text
stringlengths 102
11.9k
| query
stringlengths 2
806
| summary
stringlengths 22
3.99k
|
|---|---|---|
(cnn) us secretary of state john kerry is usually so careful not to expose his french connection his mother was born and educated in paris and he speaks fluent french especially since this tie arguably cost him the us presidency in 2004 when the nation was being vilified as 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' by a conservative columnist but kerry's gushing praise for france, and in french, on saturday during his visit to paris, couldn't have been more dramatic and revealing france is indeed one of the very few world powers that seem ready to join the us in a military strike on syria's assad regime, with or without un backing since britain ruled itself out from such intervention through a no vote in parliament on august 29, to the world's surprise and david cameron's dismay, the us and france have had to appear even more resolute and closer partners on the world stage than before news emerged of lengthy phone conversations between presidents franã§ois hollande and barack obama and one to one meetings at the g20 last friday in st petersburg, with david cameron conspicuously sidelined sidelined and vexed after it was reported that an adviser to putin had dismissed the uk as this 'little island nobody listens to', the british prime minister strangely felt compelled to justify his country's standing in an improvised and passionate tirade 'yes, we are a small island, in fact a small group of islands but i would challenge anyone to come up with a country with a prouder history, with a bigger heart, a greater resilience we are a country that's invented many of the things that are most worthwhile everything from the industrial revolution to the television to the worldwide web 'if i go on too long about our literature, our art, our philosophy, our contribution including the world's language if i start talking about this blessed plot, this sceptered isle, this england, i might have to put it to music' so while britain was busy licking its wounds, the us and france were left to show up their unity and determination words were uttered such as 'france is our oldest ally' (a historical fact but a hurtful truth to hear for the british, the us's most loyal ally), however, they didn't manage to hide the increasing discomfort felt by public opinions both in the us, france and the world at large the british mps had, probably despite themselves, opened a pandora's box, also called democracy by conveying what they probably rightly think is the country's reluctance to engage in what appears as a vaguely defined military intervention, british mps did nothing more than to give a voice to their constituents' concerns disturbed by the british 'no', president obama, an isolationist at heart, decided to follow the british route and went on to seek congress' approval, even though he constitutionally didn't need to this, of course, has left hollande in a tricky position here he is, forced to wait for american congressmen to decide on france's course of action not a happy position to be in when you are the president of a country which, despite its current atlanticist foreign policy, has had a long tradition of independence a debate over the question of syria in french parliament last wednesday, granted by the president but without a vote, furthermore revealed how divided within itself france is the french opposition demands that military action be pursued with a un mandate 'if russia keeps blocking the security council over the issue, let hollande convoke the general assembly for an emergency special session under article 377, the general assembly can overrule the security council' said former sarkozy minister jean louis borloo an argument to which french public opinion is very sensitive so far though, despite the fact that 68% of the french oppose the participation of their country's troops in an intervention in syria, franã§ois hollande has stood firm with strong words coming both from the elysã©es palace and france's foreign affairs minister laurent fabius the french media has been visibly split as whether to support the president or warn him against an ill advised adventure with probable repercussions against french interests at home and in the region many observers in france can't help thinking that hollande seeks on the world stage the charisma and legitimacy that he lacks at home the only time the french supported him massively since his election is when he launched a military intervention in mali last year which, by all accounts, was a great success a french diplomat recently confided: 'in mali, hollande walked on water he wants to repeat the experience' except syria is not mali, nor is it libya or iraq in 2003, france tried to convince its allies, the us and britain, that there was no ground to the weapons of mass destruction's scare which so diligently triggered iraq's invasion the french secret intelligence services had indeed warned president jacques chirac that saddam hussein's arsenal could not attack europe within 45 minutes as tony blair claimed before the british parliament in a now historical speech at the un, on february 14, 2003, the then french prime minister dominique de villepin outlined france's position although applauded by the wider world community, france's statement was attacked by american republicans with a violence that both astounded and saddened french opinion today, france is not more hawkish than in 2003 however, the shadow of the allies' painful rift may have played a part in president hollande's current determination the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of agnes poirier | chave babylonic unpouched | no related information |
london (cnn) the landscape of german politics is changing angela merkel has just been re elected chancellor and is considered the country's most powerful female politician ever and now, for the first time in its history, two black politicians are entering parliament charles huber of merkel's christian democratic union (cdu) and karamba diaby from the social democratic party of germany (spd), were elected in this month's general election to germany's parliament, the bundestag huber, 56, is a television actor in germany well known for starring in the detective tv series 'der alte' ('the old man') for years he was born in munich to a senegalese father and a german mother diaby, 51, was born in senegal and gained german citizenship in 2001 after his election he told cnn: 'we are a country of diversity, people of all religions, ethnicities and skin colours live here, but it's time that this is being reflected in politics and public service there is urgent need for action' angela merkel's recipe for success diaby studied at university in dakar: in 1986 he was awarded a scholarship and moved to halle in former communist east germany to undertake a doctorate in chemistry 'german society is changing and there have been several positive developments,' said diaby measures he cited included the introduction of legislation to recognize degrees obtained abroad and the implementation of the immigration act in 2005, which opened up germany to immigration 'the language has also changed,' diaby said 'we don't use the word 'foreigners' anymore, but now we say 'people with a migration background'' video: immigration and integration in germany diaby's first priority now that he is a lawmaker in the bundestag is to tackle the issue of education to ensure that everyone in germany, no matter what their ethnicity, skin colour or financial background, has access to good schooling 'educational success is very much dependent on how big the parents' wallet is,' he said he also wants to debate the introduction of dual citizenship as at the moment german citizens born to non german nationals have to choose a citizenship before they turn 23 'i hope that my candidacy will make a change and put an end to some prejudices,' he said in addition to the election of germany's first two black lawmakers to the bundestag, merkel's party now also has its first muslim lawmaker in the parliament, with cemile giousouf who was born in germany to turkish immigrant parents representing the city of hagen in north rhine westphalia muslim politicians have been elected to germany's parliament in the past the first in 1994 but they have mainly represented the social democrats or the left wing die linke multiculturalism is no failure out of the 630 seats in parliament, 34 or just over 5% are now taken by lawmakers with immigrant backgrounds, up from 21 in the previous term, migration media service, a group that researches immigration in germany, said in a statement 'it's a positive development when the parliament is starting to reflect society,' said tanja kiziak of the think tank berlin institut, which researches demography and development but it's still a way off from reflecting germany's 819 million population as a whole: around 20% of people have immigrant roots, with a large majority of those from turkey 'the issue of integration is being discussed more and more, of course it's a controversial topic in society,' said kiziak, 'but at least now it's on the table' | charles huber cdu karamba diaby spd bundestag just 5% 20% germany diaby cemile giousouf muslim bundestag | charles huber (cdu) and karamba diaby (spd) are the first two black politicians in the bundestag. just 5% of all mps have immigrant backgrounds while 20% of germany's population have roots abroad. issues diaby wants to debate in parliament include dual citizenship, education and immigration laws. cemile giousouf is the cdu's first muslim bundestag member |
(cnn) roger federer, the seven time wimbledon champion, suffered one of the most staggering defeats in the history of the tournament after being beaten by ukraine's 116th ranked sergiy stakhovsky the 27 year old fought back from losing the opening set 7 6 before winning 7 6 7 5 7 5 to mark the greatest triumph of his career and end federer's record of making 36 consecutive grand slam quarterfinals 'right now i can definitely tell my grandkids, i kicked the butt of roger federer,' stakhovsky told reporters following his sensational victory stakhovsky, who reached a career high of 31 back in 2010, held his nerve in the fourth set tiebreak to see off the defending champion and 17 time grand slam winner federer was just one of seven former world no1 players to lose their second round ties wednesday although his demise was by far the most dramatic 'i'm very disappointed,' federer told reporters 'losing at wimbledon always has been that way, will never change so i've just got to get over this one some finals haven't hurt this much, that's for sure 'it's always a disappointment losing any match around the world, and particularly here i've had some great moments here, but also some tougher ones' federer's defeat leaves novak djokovic as the only man in the draw to have won the tournament and also leaves the draw wide open for britain's andy murray, who progressed to the third round with ease 'i struggled maybe on the big points this time around again, like i have for some time this season,' federer said of his clash with stakhovsky 'it was tricky but credit to him for closing it out under enormous pressure he was better in the more important points today than i was 'i thought i had my opportunities, had the foot in the door when i had the chance, i couldn't do it it's very frustrating, very disappointing 'i'm going to accept it and move forward from here i have no choice' federer will now drop out of the top four for the first time since he won wimbledon in 2003 and could fall as low as no6 should tomas berdych win this year's title but for stakhovksy, the contrast in emotions could hardly be any greater watched by his wife anfisa bulgakova, he produced the performance of his life on the court which federer has virtually owned over the past decade 'i'm still in disbelief that that happened,' stakhovsky told the bbc 'i was playing the best tennis i have ever played, i am incredibly happy when you play roger federer it's like you're playing two players you play him the player and him the ego i couldn't play any better today it was a fantastic day for me' federer's exit is his earliest at wimbledon since losing in the opening round to mario ancic in 2002 and his earliest at a grand slam since being beaten by luis horna at the french open in 2003 it is also the earliest defeat suffered by a defending champion since 2002 winner lleyton hewitt was beaten by ivo karlovic in the first round the following year federer's loss means murray will fancy his chances of making the final for the second year in succession the world no2, who defeated yen hsun lu 6 3 6 3 7 5, will now play spain's tommy robredo in the third round but despite rafael nadal, federer and jo wilfried tsonga all falling by the wayside, murray is refusing to look too far ahead 'there's top players still left in the tournament, and there's a lot of young guys as well coming through, guys like (ernests) gulbis, (jerzy) janowicz,' he told reporters 'those sort of players are starting to break through and play more consistently 'i'll just concentrate on my next match i'm playing a tough player, a very experienced guy i'll worry about that match' robredo, who overcame nicolas mahut in four sets, says he will treat himself to cake and ice cream before turning his attention to the home favorite 'i have to congratulate myself because today i did a great job,' he told reporters 'so i'm going to play andy in two days now i prefer to enjoy it, to relax, to go have a great dinner because i deserve it, with a chocolate cake with ice cream then tomorrow is going to be a long day to think about andy' elsewhere, former champion hewitt was ousted in by dustin brown 6 4 6 4 6 7 6 2, while there were also wins for spain's nicolas almagro, austria's jurgen melzer and argentina's juan monaco frenchman tsonga was forced to pull out of his tie with latvia's ernests gulbis after complaining of injury, while radek stepanek and marin cilic were also big name casualties | tetradecapodan hanbury asparaginous | no related information |
(cnn) a fight for the control of sake, a strategically placed town in the eastern part of the democratic republic of congo, raged thursday, while regional leaders sought to end the crisis the political leader of m23, the rebel group that captured goma, a key city near sake, two days earlier, flew to uganda thursday for talks with that country's president the united kingdom's minister for africa, mark simmonds, arrived in kigali, rwanda, thursday and immediately issued a statement saying 'there can be no attempt to unseat the legitimate government of the democratic republic of congo' while calling on the drc government to 'address the underlying causes of the conflict' 'i call on the m23 to stop its advance and to withdraw from goma immediately,' simmonds said 'this would benefit the people of the drc and is the will of the governments of the region and the whole international community' oxfam, which is monitoring humanitarian conditions in the area, warned thursday that the fall of goma to the rebels poses 'a very real risk of complete collapse of state authority and the humanitarian crisis reaching new depths' it estimates that 120,000 people are in urgent need of help, with many sleeping in the open or in schools and other buildings without humanitarian aid 'people are living in chaotic conditions,' said tariq riebl, oxfam's humanitarian coordinator 'there are real fears that cholera and other fatal water borne diseases could spread, as shortages of power and water in goma have left thousands of people with no choice but to get water straight from lake kivu' reporter phil moore, who was in sake thursday, said 'the crack of heavy gunfire ripped through the town' in the afternoon, sending thousands of residents fleeing down the road to goma 'the road east to goma was filled by people carrying bedding, cooking pots and whatever belongings they had to hand,' moore said 'one boy walked past with his six goats motorcycles sped past, three people squeezed onto the small seat, and minibuses were bursting with those fleeing renewed violence the sound of mortar rounds exploding mixed with the rumble of thunder, rolling in from the north' these refugees from sake will suffer a difficult night, he said, 'forced to sleep amongst the sharp, volcanic rock that defines the landscape on the edge of lake kivu seeking refuge in the mugunga idp camp, already filled with 50,000 people there is little to eat, and no shelter' the situation of who is fighting and who is in control is unclear, he said sake is strategic because it is a gateway to bukavu, the capital of south kivu 'a motorcycle raced through the crowd saying that m23 had retreated from the town and were held up at a small stream crossing just outside of the city,' moore said 'as the thousands of fleeing civilians walked east towards a camp for the internally displaced, a truck filled with rebels raced from goma towards sake minutes later, they were followed by a column of a dozen rebels, running on foot, their pick up truck having broken down further up the road bandoliers rattled around their necks as they carried pkm machine guns and kalashnikov rifles, and some carried rocket propelled grenades' m23 political leader jean marie runiga lugerero was summoned to kampala by ugandan president yoweri museveni, who is hosting a conference of regional leaders saturday aimed at ending the crisis in the drc, according to an m23 source close to lugerero drc president joseph kabila and president paul kagame of rwanda were also in kampala for the international conference for the great lakes region, which is set to start there saturday when the m23 rebel movement gained control of goma earlier this week, it announced that it plans to 'liberate' the entire country an m23 spokesman said tuesday that the capture of goma, the culmination of several days of heavy fighting against government forces, was just the beginning 'we will push on to bukavu, then kisangani, and finally take kinshasa and overthrow the government,' lt col vianney kazarama said to enthusiastic cheers from a crowd of several hundred at goma's stadium, according to a congolese reporter there kazarama said that once the rebels overthrow the government, they will call for elections kinshasa, the country's capital, lies nearly 1,000 miles west of goma, the capital of north kivu province the eastern part of the drc, which includes goma, has been embroiled in violence since 1994, when hutu forces crossed the border from rwanda fearing reprisals following the genocide in that country the m23 group was named for the peace deal of march 23, 2009, which they accuse the government of violating the soldiers, mostly tutsis, became part of the national army through that accord however, they broke away from the congolese army in april, complaining they weren't being promoted as promised, and because of a lack of pay and poor conditions tens of thousands of congolese, already displaced by previous rounds of fighting in the volatile region, have fled camps around the edges of goma, according to unicef and the medical charity doctors without borders cnn's david mckenzie contributed to this report | dioscorein unexiled pelomedusid | no related information |
new york (cnn) some family members of people killed in the september 11, 2001, terror attacks announced thursday that they have requested the names and addresses of other survivors as part of an effort to stop the city from placing unidentified remains in a repository in a museum under construction at ground zero a spokesman for new york mayor michael bloomberg said flatly that providing the names 'is not something we will do' the 17 family members filed a freedom of information law request so they can notify other families and seek their input they say they and other families were never notified or consulted about the plan, which they consider part of a commercial operation to lure tourists 'these are our beloved remains, our sons, our daughters, our siblings and spouses,' rosemary cain said her son, george cain, was a new york city firefighter killed on 9/11 'we have the right to decide where they will spend eternity' more than half of the families of the 2,749 victims of the world trade center attacks never received any remains of their loved ones many others were able to bury only partial remains more than 9,000 body parts are still unidentified and have been stored in temporary structures maintained by the new york office of the chief medical examiner the current plan calls for the remains to be housed in an underground repository, behind a wall in the museum, and adjacent to a memorial gallery filled with pictures and artifacts of the victims the museum, which is under construction, is located beneath the footprints of the two world trade center towers the repository will be controlled by the medical examiner's office, which will continue to have access to the remains in the hope that, as dna technology progresses, more positive identifications can be made the national september 11 memorial and museum disputes the claims that families were never notified about the plans, and says it was the express wish of many families that their loved ones' remains return to the bedrock at ground zero 'families have been part of a robust process through which they were consulted during public and private meetings with officials, as well as offered opportunities for public comment,' according to a statement from the organization 'and they have repeatedly stated it is essential the remains return to the sacred bedrock of the site' feedback from those meetings also led to the creation of a private space, open only to families, near the repository and families will also be able to make individual appointments to visit the repository after hours, according to the 9/11 memorial organization in response to the foil request, a spokesman for bloomberg said, 'many family members would rightly be outraged if the city made their personal information, including home addresses, public, and of course that is not something we will do' additional foil requests were also sent to the mayor's community affairs unit, the medical examiner and the lower manhattan development corporation retired deputy chief jim riches, who lost his firefighter son jimmy riches on 9/11 and is part of the group that filed the foil request, said he always knew the remains would come back to ground zero 'but we were told it was going to be separate and distinct from the museum and visitor's center,' he said, adding that what he envisioned was more akin to the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national cemetery, that would be above ground and distinct from the museum like the other family members he joined at the thursday press conference near ground zero, riches said he never received any notification about the decision with regard to the remains in a recent opinion piece published in the wall street journal, family members who are also board members of the museum foundation said it was decided that an underground repository was better than an above ground tomb 'the latter structure would be a constant magnet for disrespectful public displays and demonstrations and would be impossible to secure around the clock,' they wrote riches dismissed the notion that an above ground tomb could not be protected attorney norman siegel, who filed the foil request on behalf of the families, said he has seen 'not a single letter that was addressed to the families notifying them of the plan and asking them for their input regarding the plan' in contrast, rosaleen tallon, who lost her firefighter brother sean patrick tallon on 9/11, said she had received letters from the 9/11 memorial regarding other matters, such as confirming the correct spelling of her brother's name and informing her of location of the name on the above ground memorial 'surely a letter should have been sent out on letterhead from the 9/11 memorial and museum and the city of new york telling us, at the very least, what they were doing with our loved ones' remains,' she said | september 17 nyc | freedom of information law request filed seeking names, addresses of 9/11 families . 17 family members say they are displeased with plans for repository for remains . national september 17 memorial and museum disputes group's claim . nyc will not release information, spokesman for mayor says |
london (cnn) pierre omidyar, founder of online auction site ebay, said wednesday he is teaming up with journalist glenn greenwald, who has led reporting on secret us surveillance programs, to create a new online mass media venture greenwald announced late tuesday that he was quitting the guardian for 'a once in a career dream journalistic opportunity' but said he was not ready to give more details now omidyar has confirmed to cnn's christiane amanpour that he is behind the new media venture, which includes greenwald and others and that he will personally fund it greenwald has been at the forefront of a series of high profile reports based on leaks from former us national security agency contractor edward snowden journalist jeremy scahill and documentary filmmaker laura poitras will also be joining the venture, omidyar said greenwald has been working with poitras, based in berlin, on nsa related stories scahill is the author of the new york times best seller 'blackwater: the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army' nsa leaker snowden deserves a nobel prize, his father says greenwald, who lives in brazil, said tuesday that it had not been easy to leave the guardian, but that he could not turn down the 'momentous new venture' 'my partnership with the guardian has been extremely fruitful and fulfilling: i have high regard for the editors and journalists with whom i worked and am incredibly proud of what we achieved,' he said 'the decision to leave was not an easy one, but i was presented with a once in a career dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline ' former cia analyst: edward snowden is 'at peace with his decisions' the guardian's jennifer lindauer said greenwald was a 'remarkable journalist' and that it had been 'fantastic' to work with him 'our work together over the last year has demonstrated the crucial role that responsible investigative journalism can play in holding those in power to account,' she said 'we are of course disappointed by glenn's decision to move on, but can appreciate the attraction of the new role he has been offered we wish him all the best' uk government and press collide in bullying of reporter's partner 'enormous damage' the guardian has come under fire in recent days from figures in the uk intelligence community who suggest its reporting has undermined efforts to keep the country safe in the face of terror threats both greenwald and the guardian have accused uk authorities of using heavy handed tactics to try to silence legitimate reporting greenwald's partner, david miranda, was detained for hours by uk authorities at london's heathrow airport in mid august, as he was changing planes en route to the couple's rio de janeiro home items including a laptop, a hard drive and usb memory sticks were confiscated from him and are the subject of a legal challenge greenwald said the episode was designed to deter him and other investigative journalists from using classified information and digging into stories critical of the british and allied governments but vowed to continue regardless guardian editor alan rusbridger described meetings with uk government officials who demanded the newspaper hand over the snowden material or destroy it who is edward snowden? the files leaked by snowden contain at least 58,000 highly classified uk intelligence documents, authorities have said a week ago, the head of britain's mi5 security service, andrew parker, used his first public speech to say that reporting on the work of britain's intelligence agency, government communications headquarters, risks handing over vital information to terrorists 'it causes enormous damage to make public the reach and limits of gchq techniques,' he said 'such information hands the advantage to the terrorists it is the gift they need to evade us and strike at will unfashionable as it might seem, that is why we must keep secrets secret, and why not doing so causes such harm' miranda afraid during questioning parker did not name the guardian or snowden in his comments but said that the information gleaned about terrorists and 'the detail of the capabilities we use against them' was what gave intelligence services their 'margin of advantage' a margin, he said, that is now 'under attack' a former head of gchq and adviser to 10 downing street, sir david omand, also last week said in an interview with the times of london that leaks by snowden of intelligence documents represent 'the most catastrophic loss to british intelligence ever' however, in an editorial for the guardian published monday, a former director of uk public prosecutions, ken macdonald, argued that parker had used 'foolish self serving rhetoric' to argue against greater transparency by security agencies reporting based on snowden's leaks has also caused diplomatic tensions for the united states with both brazil and mexico data seized from greenwald's partner risks security, uk says glenn greenwald's partner david miranda wins partial court victory cnn's mick krever and karen smith contributed to this report | jeremy scahill laura poitras omidyar pierre omidyar ebay glenn greenwald greenwald guardian britain | new: jeremy scahill and laura poitras are also part of new venture, omidyar says . pierre omidyar of ebay says he is teaming up with journalist glenn greenwald . greenwald says he is pursuing 'a once in a career dream journalistic opportunity'. the guardian has come under fire in britain over its reporting on intelligence matters |
los angeles, california (cnn) the los angeles coroner's chief investigator revisited the office of michael jackson's dermatologist wednesday, even though the coroner announced last week his 'thorough and comprehensive' report was completed dr arnold klein denied in a cnn interview last month that he had given jackson dangerous drugs 'we wanted some additional information, and they provided it,' ed winter said as he emerged 90 minutes after entering dr arnold klein's beverly hills, california, dermatology clinic winter, who also visited klein's office on july 14, said the doctor's staff and lawyers cooperated with his requests garo ghazarian, one of klein's two lawyers on the scene, said the doctor did not meet with winter 'they had inquiries born out of information they wanted to corroborate,' ghazarian said ghazarian said he was added to klein's legal team 'to take a look and see if there's any cause for concern in light of media reports' that investigators were considering criminal charges against him 'i have seen no cause for concern on behalf of my client, dr arnold klein,' ghazarian said the coroner's office said more than a week ago that a 'thorough and comprehensive' report into the death of michael jackson is complete, but police have requested that the report not be released yet because of the ongoing criminal investigation the coroner's office said it would abide by the request that 'the cause and manner of death remain confidential,' and referred all questions to the los angeles police department winter would not say what prompted the coroner's office to revisit its conclusions jackson's june 25 death is also the focus of an investigation by los angeles police, the state attorney general's office and the us drug enforcement administration klein, who treated jackson for decades, denied in a cnn interview last month that he had given jackson dangerous drugs 'if you took all the pills i gave him in the last year at once, it wouldn't do anything to you,' he told cnn's larry king jackson visited klein's office several times in the weeks before his death, including one visit just three days before dr conrad murray, jackson's personal physician who is under investigation, said in a video posted online tuesday that he has 'faith the truth will prevail' murray, who was with jackson when he died, recorded the one minute video in houston, texas, last wednesday and it posted on youtube tuesday, the spokeswoman for his lawyer said 'i have done all i could do,' murray said 'i told the truth, and i have faith the truth will prevail' watch conrad murray say, 'don't worry i'll be fine' » murray, a cardiologist, owned and operated two medical clinics in las vegas, nevada, and houston but he took a full time job as jackson's personal doctor in may, as the pop singer prepared for his comeback concerts scheduled to start in july investigators have searched murray's home and clinics for evidence related to the anesthetic propofol, according to documents filed in court a source close to the investigation told cnn it's believed murray administered the drug, also known by the brand name diprivan, to jackson within 24 hours of his death ed chernoff, murray's lawyer, said it was only after murray moved to los angeles in may 2009 that 'he realized that michael jackson had some very unusual problems' chernoff, in comments published in the los angeles times and confirmed by his spokeswoman, said that when murray took the job, his client did not know what drugs jackson might have been taking or whether he was addicted murray did not conduct drug tests on jackson and had no way of knowing, other than from jackson's words, if he was taking other drugs, chernoff's spokeswoman, miranda sevcik, told cnn one of the warrants used in searches of murray's home and clinics implied that police suspect jackson was a drug addict chernoff has refused to confirm or deny whether murray administered propofol to jackson, although he denied 'unequivocally' that murray gave jackson painkillers a former prosecutor who has also defended doctors in medical malpractice cases involving anesthesia said prosecutors would face 'a very, very severe uphill battle' when charging a doctor with manslaughter 'you have to prove gross recklessness in the prescription of drugs,' paul callan told cnn 'that's really hard with a doctor because doctors are always prescribing drugs; patients occasionally die from them that's not criminal conduct but here, you have to show that this doctor should've known jackson was an addict and that he could've died from these drugs' | ed winter coroner michael jackson's arnold klein jackson | 'we wanted some additional information,' chief investigator ed winter said . coroner had said it completed 'thorough' report into michael jackson's death . winter would not say what prompted the second visit or its conclusions . dr arnold klein, jackson's dermatologist, has denied giving him dangerous drugs |
new york (cnn) pakistan's new president called gop vice presidential candidate sarah palin 'gorgeous' when the two met in new york on wednesday vice presidential candidate sarah palin meets pakistani president asif ali zardari in new york on wednesday palin has been in new york meeting international leaders in town this week for united nations meetings on entering a room filled with several pakistani officials wednesday, palin was immediately greeted by sherry rehman, the country's information minister 'and how does one keep looking that good when one is that busy?' rehman asked palin, drawing friendly laughter from the room 'oh, thank you,' palin said pakistan's new president, asif ali zardari, entered the room seconds later palin rose to shake his hand, saying she was 'honored' to meet him zardari then called her 'gorgeous' and said: 'now i know why the whole of america is crazy about you' 'you are so nice,' palin said, smiling 'thank you' a handler from zardari's entourage then told the two politicians to keep shaking hands for the cameras 'if he's insisting, i might hug,' zardari said palin smiled politely in response the alaska governor did not answer questions from reporters at her first two appearances on wednesday, when she joined running mate sen john mccain in meetings with georgian president mikhail saakashvili and ukrainian president viktor yushchenko and then traveled downtown to meet with iraqi president jalal talabani but she did offer brief remarks to a reporter at the zardari meeting who asked about her day 'it's going great,' palin said 'these meetings are very informative and helpful, and a lot of good people sharing appreciation for america' | sarah palin new york new pakistani asif ali zardari palin zardari america | vp candidate sarah palin in new york meeting international leaders . new pakistani president asif ali zardari called palin 'gorgeous'. zardari: 'now i know why the whole of america is crazy about you' |
(cnn) the taliban said monday it was behind a suicide bombing in the eastern pakistani city of lahore that killed 13 people and wounded 113 others azam tariq, spokesman for the pakistani taliban, said the attack was in response to us aggression against muslims around the world 'i am proud to accept the responsibility of the lahore suicide blast,' tariq wrote in a text message to cnn 'we will follow us and its allies all over the world, even if they are in karachi, peshawar, lahore, afghanistan or in us' seven of the dead were security personnel, and two were a mother and daughter on their way to school, lahore government official khalid ranjha said he said 81 people were at nearby hospitals government officials earlier reported 11 people were dead and more than 60 were injured, with many in critical condition officials warned the death toll could rise the bombing was in an affluent part of model town in lahore, pakistan's second largest city the suicide bomber targeted the special investigation agency, a provincial law enforcement agency that investigates high value detainees it is where suspected militants have been interrogated, said khusro pervez, a senior government official in lahore in a separate development, three suspected militants were killed monday night when a suspected us drone fired five missiles at a compound in pakistan's tribal region, two pakistani intelligence officials said the compound was in the town of miranshah in north waziristan, one of seven districts in pakistan's tribal region bordering afghanistan, officials said the officials asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media cnn's reza sayah and journalists nasir dawar and nasir habib contributed to this report | pakistani taliban us muslims pakistan | pakistani taliban said attack was response to us aggression against muslims . blast kills 13 people and wounds 113 others in eastern pakistan . in other news, suspected us drone kills three suspected militants in tribal region |
(cnn) a vietnamese woman caught cooking a tiger carcass was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, state media reported thursday there are reportedly only about 100 tigers, prized by so called medicine men, left living in vietnam a hanoi court convicted nguyen thi thanh, 41, for 'violating regulations protecting rare wild animals' she was arrested last september after police raided a house that she rented in the capital city of hanoi and found dead tigers, bear arms, monkey bones and elephant tusks officers found thanh and three accomplices cooking tiger carcasses, the thanh nien daily reported the three men received suspended sentences, ranging from 24 to 30 months, the daily said the woman told police she sold the animals' bone marrow for 65 million vietnamese dong ($400) per gram to traditional medicine men, according to reports at the time such medicine men think tiger bones and other parts can cure arthritis and other joint ailments, according to the humane society of the united states tigers are universally threatened, with only about 100 still living in vietnam, the world wildlife fund said the southeast asian country has banned trafficking in endangered animal parts last year, the vietnamese government unearthed 38 cases of illegal trafficking that involved 503 endangered animals, local media said at the time e mail to a friend | dogcarts sculpturation moralized | no related information |
(cnn) cnncom reader kristy o'connor took a prenatal yoga class with heath ledger and michelle williams and says she was 'in awe of his devotion and attention to michelle' reader dena michnowih says she came across ledger in brooklyn, new york, teaching his young daughter matilda her right from her left, and was enchanted heath ledger is pictured with crew of the 2005 film 'lords of dogtown' and members of the zephyr skating team cnncom asked readers to share their memories of ledger, who was found dead in a new york apartment tuesday, january 22 famous for his roles in the films, 'the patriot' and 'lords of dogtown,' ledger was widely acclaimed for his portrayal of the homosexual cowboy ennis del mar in 2005's 'brokeback mountain' cnncom readers describe meeting ledger in person, and call him humble and kind below are a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity donal logue, actor, of los angeles, california i met heath eight years ago while working on 'the patriot' he became a star while we were sequestered away in a small town in south carolina based on the strength of the dailies going back to los angeles heath was a fantastically kind and sweet young man he surrounded himself with his friends from australia and never forgot any of us he ever worked with i last saw him in australia when he called my name on a melbourne street and introduced me to michelle, his (then) pregnant [girlfriend] i have great memories of going for runs with him or watching a bootleg copy of a parker and stone's musical called 'cannibal! the musical of the donner party tragedy' heath must have been in a place of great pain and sadness to be split from his wife and child he was sensitive and unfairly victimized in his native country by the unfortunate australian custom called the 'tall poppy syndrome' in which an australian, the second he or she achieves global success, is immediately and arbitrarily accused of losing all of their humanity not true he was a sweet person, and less importantly, an unbelievably talented actor maybe the best of his generation dan bova of larchmont, new york once when i was driving in brooklyn, i got a flat tire as i was jacking up my car, this deep voice from behind me said, 'need a hand?' it was heath ledger i couldn't believe it he helped jack up my car and change the tire he was really good with tools! r of perth, western australia i grew up with heath around the speedway racing circuit i remember the night he was a little boy and his dad was racing speed cars at claremont speedway (my dad was in the race, too) his dad was coming 3rd then in the final corner, the two lead cars spun out and heath's dad kim took the lead and won the state title race heath was standing a couple of rows in front of me with his mum and sister and they were all so excited, jumping up and down and cheering he was about as happy as a little boy could be watching his dad become a champion i remember that night because in the years that followed, i saw his parents marriage break up and it was like there was this moment in his childhood of pure joy that i witnessed later heath would pit crew for graham jones, and i crewed for my dad and brother heath and i were both the youngest on our crews so that meant our job was to take the fiberglass bonnets over to the hoses and wash the mud off after each race really dirty work but he managed to stay cleaner than the rest of us crystal davis of toronto, ontario i met heath in la at a mall a year or so ago i was staring at him working up the nerve to ask for an autograph he saw me, started laughing and walked towards me he said i was white as an 'egg' and asked if he could do anything i said, no thanks yes i forgot to ask for the autograph he touched my shoulder and told me to take it easy and walked away he looked back several times and smiled what a great memory i have of him my prayers go out to his family and friends dena michnowich of glen cove, new york i was walking in the lower east side of manhattan one day and i noticed a really cute man holding his little daughter on his shoulders she looked just like him he told her that they had to make a right and asked her to point them in the right direction, which she did i soon realized that it was heath ledger and i got really excited i was walking right up to them as they were waiting to cross the street when i got close, i waved and he smiled at me he was so handsome i got the chills i could also sense that he had a very sweet spirit it was a very special moment for me i'm so sad to hear that he died leanne scorzoni of staten island, new york i worked as a nanny for a number of years in manhattan, and i ended up having a toddler class with my charge and heath, michelle and baby matilda the couple was so polite and laid back at first i didn't recognize who they were they were genuinely interested in their child, her development, and treating the rest of us (including staff) with respect he will be sorely missed michael williams of perth, western australia i met heath ledger many years ago while i was working at a local fast food outlet here in perth western australia he came through to order and i was amazed at how polite, kind and friendly he was he stopped to sign autographs while he waited knowing that to the people asking him he was somewhat of a hero he did all this with the great australian attitude that he had and a smile on his face, he was one superstar that took stardom well and in his stride, i for one feel thankful that i have met this great person i send my deepest sympathy to his family and say to them that you do not mourn his passing alone; the people of perth share your grief tracy kimball of rock hill, south carolina i met heath ledger in 1999 while he was filming 'the patriot' in south carolina i was a reporter for a daily newspaper there and he was at a press conference about the movie at historic brattonsville, a revolutionary era plantation he was so very kind and was more than happy to sign my newspaper the media was flocking around mel gibson, but seeing a new young and dashingly gorgeous guy standing off to himself, i approached him and asked for his autograph he flashed that smile, grabbed my pen and used my back to sign the newspaper i was holding we had a conversation, but i don't remember it because i was so enamored i had never heard of him before because the only american movie he had filmed was 'ten things i hate about you,' which i had not yet seen i went back to the paper where i worked and wrote a story about the new hot aussie star that would surely become hugely successful in america his death really saddens me he was such a talented actor and a new dad having a child the same age as his daughter, it makes me even sadder to think of her missing her father amanda olmstead of penticton, british columbia i met heath when he was filming 'brokeback mountain' in my hometown of fort macleod he was a down to earth man with amazing talent his portrayal of ennis del mar was life changing for many of my friends i am truly saddened by his death kristy o'connor of sydney, australia my heart goes out to heath's family and little matilda, i met heath one time at a prenatal yoga class in sydney with michelle and was in awe of his devotion and attention to her he was a true gentleman and i'm sure an amazing father to make assumptions as to how or why he died is to bring more pain to an already devastated family adrian k of perth, western australia i met heath one night on the town in perth the one degree of separation rule in perth made him a friend of a friend we had a brief and quiet chat what struck me was his calm in the face of his monstrous burgeoning celebrity with both of his feet planted firmly on the ground, he seemed to be facing the publicity with stoic resolve goodnight, heath you were a good bloke 'a sad fan' in chicago, illinois i was an extra in the movie 'dark knight,' which filmed in chicago this past summer i spend an entire weekend on set with heath he was rather quiet most of the time between takes, but seemed to be a nice, likeable guy it was great to watch him work, as he was very committed to his craft his death is a great loss kelly fishburne of west palm beach, florida i met heath ledger while working in atlanta we both were taking a cnn tour he was silly, smiling all the time and we spoke about horses and riding lessons he was also talking about the movie the patriot he filmed with mel gibson he had to do lots of riding he was down to earth and so very talkative just a normal guy, hanging out a real gentleman jessi lee of central, south carolina i really enjoyed heath's acting his best movie was my favorite movie of 2005, 'lords of dogtown' heath played the somewhat obnoxious skip engblom, but thinking of all the other actors who could have taken the roll, i don't think anyone could have done it better even two of the original zephyr shop boys themselves tony alva & stacy peralta, said when heath came in & did the voice he would use in the film, it was like hearing skip from the past e mail to a friend | heath ledger don bova ledger | i reporters share tales of meeting heath ledger in person . 'he was really good with tools,' says don bova; ledger helped him change a tire . i report: share your photos, memories of actor heath ledger |
(cnn) zlatan ibrahimovic scored the only goal from the penalty spot as ac milan went back to the top of serie a with a 1 0 home win over city rivals and reigning champions inter on sunday night earlier, lazio had briefly gone top as they beat napoli 2 0 in rome, but the defeat for european champions inter drops them to fourth in the standings, six points behind their city rivals milan won a fifth minute penalty when clarence seedorf released swedish star ibrahimovic and as he dragged back the ball had his legs taken from under him by marco materazzi ibrahimovic got up to score from the spot and milan might have gone further ahead as he volleyed just over while robinho had the ball in the net on 22 minutes but was denied by a linesman's flag inter had their best attacking moments through wesley sneijder and they looked set to come back into the match when milan's ignazio abate saw red on the hour mark for a second yellow but they failed to take advance and seedorf nearly added a second with a fierce shot from 18 meters in the german bundesliga, reigning champions bayern munich moved up to sixth in the standings with a 3 0 win over nuremberg mario gomez scored twice for the bavarian giants, but they are still 12 points behind league leaders borussia dortmund, who kept up their relentless pace with a 2 0 win over hamburg on friday but coach louis van gaal has not given up hope his team can retain the title despite the big gap 'we have to try and get at least 30 points, then we will have a chance,' the dutchman told afp 'i think dortmund are very lucky at the moment, but they have a good team, they are well organized, play well and have a good coach 'their players really want to win' germany captain philipp lahm scored the other goal for bayern from the spot in the 75th minute before gomez rounded off the scoring he then missed a penalty three minutes from time at the allianz arena which would have completed his hat trick | ectoparasitica mantoid motorphobia | no related information |
