text
stringlengths 102
11.9k
| query
stringlengths 2
806
| summary
stringlengths 22
3.99k
|
|---|---|---|
(cnn) thanks to the age old art of bartering, a california teenager became the envy of all his friends when he pulled into school in a porsche convertible steven ortiz, 17, dreamed of one day owning a luxury sports car a dream that became reality after he posted a used cell phone on craigslist 'my friend gave me a free phone and said, 'do what you want with it,'' ortiz told cnn's 'american morning' thursday 'so i put it on craigslist on the barter section' after some serious patience, research and a lot of talking, his cell phone trade landed him an ipod touch, which he managed to barter up for a dirt bike and then to a macbook pro laptop computer before long, he was the proud owner of an 1987 toyota 4runner eventually, he landed a classic ford bronco suv the golden ticket that would soon get him into the driver seat of a luxury sports car 'i just went for it,' he said 'i knew the bronco was worth more at the end' so what's his secret? 'it's trying to catch people who want what you have,' ortiz said 'the man that needed the laptop had an extra car,' so both parties got what they wanted, he added he advises anyone looking to get into the barter game to be cautious before committing to a trade 'always inspect everything,' ortiz said although he accomplished his goal of owning a porsche, ortiz says it's time to move on and he plans on going back to what he does best bartering for something else 'i don't have a job right now and i really don't like asking my parents if i can get an oil change, so i want to trade [the porsche] for a mid sized truck,' ortiz said 'we'll see what comes along' | steve ortiz craigslist ortiz ipod porsche cnn american morning | steve ortiz posted a used cell phone on craigslist under the barter section . ortiz bartered up cell for ipod touch, computer, dirt bike, suv and then a porsche . he says anyone can do it, but warns it takes patience and a lot of research . 'it's trying to catch people who want what you have,' ortiz told cnn's 'american morning' |
los angeles (cnn) the co author of a study on propofol addiction funded by aeg live and used in their defense in the michael jackson wrongful death trial lost his medical license for writing illegal drug prescriptions, according to testimony dr torin finver was hired to help with the aeg live study after he lost his job at a pizza parlor and took a job driving a goodwill truck, said dr paul earley, who testified wednesday as an expert witness for the concert promoter finver was 'destitute, dead broke, and i wanted to help him,' earley, himself a recovering heroin addict, testified the revelation was a bizarre twist in the trial of the billion dollar lawsuit filed by jackson's mother and three children, which is being heard by a los angeles jury the four month long trial is nearing a conclusion aeg live lawyers will announce if they have any more witnesses to call before playing the video depositions of three more doctors on friday jackson lawyers would then take several days to call rebuttal witnesses before closing arguments are heard, which is likely to happened around september 23 earley testified that he never disclosed to aeg live lawyers that his co author had lost his medical license ironically, the company is being accused of the negligent hiring of dr conrad murray, convicted in jackson's death because it allegedly failed to check murray's background before hiring him jackson lawyer kevin boyle also grilled earley over his nondisclosure that he was working as a paid consultant in aeg live's defense when he submitted the study for publication in a medical journal he said the concert promoter did not try to influence his findings, which were published in march in the journal of addiction medicine nurse details michael jackson's fatal search for sleep jackson lawyers are hoping the controversy over earley's work for aeg live will distract jurors from his conclusion that michael jackson was a drug addict with a 'grave prognosis' that would have shortened his life had he not died of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol on june 25, 2009 each dose of an anesthetic his doctor gave him to help him sleep was like playing 'russian roulette,' earley said murray told investigators he gave jackson infusions of propofol for 60 nights to treat his insomnia as the entertainer prepared for his comeback concerts lawyers for the concert promoter hired earley in their effort to downplay damages the company might have to pay if found liable in the pop icon's death how much longer jackson might have lived and earned money touring will be important if the jury decides aeg live is liable for damages in jackson's death jackson lawyers contend he would have earned more than $15 billion touring the world over the next several years katherine jackson and her three grandchildren sued michael jackson's last concert promoter, contending the company is liable in his death because it hired, retained or supervised the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter aeg live lawyers contend it was jackson, not the promoter, who chose and controlled murray, and say aeg executives had no way of knowing about the dangerous treatments the doctor was giving jackson in the privacy of his bedroom jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy' earley: jackson went 'doctor shopping' despite writing a blog six weeks after jackson's death titled 'michael jackson: addiction in the privileged,' earley testified tuesday that there 'was insufficient evidence that he was addicted to propofol' 'he was given propofol initially for appropriate medical procedures, but at some point, he began seeking out physicians who would administer propofol to him,' earley testified the last two instances of 'doctor shopping' for propofol were late march and april of 2009, when jackson asked an anesthesiologist to go on tour with him and then asked a nurse to help him find an anesthesiologist, he said earley said there was no evidence jackson's search for a doctor to give him propofol continued after aeg live co ceo paul gongaware sent an e mail to the singer's assistant on may 6, 2009, telling him murray had agreed to take the job as his personal physician for the 'this is it' tour 'done at $150k a month,' gongaware wrote 'sounds like he got it,' earley testified the jackson family's lawyers contend that aeg live executives ignored warning signs that jackson's health began deteriorating after murray began attending to him on a daily basis show workers sent e mails describing a paranoid and frail jackson who couldn't perform his standard dances or remember words to songs he had sung for decades a harvard medical school sleep expert, testifying in june for the jacksons, concluded that the 60 nights of propofol infusions apparently robbed jackson of rapid eye movement sleep, which is vital to keep the brain and body alive 'the symptoms that mr jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period,' dr charles czeisler testified aeg expert: jackson was a drug addict expert's conflict? soon after aeg live's lawyers hired earley as a consultant on propofol addiction in 2011, they agreed to fund his scientific research, which resulted in his paper titled 'addiction to propofol: a study of 22 treatment cases' the american society of addiction medicine published the study in march earley insisted in his testimony that aeg live's funding did not influence the conclusions of his study or his testimony in the trial but the jackson lawyer hammered the doctor about the lack of disclosure to the scientific journal and his collaborator that he was being paid to be an expert witness in the trial he informed them that he was doing research for the company, but the trial aspect was 'irrelevant,' earley said 'it's irrelevant to health care professionals,' he said 'it wouldn't affect their understanding of the paper' | aeg live four months | new: co author of aeg live propofol study was hired after losing pizza parlor job . new: study co author was 'destitute, dead broke,' aeg live expert testifies . aeg live funded the expert's propofol research paper . the wrongful death case is nearing an end after four months |
(cnn) game show host and comedian howie mandel's irregular heartbeat scare is over, his publicist said tuesday howie mandel had an irregular heartbeat, but he did not have a heart attack, his publicist said 'howie has been released from the hospital and will be back at work tomorrow,' said lewis kay 'he appreciates everyone's concern' mandel, 53, checked into a toronto hospital monday so doctors could monitor his condition, kay said he was in toronto, filming segments for a new show 'howie do it' the hour long prank show debuted on nbc friday mandel is the host of the american version of the game show 'deal or no deal,' which has brought huge ratings for nbc | godroons smyrnaite disaproned | no related information |
(cnn) manchester united defender patrice evra has been ruled out for a minimum of three weeks after suffering a foot injury during the 3 0 premier league win over title rivals chelsea france defender patrice evra will be out for a minimum of three weeks after hurting ankle ligaments it was evra's first game back after a four match suspension imposed by the football association for his involvement in a post match fracas involving groundstaff at stamford bridge last season the french left back was hurt after firing over a cross for wayne rooney's goal and now faces another spell on the sidelines as united chase trophies on four fronts evra suffered ligament damage and manager alex ferguson said: 'he will be out for three weeks minimum and maybe four it shouldn't be any more than that 'he just went over on his foot and has done the little ligament in his foot, so we need to get the swelling down and that will take about 7 10 days' evra sits out wednesday's premier league clash with wigan, the trip to bolton three days later and next week's league cup semifinal return at home to derby when united will be expecting to overturn a 1 0 deficit central defender rio ferdinand remains on the sidelines for at least another week although a scan on his back problem confirmed there is no long term damage ferdinand, out for a month, needs more rest and jonny evans will continue in central defense with wes brown still two weeks away from a comeback after ankle surgery ferguson hopes ferdinand will be back for the televised fa cup fourth round home clash against tottenham on saturday january 24 | manchester utd patrice evra frenchman chelsea england rio ferdinand | manchester utd defender patrice evra sidelined for minimum of three weeks . frenchman hurt ankle ligaments during 3 0 premier league win over chelsea . england defender rio ferdinand is out for another week with a back problem |
(cnn) this month, a federal judge allowed north carolina to put into effect new laws that would make it more difficult to vote most of the american public didn't notice the republicans pushing to restrict voting rights nationwide are betting on such inattention emboldened by a recent supreme court case limiting the reach of the 1965 voting rights act, gop legislators have moved swiftly in numerous states to cut early voting and same day registration, and to require id cards at the ballot box democrats claim these measures will discourage young and nonwhite voters from voting, who tend to vote more often for democrats gop legislators insist they're only worried about voter fraud and the integrity of the electoral system but there is little evidence of significant fraud and these legislators don't actually dispute the democrats' basic claim indeed, rigging the rules to dampen turnout among youth and minorities appears to be a key strategy for some republicans when people complain about the impact of voting restrictions, they're often dismissed as democratic mouthpieces voting rights, to the average citizen, becomes just another partisan football this is bad for the country but it's particularly bad for the gop while it may seem that the republicans who want to restrict voting are winning right now, their strategy in fact threatens to isolate the party in the long term republican leaders insist, correctly, that plenty of young, asian american, hispanic, and african american voters respond positively to a message of smaller government and more economic freedom but prior to stances on issues, what voters of color and young voters pick up on is a vibe an overall sense of whether we are welcome and the vibe that many in the gop have been sending lately has been less than welcoming consider not just the efforts to invalidate the voting rights act and to restrict access to the ballot, which many millennials and african americans have taken personally, but also the hostility of many republicans toward undocumented immigrants consider too the remarks of people like alabama congressman mo brooks, who declared recently that president obama and the democrats are prosecuting a 'war on whites' whipping up the anxieties of older whites may be rational politics after all, they are still the likeliest voters but it alienates what demographer paul taylor calls 'the next america' as richard land of the southern baptist convention recently put it, the gop, having painted itself in a corner, 'applied a second coat' i am a democrat, so i know my comments will be presumed partisan but i am foremost an american who is quite conscious of what it took for me, the son of chinese immigrants, to get to vote a few weeks ago i met john lewis, icon of the civil rights movement and longtime georgia congressman it happened to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of civil rights act into law i asked him how today's youth should engage, given that the obstacles and challenges are so different from what he experienced as a teenager his answer was simple: participate vote this is the moment for