no wind. This stretch of ocean was particularly dreaded by sailors of the 19th century, who named it \"The Doldrums,\" because its lack of wind could leave them stuck at sea, unable to propel forward. Despite these challenges and dangers, planes and ships successfully cross the ITZC every day, thanks in part to technology that has made it easier to see where the thunderstorms are. Here are some commonly asked questions: . Can hurricanes form in the ITCZ? It's extremely rare for a hurricane to form near the equator. However, the ITCZ doesn't stay in one place all year long. In the summer, for example, it drifts more northward, where it's possible for tropical cyclones to develop from the thunderstorms there. What does the ITCZ have to do with the \"monsoon season\" in Asia? Since the position of the ITCZ fluctuates, the location of the heaviest rainfalls varies depending on the time of year. When the zone drifts more northward in May and June, it brings the rainy season to places like Southeast Asia and India. The term \"monsoon\" refers to a seasonal reversal of winds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Weather in the ITCZ, where the Air France plane went down, is volatile .\nThe zone circles the Earth near the equator and can produce violent thunderstorms .\nThese storms contain updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph .\nBecause the storms are so huge, it can be difficult for airliners to avoid them ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- My taxi driver is telling me about his meal last night. His name is William. He ate whale. Melting world: mountainous icebergs in Greeland's Sermilik Fjord. \"Delicious,\" he says, kissing the tips of his fingers on one hand, making the universal sign for good tasting food. William tells me he went out on a boat with some friends a few days ago and shot the whale. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Welcome to Greenland. On this remote but enormous island subsistence whale hunting is allowed. This was just the memorable start to an extraordinary journey. Cameraman Neil Bennett and I had traveled to the small town of Tasiilaq in southeastern Greenland to meet up with the Arctic Sunrise, a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace. Read Neil's blog on filming in challenging conditions . The 34-year-old icebreaker and its crew are on a three month expedition around Greenland's coast. They say their mission is to help scientists working in the region and to publicize the environmental changes taking place here. We join the Arctic Sunrise as it moves slowly up Sermilik Fjord. This is simply the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It's an inky blue body of water thick with floating, ancient ice. Some of the icebergs are mountainous. They all come from the Greenland ice sheet, a vast mass of frozen fresh water, hundreds of miles across and up to two miles thick. View the gallery of the stunning landscape » . Over the next four days we observe independent scientists working to understand why the ice sheet is melting so rapidly. We fly over and land on Helheim Glacier, a major outlet for the ice sheet which has sped up dramatically in the last decade. We accompany oceanographers in inflatable boats as they collect data on the warming water currents in the fjord. All this research, they say, points to sea levels rising beyond current predictions. There are still those who question humankind's role in the warming of the Earth's climate, but these scientists are not among them. \"Things could be very bad,\" glaciologist Dr Gordon Hamilton tells me. \"If we don't start to do something about it now we'll very quickly reach a tipping point from which there'll be no return. And the consequences for society as a whole would be catastrophic.\" Joining Greenpeace on this expedition was a difficult decision for CNN. Does it compromise our editorial independence on what can still be a highly divisive issue? In my experience it's no different to embedding with soldiers on one side of a military conflict. I've traveled with American soldiers in Iraq and Russian soldiers in Georgia. It enables journalists to access newsworthy locations and people that we couldn't get to otherwise, either practically or safely. And the stories told can still be balanced and fair. Traveling with Greenpeace allowed us to record powerful images of Greenland's accelerating melt. And we met independent scientists who believe the world must act boldly to slow down change that science is struggling to keep pace with." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN traveled with Greenpeace to Greenland on their study of the region .\nFlow of Helheim Glacier has sped up dramatically in last decade .\nResearch of warming water in Sermilik Fjord points to higher sea-level rise ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller, according to a study that suggests climate change can trump natural selection. Can't see me now: Climate change could be shrinking Soay sheep in Scotland. The authors of the study published in \"Science\" believe that it highlights how wide-ranging the effects of global climate change can be, adding further complexity to the changes we might expect to see in animal populations in future. \"It's only in the last few years that we've realized that evolution can influence species' physical traits as quickly as ecological changes can. This study addresses one of the major goals of population biology, namely to untangle the ways in which evolutionary and environmental changes influence a species' traits,\" said Andrew Sugden, deputy and international managing editor at Science. The researchers analyzed body-weight measurements and life-history data for the female members of a population of Soay sheep. The sheep live on the island of Hirta in the St. Kilda archipelago of Scotland and have been studied closely since 1985. They selected body size because it is a heritable trait, and because the sheep have, on average, been decreasing in size for the last 25 years. According to the findings lambs are not growing as quickly as they once did as winters have become shorter so do not need to put on as much as weight in the first months of life to survive. The results suggest that the decrease is primarily an ecological response to environmental variation over the last 25 years. Evolutionary change, the report says, has contributed relatively little. \"Sheep are getting smaller. Well, at least the wild Soay sheep living on a remote Scottish island are. But according to classic evolutionary theory, they should have been getting bigger, because larger sheep tend to be more likely to survive and reproduce than smaller ones, and offspring tend to resemble their parents,\" said study author Tim Coulson of Imperial College London. \"Our findings have solved a paradox that has tormented biologists for years -- why predictions did not match observation. Biologists have realized that ecological and evolutionary processes are intricately intertwined, and they now have a way of dissecting out the contribution of each. Unfortunately it is too early to tell whether a warming world will lead to pocket-sized sheep,\" said Coulson." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Study of wild sheep in Scotland suggests climate change making them smaller .\nAuthors of report suggest that climate change can override natural selection .\nWild Soay sheep in remote Outer Hebrides closely studied since 1985 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- As a hobby, Suzie Jirachareonkul, a teacher and mother of two, spends many of her nights searching for endangered toads on the country roads near her home outside Cape Town, South Africa. Volunteers in South Africa are collecting data on the Western Leopard Toad, which is endangered. She often finds them flattened on the street. \"They're so beautiful and it's just really hard to live with, especially when you're living on the road right here,\" the 33-year-old said of the toad deaths. \"So we started doing something about it. We started saving them off the road in the middle of the rain.