(cnn) living in tokyo, japan, during the late '90s, geoffrey barnett found it extremely difficult even dangerous to ride his bicycle to work every day 'the traffic is incredible, and there's so much pollution,' said barnett, an australian who worked in the city as an english teacher his students shared his frustration, and they would often talk about tokyo's jam packed streets during class 'it was always a topic of discussion that motivated the students to talk, because it was a part of their life as well,' barnett recalled out of those frequent discussions evolved barnett's idea for shweeb, a system of personal, pedal powered monorail pods that he hopes can one day become an alternative form of urban transit with shweeb, pods hang from an elevated track that, theoretically, would stretch to destinations throughout a city 'cumbersome, jammed up cities of today should be rendered into completely accessible worlds once you've got a way to shoot over the traffic,' said barnett, who derived the name shweeb from the german word 'schweben,' which means to hang, hover or float he left tokyo in 2000 to design a prototype barnett's vision received a significant boost last month when google awarded shweeb $1 million for research and development shweeb was one of five winners of project 10^100, google's 'call for ideas to change the world' the public suggested more than 150,000 categories for google to consider five were eventually chosen, including 'drive innovation in public transportation' 'the cost of innovation in public transportation is often very high, sometimes in the billions of dollars,' google spokesman jamie yood said 'we looked for a concrete project where the funding available to us with project 10^100 has the potential to yield impact shweeb's innovative approach toward low cost and environmentally friendly urban transport has the potential for significant impact in the future' google tests cars that drive themselves during its global search, google was able to see a shweeb prototype in action since november 2007, shweeb has been a star attraction at agroventures, an adventure park in rotorua, new zealand people of all ages can race the bullet shaped capsules on a closed track there 'we've been able to prove a lot of good things about the technology: that we can get the transmission working at high speeds so we can swing around corners, that it's efficient,' said barnett, 40 'it's going faster [up to about 28 mph] than most of our customers would be going on a bicycle 'the downside is that because it's set up as a racetrack, we don't really give the customers the chance to enjoy it as an efficient way to move they're under a lot of pressure to put in all their energy and get a good [lap] time' barnett said the first concern people usually have about shweeb is that it might be hard work, but he said it's anything but 'although it is pedal powered like a bicycle, it's got none of the resistances that are inherent in a bicycle, being that you're riding feet first into the wind with a very small frontal area,' he said 'the wind resistance is really low compared to a bicycle i can see people of any age and any fitness level being able to cover a kilometer [062 miles] without any effort at all, let alone sweat' barnett envisions people using shweeb which uses no fuel, no batteries and has no emissions for short trips in major urban centers where residential towers are relatively close to central business districts that's about the only place that robert lang, an expert in urban studies, could see it working out lang, a sociology professor and director of brookings mountain west at the university of nevada at las vegas, says shweeb might be a viable solution, but only in the few areas with a high population density 'it would make sense in china and new york and places like that, but you wouldn't have that much opportunity through much of urban america,' lang said 'there's not the imperative for congestion relief like there is in the center of london or new york' lang said he sees light rail trains and plug in hybrid vehicles, not shweeb, as the future of urban transit because they fit existing expectations and institutions 'it doesn't require any change in behavior,' he said as one might expect with any new technology, there are plenty of questions surrounding shweeb how large will the pods be? will there be room for cargo or another passenger? can they function in severe weather? what about hills? the shweeb website has answers for all of these questions and more, but the system is still very much in the conceptual phase for example, many people have expressed concern about slow riders holding up traffic on the monorail, where there's nowhere to pass barnett says there would be no need to pass, however, because shock absorbers would allow the pods to stack together and let the faster people 'push' the slow rider in front 'the shweebs behind the front one can push it along so the front one is taking the wind resistance but all the ones behind her are basically extra engines to counter that wind resistance,' he said 'they'll act as a team everyone will just go up to a higher gear, and they'll all pedal together and all their energies will be combined' but barnett acknowledges that he still needs more testing to make sure this idea works efficiently so the next step for the company is to build a flat, straight track about a mile or so long barnett has been in talks with several sites about hosting the new test track, and he estimates that it is probably about a year and a half to two years away from completion while there's still a long way to go until his ultimate vision can be fulfilled, barnett said he feels encouraged by google's vote of confidence 'it just felt like a real affirmation of what i've believed in for the last 10 years, and it just felt like what they wanted for a system that would change the world was exactly what i've been trying to push for what feels like a lifetime now,' he said 'but then on top of that, there's also just a huge responsibility that you've got all this goodwill from all around the world, and you've got to not let them down' | shweeb $1 million google | shweeb, a pedal powered monorail, wins $1 million from google . inventor pushes 'a system that would change the world'. google says shweeb could be a low cost, eco friendly solution to traffic woes . but expert sees more potential in light rail trains and plug in hybrid cars |
los angeles, california (cnn) one media outlet billed it as the miners versus king kong the seemingly invincible 33 miners from chile and five of their rescuers toured the universal studios theme park on friday, and they were entertained with a tram ride through a tunnel featuring a lifelike 3 d clash with king kong and tyrannosaurus rex 'one more time! one more time!' the miners, the rescuers and their relatives chanted after the short movie feature concluded the earthshaking simulator rocking the tram as if it were under attack by the beasts of the 'king kong'' film didn't scare the miners, who were trapped 69 days after their gold and copper mine collapsed in august 'why not,' the tram driver said 'let's do it again' so it went the miners of chile who survived the longest mine entrapment in history had their way again, along with their relatives and the five rescuers helicopters and other tv news crews continued to follow them the miners, rescuers and relatives are in los angeles this week for their first group tour to the united states since being freed last month the group is in the nation's second largest city to attend 'cnn heroes: an all star tribute,' which will air worldwide on thanksgiving evening, november 25 organizers invited them as special guests on thursday, the entourage visited hollywood landmarks such as the walk of fame stars on hollywood boulevard, including one belonging to elvis presley it was an appropriate pilgrimage because miner edison pena had led sing alongs to elvis music to lift the spirits of fellow miners during the dark ordeal in fact, he had asked for the music to be sent down into the mine as rescuers drilled a bigger hole to pull the miners out of the ground 'he is the king, he is the best,' pena, 34, said, as he posed for photographs beside elvis' star on hollywood boulevard 'the sweetest of dreams' one passerby, ron prouty, 30, a writer, was surprised to happen upon the miners he was returning home from a starbucks 'to me they're real heroes, and i think it's beautiful they're out in hollywood,' prouty said 'i thought a celebrity was here but this is better than a celebrity' for the majority of the visitors, the trip was their first time outside of chile at the top of their to do list, besides resting after a 12 hour flight from santiago, chile, was shopping 'i want to go to the mall and buy some shoes for my son and daughter,' said katty valdivia, 40, the wife of sepulveda for miner juan carlos aguilar, 49, and wife cristy coronado, 40, the visit was a double celebration because they experienced the birth of their first grandchild, emily sofia studer, born wednesday when aguilar was trapped in the mine, his wife was concerned whether the ordeal would be too much of a strain on her pregnant 17 year old daughter, damaris 'we were really worried,' coronado said, speaking in spanish as did his colleagues 'my daughter was far into her pregnancy and we were all consumed with what could happen for those 69 days, we were a separated family' the miner poet zamora said he overcame the gloom of entrapment by doing something he had never done before: write poetry he wrote 32 poems about his wife, mother, son, relatives, friends he left copies of his verse at home and was unable to share his poetry 'i never wrote before,' zamora said 'it was a way of keeping me from suffering inside the mine i wrote about feelings and how people were suffering on the outside and how they would ever rescue us' like some other miners, he readily offered up his autographs to anyone wanting to meet him 'the poet,' he wrote in spanish near his name monica araya, the wife of florencio avalos, the first miner who was pulled out of the ground last month, described the 69 days of waiting and wondering as one of her worst experiences 'it was bad, really bad,' said araya 'i couldn't believe it i was worried about his life, but i believed they would all survive because i had faith and hope' she has since noticed a few different things about herself and husband 'we have changed,' araya said 'we are more sentimental, and we enjoy more what moments we have together' before arriving in los angeles, the group made a brief stopover at hartsfield jackson international airport in atlanta, georgia, where the miners signed flags one signed 'corazon de minero,' which means 'heart of a miner' when miner richard villarroell prepared to board the plane in santiago, chile, on wednesday night, the 27 year old said he has only traveled to argentina 'i want to see the world,' he said, smiling 'i know all of chile, but not the rest of the world' villarroell, a mechanic, worked at the san jose mine for two years his girlfriend was pregnant while he was trapped the miners captured the world's imagination when they survived the longest mine captivity in history, beginning august 5 for more than two weeks, many officials thought they were dead but crews made contact after a small borehole enabled communication with the men trapped 2,300 feet underground rescue crews encountered repeated setbacks initially, authorities expected the miners to be trapped until thanksgiving or christmas because of the difficulty of drilling a new tunnel to extract them on their us trip, the miners and rescuers will get a whirlwind tour of southern california they'll see the sights and shop in los angeles and hollywood through the weekend the visit is a world away from the miners' experience in the weeks after the mine collapse that trapped them in the days before they made contact with the ground, some ate about a bottle cap's worth of canned fish per day and drank mine water that tasted like machine oil they have said they were prepared to die, even as they awaited their rescue the miners and rescuers were invited by cnn to attend 'heroes,' an annual program now in its fourth year that shines a light on 'everyday people changing the world' the chileans were extended the invitation because their plight and rescue captured the world's attention and symbolized the resilience of the human spirit cnn heroes received 10,000 nominations from more than 100 countries that list was narrowed down to the top 10 cnn heroes the hero of the year will be revealed on the show; the public votes to select that winner 'the heroic efforts of the rescue of these miners was one of the most unifying and inspirational events of the year,' said jim walton, president of cnn worldwide 'cnn heroes is a fitting way for cnn to honor these men and their rescuers,' he said 'we hope viewers around the world will be heartened by the story of their rescue as well as the stories of this year's top 10 cnn heroes'' the miners' imprisonment began when a ramp into the san jose mine located in the arid atacama region of northern chile collapsed shift foreman luis urzua told the men that they had a shot of surviving the catastrophe, but there was a good chance they would never again see daylight the men occupied themselves by voting on everything, including how food should be distributed majority rule prevailed 17 votes plus one but the miners often managed to find common ground and most decisions were unanimous everyone had a task no one was left alone and they became masters of compromise and patience, even as their rations quickly began running out cnn's alec miran and lonzo cook contributed to this report | universal studios chile 17 year old this week first | new: miners enjoy ride at universal studios . workers and their relatives sing 'we the miners of chile' from double decker buses . a miner's wife feared the ordeal would be too much on her pregnant 17 year old daughter . but the daughter gave birth to a girl this week, the first grandchild |
new york (cnn) a malaysian man was charged on thursday for hacking into the computer network of a us federal reserve bank and for stealing more than 400,000 stolen credit card and debit card numbers, according to federal authorities lin mun poo, 32, is suspected of accessing financial records at a federal reserve bank in cleveland, ohio, by 'exploiting a vulnerability he found within their secure system,' according to a statement by the us attorney's office of the eastern district of new york at least 10 federal reserve bank computers were affected by the breach, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage, the statement said poo was arrested on october 21, hours after his arrival in the united states, when secret service agents observed him selling stolen credit card numbers for $1,000 at a brooklyn diner, the statement said authorities discovered a 'massive quantity' of stolen personal financial data following a forensic examination of poo's 'heavily encrypted' laptop computer, the us attorney's office statement said poo had obtained the numbers by hacking into numerous systems, including fedcomp, a data processor for federal credit unions, the statement said 'as today's technology continues to evolve, cybercriminals use these advances and enhancements to perpetrate an expanding range of crimes,' secret service special agent brian parr said in the statement the four counts against poo include access device fraud and aggravated identity theft if convicted, he could a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison poo's attorney, kannan sundaram, could not immediately be reached for comment | malaysian federal reserve lin mun poo poo | malaysian man charged with hacking into computer network of a federal reserve bank . lin mun poo also is suspected of stealing 400,000 credit card and debit card numbers . poo is charged on four counts including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. if convicted he could a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison |
paipote, chile (cnn) in short order, freed miner victor antonio segovia dispatches with some of the myths swirling around the 33 men rescued from the depths of the earth this week: he has no plans to write a book about what he endured in the san jose mine, he isn't going to sue anyone for the collapse, and he intends to go back to working in the area's mines 'just not that one,' segovia says all day friday in the hardscrabble mining town of paipote, segovia's family and neighbors ready the segovia family home for his arrival from the nearby hospital all 33 men underwent a barrage of medical testing to see how their record days of imprisonment underground had affected them mentally and physically all but two miners were released from the hospital friday, and all the men are expected to make a full recovery the segovia family was particularly hard hit by the collapse two of the other trapped miners, esteban and pablo rojas, are segovia's cousins 'welcome home victor segovia,' one neighbor said as she carried a handwritten sign greeting the miner into his home 'if god has given you a new life and chance, grab on to it with everything you have' the family has received gifts while victor's brother pedro segovia waits under the scorching sun of chile's atacama desert, he nervously toys with a brand new sony media player an anonymous gift left for the now famous miner pedro segovia said his brother is tough and untouched by how close he came to dying in the dark recesses of the earth 'we missed him a lot,' pedro segovia said but for him its just like another shift as if he worked for eight hours and came home if segovia has troubling memories of his long, forced stay in the mine, so far he hasn't shared them with his brother 'he'll tell me at some point,' pedro segovia said 'what happened, what he lived through' inside the segovia house are hints of how he passed the long weeks of eternal darkness two chilean flags decorate a wall in a courtyard behind the segovia's home in carefully etched blue ink victor drew a miner with a drill over a 33 on the white section of the flag below, each miner wrote his name and put his signatures in ordered columns 'for you with all my heart,' segovia wrote his mother blanca the flags were a gift for her 50th wedding anniversary and were delivered by way of the 'paloma' tube system that sent food and letters to the men 'he likes to play the guitar, accordion and organ,' blanca segovia said with pride about her son, who learned to play the instruments without any formal training 'we are going to have a nice party for him' but for the guest of honor just getting to the party will be almost as difficult as the previous legs of his journey as the afternoon wears on, more and more media trickle into the neighborhood tripods and cameras are posted like sentries in front of the segovia home it has all the makings of an ugly media scene so photographers agree and shake hands that all will stay in a fixed line so everyone can get an unobstructed shot of segovia's homecoming but hours later as segovia steps from a van, a still photographer lurches forward and the plan is scrapped pushing against the wave of cameramen, chilean police nearly have to carry the miner into his family's home one of the photographers gets into a showing match with an officer after the melee as the party gets under way, though, clapping and joyous chants of 'chi chi chi, le le le, los mineros de chile,' can be heard from outside the house then journalists still hanging around the house receive an invitation to come in and speak with the miner segovia appeared understandably worn from his ordeal and the crush of media attention as reporters ask him questions, he looks down his voice is soft and his answers are clipped 'that was quite something,' he said simply of the august 5 mine collapse 'that was something very ugly' he said he has been to camp hope, where family members waited for the miners' rescue 'i don't need to go back,' he said segovia said he missed his family terribly while in the mine and, he said, he has become someone who 'thinks more about god' 'we were a team,' he said of the 33 men 'but all the same there were problems so much time together, like any family, the problems start but were ones we worked out' other miners have told cnn that the 33 men swore an oath never to discuss the details of what took place as the men struggled to survive in the mine before he goes back to the party, segovia makes it clear he is not completely free of the mine 'down there you were always tired and didn't have any nightmares,' he said 'here you have nightmares until you realize you are out' | victor segovia san jose pedro segovia segovia camp hope | victor segovia, two of his cousins were trapped in the san jose mine . pedro segovia says his brother is tough and untouched by how close he came to dying . segovia says he doesn't feel the need to visit camp hope . segovia says he has become someone who 'thinks more about god' |
(cnn) a policeman in china has been arrested after he allegedly hurled a baby to the ground, local officials say the officer, guo zengxi, from the city of linzhou in china's central henan province, was on his way to a karaoke bar after drinking with friends on the evening of july 20, state news agency xinhua reported when the off duty officer came across a couple taking their 7 month old daughter for an after dinner walk, he reportedly grabbed the baby from her father's arms and threw her to the ground, injuring it, xinhua reported the infant is now in a stable condition, and may be taken to beijing for further treatment, an official told cnn guo was initially detained for 15 days as punishment following the incident, but received no additional punishment, according to local media however, he was re arrested sunday after the incident sparked an outcry on chinese social media, and an investigative team was sent to probe further, xinhua reported it is the second recent incident of children being assaulted by unknown adults to have made headlines in china in july, a 2 year old was killed in beijing after a man grabbed her from her stroller and threw her to the ground in a confrontation with her mother over a parking spot cnn's feng ke contributed to this report | pharmaceutically boldfaces oligocythemia | no related information |
las vegas, nevada (cnn) this weekend marks the end of an era for many fans of the iconic liberace the las vegas museum dedicated to preserving the glitz, the glamour and even the gaudiness that defined the entertainer's career is closing sunday after more than 30 years despite his dynamic history, the draw of the liberace museum has been eclipsed by some of vegas' increasingly lavish attractions low attendance is the primary factor in the decision to close the museum, liberace foundation president jack rappaport said liberace himself opened the museum in 1979, and in its prime, it brought in 450,000 visitors a year 'we've dwindled down to 50,000,' rappaport said he blames the low attendance on the museum's location three miles off las vegas boulevard, commonly known as the strip 'we are just geographically not desirable,' he said [when the museum opened in 1979] we weren't competition for the strip we actually complemented the strip' rappaport feels that the megaresort style of the new casinos of las vegas with high end shopping, an abundance of restaurants, shows and other museum type attractions gives tourists everything they could need 'it's kind of like going to disney world or disneyland resort you go there, and you don't really have to go anywhere else' if there is a bright side, it's that since the closing was announced weeks ago, attendance has nearly tripled, according to one tour guide's estimate a significant number of this influx are locals who've lived in vegas for decades but never made it to the museum but positive attendance news in the 11th hour doesn't change the fact that for most of the 23 employees, not only will they be out of a job, they'll be out of a way to educate people on a man they've come to admire 'i mean, [liberace] was las vegas,' museum director tanya combs said 'reading everything and seeing everything you start to believe in what a nice man he was, and you really wanted everyone to know that' museum archivist and historian pauline lachance has been the go to gal for anything and everything liberace 'he's made such an impact on my life; it's unbelievable i get kind of choked up talking about him,' she said she could tell you about all sorts of things, from 'walter' valentino liberace's early life as a piano prodigy to his prime years as the highest paid entertainer in the world, with the highest flamboyance factor to boot he was a man who, in the midst of a battle with hiv, sold out new york's radio city music hall so fast that his record still stands lachance's very first experience with mr showmanship himself was a night that almost didn't happen 'i really didn't want to go,' she recalls of the show her husband roped her into attending but that evening sparked a passion, some might say obsession, for the king of bling up until his death in 1987 at 67, she attended no fewer than 50 of his shows 'all you need to do is go to one performance, and you want to go to every one after that he just captivates you with his charm and his music' after the museum closes sunday, lachance will continue to work for the liberace foundation part time but there will be no more camera wielding visitors oohing and aahing over liberace's rhinestone studded piano, complete with matching costume and roadster see an ireporter's snapshots of the glitzy museum the musician's remarkable costumes became more elaborate as the decades went on, some taking more than a year to construct throughout his career, he played eight major hotels in las vegas, with his longest run at the las vegas hilton in addition to establishing the museum in vegas, liberace set up a foundation to provide scholarship money to students of the arts to date, the foundation has given more than $6 million to more than 2,700 students but what it's able to offer these days has diminished significantly two years ago, the scholarship fund amounted to $112,000 the following year, that number dropped to $62,000 rappaport said people can rest assured that the museum's collection which includes more than 60 of liberace's intricate eye popping costumes, his 9 foot mirrored baldwin grand piano and his 7 foot rhinestone studded baldwin grand won't go into hiding for too long a traveling tour of part of the collection is planned the tour might be under way as early as summer 2011, according to jeffrey koep, chairman of the liberace foundation board of directors a new incarnation of the museum isn't out of the question 'the board felt it best to close while we are still solvent and create a new business plan as we examine ways to sell our current location and search for locations that would allow for more patrons,' koep said in an e mail tour guide howard shapiro said he wasn't terribly surprised that the museum in its current form won't be around forever, but he agrees that liberace is too much a part of sin city to be totally forgotten 'las vegas has a history of tearing down and not preserving it's a sad commentary, but that's what this town is about, reinventing itself,' shapiro said 'i wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line, liberace gets reinvented again by whom and how, i don't know but it is sad to see it close' | liberace museum las vegas nevada sunday 1979 next year | liberace museum in las vegas, nevada, is closing sunday . the museum was opened by the celebrated entertainer in 1979 . low attendance is a key reason for closing . a traveling tour of the museum's collection is planned for next year |
(cnn) houston, texas, police were investigating the death of a child whose burned body was found tuesday morning in a drainage ditch police got a call from someone who initially believed the remains to be burned debris, said homicide lt leslie martinez the body is about 3 feet tall, she said the body apparently had been burned elsewhere and authorities were uncertain of the child's sex houston police also are searching for a missing 12 year old boy the amber alert lists him as being between 4 feet, 8 inches tall and 5 feet tall police said they could not say whether the cases were connected until the body has been identified cnn affiliate kprc reported tests will be expedited, but results and a cause of death could take a few weeks jonathan foster was last seen december 24 police sgt ct mosqueda said authorities are treating that case as a kidnapping jonathan has short red hair above his ears and an overbite he was last seen wearing blue jeans, a tan shirt with a picture of a guitar, white sneakers with red stripe and a gray zipped jacket with a hood the alert said he may be in the company of an adult female with a raspy voice the boy's mother reported him missing about seven hours after he was last seen, police spokesman kese smith said cnn's divina mims contributed to this report | houston texas | remains of child found in houston, texas . body had apparently been burned elsewhere . police say they do not know whether case is related to missing boy, 12 |
(cnn) australia got its first catholic saint sunday, a feisty 19th century nun who was briefly excommunicated when her colleagues exposed an abusive priest mary mackillop co founded the sisters of st joseph of the sacred heart in 1867, and gained a reputation as the first australian nun to leave the cities and minister to the rural poor nuns in her order got evidence that a priest was engaged in 'scandalous behavior,' according to the rev paul gardiner, who has spent decades researching mackillop's life the nuns reported it to the rev julian woods, mackillop's first spiritual mentor who co founded the sisters of st joseph woods in turn reported the abuse to church authorities, resulting in the rev ambrose patrick keating being sent back to ireland from kapunda, australia but keating's friends 'were really upset with father woods and thought they could best get at him by getting at mary,' said claire larkin, the chair of the mary mackillop centre in penola, australia 'they told a lot of lies to the bishop,' who excommunicated mackillop and the entire order in 1871, she said bishop james quinn revoked the excommunication five months later, on his deathbed, the order says in its biography of mary mackillop but she still had to spend decades fighting local catholic leaders for control of the order she founded 'she was a charismatic entrepreneur,' the rev thomas reese, author of 'inside the vatican,' told cnn 'she was a feminist before her time she struggled in a male dominated institution and got things done' her familiarity with church politics may have played a role in the instructions she issued to her nuns when women got the vote in australia 'it is the duty on us all to vote get advice from some leading man in whom you have confidence or from the priest, but keep your voting secret,' she wrote in 1903 the order grew to include 300 nuns in australia and new zealand by 1891, its website says, and now has about 1,200 members she died in 1909 and was beatified by pope john paul ii in 1995 the catholic church credits her with miraculously helping to cure a woman named kathleen evans of cancer she took to wearing a piece of mackillop's clothing pinned to her nightgown and asked her family and friends to pray for mackillop to intervene with god on her behalf her cancer disappeared, evans said in a statement pope benedict xvi recognized the cure as a miracle in december 2009, and announced two months later that mackillop would be canonized he praised her 'courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer' on sunday in canonizing her as st mary of the cross mackillop some 4,000 people attended an outdoor mass sunday to celebrate the canonization in penola, where she started her ministry in a disused stable 'it's so exciting, we've had a marvellous day,' larkin said from penola 'it's been a long journey' to sainthood, she said 'her dream started in a little country outback town, to think that she's gotten that recognition' | catholic the catholic church mary mackillop first australian | new: she was a feminist before her time, a catholic author says . the catholic church credits her with miraculously curing a woman's cancer . nuns in mother mary mackillop's order reported an abusive priest, leading to excommunication . she is known as the first australian nun to minister to the continent's rural poor |
(cnn) after a week in which football's reputation has been dragged through the mud, the ugly spectre of hooliganism raised its head once more after a goalkeeper was subjected to a physical assault during an english championship game chris kirkland, the goalkeeper of sheffield wednesday, was hit in the face by a supporter of leeds united during the teams' 1 1 draw at hillsborough with leeds just having equalized in the 77th minute, the man ran onto the pitch and struck kirkland, who fell to the floor and required medical treatment racism row shines light on serbian football the former england goalkeeper, 31, was left visibly shocked by the event and led to his manager, dave jones, insisting that leeds fans should be 'banned from every league ground' 'they are vile animals,' jones told sky sports 'you don't wave at them after that i thought it had gone out of our game 'the authorities have to look at it and sort it i'm talking about an incident when we should be talking about the football we're talking about vile animals 'that's what they are we talk about racism, but that, we need to sort that 'chris kirkland is feeling sore, if he had stayed down i wonder what would have happened? they [leeds united] should be punished' english player chief carlisle calls for serbia ban the two teams, both from yorkshire, have a fierce rivalry and had not played at hillsborough for six years 'i felt embarrassed to be a manager when i saw that,' said leeds manager neil warnock 'i thought it was an absolute disgrace i think they should get the guy and prosecute him and put him in prison 'he (kirkland) went down like a ton of bricks but that doesn't make a difference nobody should be on the pitch doing that 'i hope we can make an absolute issue of it he spoiled everything for everyone i've not enjoyed that when i see a moron like that 'i am not proud of being leeds manager when i see that i don't mind the rivalry between us there was a great atmosphere 'to see things like that on the field of play there is no place for it i am absolutely embarrassed' in march 2007, timothy smith, was fined â£300 and given a three year football banning order after running onto the field and attempting to punch frank lampard during chelsea's fa cup replay at tottenham call for unity as racism divides english football and action is nearly certain to be taken against the offender with leeds offering its full cooperation to ensure he is found in a statement released after the game, leeds said: 'leeds united football club would like to publicly apologise and condemn the action of the fan who came on the pitch and attacked sheffield wednesday goalkeeper chris kirkland the club will fully cooperate with the police and the football authorities in identifying the individual concerned 'after the week football has endured there is no place for this type of behaviour and the majority of leeds supporters will be ashamed of his actions' speaking after the incident, chief superintendent jason harwin of south yorkshire police said: 'during tonight's match, sheffield wednesday versus leeds united at hillsborough, incidents occurred where it is believed seats and bottles were thrown inside the ground 'we are also aware of an incident whereby the sheffield wednesday goalkeeper has been assaulted by an individual who ran onto the pitch 'fans are still leaving the ground and surrounding areas and our priority is to ensure the safe departure of fans 'such incidents are not acceptable and won't be tolerated we will be working with both clubs to identify and quickly bring to justice the persons responsible 'thankfully, such incidents are a rarity and we see a minority spoil it for the majority of genuine supporters 'we are keen to hear from anyone that can help identify any person responsible for any of these incidents tonight' meanwhile, in russia, dynamo moscow's players came under attack from fans using paintball guns at the club's training ground on friday fans arrived in camouflage at the club's training base in novogorsk, just north of moscow before unleashing a flurry of paintballs at the players dynamo lost seven of its opening eight games before the arrival of new coach dan petrescu the former chelsea defender has helped guide the club to 13th position in the league since taking over the reins 'they are idiots,' club president gennady solovyov told local media 'i have no other words to describe those who could do such things i promise i'll do my best to try to find and punish those responsible for these actions' dynamo midfielder alan gatagov added: 'i was hit in the back of the head when they shot at us lots of players were also hit 'i just can't find the right words what are we supposed to do now? should each of us hire a personal bodyguard?' | subfeudatory proselytes gynaecomorphous | no related information |
(cnn) for the first time since their rescue two months ago, the world is hearing directly from the three women who were held captive in cleveland for a decade amanda berry, gina dejesus and michelle knight released a video on youtube, offering their thanks to all those who have supported them since they were freed from captivity 'i want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through this entire ordeal, everyone who has been there to support us it has been a blessing to have such an outpouring of love and kindness,' amanda berry says in the video berry was abducted at age 16 in april 2003 and has a 6 year old daughter, who was born during her captivity before and after the kidnappings gina dejesus was 14 when she was kidnapped in 2004 she says to the public, 'thank you for the support' michelle knight, who was abducted at age 21 in august 2002 says, 'thank you everyone for your love, support, and donations which helped me build a brand new life i want everyone to know i'm doing just fine i may have been to hell and back, but i am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and with my head held high and my feet firmly on the ground' feds: 3 in ohio held woman, child in 'subhuman' conditions the courage fund, which was established to help the three victims, has raised more than $1 million dollars the three women were held captive by ariel castro and were beaten, raped and starved for a decade, according to prosecutors they were freed in may after one shouted for help while castro was gone from the house 'please don't let me go,' victim told officers the women don't plan to make any additional public statements 'i'm getting stronger each day and having my privacy has helped immensely i ask that everyone continue to respect our privacy and give us time to have a normal life,' berry says castro is accused of holding the women in his cleveland home he faces 329 counts, including one count of aggravated murder for allegedly causing the unlawful termination of a pregnancy his next pretrial hearing is scheduled for july 24th | youtube courage fund more than $1 million dollars | former captives release youtube video to convey appreciation to supporters . courage fund has raised more than $1 million dollars for the victims . women don't plan to make any additional public statements |
(cnn) stargazers who were willing to give up a little sleep got to catch the last lunar eclipse of 2010 early tuesday the total lunar eclipse lasted about three and a half hours, starting as a partial eclipse about 1:33 am et and finishing at 5:01 am et, according to nasa as a coincidence, the eclipse fell on the same date as the 2010 winter solstice the last lunar eclipse to happen on the day of the winter solstice was in 1638 'for eclipse watchers, this means that the moon will appear very high in the night sky, as the solstice marks the time when earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun,' nasa said in areas with clear skies, only watchers across north america, greenland and iceland were able to see the eclipse those in western europe could see the beginning stages before the moon set, and stargazers in western asia saw the later stages after moonrise, according to nasa share your lunar eclipse images, videos the twitter universe was aglow as the eclipse reached its peak 'moon fully covered, appears red very cool,' said adam goodman in toronto, ontario the weather didn't cooperate for everyone though 'thank you cloudy sky for ruining the eclipse for me, apparently i woke up 3 for no reason,' seth pelletier in utah tweeted the most recent lunar eclipse occurred june 26 a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth lines up between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's rays and casting its shadow on the moon, according to nasa as the moon moves into the earth's shadow, it appears to change color, turning from gray to orange or deep red the new color stems from indirect sunlight that passes through earth's atmosphere and casts a glow on the moon, nasa said 'our atmosphere filters out most of the blue colored light, leaving the red and orange hues,' the agency said lunar eclipses differ from their solar counterparts, as no special equipment is needed for viewing nasa will stream a live video feed of the eclipse from a camera mounted at the marshall space flight center in huntsville, alabama tuesday was the last chance for those in the continental united states to see a total lunar ecllipse until april 15, 2014, according to nasa cnn's emmanuella grinberg contributed to this report | north america greenland iceland the united states 2014 the day of the winter solstice 1638 | the eclipse was visible to north america, greenland and iceland . the united states won't see another total lunar eclipse until 2014 . the last lunar eclipse to happen on the day of the winter solstice was in 1638 |
(rollingstonecom) ellie goulding emerged in 2010 with a one two punch: first, her (still rising) helium voiced hit 'lights,' then, an elegant read of elton john's 'your song' that led to a gig at prince william's wedding as cinderella stories go, it's a good one but as a 25 year old adept who dresses rave y hooks in folk rock tunefulness and art pop filigree, goulding earned her glass slippers 'halcyon,' her second lp, pumps up her sound as befitting a court musician the single 'anything could happen' has the london community gospel choir swooping around staccato piano and club beats; elsewhere she's multitracked into a one woman choir if the songwriting doesn't quite measure up to uk art pop divas like kate bush, the hooks always go to town, and her voice dolly parton dazzling in the upper register mates gorgeously with electronics, swirling around itself on the title track, morphing through synthscapes on 'don't say a word' 'i need your love,' a bangin' collab with scottish rave op master calvin harris (rihanna's 'we found love'), gets slotted as a 'bonus cut,' maybe to avoid confusing the more genteel fans but goulding's magic is in her multitasking and if she really gets busy with current paramour skrillex, things could get even more interesting see original story at rollingstonecom copyright © 2011 rolling stone | ellie goulding halcyon scottish calvin harris | ellie goulding first emerged as an artist in 2010 . 'halcyon' is her second album . she does a collab with scottish rave op master calvin harris |
(cnn) a british couple kidnapped by pirates has been released after more than a year in captivity, somali leaders said sunday paul and rachel chandler were seized from their yacht in october last year, just after they set sail from the seychelles islands for tanzania 'they are physically and mentally doing well, and excited to be alive,' said mohamed aden, a local elder in adado 'paul and rachel chandler are safe and doing fine they have had a good shower and they are eating breakfast' aden was one of the key elders involved in helping secure their release last year, paul chandler pleaded for their life in a two minute video broadcast on britain's channel 4 he was surrounded by armed men pointing weapons at him british couple's plight as pirate captives at the time, chandler said the captors could kill them if a $7 million ransom were not paid 'we are concerned that these people will lose patience and will not feed us and i have no doubt that they will not hesitate to kill us, perhaps within a week or so of now if there is no response,' he said 'so, please somebody get in touch otherwise we just sleepwalk to a tragic ending' it was unclear whether a ransom was paid for their release last year, british officials refused to pay a ransom or negotiate with pirates 'the government will not make substantive concessions for hostage takers, including the payments of ransom,' the british foreign and commonwealth office said in a statement pirates have been very active off the east coast of africa in the past several years, operating out of lawless somalia | paul rachel chandler last year | paul and rachel chandler were seized from their yacht last year . 'they are physically and mentally doing well,' a local leader says . it is unclear whether a ransom was paid for their release |
(cnn) in this space, michele flournoy, former undersecretary of defense under president barack obama, and some of her colleagues attacked a recent mitt romney opinion piece in the wall street journal in their piece, entitled 'romney's empty foreign policy agenda,' they hurl all sorts of tired accusations at the republican nominee they even recycle a trope used by democrats against ronald reagan and other successful republican presidents, that romney employs 'cowboy rhetoric' yet even as they condemn the republican nominee for wrapping himself in 'platitudes and falsehoods,' they offer a remarkable demonstration of some of the serious problems afflicting obama's stewardship of america's role in the world let us scrutinize some of their points opinion: romney's empty foreign policy agenda on iran, they assert that there are 'zero actual policy differences' between obama and romney, citing the president's policy of sanctions but what they neglect to say is that obama resisted imposing the kind of new, crippling sanctions that are necessary to stop iranian nuclear efforts for much of his presidency today, iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than ever before what they also conveniently forget is that obama, saying he did not want to 'be seen as meddling,' at first issued no more than cursory objections during the iranian spring of 2009, when dissidents took to the streets of tehran and other cities to protest a stolen election a president romney would never abandon our basic principles of supporting freedom and democracy in this way flournoy and company point proudly to the fact that osama bin laden is dead 'on the president's watch' they are right to be proud of this, as are all americans but when they say that 'more al qaeda senior leaders have been taken off the battlefield than at any time since 9/11,' they run the danger of hubris and hubris has been one of the defining characteristics of the president's foreign policy alas, we saw a tragic demonstration of the consequences of hubris just this past september 11, when four americans including our ambassador were murdered in a terrorist attack on our consulate in benghazi, libya perhaps believing its own rhetoric about the decimation of al qaeda, the obama administration let down its guard about the significant striking power of al qaeda's remnants, affiliated and otherwise certainly, the inadequate protection given to our diplomatic personnel on september 11 the anniversary of the terrible attack is a spectacular piece of evidence that their judgment was skewed even worse, after the attack on benghazi, the obama administration appeared to be so desperate to believe that al qaeda was not responsible that it pinned the entire episode on the spontaneous rage of a crowd provoked by an obscure video on the internet it clung to this version past the point of decency but it was false american intelligence agencies have made it clear that our citizens were killed in a terrorist attack launched by an al qaeda affiliate flournoy's assertion that obama 'has effectively managed the tumult of the arab spring' would be laughable if the consequences of his lack of effective management were not so tragic the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of richard williamson | richard williamson romney obama iran bin laden's williamson al qaeda libya | richard williamson: despite criticism of romney on foreign policy, obama's record flawed . he says obama took too long to push crippling sanctions for iran; romney would have sooner . writers cited bin laden's death on obama's watch, but that's hubris, williamson says . he says administration let guard down on al qaeda; libya killings are tragic consequence |