a rising republican to deliver precisely that message to people of color and young voters: participate vote it's the moment for a leading republican to argue that his or her party should be on the side of more democracy, not less; more inclusion, not less if there is actual voter fraud, root it out, this leader should say, but not in a way that seems like a whites only backroom plot sen rand paul has shown signs that he could be such a voice he's met with constituencies that national republicans often ignore, like african american voters and college students his outreach has seemed in earnest, and he has been a refreshing voice on issues like reform of criminal sentencing but telling, also, was the quick getaway he made when an undocumented 'dreamer' recently came up to him and another gop congressman to ask them about immigration reform outreach can't be only scripted and packaged, it has to come from readiness to engage more importantly, it has to emerge from a sincere belief that more participation is better a party confident about its ideas doesn't work in a cynical way to shrink the electorate it sees in 'the next america' a majority waiting to be made rock the vote has just launched a new nonpartisan campaign to push back against voting restrictions celebrities, musicians and students and many progressives have joined all that's missing are some republicans to argue in a visible, unexpected, nixon goes to china way that rocking the vote is better than rigging it are there any? their party needs them, and so does their country | bardling formicaroid valerate | no related information |
(cnn) the supreme court of the united states has long been a unique political and legal institution our justices are the only judges in the world who sit on a nation's highest court for life their power to strike down the political decisions of the president, the congress and the states (the power of judicial review) is nowhere spelled out in our constitution yet, since the beginning, both the court and the american people have assumed that power to exist the justices don't act like normal judges bound by law (because they're not), but they are not quite lawmakers, either having neither the 'purse nor the sword,' the justices rely solely on the elected branches of government for the enforcement of their decisions their power rests mostly on the prestige they hold with the governed, and lately, more and more of the governed are having grave doubts about the nine most powerful judges in the world last week, a new poll by greenberg quinlan rosner research, a democratic party allied pollster, for democracy corps set the social media world atwitter more than 50% of those polled were reported to believe that the justices let 'their own personal or political views influence their decisions,' and more than 70% said that the justices should have fixed terms, not life tenure not surprisingly, the poll revealed great support for television cameras in the supreme court, a move the justices have rejected for way too long over 85% of those polled also said that the justices should be bound by the same judicial code of ethics as other federal judges (they are not) and that their financial records should be more transparent there can be quibbles with how some of the poll questions were asked, but there is little doubt that the results demonstrated that the american people are becoming more disenchanted with the nation's highest court on sunday, adam liptak, the excellent supreme court reporter for the new york times, wrote a lengthy story suggesting that the court is more partisan than ever before, reflecting the deep divisions in our political and media world the tag line for an article on the new poll in salon was 'in an increasingly divided country, it seems that everyone can agree that they hate the supreme court' and the huffington post concluded that 'wide majorities are losing faith in the roberts supreme court' this new poll confirms what i have been arguing, including on this website, for a long time there are (at least) two fundamental changes that we need to make to the supreme court of the united states the first is easy and should be non controversial the american people have a right to see on their televisions, tablets and smartphones the oral arguments and decision announcements of the supreme court more than half of state supreme courts, and the supreme courts of canada and the united kingdom, televise their proceedings with great success, and there are simply no persuasive arguments that the most powerful court in the world shouldn't do the same the american people feel that the justices are hiding from them, and that cannot do anything but damage the confidence we have in the justices the second change is much harder but even more important here's a simple rule that i think applies to all democracies: no governmental official who wields great power should hold their office for life period the original idea was that the justices would be appointed at a relatively old age and serve for a few years that idea is not just quaint but antiquated justices john paul stevens and william brennan both served for more than 30 years, and justice elena kagan, who was 50 when appointed, may well serve for 40 more years no human being can be expected to perform their job well when they know they have such great power and can never be fired additionally, numerous justices such as william o douglas and thurgood marshall served past the time of competence moreover, it is just crazy that presidents who serve the same number of years appoint fewer or greater justices based on either the randomness of illness and death or even politically timed judicial retirements for example, president george w bush drastically changed the balance on the court by appointing justice samuel alito, a staunch conservative, to replace the more moderate sandra day o'connor, while president carter didn't have the opportunity to nominate even a single justice during his four years as president we need a constitutional amendment giving the justices fixed terms and a salary for life this type of system provides much needed judicial independence without the downsides of life tenure as far as hoping the justices will decide cases under the law without regard to their personal value preferences, no poll can provide a solution to that problem which will be with us for as long as the justices exercise judicial review but at least we can make them use that power more transparently for all the world to see and limit the time that each individual justice wields such extraordinary authority | supreme court eric segall americans segall | poll finds public believes supreme court decides cases on political grounds . eric segall says americans losing faith in the court because of its partisanship . he says court should televise its proceedings and judges shouldn't have life tenure . segall: extraordinary power of justices should be reined in by time limits, transparency |