\" When a scientist caught onto her efforts, Jirachareonkul and a friend assembled about 20 volunteers -- a group she calls the \"Toad NUTS\" -- to collect data on the endangered Western Leopard Toad. The information they collect is being used in scientific research. Each time Jirachareonkul comes upon one of the spotted, faintly iridescent creatures, she springs into action. She marks down GPS coordinates, measures the toad, makes notes on its behavior (Is a mate stuck to its back? Is it headed toward a pond?) and uploads the information so scientists can use it. Oh, and she moves the toad out of traffic's way, too. While her nighttime hobby may sound a bit strange, Jirachareonkul is far from alone in her efforts to collect amateur scientific data. At a time when climate change and urbanization are poised to set off a new wave of extinction, some members of the scientific community are turning toward backyard biologists for the data they need to monitor ecosystems and protect struggling species. This \"citizen science\" movement is not exactly new, but it has grown fresh legs as the Internet and social-networking sites help people with uber-specified and often bizarre interests gang up for a cause. Amateur-produced Web sites now serve as data hubs for squirrel sightings, bird photos, ant anthologies, snapshots of leaves, flowers and trees, water quality info, beetle hunts and firefly tracking, among others. Find links at CNN's SciTech blog . \"It's pretty random,\" said Cyndy Parr of the Encyclopedia of Life. \"There's a lot of charismatic things that won't surprise you -- backyard birds, that sort of thing. But there are also thriving communities of people who like to take pictures of butterflies, centipedes, wildflowers, plants.\" Some of the sites have sweeping goals. The Encyclopedia of Life, which seeks to gather online information on all known species, has started taking public submissions through a public Flickr group. Some individual users have uploaded more than 2,000 photos. Project BudBurst, out of Boulder, Colorado, aims to collect so much amateur data about plant species that scientists will be able to tell how climate change is altering the seasons in North America. The venture, managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, gathers \"data that would not otherwise be collected,\" said Sandra Henderson, the project's director. \"We have these additional sentinel eyes on the landscape, if you will. There aren't enough ecologists to be making all of these different plant observations.\" National Science Foundation funding for citizen science dropped off significantly in 2002 but generally has been on the rise since, according to budget numbers compiled for CNN. Since that year, funding in the United States has increased more than 240 percent, to more than $3 million for 2008. Several of the Web projects receive government funding, but others survive on their own merits. In Spain, Josep del Hoyo founded the Internet Bird Collection, an international compilation of bird videos, sounds and photos that's funded solely by his company. He said the intense passion of birders around the world, plus some money from his publishing company, keep the site running. Amateurs have posted video of never-before-seen birds on the site, he said, and some of the work has been the foundation for scientific articles. Technology is amplifying this passion for citizen science, which has been around since scientists started cataloging species. Researchers at several universities are working on iPhone applications and computer programs that could analyze digital photos of plant leaves and automatically identify the plant's species. When those photos -- from ordinary people all over the world -- are paired with the photographer's location and uploaded to a database, the information would be more valuable than anything scientists could come up with on their own, said John Kress, a botanist and research scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The information could help scientists know if a species is going extinct or dying off in certain regions as the climate warms. Identifying a plant species can be tricky, Kress said, so these technologies also would ensure that nonprofessional data is good enough to use for scientific research. \"When people do these things as citizen scientists you're always a little suspect as to, 'Are you getting it right?' \" he said. \"There's some plants out there that are maples and look like oaks -- and only I would know they're really maples. But with this system we would have a standard way of identifying the accuracy of this information.\" Some scientists said they're excited about the trend toward citizen-submitted data because it is impossible for scientists to document all of the changes going on around the world. \"At some point it will really lead to almost a democratization of science, where the amateurs and the volunteers are having just as much of an impact on science as the professionals are,\" said Rick Bonney, who started a citizen science project with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1987. \"It's just going so fast I can't keep up with it anymore.\" Others find the movement limited or controversial. The relationship between formal science and citizen science is similar to that between professional news reporters and bloggers; some scientists worry that the information coming in from nonprofessionals will be inaccurate, said John Musinsky, a senior director at Conservation International. The citizen efforts are also limited in the sense that, at least for now, they're largely concentrated in North America and Europe, where there aren't nearly as many plant and animal species as in Latin America and Africa. That's beginning to change, though, said Conrad Savy, a conservation science adviser at Conservation International. \"It's gaining steam,\" he said of the global citizen-science movement. \"It's working very well and it's a great way also to engage the community in conservation issues.\" As photo-taking cell phones become more popular in developing countries, a more diverse group will join the efforts, said Kress, the Smithsonian botanist. Jirachareonkul's group devoted to the Western Leopard Toad now works with the South African National Biodiversity Institute to promote understanding of the endangered species. Dr. John Measey, a researcher with the institute, said by e-mail that some research on the toad would be possible without the volunteer efforts. But the \"Toad NUTS\" raise awareness and help scientists \"obtain usable accurate data from a much wider area than we could possibly manage or fund,\" he wrote. When Jirachareonkul started the project, she didn't know much about the toads -- they were just a creature she found squashed in front of her house. Now she has a personal connection to them. She said citizen science is a way for people to connect with their local environment -- and to make a difference. \"There are so many problems in the world, but I think the main problem is that everybody is worried about everybody else's problems that they don't focus in on their little areas,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Average people help scientists collect valuable data in era of climate change .\nMany Web sites are hubs for citizen-collected info used in research .\nResearchers developing iPhone app to automatically identify plants, upload data .