(cnn) the worst secret in boxing is out of the bag: 'sugar' shane mosley is the most likely opponent for manny pacquiao's next fight the 39 year old american boxer used twitter to announce that discussions between the two camps are at an advanced stage, with confirmation expected in the next 24 hours 'just excited about the fight with pac [manny pacquiao] i know you're going to be there,' he tweeted to former world heavyweight champion lennox lewis on the social networking website 'the ink hasn't dried yet but it's pretty much a go' speculation has mounted over who would fight the filipino eight division world title holder on may 7 at the mgm grand in las vegas, with juan manuel marquez mooted as another possible opponent mayweather fight will define pacquiao's career but in a subsequent interview with the los angeles times, mosley confirmed that he would meet with pacquiao's representatives on tuesday to finalize a deal 'we've already discussed the fight about three to four weeks ago, so now we'll go over it again,' said mosley 'both sides just need to commit to what we've talked about and then i think we're done' pacquiao's trainer freddie roach had earlier ruled out marquez while, at the same time, insisting on an important caveat if mosley was indeed chosen '[mosley] won't be an easy fight for manny,' roach told assembled reporters in the philippines, where he was celebrating pacquiao's 32nd birthday 'he can punch with either hand but if the fight pushes through, i'll insist on a drug test he's been known to take steroids and it shows in his body' marquez calls out pacquiao for rematch roach was referring to a 2003 us grand jury submission by mosley where he admitted using epo, a performance enhancing drug, as he prepared to fight oscar de la hoya but mosley never tested positive, and denied knowing what it was or that it was illegal 'i'm disappointed that this is coming out again, four years after i've been to the grand jury and gave my truthful testimony,' mosley said in a 2008 statement, issued after the allegations first came to light 'i even took a lie detector test back then to let everyone know that i wasn't trying to be an unfair fighter' but it looks like mosley will now have a chance to fight arguably the best pound for pound boxer in the sport to prove his detractors wrong | us shane mosley manny pacquiao's mosley lennox lewis pacquiao filipino las vegas | us boxer shane mosley reveals that he will be manny pacquiao's next opponent . mosley tells former heavyweight champion lennox lewis on twitter that he's 'excited'. mosley and pacquiao's camps to meet in the next 24 hours to discuss terms . the filipino is booked to fight in las vegas in may |
denver (cnn) president barack obama turned in a less than stellar performance wednesday night in his first debate this election season on thursday, his campaign aides said former massachusetts gov mitt romney came armed with distortions but if the president believed that, he barely brought them to the viewers' attention during the debate instead, he turned in a distracted, passionless performance here are five reasons he fumbled: 1 his nice guy image: the obama team believes the president's biggest asset is his likability they want him to preserve that at all costs they're convinced undecided voters don't want to see him engaged in verbal combat so he rose above it that meant he passed on openings to attack romney he also missed openings to defend his own record and didn't challenge what his campaign now labels romney 'distortions' it let him stay the nice guy, but isn't there a saying about the nice guy and where he finishes? 2 misjudging the room: they decided this wasn't about the debate instead, it was an opportunity, like the speech at the democratic national convention, to speak directly 'to voters at home, not the people in the room' viewers saw that tactic a few times when the president looked directly into the camera to deliver his message but a debate is about engaging with at least two people in the room the opponent (romney) and the moderator (jim lehrer) by reaching beyond them (and at one point snapping at lehrer), the president seemed disengaged and disinterested and no doubt that matters to the people watching at home 3 not enough prep: the president held more strategy sessions about the debate than actual mock debates it's no doubt harder to find the time to prep when you're a sitting president and not a candidate, but to get rehired, he needs to find the time known for his gift with words, the president is, according to sources, challenging to coach he believes he's his own best critic and that he knows what to say and how to say it 4 incumbency syndrome: did you get the sense the president did not want to be on that stage, that other things were on his mind? he appeared impatient with the experience, not unlike other incumbent presidents, including george w bush 2004 it read almost as if the president is dealing with too many other domestic and global issues to stand there and volley about campaign promises when he has in the mind of the incumbent more pressing matters he seemed to have a bad case of it wednesday night 5 doesn't take criticism well: it's no secret obama is a confident man he wouldn't have a lot of patience for advisers talking about how to score style points but as al gore's sighing debate performance in 2000 proved how a candidate looks when he's not speaking can be as important as what he says sources tell cnn that during debate prep, only the president's inner circle stayed for the critique of the president's performance after the mock debates even then, it didn't seem to make enough headway to calm the president's impatience with this process maybe next time, they'll show the president tape of his downward gaze and grimacing during romney's answers and let him provide his own self criticism before he shows up in hempstead, new york, for the second debate at hofstra university three things we know about the president: he's fiercely competitive, hates losing and he is disciplined after last night's experience, he will no doubt adjust and come in ready with a different performance for round two but he has to avoid the problem al gore faced in 2000 gore was too passive in one debate so he overcorrected and came off as too aggressive in another missing the mark both times day after: obama accuses romney of dishonesty in debate can obama recover, or will romney step it up? analysis: romney seizes the story five things we learned from the first debate | cnn jessica yellin barack obama obama yellin | cnn's jessica yellin analyzes president barack obama's debate performance . obama's team had him cling too hard to his nice guy image, yellin observes . yellin also points out the president didn't engage in enough debate prep . finally, the president doesn't take criticism well, and that hurt him, yellin says |
(cnn) five consumers who found shards of glass in their bags of frozen vegetables set off what has become a national recall that the products' supplier is tracing to a single lot of peas the packages were supplied by the pictsweet co of bells, tennessee, and sold in kroger grocery stores in the southeast and wal mart stores east of the rocky mountains all carry the kroger or wal mart's great value brand, said anne tyrrell, spokeswoman for pictsweet tyrrell said the company became aware that glass was inside some packages of frozen vegetables after getting complaints from five consumers all involved peas originating in a single lot, and the company issued a voluntary recall for any product containing peas from that location there were no indications that anyone consumed or was injured by the glass in the packages, pictsweet said in a statement the company said the federal food and drug administration has been notified, and it is conducting a 'top to bottom review' to look into the incident the voluntary recall covers the following items: kroger 12 ounce green peas (upc 11110 89736) production codes of 1440bu, 1440bv, 1440bw, and 1600bd kroger 12 ounce peas and carrots (upc 11110 89741) production codes of 1960bd and 1960be great value 12 ounce steamable sweet peas (upc 78742 08369) 'best by' dates of july 20, 2012; july 21, 2012 great value 12 ounce steamable mixed vegetables (upc 78742 08026) 'best by' date of july 15, 2012 consumers who have those products are urged to return them to where they bought them for a full refund, pictsweet said consumers can contact pictsweet at 1 800 367 7412, extension 417, from 9 am to 5 pm ct, monday through friday, the company said cnn's greg botelho and joshua levs contributed to this report | kroger wal mart | five consumers said they found pieces of glass in frozen vegetables . the vegetables were sold at kroger and wal mart stores . the supplier of those vegetables initiated a voluntary recall of products that contain peas . the company now traces the problem to a single lot of peas |
(cnn) a priest known for his collection of religious art is under investigation for possible involvement in the illegal ivory trade, according to a philippine law enforcement agency monsignor cristobal garcia was quoted in the october issue of national geographic directing a reporter to ivory carvers and traders, and also dispensing advice on how to smuggle the banned item into the united states according to the national geographic article, garcia told the journalist, bryan christy, to wrap ivory in 'old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,' to disguise it as a soiled piece of clothing to get it through us customs he was with the cebu archdiocese when he allegedly made his remarks to the magazine this caught the philippines authorities' interest garcia was known as 'one of the best known ivory collectors in the philippines,' according to national geographic an investigation concerning garcia is ongoing, said sixto comia, the chief of the environmental and wildlife investigation division of the national bureau of investigation garcia has not been charged with any crime and his collection has not been confiscated comia said the agency takes illegal trade of ivory seriously elephants, valued for their tusks, are being killed in africa at an alarming rate by well armed poachers, according to conservation groups the highly coveted ivory tusks are often traded in asia, where there is high demand especially in china and thailand national geographic described garcia owning a 'mini museum' filled with ivory religious figures garcia was removed from his position in june stemming from a us case in the 1980s, said monsignor achilles dakay, the cebu archdiocese media liaison officer national geographic's article alluded to a dismissed lawsuit filed against garcia when he served as priest in los angeles in the 1980s for sexual abuse of an altar boy the cebu archdiocese released a statement wednesday saying that garcia's past 'has been elevated to the holy see,' the vatican city government of the catholic church 'the church is also aware of the gravity of the crime of pederasty in recent pronouncements, the church has stated her regret for the failure to address the problem in a more decisive and effective way,' according to the archdiocese statement garcia has since taken ill, dakay said, and is unable to be reached for comment the church's statement, attributed to cebu archbishop jose s palma, also condemned the ivory trade, saying, 'the church does not condone ivory smuggling or other illegal activities, although in the past, ivory was one of the materials used in the adornment of liturgical worship' the church also stated that garcia has rights to a 'fair and just hearing' on the ivory trade allegations the church said the national geographic magazine story 'needs to be assessed as to its veracity, considering that the article smacks of bias against religious practices' | national geographic critobal garcia garcia | a quote in the national geographic article lands priest in ivory investigation . monsignor critobal garcia allegedly gave tips on smuggling ivory . garcia has been removed from his religious duties on a molestation allegation |
islamabad, pakistan (cnn) the pakistan taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 13 people and injured dozens in the northwest part of the country saturday, authorities said the attack at a security checkpoint in the city of saidu sharif injured 37, according to ibrahim khan, a police official in the swat district, where the military launched an offensive against the taliban last year the city is near mingora, the largest city in the district khan said the suicide attacker, who was dropped off on a rickshaw, approached a checkpoint manned by police and military personnel security personnel opened fire when the attacker refused to stop moments later, the attacker detonated explosives azam tariq, a spokesman for the tehrik e taliban pakistan, told cnn by phone that his organization takes responsibility for the deadly blasts in lahore on friday and the attack saturday the saturday blast comes a day after a twin suicide bombing on a military convoy in lahore killed 44 people and injured nearly 100 others assailants targeted military convoys, approaching on foot and detonating their explosives 15 to 20 seconds apart, punjab law minister rana sana ullah said five of the dead were pakistani soldiers, he said 'pakistan has become a colony of blackwater,' tariq said, referring to the company now known as xe services that provided security to us officials in iraq 'the government of pakistan has become puppet of us,' he added tariq warned that failure to halt operations against the taliban will lead to more attacks 'our 2,000 suicide bombers, who have already spread across the country, will act against security personnel and government installations,' tariq said tariq said the attacks on both days were a retaliation for the killing of innocent 'mujahedeen' by pakistani government under the orders of the united states a pakistani crackdown on militants has resulted in the arrests of top taliban after the twin bombings friday, a series of low level blasts occurred in succession in the iqbal town area of the city that night three people were injured in the blasts and damage was minimal, lahore police said earlier this week, gunmen entered a north west frontier province compound of the humanitarian agency world vision, threw grenades, opened fire on the staff inside and detonated a homemade bomb before leaving, according to a world vision statement journalists nazar ul islam and nasir dawar contributed to this report | integrand nongarrulous bissonata | no related information |
(cnn) chelsea's star striker didier drogba has been suffering from malaria, his club manager revealed on tuesday, but the ivory coast player will still line up for the london derby against fulham in the english premier league on wednesday drogba started on the bench for chelsea's 2 0 defeat to liverpool on sunday, having missed recent matches against aston villa and spartak moscow due to a suspected virus however, the results of blood tests showed that he had in fact contracted the tropical disease 'a test showed malaria,' chelsea manager carlo ancelotti told his club's official website 'he lost his condition, he lost power 'didier had a difficulty to train because he didn't feel good, he didn't have power to train he was unselfish to play also when he was not 100 percent' but the italian said drogba was now back to health and would be fit for the league leaders' home clash with fulham on wednesday 'he suffered obviously but after treatment, he will be better,' ancelotti said 'one time it was serious, now there is the possibility to treat and come back well he is okay tomorrow he will play' ancelotti said ghana midfielder michael essien would return to the chelsea line up, having missed the liverpool game with a toe problem, but frank lampard is not yet ready to make his long awaited return the england midfielder, who has been sidelined following a hernia operation, is scheduled to make his comeback against sunderland on sunday 'lampard has been training with us and he is good he is able to play; he is fit because he worked very hard physically,' ancelotti said 'physically he is 100 percent he just has to be comfortable to play with the ball and with his teammates' meanwhile, second placed manchester united have been hit by illness and injury ahead of wednesday's local derby at manchester city united's website reported on tuesday that manager alex ferguson had yet to finalize his line up, with several players having been sent home from training 'so we're not in a great position at the moment hopefully tomorrow we're better, but there seems to be a lingering aspect of this virus going around and there's nothing we can do about it we've a strong squad and we just carry on,' ferguson said united will be without injured midfielders nani, owen hargreaves and veteran ryan giggs giggs will miss a manchester derby for the first time since making his senior debut, the uk press association reported, ending a club record run of 33 appearances against city city boss roberto mancini will be without striker mario balotelli, who starts a three match ban after on tuesday failing in his bid to have the punishment reduced following his red card against west brom on sunday | chelsea didier drogba drogba liverpool sunday carlo ancelotti manchester united wednesday | chelsea striker didier drogba discovers reason for his recent lack of health . drogba has missed recent matches and started on the bench against liverpool on sunday . manager carlo ancelotti confirms drogba has contracted malaria but is now recovering well . manchester united hit by illness and injury ahead of wednesday's local derby |
hong kong (cnn) asia's affluent middle classes have long been eager to enroll their kids in the west's elite schools but now they no longer need to travel as far to do so some of the most notable names in british and north american education are establishing campuses across asia as they seek to tap into the region's multi billion dollar international school market on monday, winston churchill's alma mater, harrow, opened its doors to 750 students in hong kong the 500 year old british fee paying school already has outposts in bangkok and beijing last week, some 350 children began their schooling at marlborough college in malaysia the $50,000 a year boarding school in the rural british county of wiltshire boasts kate middleton as a former pupil other prominent schools targeting asia include wellington college and dulwich college in china, branksome hall in and dwight school in south korea, epsom college in malaysia, and haileybury in kazakhstan according to isc research, international schools are no longer the preserve of expatriate kids around 80% of pupils come from the wealthy local population seeking an english language education this compares with 20% three decades ago 'international schools are now big business and there are many well funded groups buying and building schools,' isc said 'the proportion of schools run for profit is increasing significantly' asia dominates the market, with 53% of all international schools 'based on fee income alone, the present value of the market is â£189 billion ($30 billion) within 10 years we predict that to increase to â£30 billion,' said nicholas brummitt, isc research's managing director governments in malaysia, thailand and south korea have been actively promoting themselves as education hubs bob pick, master of marlborough college malaysia, said the school would appeal to those who wanted to experience a uk education but remain close to home and family he also said that marlborough offered a 'holistic approach' to education 'our curriculum inculcates in pupils an appreciation of the arts, sports and the natural environment, as well as social responsibility and moral values,' he said fees are not cheap but long waiting lists for international schools in places like hong kong and singapore suggest that demand is strong at harrow international school in hong kong annual fees go up to hk$160,000 ($21,000) parents or their employers also have to make a payment of between hk$600,000 ($77,000) to hk$3 million ($385,000) to secure a place in hong kong, an influx of expatriate workers in recent years, combined with international schools' growing popularity among locals, has lead to a severe shortage of places many parents put their child's name on waiting lists at birth and business groups have warned the situation is deterring companies from hiring expatriate staff with school aged children the hong kong government extended a hk$273 million interest free construction loan to harrow but critics said the move was too generous and more support should have been given to local schools | british north american asia harrow hong kong marlborough college malaysia | prominent names in british and north american education open schools in asia . recent openings include harrow in hong kong and marlborough college in malaysia . they want to tap into the region's growing elite education market |
(cnn) after all the celebrating, overeating and overdrinking with friends and family, sitting down quietly with a good book could be just the thing you need sure, you could turn to the old holiday standbys, but if you want to think outside the christmas box, here are 10 great nontraditional books for holiday themed reading: 1 'pat hobby stories' f scott fitzgerald spent his last years in hollywood, working on an unfinished final novel and screenplays that didn't go anywhere his 'pat hobby stories,' wry and winning tales of a washed up screenwriter who just never learns, suggest he never stopped learning or lost his sense of humor the first, 'pat hobby's christmas wish,' has him attempting to blackmail a producer into a promotion on the day before christmas 2 'a likely story' we find another writer with christmas headaches in donald westlake's 'a likely story' westlake is best known for his crime novels; here he goes in a different direction, with a very funny story about families in the age of divorce tom diskant is doing his best to sort out a complicated personal life while trying to keep his glossy publishing project, 'the christmas book,' on track both go wrong in unexpected ways 3 'last night at the lobster' in 'last night at the lobster,' stewart o'nan gives us all the small details that make up a day's work in a popular franchise restaurant it's just before christmas, and we share the regrets, hopes and best intentions of the beleaguered manager after corporate tells him to shut the place down 4 'ps your cat is dead' james kirkwood won a tony and a pulitzer for 'a chorus line,' but his comic novel, 'ps your cat is dead,' has its own devoted following it's new year's eve when jimmy, a just dumped, out of work actor, catches vito breaking into his apartment it's his third break in, and jimmy's had enough he decides to hold vito responsible for everything that's gone wrong the two hit it off, though, and over the course of a long night, things get stranger and gayer and better 5 'i remember' you can find a more traditional holiday in joe brainard's 'i remember' the episodic memoir from the new york school poet is filled with simple striking moments recalled from the sort of middle american childhood that we all miss, whether we had one or not 6 'santa claus: a biography' there's no bigger christmas celebrity than santa claus but like most celebrities, we only think we know him gerry bowler's sprightly cultural history, 'santa claus: a biography, examines his origins and evolution the book suggests there's still hope for santa, despite the corporate spokesperson and entertainment icon he's been turned into today 7 'wise blood' of course, there's one bigger name in christmas, the one people say gets forgotten amidst all the parties and wrapping paper in flannery o'connor's 'wise blood,' hazel motes wants to forget about jesus and sin and salvation so badly that he takes to the streets, preaching the gospel of the church without christ the more he insists, though, the more we don't believe him southern gothic at its finest 8 'an atheist's guide to christmas' genuine atheists have to make it through the holidays too, and they aren't confused about what they really believe they aren't necessarily as angry as you'd think from the current crop of big atheism books, either the writers who contributed to 'an atheist's guide to christmas' are in a friendlier and funnier mood and remain consistently thoughtful and entertaining edited by robin harvie and stephanie meyers 9 'doomsday book' the time traveling historians in connie willis' award winning science fiction novel, 'doomsday book,' don't have religion on their minds as the holidays come to oxford university in 2054 something's gone wrong, and a young grad student is stranded back in a dangerous, plague ravaged 14th century england willis makes the otherness of medieval society disconcertingly real 10 'sir gawain and the green knight' things weren't all plagues and suffering back then, though 'sir gawain and the green knight' is a tricky, playful 14th century tale, one of the great stories of chivalry it starts when the mysterious green knight crashes a sumptuous holiday feast at king arthur's court he proposes a christmas game to the best and the brightest of camelot: 'any one of you can try to chop off my head,' he says, 'and if i survive, a year from now, you must let me chop off yours' what could possibly go wrong? | ps your cat is dead james kirkwood a chorus line santa claus gerry bowler southern flannery o'connor's wise blood | instead of reading the standby holiday books, try 10 great nontraditional books . 'ps your cat is dead' is by james kirkwood, the man behind 'a chorus line'. find out the truth in 'santa claus: a biography' by gerry bowler . enjoy a southern gothic tale with flannery o'connor's 'wise blood' |
(cnn) president obama's ambien finally wore off, and thus he began the second presidential debate with mitt romney obama's performance tuesday night was stellar (but not perfect) because of two techniques that i push to my debate teams ad nauseam the first is the primacy effect, and the second is using your opponent's language against him if you want to win a debate, you've got to master these techniques the primacy effect is the idea that the first things a speaker says are more persuasive than those that follow it holds true in conversations, in 90 minute debates, and even over a series of speeches or debates obama came out strong he lacked passion in the previous debate, but when answering the first question from the audience tuesday night, obama brought the heat early on he said romney didn't have a five point economic plan, but 'a one point plan' that 'folks at the top play by a different set of rules' right away we knew this was a different obama yeah, i know, everyone's probably talking about that comment because it's a good sound bite but for me, it's the primacy effect taking off i teach my debaters that you've got to make your best arguments early in the speech otherwise you might not have the judge's full attention when you get to your best arguments, thereby lessening the weight of your position opinion roundup: obama bounces back, dominates debate i guarantee you this one answer the 'one point plan' will be talked about more than any other (aside from that silly 'binders full of women' distraction), partially because the president was memorable here, but mostly because of the primacy effect the second debating concept i preach is the importance of language choices if a team i coached ever concluded a debate without using their opponents' language against them, i'd want to make them run laps (ok, that's a terrible idea picture in your mind a debate team running laps ) obama used romney's language against him time and time again, and it was effective here are some examples of obama quoting romney 'this plant kills' (from a romney quote illustrating his flip flop on coal plants); romney's assertion that promoting a lower tax rate for the most wealthy americans 'grows the economy;' 'i'll get back to you on that,' his spokesman's initial response on romney's stance on the lilly ledbetter bill, which makes it easier for women who have been discriminated against over equal pay to sue employers debaters can't easily get out of arguments when you quote their own words it's a timeless, winning strategy opinion: how obama aced comeback moving further forward in the debate, romney used the same technique responding to the sixth question, when asked what the president had done or accomplished to earn our vote unemployment, medicare, social security and immigration were all subtopics that romney used when answering this particular question and he began each of these issues with the phrase 'he said' when referring to obama he followed this by reminding the audience of obama's perceived shortcomings on these issues it was romney's best moment of the debate unfortunately, it came almost an hour into it in fact, it took romney almost an hour until he had a clearly favorable exchange that's too long because of the primacy effect, undecided voters won't likely remember the stuff in the middle of the debate as much as the points at the beginning it's good for romney that this wasn't the first debate, because obama's performance was much stronger tuesday night the primacy effect over these two debates might have just saved romney i expect the president to get a bump in the polls from this debate, but it could have been worse for romney think about it: if we simply reversed the order of the debates, the race for president would look very different right now the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of todd graham | todd graham obama romney graham | todd graham: obama revived himself and gave a stellar (but not perfect) debate performance . he says obama used 'primacy effect' technique to be most persuasive first thing in debate . he says obama also used romney's own words against him, a timeless, winning strategy . graham: romney used that technique too, but late in debate; lost valuable time in waiting |
(cnn) lynne cheney has spent decades studying and admiring the nation's fourth president, james madison her new book, 'james madison: a life reconsidered' is a labor of political admiration that began five years ago and culminated in a historical journey in which madison, the father of the constitution, also becomes a prophet of productive conservatism she considers his impact generally under appreciated but incredibly profound cheney hopes her book will complete the record on madison's important role in the republican party —as well as on his personal demeanor and political vision 'we talked about his being reserved and reticent and his friends thought that it was going to damage his political career, but it didn't he had such gifts and they came shining through, his amazing intellect, his political skill, that when you combine with modesty, he became an evermore admirable figure,' she told cnn her personal journey in a wide ranging interview, cheney also spoke about her own personal political journey — as a second lady, historian and mother — and the impact of the public feud last year between her daughters over the issue of same sex marriage the family, she now says, is a 'happy family' she considers madison the prophet of small government he pushed for a strong central government early in his political career when he served in the early house of representatives, but he started having some doubts 'madison began to worry about too strong a government,' cheney told cnn he founded the nation's first political party 'that political party led to an era of partisanship in the 1790's that's the equal of anything we have today,' she said when asked if that partisanship was worse or better today than when the government first began, she recounted how mean the politics of the 18th and early 19th centuries were 'alexander hamilton was revealed as an adulterer in the pages of the newspaper dolley madison (james madison's wife) was attacked so, it was every bit as vicious, i think, as today is and madison was really responsible for it by starting this labor party' does she think this politics of personal destruction is a terrible thing? 'madison wouldn't have thought so' when asked about her views, she responded, 'i don't think so either its what happens when you have free and open debate' controversial politics cheney is no stranger to controversial politics her husband, dick cheney, was a house gop backbencher before becoming a member of the majority leadership and vice president he became a chief defender of the iraq war and the controversial terrorism interrogation policies on terror detainees used by the george w bush administration in the aftermath of the september 11 attacks 'i'd like to take some of the edge off it, trust me you know, i've been through this,' she said the most recent trial by fire occurred when her family had to confront fallout from her daughter liz's bid for a us senate seat from wyoming after liz reiterated her opposition to same sex marriage, her sister, mary, who is gay and married, lashed out 'liz, this isn't just an issue on which we disagree you're just wrong and on the wrong side of history,' mary wrote on facebook dick and lynne cheney felt the need to issue a statement to try to calm the tensions how does a parent deal with all of that? 'my underlying philosophy is that you should try to keep family matters within the family and i think it was, you know, unfortunate that happened,' lynne cheney told cnn 'it's hard to have two wonderful daughters who see things differently the disadvantage is that it becomes a public dispute and i just don't wanna do anything to continue that trend it's not good for family generally to do that, and i don't think it's good for ours' she said the advice she would give other families who are going through these types of issues is to 'just love your kids i love them unconditionally i can't think of a greater gift that any parent can give a child' about her position on same sex marriage, she said, 'i think dick actually had the classic formulation he said, 'freedom means freedom for everyone' i think that's a principle we can all agree on,' she said 'a happy family' when asked if there had been a reconciliation between her daughters she responded, 'we're a happy family' dick and lynne cheney now spend a majority of their time in wyoming, not in washington but they both are still very much into politics of all centuries 'madison was the man who said we're a government of laws, not men (president barack) obama seems to be showing us that we can be a government of man and not laws so it is how can you evaluate the two of them in the same breath? i can't see it,' she said while the former vice president has been very vocal in his opposition to some of obama's policies, especially national security, former president george w bush has vowed not to comment publicly on policy matters or his successor asked why the former president has decided not to engage, mrs cheney said 'i have no idea but he seems to be content and happy and i look forward to seeing him and mrs bush next week' do the cheneys and bushes keep in touch? 'well, i'm going to be at the bush library talking about james madison' jeb and hillary as for some of those who may run for president in 2016, she said former florida gov jeb bush would make a 'great contribution' if he ran 'he has to sort that out it is so hard to run for president that you know, you have to be sure in your own heart and that's what you wanna do and he'll figure that out,' she said she was more sure about hillary clinton 'i in fact don't even understand what the debate is about will she or won't she she's running' she added, 'you know she was defeated in this 2008 election in the primary and we didn't see that coming so i'm not sure i could, i could predict that one for you' for their part dick and lynne cheney are getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary asked if they miss being at the center of the political universe, she said, 'that was a great time and a time that both of us enjoyed but it's, you know, it's one stage of your life and you move on to another one we're in our western years now' gloria borger is cnn's chief political analyst | lynne cheney james madison cnn jeb bush hillary clinton the white house | lynne cheney has written a new book on president james madison . in an interview with cnn, she also talks about politics and her family . jeb bush would make 'a great contribution' if he ran for president . she thinks hillary clinton is indeed running for the white house |
(cnn) a powerful 62 magnitude earthquake struck near mexico's baja peninsula tuesday, the us geological survey said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries as the area around the epicenter is sparsely populated, said a spokeswoman for the baja california sur's civil protection office she said many people there were nervous because earthquakes are rare in the area the quake's epicenter was 47 miles (75 kilometers) north of la paz, mexico, usgs said the quake was more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, the agency said | about 50 miles la paz mexico | there are no immediate reports of damage . the epicenter is about 50 miles north of la paz, mexico |
jerusalem (cnn) israeli authorities are investigating whether the attack that left an american woman dead and her friend injured was 'nationalistic,' a police spokesman said monday, using a term for crimes in which a victim is targeted based on an arab or israeli background american kristine luken died in the attack her body was found sunday after kay susan wilson, luken's friend and co worker at a christian ministry, stumbled into a picnic area with her hands bound, bleeding from multiple stab wounds and asking for help wilson told authorities the two were hiking in a forest near beit shemesh, west of jerusalem, when two men attacked them, tied them to a tree and stabbed them, according to police spokesman micky rosenfeld wilson told reporters from her hospital bed sunday that one of the men was armed with a long serrated knife and that she believes they were arab 'it was clear that they came to kill,' the israeli newspaper haaretz quoted wilson as saying 'who carries around a knife like that?' wilson said she was wearing a star of david on a necklace when she was attacked, according to the newspaper 'he took it off like a gentleman and then turned me around and stabbed in the place where the star of david had been,' haaretz quoted her as saying rosenfeld confirmed monday that investigators' primary focus is that the attacks may have involved nationalistic intent, but he said investigators have not yet completely ruled out other possibilities luken and wilson both worked for cmj uk, a christian ministry based in england wilson, a british citizen living in israel, was a senior tour guide for the group, according to a statement posted to the group's website by its ceo, robin aldridge luken was an administrator for the group and had recently taken over responsibility for managing the group's tour operations in israel, aldridge said 'she had a beautiful and gentle spirit as well as a strong and vibrant faith,' aldridge said of luken 'she loved israel and had visited on several occasions both as a tourist and as a member of cmj' 'it is a tragedy that such a lively, caring and faith filled person should have been struck down in such a way,' he said the foreign office in london said it was 'aware of the hospitalization of a british national' and was ready to provide assistance if needed luken had worked for cmj uk for one year, having previously been a government employee, according to aldridge 'she had to cope with a move to a new country as well as a new job but quickly made the adjustment and became a key member of our team,' aldridge said he said the group's work sharing the christian faith with the jewish people in israel would continue despite the attack | arab israeli kristine luken christian luken | new: police confirm they are focusing on whether the attack was 'nationalistic'. new: the term is used when victims are targeted based on their arab or israeli background . kristine luken was hiking with a friend and colleague from a christian ministry . luken's friend survived the attack and summoned help |
(cnn) more than two million americans have already cast ballots for president less than three weeks before election day with a substantial number coming in the battleground state of iowa the state, which holds six key electoral votes, is on pace to exceed the 15 million votes cast early in 2008 a trend that is not lost on either political party while both parties are investing resources in early voting, democrats' push to turn out voters and in particular young voters in iowa could be paying off early numbers, which are updated daily, show that almost 20% more registered democrats than registered republicans have voted so far of the 463,219 early voting ballots requested in the state as of thursday morning, 45% came from registered democrats compared to 30% of registered republicans in voting, the early bird skips the line experts caution no direct link should be made between requests and how the vote might go 'we don't know if a registered democrat will vote for barack obama and we don't know if a registered republican will vote for mitt romney,' said michael mcdonald, associate professor government and politics at george mason university who specializes in elections but return data coupled with polls that show a slight lead for obama in iowa, he said, can give us some clue the electoral makeup in iowa looks like it did in 2008 when obama took the state by almost 10 points, according to mcdonald so far this year, 4% more democrats have voted early than in 2008 republican numbers have only risen by 1% that's not enough for romney if he wants to flip the state, mcdonald said 'it's not just enough to recreate the 2008 electorate romney needs to have improvement,' mcdonald said that's assuming that election day returns mirror 2008 as well romney's improvement might come naturally to republicans in linn county, iowa, one of the hawkeye state's most populous counties tim box, the deputy commissioner of elections there, said democrats are more naturally inclined to vote early and republicans are more apt to cast ballots on election day 'if you paint it with a broad brush, a lot of democrats vote absentee, republicans go to the polls they always start behind [in linn county],' box said he also attributed the democratic success to an organized effort to turnout early voters democrats, for instance, requested more satellite voting sites for early voting and staffed them more heavily than republicans there is some good news for romney in the state since early voting requests and returns are slowly closing the gap between republicans and democrats, day to day monitoring shows with some 'hustling' and a push at the end, romney could make a race of it, mcdonald said he could also change the game if he is able to turn out more republicans on election day than the gop did in 2008 john king: who benefits from early voting? and while iowa's electoral votes could be key to winning the white house, what is true of iowa is not true of ohio or of north carolina, two of the 22 states that have begun early voting 'each state is like a unique snowflake [when it comes to early voting],' said mcdonald since the constitution gives each state the right to administer their elections at a state level what this also means is that with different demographics, democrats and republicans have different strategies for turning out early voters in each state with different results what's also different is the way that states collect data, meaning that it is easier to infer conclusions from returns in states that report party registration, like iowa but in ohio, where registration is required only in primaries, the parties rely on different indicators, like returns in key strongholds ohio touts early voting numbers and there is encouraging news for both: in hamilton and franklin counties, two urban centers around cincinnati and columbus respectively, early voting shows heavy turnout in the areas that helped secure the state for obama in 2008 the state is mailing absentee ballot applications to voters for the first time this year and mcdonald said that could be affecting increased returns in rural areas, which are more heavily republican in rural areas of ohio, absentee ballots sent to each registered voter in the state for the first time in 2012 also show increased turnout in cuyahoga county, the largest in the state and home to democrat heavy cleveland, nearly 250,000 absentee ballots have been requested and some 80,000 have been returned those numbers strongly favor democrats: 47,538 to 16,720 gop officials say their absentee and in person voting turnout in franklin county is coming along nicely republicans account for 165% of registered voters there, but make up 286% of early voting activity so far still, mcdonald said looking that the numbers now is 'like reading tea leaves' it is also still too early to decipher returns in north carolina, which began early voting on thursday if voting stays pace with projections from early voting experts, 5% to 10% more than the 30% or 130 million americans who voted early in 2008 will have voted before november 6, according to early voting experts here's a look at the early voting returns so far and the dates that they began voting, according to state and county voting officials: • california (october 8): the golden state issued more than eight million ballots as of wednesday, but just more than 81,000 or 1% have been returned • georgia (october 15): 120,032 ballots have been cast in person and 73,119 ballots via mail there are still almost 100,000 mail in ballots outstanding early voting began in georgia on october 15 • idaho (september 21): did not return requests for data • indiana (october 8): more than 180,000 applications for early voting ballots have been submitted since the state began early voting of those, 118,000 have been returned indiana has in person absentee voting • iowa (september 27): of the almost 450,000 absentee ballots requested, more than half have been returned democrats lead the pack, requesting more than 200,000 ballots and returning almost 65% of those republicans requested almost 140,000 and returned just less than 60% ballots requested with no party affiliation or for other party affiliations total about 105,000 and 50% of those have been returned • kansas (october 17): more than 120,000 ballots were requested by the time early voting began state officials say it's too early to tabulate an accurate representation of the ballots returned • maine (september 24): almost 80,000 ballots have been requested, with 76,330 issued and 29,931, or almost 38%, returned • montana (october 9): more than a quarter million voters requested ballots as of wednesday, almost 40,000 or just under 15% of the ballots had been returned • nebraska (october 2): of the almost 80,000 ballots requested, more than 50,000 have been returned • north dakota (27): of the almost 40,000 ballots sent as of wednesday, 15,252, or almost 40%, have been returned • ohio (october 2): 126 million ballots have been requested and just more than 280,000 or 22% have been returned by mail that's almost 20 percent of the 57 million ohioans who voted early in 2008 • south dakota (september 21): of the nearly 36,000 absentee ballots requested, 35,888 ballots have been sent out and 25,238 or 70% have been returned • tennessee (october 17): already, 105,405 voters have cast ballots since voting began • new jersey (september 22): an accurate count of returned ballots will be available beginning next week • oregon (october 8): the state is one of the two that votes by mail only return data is not available until october 22 • utah (october 9): data collected at the county level was not immediately available • vermont (september 22): data is collected at the county level was not immediately available • wyoming (september 27): data was not available cnn's peter hamby, adam levy and robert yoon contributed to this report | iowa democrats republicans up to 40% | of the two million ballots cast early, a quarter of a million were cast in iowa . trends show registered democrats voting early more than republicans in iowa . republicans could close the gap in iowa with strong election day and early voter turnout . up to 40% of eligible voters could cast their ballots early in 2012 |
los angeles (cnn) the recent recovery of one of his stolen trophies and several scrapbook items at a los angeles park left tennis legend pete sampras 'a little more optimistic' that the rest of his coveted memorabilia will soon be found, his agent said monday thieves last month broke into a public storage facility that the 14 time grand slam titleholder was renting as he and his family moved from their thousand oaks, california, estate to nearby brentwood afterward, sampras learned that 51 of his 64 championship trophies including one marking his first australian open cup were among the coveted items stolen his agent, grant chen, said authorities contacted sampras after one of those trophies and several other items were found late last week at the griffith park recreation center in los angeles the park, one of the nation's largest situated south of burbank and west of glendale, is about 20 miles east of the west los angeles storage site from which the trophies were stolen los angeles department of parks and recreation spokeswoman andrea epstein declined to comment on the find, referring inquiries to los angeles police that office would not talk about the investigation sampras and his wife bridgette wilson sampras, an actress, recently listed their thousand oaks property, which is on the grounds of the sherwood country club, for sale at $25 million 'the moving company we hired is very well trusted, and we've used them before,' said chen, who helped the sampras family including sons christian, 8, and ryan, 5 pack and move 'only a few people knew the contents of the 50 to 60 tightly sealed boxes that we stored' sampras can account for all but one of the 14 grand slam trophies given for his wins at the australian open, wimbledon and the us open most of them sampras brought personally to his new home, while he loaned his 1993 wimbledon men's singles trophy, 1997 australian men's singles title and one davis cup trophy to the nike headquarters in oregon the only one stolen was his 1994 australian grand slam title, said chen steven glick, a spokesman for public storage in west los angeles, told cnn that his company is 'fully cooperating' with investigators, but he declined to elaborate sampras, 39, was awarded five season ending association of tennis professional world tour trophies and six trophies for finishing no 1 in the world from 1993 to 1998 those valuables, as well as seven espy awards, two davis cup medallions and an olympic ring, were among those stolen from two rental units, chen said in addition to his titles, chen said thieves took framed photographs of sampras with presidents george hw bush and bill clinton, as well as some personal letters written by bush other stolen items included a piano bench signed by singer elton john and a signed guitar from carlos santana sampras, who grew up in southern california, defeated andre agassi at the 2002 us open before retiring the following year with the most grand slam wins in tennis history roger federer later surpassed his record with 16 major titles 'sampras pleaded with the public as a last resort, (hoping) that someone will offer a tip or come forward,' said chen 'those stolen items represent memories of a lifetime, and pete wants nothing more than to share those memories with his sons' | pete sampras late last week los angeles sampras last month | pete sampras is 'a little more optimistic' his stolen mementos will be found, his agent says . one of the tennis legend's stolen trophies was found late last week in a los angeles park . thieves took 51 of sampras' championship trophies and other items last month, police say |