washington (cnn) a food and drug administration committee delivered a split verdict on the diabetes drug avandia on wednesday, with most members voting to leave it on the market but recommending different changes in how it's prescribed twelve of the committee's 33 members voted to pull avandia off the market altogether, while only three supported leaving it on the market with its current labeling seven voted to add stiffer warnings to the current label, and 10 wanted both stiffer language and restrictions on its use the vote came on the second day of hearings into the safety of the drug, which studies since 2007 have linked to an increased risk of heart failure one member abstained, and several said their votes easily could have gone another way 'i think the evidence of potential harm is stronger now than it was in 2007,' said dr peter savage, the director of the national institutes of health's epidemiology division, who voted for stronger warnings and restrictions 'i think if the drug is to remain on the market, we need to consider whether there would be some specific indications in which it would be reserved for use it seems to me that simply putting a warning, a black box warning, in the labeling is probably not sufficient to really protect patients' fda officials will make a decison on what to do with the medication 'as soon as possible,' said janet woodcock, director of the agency's center for drug evaluation and research avandia manufacturer glaxosmithkline has insisted on the safety of the medication, which is used to control blood sugar levels in diabetics but a company sponsored study that glaxo said showed there was no higher risk of heart problems came under heavy fire from fda researchers during proceedings tuesday and wednesday in a statement issued after the vote, glaxo reiterated its belief in the safety of the drug and said avandia 'remains available to physicians and appropriate patients' to treat type 2 diabetes 'following today's recommendations, we will, of course, continue to work with the fda in the best interest of diabetes patients who face this chronic and serious disease,' dr ellen strahlman, the company's chief medical officer, said in the statement 'patients taking avandia should speak with their physician about their treatment and any questions they may have regarding the safety of the medicine' but dr daniel einhorn, president of the american association of clinical endocrinologists, said the decision was 'hardly a ringing endorsement' of the drug in two preliminary votes, the fda panel found that avandia has an increased risk of heart problems compared with other drugs but it made the same determination in 2007 without voting to pull the drug, recommending stronger warnings instead the committee would not conclude the drug poses an increased risk of death, with most calling the data before them insufficient 'until we have a longer term follow up we just can't say much about mortality,' said committee member dale hammerschmidt, a university of minnesota medical professor before the vote, chuck keyserling, who suffers from type 2 diabetes, told the panel he has been taking avandia for 10 years and can't take an alternative drug because of his physical limits on exercise 'in making this plea to keep avandia on the market, i believe i am pleading for my life,' keyserling said for people in his position, he said, 'a negative position on avandia may be a death sentence' a strongly worded fda report last week called glaxo's record study, which the company cites as evidence of the drug's safety, 'inappropriate and biased' it accused glaxo of repeatedly submitting sloppy data and failing to follow up on reports of problems among patients, including deaths and dr david graham, the author of a june study that also found higher risk of heart problems among avandia users, said the record study would have been dismissed as 'garbage' if it had been used to seek the drug's original approval but dr murray stewart, glaxo's vice president for clinical development, said tuesday that the company's studies 'provide the most robust and reliable data' to assess avandia's safety and those studies have found 'no evidence to suggest' the drug increases the risk of heart problems stewart defended the record study again wednesday glaxo says several trials have shown avandia is safe, but its usage has fallen sharply since a 2007 study that linked it to an increased risk of heart attacks and other related problems published estimates indicate annual sales of avandia have dropped from about $3 billion in 2006 to about $1 billion a senate committee added to the controversy tuesday its leaders released documents they said show glaxo 'failed to publish studies that found serious health risks associated with avandia in a timely manner and actively promoted the drug despite the known safety concerns' the documents, which the senate finance committee provided to the fda, include studies that date back to 2000, the committee's democratic chairman and ranking republican said but in an e mail, glaxo spokeswoman mary anne rhyne told cnn the new documents were 'a small subset' of millions of pages the company released in connection with lawsuits over the drugs 'they include drafts and other documents taken out of context, which therefore are incomplete and misleading,' rhyne said 'the documents do not offer new clinically relevant scientific information, and do not provide the full extent of gsk's studies and evaluation of avandia' | eyeservice ornery coheading | no related information |
(cnn) dr yves jean bart, president of the haiti football federation, tells cnn about the day that the earthquake struck, the devastating aftermath and his hope for the future of soccer in the country what happened on the day of the earthquake? i went to the federation around 1pm to meet the president of the women's league and the members of the commission of the league we had to discuss a lot of matters also present at the meeting were hancy lescouflair (wife of the minister of sports and the women's league president) and the national head coach jean yves labaze the meeting was over and i was getting ready to leave when i felt the house shaking i ran towards the back exit of the house while going downstairs it was shaking really badly, i lost my balance and fell and blocks of debris fell on my hand i got up and fell again with a huge amount of debris falling on my body i was scared but i got up again to move away from the house that i then saw collapse in a white cloud with the few that were able to escape this tragedy, and also the friends of the football family, we started helping people trapped under the rubble during the whole night, even in darkness and with their lives in danger, those young friends of football saved and removed a few injured colleagues under the rubble unfortunately, more than 30 perished and even more saddening, we were not able to recover their body for days every day we go to the ruins of our office, and