\nIn South Africa, a teacher has started a network of people collecting info on toads ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- CNN International's Going Green is back for another special series of in-depth reports, this time looking into the world's green pioneers. From groundbreaking ideas in conservation, to the latest water sanitization systems that are impacting the world while advancing the green movement, this next edition focuses on innovative ways to tackle today's environmental challenges. Anchored by CNN's New Delhi-based correspondent Sara Sidner, \"Going Green -- Eco Pioneers\" visits Rajendra Singh, also known in India as the \"Rainman of Rajasthan,\" who is on a self-imposed mission to improve access to water in one of India's driest states. Watch the 'Rainman' of Rajasthan » . CNN's Michael Holmes tells how Australian Geoff Lawton is working to spread his knowledge about Permaculture, which he says can turn arid land into fertile food-growing territory. Watch Lawton's oasis in the desert » . In Argentinean Patagonia, CNN's Brian Byrnes speaks with Douglas Tompkins, the environmentalist and founder of The North Face clothing company. He is the biggest private land owner in Chile and is advancing conservation initiatives in the southern tip of the South American continent. CNN's Brian Byrnes reports from Argentina » . And reporting from Texas, CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera takes viewers on a tour of the laboratories of Pliny Fisk, an American engineer who is paving the way for more environmentally friendly structures." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN International's Going Green is back with new special on Eco Pioneers .\nSee \"Going Green\" for stories, tune into television special from October 1 .\nHalf-hour special profiles four environmental pioneers on four continents ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for two breakthroughs that led to two major underpinnings of the digital age -- fiber optics and digital photography, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Willard Boyle, left, and George Smith handle a charge-coupled device in 1974. Charles K. Kao, a British and U.S. citizen, won for \"groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.\" Willard S. Boyle, a Canadian and U.S. citizen, and George E. Smith, a U.S. citizen, \"invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device).\" Kao in 1966 \"made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers,\" the academy said in a press release. Today, \"optical fibers make up the circulatory system that nourishes our communication society\" and \"facilitate broadband communication such as the Internet,\" the academy said. Boyle and Smith's Charge-Coupled Device -- invented in 1969 -- \"is the digital camera's electronic eye\" and paved the way for digital photography. \"It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and distribution of these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.\" The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and next. The medicine award was handed out on Monday. The prizes for chemistry and literature will be awarded Wednesday and Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named on Friday, and the award in economics will be issued on Monday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Breakthroughs led to fiber optics, digital photography .\nOptical fibers facilitate broadband communication such as the Internet .\nScientists made it possible to capture light electronically instead of on film .\nNobel Prizes handed out this week ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Two Americans and an Israeli were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for painstakingly mapping out the thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome -- work that paves the way for new antibiotics. U.S. researcher Thomas Steitz is one of three scientists sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Inside all animals, plants and bacteria are DNA molecules that contain the blueprint for life. Ribosomes are an organism's protein factories. They use the information in the DNA to make the tens of thousands of proteins that enable the organism to function properly. These proteins include hormones, enzymes and hemoglobin, which transports oxygen. From a medicinal standpoint, the ribosome is important because it is what antibiotics target. In a bacterial strain, antibiotics bind to the ribosomes, preventing them from making the proteins the bacteria need to survive. Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath shared the $1.4 million prize for mapping the position of the thousands and thousands of atoms that make up ribosomes. Their three-dimensional models showed how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. \"These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering,\" said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize. Ramakrishnan, a U.S. citizen who was born in India, is a senior scientist and group leader at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. Steitz is a professor at Yale University and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale, the site said. Yonath is a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and director of the Helen & Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure & Assembly at the Weizmann Institute, the Nobel site said. The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and next. The medicine award was handed out on Monday and the one for physics on Tuesday. The prize for literature will be awarded Thursday; the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named on Friday, and the award in economics will be issued on Monday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two Americans, one Israeli to share $1.4 million prize for work on ribosomes .\nRibosomes in every organism use info from DNA to make proteins needed for life .\nAntibiotics work by binding to ribosomes of bacteria so they can't make proteins .\nNobel winners' mapping of ribosomes helps in development of new antibiotics ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Last year's inaugural Prix Pictet photography award for environmental sustainability produced a stunning shortlist of photos. Ed Kashi has documented the impact oil has made on the Niger Delta in Africa. This year is no different with 12 photographers in the running for the first prize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500). The theme in 2009 is described simply as \"Earth.\" The aim is to highlight how man exploits the planet's resources and how this impacts the landscapes and communities surrounding them. In an extraordinary series of photos Canadian Christopher Anderson captures how the quest for raw materials affects Venezuela. In \"The Diminishing Present,\" Portuguese-born Edgar Martins records forest landscapes in the moments before they are engulfed by flames. In \"Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta,\" Ed Kashi captures the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria's environment and people since it was first discovered five decades ago. Kashi, an American photojournalist, spent three years compiling his photos of the Niger Delta, making a total of five trips to the troubled region. Kashi told CNN: \"It was truly one of the most graphic examples of economic inequity that I have ever seen. Especially with the backdrop of hundreds of billions of oil wealth that has been generated over the previous 50 years.\" As a result of his work, Kashi says that his photos are now being used by universities and NGOs to raise awareness to try and effect change. To him, this has been one of the most gratifying and exciting by-products of his work. One of this year's most intriguing entries is by Sammy Baloji, who superimposes colonial black and white archive photos of Belgian-run mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and places them over his color images of the decaying mines as seen today. Nadav Kander's images of China's Yangtze River depict communities adjusting to the changes caused by the re-routing of the country's largest river. And, Andreas Gursky has captured an extraordinary image of an ocean of rubbish at a landfill site in Mexico City. Darren Almond's ethereal images of China's Yellow Mountain Range are made all the more magical through the knowledge that they were shot using only the light of the Moon. All the nominees' pictures showcase the power of the camera when in the hands of master craftsmen. Click here to view some of the short-listed images » . The winner will be announced by Prix Pictet honorary president, Kofi Annan, on October 22 at the Passage de Retz gallery in Paris. All the short-listed photos can be seen at the same gallery for one month after the award. Further exhibitions are planned in Greece and Dubai and the Netherlands. If you can't attend the exhibitions, there is a book entitled \"Earth,\" published by teNeues which showcases the work of all Prix Pictet nominees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shortlist for Prix Pictet photography award highlights destruction of natural resources .