washington (cnn) the head of blackwater usa on sunday rejected a mounting series of reports suggesting the private contractor's security guards opened fire on innocent iraqi civilians last month blackwater ceo erik prince said sunday that guards 'definitely' faced insurgent fire september 16 'there was definitely incoming small arms fire from insurgents' in the september 16 incident in baghdad, founder and ceo erik prince told cnn's wolf blitzer on 'late edition' there was no 'deliberate violence,' committed by blackwater employees, he added still, when asked whether it is possible someone with blackwater 'screwed up' in the incident, prince replied, 'certainly it's possible' he said he expects the fbi investigation to provide many answers meanwhile, us and iraqi officials continue discussing baghdad's demand that blackwater be expelled from iraq within six months, the associated press reported sunday american officials are also coming up with ways to fill the security gap if blackwater is forced to leave, ap reported blackwater guards, protecting us officials in iraq, face dangerous circumstances every day and have navigated the vast majority of those situations without any violence, prince told cnn the guards just try to do their jobs, and are 'not trying to make any trouble,' he said the iraqi government accuses blackwater guards of opening fire without provocation on civilians in a crowded area in baghdad on september 16, killing 17 and wounding 27 survivors told fbi investigators blackwater guards shot at civilians presenting no threat watch a blackwater witness describe his account » the first us soldiers to arrive on the scene after the incident told military investigators they found no evidence contractors were fired upon, a source familiar with a preliminary us military report told cnn the soldiers found evidence suggesting the guards fired on cars attempting to leave and found weapon casings on the scene matching only those used by us military and contractors, the military source said but prince on sunday told cnn, 'in the incident reports i've seen, at least three of our armored vehicles were hit by small arms fire, incoming, and one of them damaged, which actually delayed their departure from the traffic circle while they tried to rig a tow 'so there was definitely incoming small arms fire from insurgents' he added, 'i guarantee our guys weren't shooting at each other' and he said the traffic circle is very big, so those first soldiers on the scene would have needed 'almost a battalion to secure that entire area, to do a thorough crime scene type investigation' 'so the jury is still out we'll see what the fbi report comes up with, but i'm confident that the kind of people we have out there are proven military professionals,' prince said iraqi government spokesman ali al dabbagh accused blackwater of 'a deliberate crime against civilians,' and said the company 'should be tried in court, and the victims should be compensated' a philadelphia law firm has filed suit in federal court against blackwater on behalf of the families of three iraqis killed and one wounded in the in the incident, which occurred in and around baghdad's nusoor square the suit claims blackwater 'created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life' prince called the lawsuit 'politically motivated' for 'media attention,' and rejected the depictions of his company 'in baghdad, the most dangerous city in the world, to say that it was a callous, rampant, evil action, you know, when the guys get it right 99 out of 100 times and don't have to use any force or any violence at all, i think they are doing very well,' he said e mail to a friend | magnetoprinter demagnetising pridingly | no related information |
pristina, kosovo (cnn) kosovo's prime minster lashed out at critics monday over a recent report alleging that officials may have stolen organs from prisoners of war and political rivals, calling it 'pure fabrication' european authorities charged in a report released last week that executives who control the country may have stolen organs when the kosovo liberation army was fighting serbian forces in the late 1990s 'it is a political accusation based on no facts or proof,' prime minister hashim thaci said 'therefore, it is a pure fabrication' the report says thaci, a former leader of the kosovo liberation army, was the 'boss' of a prominent faction in the militia that 'apparently wrested control' of 'illicit criminal enterprises' from rivals across the border in albania 'numerous indications seem to confirm that organs were removed from some prisoners to be taken abroad for transplantation,' read the report it suggested that illegal organ trafficking continued after the war ended and links between 'criminal activity' and 'certain kla militia leaders has continued, albeit in other forms, until today,' the report charges thaci said he is looking into all legal and political possibilities to correct what he sees as the report's inaccuracies it was not immediately clear what action he planned to take 'it is a lie for which dick marty will be accountable,' the prime minister said of the author of the draft report nearly 1,900 people who disappeared during the conflict still have not been found, and another 500 disappeared after nato troops arrived in june 1999, according to marty the report is based partially on investigations by european union officials and was written for the council of europe's committee on legal affairs and human rights european union officials in kosovo have said that anyone with concrete evidence of war crimes or organized crime should step forward kosovo was a province of serbia but declared independence in 2008 about 70 countries have recognized the declaration, but serbia does not, and international organizations including the united nations and european union continue to have administrators in kosovo the council of europe, an organization with 47 member countries, seeks to promote democracy and human rights the council's parliament plans to debate the report in january 'this (report) of course is a blow (for kosovo), but this challenge will be overcome because it has nothing in common with the truth, and the truth is that kosovo is a story of success,' thaci said | hashim thaci european union kosovo thaci | prime minister hashim thaci says the report is 'pure fabrication'. it says authorities may have stolen organs from prisoners of war and political rivals . european union officials have asked anyone with evidence of crimes to step forward . 'kosovo is a story of success,' thaci says |
los angeles (cnn) the mother of a 24 year old california woman whose decomposed remains were found in malibu canyon in august said monday she believes her daughter was murdered and asked that the coroner exhume the remains and the fbi crime lab examine her clothing mitrice richardson was last seen leaving a los angeles county sheriff's lost hills/malibu station in september 2009 after being detained by deputies on a citizen's arrest complaint made by a restaurant manager she was missing for 11 months until her remains were discovered by park rangers searching an area of the santa monica mountains for marijuana fields, authorities said sheriff lee baca said last august that authorities had 'no indication of a homicide,' but latice sutton, 46, richardson's mother, said she and a forensic anthropologist with the los angeles based nonprofit missing persons identification resource center disagree with the sheriff sutton says evidence wasn't analyzed the los angeles county coroner already has agreed with sutton's request that medical examiner personally visit the remote area where deputies retrieved richardson's remains, said clea koff, a forensic anthropologist with the resource center, who's working with sutton and baca has agreed to meet with sutton on december 29, sutton said for the fbi crime lab to examine richardson's clothing, the sheriff has to request their involvement, she said but sutton said she isn't satisfied that her daughter's death has been investigated thoroughly she held a news conference at a los angeles church monday to highlight her crusade 'today is the day i'm going public and i've announced some of the hidden facts that people are not aware of so that they can understand why i'm pushing that mitrice's case be looked at as a homicide case,' sutton told cnn sutton, of la verne, california, is an operation manager at a boys and girls club of san bernardino richardson's father, michael richard, has acknowledged that his daughter was in a troubled mental condition the evening of her arrest for allegedly being unable to pay $8951 for food and drink at a malibu restaurant the woman's remains were found about eight miles from the sheriff's station, in the monte nido section of the santa monica mountains, which bisect los angeles, richardson's mother said 'mel gibson gets driven to his car, and charlie sheen gets taken to his house,' the father said last august, referring to practices by law officers in malibu richardson was just released, though she was in a manic state, koff said sutton cited several circumstances about her daughter's skeletal remains and mummified arm that made the mother believe her daughter was murdered sutton said the mummified arm was bent in a way that would made if difficult for floodwater or other acts of nature to wash clothing off the body richardson's bra was found unsnapped and her pants unzipped several hundred feet away from the remains, the mother said her underwear, shoes and shirt were never recovered, the mother said koff, the forensic anthropologist who has worked for the united nations' international criminal tribunals for rwanda and the former yugoslavia, examined richardson's remain at sutton's request prior to burial she said that metallic jewelry and man made artifacts were found in richardson's hair, but the coroner's exam didn't examine those materials sufficiently koff claimed that the pupae casings the eggs from which maggots hatch found on the remains were never tested to determine if the insects were consistent with the area in which the remains were found 'we believe that it is imperative that the coroner complete the examination,' koff said | mitrice richardson los angeles county eleven months later | mitrice richardson went missing after she left a los angeles county sheriff's station . eleven months later her remains were found in a remote mountain area . her mother asks authorities to exhume her daughter's remains |
tehran, iran (cnn) gas and oil prices rose in iran monday after the country dramatically cut subsidies for its citizens to bolster the nation's sagging economy the initiative went into effect sunday, with the country saying it will gradually remove all subsidies within five years the price of subsidized gasoline rose four folds from 1,000 rials (9 cents) per liter to 4,000 rials, the mehr news agency said officials say energy subsidies have cost the iranian government around $100 billion dollars a year, state run press tv said monday while some have said the plan will stoke inflation, others say it is in line with recommendations from international financial organizations to solve iran's economic woes, press tv said five years ago, ahmadinejad's government announced its plan to cut government subsidies and help adjust prices in iran's economy that includes a policy to phase out subsidies on staples such as fuel and food, likely causing consumers' costs of such items to rise iran has $10 trillion in oil resources alone, plus natural gas reserves worth between $35 and $45 trillion, international monetary fund mission chief dominique guillaume said in an interview posted earlier this fall on that world body's website but its economy nonetheless has seen lackluster growth, including between 1% and 2% of gdp this past year despite its abundance of fuel, iran has been pushing to expand its nuclear program many in the international community, including us officials, have expressed grave concerns and successfully pushed for sanctions fearing that tehran might be trying to develop nuclear weapons but iranian leaders have said the nation wants nuclear power, in part to free up more oil to export and pump more money into the economy with subsidies that effectively allowed domestic consumers to pay relatively little for oil and gas far below what they or people anywhere else would pay on the world market iran was forfeiting potentially huge revenues, explained imf senior economist roman zytek on his group's website the irna news agency reported saturday that iranians' use of commodities like fuel 'has not followed a reasonable pattern' with zytek saying that many iranian citizens have been buying excess amounts of oil and gas iran's subsidy reforms, he said, aim to decrease domestic demand for fuel, make the country more fuel efficient, and allow iran to profit more from its natural resources | five years iran trillions of dollars | the country plans to remove all subsidies in five years . the price of gasoline goes up four folds . iran has trillions of dollars in natural resources but still struggles, experts say . the changes aim to dampen domestic demand for fuel and oil, and bolster overall revenues |
los angeles (cnn) southern california faces another water logged day wednesday with renewed threats of flash flooding, especially in san diego county the national weather service is forecasting rainfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour, which could prompt flooding in the san bernardino, santa ana and palomar mountains, and along the orange county coastal plains on tuesday, storm weary californians slogged through another day of record breaking snow, rain and flooding from a series of storms that prompted an emergency declaration from the state's governor gov arnold schwarzenegger's proclamation covers kern, orange, riverside, san bernardino, san luis obispo and tulare counties in southern california the declaration warns that the forecast calls for 'extraordinary and continuing rainfall' that is likely to cause more flooding and landslides in the region and authorizes state assistance to local authorities the five day rain total has topped 10 inches in many areas, with much heavier amounts in some locales more than 21 inches has fallen on twin peaks in san bernardino county, with twin creek receiving nearly 20 inches in orange county, authorities were on the scene after a mudslide affecting homes in the silverado canyon area, the county's fire authority said on twitter rescues were needed, and evacuations were underway, according to the fire authority in los angeles county, meanwhile, authorities ordered the evacuation of more than 230 homes in two neighborhoods out of fear of debris flows of the 232 homes ordered evacuated in the la canada flintridge and la crescenta areas, however, only one family evacuated, said nicole nishida, spokeswoman for the los angeles county sheriff's department the area is a concern because it is below an area burned in the 2009 station fire fires burn vegetation holding the soil in place, leaving the soil more likely to dislodge after heavy rains one resident wary of the potential for mudslides was donna mclaughlin of la canada flintridge who lost her home last year when a 10 foot wall of mud came barreling down a hillside she just moved back in october 'here we go again,' she told cnn affiliate kabc but this time, the city has bolted down protective concrete barriers and attached them to each other in the area in an effort to guard against mudslides mclaughlin said the barriers were not bolted down or attached last year 'had they done that, our house would have at least been saved,' she told kabc streets in downtown laguna beach were closed wednesday because of extensive flooding, kabc reported in southwestern utah, a dam that authorities had feared was in imminent danger of giving way to floodwaters was found to be in stronger condition than previously believed, said marc mortensen, a spokesman for washington county the roughly 800 residents of the towns of virgin and rockville were allowed to return to their homes tuesday night, mortensen said engineers will monitor the dam, located on the virgin river, and conduct more tests wednesday, when high water flows are expected again, he said utah gov gary herbert said he was prepared to declare a state of emergency in the south, where floodwaters also washed out at least one bridge but as of tuesday afternoon, utah officials said the required benchmarks for an emergency declaration had not been reached, and herbert hadn't received a request from local authorities to issue one 'we are closely monitoring the activity in southern utah, and praying for the safety of all of the area's residents,' herbert said in a statement from his office flash flood warnings were also in effect for western arizona in southern california, where the car is king, a record number of motorists called their local auto club to report dead batteries, a need for emergency tows and crashed vehicles, said spokesman jeffrey spring of the automobile club of southern california more than 25,000 distraught motorists made calls for help on monday, the largest number ever in a 24 hour period for the aaa's largest us affiliate, spring said 'we're in southern california, and we don't have a lot of experience driving in the rain, and some people drive through high puddles not realizing what kind of effect it can have on a car,' spring said 'if the engine gets splashed and gets wet, it can stop the car right there' spring said aaa was 'able to serve the majority of members in 30 minutes,' although he added, 'i'm sure there were a number of people who had to wait longer than that' monday's call volume surpassed the prior record of about 22,000 on october 9, 2008, when a heat wave and the scorching santa ana winds disabled many automobiles, spring said monday's weather torrential rains had opposite conditions, he said 'batteries are fickle things if they're not at full strength,' spring said 'hot weather can affect them and weather like this' in the southern sierra nevada, sequoia and kings canyon national parks were effectively shut down monday and tuesday because flooding, mudslides and rockslides closed the two roads into the parks, said brandy frederich, assistant general manager of wuksachi lodge in sequoia national park in fact, the 102 room lodge was vacant tuesday after the last couple of guests departed monday, frederich said 'well, we're all up here,' frederich said of the hotel staff 'we would be open if the road is open it's gorgeous right now up here, it finally turned to snow' but the rain at lower elevations washed out the two roads, she said deborah craigo, 39, who lives in the mojave desert community of hesperia, california, said monsoon conditions have inundated the arid landscape fire stations are even offering sandbags to residents who want to shore up defenses to their homes, said craigo, who is also a cnn ireporter 'it's been raining from two days ago and it just has not stopped they closed a lot of the roads down,' said craigo, a mother and college student 'it's pretty bad now we have a riverbed in back of our house, and two days ago it was completely bone dry and then within two days the riverbed is completely full' in orange county, california, four hikers whose truck was stranded by floodwater between two canyon roads were airlifted out tuesday morning and were reported to be doing well, cnn affiliate ktla reported the four had been stranded overnight five other people were rescued in the same area monday evening, the station said a bulldozer was used to help get them to safety, it said elsewhere, 40 horses were rescued from riverside county as water rose to heights of about 4 feet, affiliate kcal reported the storm is actually a series of storms originating in the pacific, known as the 'pineapple express' because of their origin near the hawaiian islands they have brought heavy snow to the higher elevations, with torrential rainfall in lower spots, and high winds total rainfall has approached 10 inches in some areas numerous roads were closed because of mudslides or flooding and as much as 13 feet of snow had fallen in the sierra nevada as of tuesday, according to cnn meteorologist rob marciano 'we get a lot of snow here, but not usually this much in a 24 hour period,' said cnn ireporter sarah butner, who is visiting family in mammoth lakes, california the area has received about 9 feet of snow, she said monday 'the decks have a good 5 feet of snow on them,' she said one area of the neighborhood was also flooded, she said in arvin, california, near lamont, caliente creek washed away land near one home hugo figueroa, who lives there, said he and his family were told to evacuate, cnn affiliate kbak reported flooding washed out several roads near lamont and arvin, the station reported high winds also whipped much of the state, particularly at high elevations peak wind gusts reached 152 mph in alpine meadows summit in northern california, the weather service reported mudslides forced officials to close a portion of state route 1, also known as the pacific coast highway, in ventura county from just north of the los angeles county line to oxnard, according to the california department of transportation the pacific coast highway was also closed north of santa barbara due to flooding a mudslide also closed a portion of state route 41 in san luis obispo county a stretch of state route 34 in the oxnard area was closed because of flooding the danger of mudslides will probably intensify, cnn meteorologist ivan cabrera said 'a serious situation will develop now with the mudslide danger that will continue over the next several days,' cabrera said monday another danger: falling trees erik budzinski of orange told kabc he is heartsick after his vintage 1970 ford f 150 truck was crushed by a large tree monday night 'it was my baby,' he said budzinski said he was inside his home and heard the wood cracking and popping as the tree fell 'i just knew it,' he said still, many southern californians were not deterred from holiday shopping by the rain, although the rain slicked roads had led to thousands of accidents 'it's a little scary to be driving with this much rain, but i'm going to deal with it,' adriena young told kabc 'it's better than a drought' cnn's jeremy ryan, sara pratley, nick valencia, michael martinez, ed payne, sara weisfeldt and daphne sashin contributed to this report | orange county rockville utah | new: reported mudslide affects homes in orange county . of 232 homes evacuated, only 1 family leaves, officials say . rockville, utah, residents allowed to return . roads into two national parks are shut down, a park lodge manager says |
new york (cnn) it's primary day in new york city, where a whole lot of democrats and not that many republicans will select their nominees for mayor and a slate of other city offices given the city's liberal bent, the primary serves as a de facto general election most of tuesday's democratic winners will sail to victory in november against token republican opposition but new york hasn't elected a democratic mayor since 1989, when david dinkins became the city's first african american mayor this is shaping up to be the year that streak ends mayor michael bloomberg has presided over more than a decade of economic expansion in the city, but his tenure has left a sour taste in the mouths of rank and file democrats, who say the mayor cares more about wealthy manhattan elites than the outer borough middle class the issues flaring this election season all seem to come back to bloomberg: affordable housing, income inequality, education, a city council vote that handed the mayor a third term, and the controversial new york police department tactic known as stop and frisk bloomberg fatigue is the prime reason that bill de blasio, the city's public advocate, has surged into the lead in a crowded field of underwhelming democratic candidates de blasio is promising a 'clean break' from the bloomberg years he's running as an unabashed liberal, pledging to raise taxes on the wealthy and end stop and frisk de blasio, who is white, also happens to be leading his opponents among african american voters, in part because of his telegenic mixed race family, which has been at his side throughout the campaign polls suggest de blasio is certain to win tuesday's primary the main question is whether he can run up the score high enough to avoid a runoff against one of his two main challengers: city council speaker christine quinn, a lesbian who would be new york's first female mayor, and bill thompson, the city's former comptroller former us rep anthony weiner, whose campaign imploded in july after he admitted to sending another round of lewd online chats well after he resigned from congress, is running in a distant fourth place here are five things to watch in tuesday's election, which will also determine whether former new york gov eliot spitzer can make a political comeback after a prostitution scandal forced him from office five years ago: 1 can de blasio avoid a runoff? de blasio was handed a big fat gift over the weekend when new york magazine posted a buzzy new interview with bloomberg in which the mayor described de blasio's campaign, which has showcased his interracial family in a bid to win african american support, as 'racist' the new york city public advocate promptly put his family in front of television news cameras to hit back against the mayor, who has steadfastly backed the nypd's stop and frisk policy, a deeply unpopular practice in the city's black community a former political operative and onetime city councilman from brooklyn, de blasio was already surging before the comments hit the web on saturday morning now de blasio might be able to reach the crucial 40% threshold needed to avoid a three week runoff campaign, a once unthinkable scenario given the number of democrats in the race a marist poll released monday by nbc 4 new york and the wall street journal pegged de blasio's support among democrats at 36% with all the political wind in the race at his back, it's possible he might win the nomination outright on tuesday 2 where do african american voters go? the most influential person in the mayor's race isn't even on the ballot that would be de blasio's 15 year old son dante, who starred in a memorable television ad that vaulted his father to the top of the polls in august he hasn't looked back since in the ad, dante, who boasts an impressive afro, looks into the camera and pledges that his father is 'the only democrat with the guts to really break from the bloomberg years' and 'end a stop and frisk era that unfairly targets people of color' the dante spot, produced by former obama campaign media consultant john del cecato, sparked one of the most intriguing developments of the primary: de blasio has steadily been growing his support among african american voters even against bill thompson, the lone black candidate in the field de blasio now leads thompson among black voters by a 39 25 margin, the marist poll showed he's also identified as the candidate most likely to end stop and frisk thompson was the 2009 democratic nominee for mayor and bucked conventional wisdom and many polls by coming within five points of defeating bloomberg that november if thompson is to have any chance of making the runoff and beating de blasio, he better hope the polls are wrong again 3 chelsea and the village quinn's city council district encompasses chelsea and stretches of greenwich village, which represent the historic heart of new york city's gay and lesbian community the moonstruck diner, on the corner of 23rd street and ninth avenue, serves as quinn's second office last friday evening, quinn rallied hundreds of gay and lesbian supporters outside the stonewall inn, site of the historic 1969 gay rights demonstrations against the new york police department but disgruntled quinn supporters have faulted her for not drawing more attention to the history making nature of her candidacy quinn, once the front runner, now desperately needs her west side base to show up if she has any hope of making a runoff there are hints her support could be fracturing under the weight of her complicated relationship with bloomberg in the city council, and de blasio's late burst of momentum when de blasio showed up late last week to campaign in quinn's backyard, on the corner of 23rd street and eighth avenue, he was mobbed by photo seeking supporters and held court for nearly an hour, jamming up foot traffic and putting the city council speaker on notice on monday night, quinn's campaign added a last minute campaign swing through chelsea to shore up her base 4 can spitzer make a comeback? spitzer, who resigned from office in a 2008 prostitution scandal that roiled albany, surprised pretty much everyone in politics in july when he suddenly jumped into the democratic race for city comptroller, the city's chief fiscal officer with the help of his real estate fortune, his unabashed anti wall street rhetoric and his near universal name recognition, spitzer led his democratic primary opponent, manhattan borough president scott stringer, for most of the summer but stringer has worked overtime to remind voters of spitzer's baggage, attacking him in debates, in the mail and on the television airwaves spitzer has returned fire, accusing stringer of being a lifelong member of the political establishment who accomplished little during his public career the race is the most intriguing head to head match up on tuesday recent polls paint a mixed picture but suggest the race is something of a toss up, though spitzer may have a slight edge thanks to his steady 2 1 edge among african american voters if he wins the nomination, he's a sure bet to become comptroller against nominal republican opposition and see his name bandied about as a potential future mayor, attorney general or governor a win tuesday would be his first step toward political redemption 5 the end of 'cats' the republican primary contest has been largely overlooked given the city's democratic leanings roughly 700,000 democrats are expected to cast ballots in tuesday's primary, while republican turnout may be as low as 60,000 joe lhota, a fedora wearing veteran of rudy giuliani's administration, is expected to win the gop nod if the liberal de blasio wins the democratic primary as expected, lhota might have an outside shot in the general election if he's able to enlist bloomberg allies and the business community, no fans of de blasio's tax the rich agenda, to help defeat him but a lhota win would also be the political death knell for john catsimatidis, arguably the most colorful figure of the 2013 election cycle catsimatidis, the greek born billionaire founder of the gristedes grocery store chain and a longtime republican donor, poured millions of dollars of his own money into the race, blanketing the television airwaves with quirky television ads according to the new york times, 'he has even created his own eight page newspaper, the cats chronicle, which includes no fewer than 27 photographs of mr catsimatidis' politically incorrect, often disheveled and definitely overweight, catsimatidis has some regular guy appeal but is nevertheless prone to missteps and cringe worthy statements that make him hard to take seriously he even fell asleep in the middle of an interview with a new york public radio reporter, who recorded him snoring and used the sound in her story russell schaffer, a new york democrat who tweets prolifically under the handle @russonpolitics, spoke for political junkies everywhere on sunday when he mourned catsimatidis' imminent demise: 'i'll never let @jcats2013 go, even after he loses the gop primary for nyc mayor on tuesday,' he tweeted 'he is a treasure to behold and quote' | uncalcified descensive semifuturistic | no related information |
(cnn) as many as 400 armed muslim rebels are holding at least 20 people hostage in a southern philippine city after coming ashore by boat, authorities said monday philippine police and armed forces have blockaded the areas of zamboanga city, a mainly christian city on the southern coast of mindanao, where the rebels are holed up, mayor isabelle climaco salazar told cnn she said the rebels had planned to march on the city hall city officials hope to talk to the rebels, who are believed to be from the moro national liberation front, to try to negotiate the hostages' release, she said the mnlf, a separatist movement founded in 1971 by nur misuari with the aim of establishing an autonomous region for muslims in this mainly catholic country, signed a peace deal with the central government in manila in 1996 though some of its members have broken away to continue with a violent campaign according to a statement issued by climaco salazar, the current crisis began at around 430 am local time when government forces clashed with armed rebels heading for the city by boat six people, including a policeman, a navy serviceman and four civilians, were killed during the course of these clashes the statement added that six districts in this coastal city of 800,000 people have been affected by the 'infiltration of alleged mnlf members,' with 20 hostages taken in the district of santa catalina in a televised press conference monday, a police spokesman said a further 200 people were currently stranded in the city because of the blockade by security forces they are not being classified as hostages no demands have been made by the rebels, he added under the terms of the 1996 agreement, misuari was named as governor of an expanded autonomous region in muslim mindanao (armm) he served until 2001 last month misuari issued a 'declaration of independence' for the moro nation referring to mindanao's indigenous muslim population after complaining that the mnlf had been left out of a recent wealth sharing agreement with an another insurgent group, the moro islamic liberation front (milf), which has fought for decades to set up an independent islamic state on the resource rich island of mindanao cnn's kathy quiano contributed to this report | muslim philippines christian zamboanga city moro national liberation front muslims mnlf | officials: six dead during clashes with muslim rebels in southern philippines . at least 20 people taken hostage in mainly christian town of zamboanga city . moro national liberation front want autonomous region for muslims . the mnlf signed 1996 peace deal but some members continue violent struggle |
(cnn) the united nations won't help, good pal britain is sitting this one out, so president barack obama will take his case for a military attack on syria directly to the american people next week obama wrapped up his trip to the g20 summit in russia by telling reporters he will address the nation on tuesday as congress prepares to vote on a resolution authorizing limited military strikes against syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons facing public opposition reflected by legislators hesitant to support him, obama said friday that he understands the skepticism over his call for punishing the regime of syrian president bashar al assad for what us officials call a sarin gas attack on august 21 that killed more than 1,400 people 'the american people have gone through a lot when it comes to the military over the last decade or so,' obama said he also cited a responsibility borne by the united states as a global power to lead what he hopes would be an international response in order to maintain the credibility of treaties and conventions against weapons of mass destruction 'i believe when you have a limited proportional strike like this, with manageable risks, then we should bear that responsibility,' obama said, noting that military interventions often lack broad public support but that critics also decry inaction in the face of atrocities abroad foreign interventions unpopular 'when people say that it is a terrible stain on all of us that hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in rwanda, well imagine if rwanda was going on right now and we asked: 'should we intervene in rwanda?'' the president said 'i think it's fair to say that it probably wouldn't poll real well' opposition by permanent security council members russia and china has scuttled obama's hopes for un authorization of a military response against al assad's regime, and usually reliable ally britain's parliament decided against joining a military response the inability to muster a significant international coalition, like the nato led mission with arab league support that intervened in libya, caused the president to seek political cover by requesting congressional authorization 'we will be more effective if we are unified moving forward,' obama said in explaining why he asked for support from congress for what he argues is a necessary response to the violation of international norms by syria in a likely foreshadowing of obama's address to the nation next week, un ambassador samantha power told the liberal center for american progress on friday that non military alternatives to attacking syria had been exhausted she cited repeated steps by russia, joined at times by china, to undermine un security council action on syria over the past two years because of russia, power said, 'the security council was not even able to put out a statement expressing its disapproval' of the august 21 chemical weapons attack administration lobbying blitz obama's speech on tuesday will culminate an aggressive outreach strategy intended to woo members of congress to back his pitch for limited strikes, which are expected to be missile attacks at syrian military command targets but not chemical weapons stockpiles the administration says it has intercepts and other intelligence that show the syrian regime planned the attack and then attempted to cover it up secretary of state john kerry told a senate committee this week that us intelligence shows the rockets carrying chemical weapons were launched from territory controlled by the syrian regime and landed in opposition or contested areas of suburban damascus kerry and british officials say the gas used in the attack was sarin, according to test results un inspectors who collected samples from the stricken area are expected to provide their own results in coming weeks however, after a week of classified briefings, two congressional hearings and other aggressive lobbying by the administration, a majority of the senate and house remain 'undecided' on whether to give obama authorization to attack, according to cnn's latest count in addition, a growing number of legislators say they oppose the move, though it remains too early to predict an outcome a heavy lift for obama 'i knew this was going to be a heavy lift,' obama said during friday's news conference in st petersburg, russia supporters and critics have called for the president to directly address the american public and make his case for why a military response was necessary 'members of congress represent the views of their constituents, and only a president can convince the public that military action is required,' said brendan buck, the spokesman for house speaker john boehner, who has said he backs obama on the issue 'we only hope this isn't coming too late to make the difference' in the past two weeks, the obama administration has spoken to at least 60 senators and 125 house members on the issue, a white house official confirmed friday on thursday alone, while the president was in russia, he and senior administration officials made more than 25 individual calls to what the white house described as bipartisan members of the house and senate obama called five senators himself, the white house said, but officials refused to reveal the names of the recipients in addition, members of the house and senate were meeting at the white house on friday with vice president joe biden, an administration official confirmed to cnn it was biden's second straight day of meetings with legislators to try to convince them to authorize a military response obama cancels trip go it alone? should congress reject obama's request to authorize military strikes, deputy national security adviser tony blinken said friday on npr that 'the president of course has the authority' to act in syria without support from capitol hill, but 'it's neither his desire nor intention to use that authority absent congress backing him' a senior administration official from the national security council later clarified blinken's remark, saying 'the president's intention is to act with congressional authorization, and we believe they will vote to provide that authorization' asked several times at the news conference about blinken's remark and whether he would attack syria anyway without authorization from congress, obama acknowledged that he would avoid providing a direct answer 'it would be a mistake for me to jump the gun and speculate because right now i'm working to get as much support as possible out of congers,' he said on wednesday, the senate foreign relations committee approved an amended version of the white house's resolution for authorization to attack syria by a 10 7 vote senate majority leader harry reid on friday praised the panel's democratic and republican leaders for working together to craft a compromise that was able win approval reid spoke at a brief senate session that allowed for the procedural step of setting up next week's consideration of the resolution by the full senate election politics at play meanwhile, the house also is expected to take up the syria issue starting monday, with majoriy leader eric cantor of virginia telling his republican caucus to expect a vote on military authorization 'in the next two weeks' approval of a resolution is considered more likely by the democratic led senate than the republican led house 45 day delay? in a step that would buy time for obama to get more international and domestic support, democratic sen joe manchin of west virginia is working on a proposal that would put off any military action for 45 days while demanding that syria sign an international convention against chemical weapons or face us military repercussions, according to an aide to manchin it was unclear if the idea would gain any traction among legislators considering the syria issue on the sidelines of the g20 summit friday, obama and russian president vladimir putin met for what obama described as a 'candid, constructive' conversation despite increasingly strained relations between the two leaders obama acknowledged that putin was unlikely to shift his position on military action against syria, and putin gave a similar account of their meeting, telling reporters that 'he doesn't agree with me, i don't agree with him, but we listened to each other' the two leaders both said they could work together to seek a political solution to the syrian crisis, which reiterated their longstanding positions how will house vote? how will senate vote? cnn's ted barrett, kevin bohn, virginia nicolaidis and gloria borger contributed to this report | house gop cantor obama the united states syria american | new: house gop leader cantor tells members to expect a vote in the next two weeks . president obama: the united states has a responsibility to act as a global leader . obama refuses to directly answer if he'll attack syria without congressional support . 'the american people have gone through a lot' in wars of past decade, obama says |
(cnn) according to new data released by the us census bureau this week, median household incomes adjusted for inflation declined by 23% in 2010 over the previous year the data also showed that 462 million americans lived in poverty in 2010 the highest number in the 52 years the census bureau has been tracking such data but that data is even more depressing in contrast to the skyrocketing fortunes of america's super rich between the second quarter of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2010, our nation's total income rose by $528 billion of that economic growth, $464 billion went to pretax corporate profits just $7 billion went to wages and salaries in other words, 88% of the brief recovery went to corporate profits and just 1% that's right, 1% went to workers, according to a study by economists at northeastern university by contrast, when the united states was recovering from a downturn in the early 1990s, 50% of the growth in the national income went to wages and salaries (and actually, in that period leading up to the tech boom, average corporate profits declined 1%) it's not that working americans aren't working hard worker productivity has risen steadily, but wages have still been stagnant but the income of the top 1% of americans? rapidly rising at what point do we realize enough is enough that giving more and more money and power to big business and the super rich will never translate into more jobs, better wages and a better economy but simply more yachts and luxury villas? at what point do we realize that conservative anti tax extremism is nothing but blatant greed masquerading as lousy economics? at what point do we realize that class warfare isn't a liberal goal but in fact a conservative reality, advanced through decades of policies that help the rich cheat the middle class? according to republican economist and former white house adviser bruce bartlett, the actual tax rate paid by the wealthy and big business is the lowest in several generations thanks to the bush tax cuts, the super rich paid an average of 17% on their federal income tax in 2007 less than many middle class americans paid for instance, multibillionare warren buffett pays a lower percentage of income tax than everyone else in his office, including the secretaries in 1992, the rich averaged a 26% income tax a study earlier this month reported that 25 of the largest and most profitable corporations in the united states paid their ceos more money than their entire corporations paid in taxes meanwhile, corporations are earning record profits and sitting on record cash reserves upwards of $2 trillion dollars anyone who can look at these numbers and think the rich need more help is crazy stop calling big business the 'job creators' they have all the resources imaginable and they're still not creating jobs it's time to put more money in the pockets of working americans so they can spend it, create demand and finally kick start the economy president barack obama has proposed a comprehensive plan that will create good jobs while rebuilding america's infrastructure for the 21st century in the president's plan, a portion of the costs will be offset by reducing the tax deductible exemptions for well off families, taxing hedge fund manager income as income rather than discounted capital gains, closing loopholes that give government handouts to the oil and gas industry and taxing corporate jets with the same depreciation schedule as personal jets for crying out loud, why not? why we should continue to let working americans suffer while helping the super rich get richer? most americans agree with the president almost three in four americans support raising taxes on the wealthy so we can put government to work getting all of america working again, according to a washington post abc news poll in fact, even among republican voters, raising taxes on the rich is more popular than cuts to social security or medicare putting the leading republican presidential candidates squarely out of touch even with their own base the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results we've already drastically cut taxes for the rich and corporations, which has only made them richer while our economy remains in the gutter and no jobs are created but in light of the depth and breadth of our economic crisis, continuing to put the interests of a few wealthy people and big corporations ahead of the needs of millions and millions of struggling and suffering americans isn't just insane it's immoral the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of sally kohn | 50 years sally kohn kohn last year | number of poor highest in 50 years, sally kohn says, as the rich get super rich . kohn: 25 major corporations last year paid their ceos more than they paid in taxes . keeping taxes low for big business and rich does not create jobs, kohn writes . working families need the money, she says, to spend and stimulate economy |
washington (cnn) federal authorities are investigating a potential case of human trafficking at the suburban washington home of a saudi diplomat, officials said wednesday authorities were called tuesday afternoon to an upscale neighborhood in mclean, virginia, where they 'removed two potential trafficking victims,' us immigration and customs enforcement spokesman brandon montgomery told cnn a state department official said the mclean house is the home of the saudi military attachã© the case is under investigation by homeland security investigations, a unit within ice the two women, who are from the philippines and currently work at the saudi embassy in washington, claim they were mistreated, according to the state department official the women are charging, according to a different state department official, that the saudi attachã© kept their passports, made them work extremely long hours and did not pay them the source said they had not seen anything to indicate the women were physically harmed the official also pointed out these allegations are similar to several other cases they heard from domestic workers who work for diplomats from the persian gulf according to ice, cases like this are very 'victim centric,' meaning that once there is 'confirmation of suspicions,' authorities immediately go in and remove the victim and then begin the investigation there was no word on the identity of the saudi diplomat who lived there the saudi embassy in washington did not respond to requests for comment cnn's dan merica contributed to this report | saudi | new: source says women charging saudi attachã© kept their passports, didn't pay them . authorities investigate possible human trafficking . official says probe is at home of saudi military attache . two women allegedly claim they were mistreated |