we had a memorial ceremony for all our colleagues that perished we were helpless, beside three cases, to remove their bodies and return them to their families what was going through your mind after the earthquake? i had many thoughts going through my head for many days after and not having communication, we were unable to obtain information when some friends were able to recover my blackberry, i started working and trying to reorganize i started by contacting the parents of the young boys and girls, miraculously saved because they were practicing at the national stadium, and helped those that were in need i was also deeply in pain with my injuries and the loss of some of my family psychologically, i had a lot of questions i was terribly choked what was left of the haiti football federation? from the headquarters there was nothing left all our office equipment, all of what we were able to acquire throughout the years in order to put together a decent office our efforts to have a nice archive, our trophies and distinctions during the last years we lost everything but most of all we lost a lot of colleagues including our best coach for the past years, all the equipment of our national teams, thousands of balls recently purchased everythingeverything how did you cope in those days after the earthquake? it's hard to adapt yourself to this, it's a whole different ball game i did not have any meds and my injured fingers started to get infected we were sleeping on the ground with the mosquitoes, the wind, the cold and the loud noises of airplanes coming in and out of the airport fortunately some colleagues were able to recover my blackberry it was damaged but functional we were able to get together, us members of the federation, and we all did our best to get back to work progressively my kids were fabulous they were able to send me meds, tents, sleeping bags and some money to cover every day expenses physically things got better but it has been a horrible misery up to now what help did you receive from your neighboring countries and from fifa itself? the support we received was the most comforting less than four days after the earthquake, captain burrell, the president of the jamaican football federation, arrived in two helicopters sent by the presidents of fifa & concacaf we accompanied him on a small tour of the town and met leaders in the stadium and on the ruins of our headquarters the very emotional report that he wrote touched the world football family even more on the hugeness of the tragedy the president of the dominican football federation sent colleagues to check on us and find out about our needs he also sent me some meds that were very precious president blatter and a lot of his colleagues called me and assured me that we were not alone about two weeks ago, with a lot of difficulties, fifa vice president jack warner made it to port au prince in a private plane and brought us meds, foods and water he promised to motivate the fifa committee about our needs, promised that fifa would help our national teams to keep competing, all in all helping us rebuild our soccer at fifa, last tuesday, during the meeting of the associations, a lot of presidents of federations were present a minute's silence was observed for all the victims of the earthquake and during a special meeting, president blatter announced to me that a special fund was created for the reconstruction of our football fifa experts will come to haiti soon to evaluate our needs, build projects that fifa will finance from this newly created fund this is a big solidarity move on february 26 with the help of the venezuelan government we will play a charity game in caracas on march 7th, with the help of a german tv station, our men's national team will play a game to raise funds that will be used to rebuild the stadium of leogane that was completely destroyed some former world athletes have agreed to participate in this game the germans have already visited this stadium and plan to help us for a while with this project soccer federations of the whole world qatar, switzerland, honduras, nicaragua and mexico offered their help and we are deeply touched by this move how many of haiti's players were affected by the earthquake? the number of dead and injured announced, is really, really far from reality the very bad construction of the country, the lack of organization in general, the fact that the first response help got on the ground days after, will make the final numbers very high, higher than the official numbers given fortunately with the fact the earthquake happened at 4:53pm, the players of divisions 1 and 2 were unharmed the players lost immediate families: parents, wives, children a lot of young players are orphans when communication is fully restored and obviously when teams start training again, we will have an idea but the numbers will never be exact how does haiti as a country feel about football? there is not one haitian that has not touched a soccer ball football is part of the everyday life of haiti, even with the scary living conditions in port au prince, even with the fields being occupied, they still play soccer it is the only entertainment reserved for everybody at the federation we had the great idea of distributing in the temporary shelters the few soccer balls we were able to recover and it was an explosion of joy i think it is necessary and mandatory, to help with the psychological recovery of a major part of the population, to free the fields and allow the people to release some stress in times of crisis like this does it help having something like football help to focus you? it is a big challenge that motivates us better, gives us the desire to live my biggest objective is for the soccer family to become more united every day, because until recently the soccer family was disunited we feel that we have more responsibility than before with all this solidarity coming from all around the world, with the situation of the youth, with this cruel misery and this sudden loss for everybody, we feel that soccer has an important role to play in the reconstruction of this country how will you rebuild the federation and how long will it take? it will be difficult the conditions are impossible for us my colleagues at the federation are aware that every time we try to restart the soccer world in haiti an unfortunate situation puts us back to square one in 2003 we had to stop everything during a political crisis in 2003 we had hurricane jeanne in 2005 there was the security crisis with the departure of president aristide in 2008 there were the four hurricanes of the summer every time it is an exodus of talent, the loss of the buying power of the population and each time we have to start from scratch fortunately with new players, the work that we maintain with the young players, with the heavy support of fifa, we climbed back up the ladder because in all age categories our teams are some of the best in the region do you think the federation will