\nTwelve world-renowned photographers are up for the award .\nPrize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500) goes to the winner announced on October 22 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life. Robina Niaz said the Quran \"condemns\" abuse of women. \"If we witness injustice, we're required to speak up.\" Iqbal was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan. She had a strict Muslim upbringing and when she was 16, her parents arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage. When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said. \"My parents ... made clear that they would disown me,\" Iqbal said. \"My father even said ... 'You're lucky you live in America because if you lived back home, you would have been dead by now.' \" She was hiding out in her office at work when a friend put her in touch with Robina Niaz, whose organization, Turning Point for Women and Families, helps female Muslim abuse victims. \"It was such a relief ... to speak about things that ... I thought no one would understand,\" said Iqbal, who has received counseling from Niaz for more than two years and calls Niaz her \"savior.\" \"Robina understood the cultural nuances ... the religious issues,\" Iqbal said. Watch Iqbal tell her story » . A devout Muslim, Niaz stresses that there is no evidence that domestic violence is more common among Muslim families. \"Abuse happens everywhere,\" said Niaz. \"It cuts across barriers of race, religion, culture.\" But, she said, Muslims are often reluctant to confront the issue. \"There's a lot of denial,\" she said. \"It makes it much harder for the victims of abuse to speak out.\" When Niaz launched her organization in 2004, it was the first resource of its kind in New York City. Today, her one-woman campaign has expanded into a multifaceted endeavor that is raising awareness about family violence and providing direct services to women in need. Niaz said she firmly believes that domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, and considers it her religious duty to try to stop abuse from happening. \"Quran condemns abusive behavior of women,\" she said, noting that the prophet Mohammed was never known to have abused women. \"Allah says, 'Stand up against injustice and bear witness, even if it's against your own kin. So if I see injustice being done to women and children, I have to speak up. It's my duty.\" Niaz's mission began after a difficult period in her own life. Born and raised in Pakistan, she had earned a master's degree in psychology and had a successful career in international affairs and marketing when she moved to the United States to marry in 1990. \"It was a disastrous marriage,\" she said. As Niaz struggled to navigate the American legal system during her divorce, she said she appreciated how lucky she was to speak English and have an education. She realized that many immigrant women without those advantages might be more likely to stay in marriages because they didn't know how to make the system work for them. \"If this is how difficult it is for me, then what must other immigrant women go through?\" she remembered thinking. After volunteering with South Asian victims of domestic violence, Niaz, who speaks five languages, got a job using those skills to advocate for immigrant women affected by family violence. But Niaz's focus changed on September 11, 2001. \"I was no longer a Pakistani-American ... I looked at myself as a Muslim.\" Niaz said the backlash many Muslims experienced after the terror attacks made abuse victims more afraid to seek help; they feared being shunned for bringing negative attention to their community. Watch Niaz explain the effects of 9/11 on abused Muslim women » . \"Women who were caught in abusive marriages were trapped even more,\" recalled Niaz. In 2004, Niaz used her savings to start Turning Point for Women and Families. Today, her work focuses on three main areas: providing direct services to abused women, raising awareness through outreach, and educating young women -- an effort she hopes will empower future generations to speak out against abuse. Crisis intervention services are a critical element of Niaz's efforts. Through weekly counseling sessions, she and her team provide emotional support to the women while helping them with practical issues, such as finding homeless shelters, matrimonial lawyers, filing police reports or assisting with immigration issues. Niaz has helped more than 200 Muslim women. While most of Turning Point's clients are immigrants, the group helps women from every background. While Niaz has support from many people in New York's Muslim community, she acknowledges that not everyone appreciates her efforts. She keeps her office address confidential and takes precautions to ensure her safety. \"There have been threats ... but that comes with this work,\" she said. \"I know that God is protecting me because I'm doing the right thing.\" Want to get involved? Check out Turning Point for Women and Families and see how to help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Robina Niaz's organization helps female Muslim domestic violence victims .\nTurning Point for Women and Families was first resource of its kind in New York City .\nNiaz: Domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, but \"denial\" is a problem .\nThe Top 10 CNN Heroes will be announced on October 1 ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- A massive dust storm swept through parts of Australia on Wednesday, bathing the city of Sydney in a reddish haze. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen on Wednesday in Sydney, Australia. Susan Paget marveled at the eerie red view from the balcony of her apartment in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, and said she took the day off work to avoid the dust storm mess. \"It just feels dirty and rusty,\" Paget told CNN. \"It was totally bizarre to wake up around 5:30 a.m. and see such a red bizarre sky.\" A video Paget submitted to CNN's iReport showed thick haze, which made it difficult to see her neighbors' homes. Watch Paget's updated iReport . Health officials in Sydney warned residents to stay in indoors if possible, especially if they had asthma or heart and lung conditions. \"Avoid spending too much time outdoors due to the high particle levels and hazardous air quality,\" the New South Wales Department of Heath Web site said. See images of the dust storm » . The Ambulance Service of New South Wales said the dust storm had kept it busy with emergency calls. \"We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems,\" the agency said in a statement. Watch a news report on the haze » . iReporter Mark Clarke told CNN he woke up earlier than usual with a stuffy nose and cough at his home in Stanmore, a suburb of Sydney. iReporter: \"It was like Mars\" He pulled the curtains back and saw a \"strange red orangish glow coming from outside.\" \"It feels and smells like a vacuum cleaner exploded,\" he said. Watch Clarke's iReport . The country's bureau of meterology attributed the red haze to strong north-westerly winds which blew the dust overnight to Sydney and regions west of the capital. During the day, the dust blanket moved north onto the Queensland capital of Brisbane. The bureau of meterology's senior forecaster Tony Auden told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the haze was likely to continue moving north. \"It should make its way up into the Sunshine Coast and into those Capricornia and central coast areas soon,\" he said. \"For the south-east expect it to probably linger for the rest of today and hopefully settle out of the air overnight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Residents of Sydney, Australia wake to eerie red haze over surrounding areas .