(cnn) being in the nfl is a bit like being a wall street banker or a pop star the job title comes with a laundry list of assumptions if you've made it into the pros, then you must be not only physically elite and athletically talented, but also ridiculously wealthy and secure in a life the rest of us could only dream about right? well, not exactly, as burgeoning filmmaker matthew cherry seeks to reveal in his first feature film, 'the last fall' the indie, which premiered at sxsw this year and has racked up accolades on the film festival circuit, follows a 25 year old pro football player who finds himself back at home, cash strapped and trying to find his place in the world after his athletic career ends the film's inspired by cherry's own experience as a former nfl player, and the 30 year old director/writer/producer hopes his feature directorial debut will educate audiences 'a lot of people, they look at the guys who sign the big contracts the peyton mannings, the tom bradys, the calvin johnsons and i think that what ends up happening is that people automatically assume it's like that for every player,' cherry said 'and i think a lot of times people compare it to basketball and baseball contracts in the nfl, there's no guaranteed contract' for example, upon exiting the university of akron in 2004 with a degree focused on radio/tv broadcast and media production, cherry said he signed a three year deal that allowed around $225,000 his first year year and escalated to $350,000 in his third but he ended up getting cut during training camp 'what happens is that if you get cut at any point, they only owe you what they paid you,' he explained 'when i got cut they reassigned me to the practice squad, and when i was on the practice squad, that base salary was $80,000' 'after taxes and everything else, it's roughly $30,000 (to) $40,000,' he said 'i'm in the nfl, and people were thinking that i'm making all of this crazy dough, and it ended up being like, maybe a couple thousand a week but it's only for those 16 weeks of that season it was really hard to even make that stretch out for a year, let alone to put it in savings for years to come' so when he was released from the league, a then 25 year old cherry had to figure out how to rebound the answer seemed obvious: to pursue a longstanding passion for movies 'the reality of it is, in regards to playing ball, i could probably still be playing in canada somewhere, or doing arena football, or something,' he said 'but i didn't want to live that life that i was living for the past three years for another seven' he picked up and moved to los angeles around 2007 after gaining acceptance to an organization called streetlights, which helps place minority men and women on sets as production assistants at first, his transition to his new life left him shell shocked as he tried to adjust from being a football player to being the humble pa fetching coffee cherry treated his production assistant gig like film school, soaking in all he could he also used equipment made available to him to gain experience as a music video director 'every artist that charted, i cross referenced it on youtube, and the artists that didn't have music videos for songs that were charting, i wrote them a message on myspace,' cherry said the aspiring director offered a full music video treatment to musicians with no charge, just to get experience after reaching out to several artists over the span of a few months, cherry began to make inroads in the music industry he served as second assistant director on videos for artists including sean 'diddy' combs and raheem devaughn but while his career as a director was taking shape, it wasn't until he was shooting an independent documentary about the nfl lockout in 2011 that the idea for 'the last fall' hit him 'we were interviewing all these different fans, and we were asking people: 'who do you blame, the players or the owners?' and everyone blamed the players, surprisingly,' cherry said 'saying they're greedy, what do i care these guys get $8 million, $9 million, calling them arrogant i found myself defending these players and educating people and opening their eyes to that process, and i thought wow, maybe there's something here' he began writing the screenplay, his first, last march, and approached lance gross ('our family wedding,' 'house of payne') to play the lead by july, they were embarking on a 15 day shoot 'the biggest goal that we wanted to do with the film is to show that these guys are human beings,' cherry said 'with so many people, they just look at them like, 'oh, he's just a piece of meat he dropped a pass, let's kill him he's an idiot, he gets cut whatever, he sucked anyway to make it to the league, nobody sucks' gross, who's also an executive producer on 'the last fall,' was taken from the moment he read the script and as an actor, gross understood the fear of failure that comes with constantly placing one's fate in the hands of higher ups to get this far, 'it took a lot of hard work, knocking down doors, making sure that i was at the right auditions, working with the right people,' he said 'you get what you work for' yet the biggest hurdle for the film's director wasn't a professional obstacle but a personal one, as cherry faced the devastating unexpected passing of his mother last may 'the day before my mother passed, i wrote her a message similar to the character in the movie, we really didn't talk that much, we weren't super duper close i just kind of felt compelled to hit her up,' he said he thanked her for helping to support him financially, and told her he loved her and in the last line of his e mail, he added that he was 'working on something big, and that if it goes well, hopefully i'd be able to buy her that house that i wasn't able to buy her back when i was playing ball ' cherry's mother responded, and the next day after their exchange, she died at 57 of a heart attack that, he said, was really what pushed him to see 'the last fall' through at the time, cherry said, 'the last fall' was going to be 'ultra low budget' after his mother passed, he was able to use most of her life insurance money to co finance the project along with executive producer (and nfl player) ellis hobbs 'in a way,' cherry said, his mother 'sacrificed herself so that i can live out a dream' unfortunately, that was just the first challenge for cherry ten minutes following their last sxsw screening, cherry received word that his father, who'd been in poor health, had also died with his first movie bowing in theatrical release in los angeles today and headed for dvd release on january 15, cherry's already working on his next projects, one of which will revisit the world of football 'you definitely have to have a strong faith in god to try to get through, because this filmmaking thing, this is 10 times harder than trying to make it into nfl,' cherry said 'seriously it's the hardest thing i've ever done in my life' | nfl matthew cherry first the last fall lance gross cherry | former nfl player matthew cherry is a rising filmmaker . his first feature film is loosely based on his own experience . 'the last fall' stars lance gross, who sees the film as 'a love story'. cherry hopes it will educate audiences and humanize players |
dr sanjay gupta, a neurosurgeon, is author of the new book 'cheating death,' which will be published next month this article originally appeared in the september 20, 2009, issue of parade and paradecom (parade) i am going to let you in on a secret: when a person's heart stops beating, it's not the end contrary to what you may think, death is not a single event instead, it's a process that can be interrupted sanjay gupta says the latest cpr techniques can save the lives of vicitims of cardiac arrest mike mertz knows this firsthand on january 23, 2008, the 59 year old arizona man was driving home from work the last thing he remembers is pulling into his complex's driveway then his heart stopped corey ash, a passing ups driver, noticed a silver saturn wedged between a palm tree and a wall, with the engine running and a person slumped at the wheel ash stopped to investigate he switched off the car's engine, pulled mertz out, and laid him on the ground ash called 911 and started pumping the older man's chest the next few minutes would be absolutely critical for mertz if you had been there, standing over mertz's lifeless body, would you have known what to do? a person's life can slip away in a few minutes without a heartbeat, circulation slows to a halt blood no longer flows to the organs, and the brain is the first one to suffer in normal times, the brain, which constitutes 2 percent of our body mass, consumes about 20 percent of the oxygen the body takes in after 10 seconds without oxygen, the brain's functions slow without oxygen or signals from the brain, other organs begin to break down diaphragm muscles no longer contract and release to bring in air the kidneys stop filtering blood at the same time, an elaborate chain reaction triggers a breakdown in cells throughout the body paradecom: 4 diseases you can fight with exercise scientists and physicians are now learning that this process can be reversed when it comes to cardiac arrest, however, the chances of surviving an episode outside a hospital are poor only 2 percent of victims pull through without long term damage the no 1 thing that has been shown to make a difference is the action of a bystander if a passerby jumps in and gives cpr, as corey ash did, the likelihood of survival rises significantly but if onlookers do nothing, those chances drop fast according to the american heart association, for every minute that goes by without someone attempting cpr, the survival rate decreases 7 to 10 percent studies have found that bystanders perform cpr in only 20 to 30 percent of cases researchers say it's not because people don't want to help it's because they're apprehensive about putting their mouths on someone else's, especially if the person is dying but what i'm about to tell you may change your mind about what you can do in a situation like mertz's more than 15 years ago, cardiologist gordon ewy and researchers at the university of arizona's sarver heart center were puzzling over how to get more people to give cpr to simplify the method, they wondered what would happen if they advocated performing compressions without mouth to mouth respiration after running successful laboratory trials, ewy spoke to emergency services directors in arizona, wisconsin, and missouri they were intrigued by his findings and agreed to promote the use of compression only cpr among people in their states they also implemented a protocol for their paramedics and firefighters that emphasized giving chest compressions with minimal interruptions to keep the patient's blood circulating paradecom: 8 ways to stay healthy the results were remarkable: not only were survival rates for people who got only compressions just as good as those for people who got traditional cpr, they actually were better why was it so effective? mouth to mouth resuscitation supplies oxygen, which we need continuously as it turns out, our bloodstreams contain plenty of oxygen at any moment even if we stop breathing, our oxygen levels remain normal for quite a while if we do stop breathing, however, the sole way to make the oxygen circulate is by having someone pump our chests in 2007, japanese researchers revealed the results of a massive study on bystander intervention they looked at cases where a person (not in a hospital) suffered cardiac arrest in view of a bystander and with his or her heart in a rhythm that would respond to a defibrillator the survival rate was 11 percent for those who got standard cpr mouth to mouth plus chest compressions before an ambulance arrived the rate was 19 percent for those who got only compressions the act of keeping oxygen circulating could increase a victim's chances of surviving by as much as 70 percent this is not a fancy technology born in a gleaming lab, yet it is one of the most significant recent breakthroughs in medicine because heart disease is the biggest killer in the united states, this simple act could save thousands of people's lives every year like mike mertz's shortly after corey ash began cpr, paramedics trained in the compression only technique arrived thanks to them and to an alert bystander, mertz survived one day, the bystander could be you paradecom: 7 habits for a longer life remember: as soon as you see someone suffer what you think may be cardiac arrest, call 911, start giving chest compressions 100 times a minute, and don't stop for anything to get more information and to find classes in your area in emergency cardiovascular care, go to the american heart association web site advances in saving hearts • stem cells: back when i was in medical school, i learned that any damage to the heart from a heart attack was permanent this past summer, mayo clinic researchers working on mice converted adult scar cells into stem cells, which they injected into damaged hearts the cells restored heart muscle performance, stopped the progression of damage, and regenerated injured tissue scientists at mayo tell me this will soon be tested on humans • drug releasing stents: people at risk for heart disease who have a blockage in the vessels supplying blood to their hearts may undergo an angioplasty to open the vessel afterward, doctors often insert a stent (a mesh tube) to continue holding the artery open the newest stents serve a dual role: they also release medication that prevents scar tissue from developing • crp testing: you should have your cholesterol levels checked regularly but you might also ask your doctor about getting your c reactive protein, or crp, checked it is a marker for inflammation, a powerful risk factor for heart disease changes in diet and exercise can usually reduce high crp levels | gupta first | gupta: death is not a single event; it's a process that can be interrupted . without a heartbeat, circulation slows to a halt; brain is first organ to suffer . in cpr, compressions are more important than mouth to mouth breathing . compressions keep oxygen rich blood circulating to brain, other organs |
(cnn) a mine exploded monday on a road in southern somalia, killing four people three members of the medical humanitarian group medecins sans frontieres and a journalist ongoing violence in somalia has devastated the capital mogadishu the incident occurred monday along a road in kismayo, the group said victor okumu, 51, a kenyan doctor; damien lehalle, 27, a french logistician; and a somali driver named billan were the msf workers who were killed another member of the team was slightly wounded, the group said in a posting on its web site 'the exact circumstances of this fatal incident are not yet clear,' the posting said also killed was journalist hassan kafi hared, 36 the remote controlled mine erupted as he was walking to a news conference in siyad village in northern kismayu, said the national union of somali journalists (nusoj) he was working for the government run somali national news agency and a somali web site called gedonetcom he is survived by a wife and three children 'this is a targeted attack and we declare that this brutal killing on the journalist and the aid workers is an attack on the society itself,' said nusoj secretary general omar faruk osman, in a news release 'we demand that transitional government and the authorities in kismayu to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice' he said the medical humanitarian organization said it was evacuating remaining international members of it staff from kismayu hared is the second journalist to be killed this year, according to the committee to protect journalists the first, 38 year old norwegian reporter carsten thomassen, died jan 15 in a suicide bomb attack in kabul in a written statement, a representative of un secretary general ban ki moon said he condemned the killings and 'demands a thorough investigation by the authorities' e mail to a friend | cay reimposed laddery | no related information |
cnn (cnn) veteran dj and tv personality jimmy savile, who entertained generations of british children on television and radio, has died at the age of 84 savile was one of the most recognizable figures in british showbiz from the 1960s to the 1980s, presenting shows on bbc tv and radio he was the first host of the bbc's hugely popular 'top of the pops' music show, and his own program, 'jim'll fix it,' ran for almost 20 years the show saw him helping to grant the wishes of hundreds of children, 'fixing it' for them to take part in episodes of their favorite tv shows, sing with chart topping bands, and meet their heroes in the most famous 'fix,' he arranged for an entire cub scout troop to eat their lunch on a roller coaster as it sped around its track with predictably messy results at the height of its popularity, the bbc says, 'jim'll fix it' attracted up to 20,000 letters a week a colorful character, savile was as well known for his bright tracksuits, chunky jewelry and cigars as he was for his catchphrases: 'now then, now then,' and 'how's about that then?' which were much copied by impressionists mark thompson, director general of the bbc, said he was 'very sad' to hear of savile's death 'from 'top of the pops' to 'jim'll fix it,' jimmy's unique style entertained generations of bbc audiences like millions of viewers and listeners, we shall miss him greatly' savile was also well known for his fund raising efforts, and ran several marathons for charity he was awarded a knighthood for his charitable work savile's body was found at his home in leeds, northern england, on saturday police were called to the scene, but said they were not treating his death as suspicious uk media reports said he had recently been hospitalized suffering from pneumonia | jimmy savile british 'top of the pops' | jimmy savile entertained generations of british children on tv and radio . best known for 'top of the pops' and 'jim'll fix it'. 'jim'll fix it' saw him grant wishes of children who wrote in to show . colorful character famous for chunky jewelry, tracksuits and cigars |
baghdad, iraq (cnn) thousands of followers of radical shiite cleric muqtada al sadr rallied in baghdad on thursday to mark the sixth anniversary of the fall of saddam hussein's regime demonstrators burn an american flag at a rally in baghdad, iraq, on thursday they rallied at firdous square, where hussein's statue was pulled down on april 9, 2003, shortly after the us invasion of iraq the protesters carried iraqi flags, religious banners and posters for al sadr they chanted religious songs hazem al araji, a senior aide to the radical shiite cleric, called on the iraqi government to release all sadrist detainees inside us and iraqi prisons watch rally fill baghdad streets » 'everyone shout out loud and let all those who live inside the black zone and bush, the damned, hear our voices and release the sadrist detainees immediately,' al araji said he also called on president obama to support iraqis and remove us troops from iraq one protester called on the 'occupation' to get out of iraq and, at his urging, the crowd chanted 'down, down america' al araji also called on the protesters to shout out 'no no america, no no israel, yes yes iraq' iraqi security forces closed off the surrounding streets and a number of the bridges during the rally, which al sadr announced on march 21 | anti us muqtada al sadr al sadr iraqi sadrist | protesters shout anti us slogans, chant religious songs . thousands of supporters of muqtada al sadr rally in historic square . al sadr aide calls on iraqi government to release all sadrist detainees |
london (cnn) janet jackson is opening up for the first time about a duet with her brother that she's reviving two years after his death jackson took to the stage in london on thursday and performed their 1995 song scream as video of michael jackson played and his voice filled royal albert hall the reworked duet follows in the footsteps of jazz pianist and singer nat king cole and his daughter, natalie cole in 1991 she turned her father's famous 1961 recording 'unforgettable' into a father daughter duet janet jackson said she did the original duet at the request of her brother years ago 'i was on the rhythm nation tour and mike actually asked me to do a song with him and i told him no i didn't want to do it i felt i hadn't come into my own and i hadn't fully made a name for myself and i didn't want to ride anyone's coattails,' she said 'and i remember being in the janet tour a few good years later and he asked me again if i would do a song with him and i felt, at that point, i'd carved my own little niche in this world of music and i felt okay, i can do this now and that's how it came about' jackson said that performing the song alongside her brother again isn't difficult 'it feels great just listening to and hearing his voice,' she said, adding that on stage she finds herself, 'remembering the experience of recording it' jackson declined to comment to the press on the two year mark of her brother's death, instead taking to social media this week with a simple message on twitter on the june 25 anniversary: 'i miss you, i love you' jackson wraps up the european leg of her tour this week then heads to north america, australia and africa | uncompletable profanation suprameatal | no related information |
(cnn) bill and hillary clinton never fail to confound americans their political and public service accomplishments often appear diminished by the stumbles in their private lives, real or imagined no holder of high office, obviously, is ever judged simply for policy initiatives, and that seems especially true of the clintons as hillary clinton positions herself for a likely 2016 run for president, the scrutiny she will endure extends, inevitably, to her husband journalists and critics on the right will probably have to mine new material, however what happened in arkansas and the oval office have been more topically tortured than benghazi fortunately, for the traffickers of faux outrage, the clintons have offered up the clinton foundation, a ponderously complex institution that looks like it might be troubled by internecine squabbles, naked ambition, a touch of greed and an almost impossible to identify set of operational boundaries regardless of altruistic goals and achievements, the clinton foundation has blended friendships and political relationships along with corporate and nonprofit endeavors in a structure that will feed material into the hannity limbaugh o'reilly gop commentary complex through the next presidential election cycle clinton will likely not cross a room in the next few years without it being framed through the perspective of her unstated political plans to become president news that she was moving with her staff into two floors of the time life building, where the clinton foundation is located, may be a part of what prompted the new york times to publish a detailed account of the nonprofit's operations and their possible implications for a second clinton presidency the former secretary of state is planning initiatives on jobs, women and children under the organization's new title of the bill, hillary and chelsea clinton foundation, which, undoubtedly, will add to her already substantial resume there are, of course, always legitimate questions for global nongovernmental organizations and potential conflicts between their programs and the profit motives of their large corporate donors increasing her association with the foundation means clinton will be judged partly by the operational relationships of an institution that has previously been driven by her husband's global celebrity and fundraising skills this is not a uniformly positive development during her primary race against president barack obama, the clinton foundation ran a deficit of $40 million, possibly because its fundraising was competing with her campaign's even though the foundation and the associated clinton global initiative and the clinton health access initiative had operating revenues of $214 million last year, it still ended with an $8 million deficit the clintons are either very astute at navigating the nether world between corporate millions and honorable charity work, or they are still dealing with the bedazzlement of wealth and power and haven't figured out how to clearly understand what is appropriate and ethical the latter can hardly be argued american presidential politics runs on the billions of multi national businesses and winning elections is inextricably connected to finessing that dependency to give the converse appearance of independence the times report suggests the clintons are still figuring this out, and regardless of any philanthropic motivations to help with global problems, they may be harmed by their institutional ineptitude one example cited by the times is a consultancy named teneo, which was founded by a close associate of bill clinton monthly retainer fees were said to be up to $250,000 and the former president was a paid advisor, until the bad publicity and collapse of jon corzine's mf global investment firm, a significant client hillary clinton was reportedly angry about the negative media but it's unknown if she had previously commented or had ethical concerns regarding teneo's recruitment of clinton foundation corporate donors to be clients surely, all of this is not without meaning? well, maybe the clintons cannot be accused of not trying their political ambitions are as grand as their visions of global philanthropy in just the 2013 meeting of the clinton global initiative, public and private organizations made more than 70 commitments totaling $16 billion, estimated to impact about 2 million american lives the clinton foundation has created significant partnerships around the planet to resolve issues related to health and wellness, economic inequality, climate change and childhood obesity execution in all of these endeavors has been, undoubtedly, imperfect, and, yes, hillary clinton's public evaluation as a presidential candidate may be connected to some of those shortcomings but the greater failure would be to make no effort to help improve a troubled world perhaps the clintons should simply return to hope, arkansas, rent a little house on a quiet side street and paint self portrait watercolors the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of james c moore | the clinton foundation james moore hillary clinton clinton moore clintons | the clinton foundation has come under scrutiny for its operations and finances . james moore: as hillary clinton will likely run for president, critics are looking for mistakes . he says evaluation of clinton as a presidential candidate may be tied to the foundation . moore: charity work honorable, but clintons need to set boundaries on power, wealth |
(cnn) archaeologists believe a desert site in jordan may contain the ruins of the elusive king solomon's mines researchers using carbon dating techniques at khirbat en nahas in southern jordan discovered that copper production took place there around the time king solomon is said to have ruled the israelites the research findings were reported in this week's issue of the journal, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, which came out monday king solomon is known in the old testament for his wisdom and wealth and for building the first temple in jerusalem the fabled mines entered popular culture in 1885 with the publication in great britain of the bestselling 'king solomon's mines' by sir h rider haggard in the book, adventurers in search of the mines find gold, diamonds and ivory since then, the mines have been the the subject of several films yet their possible location and whether they exist at all remains cloaked in mystery thomas levy of the university of california san diego, who led the research, said carbon dating placed copper production at khirbat en nahas (arabic for 'ruins of copper') in the 10th century in line with the biblical narrative of solomon's rule 'we can't believe everything ancient writings tell us,' levy said in a university statement 'but this research represents a confluence between the archaeological and scientific data and the bible' khirbat en nahas is an arid region south of the dead sea, in jordan's faynan district the old testament identifies the area with the kingdom of edom as early as the 1930s, archaeologists linked the site to the edomite kingdom, but some of those claims were dismissed in subsequent years 'now we have evidence that complex societies were indeed active in 10th and 9th centuries bce and that brings us back to the debate about the historicity of the hebrew bible narratives related to this period,' levy said | jordan solomon the old testament the national academy of sciences | desert site in jordan may contain the ruins of the fabled king solomon's mines . king solomon is known in the old testament for his wisdom and wealth . findings reported in the journal, proceedings of the national academy of sciences |
washington (cnn) a group of latino farmers is scheduled to return to federal court thursday to argue that the government has discriminated against them in providing loans, disaster relief and other financial aid farmer john carillo says he was turned down for a usda loan because of discrimination the suit, known as the garcia case, alleges latino farmers were denied financial aid from 1981 to 2000 that white farmers were able to get 'the discrimination we're talking about has been well documented,' said attorney stephen hill, who represents the latino farmers the farmers filed the discrimination lawsuit against the us department of agriculture in 2000 and sought class action status, meaning that all the individual complaints and suits could be heard as one a judge denied class action status, leaving 81 complaints to be settled individually in several states the class could have included 20,000 farmers, the government said in court watch some latino farmers tell their stories » a hearing in the case was initially was scheduled for tuesday, but was postponed for two days and could be delayed even longer hill has filed a motion asking the federal court to postpone the hearing pending a ruling from the supreme court on the class action issue, or until november 23, whichever is later the justice department, which is representing the agriculture department, has opposed class action status, saying each case 'should be handled on its individual merits' the justice department also is not interested in settling the case, government attorney lisa ann olson told a federal district court judge in an august hearing 'it is not in the interests of the united states to do so,' olson said 'to settle at this point would be picking a number out of thin air' the farmers say if they are forced to fight the government individually, many families will not be able to afford the legal battle and their discrimination cases may never be heard thursday's hearing in us district court for the district of columbia is being held to determine whether any progress has been made in the case and to set a schedule and a mechanism for how to get the cases resolved, us district judge james robertson said at the august hearing the latino farmers note that african americans who filed an identical discrimination lawsuit against the government in 1997 were granted class action status and have been awarded about $1 billion in settlements to 15,000 farmers the farmers also point out that former agriculture secretary dan glickman testified before congress in 1997 that the usda had a long history of discrimination glickman served as agriculture secretary from 1995 to 2001 'good people lost their farmland not because of bad weather, bad crops, but because of the color of their skin,' glickman told lawmakers farmer john carillo says he's one of those people his father built a thriving family business in salinas, california, that included acres of chili and tomato fields, a packing house and a cooler for production it's all gone now carillo said he applied for a usda loan after devastating floods in 1995 but was denied 'our american dream was to have the whole family work together and to succeed as a hispanic farming company,' he told cnn cnn correspondent thelma gutierrez contributed to this report | latino usda 1997 | latino farmers say they were refused usda aid that was available to white farmers . one major issue: can individual suits be combined into a class action suit?. similar suit by black farmers in 1997 was given class action status . former agriculture secretary says department has long history of discrimination |
(cnn) mary travers of 1960s folk trio peter, paul and mary, has died, according to her publicist she was 72 mary travers performs at the 2004 democratic convention in boston, massachusetts travers died from side effects of treatment from a bone marrow transplant after battling leukemia, publicist heather lylis said the singer was born in louisville, kentucky, in november 1936 and grew up in new york's greenwich village as a teenager, she performed in a broadway review, but stepped on to the folk music scene in the 1950s she emerged as an iconic folk singer while performing with peter yarrow and noel paul stookey peter, paul and mary came together while singing 'mary had a little lamb' in stookey's new york city apartment they went on to play gigs at coffee houses and later on the radio 'as a performer, her charisma was a barely contained nervous energy occasionally (and then only privately) revealed as stage fright,' stookey said their music reflected the 1960s and the 1970s, a time of turmoil as the civil rights and anti war movements moved into full swing travers applied her recognition to rally behind those progressive movements in 1963, the trio performed its hit song 'if i had a hammer' at the washington march where dr martin luther king jr delivered his famed 'i have a dream speech,' her publicist said 'we've learned that it will take more than one generation to bring about change,' travers once said 'the fight for civil rights has developed into a broader concern for human rights, and that encompasses a great many people and countries those of us who live in a democracy have a responsibility to be the voice for those whose voices are stilled' travers advocated against us government moves in central america in the 1980s she went on a mission to el salvador and later spoke out against the country's regime she also opposed american funding of a militant group in nicaragua set on overthrowing an elected government there, according to her publicist peter, paul and mary recorded hits still recognized now, including 'leaving on a jet plane,' 'puff the magic dragon' and 'where have all the flowers gone' they performed together for nearly 50 years, winning five grammys and releasing 13 top 40 hits, six of them in the top 10 charts their debut album, 'peter, paul and mary' was on the top 10 chart for 10 months travers also recorded four solo albums in the 1970s 'her talent was huge mary was the difference maker,' said joe smith, former head of warner brothers records 'super bright, super talented, and a pleasure to know and work with' their last performance was in new brunswick, new jersey, on may 20 those closest to travers say she valued her friendships 'perhaps the most remarkable aspect of my relationship with mary travers over the last almost 50 years is how open and honest we were with each other, and i include noel paul stookey in this equation,' yarrow said in a statement 'such honesty comes with a price, but when you get past the hurt and shock of realizing that you're faulted and frequently wrong, you also realize that you are really loved and respected for who you are, and you become a better person' she is survived by her husband, ethan robbins; her daughters alicia and erika; her sister, ann gordon; and her granddaughters wylie and virginia | amaryllises simulations overlabouring | no related information |
(cnn) two words are nowhere to be found in the pages of text that spell out a new interim nuclear deal with iran: saeed abedini now some supporters of the american pastor, who's been detained in iran for more than a year, are accusing us officials of betraying abedini by signing off on an agreement that doesn't get him out of prison 'we were across the table from the iranians, and we did not bring home americans to me that's a tragedy and that's outrageous,' said jay sekulow, the chief counsel of the american center for law and justice, which represents abedini's family in the united states while analysts debated the nuclear agreement's pros and cons, abedini's wife, naghmeh, said she was trying to comfort her two young children 'it's very painful,' she told cnn's 'the lead' on monday 'my kids were crying this morning, saying, 'god, don't let daddy die bring him home' ' abedini, a 33 year old us citizen of iranian birth, was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year, accused of attempting to undermine the iranian government and endangering national security by establishing home churches at the time, an iranian state news agency said he would soon be released on bail but abedini's family says he remains behind bars in a dangerous prison, wrongfully imprisoned because of his christian faith family members who visited him in prison recently said his health had deteriorated, naghmeah abedini said and us officials should do more to push for his release, she said 'i expect them to speak out and say, 'we asked for his release, and this is horrible what has happened,' ' she said 'and he's not going to survive even a few months in that prison' us president barack obama pushed for the release of abedini and two other detained americans robert levinson and amir hekmati when he spoke on the phone with iranian president hassan rouhani in september it was the only issue other than iran's nuclear program that obama brought up, white house deputy national security adviser tony blinken said 'he asked for rouhani's assistance in freeing them and allowing them to return to the united states, and rouhani said that he would look into it,' blinken said asked why abedini's fate wasn't part of the interim nuclear deal with iran, national security council spokeswoman caitlin hayden said the geneva talks 'focused exclusively on nuclear issues' white house officials told cnn that negotiations for abedini and other detained americans in iran are ongoing 'we've been repeatedly clear that we're calling on iran to release them,' blinken said 'the president' raised it, we will continue to raise it, and we hope to see them return home' one analyst told cnn monday that focusing on nuclear policy was the right approach for the talks 'in any negotiation, you've got to decide how much you're going to try to accomplish, and just tackling all the dimensions of the nuclear agreement is ambition enough,' said richard haas, president of the council on foreign relations but naghmeah abedini and her attorney argued that officials could have done more, making the americans' release a precondition for any sanctions relief 'it is disheartening and discouraging that fighting for religious freedom and wrongful imprisonment of a us citizen is no longer a priority for a country that was founded on such values,' she said in a written statement to cnn saeed abedini converted to christianity from islam and then became a pastor, living in boise, idaho he regularly made trips to iran and was working on a government approved orphanage when he was arrested last year, his family said he was on a bus crossing from turkey into iran last summer when immigration officials took away his passport he was later put under house arrest authorities took him to the notorious evin prison in september 2012 while he awaited trial in january a judge from the islamic republic's revolutionary court sentenced him to eight years in prison on a facebook page dedicated to pushing for abedini's freedom, dozens of supporters criticized the nuclear deal and said they were praying for the pastor's release 'it's so senseless that our government would betray an american citizen like this especially under these unique circumstances they had the opportunity,' gina lewis morrison wrote abedini's wife said monday that she won't stop fighting for her husband's freedom she told 'the lead' that she had a message for her husband 'hang in there i'm spending every waking moment working to get you out,' she said 'the kids and i miss you and we're proud of you for standing up for what you believe and your values' cnn's john berman, wolf blitzer, jamie crawford and shirzad bozorgmehr contributed to this report | saeed abedini's a few months abedini obama iran | new: administration officials: push for saeed abedini's release will continue . wife: 'he's not going to survive even a few months in that prison'. abedini's supporters say the obama administration betrayed him . an interim nuclear deal reached with iran doesn't secure the pastor's release from prison |
washington (cnn) sanctions will be placed on 13 people and three companies 'for their involvement in the aq khan nuclear proliferation network,' the us state department said monday aq khan was the brains behind pakistan's nuclear bomb khan, a pakistani scientist, operated an international black market in nuclear material to a number of states with a history of poor relations with the united states he was arrested in february 2004 and eventually pardoned by former pakistani president pervez musharraf the sanctions, which follow a us review of the network, 'will help prevent future proliferation related activities by these private entities, provide a warning to other would be proliferators, and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to using all available tools to address proliferation related activities' the department notes that khan spearheaded an 'extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear equipment and know how that provided one stop shopping for countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons' iran and libya received centrifuge components, centrifuges, and designs from khan and his associates, and the united states believes the network 'provided centrifuge designs, equipment, and technology to north korea' the department said khan 'provided libya with nuclear weapon designs' the department added that pakistan, south africa, turkey, the united kingdom, germany, the united arab emirates, switzerland and malaysia are among the governments that have worked with the us 'to investigate and shut down the network' 'many of dr khan's associates are either in custody, being prosecuted, or have been convicted of crimes,' it said 'while we believe the aq khan network is no longer operating, countries should remain vigilant to ensure that khan network associates, or others seeking to pursue similar proliferation activities, will not become a future source for sensitive nuclear information or equipment' | us khan iran n korea libya | us: khan headed international network for proliferation of nuclear equipment . provided 'one stop shopping' for countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons . khan previously admitted selling nuclear secret to iran, n korea and libya |
(cnn) petr cech has told cnn that he wants a swift conclusion to the 'racism' saga surrounding chelsea and referee mark clattenburg the metropolitan police dropped the investigation into alleged comments by clattenburg towards chelsea's john obi mikel and juan mata on tuesday clattenburg has denied allegations that he used 'inappropriate language' towards either player and the football association will conclude its investigation into the matter on friday police drop probe into referee at center of racism storm and the chelsea goalkeeper hopes the whole episode will be brought to an end sooner rather than later 'for me it is difficult to comment on something that i didn't hear or was not even involved or even close,' cech told cnn 'i believe that if you come with something like that, you need to have a really good case to say it because if not it would waste time of everybody and again it wouldn't be good for football ferguson backs referee accused in chelsea racism complaint 'if there was a case it is not because chelsea want to do something, it is just because and again, i hope that this story will be finished as soon as possible' away from the investigation, cech believes referees should be made to explain their decisions in a bid to improve their relationship with both fans and players 'i think there should be better communication from the side of the referee towards the public as well,' he added 'i think it would help you have so many projects of respects for the referees and i think that would help as well 'they are more open because like i said, the players come and say fair enough i made mistake, it was completely wrong, i shouldn't have dived, i shouldn't have done this, and you get the credit for that 'and i think you'll get respect from the people and i think this is what can sometimes happen with the referees 'their job is very hard anyway and we all know that but i think the communication could be better' | petr cech chelsea mark clattenburg cnn cech | petr cech calls for end to the saga between chelsea and referee mark clattenburg. chelsea goalkeeper told cnn: 'i hope that this story will be finished as soon as possible'. cech urges better communication between referees, players and fans. cech: 'there should be better communication from the side of the referee towards the public' |
washington (cnn) which one of these doesn't fit? more jobs, a record stock market, wars ending and dismal poll numbers all apply to barack obama's presidency as it passes the 2,000 day mark, raising questions about the viability of what used to be known as conventional political wisdom a strengthening economy and robust stock market traditionally mean general public satisfaction with government bringing soldiers home from war zones has always boosted presidential popularity not this time with this president a cnn compilation of recent national polls indicates only 41% of americans approve of obama's handling of the job, down 6 percentage points from a year ago and matching the low of the past 12 months why the disconnect? a convergence of factors uneven economic growth, government crises both real and exaggerated, foreign policy problems, hyper partisan washington politics now on election year steroids helps explain it obama to republicans: 'so sue me' here's a closer look at some of the issues involved: 1) jobs, but not for everyone another strong jobs report thursday added to growing evidence that us economy has hit its full stride after the recession obama inherited when he took office in january 2009 a white house statement noted the 288,000 jobs created in june contributed to the strongest start to a year since 1999 and the best six month period overall since 2006 the unemployment rate dropped to 61%, well below the almost 10% level in the immediate aftermath of the recession as well as the more than 7% level when obama's presidency began in addition, the job growth last month spread across the economy instead of coming mostly from low paying sectors such as food and drink, as occurred previously, said cnn chief business correspondent christine romans however, romans noted that a low labor force participation rate showed many people 'have simply just left the labor market' those out of the labor market for more than a year still have trouble finding jobs, so little has changed for them, she said, adding: 'it's not all unicorns and rainbows' obama himself alluded to the sweet and sour economic situation on thursday, touting the positive report but adding that 'there are still folks out there who are struggling' 'my hope is that the american people look at today's news and understand that, in fact, we are making strides,' he said 2) who benefits from a strong stock market? the jobs report that exceeded expectations of analysts sent the stock market to record heights, with the dow crossing 17,000 for the first time however, happiness on wall street doesn't translate directly to satisfaction on main street, noted cnn business correspondent alison kosik 'only about half of americans invest in stocks,' so the gains don't matter to a lot of people, kosik said, adding that the stock market 'isn't the economy' in fact, the soaring exchanges sow resentment among non investors who blame wall street greed for the near collapse of 2008 that contributed to the recession as a democrat, obama stands to benefit less from a healthy stock market than a republican president from the party more traditionally tied to the banking investment sector 3) wars ending, sort of obama campaigned twice on ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan wars started by his predecessor, and he is on track to fulfill that promise he withdrew us forces from iraq in 2011, and almost all american forces will be out of afghanistan by the end of 2016 and his presidency under his plan however, myriad issues cloud the return home of the troops the lightning advance by sunni militants through northern iraq threatens renewed civil war and partition, raising fears of a jihadist controlled safe haven for terrorists threatening us interests that is the exact scenario the wars were supposed to end, and critics have accused obama of allowing gains made in iraq to get erased after pulling out us forces the obama administration blames iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki for his country's collapse, saying the shiite leader rejected an agreement to keep us forces in the country and marginalized sunni and kurd populations in iraq now obama is sending us forces back to iraq, by the hundreds so far, to bolster security and advise iraqi forces the label of military advisers evokes memories of how the vietnam war started another problem involves chronic and sometimes deadly delays faced by returning war veterans seeking health care from the veterans affairs department the crisis reported by cnn since november already has brought the resignation of va secretary eric shinseki, various investigations and a white house report that essentially said the entire department needed an overhaul 4) governing woes the va crisis follows other problems in the obama administration, such as the dysfunctional website for his signature health care reforms, irs political targeting of groups seeking tax exempt status and the 2012 terrorist attack that killed four americans in benghazi, libya as expected, congressional republicans have mounted a series of investigations, some necessary and others intended to wring as much political capital out of the controversies as possible heading up to the november elections and beyond they also adopted obstructionist tactics after getting overrun by democratic majorities in obama's first term on transformative legislation such as the affordable care act and wall street reforms the result: a gridlocked congress of political one upmanship, and a president who appears to have thrown up his hands in disgust by promising to act on his own as much as he can 'we can make even more progress if congress is willing to work with my administration and to set politics aside, at least occasionally,' obama said of thursday's job report no polling fireworks for obama or congress this july 4th republicans responded in kind, with house speaker john boehner saying that 'in order for us to make real progress, the president must do more than criticize' 'there's no shortage of common ground where he can push his party's leaders in the senate to work with us,' boehner said in a swipe at legislative intransigence by senate democrats 'until he provides that leadership, he is simply part of the problem' if any solace for obama, polls show the public dislikes congress more than him, with the cnn compilation of recent surveys showing 14% approval for the legislators by seeking to blame republicans and declaring his intent to govern by regulation instead of legislation, obama turns off voters who want to see the president engaged and trying, said wendy schiller, a political scientist at brown university 'he sort of looks like a kid on the playground who's hiding, saying, 'forget it, i'm not playing with you guys anymore,'' schiller told cnn, adding that 'even though it can be explained, the concept of a president giving up doesn't sit well with people' obama is the same guy who won re election in 2012, she said, but now he comes off as powerless 'when the truth is the executive branch structure is enormously powerful' 'the less congress does, the more power the executive gets,' schiller observed 5) 'nattering nabobs of negativism' speechwriter william safire came up with that phrase for former vice president spiro agnew to complain about a liberal leaning mainstream media during the nixon administration now obama faces the resulting backlash a vitriolic right wing media machine that feeds and enhances republican attack politics from talk radio icon rush limbaugh to fox news to the rest of an industry spawned in the past two plus decades, the conservative messaging reflects the deep ideological divide in the country obama has provided fodder to his detractors, getting cited for 'lie of the year' in 2013 by politifactcom for his oft repeated, erroneous declaration that his health care reforms meant 'if you like your health care plan, you can keep it' schiller credited the political right with 'persuading people who do benefit from the federal government that they don't' as part of the conservative effort to shrink the government's size and cost 'democrats have failed miserably to counter that,' she said now, 45% of the public automatically opposes obama, america's first african american president, 'no matter what,' she said, 'whether racism or ideology or both' who is the worst president since wwii? opinion: gop left obama no choice but to act on immigration opinion: lies, damned lies, statistics and polls cnn's paul steinhauser contributed to this report | obama gop | issues that usually benefit a president not helping obama . much of the negativity reflects the nation's partisan divide . right wing media feeds and enhances gop attacks . analyst: true or not, the president is perceived to be giving up |