grow strong again in the future? i want to talk about construction and reconstruction at the same time haitian soccer has existed for more than 100 years soccer is a tradition deeply involved in the culture, the life of the country the misery of the country affected its international evolvement but not its creativity, its popularity, its power and national weight in this domain, with no doubt, everything exists, we will have to motivate sensibly, because the human factor exists in order to create an elite of players, to allow young talents to use soccer to get out of the misery, with the goal of obtaining a major professional contract and bringing money back to the country, or attending school abroad we need to take charge of the most talented and ask for the resources that we need we ask for infrastructures in the reconstruction process that the government will start to put at the service of these young talents and sports associations the latin american countries insisted on sports infrastructures that didn't exist for the youth fifa will help to rebuild our headquarters it should be a reality before the end of this year for the destroyed fields at leoganea and petit goave, this should not take time destroyed or not by the earthquake, all the soccer fields are only by name, all of them need to be rebuilt because they weren't really existent before with the lack of resources we had in the past we were able to accomplish so much, now with all the support that we will get, we will come back stronger than before | january haiti football federation yves jean bart jean bart fifa cnn | january's earthquake killed 30 of haiti's football federation officials . haiti's football president dr yves jean bart was injured in the quake . dr jean bart is trying to rebuild the federation with help from fifa . he tells cnn about the earthquake and the enormous challenges ahead |
(cnn) actor patrick swayze's achievements include several feature films such as 'dirty dancing' and 'ghost,' as well as living with advanced pancreatic cancer for longer than most patients patrick swayze died at age 57 of pancreatic cancer he fought the disease for nearly two years that swayze, who died monday at age 57, survived nearly two years with the condition is 'quite an accomplishment,' dr george fisher, an oncologist who treated the star at stanford hospitals and clinics, told cnn's larry king on tuesday fisher revealed in early march 2008 that the actor was fighting pancreatic cancer swayze participated in a clinical trial at stanford and took an experimental drug there, fisher said fewer than one in four patients who have the disease that has spread outside the pancreas, as swayze did, are alive a year later, he said watch fisher talk to king about swayze's case » 'patients can survive two years even longer, even with standard treatment,' fisher said 'it's just sad that not as many do' pancreatic cancer has affected several other prominent figures, including national collegiate athletic association president myles brand, who died of the disease wednesday apple inc's steve jobs and us supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg have also undergone treatment for the disease the american cancer society puts pancreatic cancer as the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in the united states lung, colon and breast cancer are the first three experts say that about 95 percent of those with pancreatic cancer die from the disease symptoms such as abdominal pain, jaundice or sudden weight loss may lead doctors to look for pancreatic cancer, said dr steven cohen, acting chief for gastrointestinal medical oncology at the fox chase cancer center in philadelphia, pennsylvania cohen was not involved in swayze's care doctors say early detection carries a better chance of curing the cancer, but often a patient's disease is diagnosed after it has spread cat scans may detect the disease early, but that does not mean everyone should have a scan with their physical, fisher said 'we're developing algorithms for trying to identify people at risk, and then less invasive tests to try to figure out who's got it and who doesn't,' he said despite his illness, swayze went forward with plans to star in a&e network's 'the beast' after the actor responded well to cancer treatment, the network agreed to shoot an entire season of the show working on the show while undergoing treatment was 'a great idea,' fisher said on 'larry king live' 'i had my doubts as to whether he could actually do it or not, and we had many conversations around that fact,' fisher said swayze understood 'how difficult the treatment could be, and he understood how difficult the disease could be but it's just like patrick to just say he's going to do it and damn it, nobody should get in his way' 'the beast' was canceled in june because of swayze's illness, after doctors told him the cancer had spread to his liver for pancreatic cancer patients, doctors are not as concerned with what happens with the pancreas as they are with how the disease spreads elsewhere, often to the liver or abdominal cavity, cohen said failure of other organs that the cancer affects may ultimately cause death swayze's participation in the stanford clinical trial is an important take away point, cohen said only about 5 percent of cancer patients participate in clinical trials, he said 'particularly for a disease like pancreatic cancer, where the standard treatments help some patients but not the majority, the ability to look at new treatments that are promising in the context and controlled setting of clinical trials, i think, is really important,' he said dozens of drugs are in development or being tested in trials for pancreatic cancer, cohen said one such medication is paclitaxel, which is currently only approved for breast cancer but has shown promise experimentally in pancreatic tumors, he said cohen said he and his colleagues encourage patients to continue their daily activities and live their lives normally as best they can while undergoing treatment a chemotherapy drug commonly used in patients, called gemcitabine, does not have the harsh symptoms of nausea, vomiting and hair loss seen in other cancer drugs but sometimes, patients are too ill from their underlying cancer to do much, he said 'toward the end, they can get increasing abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite, very low energy, sort of a wasting syndrome, and there, a lot of patients just don't feel up to do anything,' he said | patrick swayze nearly two years about 95 percent | patrick swayze battled pancreatic cancer for nearly two years . about 95 percent of those with pancreatic cancer die from it, experts say . dozens of drugs are in development or being tested in trials for the disease . doctors encourage patients to try to live their lives normally while in treatment |