\nWeather forecasters say strong north-westerly winds blew dust in overnight .\nWind blew dust storm north onto Brisbane, predicted to move further north .\niReporter: \"It was totally bizarre to wake up and see such a red bizarre sky\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- It is midday and Geoff Lawton is hard at work at Zaytuna Farms in New South Wales, Australia. But the real work, he says, is going on inside the center of the compost. Geoff Lawton says that permaculture \"revs up\" systems of soil creation. \"There's lots of things breeding in there,\" Lawton says. Compost may not seem a sexy subject, but within this steaming pile, life is being created. \"There's organisms breathing and dying and reproducing very quickly,\" he says. \"It's all very hot and steamy.\" That rich soil lays the groundwork for Lawton's revolutionary method of food production. It's called permaculture. Lawton's friend and mentor, Bill Mollison, developed the process back in the 1970s. Since then he and Lawton have traveled the globe preaching the value of permaculture and its aim to create harmony between the landscape and the people who live on it. \"Nature exists in an incredibly rich form, and enriching form and does so without any energy inputs from mankind,\" Lawton explains. \"Permaculture does the same thing.\" \"We've taken the systems of soil creation and soil life and we've revved them up. We've speeded up nature itself and we've improved the system.\" Watch Geoff Lawton at work » . So what does it take to improve the system? Lawton says it's about rehabilitating areas that have been damaged by pollution or overuse by recycling nutrients and energy back into the soils. Permaculture also takes all the things we need -- our housing, energy sources, food and water supplies -- and tailors them to fit into the natural rhythms of the ecosystem. The idea is to work with, not against, nature. Lawton says that during the first few weeks and months you don't see the real benefits, but after a year to 18 months you really start to see the difference. \"Within two or three years you can see a system that is really something that's got great opportunities and possibilities,\" he said. The gardens at Zaytuna Farms bear fruit and vegetables of all that hard work. The real measure though isn't how it works, but where. Lawton claims this permaculture method can work anywhere in the world, including the desert. \"Almost all the deserts on earth at one point were forested,\" he said. \"They all have different types of oasis systems. What you're doing is picking different points in the desert and turning them into a rich oasis.\" On a DVD created by the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, Lawton shows us what happened when he took this method to places like Morocco and Jordan -- just 80 kilometers from the Dead Sea. \"People were amazed to see an area that was salty, sandy ground, turn into a lush green forest, that had mushrooms growing from the soil,\" Lawton said. The ability to \"green\" the desert is not only having an impact on the communities where these gardens are grown. Interest is also sprouting among young people. Dozens come to Zaytuna Farms every year to learn about the permaculture method. \"I've only been doing it a year and once you hit upon the principles it's basically observations,\" said intern Jonathan Chan. \"You have to look at the land and which way the wind is blowing and see where the sun angles are and design around that and it does seem quite simple.\" For Chan it's as much about cultivating a new way of life as it is about cultivating the land. \"I think people are getting to the point where they have to make change and permaculture is a good direction to go,\" he said. Still, permaculture isn't without its critics. They argue the method is time-consuming in the early stages and that makes the system hard to get off the ground in many places. It can be made even more difficult if the people living around the site aren't familiar with the process. But Lawton argues the time and energy expended in a permaculture garden is offset by the quality of the experience, and the richness of the end result. \"A good organic farmer works a thousand hours a year. The industrial mankind works two thousand to three thousand hours a year. What do we have to show for it? Gadgets. \"We don't have community, we don't have clean water, clean air or sensible housing. As negative as we currently are, we can be equally positive,\" Lawton said. \"It's not just self-reliance or self-sufficiency, it's absolute abundance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Geoff Lawton is using renewable natural resources to enrich ecosystems .\nPermaculture can turn the most arid, nutrient-free soil into thriving habitats .\nLawton's friend and mentor, Bill Mollison developed the technique in the 1970s .\nLawton has turned deserts in Jordan and Morocco into rich oases ." } ]

[ { "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 huddled with top military, foreign policy and national security advisers Wednesday as part of an ongoing review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Obama and his national security team meet in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday. The meeting, the fifth such gathering in recent weeks, came as the administration continued to weigh a call for as many as 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in that country. McChrystal has said the extra manpower is necessary to implement an effective counterinsurgency strategy. Wednesday's meeting, however, focused on efforts to strengthen the American civilian mission in Afghanistan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. Obama also received a report on ongoing efforts to train Afghan security forces, Gibbs added. While McChrystal is pushing for a major troop increase, others in the administration are advocating a different approach. Vice President Joe Biden has called for a counterterrorism strategy, which would focus on using special forces and technology to reduce the number of al Qaeda insurgents on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. \"I will tell you that our principal goal remains to root out al Qaeda and its extremist allies that can launch attacks against the United States or its allies,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"That's our principal mission. We are also obviously interested in stability in the region, and that includes not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan.\" Obama has come under intense pressure from several leading senators to follow McChrystal's recommendation, a move vehemently opposed by many liberal Democrats. As Obama huddled with his national security team, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said he's not ready yet to support sending additional troops to Afghanistan. Hoyer also told reporters he has serious questions about U.S. chances for success in the region and the stability of the Afghan government. \"Afghanistan has not been a successful venue for many great powers in the past,\" Hoyer said. \"I can't think of any. I think we also need to have some degree of confidence that the government in Afghanistan is a viable government that can create confidence within its people. I have reservations about whether that has happened at this point in time.\" The majority leader also argued that the situation in Afghanistan can't be viewed in isolation and requires a regional approach that includes Pakistan and India. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Sunday that any added military deployment that fell short of McChrystal's request \"would be an error of historic proportions.\" \"And I think the great danger now is a half-measure, sort of a -- you know, [trying] to please all ends of the political spectrum,\" McCain told CNN's John King. \"I have great sympathy for the president, making the toughest decisions that presidents have to make, but I think he needs to use deliberate speed,\" he said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, argued that U.S. troops would be put in \"jeopardy\" if Obama does not listen to McChrystal. \"I don't know how you put somebody in who's as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out,\" she said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" Feinstein heads the Senate Intelligence Committee. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Wednesday that he is increasing British troop levels in Afghanistan to 9,500, an increase of 500. The British have the second-largest contingent in Afghanistan, after the United States, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Obama announced a plan to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March. A total of 65,000 U.S. soldiers are currently serving in the war-torn country. CNN's Richard Greene and Adam Levine contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gathering focuses on efforts to strengthen civilian mission .\nAdministration continues to weigh call for additional U.S. troops .\nLeading senators have urged president to approve request .\nVice president has called for counterterrorism strategy ." } ]