los angeles (cnn) a father and mother showed heroism when a gunman opened fired inside their california home before dawn saturday, but two members of the family couldn't overcome their wounds, inglewood police said the mother ran from the house carrying her youngest child, though she was shot in both legs, in an 'extraordinary rescue attempt,' police said the 4 year old boy, however, was shot in the head and later died in surgery the mother was in critical but stable condition saturday afternoon inside the house, the father used his body as a shield in trying to protect the other three children despite the father's efforts, the gunfire wounded two of his children: a 6 year old boy in the pelvis and a 7 year old girl in the chest both were in critical but stable condition, police said the father later died in surgery of multiple gunshot wounds the oldest of four children, an 8 year old boy, was the sole family member who wasn't injured, police said 'what would motivate an individual to do this is inexplicable,' inglewood police chief mark fronterotta said inglewood is adjacent to los angeles and its international airport police were conducting a manhunt for the suspect, who lived in a house in the rear of the property that rear house was also set afire, believed to have been ignited by the gunman, police said police did not release names of the father, 30; mother, 28; or their children as of saturday afternoon the incident occurred about 4 am saturday when police received a report of 10 gunshots at the property the fire department also received a call at the same time firefighters were hampered by fears that the gunman might have been armed in the rear residence, police said fallen power lines also hindered firefighting efforts the suspect was described as a 55 year old black man with a dark baseball cap and is 5 foot 6 and 160 pounds, police said they later identified him as desmond john moses the suspect wore a painter's mask when he gunned down the family, the police chief said police didn't provide a motive the suspect should be considered armed and dangerous, the police chief said police find body in burned california home after family killings | 55 year old desmond john moses 4 year old | new: police identify the suspected gunman as 55 year old desmond john moses . a mother runs from the house carrying her youngest child though she's shot in both legs . the 4 year old boy, shot in the head, later dies in surgery . the father died after using his body as a shield over his other children |
(cnn) tashard choice recently had a great opportunity to pick up a nice present for his 3 year old nephew the dallas cowboys running back went up to michael vick after a game and asked for his autograph well, that kind of blew up in his face here he was, just trying to do a nice thing for a child, and people get all crazy upset, just because vick plays on the other team in a sign of the times, choice even felt it necessary to apologize on twitter here's hoping that if you go out to get a sports memorabilia gift this holiday season you deal with a lot less criticism but you might feel some heat after all, there are some cool items, but they can be pricey, especially if someone like vick signs his name to them we'll help you sort through the many sites that sell sports items and point you toward a few things we might even include on our wish list it's understandable why choice's nephew wanted vick's signature he's one of the hottest athletes in the country right now, likely leading philadelphia to the nfl playoffs if you hunt around the internet, you can find several sites selling a jersey, even one selling one he wore during his college career the most popular jersey would be the one he wears now, no 7 for the philadelphia eagles or you could go for the autographed eagles' jersey that one is $592 at fans edge or you could save a little coin and get one from the falcons (the team he played for until he went to prison for his role in a deadly dogfighting operation) for the sale price of $125 want a less controversial quarterback? tom brady's new england top is $760 in blue and $1,049 in white if the person you are buying for digs historical baseball moments, he or she might like a ball autographed by pitcher armando galarraga and the umpire who cost him his perfect game, jim joyce the grace each showed after joyce's blown call is an example of sportsmanship most fans will talk about for years one ball, $573 it's a souvenir commemorating a moment that hadn't happened before and probably won't again while neither of those men seem likely candidates for the hall of fame, andre dawson is one of the all time greats and is part of the 2011 class that will be enshrined in cooperstown he was widely admired by all baseball fans during his 21 year career you can get an autographed cubs replica jersey at tristar productions for $259 (you'll have to pay extra to get it in a frame) one of the most exciting moments of the sports year at least for us soccer fans and even bandwagon fans came at the world cup, when in its final group game the united states needed a goal to move into the prestigious round of 16 all time leading scorer landon donovan pounced in the last minute, sending bars and offices across the country into scenes of pandemonium sportsmemorabliacom has a few autographed photos of donovan and his teammates celebrating what is one of the signature moments in us men's soccer history for $263 hockey fans will long remember the exciting olympics men's final, won by canada when sidney crosby scored in overtime nhl auctions has some team canada jerseys, including one signed by ryan getzlaf ($229) if you want one, bid soon, as that auction ends monday nascar fans are fiercely loyal but if you are giving to someone and you don't know who his or her favorite driver is, you probably can't go wrong with a jimmie johnson die cast johnson won his fifth consecutive championship this season and die casts are cool small scale replicas of the cars used in races if you go to johnson's team lowe's site, there are many cars to choose from, including cars from previous years and cars with the various color schemes used throughout the year want something that might make a cool addition to the home office or the man cave? consider seats from stadiums that met their demise for instance a pair of seats from old yankee stadium will cost you $1,500 at steiner sports steiner also has seats (or parts) from the meadowlands and wrigley field but let's go big say you have a blank check, and the fan who has almost everything well, babe ruth collectibles are some of the most sought after sports items on the planet sports memorabilia offers five bats from the sultan of swat at $125,253 (and 50 cents) they were used in games at the time he was being sold from the red sox to the yankees and making the transition from pitcher to right field if that price is too steep, the company offers a store model bat for just $964 still too much? they also have a babe ruth card by topps from 2009 for $17 while we're at it, everyone loves a good sports movie look how much bank the film 'the blind side' took in at the box office so, while it may not qualify specifically as 'sports' memorabilia, you could also buy a prop or costume from the hit film premiere props in el segundo, california, offers more than 100 items from the film, including a green crusaders jersey worn by quinton aaron for $79999 his stunt double's uniform is just $599 other items range from $1499 to $1,599 | colonizability ferronatrite tenuti | no related information |
moscow, russia (cnn) anna chapman, one of the russian sleeper agents deported by the united states in last summer's spy swap, will be giving the dour face of russian political life a bit of flash and glamour chapman was elected to the public board of the pro government the young guard of united russia on wednesday, according to russian news agency reports the organization, which is the youth branch of russia's ruling united russia party, held a congress in moscow on its fifth anniversary and reshuffled its leadership the country's powerful prime minister, vladimir putin, is chairman of the united russia which controls more than two thirds of seats in the russian parliament, the state duma, as well as most local legislatures across the country chapman is one of the 10 russian spies in the united states swapped last july in exchange for four russian prisoners a transfer that conjured the politics and tensions during the cold war chapman, perhaps the most famous of the 10 russians, has been relentlessly covered by international media and portrayed as a glamorous spy in her new role, chapman addressed the congress's participants, according to interfax 'so many people are hunting after power, glory and money,' she was quoted as saying 'but does all that make us more happy? maybe all we really need is something more human and positive?' 'there would be much less negative things in the society if each of us would wake up with a smile and be happy about a new day, when one can create something new and useful,' she said interfax and state run news agency ria novosti reported that chapman rushed out of the congress hall right after her short speech without speaking to journalists who chased her all the way to the exit ria novosti said they were asking her about why she joined the young guard and what she plans to do in her new position but chapman didn't respond to any questions, ria novosti said | chapman the young guard of united russia last summer the cold war | chapman was elected to the young guard of united russia board . the spy swap last summer conjured the cold war . chapman says 'wake up with a smile and be happy' |
paris (cnn) part of paris charles de gaulle airport was evacuated friday due to the accumulation of snow on the roof, and hundreds of flights were canceled because of a shortage of de icing fluid, authorities said nearly 2,000 passengers were moved from terminal 2e to other parts of the airport, authorities said, calling the measure 'preventative' part of the roof of that terminal collapsed in 2004, shortly after the state of the art building was inaugurated four people were killed, media reports at the time said about a foot of snow had fallen on the roof friday by the time authorities decided to close the terminal, french media reports said authorities were working to clear it and reopen the terminal french authorities earlier friday asked airlines to cancel half their morning flights to and from the airport because de icing fluid is running low, they said that led to the cancellation of 400 flights friday morning 200 arrivals and 200 departures then, early in the afternoon, they asked airlines to scrap a third of their flights for the rest of the day charles de gaulle is the second busiest airport in europe, after heathrow in london paris' second airport, orly, has not had to cancel flights because they are not running out of glycol, which is using for de icing, authorities said airports in europe are still struggling to get passengers to their destinations after they were snarled by unexpected snow over the weekend dublin airport was experiencing delays friday because of de icing and because airplanes are in the wrong places after the week's disruptions, it said in a statement | charles de gaulle evening about a foot second europe the weekend | charles de gaulle cancels a third of afternoon and evening flights . about a foot of snow falls on the roof, forcing a partial evacuation . charles de gaulle is the second busiest airport in europe . airports were snarled by snow over the weekend |
los angeles (cnn) federal officials are investigating whether this week's pacific storms caused a pilot to crash his small plane into a mountain in a southern california state park, authorities said friday it is the second death that might be related to the storms christopher julius petrikas, 65, a former commercial airline pilot from riverside, california, slammed his twin engine aero commander plane into a 3,300 foot mountain summit in lake perris state recreation area on monday, authorities said that park is just 11 miles from the city where petrikas lived he was the small plane's sole occupant on friday, federal aviation administration spokesman ian gregor said his agency and the national transportation safety board will examine if the weather was a factor in the fatal crash 'yes, weather will be among the factors ntsb and faa examine,' gregor said in an e mail response to cnn the state park's superintendent, john rowe, said visibility on the mountain was poor around the time of the crash 'the weather was not favorable at that time of the morning,' rowe told cnn on friday 'visibility was between 100 yards and sometimes, at the top of the mountain, it would be 10 to 15 yards when my partners and i were searching up there we couldn't even see the sheriff's helicopter' the other life that might have been taken by the storms was that of angela marie wright, 39, of menifee, california, who also died in riverside county when her car was swept off a road and into canyon lake on wednesday, according to the coroner's office 'weather might have been a factor, but we can't determine that until we complete the investigation,' riverside county sheriff's deputy melissa nieburger said friday 'we're investigating that as a traffic collision' overall on friday, rain soaked residents of california were enjoying a reprieve from the storms that inundated the state for most of the previous week another round of wet weather was expected to hit the west coast over the holiday weekend during friday's break in the storm fronts, authorities were able to provide a detailed account of the dramatic search for the downed pilot rains so deluged the chaparral, grasslands, and hiking and equestrian trails on the mountain that rowe's four wheel drive vehicle became stranded and a park ranger's all terrain vehicle toppled over, rowe said so his crews searched on foot in the rain for about 15 miles until they discovered the wreck and dead pilot, he said 'that's how messy it was the trails were running like small rivers so it made recovery efforts very, very difficult,' rowe said the plane was found near a world war ii crash site where a training plane from nearby march air reserve base also hit the mountain and killed its crew, rowe said petrikas, the small plane's pilot, began his 75 mile flight from palm springs to chino around 9 am monday, but when he didn't land on time, authorities launched a search for him, rowe said the pilot was found after the riverside county sheriff's office pinged his cell phone and investigators were able to track down his location, rowe said the eight hour recovery mission left some search members with near hypothermia because of prolonged exposure to rain that fell at a rate of a half inch or an inch an hour, rowe said sixteen low security state inmates, who are often used for brush clearing in wildfires, were deployed in the search, and they had to carry petrikas' body for three miles from the soaked mountaintop, rowe said rangers' stranded vehicles were left abandoned for four days because the heavy rain and mud made it impossible for them to be moved, rowe said the wrecked plane, which remains on the park summit, could be retrieved by next week, he said friday marked southern california's second day of sunshine after five days of storms at malibu's renowned surfrider beach, surfers dressed as santa claus, mrs claus and frosty the snowman were riding mild waves during a lull in the weather thursday, said malibu resident julie ellerton, who videotaped the spectacle for a cnn ireport but many residents of the region and three nearby southwest states spent the time recovering from the damage wrought by torrential rains california lt gov abel maldonado late thursday afternoon proclaimed a state of emergency for kings, los angeles and santa barbara counties, to expedite government assistance and aid to the region two days earlier, a similar order was issued by gov arnold schwarzenegger for kern, orange, riverside, san bernardino, san luis obispo and tulare counties maldonado is serving as acting governor while schwarzenegger is out of the state the series of pacific fronts pounded southern california hardest, but the storms also strafed western arizona, southern nevada and southwestern utah, which all were under flood watches and warnings that stretched until early friday morning mudslides remain a threat because of the soggy ground conditions cleared in much of those areas thursday, but the damage left by days of seemingly nonstop rain remained that meant the chore of the day was cleaning up mud and flood damage to many homes and businesses they may not have long to dry out: the national weather service forecasts that another storm system could dump light to moderate rainfall on much of southern california on christmas day and sunday rainfall accumulation measurements at airports in los angeles, long beach, camarillo, santa barbara and santa maria for the month ranging from 6 to 89 inches made this december the wettest ever in each of those locales, even with more than a week still to go in one stark image, the field and sprawling parking lot of qualcomm stadium in san diego was under water early thursday, as crews worked desperately to pump out water they succeeded, as the naval academy and san diego state university faced off in college football's poinsettia bowl the mojave river was one of many at dangerously high levels, reaching 166 feet 06 feet above flood stage at 11 am thursday the heavy rains also produced potential health hazards for swimmers and surfers on particular parts of los angeles' beaches, and los angeles county officials warned recreational users to be careful when next to drains or waterways because they carry bacteria and trash from streets and mountainsides 'fortunately, discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers only comprises a small portion of the beach, and therefore, anybody who wants to go to the beach will be able to enjoy their outing,' said jonathan e fielding, the county's public health director and health officer throughout the southwest, water roared through desert washes and urban waterways alike, and the ferocious strength of the rapids often damaged bridges or suburban concrete creek beds and dumped mud everywhere the series of storms is known as the 'pineapple express' because of its origin near the hawaiian islands the upside to the severe weather, according to experts, is the relief the heavy rainfall has brought to a region devastated by drought and fires the storms also brought heavy snow to mountain areas in california and other states the national weather service issued hazardous weather outlooks for northern nevada, utah, wyoming and most of colorado an avalanche warning was in effect for parts of colorado and locally heavy snow was forecast for much of the country's midsection, with the weather agency issuing advisories from kansas east to ohio cnn's jessica jordan, kara devlin, chuck conder, daphne sashin, christina zdanowicz and rachel rodriguez contributed to this report | faa southwest | new: faa is investigating whether this week's torrential rains caused a small plane crash . new: searcher recounts the drama of carrying the pilot's body off the mountain . authorities are also investigating whether a woman's death is storm related . residents of parts of the southwest fear mudslides and flood surges |
(cnn) in the summer of 2007, two palestinian groups fatah and hamas fought street battles in gaza fatah, loyal to palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas, was losing and a us diplomatic cable indicates that 'desperate, disorganized, and demoralized' fatah members appealed to israel to attack their rival the cable quotes the head of the israeli security agency, yuval diskin, as telling us diplomats, 'they are approaching a zero sum situation, and yet they ask us to attack hamas' diskin is also quoted as saying that hamas had infiltrated abbas' presidential guard and seized heavy machine guns fatah members quickly denied any approach had been made dimitri diliani, a member of fatah's revolutionary council, said such comments are part of a smear campaign carried out by israel, which had never been asked 'to address or to assist in any palestinian national manner' but hamas, in a statement that underlines the continuing animosity between the two groups, said that the 'wikileaks information regarding the scale of security cooperation between the israeli occupation and fatah is dangerous information and represents additional evidence regarding the involvement of fatah with the occupation' according to the cable, diskin told us ambassador richard h jones that fatah was 'on its last legs,' and hamas was 'well organized and ascendant' but he opposed arming fatah, saying, 'they are not organized to ensure that the equipment that is transferred to them will reach the intended recipients' he was also wary of requests for fatah members to be trained in yemen 'with a strong al qaeda presence' diskin also had harsh words for abbas, saying, 'he knows he is weak and he has failed he has failed to rehabilitate fatah' according to the leaked cable, diskin also suggested abbas would soon retire abbas continues as president today the leaked cables also indicate the israelis appear to have seen an advantage in hamas consolidating its control in gaza a cable from june 13, 2007, quotes the head of israeli military intelligence, maj gen amos yadlin, as saying that 'israel would be 'happy' if hamas took over gaza because the (israel defense forces) could then deal with gaza as a hostile state' yadlin played down the threat hamas represented, saying iran, hezbollah and syria were of greater concern, according to the cable he said that while iran already had a presence in gaza, 'israel could handle the situation so long as gaza does not have a port' today, three years since the cables were written, hamas still retains control of gaza, although much of the territory was devastated by the israeli offensive of january 2009 in retaliation for rocket strikes across the border the situation in the west bank, still controlled by the palestinian authority, is calmer, with better security and investment assisting economic growth mustafa barghouti, a palestinian lawmaker and former minister, told cnn that the leaked cables show 'that the internal division in palestine is serving only the interest of israel' and that 'israel itself encouraged this division' | wikileaks fatah israel hamas israeli | wikileaks cable says 'desperate' fatah asked israel to attack hamas in 2007 . a fatah official says the comment was part of an israeli smear campaign . hamas calls it 'evidence regarding the involvement of fatah with the occupation' |
san francisco, california (cnn) president obama will wake up in san francisco, california, on friday amid a five state, four day tour aimed at propping up embattled key senate incumbents obama will fly to los angeles, california, to attend a fundraiser luncheon at the university of southern california for sen barbara boxer and former gov jerry brown, before delivering remarks at a democratic national committee rally at usc's alumni park boxer has opened a slight lead against republican carly fiorina, as has brown in his effort to win his old job back in a nasty battle with republican meg whitman national democrats are still watching these races closely to ensure they don't slip out of their hands by friday evening, the president will be in las vegas, nevada, to attend a dnc rally at a middle school before heading to a private residence for a fundraising event for sen harry reid and the democratic senatorial campaign committee reid is stuck in the mid 40s in most polls, despite months painting his republican opponent, tea party friendly sharron angle, as an extremist on saturday, obama heads to minnesota for a rally to support former sen mark dayton, who is running for governor the president also will headline a fundraiser for the democratic congressional campaign committee before heading back to the white house on saturday evening in addition, the president will attend another congressional campaign panel fundraiser monday in rhode island before taking four days off from campaigning to tend to other business at the white house as the president stumps across the west for several senate incumbents, democratic officials revealed thursday he will shift his attention to the midwest and northeast in the final weekend before the midterm election obama will headline four major rallies for the democratic national committee in the final stretch, starting saturday, october 30, in philadelphia, pennsylvania, and bridgeport, connecticut both states have senate battles that are simply too close to call, as well as competitive gubernatorial battles also on that saturday, obama will return home to chicago, where there is a tight gubernatorial fight and democrat alexi giannoulias is locked in a bitter battle with republican mark kirk for obama's old senate seat the state is also home to a close re election battle for democratic gov pat quinn advisers to the president have privately said he's particularly concerned about the symbolism on election night if his party can't even hold his former senate seat, which is why first lady michelle obama and the president each campaigned in illinois earlier this month on sunday, october 31, the president will return again to ohio in his 12th visit as president just days after he and the first lady headlined their first joint rally there, drawing 35,000 people to the campus of ohio state university white house aides have said they expect the president to be in washington on election day, though that could always change if democratic officials calculate that a last minute visit will have an impact in another key race vice president joe biden will join obama at the cleveland, ohio, rally, according to democratic officials, as the white house continues to very aggressively coordinate the travel of the president, vice president, and first lady for maximum benefit biden led campaign events earlier this week in washington, california, and nevada three states the president is also hitting on his current five state swing because of the urgency of saving incumbent sens patty murray, boxer, and reid michelle obama will also be visiting washington and california next week, and then will be in las vegas for reid on monday, november 1, the day before election day that same day she will also headline an event in philadelphia, a sure sign that the white house believes that joe sestak, the democratic candidate for senate that many pundits had written off, has a legitimate shot of knocking off republican pat toomey | obama california nevada washington | critics say midterm election will be a referendum on obama and his leadership . president obama seeks to shore up embattled senators from california, nevada, washington . obama is on a five state, four day tour . obama will also make another campaign swing the final weekend before midterms |
(cnn) something i love about american politics: a political candidacy can be sunk by a fishing license liz cheney's run for the republican senate nomination from wyoming suffered a setback after it was discovered that she bought a $24 fishing license last year without having lived in the state for a year with surreal seriousness, a spokesman for the wyoming game and fish department said of the scandal, 'we have an ongoing investigation the law is extremely complicated' a republican strategist living in wyoming added, 'it's a serious misstep allegedly poaching in a state where being a resident sportsman is, by law, an earned privilege wyoming people will take this very seriously' will they really? the primary election between challenger cheney and the popular incumbent, sen mike enzi, is a whole year away, and i struggle to believe that it'll be lost for want of a fishing license but it is a sign of trouble ahead for cheney polls show that she's perceived to be an outsider and she's starting to learn that you can make a big name for yourself in national conservative politics but still fail to get traction at a state level for good reason cheney's only real, substantive link to wyoming is through her father, dick, who served for 10 years as a congressman otherwise, she was born in wisconsin, lived much of her life in the dc area, went to college in colorado and chicago and made her name working for the george w bush administration not a lot of wyoming in that cv at all instead, her credentials to represent the state are partly political rather than local cheney is a talented administrator and activist a strong public speaker who can bring a tea party crowd to its feet the level of respect that she's engendered speaks to her abilities, but also her links to the national, rather than wyoming, political establishment when the washington post wrote a friendly profile of cheney, the daily caller (significantly, a scrappy conservative website) took the big names quoted in support of her and showed up their hyperbole 'she was tea party before there was a tea party,' said mary matalin (that was clever) 'she is not just her father's daughter,' said bill kristol (what else could she be?!) 'i was excited about palin; i'm more excited about liz,' said michael goldfarb (big shoes to fill) the most absurd remark came from matalin: '[cheney] really is a cowgirl through and through, and raised by accident in washington babies don't move wherever they want; they have to go with their parents' now, matalin ought to know that cowgirls are raised, not made, and babies rarely show a preference for one state over another although the image of baby liz in a ten gallon hat crying for wyoming is a beguiling one so cheney has arrived in wyoming with a lot of national conservative sentiment behind her but precious little local backing that's reflected in her campaign, which has had a lot more to say about undoing the obama administration than standing up for her state her basic argument is that a) republican incumbent enzi is too nice to obama and b) 'obstructionism' is 'patriotism' perhaps there's some local right wing sentiment that agrees enzi has been bipartisan once too often, but cheney is mistaken if she thinks that her state will vote for someone who pitches herself purely as a 'senator no' that sort of thing gets a big applause at meetings of the conservative political action conference, but it might it might not be so attractive to wyoming voters looking for someone to bring home the bacon and do we really want yet another senator who refuses to do business with anyone? it's not as if congress is unpopular because it's too compromising finally, there's the problem of cheney being an all round anachronism in this age of tea party populism yes, her gender and relative youth make her seem like fresh leadership but her name is a hindrance and deserves to be america needs to put its political dynasties out to graze: it's perverse that a republic of free people should keep voting for the scions of the kennedys, clintons, bushes or cheneys the usa is starting to look less like a democracy and more like an aristocracy furthermore, cheney's politics are a little old fashioned, too she might be on the zeitgeist by being for same sex marriage, but her neoconservative stance on foreign policy is about 10 years out of date the next generation of republican leadership is going to be populist, small state, critical of getting overinvolved overseas, civil libertarian and intensely loyal to its birthplace carpetbaggers need not apply the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of timothy stanley | amiga phthalide underorb | no related information |
(ewcom) at this point, robert de niro has built an entire subgenre of movies in which he sticks his tongue out at his cinematic legacy after inventing our modern idea of a wiseguy in films like 'the godfather part ii' and 'goodfellas,' the actor has spent much of the last 20 years lampooning it in farces like the funny 'analyze this' (and its disappointing sequel 'analyze that') and the very funny 'meet the parents' (and its very disappointing sequels 'meet the fockers' and 'little fockers') the results have been mixed, but de niro's star hasn't faded — maybe because the line between those movies and his more serious work (eg, 'silver linings playbook') has remained so clear but the new comedy thriller 'the family,' directed and co written by luc besson ('the fifth element'), doesn't just wink at de niro's history, it leans on it, hard the actor might as well be playing an older version of his scorsese era persona as giovanni manzoni, a former mob boss who snitched and now has to hide in the witness protection program in northern france with a grizzled fbi agent (tommy lee jones) as a guardian angel, the manzoni family members all try to act as humdrum as possible to avoid attention giovanni pretends to be an author at work on a wwii book his tough as nails wife (michelle pfeiffer) plays hausfrau, his hot tempered daughter ('glee's' dianna agron) flirts with her math tutor, and his whip smart son (john d'leo) makes allies at school these fish out of water b plots mostly look for laughs in the manzoni family's inverted, addams esque morality to them, crime is good, normal people are boring, and a brutal beating is a perfectly acceptable solution to mundane problems like a stolen pencil case or a rude plumber sometimes it works, especially in pfeiffer's scenes, where she shows off a darkly comic edge that hasn't had this much of a showcase since the last time she played a wiseguy's wife in 1988's 'married to the mob' yet the movie's violence level is so strangely high that it jars the comedy there's only so long you can laugh at a person getting savagely pummeled before you start imagining how much it would hurt 'the family' also doesn't have any real twists in store beyond its basic setup you know that giovanni's past — in the form of bounty hunting hitmen — will catch up to him and it does, turning the third act into a generic thriller with a weirdly high body count before that, though, there are some memorable scenes, including one wry meta moment in which the movie outright acknowledges the fact that robert de niro himself is playing giovanni it'll probably make you laugh — and wonder if the movie is about to head in a much smarter, kookier direction (it isn't) but mostly it makes you wish that you were watching de niro add to his movie legacy instead of scrapping it for gags grade: b see the original story at ewcom click here to try 2 risk free issues of entertainment weekly © 2011 entertainment weekly and time inc all rights reserved | robert de niro witness protection luc besson ew | robert de niro stars as a mobster in witness protection with his family . the comedy thriller was directed and co written by luc besson . ew gives it a grade of b |
london, england cocaine abusing celebrities are glamorizing the use of narcotics and encouraging more young people to use illegal substances, the united nations drug control agency has warned model kate moss faced allegations of cocaine use in 2005 but was never charged for over the claims the annual report from the international narcotics control board warns that treating stars 'leniently' by allowing them to get away with drug crimes undermines faith in the criminal justice system and has a damaging effect on adolescents 'they get more lenient responses by the judiciary and law enforcement, and that is regrettable,' professor hamid ghodse, a member of the incb, told the uk's press association wednesday 'there should not be any difference between a celebrity who is breaking the law and non celebrities 'not only does it give the wrong messages to young people, who are quite impressionable, but the wider public becomes cynical about the responses to drug offenders,' ghodse said watch ghodse explain how celebrity offenders are being given an easy ride » last month, acclaimed singer amy winehouse was questioned by police after a video emerged which appeared to show her smoking crack last fall she was arrested and fined in norway for possessing marijuana winehouse was due to appear in a norwegian courtroom to contest the drug charges at the end of february the hearing was postponed indefinitely, pa said, after the court approved a request from winehouse's lawyer watch how celebrity drug scandals affect children » supermodel kate moss also faced cocaine snorting allegations in 2005 the crown prosecution service later said she would not be charged over the claims despite losing modeling contracts in the wake of the revelations, she later won fresh jobs and remains one of the world's top models singer pete doherty, the former boyfriend of moss, also has had a well publicized drug abuse problem but has so far managed to avoid jail time earlier this month he was named by music magazine nme as its hero of the year and paul mccartney and his late wife linda were open about their marijuana habit the former beatle was arrested for possession in 1980 in japan after 10 days in jail, he was released without charges the report found that britain, along with spain and italy, have some of the highest rates of cocaine abuse in the world the report also expressed concerns on rising opium production in afghanistan e mail to a friend | macrodiagonal rooses isidia | no related information |
(cnn) no doubt about it, actor steven yeun is in a pretty great place in his career he's on one of the most popular scripted series on cable, 'the walking dead,' and he's one of the most popular characters on that series on top of that, he is as close as one can get to being a romantic lead on a show about a zombie apocalypse his character, glenn, is involved with farmer's daughter maggie, and they have the most stable relationship of all of the survivors at this point of course, stability not to mention life itself is a very fragile thing on 'the walking dead' the third season, which began on sunday to record ratings, sees the group settling in what at first appeared to be in an abandoned prison yeun spoke with cnn about the new season, the fans and what scares him more than zombies cnn: where is glenn's head at this season? yeun: he sees himself as, if not a leader, at least a provider and protector and someone to look to in times of trouble you see glenn in this moment ready to take up the charge it's not easy, but these are the moments he's been preparing for we'll see how that plays out cnn: how devoted is he to maggie now, as opposed to the rest of the group? yeun: i think maggie is his strongest link she's the sole thing he identifies with i think she's the only thing that keeps him from going off on his own i don't think he completely trusts the group you saw in the last season, he questioned rick, someone he's always looked up to glenn saw that the only thing he can really trust is his own gut, and he needs to do that to protect the people he loves maggie is his sole connection to being in this world, even cnn: what new challenges come with the change of setting? yeun: it's an adjustment to get used to being on stages, not outside all the time luckily, our writers and producers make sure we had plenty of time in the battering heat it was a challenge at first, but it's fun to play how the situation changes how the character behaves cnn: is there anything for glenn this season that tops that grotesque, harrowing scene in the well? yeun: this season is literally no holds barred; it's gas pedal down i'm excited for people to see what's coming it's just crazy the well was an amazing thing it was terrifying and fun there's definitely stuff this season that tops that by far cnn: how does it feel to know about the season premiere's record breaking ratings? yeun: it's pretty damn amazing it's nice to know that people are anticipating it and telling their friends it's all around great cnn: are you into horror movies? yeun: i'm not much of a horror fan when it comes to ghost stuff and demon stuff, i can't watch that i've heard too many crazy stories about that stuff, so i don't mess around that especially when you're staying in a haunted hotel cnn: so zombies are no problem, but ghosts on the other hand yeun: zombies you can deal with that you can punch or shoot them with ghosts, you're going to be possessed, or something's going to be thrown at you you can't do anything about that no, thank you! cnn: did you run into 'mythbusters' ' grant imahara when he dressed up as glenn at dragon*con this year? yeun: that's pretty amazing that he did that it's amazing to see anyone do anything with that character i'm just lucky enough to be able to play it in a public forum cnn: have you had any unusual 'zombie' interactions outside of the show? yeun: people are strange sometimes, which is completely hilarious to me a really normal couple in atlanta were walking down the street, and the girl recognized me and started walking towards me in a 'walker' walk and she was committed, like 'uuuuhh, i love your showwww ' that was unique cnn: finally, i have to ask, do you ever try to get information out of 'walking dead' creator robert kirkman about what's going to happen on the show? yeun: they're pretty protective (of that) they hold on to things sometimes we just don't ask, out of courtesy and also, if you ask, you may put it on yourself cnn: don't mess with the guy who could kill you off, huh? yeun: exactly | droughts mastigobranchial counselable | no related information |
(cnn) thirty years ago, amidst much hype from walt disney pictures, 'tron' debuted in theaters the movie with its then unusual plot of a man interacting inside a computer as an avatar failed to bring in a large audience in comparison with 'et the extra terrestrial' a month earlier despite that, the movie left a mark few would dispute that its special effects were ahead of its time its early use of cgi inspired no less than pixar animation co founder john lasseter, who saw it as the future of animation it held a special place in the heart of not only filmmakers but legions of fans as well whether they take part in 'tron' cosplay or own their own classic 'tron' arcade game, fans of the film that was cyberpunk before such a concept even existed are some of the most rabid after all, for many of them, it was their first entry into the world of computers this groundswell led disney to relaunch the franchise with 'tron: legacy' in 2010 (it even went so far as to screen test footage for fans at san diego comic con in 2008) and now, the franchise has continued, with no less of a fan than paul reubens (best known as pee wee herman) taking part in its latest incarnation just like his character pee wee, reubens has a pretty impressive toy collection one of his favorites is a small 'tron' lightcycle 'i just love looking back' at the time of 'tron's' release, reubens said the comic actor spelled out what made that movie so special 'we all knew 'tron' was way ahead of its time,' he said 'to some degree, it's ahead of its time still people know enough about the world of it and have more reference to it that it's way more accessible now' so when reubens was offered the chance to play the villainous pavel in 'tron: uprising,' disney xd's animated series (which returns with new episodes friday), he was glad to be on board 'anyone will tell you the villain roles are the more fun roles,' said reubens, who plays opposite elijah wood's hero beck 'i ran into people excited to see it before it happened in the last six months, people stopped me all the time and said, 'oh, you're working on 'tron!' i've run into a lot of 'tron' fans out there' 'tron' fandom is something just about everyone involved in the series a prequel to 'legacy' has in common that was important to executive producer charlie bean, a lifelong fan himself, who wanted to avoid 'typical action adventure' casting 'for anyone who witnessed the onset of computers and the dawn of video games, 'tron' spoke to a lot of us with concepts about what it was like to be inside a computer or a virtual world,' he said 'it always sat inside of my mind from a design point of view as an artist, it had such an impact on me' the look of the show, reminiscent of japanese anime and the 1990s series 'aeon flux' among other influences, was also crucial 'there's an artistic background to 'tron,' from the first film with (designers) syd mead and moebius,' bean said '(yet) some of my initial ideas were about what i didn't want it to look like 'i wanted it to stand out and be something that stood out from the action stuff that's out there, in bringing a live action property to animation my initial idea was to go in the opposite direction because of the world and types of stories, i wanted something that was more human but stylized, where you could really invest in the plight of these characters' the series' look also appealed to reubens, who famously employed all manner of animation on 'pee wee's playhouse' and has worked as a voice actor for many years, perhaps most famously on 'a nightmare before christmas' 'we saw enough stuff (ahead of time) to know ('tron') was going to be really beautiful,' the actor said 'i could tell they had a really strong art direction' beyond the fans, though, the show involves someone who has been there from the beginning: bruce boxleitner once again portrays tron a fan favorite from his time on 'babylon 5,' boxleitner admitted that 'tron' devotees have approached him more often than those for 'b5' 'this was the only one that really seemed to resonate over the years,' he said so it took no convincing at all for boxleitner to return to that world 'i think 'tron' could very well be a mythology for our time it was born at the age of the internet,' he said 'when tron and yori and flynn destroyed the mcp, we liberated the internet for everyone you can thank me who knew?' outside the world of animation, boxleitner hopes for more live action 'tron' with one stipulation 'it's my motivation to find a young tron i can't fit in those tights tron's a young man's game!' | paul 'pee wee herman reubens bruce boxleitner tron | the film 'tron' has become a cult classic among fans . the animated 'tron' series stars one such fan: paul 'pee wee herman' reubens . like in the classic, bruce boxleitner once again portrays tron |