washington (cnn) the food and drug administration said wednesday that it has stopped reviewing drug applications from an india based pharmaceutical plant, alleging that officials there falsified data and test results in applications, some of which the agency has already approved in its second action in six months against ranbaxy's paonta sahib plant, the fda invoked its application integrity policy, which is usually invoked over concerns about the integrity of data in drug applications in september, the fda issued an import alert barring entry of generic drugs produced at the plant in northeastern india and two others owned by ranbaxy that order remains in effect a man who answered the phone at the company's offices in gurgaon, haryana, india, said no one was available for comment no one immediately answered an e mail sent wednesday to the company's us corporate offices in princeton, new jersey under the application integrity policy, the most recent action, the fda has stopped all scientific review of any new or pending drug approval applications containing data from the paonta sahib plant in a letter sent wednesday to the company, the agency alleged that data submitted from the ranbaxy plant contained falsified information including lies that safety tests were conducted, lies that drugs had been kept at room temperature when in fact they had been stored in refrigerators, and lies about the shelf life of some drugs 'companies must provide truthful and accurate information in their marketing applications,' said dr janet woodcock, director of the fda's center for drug evaluation and research, in a statement on the fda web site 'the american public expects and deserves no less' an investigation is under way, but the fda said it has no evidence that drugs manufactured at the plant do not meet quality specifications in a written statement e mailed to cnn, a spokesperson said the company had just been notified of the action 'ranbaxy will analyze the letter and other information fully and respond appropriately in a timely manner,' it said 'the fda has said it has no evidence the drugs on the market are substandard and also that they comply with specifications upon testing,' it added deborah autor, director of the drug evaluation center's office of compliance, said there is no reason to believe ranbaxy drugs on us shelves pose any safety threat she said all 80 samples tested met application specifications 'we feel comfortable leaving those products on the us market at this time,' she said the fda said it has approved some 25 drug applications that contain data from paonta sahib the applications affected by wednesday's announcement are for approved drugs made for the us market, drugs pending approval but not yet on the market, and certain drugs manufactured in ranbaxy's ohm laboratories in new jersey, which relied on data from the paonta sahib plant three generic drugs were produced at ohm laboratories: simvastatin (zocor) and pravastatin (pravachol), both cholesterol lowering drugs called statins, and the antihistamine loratadine (claritin) the four plants in india that make drugs approved for distribution in the united states have been inspected more than 20 times since 2005, the fda said the fda advised patients to talk with their doctor before considering stopping any medications | fda india plant us | fda stops drug applications from india based drug plant . plant officials falsified data on applications, agency says . official: no reason to believe company's drugs on us shelves pose any safety threat |
(cnn) italian authorities found 25 dead bodies in a boat that was carrying refugees and was discovered off the coast of the southern island of lampedusa, an italian official news agency reported monday the bodies of the victims all males were found during an inspection of the boat after it was accompanied ashore, the ansa news agency said officials could not immediately say how the men died nor did they know from where the boat departed the boat was also carrying 271 other passengers, including 36 women and 21 children, the news agency said lampedusa, the closest italian island to africa, has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter european union countries more than 30,000 migrants and refugees from tunisia and libya have risked this dangerous journey to lampedusa in the last year lampedusa and malta, both islands less than an hour's flight from the north african coast, have taken the brunt of the subsequent wave of migration at one point, the population of migrants vastly outnumbered lampedusa's residents, who number about 6,000 | mastership semicretinism fractional | no related information |
(cnn) retirement hasn't been full of lazy days, rounds of golf and luxury vacations for gary terry when this former telecommunications executive called it quits after a 32 year career, he took up an equally time consuming volunteer job as chairman of the american heart association's texas chapter gary terry says his being saved by a public defibrillator he'd pressed for was 'divine intervention' 'i believe the lord chose me to lead that group,' said terry, who lives in hurst, texas but his 'sign from the lord' came, not in the form of a dream or a mysterious figure in his morning toast instead, it came in the form of a cardiac arrest by the security checkpoint at the austin airport 'i was trying to get back to the metroplex because i had a meeting the next morning i reached down to pick up my briefcase, and i kept going' here's where the story takes an ironic twist: gary terry collapsed just 18 feet from an automated external defibrillator aed that he and his group the american heart association helped to install just eight months earlier 'a lot of people say there's a lot of circumstances in your situation that really are unique,' said terry, 'and i say no, they're not unique circumstances they're divine intervention and i truly believe that' but the circumstances of terry's experience are unique, because there was a defibrillator nearby, and somebody knew how to use it watch more on the heart official saved by a defibrillator he pushed for » 'when somebody stops breathing and they hit the ground, for all intents and purposes, they're dead,' says dr art kellermann, noted defibrillator advocate and professor of emergency medicine at emory university 'there are a few minutes where you can reach through the door and pull them back from death if you act decisively' and acting decisively, says kellermann, means following the four links in the 'chain of survival' visit cnnhealth, your connection for better living the first link, according to the american heart association, is to recognize there's a problem, and call 911 next, begin doing cpr, employ the use of a defibrillator and get the victim into the hands of capable medical professionals like the paramedics 'research has shown time and time again that you win or lose in a cardiac arrest on the scene,' says dr kellermann 'if you don't get [the victim] started before you start transport, the likelihood they'll survive to leave the hospital is less than one half of 1 percent' and statistics