[ { "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) -- Actress Kelly Preston, whose son Jett Travolta died earlier this year, will talk publicly in October about how she and her husband, actor John Travolta, have dealt with their grief. Kelly Preston is going to speak on a panel titled \"Grief and Resilience\" in October. Preston, 46, will appear on a panel titled \"Grief and Resilience\" at a conference hosted by California first lady Maria Shriver, according to a conference spokeswoman. Jett, 16, was found unconscious on January 2, while on vacation with his family in the Bahamas' West End. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, local police said. The Travolta family has not spoken publicly about the exact cause of Jett's death, but employees of the funeral home that handled the remains said in January the death certificate listed \"seizure\" as the cause of death. The family has remained out of the public eye since his death, only issuing a few written statements. When his latest movie, \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" was released last month, John Travolta did not take part in the publicity tour to promote the movie, instead issuing a short statement saying his family needed \"additional time to reconcile our loss.\" Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Sen. John Edwards, and actress Susan St. James will also be on the panel, conference spokeswoman Marissa Moss said. Both women have mourned the loss of sons. The Women's Conference will be in Long Beach, California, in late October, according to its Web site." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife, to address conference on grief .\nPreston and Travolta's 16-year-old son Jett died in January .\nOther speakers include Elizabeth Edwards, Susan St. James ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Mental Floss) -- It's Nobel Prize announcement week, and if you had Carol W. Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, or Jack Szostak in your office pool, you're off to a good start (the trio will share this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine). As we await news of the rest of the winners, here are some stories about past Nobel laureates. Nobel Prize winners receive a medal and a cash award. 1. Robert Lucas, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the theory of \"rational expectations,\" split his $1 million prize with his ex-wife. If there were a Nobel Prize for Foresight or Timing, she should be nominated, based on a clause in their divorce settlement from seven years earlier: \"Wife shall receive 50 percent of any Nobel Prize.\" The clause expired on October 31, 1995. Had Lucas won any year after, he would have kept the whole million. 2. Physicist Lise Meitner, whose work helped lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times without ever winning (though nominations are kept secret, so we don't know for sure). This makes her the Dynasty of the Nobel Prize scene -- that show was nominated for 24 Emmy Awards but never won. Other analogies we'd accept: The Color Purple (11 Oscar nominations in 1985, no wins), the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings (4 Super Bowl losses each without a victory) and William Jennings Bryan (three-time Democratic nominee for President, losing twice to McKinley and once to Taft.) 3. People who refused the prize: . • Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their roles in brokering a Vietnam cease fire at the Paris Peace Accords. Citing the absence of actual peace in Vietnam, Tho declined to accept. • Jean Paul Sartre waved off the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. His explanation: \"It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.\" • Afraid of Soviet retribution if he traveled to Stockholm to claim his prize, Boris Pasternak declined to accept the 1958 Prize in Literature, which he'd earned for Doctor Zhivago. The Academy refused his refusal. \"This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.\" Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the prize on behalf of his deceased father in 1989. • Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won for Literature in 1918. He did not accept because he was Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize. He was given the award posthumously in 1931. This was allowed because the nomination was made before Karlfeldt died -- no candidate may be proposed after death. Mental Floss: 10 technologies we stole from the animal kingdom . 4. In 2007, 90-year-old professor Leonid Hurwicz became the oldest person to ever win (one-third of the Prize in Economics); at 87, writer Doris Lessing became the oldest woman (Literature). 5. DNA expert Kary Mullis -- 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- was scheduled to be a defense witness in O.J. Simpson's murder trial. However, Simpson's lawyer Barry Scheck felt the prosecution's DNA case was already essentially destroyed, and he didn't want Mullis' personal life to distract jurors (he'd expressed an affinity for LSD.) 6. Nobel Laureates you must know: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Jimmy Carter, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Pierre & Marie Curie, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. 7. Big names who never won: Dmitri Mendeleev, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Henrik Ibsen, Joan Robinson, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Jules-Henri Poincaré, Raymond Damadian and Mahatma Gandhi. Mental Floss: 6 people who accidentally found a fortune . 8. Winners without the greatest reputations: . • Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who won in 1976 for his research in human slow-virus infections, spent 19 months in jail after pleading guilty in 1997 to charges of child molestation. • Johannes Fibiger won in 1926 after discovering parasitic worms cause cancer -- a breakthrough that turned out to not be true. • Yasser Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. This decision caused Nobel Committee member Kare Kristiansen to resign. \"What consequences will result,\" he asked at the time, \"when a terrorist with such a background is awarded the world's most prestigious prize?\" • William Shockley won for Physics in 1956 for his role in the invention of the semiconductor, but his support of the eugenics movement alienated the scientific community. Shockley also donated sperm to the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank developed to spread humanity's best genes. 9. As part of his divorce settlement, Einstein's Nobel Prize money went to his ex-wife, Mileva Maric. 10. The Curie family is a Nobel Prize machine, winning five: Pierre and Marie for Physics in 1901; Marie solo for Chemistry in 1911; daughter Irene and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie for Chemistry in 1935; and Henry Labouisse, who was married to Pierre and Marie's daughter Eve, accepted on behalf of UNICEF in 1965. 