(cnn) in rolling out its galaxy gear on wednesday, samsung effectively launched the smartwatch wars, becoming the biggest player in an emerging gadget market that could soon see apple, google and others join the fray 'today, samsung reinvents a centuries old product,' samsung research director pranav mistry said at a launch event in berlin 'i can proudly say galaxy gear is a design statement, an engineering marvel and something that really redefines tomorrow' so, no false modesty here but, what did everyone else have to say? tech bloggers' first impressions of the watch, which will go on sale in late september in much of the world and in october in the united states and japan, were predictably less grandiose than that many complimented the gear as a significant step forward in mobile technology with a host of interesting features and the potential for even more but its $299 price tag was a concern for many, as were worries that sluggish responses on some apps will turn out to be a persistent problem, not a case of opening day jitters others complained the watch must be synced with a galaxy phone or tablet to get the most out of its functionality we've rounded up some thoughts from folks who got an early look at the connected watch, which will compete against rival devices from pebble, sony and other makers keep in mind that many of them had limited time with the device and some will publish more in depth reviews later consumer reports 'we like what we saw in a brief meeting with samsung, though the galaxy gear had several shortcomings, such as no direct support (yet) for facebook or twitter and a display that stays on only briefly with each press of the power button,' reviewer mike gikas wrote after a short hands on with the device the full consumer reports review will come later 'the galaxy gear appears to be one of the most useful devices to adorn the wrist since the wristwatch but its expected initial high price could limit its appeal to early adopters with deep pockets' the verge 'the galaxy gear, samsung's latest foray into the smartwatch category, is now official and it's quite unlike anything you've seen before,' wrote vlad savov 'yes, it's a smartphone accessory that can pick up notifications, control music playback, and keep time with a rich variety of watch faces, but samsung takes it a few steps further by integrating a 19 megapixel camera, a speaker, and two microphones — allowing you to shoot short 720p movies and even conduct phone calls with the galaxy gear 'most of all, however, i find it hard to justify spending the $299 asking price on an accessory like the galaxy gear it's too dependent on its parent device for functionality — which will cost you a fair amount too — and, like all other smartwatches, fails to truly live up to the ''smart' part of its name' techcrunch in a piece titled 'your turn, apple,' matt burns wrote he's intrigued, even though samsung tends to release imperfect products, then improve them 'the galaxy gear watch seems to hit most checkboxes the watch's design is fashion forward without being completely nerdy it's available in a wide range of colors and it packs a good amount of tech including a camera into a modest sized frame the screen is attractive it's open to applications and there's even a camera in the wrist band, because why not and you can actually take calls on the thing by holding it up to your ear' 'should you buy the galaxy gear? nah, wait for the next one or apple's smartwatch that's what i'm going to do a pebble is good enough for me until then but i still want this one well done, samsung' engadget 'wrist watches, smart or otherwise, are simply not for everyone there are more smartphone users in the world, many times over, than there will ever be smartwatch owners despite the limited market for such a device, however, samsung's decided it's time to join in on the fun 'the gear includes a bsi sensor and autofocus lens mounted in the wrist strap that camera, designed for on the go captures where convenience, not image quality, is a priority, is paired with a pre installed app called memographer that application, and dozens of others that will be available at launch, are key to boosting the gear's appeal, and setting it apart from the competition' gizmodo 'on first use, galaxy gear seems pretty responsive it swipes quickly and smoothly between apps,' wrote leslie horn 'we weren't able to test out texting, but we started a call that popped right up on the screen of the note 3, more speedily than anticipated overall, galaxy gear feels kind of awkward both to wear (it's chunky) and to use (it's unnatural, although that's to be expected since it's a new type of input) all that could be worth it, though, (if) the fitness apps (which we weren't able to test) are killer, and if moving between your galaxy smartphone and your watch are as seamless as it seemed to be in our test' | chibinite lophophorinae ghostwrote | no related information |
(cnn) manchester united have returned to the top of the english premier league after a header from ji sung park gave them a narrow 1 0 win over previous table toppers arsenal the only goal of a largely disappointing match came just before half time when park superbly adjusted his body to divert nani's deflected cross past 20 year old arsenal goalkeeper wojciech szczesny, who was making his league debut for the london side neither team found their top form in a game of mistimed passes and niggly tackling, but united had the best of the chances with england striker wayne rooney missing a golden opportunity to stretch the advantage in the 73rd minute arsenal defender gael clichy was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area but rooney's spot kick flew high and wide of the visitors goal gunners manager arsene wenger brought on big name players robin van persie and captain cesc fabregas, who was returning from injury, in an attempt to get back into the game but their flowing passing football deserted them and it was united who nearly snatched a second goal late on, when rooney's clever lob was superbly clawed away by szczesny the result means united now lead the table by two points on 34 points and remain unbeaten after 16 league matches they also have a game in hand on all their rivals arsenal are two points behind in second, level on points with manchester city, while defending champions chelsea are another point behind in fourth position | defeature misunderstanding airthed | no related information |
hong kong (cnn) chinese dissident and artist ai weiwei has turned the cameras on himself on the first anniversary of his arrest at beijing airport, the internationally renowned artist and outspoken government critic has installed live web cameras at his home, a wink to the 24 hour police surveillance he has been under since his release 'in my life, there is so much surveillance and monitoring my phone, my computer our office has been searched, i have been searched, every day i am being followed, there are surveillance cameras in front of my house,' he said, in quotes carried by agence france presse 'so i was wondering, why don't i put some (cameras) in there so people can see all my activities i can do that and i hope the other party (authorities) can also show some transparency' four cameras, positioned over his computer, bed, and courtyard, broadcast a 24 hour live feed at weiweicamcom ai, 54, was on his way to hong kong last april when he was taken into custody and detained for three months amid a crackdown on political dissidents, activists and religious groups across china ai's beijing studio was raided, and his wife and eight assistants were taken into custody for questioning activists attributed the campaign to government concerns about potential uprisings inspired by the arab spring more than a month after taking him into custody, beijing police told the state run xinhua news agency that ai evaded a 'huge amount' of taxes and that his company, fake cultural development ltd, intentionally destroyed accounting documents the government then initiated a tax evasion case against ai's company, demanding rmb 15 million (us$ 24 million) in fines, charges he denies and which critics argue are politically motivated read about the latest development in ai weiwei's tax evasion case the provocative artist, blogger, documentary filmmaker, and architect has a complicated relationship with the authorities following the 2008 sichuan earthquake, he created art installations to question the government's silence over the 5,000 schoolchildren killed, deaths some have attributed to substandard construction of schools he said he was beaten in 2009 by police officers in his hotel room as he prepared to testify at the trial of a fellow earthquake activist however, he was allowed to fly to munich, germany soon afterward to exhibit his installation ai also helped designed the iconic bird's nest stadium for the 2008 beijing olympics, but later renounced his role after feeling the games had become too politicized in november last year, he was briefly placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending a goodbye party he organized for his million dollar studio in shanghai after police ordered it demolished ai said that studio was built following government demands in the first place to enhance the city's cultural standing q&a: is china afraid of ai weiwei? ai has also embedded his twitter feed on weiweicamcom, displaying a constant flow of netizen praise for his latest work user @sunrrr wrote: 'ai weiwei is always able to come up with wonderful ways to do wonderful things', while @katrinazaat tweeted 'it's comforting to see you on the webcam i admire your courage and persistence as an artist' | chinese ai weiwei mimicks 24 hour beijing last year | chinese artist ai weiwei installs live webcams at his own home . mimicks 24 hour police surveillance since his arrest at beijing airport last year . government has accused ai of tax evasion, seeking payment of fines . ai is still facing tax evasion charges, brought by the government soon after his release |
editor's note: robert menendez is the junior senator from new jersey and the author of a new book, 'growing american roots: why our nation will thrive as our largest minority flourishes' sen robert menendez, d new jersey, says that in the us, latinos are no longer on the outside looking in across america, the latino population is growing, and it is now the largest minority group in the country latino voices are being heard, and their economic impact is being felt in the marketplace, which is good for the whole of the nation contrary to what may be a popular belief, most latinos in america today are us citizens many barely live above the poverty line, but many others have entered the ranks of the middle class and are contributing mightily to the culture as well as the economy latinos are no longer on the outside looking in they are at the table, making a difference on every major issue before congress and every major issue before the courts, latinos, in larger and larger numbers, are engaged in the debate our nation will thrive as our largest minority flourishes it's important to remember that, particularly in tough times such as these latinos have many role models, and now we have one more: justice sonia sotomayor on the united states supreme court sotomayor and i grew up at the same time in similar circumstances she was raised in public housing in the bronx i was raised poor, in a tenement building in union city, new jersey, the son of cuban immigrants my mother was a seamstress; my father an itinerant carpenter i was the first in my family to go to college i never dreamed that one day, i would be elected as one of 100 united states senators in a country of 300 million people, and be able to cast my vote in favor of the confirmation of an eminently qualified hispanic judge who lived across the river from that old tenement in union city it was a proud moment for me, one i will always remember as a highlight of my time in the senate one day, a new generation of young latinos will follow in the footsteps of sotomayor and other pioneering public servants they will build on the successes of our community, contribute to strengthening our economy and leave their mark on the community and on our nation being at the heart of the debate, part of the greater american community, is nothing new for latinos in this nation in my new book, i write that it is incumbent on us, as latinos, to remind ourselves and the rest of america about our long presence here and the contribution we have made and about how the success of the latino community is important for the success of the entire country latino patriots have served and fought in every war they are artists, dancers, singers, poets and journalists, teachers and scientists more and more latinos are becoming entrepreneurs and businesspeople, contributing to the wealth and economic well being of the nation but they have also been characteristically humble, and have not spoken enough about their accomplishments and the contributions they have already made to the fabric of this nation from the earliest days of the republic indeed well before the revolution latinos have been an integral part of the establishment of this country all americans should have access to that history in politics alone, latinos have played a larger role than most realize technically, the first latino in congress was jose marion hernandez, who served briefly from 1822 to 1823 as a delegate from florida before it became a state in 1845 romualdo pacheco of california won by one vote in 1876 to become the first hispanic member of the united states congress the first hispanic senator was octaviano larrazolo of new mexico, who served for a short time in 1928 before resigning because of ill health there have been three latino nobel prize winners from the united states and 11 latino astronauts, and the list goes on we need to enhance the teaching of the story of hispanic life in america which will, in the end, shed more light than heat on the immigration debate taking place across this nation latinos themselves need to fully understand and appreciate their accomplishments, but also to understand, as a community, where we have fallen short millions of latinos are graduating into the middle class more latino children are going to colleges and universities than ever before latinos are increasingly serving in public office and in key areas of the economy but, at the same time, despite this progress in education, too many latino children are dropping out of school too many families are struggling to make ends meet and too many latinos suffer from a lack of adequate health care these are the realities, some we can justifiably be proud of others we must honestly confront and address if we are to succeed together as a nation, achieve our full potential and bring the next generation along growing roots in america means recognizing our past, acting now and preparing the road for those new generations who will follow it means engaging in sweeping efforts to improve education for latinos and all american children, including specific programs to bring along those who have fallen behind in school through no fault of their own it means comprehensive health care, elder care and economic opportunity the same rights that all americans want and deserve we must engage and encourage young hispanics to enter public service, to be part of the debate, to be at the table and be part of the solution we must instill in them a sense of history and a belief that it is our duty and obligation to give something back to the community to build a better, stronger nation the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of robert menendez | robert menendez latinos america latino | robert menendez: latinos are now are at the political table, making a difference . more young latinos will follow in the footsteps of pioneering public servants, he says . he says latinos must remind america about long latino presence, contributions . latinos must appreciate accomplishments but also understand shortfalls, he says |
london, england (cnn) a 'farce,' 'bitter', 'ugly and chaotic,' 'sinister and slapstick and a 'public relations nightmare;' the olympic torch's journey of harmony and peace hit a large protester sized road hump in london, the world's press commented monday british newspapers said the olympic torch relay through london was a 'public relations nightmare' the british and chinese press were far from impressed with the chaotic scenes as the olympic torch was carried through london by a mixture of celebrities, politicians and athletes on its way to beijing in the uk, the times said the relay was 'reduced to farce and ignominy' as 35 protesters were arrested after clashing with police over china's actions in tibet 'despite nearly a year of planning and the deployment of 2,000 officers, the metropolitan police were unable to stop protesters breaking through the security cordon at vulnerable points,' the times reported 'it was a public relations nightmare for london, with images of tibetans pinned to the tarmac by police, and demonstrators waving placards outside downing street' watch a gallery of the torch relay in london » the daily telegraph said the relay was nearly abandoned because of the 'ugly and chaotic' scenes 'organizers, including chinese officials, discussed 'pulling out' of the day long relay after just a few hours, as police fought running battles with wave after wave of anti china protesters,' the newspaper reported the daily telegraph said police were surprised by the 'relentless' attempts to disrupt the parade at 'every corner' of the route the mail said the relay turned into a 'sinister and slapstick' event 'which did britain no favor in the eyes of the world' 'terrified athletes and celebrities carrying the torch were forced to run for cover,' it reported watch supporters, opponents of the beijing olympics show up at the london leg of the torch relay » 'downing street was privately furious as the embarrassing fiasco costing $2 million and likened to 'chinese police state tactics' in london was beamed around the world on tv' the mail described the chinese guards helping escort the flame as a 'mysterious private army' 'wearing blue tracksuits, the hired 'thugs' barged protesters out the way and even shoved spectators in downing street, where the torch was greeted by [british prime minister] gordon brown' the independent said 'most spectators saw little more than a blur of fluorescent yellow police jackets' 'an enormous security cordon that had something of the pantomime about it turned the relay into a public relations embarrassment for both the chinese and british authorities,' it said the guardian said the relay was 'a journey of harmony' but there was precious little unity on display' while the tabloid sun described the scenes as 'shocking' the new york times said the relay descended into a 'tumult of scuffles,' and expressed concern about the torch's future path ahead of its arrival in san francisco on wednesday look at a map of the international torch relay route 'the tour could prove jarring for beijing what organizers had billed as an occasion to celebrate the olympics' sporting ideals of peace and harmony turned into a daylong contest between china's supporters and demonstrators protesting china's crackdown in tibet and its wider human rights record' the chinese press said london residents were indignant about the protests and quoted angry officials the china daily said 'tens of thousands of people lined the route of the relay to cheer the event; far outnumbering protesters' 'many spectators voiced disapproval of attempts to disrupt the torch relay by those who claimed they had done so for 'political causes,'' it reported it quoted nick, a british university student, who said that 'sports should be separated from political things' a spokesman for the torch relay center of the beijing olympic organizing committee told the newspaper that the olympic flame 'belongs to the world and the act of violating the olympic spirit will surely arouse the indignation of the peace loving people and is bound to fail' watch a report on the torch's journey, jowell's comments » the china people's daily newspaper also carried comments from an organizing committee official criticizing the attempt by some 'pro tibet independence' activists to sabotage the relay in an 'obvious act of defying the olympic spirit' meanwhile the xinhua news service made no mention of the protests, preferring to focus on the cold weather and crowd numbers 'the heavy snow in london exerted slim effect on people's passion of seeing beijing olympic flame as large crowds lined along the street to greet the relay of torch on sunday in the host city of 2012 games,' it reported the relay continues in paris monday, with an estimated 3,000 french police chaperoning the torch as it departs from the eiffel tower e mail to a friend | times london daily mail olympic | the times labels torch relay a 'public relations nightmare' for london . daily mail questions presence of 'mysterious private army'. olympic official says flame belongs to world's 'peace loving people' |
(cnn) the 84 million bright yellow wristbands distributed by lance armstrong's cancer charity have become a well known symbol of strength and perseverance against adversity 'livestrong,' they urge in the wake of wednesday's release of hundreds of pages of evidence supporting persistent allegations of doping against the legendary cyclist, there's another take on the wristband critics have struck out the 'v' to make it read what they accuse armstrong of doing for more than a decade: 'lie strong' evidence of armstrong doping 'overwhelming,' agency says still, the flood of less than flattering details doesn't seem to be shaking the resolve of fans accustomed to accusations that have swirled for more than a decade, accusations the seven time winner of cycling's most prestigious event the tour de france has resolutely denied the information released wednesday by the us anti doping agency is part of a report to international cycling officials supporting the organization's request to strip armstrong of his tour titles and other accolades he is also subject to a lifetime ban on competition in events sanctioned by us olympic sports bodies armstrong's fans took to facebook and other social media venues to stand by the man many see less as an athletic titan and more as an inspirational cancer survivor who has raised millions for cancer research and assistance 'whether you did, or you didn't, you still won 7 tour titles, you never failed a test and what you have done to increase the awareness of cancer, is enormous,' one fan wrote on his facebook fan page 'believe me, no one can tarnish the good you have done,' wrote another it's too soon to tell what the release of evidence against armstrong and his teammates, many of whom admitted doping, will ultimately have on armstrong's charity efforts and his overall reputation however, his foundation says contributions increased after his august announcement that he would give up fighting the us anti doping agency's investigation of him 'our donations have increased to nearly double their usual amount since august,' said katherine mclane, spokeswoman for the lance armstrong foundation 'he's a person who helped change the perception of cancer survivors around the world he's done an incredible amount of good for people affected by cancer and nothing can change that,' she said armstrong won his seven tour de france championships after being diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer, which spread to his lungs, lymph nodes, abdomen and brain by december of that year, after months of surgery and treatment, doctors declared him cancer free the following year, he established his foundation three years after his diagnosis, armstrong won the first of his seven tour de france titles, thrilling and inspiring millions in his home country, where cycling is barely followed his victory brought increased attention to the sport in the united states and helped raised money and attention for cancer research worldwide still, throughout it all, rumors and allegations of doping dogged the texas native in 2002, a 21 month investigation into allegations that armstrong's team used banned substances during the 2000 tour de france closed after finding no evidence of illegal drug use the international cycling union released a report in 2006 clearing him of allegations from 1999 and in february, federal prosecutors in los angeles closed a two year investigation into the allegations without filing charges in the latest investigation, the usada said examination of old armstrong blood samples seemed to indicated doping its report also said armstrong made a 'financial agreement' to bury a positive test for a banned substance and accused the team of falsifying prescription records to cover corticosteroid use by armstrong the file also contains affidavits from armstrong's teammates implicating themselves, and armstrong, in the cheating armstrong's teammates recount tricking drug testers the agency said its investigation 'found proof beyond a reasonable doubt that lance armstrong engaged in serial cheating through the use, administration and trafficking of performance enhancing drugs and methods and that armstrong participated in running the us postal service team as a doping conspiracy' 'the evidence in the case against lance armstrong is beyond strong; it is as strong as, or stronger than, that presented in any case brought by usada over the initial twelve years of usada's existence,' said the organization, which is not a governmental agency but is designated by congress as the country's official anti doping organization for olympic sports armstrong himself hasn't commented directly on the case he posted to twitter wednesday night, however, saying he was 'hanging with my family, unaffected' and thinking about an upcoming event for his charity his lawyer, tim herman, called the agency's report a 'one sided hatchet job' and a 'government funded witch hunt' a spokesman for the us attorney's office in los angeles, which ran the investigation that was closed in february, declined to comment on whether the evidence released publicly wednesday would spur renewed interest in possible criminal sanctions against armstrong or anyone else associated with the team bruce deming, a former federal prosecutor and avid amateur cyclist himself, said he doubted the criminal case would be reopened 'the feds knew what usada knew usada knew what the feds knew so this is not new information to the prosecutors, i don't think,' he said in fact, he said, he suspects the information revealed wednesday is largely similar to what federal prosecutors unveiled 'this investigation against lance, which you know involved multiple federal agencies and a very large, well organized federal investigation and what has to be millions of dollars spent, came up with apparently not enough hard evidence to charge lance armstrong with a parking ticket,' deming said still, the report has had an impact on some fans, for whom the evidence appeared to sour their opinion of armstrong 'i am sad and have finally accepted there really are no true heroes in our world,' one facebook fan wrote 'on behalf of pretty much everyone who has held you in high regard looked on as an idol in the wake of your excellence in your sport bought your books and aspired to be as (successful) as you are if the allegations are true then you have duped your country and fellow athletes,' wrote another still, howard bragman, an expert in crisis communications, said he does not expect the accusations will have any significant impact on armstrong's legacy 'he's done amazing things for people with cancer,' bragman said 'he's given a lot of people hope in this world and to many millions of americans and people around the world, lance armstrong will always be a hero and none of these allegations are ever going to change that' cnn's casey wian and terry frieden contributed to this report | armstrong | many fans still support armstrong, despite recent doping revelations . 'he's given a lot of people hope in this world,' crisis communications expert says . spokesman for federal prosecutor declines to say if criminal probe will be reopened . armstrong is accused of taking part in sophisticated doping program |
los angeles (cnn) visitors to the los angeles police department website have identified five women depicted in photographs found in a suspected serial killer's home this summer, but police need to independently confirm those claims, spokeswoman norma eisenman said friday authorities would not say whether those women are alive or dead, eisenman said a website displaying the photos received 10 million hits in 24 hours after police asked for assistance in naming more than 100 women depicted in 180 photos, which police released thursday, eisenman said some women were featured in more than one picture, police said police have also received more than a dozen phone calls since releasing the photos, they said friday authorities want to know whether a serial killer known as the grim sleeper has more than the 10 murder victims that police are now alleging 'we are grateful for the public's response to the release of the images,' a statement said 'it is our fervent hope that with this response, coupled with the tireless efforts of our detectives, the women depicted in these images will be positively identified' in july, 57 year old lonnie david franklin jr was arrested and charged with 10 murders and one attempted murder dating to 1985, and los angeles police spent hundreds of hours sifting through thousands of photographs, polaroids and videotape found in franklin's house the bodies of victims, many working as prostitutes, were all found in close proximity to each other in a neighborhood formerly known as south central los angeles franklin, a mechanic who once worked for the lapd, was arrested in july after police say they matched his dna with dna left on some of the victims police were led to franklin after his 28 year old son got arrested and gave a dna swab, authorities said authorities said they narrowed the confiscated images down to 180 photographs at a news conference thursday attended by mayor antonio villaraigosa and police chief charlie beck, authorities said they had difficulty determining whether some of the women were alive or dead in the photos 'we cannot tell,' beck said 'obviously, as all of you can see, some of them are animated, and some are not it's impossible to tell by the photographs robbery homicide detective dennis kilcoyne said police have a responsibility to try to determine the whereabouts of the women 'these are clearly photos of women that mr franklin had contact with,' kilcoyne said 'we have a responsibility to identify these women they may be alive and well, but we need to be certain 'if there's nothing we glean from this, we are able to fill in the timeline of mr franklin's life, and that's one of our goals as well,' kilcoyne said he declined to talk about the context in which the women's images appeared 'the lifestyle or the situation that these women are in would defeat our plea with the public,' kilcoyne said police are not sure where the women in the images resided, because franklin's movements throughout his life are not yet ascertained, authorities said 'his travel habits are unknown to us,' kilcoyne said 'we believe he spent the majority of his life right here in the city of los angeles' | the first 24 hours grim sleeper | new: the public has identified five of more than 100 women depicted in photographs . new: authorities still need to confirm those claims . new: website posting the photos gets 10 million hits in the first 24 hours . photos were found in the home of the grim sleeper suspect |
(cnn) in recent weeks, a series of cnn articles have appeared purporting to get to the bottom of male infidelity 'men more likely to cheat on women with bigger paychecks,' one headline informs us; yet in the body of the article we are told that the opposite is true as well: 'a man who makes significantly more money than his girlfriend or wife is also more likely to cheat' it's a bit bewildering, keeping track of all the things that could cause a man to be unfaithful earn too much and he might cheat, but earn too little and he might cheat then, too association is not the same as causality, but news outlets have latched on to this anyway as the reason actress sandra bullock was betrayed; high and low earning ladies everywhere had better beware this article and others like it that surface in the media every so often amount to something of a cottage industry in the justification of male infidelity scratch the surface of any of them and you get a phenomenon of male entitlement that is oddly abetted by some women for example, if you thought that the man himself had anything to do with it, former 'sugarbabe' and mistress holly hill explains otherwise in an article that ran a few weeks ago: 'men are hardwired to betray women on the long term' in this view, man is but a victim of faulty 'wiring' although the wires evidently worked well enough to fund her 'sugarbabe' business but the real eye opener was psychologist christopher ryan's cnncom essay, 'monogamy unnatural for our sexy species' before reading this, i hadn't realized that i could have a 'central, respected role' as part of a 'harem of women' and that marriage was all a ruse to make the 'human female [into] just another possession for men to accumulate and defend, along with his house, slaves and asses' i have already notified my husband that i am onto him, and that he may no longer defend nor accumulate me for 'pair bonding' curiously, accumulating large numbers of other women poses no problem, according to ryan for on account of 'women's pendulous breasts' and the vast evolutionary forces that have produced them he suggests it's 'utterly natural' for men to cheat, or to exhibit 'nonpossessive, gregarious sexuality' we are, he points out, 'the most sexual species on earth' at first i was confused about why this sexuality can only be expressed via multiple partners, but then i got to the part about the 'bonobos [who] famously enjoy frequent group sex that leaves everyone relaxed and conflict free' and who, really, can argue with that? all i ask, as a woman, is for consistency when we turn to the bonobos to be our guides, let's not be quite so selective about the take home message let us try to examine every species more thoroughly for example: true, women have 'pendulous breasts,' but hey, men have pendulous ears, and what could those possibly be for? any serious evolutionary scholar can plainly see that the human male is designed to be listening to women at all times that's why their ears are larger ryan claims that, since the male organ is 'the longest [and] thickest,' we cannot deny the evidence that 'prehistoric promiscuity' is part of our primate inheritance yet this fascinating investigation is cut short if we continue traveling further upwards, we discover that a man's arms are also generally longer and thicker than a woman's from a strictly scientific standpoint, here we see a strong indication that a man is evolutionarily adapted to give out more back rubs than he gets sure, today an individual man can refuse a request for a massage, but when the next wave of natural selection works its magic, he may find that his massage phobic genes are out of the running once at the toronto zoo, my family witnessed a male orangutan picking nits off his baby's hair, while the female lolled about peacefully, grooming herself under a tree can there be any clearer precedent, from an evolutionary perspective, for men to scrape the dinner plates while women get manicures? another time on youtube, i saw a female gorilla munching on stinging nettles, even though they seemed to bother her it was a humbling, yet powerful directive for me to go shopping even though i couldn't really afford a new outfit ladies, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em it is time to stop arguing with evolutionary theorists when they use bonobo behavior to justify their own low standards why should men have a monopoly on the totally arbitrary selection of chimp behavior that renders their own predilections normative under the guise of scientific observation? i am picking up my pad of paper, i am ready to take notes and i am headed for the zoo do the gorillas speak to you, too? if they don't, simply write to let me know what behavior of yours you'd like to rationalize, and i am confident that working together as a scientific team, we can find a gorilla somewhere out there doing that very thing with a vengeance let's face it the new 'science' of infidelity is just not very scientific it certainly provides a convenient 'out' to deny personal responsibility, but anyone who buys this 'science' is missing out on the best parts of being human: the freedom that comes from self control and the intimacy that can only come with commitment the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of wendy shalit | wendy shalit third shalit | wendy shalit says recent articles spin evolutionary theories to justify infidelity . one says men more likely to cheat on breadwinner wives, but also on low earning wives . another claims men 'hardwired' to cheat, she says; a third says infidelity natural, as with apes . shalit: infidelity 'science' a convenient excuse; men's better selves have self control |
(cnn) in a picture posted on facebook, a man in a white shirt holds his daughter in his arms she holds an israeli flag the caption reads: 'iranians we will never bomb your country we ♥ you' a response on the same page: an iranian tells the story of being forced to walk over an israeli flag every day when entering his school years of being taught to hate the israeli flag had an effect, he says but 'after seeing your daughter holding the flag, i do not feel that way anymore, and i am so happy now: i love that blue, i love that star, i love that flag' the man in the white shirt is israeli graphic designer ronny edry with his wife, michal tamir, and their students at a small graphic design school, they've started an internet meme and slowly, but steadily, israelis are expressing their hopes for peace, and iranians are responding in kind while it's surprising and moving to see these unfamiliar images, it's also tempting to dismiss edry's project as the latest example of 'slacktivism,' activism that's as simple as a mouse click, with little or no effect in the real world after all, it's probably unrealistic to believe that invisible children's 'kony 2012' online campaign, viewed by more than one hundred million people on youtube, will bring a ugandan warlord to justice so it's at least as unrealistic to believe that israeli and iranian leaders, both playing to their political bases with threats of war, will be swayed by these images that casual dismissal may be too simple and too cynical one of the more unexpected outcomes of invisible children's campaign to bring joseph kony to justice was the response of ugandans via social media upset that the kony 2012 video misrepresented the situation in her country, ugandan blogger and journalist rosabell kagumire posted her own video to youtube and 500,000 views later, she found herself appearing on cnn, explaining the importance of focusing on the path toward stability in northern uganda and not on arresting a single warlord kagumire felt that invisible children didn't represent her voice and used social media to make herself heard edry, and the participants in israel ♥ iran, are making the point that their governments don't speak on their behalf when they threaten war through social media, they can challenge an official narrative and make clear that neither israel nor iran is a monolith it's worth noting that while most of the israeli images feature photos of people looking into the camera, few iranian images do one features a black and white photo of an iranian diplomat who rescued 4,000 french jews from the holocaust another showcases a jewish shrine in iran iranians know that expressing solidarity with israelis online could lead to harassment or arrest and are finding ways to reach out often making clear that their sympathies are with 'the israeli people' instead of the state of israel without putting themselves at undue risk will an effort like israel ♥ iran force either the netanyahu or ahmedinejad government to listen to the voices of dissenting citizens? no will it complicate the dialogue occurring in each country? perhaps it offers evidence that not all israeli citizens see iran as an implacable enemy, and it replaces the faces of leaders with the faces of ordinary people a path toward war for israel involves seeing ahmedinejad as a madman; a path toward peace starts with seeing israelis and iranians as real people what do movements such as israel ♥ iran mean for governments and their diplomats? it's harder to speak for a nation when citizens of that nation can demand publicly to speak for themselves corporations struggle to respond to customers who complain about poor service on their facebook pages and twitter feeds nonprofit organizations such as invisible children find themselves confronting online criticism from the people they claim to represent diplomats may find themselves one voice of many, complemented and contradicted by the voices of citizen diplomats such as edry and tamir expecting a series of images on the internet to change the path of the israeli iranian relationship is too much weight to put onto a simple gesture but it's a worthy hope, and israel ♥ iran is a sign of things to come the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of ethan zuckerman | ethan zuckerman israelis iran | ethan zuckerman: israelis' facebook page reaching out to iran drew big response . he says it's tempting to dismiss impact, but social media efforts produce unexpected outcomes . he says one effect is replacing faces of leaders in conflict with faces of ordinary human beings . zuckerman: social media lets citizens bypass leaders, speak for themselves |
(cnn) security forces under hamas rule have tortured gaza prisoners during the group's five years of rule, a new report said wednesday the human rights watch report also documents 'serious abuses' in gaza's criminal justice system, such as arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and unfair trials in the palestinian territory of gaza since the hamas political movement took control in 2007 'after five years of hamas rule in gaza, its criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees' rights, and grants impunity to abusive security services,' joe stork, deputy middle east director for human rights watch, said in an online posting wednesday 'hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that egyptians, syrians, and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end' read more: opinion: hamas at a crossroads in a bullet point statement on its website, hamas' interior ministry disputed the report's accuracy and called it biased and political titled 'abusive system: criminal justice in gaza,' the 43 page report said 'there is ample evidence that hamas security services are torturing people in custody with impunity and denying prisoners their rights' the group said hamas has executed at least three men 'convicted on the basis of 'confessions' apparently obtained under torture' human rights watch says the rivalry between the palestinian movements of hamas and of fatah, which prevails in the west bank, 'remains a significant factor' behind many of the alleged hamas detainee abuses the group said the fatah dominated palestinian authority 'arrests and detains palestinians arbitrarily, including hamas members or sympathizers, and similarly subjects detainees to torture and abuse' read more: can rival palestinian factions reach unity deal? human rights watch's findings are also consistent with increasing reports of abuse by security forces in gaza against detainees accused of nonpolitical crimes, including people accused of drug offenses and fraud some of the cases documented have been 'against people detained on suspicion of collaborating with israel or the palestinian authority in the west bank collaboration is a serious crime under palestinian law, but suspicion of collaboration does not justify torture or other abuse' abdel karim shrair, for example, was charged with collaborating with israel, the report said his family and lawyer said he was tortured but the group said military courts didn't 'adequately address shrair's claims of torture' last year, a firing squad executed shrair according to the report, 'his mother said that hamas authorities had prohibited the family from burying him, and that police beat her when she tried to hold his body during the interment' 'there is ample evidence that hamas security services are torturing people in custody with impunity and denying prisoners their rights,' stork said 'the gaza authorities should stop ignoring the abuse and ensure that the justice system respects palestinians' rights' islam shawran, a spokesman for hamas' interior ministry, said hamas gave human rights watch all of the information it requested, but was surprised that it wasn't taken into consideration and why, he asks, is the reporting about incidents from 2007 and 2008 now being released? 'it is obvious because it is a cover for the zionist occupation also this report did not discuss the basic human needs of the gaza people by discussing the israeli siege on the gaza strip and did not indicate to any of the violations committed by the israeli zionist enemy to our palestinian prisoners inside the israeli jails and prisons,' he said cnn's kareem khadder in jerusalem contributed to this report | intra palestinian human rights watch hamas | intra palestinian rivalry is a 'significant factor' behind abuses, report says . three executed men apparently confessed under torture, human rights watch says . hamas calls the report inaccurate, biased and political |
(cnn) fighting between kurdish rebels and government troops in southeastern turkey left more than two dozen dead tuesday, according to reports from officials and a news agency eight soldiers and 10 fighters from the kurdistan workers' party, or pkk, were killed when the rebels attacked a military station in the town of yuksekova, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the iranian border, according to a statement from the governor's office in hakkari province sixteen other soldiers were wounded in the attack, government officials said eight more rebels died in a counterattack by turkish forces, the semi official anatolia news agency reported turkey has been fighting the pkk since 1984 initially, the movement sought a separate homeland for turkey's ethnic kurdish minority but now, the rebels say they are instead fighting for more linguistic and cultural freedoms turkish women rally against plans to restrict access to abortion turkey, the united states and the european union have formally labeled the pkk a terrorist organization and turkish president abdullah gul had harsh words after the group's latest violence 'i condemn this treacherous attack,' he said 'the terrorist organization is still carrying out its inhumane and bloody acts in an effort to sabotage the atmosphere of trust and stability, and to weaken the strong determination to reinforce peace, reach a resolution, achieve the reign of peace and tranquility, and to put a stop to the pain and tears' this is not the first time a military outpost in the area has been targeted in 2007, 12 turkish soldiers were killed and eight were kidnapped in an attack on an outpost there recently, there has been movement on restarting a peace process, with the head of turkey's leading opposition party signaling his willingness to work toward a resolution with prime minister recep tayyip erdogan erdogan recently announced that students could elect to take kurdish language lessons under a new educational reform package leyla zana, a leading kurdish politician and a member of the opposition kurdish bdp, told turkish newspaper hurriyet last week that she hopes that erdogan will act to solve the kurdish issue, saying that 'he is powerful enough to do so' more than 40,000 people, mostly ethnic kurds, have been killed in the conflict what drives turkey's new syria stance? a fear of two kurdistans cnn's salma abdelaziz contributed to this report | kurdish the united states turkey the european union pkk turkish abdullah gul | new: the death toll rises to 26 in a military pkk clash, according to reports . a government office says kurdish rebels staged the attack . the united states, turkey and the european union consider the pkk a terrorist organization . 'i condemn this treacherous attack,' turkish president abdullah gul says |
san diego (cnn) the latest person to accuse san diego mayor bob filner of sexual harassment is a great grandmother peggy shannon, 67, who works at the senior citizens service desk in san diego city hall, allegedly faced 'continuous inappropriate sexual advances by the mayor while trying to do her job,' according to the office of her attorney, gloria allred shannon said the mayor kissed her and once asked 'me if i thought he could go eight hours in one night' 'every day that i went to work, i had butterflies in my stomach because i did not know what was going to happen the next time the mayor came by my desk,' shannon told reporters thursday 'i have three sons, four grandsons and two great grandsons as our mayor, you should be but are not a role model for any of them,' she said later, shannon spoke to cnn's 'piers morgan live,' and called for the mayor's resignation 'i can forgive anybody but he needs to step down,' she said 'people are surprised that as a great grandmother that this happened to me so it could happen to anybody else' shannon is the 16th woman to come forward with such allegations, according to cnn affiliate kfmb filner's office has not responded to multiple cnn requests for comment on the allegations as the list grows, city officials said thursday that filner might be booted from office later this month over a different, but related issue: money hooters blackballs san diego mayor 'inappropriate movement on my body' a local attorney became the 15th accuser against filner, speaking to kfmb this week kathryn vaughn told the station that after her husband walked away at a public event 10 years ago, filner 'made an inappropriate movement on my body' filner, 70, was elected mayor of the eighth largest american city in 2012, after 10 terms in congress his accusers range from a singer at a campaign fundraiser to his former communications director, who called him unfit for office he has rebuffed calls to resign from all nine city council members and from fellow democrats, including california's two us senators he now faces a recall effort that is trying to gather more than 100,000 signatures needed to put his future up to a new vote, though some political observers doubt organizers can succeed in july, filner acknowledged that he 'failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me' and that he was 'embarrassed' by his actions but he also said he would be vindicated by 'a full presentation of the facts' and he would not resign out of rehab, but locked out of office mayor could be booted over money now, investigators are also looking into possible financial impropriety including questionable charges at the westgate hotel, where filner allegedly took women the san diego's city attorney's office told cnn thursday that it had found the charges were inappropriate filner's attorney and the mayor's office did not respond to cnn's requests for comment thursday the city attorney's office said a rarely used section of the city charter, section 108, dating back to 1931, would allow for filner to be removed from office without a recall over unauthorized payments from the city treasury the city council plans to vote august 28 on whether to invoke that section if it does, it would then ask a court to boot filner from office did mayor filner target victims of military sexual assault? kevin faulconer, a republican who sits on the council's audit committee, raised questions about other charges as well he alleged that filner charged hundreds of dollars in personal expenses and threatened the city's credit by failing to pay the bill the mayor's city credit card was stopped in july, faulconer's office said 'mayor filner's continued abuse of power knows no bounds,' the councilman said in a statement 'based on this new evidence, i am broadening the scope of my audit committee hearing to investigate how mayor filner was able to circumvent credit card rules and how to prevent negative effects on the city's credit rating as a result of one person's misuse of taxpayer dollars' cnn's kyung lah and linda hall reported from san diego; cnn's josh levs reported from atlanta cnn's chuck johnston and matt smith contributed to this report | peggy shannon the senior citizens service desk city hall filner | new: 'i can forgive anybody but he needs to step down,' peggy shannon says . she works at the senior citizens service desk at city hall . 15 other women have previously come forward . filner has acknowledged failure 'to fully respect' some women, but says he'll be vindicated |
(cnn) the secrecy surrounding 'man of steel,' due june 14, is pretty extraordinary, but composer hans zimmer was able to give cnn a glimpse of what to expect when we caught up with him this week regarding the score he did for 'the bible' asked if the two projects had anything in common, since both involve a savior figure (jesus, kal el) sent by his father to earth, zimmer laughed and said, 'yes yes is the answer once you see superman, you'll see how close you are with your question' 'both stories are passions,' zimmer continued, 'about a struggle to do the right thing for superman, it was a really simple question for me what does it take to become a good man? to be good? and what does that mean in our more and more complex society? do any of these values still resonate with us?' zimmer said he came to this understanding about director zack snyder's take on superman (which reboots the series, instead of coming in at a later point a la 'superman returns') because he was questioning how he would score the film and not remind audiences of john williams' iconic fanfare theme 'look, that was daunting,' zimmer confessed 'seriously he's the greatest film composer out there, without a doubt, and it happens to be one of his iconic pieces of music, so i spent three months just procrastinating and not even getting a start on the thing, because i was so intimidated: 'oh my god, i'm following in john williams' footsteps'' his way around this, he said, was to look at the superman story in a 'very different way' 'i kept thinking of the story as, what if you are extraordinary, and your entire ambition is to join humanity? to become human? what does it mean to become human? what does it mean to be an outsider who really wants to join the human race?' 'man of steel,' which replaces brandon routh with henry cavill, is the origin story of superman, starting with a young clark kent discovering that he has extraordinary powers and is not from planet earth as he grows up, he learns where he came from and what he was sent to this planet to do, as he becomes a symbol of hope for humanity the film also stars russell crowe as jor el (kal el's birth father on krypton), diane lane and kevin costner as martha and jonathan kent (his adoptive parents), michael shannon as general zod (so expect some trouble there), laurence fishburne as daily planet editor perry white, and amy adams as reporter/love interest lois lane ('she's fun and sassy, in control, getting into trouble, and always looking for a headline!' adams enthused earlier) while it remains to be confirmed, the latest rumor is that mackenzie gray is playing lex luthor, although he doesn't appear in the trailer coming off three dark knight films directed by christopher nolan ('batman begins,' 'the dark knight,' and 'the dark knight rises'), zimmer also didn't want to do 'another really dark' superhero movie 'everything's tinged with irony and sarcasm and bitterness and darkness these days,' he said but this superman is something lighter, he said, 'celebrating everything that was good and fine about america,' such as small towns 'where people don't lock their doors, neighbors get together, and families are families' 'what was important for superman was the simple fact that none of us pay much attention to the midwest,' zimmer said 'i know america mainly by the big cities, but if you go into the midwest, there is a people there and there is a country there and i thought it was important that the decent folk, simple folk be the heart of the story, and a character who is guileless, who isn't complicated in the sort of flawed way our dark knight is, and isn't political in any way he's just striving to become a better part of humanity' this perspective on superman, the german born composer said, is something that he came by in part because he's a foreigner 'i think partly what we foreigners are good at is looking at america, not in a judgmental way, but wide eyed, and seeing the things you take for granted and presenting them in a new way,' he added 'like for 'thelma and louise' and the grand canyon, most american kids wouldn't want to go there for their holiday, but to us it's a magical, magnificent place' sonically, this treatment of america comes across via a grouping of pedal steel guitars (instead of the usual string section), banging titanium and steel sculptures, and organizing 'a who's who of drummers' in a 12 member drum circle, including jason bonham, sheila e and pharrell williams 'the great thing about superman is that everybody loves superman,' zimmer said with a laugh 'it's very easy making the call and saying, 'hey, can you come?' i remember phoning pharrell and him saying, 'i'm right in the middle of producing the beyonce album in miami' 'jason bonham's in miami, and he's getting on a plane!' next morning, there's pharrell, looking a little bleary eyed' as a producer on 'man of steel,' nolan, who also collaborated on the story, initially acted as a sounding board for some of zimmer's ideas ('getting rid of my demons,' as he put it) but soon stepped aside so he wouldn't be 'a mistress in the mix' between zimmer and director zack snyder, especially since zimmer's involvement in the whole project stemmed from a misunderstanding in the first place 'a journalist asked me (at an 'inception' party) if i was going to do superman, and i hadn't even heard of it, so i went, 'absolutely no way,'' zimmer said 'somehow in the noise of that party, that got misconstrued as 'absolutely hans is doing it' it was all over the internet that i was doing superman, and i'd never even met zack! so i phoned him up, 'i'm really sorry, this wasn't my doing, this is a misunderstanding' and he said, 'oh! it's great that you phoned maybe we should meet and talk'' so they did, and nolan urged zimmer to sign up 'i remember him going, 'of course you can do it what's the big deal? i did batman' and i said, 'excuse me, you went to warner bros with an idea of how you were going to do batman, and you're saying i'm supposed to do superman, but i don't have the idea in my head' i have to sneak up on it!' and with snyder, now he has | composer hans zimmer superman man of steel john williams' america | composer hans zimmer scored the upcoming superman movie, 'man of steel'. he says following in the footsteps of john williams' iconic fanfare theme was intimidating . he says the new music celebrates 'everything that was good and fine about america' |
jerusalem (cnn) the recent visit by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to washington primarily focused on iran's nuclear program a long way from previous meetings that had, more often than not, focused on israeli palestinian relations there is little talk about a peace process these days the arab awakening, as it's known in the region, was initially greeted with hope and optimism by palestinians but has since given way to diminished hopes for a negotiated two state solution for palestinians watching today's us israeli dynamic from the sidelines, their disappointment with us president barack obama following his speech on sunday to pro israel lobbying group aipac is palpable in that speech, obama reiterated us support for the jewish state as it faces of concerns about iran 'i have heard the comments among palestinians about whether president obama is president of israel or president of the united states i found his language during his aipac speech as demeaning and dangerous,' said veteran palestinian politician hanan ashrawi, before adding that the us president was, in her view, shielding israel in a personal way the continued building of israeli settlements in the west bank, combined with moribund us backed peace talks, has resulted in palestinian political strategy becoming about survival and dependence 'the palestinians have lost the initiative,' says dr mahdi abdul hadia, head of the palestinian academic society for the study of international affairs (passia), a palestinian research and analysis center in jerusalem 'for the first time palestinians are depending on external factors [to make progress]' to that end, they have been following several tracks: the recent jordanian sponsored talks with israel; reconciliation efforts sponsored by egypt between the palestinian political factions hamas and fatah; aid and reconstruction efforts by the gulf states; and focusing on iranian influence on hamas hanan ashrawi agreed: 'the palestinians cannot deliver freedom on our own and we are not going to go back to the armed struggle suddenly, but at the same time you want to maintain global support for palestinians and self determination and human rights' the arab spring has prompted hamas in gaza to change course too it has begun moving tentatively toward a more political form of islam 'hamas is for the first time is saying civil state, democratic state, pluralistic state and this is a revolution in their thinking,' said dr mahdi as a result and to the extreme annoyance of israel and the united states divisions between gaza based hamas, which is viewed as a terrorist organization by those countries, and the west bank based fatah are being papered over amid attempts to form a unity government 'it's difficult to say whether hamas and fatah can work together but if we set up a system where pluralism and differences of opinion can be expressed peacefully, they should be able to work together,' said dr ashrawi and in a significant break with syrian president bashar al assad, hamas in gaza recently announced support for the syrian people in their uprising in doing so, hamas distanced itself not only from syria, but from iran syria's staunch ally and hamas's key financial backer and more closely aligned itself with its ideological bedfellows in egypt, the muslim brotherhood a group that made major headway in egyptian elections following the revolution there regional changes may have given a new impetus to hamas and fatah on the reconciliation front, but as dr ashrawi puts it, recent meetings between the two groups in egypt show that while they are trying to work together, 'like all political parties self interest comes into play' in the absence of any progress towards either statehood or reconciliation, palestinian objectives have become primarily focused on the short term: buying time to prevent a total breakdown in communication and trying to prevent a breakout of violence among palestinians and with israelis | arab palestinians gaza hamas west bank fatah syria iran arab spring | 'arab awakening' initially greeted with hope and optimism by palestinians . gaza based hamas and west bank based fatah are trying to form a unity government. hamas has distanced itself from syria and by proxy, iran in wake of arab spring |
(cnn) thailand's new military ruler has added a personal touch to his junta's post coup charm offensive, penning the lyrics to a patriotic ballad vowing to 'return happiness' to the country performed by the royal thai army band, the song, 'return happiness to thailand,' has so far racked up more than 200,000 views on youtube since it was released on friday it is played regularly on thai radio and television and has featured at the military's goodwill concerts around the country colonel krisada sarika, head of the royal thai army band, was quoted in thai media as saying gen prayuth chan ocha had rattled off the lyrics, in his own handwriting, in about an hour the song includes the couplet: 'let us be the ones who step in before it is too late / to bring back love, how long will it take?' since the may 22 coup d'etat, the country's 12th in 82 years, thailand's junta has embarked on an unprecedented pr campaign to win hearts and minds in a divided country the national council for peace and order, as the regime calls itself, has held public festivals featuring mini skirted dancers, free haircuts, petting zoos and stands where the attendees can take 'selfies' with soldiers on sunday, the regime is promising free tickets to screenings of a patriotic movie across the country thitinan pongsudhirak, a political science professor at bangkok's chulalongkorn university, said the pr campaign was far more intense than those following previous coups 'earlier coups did not require as much pr campaigning because public expectations and media tools of scrutiny at home and abroad were less pervasive and powerful,' he said the campaign has been conducted under the banner of 'happiness' on friday, prayuth delivered the first of a planned weekly tv and radio broadcast, 'returning happiness to the people,' in which he repeatedly struck on the concept while outlining his junta's vision 'we need to solve many issues; from administration to the budget system, corruption, and even the starting point of democracy itself the election parliamentary dictatorship has to be removed all these have caused conflict and unhappiness among thai people,' he said, in comments questioning whether thailand was ready for democracy 'we intend to return happiness to everyone living in thailand' watch: thai protesters reference hunger games movies but the cheery overtures have been accompanied by an unrelenting crackdown on dissent, with hundreds of people rounded up, including academics, journalists, activists and politicians the junta has urged government officials to identify potential troublemakers among their colleagues, and issued warnings about liking dissenting posts on social media or flashing the three fingered anti coup salute co opted from the hunger games films pavin chachavalpongpun, a thai associate professor of southeast asian studies at kyoto university, described the happiness campaign as a 'gimmick,' and a 'very crude form of populism' that was unlikely to work 'i don't think the majority of thais will buy into this happiness project, because there is nothing to be happy about when your basic human rights have been taken away, when you cannot even express how you feel in public peacefully,' he said 'the reality is they're continuing to hunt down and harass people happiness versus a climate of fear it doesn't go together' thitinan said he believed the campaigning might help the regime, but only in the short term 'initially, the hearts and minds campaigns will seem to hold promise because of the complete dominance of the new regime and the lack of alternatives,' he said 'but it would be surprising if these superficial and manufactured approaches succeed in resolving such deep seated conflicts that have built up over many years' read more: miss universe thailand steps down over 'red shirts' slur | prayuth chan ocha thais youtube | gen prayuth chan ocha has penned the lyrics to a patriotic song . vowing to return happiness to thais, it has racked up hundreds of thousands of youtube views . the junta has engaged in an intense pr campaign on the theme of happiness to win over thais . but critics say it cannot succeed when the regime is relentlessly crushing dissent |
manila, philippines (cnn) bodies lie scattered in a rural field in the southern philippines, some unearthed from a shallow grave hastily dug by the gunmen who seized the group of men and women just a day earlier by tuesday, search teams had found a total of 46 bodies, and it was still unclear if there were more victims from monday's massacre the target was a group that included the female relatives of ismael 'toto' mangudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of maguindanao province in may mangudadatu said he had received threats which he believed were from allies of the incumbent governor andal ampatuan that he would be kidnapped if he filed the candidate papers himself instead, his wife, sister, and the group of journalists accompanying them were kidnapped and brutally killed, possibly tortured, raped and beheaded, according to local media reports a local police commander described the grisly search operation near an isolated village, telling reporters from abs cbn news that 17 bodies were pulled from a single grave 'they were piled on top of each other,' chief superintendent josefino cataluna said 'it looked as if they were buried hurriedly' those killed included at least 12 journalists, according to the press freedom organization, reporters without borders, making monday the deadliest single day for journalists anywhere in the world it was also the worst politically motivated violence in the philippines' recent history witnesses, local officials and analysts have blamed the attacks on ampatuan, who has controlled the area for a decade and is a long time ally of philippine president gloria macapagal arroyo ampatuan, who is known locally as a warlord, reportedly commands a private army of nearly 500 men philippine military officials also said monday that the gunmen who carried out the attack were loyal to ampatuan neither ampatuan nor any of his advisers has commented on the slaying allegations 'it's not hard to determine the motive,' according to philippine analyst kenneth e bauzon 'how dare this [mangudadatu] challenge him when he knows that the governor is a position that is presumably reserved for [the ampatuan] family' ampatuan reportedly wanted one of his sons to succeed him as governor of maguindanao when he stepped down next year, according to abs cbn a government construction vehicle was found at the site of the hastily dug mass grave, fueling the belief that ampatuan or his allies had a role in the massacre both the ampatuan and mangudadatu clans have agreed to participate in the government's investigation into the killings, according to arroyo's adviser on the mindanao region, jesus dureza, who spoke to the philippine media on tuesday neither ampatuan nor his advisers have spoken publicly about the widespread allegations, and that is most likely because he is 'weighing his options,' bauzon said now, the region is bracing for a backlash of possible reprisal killings the philippine government has placed maguindanao and its surrounding regions under a state of emergency and survivors of monday's massacre have entered a government witness protection program, according to the state run philippines news agency arroyo has sent top level government officials to maguindanao to 'personally oversee military action against the perpetrators of the dastardly acts,' she said tuesday 'no effort has been spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law,' she said long running family disputes in the southern philippines have spilled innocent blood before such blood feuds are known by the indigenous term, 'rido' but monday's massacre has broader implications, bauzon said 'i think that this is a culmination for many years of impunity on the part of any family or group for that matter because this has been tolerated by the arroyo administration,' said bauzon, a political science associate professor at saint joseph's college in new york, who is from mindanao and has authored several books on the region and its politics 'so when the administration looks the other way when journalists report on military abuses [or] when the administration looks the other way when church workers are assassinated, when environmental workers are assassinated or abducted, you know, this [massacre] is just one or two steps away [from that]' the killings could further damage the political reputation of arroyo, whose administration has already been scarred by allegations of a tainted election in 2004 and criticism over her response to the recent typhoons to strike the country 'it's a test as to what how far the arroyo administration will go to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators,' bauzon said arroyo's term ends in may 2010, and she cannot seek re election although there has been speculation that she could seek another political office maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly muslim mindanao which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent muslim homeland in the philippines, a predominantly christian country negotiations between one of those armed groups, the moro islamic liberation front, and the philippine government broke down last year after the country's supreme court blocked a proposed peace deal that would have increased the size and scope of the autonomous region in muslim mindanao arroyo's government exercises little control in the region and is blamed by her critics for helping legitimize many of the armed groups that operate freely in mindanao, including those loyal to the governor, ampatuan arroyo issued an executive order in july 2006 that allowed local officials and philippine national police to deputize volunteer watchmen, known as barangay tanods, to fight against insurgent groups in the southern regions this order has been blamed for allowing local politicians to convert their private militias into legal security forces the strong clan rivalries and the armed groups that support each clan may make it impossible for arroyo to rout out those behind monday's mass killing, according to bauzon 'the dynasty is strongly entrenched and for her to disband private armies by this warlord overnight is too much of a task,' he said 'the americans were not able to do it in half a century and all she can do is set her sights low by really going after the most visible of the perpetrators' cnn's tricia escobedo and journalist maria ressa contributed to this report | philippines mangudadatu | new: burial looked hurried, local police chief superintendent says . new: massacre was worst politically motivated violence in philippines' recent history . death toll from massacre rises to 46, a day after the brutal attack . mangudadatu says he had received threats if he filed the candidate papers himself |
(cnn) world no 2 adam scott continued his standout 2013 season by carding a record breaking final round to win the pga grand slam of golf in bermuda the australian finished two shots ahead of us open champion justin rose at the tournament which pits the year's four major winners against each other over two rounds masters champion scott shot a course record seven under par closing round of 64 to clinch victory, with an eagle at the par five 17th hole enough to see him edge out world no 5 rose 'it's been fun, but a trying couple of days here really, especially today,' scott told the pga's website 'it felt like a long round out there, and standing on the 11th tee, it didn't look like a score like that was going to be possible, but i played very well and managed to slowly claw away at justin' pga championship winner jason dufner finished on three under at the end of a rain affected day two, six strokes ahead of defending champion padraig harrington on three over 'a little bit of a slow start today to go with a poor finish yesterday kind of put me behind it,' explained dufner 'when the sun came out and the rain went away, i played a little bit better but, i just didn't get a good start, and trying to catch a guy when you're making bogeys, and they are grinding it out, is difficult' irishman harrington took the place of british open winner phil mickelson, who withdrew from the event due to a scheduling conflict meanwhile the pga of america is reportedly considering staging the pga championship, the year's fourth and final major, outside of the us a commission is said to be investing the effects of staging the tournament, which was held at oak hill country club in new york this year, on foreign soil 'we need to push ourselves to think outside the box,' the organization's chief executive officer pete bevacqua was quoted as saying by golf digest magazine 'what i have said internally is, 'shame on us if we don't consider it and go through the exercise'' the 2019 tournament was recently awarded to the bethpage black golf course, meaning the earliest the tournament could be staged outside of america would be 2020 | adam scott year world no scott us open justin rose golf digest | adam scott wins the pga grand slam of golf . the tournament pits the year's four major winners against each other . world no 2 scott beat of competition from us open champion justin rose . golf digest reports the pga of america considering a foreign pga championship |
(cnn) the transportation security administration fired 28 of its employees in addition to three who resigned or retired following a probe that revealed bags were allowed onto planes at hawaii's honolulu international airport without being properly screened, the agency said sunday another 15 people were suspended, the tsa reported in a statement the moves come after the agency 'completed the adjudication process' it had announced in june, months after the allegations first surfaced all those terminated or suspended 'have the right to appeal the decision,' according to the tsa the firing is believed to be one of, if not the biggest, such action in the agency's history, with officials previously stating that it underscores they will not tolerate employees who compromise security in march, honolulu's kitv 4 news reported that tsa officers assigned to a morning shift regularly allowed checked bags to be loaded onto flights on nine daily departures without being screened for explosives sources told the tv station that such lapses occurred for as long as four months and involved thousands of checked bags cnn confirmed the investigation tsa officers are required to screen 100% of all checked bags before they are stored in the cargo holds of passenger aircraft in june, agency officials said they did not know exactly how many bags were allowed onto flights without being inspected but said the lapse took place during the last four months of 2010 the tsa said after it became aware of the problem, it took steps to ensure that every bag is properly screened at the airport a tsa official said in june that in addition to rank and file screeners and some supervisors, the airport's federal security director and assistant federal security director for screening had also received letters proposing that they lose their jobs 'tsa holds its workforce to the highest ethical standards, and we will not tolerate employees who in any way compromise the security of the traveling public,' tsa administrator john pistole said then in a statement the tsa said it uses closed circuit tv, random inspections, covert tests and peer and management oversight to check on the integrity of the system | tsa hawaii | besides those fired, three people under investigation resigned or retired, the tsa said . another 15 agency employees were suspended; all affected can appeal the decision . in march, a hawaii tv station reported that unchecked bags regularly got on planes . the tsa said these security lapses took place during the last four months of 2010 |
(cnn) barely two days ago, their paths crossed in the worst possible circumstances a man armed with an assault rifle had entered antoinette tuff's school, and she called police on thursday, tuff and kendra mccray, the 911 dispatcher on the other end of that line, were together again, sharing an emotional hug and tears before sitting down to recount the episode with cnn's anderson cooper 'we made it!' tuff joyfully declared, with mccray responding, 'we did' the atmosphere for the reunion was starkly different than their original encounter as voices on opposite ends of a telephone line that happened at 12:51 pm tuesday when, according to dekalb county, georgia, police department spokeswoman mekka parrish, authorities got their first call about a shooting at the ronald e mcnair discovery learning academy in decatur, just outside atlanta shortly before that, the gunman had slipped into the school and gone into its main office, where he shot one round into the ground 'i knew then that it was for real,' recalled tuff, who was in there with him 'and that i could lose my life' it was then that tuff, bookkeeper in that school's front office, dialed 911 but she wasn't the only person that could be heard a few miles away at police dispatch at times, there was the voice of the suspect, later identified as michael brandon hill, in the background the gunman used tuff as a conduit to relay information to police, which in this case meant mccray, who took tuff's call at the dispatch center in their voices, both women sounded calm throughout the call even as gunshots were ringing out around tuff, and later when the suspect reached into a bag to reload his ak 47 type assault rifle but inside, they now admit, they were terrified mccray recalled thursday how her hands were shaking, though she knew that she couldn't reveal her fears in her voice and tuff said she was trying to incorporate the lessons she'd learned in church to stay strong for herself, the 800 plus elementary school students in the classrooms behind her and for the gunman whom she came to feel for 'i was actually praying on the inside,' she recalled 'i was terrified, but i just started praying' antoinette tuff hailed a hero early in the call, tuff was blunt in what amounted to a vital assessment of the situation: 'he doesn't want the kids he wants the police so back off,' she told mccray in the next breath, tuff asked him, 'and what else sir?' the suspect darted from the office to outside a few times, becoming particularly 'agitated' in tuff's words when police fired back with bullets 'coming from everywhere' 'and i said to him, come back in here right now,' said the school bookkeeper, who admitted she had to go 'to the bathroom so bad' the entire ordeal ' don't worry about it, stay with me, we're both going to be safe,' she told the man the scariest moment, tuff said, came when after having fired shots, several times, at police positioned outside the suspect went into his bag, reloaded his gun and packed his pants and jacket pockets with yet more bullets 'i knew when he made the last call that he was going to go,' she recalled on cnn 'because he had loaded up to go' but the tone changed over the next few frenetic minutes, much like what was happening at the school in the beginning, the gunman appeared 'like he didn't care,' giving the impression that he'd come 'in purposely knowing that he was going to die and take lives with him,' said tuff but his language, and actions, softened and so did tuff's feelings for him 'i really began to feel sorry for him,' she told cooper, adding that the suspect told her he was off his medication and considering suicide 'i knew that where he was at mentally was not a good place but i knew that he was there, for whatever particular reason, in life' the man with the rifle eventually let it be known, via tuff, that he was no longer threatening to shoot any police officers who approached; by then, he was communicating with them about where he should put his gun, where he should get down on the ground in surrender, and how police would come and get him as all of this unfolded, the dispatcher talking to tuff largely remained silent except a few brief acknowledgments about what she'd heard and the constant clatter of her keyboard in her heart and behind the scenes, though, mccray was sweating it out thankfully, she had a 'true hero' partner in tuff who, with her clear descriptions and calm demeanor, made it so the call taker and thus police could very easily 'visualize what she was seeing and what she was going through' even to the end, emotions ran high the suspect started getting 'agitated' after he'd decided to surrender, standing back up and taking a drink of water because police had yet to come and get him recognizing what was happening, mccray said she put her phone on mute 'i'm hollering across the (dispatch) room: 'hey, he's getting agitated, we need to move'' they did get inside the decatur school in a flurry soon thereafter, surrounding and detaining hill that was then, finally, both tuff and mccray could breathe a sigh of relief 'you did great,' mccray said to tuff 31 long minutes after that first call came in 'you did great' hill, meanwhile, was swiftly taken away by law enforcement officers and now sits in a georgia jail awaiting charges that likely will include aggravated assault on a police officer, making terroristic threats and false imprisonment, according to authorities tuff would like to visit him, calling him a 'hurting soul' who she'd like to help 'we all go through something,' she said, with her 911 call reflecting on her challenges raising a disabled child and suicidal thoughts after the end of her marriage after more than two decades 'and i believe that god gives us a purpose in life' and tuff believes she was meant to be at mcnair on tuesday, even though she'd originally been scheduled to be off she thinks she was meant to be up front to first encounter the gunman in that location at that time because she'd been delayed from going back to her desk she said it was all part of god's plan for her, for the suspect and for mcnair's students but that doesn't mean tuff knew she had it in her, to face down a gunman and potential death so calmly, and to live to tell about it 'no, no if somebody would have told me that i was going to be doing that that day, i wouldn't have believed it,' she told cnn 'god has a way of showing you what's really in you' watch anderson cooper 360° weeknights 10pm et for the latest from ac360° click here | ghazism cloudlets matelass | no related information |
(cnn) new jersey sen robert menendez felt sick after reading it the white house says it is 'irrelevant' to russia's proposal for syria to hand over chemical weapons certainly, russian president vladimir putin's direct appeal to the american people over the syria crisis has prompted a flurry of commentary in response but do his claims stack up? we take a look at some of the most contentious claims in putin's new york times opinion piece from the outset, russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future not exactly russia has continued to supply the al assad regime with military hardware including attack helicopters, air defense systems, and military advisers no one doubts that poison gas was used in syria but there is every reason to believe it was used not by the syrian army but by opposition forces to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists not according to the us, britain and others who claim the evidence is clear that bashar al assad's forces were behind the attack 'we assess that the scenario in which the opposition executed the attack on august 21 is highly unlikely,' a white house statement said 'the body of information used to make this assessment includes intelligence pertaining to the regime's preparations for this attack and its means of delivery, multiple streams of intelligence about the attack itself and its effect, our post attack observations, and the differences between the capabilities of the regime and the opposition' britain agrees, with prime minister david cameron saying last week that there was 'further' evidence that al assad's forces used chemical weapons, after research by the uk military laboratories in porton down suggested that traces of sarin gas in the soil and on clothing taken from a patient who was treated near an alleged attack were unlikely to have been faked millions around the world increasingly see america not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force putin's condemnation of brute force sits uneasily with moscow's own track record of force during a conflict with chechen separatists that claimed tens of thousands of lives, many of them civilians in 1999, putin took to the new york times opinion page to defend russian action in chechnya, arguing that 'decisive armed intervention was the only way to prevent further casualties both within and far outside the borders of chechnya' and georgians won't have forgotten russia's invasion of their country five years ago last month, when putin served as prime minister my working and personal relationship with president obama is marked by growing trust remember edward snowden? obama took office pledging a 'reset' in ties with moscow but the famously awkward body language at the g8 summit in june was for many a sign of how that has gone that was even before the former nsa contractor was granted asylum in russia, despite american requests that he be extradited and back in 2011, putin accused obama's then secretary of state, hillary clinton, of encouraging opposition protests after parliamentary elections that december time for another reset? we are all different, but when we ask for the lord's blessings, we must not forget that god created us equal russia's gay community might not be feeling very equal right now a vaguely worded anti gay propaganda law was passed overwhelmingly in parliament this year and signed into law by putin the law bans public discussion of gay rights and relationships anywhere children might hear it those found in breach of it can be fined, or deported if they are foreigners it is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation so 'unique' is ok, then? the financial times reported last year on a strategy document produced by a kremlin commission that argued, 'thanks to the unifying role of the russian people a unique sociocultural civilisational community on the historical territory of the russian state has formed: the multinational russian nation' | russian american new york times syrian us britain al assad russia | russian president makes appeal to american people in new york times . he says poison gas was probably used by opposition, not syrian army . but us, britain say evidence is clear that al assad forces were behind attack . russia has itself referred to uniqueness of the russian nation |
(cnn) a colorado prosecutor friday asked a judge to dismiss the first degree murder charge against tim masters, who spent nine years in prison until new dna evidence indicated someone else might have committed the crime tim masters, center, walks out of a fort collins, colorado, courthouse tuesday with his attorney david wymore court papers filed by district attorney larry abrahamson cited 'newly discovered' evidence, but took pains to state that evidence didn't clear masters 'while the newly discovered dna evidence does not exonerate timothy masters, it clearly warrants a complete re examination of all the evidence related to the murder of peggy hettrick,' the court papers state the motion seeks dismissal of the charges 'in the interest of justice' it points out the dna testing used to uncover the new evidence wasn't available when masters was investigated and tried on tuesday a judge threw out masters' 1999 murder conviction, and he was freed also 'in the interest of justice' although the motion signals that abrahamson is dropping the masters case, he did not rule out future prosecution in a statement, the prosecutor cautioned: 'contrary to news reports, the dna testing results only suggest that there may be others, along with timothy masters, who should be investigated these test results do not provide us with enough information to completely exonerate anyone' abrahamson said he has asked colorado attorney general john suthers to appoint a special prosecutor to continue the investigation of hettrick's slaying the attorney general will announce his decision early next week, abrahamson said masters, 36, has been investigated for hettrick's murder since he was 15 he has insisted he had nothing to do with her death, and no physical evidence ties him directly to the crime watch masters describe his anger at police » a jury convicted masters 12 years after the discovery of hettrick's stabbed and sexually mutilated corpse in a field near his trailer among the evidence jurors considered were a collection of knives found in master's bedroom, gruesome sketches and testimony from a prosecution expert that he fit the psychological profile of a killer masters' defense team said he was framed, and that police and prosecutors sat on evidence that could have raised doubt about his guilt the significance of friday's motion to dismiss is largely procedural, but abrahamson indicated earlier this week that it might be unnecessary to try masters again 'in light of newly discovered evidence revealed to me on friday,' abrahamson said in a statement a week ago, 'i will be moving as expeditiously as possible to make the determination of whether all charges against timothy masters will be dismissed' abrahamson also has vowed to review all 'contested convictions' in which advances in dna testing may prove useful he said he wanted to examine the legal discovery process and that he had met with the fort collins police chief and his officers 'to discuss the critical flow of information with assurance that all information is available to our office and the defense' special prosecutor don quick filed a motion earlier this month citing four instances in which police and prosecutors should have handed over evidence to masters' original defense team see the key players in the case » among them was a police interview with a plastic surgeon who said it was improbable that a teen could have made the meticulous cuts necessary to remove hettrick's body parts also, according to quick's motion, police failed to divulge that a renowned fbi profiler warned police that masters' penchant for doodling gruesome horror scenes did not tie him to the crime investigations into how police and prosecutors handled the case continue e mail to a friend | ungilled reagreement liverish | no related information |
(cnn) the announced pregnancy of jamie lynn spears the 16 year old children's television star and younger sister of beleaguered pop star britney spears is casting new light on how states deal with the thorny issue of consensual sex among teens jamie lynn spears, shown in september, stars in the popular nickelodeon series 'zoey 101' spears, the star of nickelodeon's 'zoey 101,' told ok! magazine that she's pregnant and that the father is her 18 year old boyfriend there has been no public talk of criminal prosecution in the case consensual sex between the two may well have been legal, depending on where and when it took place but critics of the nation's statutory rape laws say that laws that are ignored in some cases can be used to put other teens in prison and land them on sex offender registries watch cnn's sunny hostin on what the law says » 'you have a disturbing disparity in how these laws are enforced,' said jonathan turley, a law professor at george washington university 'i have no problem at all with nailing adults who sleep with children, but i have a problem with the prosecution of teenagers in consensual relationships 'what this case should focus the nation on is having a more evenhanded approach to these cases' watch a psychologist talk about how spears' pregnancy could lead to parents talking to their kids about sex » in louisiana, where spears lives, it is a misdemeanor for someone age 17 to 19 to have consensual sex with someone age 15 to 17 if the difference between their ages is more than two years in california, where she sometimes tapes her television show, it's a misdemeanor to have sex with someone younger than 18 if the offender is less than three years older someone more than three years older could be charged with a felony according to ok! magazine, which first reported the news tuesday, spears said the father of her baby is longtime boyfriend casey aldridge turley said most states have similar laws but rely on prosecutors to be selective in enforcing them but that's a recipe for legal problems, he said the issue drew international attention when a georgia teen was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15 year old girl when he was 17 in 2005, genarlow wilson was tried for the rape of a 17 year old girl at a hotel room party while he was found not guilty of that charge, he was convicted of aggravated child molestation for the act with the 15 year old even though he was less than two years older georgia law, which has since been changed, required a mandatory 10 year sentence on the charge of aggravated child molestation and required wilson to register as a sex offender when he was released under the revised georgia law, the act now would be a misdemeanor now 21, wilson was released from prison in october after serving more than two years when the state supreme court ruled his sentence was 'grossly disproportionate to his crime' 'the current laws leave too much to prosecutorial discretion,' turley said 'we saw in the wilson case how prosecutorial discretion can lead to grotesque results' he said statutory rape prosecutions of teens are more common in southern states and small towns than they are elsewhere in the country or in big cities bj bernstein, wilson's attorney, argued throughout his case that wilson was imprisoned for an act that, while perhaps morally questionable, probably is going on among teens everywhere 'if you prosecuted, even with misdemeanors, all those cases, you'd clog up the justice system with kids having sex,' she said 'it's a social issue and it may be something that parents don't want to happen or wish wouldn't happen at that age but it shouldn't be a crime' spears, who turned 16 on april 4 and says she is 12 weeks into her pregnancy, told the magazine she plans to raise her child in louisiana, 'so it can have a normal family life' nickelodeon released a statement saying the network respects spears' decision 'to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation' e mail to a friend | jamie lynn spears 16 | experts say there is a disparity in how statutory rape laws are applied . jamie lynn spears is 16, and her boyfriend the father of her child is 18 . there has been no talk of criminal prosecution involving the couple . experts: attorneys choose when to prosecute, leading to unfairness |
new delhi, india police covered up the murder of a british teenage girl in goa last month to protect the tourist industry, a state minister and local media said monday scarlett keeling stands on anjuna beach in goa a few days before her death officers had initially said scarlett keeling had drowned on anjuna beach after taking drugs, but changed their story when the 15 year old's mother protested and a second autopsy suggested she had been raped and murdered a suspect in the case was arrested sunday but fiona mackeown said she did not believe he was the man who killed her daughter 'this is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up,' francisco x pacheco, goa's tourism minister told reuterscom indian media suggested the cover up was an attempt to protect goa's tourism industry 'they should have arrested this man a long time ago and this issue would have got diluted, but now because of the tainted image of some police officers in the case, things have gone out of hand,' pacheco said police said they were investigating allegations of a cover up and the actions of junior officers 'there are certain things under my scrutiny and i have taken cognizance of all these issues, specially these officers,' kishan kumar, a senior police officer overseeing the probe told reuters keeling's mother said she also believed police were trying to cover up the truth behind her daughter's murder, and that they had arrested samson d'souza, 29, to make it look like they were making progress in the case 'we've had an awful lot of contact with people that have been in this situation before, and they've warned us to be careful (that) the police will try and find someone immediately to try and put a front on it that they're actually doing something,' fiona mackeown told bbc radio on monday kumar described d'souza as a 'local anjuna boy' who was a bartender at liu's, a beachfront bar he said police had confirmed d'souza's role in keeling's rape and were now trying to find evidence that he killed the teenager 'we have sufficient evidence to show that he was involved in rape,' kumar told cnn 'so far as murder is concerned, we are investigating further' scarlett and her family arrived in november for an extended vacation in goa, known for its white sandy beaches and dance music scene beachfront shacks house the bars that fuel the nightlife mackeown said scarlett was left in the care of a trusted male friend and his aunts while the rest of the family traveled to an adjoining indian state, but she told the bbc that she has had no contact with the family since her daughter's death the mother said monday she sent a letter to goa's chief minister asking for india's central bureau of investigation to look into the case goa is popular with western tourists but several tourists have died from drug overdoses in recent years while women have been attacked and sexually assaulted the times of india said 126 foreigners have died in goa over the last two years and in january this year a 30 year old british woman was raped e mail to a friend cnn's tess eastment contributed to this report | indian uk goa scarlett keeling | indian police covered up murder of uk girl in goa, state's tourism minister said . police arrest one man over the death of the 15 year old . mother of scarlett keeling says she thinks police have arrested wrong man |
(cnn) a mine exploded monday on a road in southern somalia, killing four people three members of the medical humanitarian group medecins sans frontieres and a journalist ongoing violence in somalia has devastated the capital mogadishu the incident occurred monday along a road in kismayo, the group said victor okumu, 51, a kenyan doctor; damien lehalle, 27, a french logistician; and a somali driver named billan were the msf workers who were killed another member of the team was slightly wounded, the group said in a posting on its web site 'the exact circumstances of this fatal incident are not yet clear,' the posting said also killed was journalist hassan kafi hared, 36 the remote controlled mine erupted as he was walking to a news conference in siyad village in northern kismayu, said the national union of somali journalists (nusoj) he was working for the government run somali national news agency and a somali web site called gedonetcom he is survived by a wife and three children 'this is a targeted attack and we declare that this brutal killing on the journalist and the aid workers is an attack on the society itself,' said nusoj secretary general omar faruk osman, in a news release 'we demand that transitional government and the authorities in kismayu to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice' he said the medical humanitarian organization said it was evacuating remaining international members of it staff from kismayu hared is the second journalist to be killed this year, according to the committee to protect journalists the first, 38 year old norwegian reporter carsten thomassen, died jan 15 in a suicide bomb attack in kabul in a written statement, a representative of un secretary general ban ki moon said he condemned the killings and 'demands a thorough investigation by the authorities' e mail to a friend | somalia somali second this year | journalist and two doctors were among those killed . remote controlled mine went off in southern somalia . somali driver also died in the attack . journalist is the second to die in conflict situation this year |
Subsets and Splits