11. Marie Curie's second prize was marred by scandal. Then a widow, Curie had an affair with a married scientist, Paul Langevin -- a former pupil of Pierre Curie. Love letters were involved, eventually leading to a duel between Langevin and the editor of the newspaper that had printed them (no shots were actually fired.) According to NobelPrize.org, when it was suggested that Curie not accept the prize, she wrote a shrewd letter, \"which pointed out that she had been awarded the Prize for her discovery of radium and polonium, and that she could not accept the principle that appreciation of the value of scientific work should be influenced by slander concerning a researcher's private life.\" 12. Singing support --While there's no evidence the Nobel judges can be swayed by theme songs, that hasn't stopped Loriana Lana from composing one for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. \"Peace Can\" includes the lyrics, \"Silvio forever will be / Silvio is reality / Silvio forever! /Silvio gives us trust.\" 13. Alfred Nobel -- inventor of dynamite -- may have been inspired to create the Nobel Prize after a premature obituary in a French newspaper called him a \"merchant of death.\" 14. Nobel died on December 10, 1896. The formal awards ceremony is held in Stockholm each year on the anniversary of his death. The first awards show took place on December 10, 1901. (These things take time to plan.) And in case you were wondering just how much of a say Alfred Nobel had in the prize, here's what he wrote in his will: . \"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: . \"The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. \"The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.\" Mental Floss: 13 bizarre stipulations in wills . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than one Nobel winner had to share or give prize money to ex-wife .\nMarie Curie was urged not to collect her second Nobel because of affair .\nThree U.S. presidents have won the Nobel prize .\nLise Meitner was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times, but never won ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan has joined the growing number of major economies that are back in black. Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso's $150 billion stimulus helps nation out of recession. Japan's economy grew 3.7 percent on an annualized basis from April to June this year, the first time the world's second largest economy has seen positive growth in 15 months. The announcement of preliminary figures by Japan's Cabinet Office comes after France and Germany surprised economists last week by posting 0.3 percent growth for the second quarter of the year. The news that Japan has rebounded -- the hardest hit of the major economies because of its reliance on exports -- gives economists cautious optimism that the worst of the global recession is over. \"The economy has seen a bottoming out of global demand, which has pushed out net exports ... especially in high tech industries and basic materials, such as chemical, steel and so on because of Chinese demand,\" said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist in Japan for Credit Suisse. Japan's GDP grew just under 1 percent during the three-month period and trade increased 1.6 percent. The uptick marks the end of the worst recession in Japan since the end of World War II. Japan's GDP fell at a record pace during the January-March quarter, when GDP was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year. The Japanese economy was buoyed by a historic ¥15 trillion ($150 billion) stimulus package in May, which included unemployment benefits, aid to struggling companies, promotion of green industries and a variety of tax breaks. \"There are many times in the past when tax breaks and fiscal stimulus were offered and failed, but this time around, it worked,\" Shirakawa said. Economists expect GDP to continue modest growth through the rest of the year, especially with an expected rebound in global auto sales this quarter. But whether the recovery can continue into the new year after the stimulus package runs its course remains a question. \"Japan's economy still is quite sensitive to global demand ... and for consumer demand to grow on a self-sustained basis still seems unlikely,\" Shirakawa said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Japan's economy grows by 3.7 percent on an annualized basis .\nFirst growth in the world's second largest economy in 15 months .\nEnds the nation's worst recession since World War II ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN Student News) -- Watch \"Planet in Peril: Battle Lines\" on Thursday, December 11, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CNN, hosted by Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling. CNN's award-winning series examines the environmental conflicts between growing populations and natural resources. After watching \"Planet in Peril,\" use these questions to focus students' attention on the concepts explored in the program. Teachers: \"Planet in Peril: Battle Lines\" depicts environmental struggles in the real world. The scenes and accounts presented may not be appropriate for all students. Please determine whether this content is appropriate for your students. Bush meat and Zoonotic Viruses . 1. What is bush meat? According to the program, what are some examples of bush meat? Why do people eat bush meat? 2. What are zoonotic viruses? What are some examples of zoonotic viruses described in the show? What is the relationship between bushmeat and zoonotic viruses? 3. According to the program, why are some people turning to wilderness areas for their food? In your opinion, is hunting bush meat different from hunting wild game in the United States? Explain your rationale. 4. What are some of the negative impacts of hunting bush meat on the local ecology? Do you think these environmental concerns should outweigh the demand for food in these villages? Explain. 5. What are some factors that might cause an increase in the spread of zoonotic viruses? What are some methods Dr. Nathan Wolfe has used to stop the spread of zoonotic viruses? In your opinion, how might scientists and policymakers prevent the spread of these diseases? Nigerian Oil . 1. What valuable resource found in Nigeria generates billions of dollars in revenue? 2. Who is currently benefiting from the oil revenues? In your opinion, who should benefit from Nigeria's oil resources? Explain. 3. What is MEND? What is MEND's goal? How is MEND trying to achieve that goal? 4. Do you agree with MEND's tactics? If so, why? If not, why not? How would you address the issue? 5. What are some of the environmental challenges faced by the Nigerian communities surrounding the oil fields? In your opinion, who should be responsible for addressing these issues, and how should they be addressed? Shark Finning . 1. According to the program, why do some people engage in shark fishing? What are some ways that people catch sharks? 2. What is shark finning? What are some of the markets for shark fins? How do humans use shark fins? Why are they so expensive? What do some fishermen do with the rest of the shark's body? 3. According to the program: What is the economic value of the fishing industry? What do you think shark fishermen might do if they were not allowed to hunt sharks? 4. How is the shark finning affecting the shark populations? In your opinion, should people care about the issue of shark finning? Why or why not? 5. What are Peter Knight and Wild Aid doing to try to stop the shark trade? Do you agree with Peter Knight's analogy when he says, \"If it was Yellowstone Park and people were shooting up grizzlies, no one would ever get away with it,\" in reference to shark killings? Why or why not? In your opinion, should shark species be preserved? Why or why not? 6. How have some countries tried to regulate the shark-fishing trade? What are some of the challenges faced by those who regulate the industry? In your opinion, have they been successful? What more, if anything, could they do? 7. What might happen to the fishing industry if there are no more sharks to fish? What might happen to the ocean's ecosystems if the shark population becomes extinct? What effect could this have on the global economy? Shark Tourism . 1. What is cage diving? According to the program, what might be the positive and negative impacts of cage dives? 2. What is chumming? According to the program, what controversies surround the issue of chumming for sharks? How have some countries tried to regulate chumming? Why? Do you think this regulation is a good or bad idea? Explain. 3. According to the segment, what are some reasons that sharks are misunderstood? What are some things that scientists are trying to understand about great white sharks? What do you think motivates scientist Allison Kok to study great white sharks? According to Kok, are the sharks associating humans with food, leading to more shark attacks on humans? Explain. 4. Why does Mike Rutzen say that free diving \"is the same as a jackal at a lion feed\"? What do you think Rutzen means when he says, \"They're just trying to be sharks\"? 5. How does Anderson Cooper compare his experiences diving with sharks in a cage to free diving? Would you prefer to cage dive or free dive with great white sharks? Explain. Ivory Wars . 1. According to the segment, what are some of the challenges facing the Zakouma Park elephants in Chad? 2. How is Mike Fay attempting to save these elephants? Why do you think he works to save these elephants? 3. Why are poachers targeting the elephants? What part of the elephant are they after? What do they do with the rest of the elephant's body? 4. What is ivory? How much is it worth? Why do some value it highly? 5. According to Mike Fay, what is the status of the \"Ivory Wars\"? Who are the combatants? What do you think are the motives for participants on each side of the conflict? 6. What do you think might be the environmental impact if all the African elephants disappeared? Gorilla Tourism . 1. What struggle did Rwanda recently undergo? How were Rwandan mountain gorillas affected by the conflict? 2. How is the Rwandan government managing the mountain gorillas now? Why do you think Anderson Cooper calls the story of the mountain gorillas \"a success story in one of the most unlikely places on earth\"? 3. Why do you think that park ranger Digirinana Francois risked his life for the gorillas just after the genocide? 4. Why do you think poachers plunder rare wildlife such as the mountain gorilla? What do you think can be done to prevent poaching? 5. According to Rwanda's head of parks and tourism, Rosette Rugamba, why were the efforts to save the mountain gorilla \"a tough sell\"? How are the Rwandans using the mountain gorillas to promote tourism? What have been the benefits of gorilla-related tourism? 6. Using the program as a guide, contrast the mountain gorillas' situation in Rwanda with their situation in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. What is the impact of instability in the Congo on the lives of the gorillas? 7. Why is continuing the research on gorillas important? How do mountain gorillas benefit humans? What role do mountain gorillas play in their ecosystems? 8. What are some pressures the mountain gorillas face from humans? How might these issues be resolved? Who should be responsible for resolving these issues? Overview Questions . 1. What role do environmentalists play in the prevention of the plundering of wildlife? Overall, do you think their efforts have been successful in the examples from this program? Why or why not? 2. What responsibility do individuals, corporations, non-governmental organizations and government policymakers each have in managing natural resources? What responsibility does each of these entities have in maintaining economic development? Can environmental and economic priorities be balanced? If so, how? If not, why not? 3. If the issues portrayed in the program were not addressed, what do you think might happen to each of the species involved? How might that affect the global environment? 4. How do the issues examined in this program relate to you, if at all? 5. If you could choose an environmental cause to champion, what would it be? How would you raise awareness of the issue? How would you address the issue? What challenges do you think you would have to face?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "CNN's award-winning series explores conflicts between people, environment .\nTopics include zoonotic diseases, poaching, ecotourism, and shark finning .\nThese questions focus on the concepts explored in the program ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Thousands of people around the globe may find the payoff Thursday for the countless hours they have spent perfecting the most ridiculous of feats. Chefs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, try in September to set a record with a tub of Quaker soup, made with Quaker oats. More than 200,000 people in 18 countries hope to make it into the \"Guinness World Records\" book with a variety of rather odd achievements on this day. Students at the University of Bournemouth in the United Kingdom plan to round up more than 100 participants to set a record for the Most People Dressed as Superheroes. Several Germans will vie to set a record for the Most Juice Extracted from Grapes by Treading. And in New Zealand, would-be record-holders will chase glory in a race to set the Fastest Time to Peel and Eat -- what else? -- a Kiwi Fruit. The unusual pursuits unfold worldwide as part of Guinness World Records Day. The editors of \"Guinness World Records\" -- universally recognized as the foremost authority on record-breaking achievement -- began celebrating the day in 2004, a year after the book sold its 100 millionth copy. \"We are very happy to see that people are still passionate and eager to achieve their goals in the midst of the global market turmoil,\" Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said in a prepared statement. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, shows its studious side Thursday in an effort to enter the record books for Most People Reading Simultaneously. Brazil will try to break the record for World's Largest Bread, and Japan hopes to clock the Fastest Time to Run 100 Meters On All Fours. Various places in the United States are also getting in on the act. New York will try for the Most Grains of Rice Eaten with Chopsticks in a Minute and Oak Park, Illinois, will host the Largest Dog Wedding. Sports network ESPN will televise attempts at the Fastest Egg and Spoon Mile and the Most Apples Cut in the Air with a Sword. Roll your eyes if you must. But keep count of the rotations: You could be a contender next year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guinness World Records Day efforts range from the ridiculous to the absurd .\nLargest Dog Wedding, Most Apples Cut in the Air with a Sword among categories .\nRecord book's editor praises pursuit of goals in spite of economic turmoil ." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "You are a summarization AI. Provide a succinct and relevant summary of the provided text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(CNN) -- Three runners died Sunday during the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon in Detroit, Michigan, police told CNN. An EMT vehicle is at the scene Sunday in Detroit after three runners collapsed at a marathon. All three deaths occurred between 9 and 9:20 a.m. ET, Second Deputy Chief John Roach said. A man in his 60s fell and hit his head, Roach said. The cause of the fall was unknown. The man was transported to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two other men, ages 36 and 26, also collapsed during the race and were pronounced dead at the hospital, Roach said. All three collapsed near the end of the race, he said. Witnesses describe scene » . The weather at the time was overcast, Roach said, with temperatures in the low 40s. CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Second Deputy Chief John Roach: All three deaths occurred between 9 and 9:20 a.m.\nMan in his 60s fell hit his head; Two men others, ages 36 and 26, collapsed .\nRace was Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon in Detroit, Michigan ." } ]