also show that if the chain of survival is initiated within 4 minutes, the chances of survival can be as high as 60 percent the good news is, cpr is easy to learn (local classes can be found here) and the automated external defibrillator is remarkably simple to use, even without significant training according to several device manufacturers, you simply place the pads on a victim's chest, and turn the unit on complex algorithms inside the unit's computer determine whether a shock from the machine will help restart a victim's heart once the machine determines that a shock should in fact be delivered, it tells the user to clear their hands from the patient's body, and press the 'shock' button it's far less complicated than your average vcr, and almost impossible to screw up it's for these reasons, and the relatively low cost of a defibrillator that gary terry continues his crusade 'i think this is part of the plan, and i think he wants me to keep telling people what a great piece of equipment the aed is' and terry says he won't stop until the defibrillator is as ubiquitous in public places as a sprinkler system 'i'm gonna try to put aeds in every building and in every house, and then i'm gonna hang them on trees' | texas months earlier | heart association official suffered cardiac arrest in a texas airport . his life was saved by an automated external defibrillator . his group pressed to have the aeds place in the airport months earlier |
(cnn) make the most of 'the world's most livable city' with these insider tips trump card the copenhagen card entitles you to free use of the city's train, bus and metro systems, as well as free admission to 60 museums and attractions there are two versions, valid for either for either 24 hours (199 dkr) or 72 hours (429 dkr), which you can buy at tourist offices, train stations and some hotels (wwwcopenhagencardcom) louisiana museum of modern art is well worth the journey louisiana museum of modern art make your way some 40km north of the city to this fascinating museum it's well worth the effort set in a beautiful sculpture park in the coastal village of humlebaek, louisiana is a beguiling combination of nature, architecture and contemporary art (wwwlouisianadk/dk) on the up check out the district of nørrebro for a taste of the 'other side' of copenhagen slightly grungy, defiantly hip and definitely up and coming, this area has had its share of social problems, but it also has an undeniable energy and is increasingly popular with copenhagen's young and trendy set pass the post the copenhagen post is a weekly english language paper, available from train stations and newsstands it comes with the 16 page 'in & out guide,' which has complete entertainment listings and is worth the cover price by itself route canal take a load off and let a canal boat take the strain as it meanders through copenhagen's waterways dfds canal tours offers one hour guided tours from nyhaven and gammel strand, as well as a water bus service that allows you to board and disembark at any of its 16 stops (wwwcanaltourscom/dct/en) free museums two of the city's finest cultural treasures, the statens museum for kunst (national gallery) and the national museum don't charge for admission a number of copenhagen's museums and galleries offer free entry on wednesdays, including the excellent ny carlsberg glyptoteket what are your tips for a great stay in copenhagen? where have you found the 'real' copenhagen? send us your suggestions in the 'sound off' box below and we'll print the best | copenhagen card louisiana museum of modern art nørrebro | if you're a bit of a museum buff then it pays to invest in a copenhagen card . louisiana museum of modern art is a superb combination of nature and art . nørrebro is an up and coming area, with trendy bars, clubs and restaurants . take a canal tour to get a different view of the city or try the water bus service |
washington (cnn) immigration reform entered an uncertain new phase on wednesday as house republicans signaled some willingness to compromise with president barack obama and democrats but rejected a senate passed bill and insisted they would take their time drafting their own version following more than two hours of talks on how to proceed, gop legislators said the biggest question was whether to give the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the united states a path to eventual citizenship, as provided by the senate measure participants in the republican caucus meeting described a 50 50 split over the undocumented immigrant issue, with more consensus on the need to produce some kind of legislation to show the party's commitment to fixing a broken system and addressing concerns of hispanic americans the nation's largest minority demographic despite the divisions on the undocumented immigrant issue, house majority leader eric cantor of virginia told the gop members that children living illegally in the united states through no fault to their own should receive legal status house judiciary chairman bob goodlatte said he and fellow virginia republican cantor were working together on a bill focused on children, which is a priority of democrats pushing for immigration reform at the same time, house gop leaders made clear they intended to slow the process down by tackling individual components of the broad measure passed by the democratic led senate last month with bipartisan support bush welcomes new citizens in soft push for immigration reform prospect of political attacks that means taking up smaller bills on specific provisions, such as border security and employment verification measures, in coming months while also seeking a compromise within the caucus on providing legal status for undocumented immigrants house speaker john boehner warned his caucus that republicans would face political attacks if they failed to move legislation, according to several gop sources in the room 'we don't want the white house to hope that we fail to make it a campaign issue,' said gop rep michael mccaul of texas 'house republicans want to do this on our terms, and not on the senate's terms and not on the white house terms' another prominent house gop leader, budget committee chairman rep paul ryan of wisconsin, told his colleagues that doing nothing was not an option the unsuccessful republican vice presidential nominee in last year's election, ryan made the case also pushed by the white house that immigration reform would help boost the american economy, participants said meanwhile, a group of bipartisan house legislators trying to draft its own immigration measure met for several hours on tuesday night and would continue its work, said democratic rep xavier becerra of california the group is working on a comprehensive bill closer in form to the senate measure and becerra argued the incremental approach advocated by house republicans wouldn't work 'it's better to eat your wheaties and do it right than do it poorly and 5 10 years from now have to come back at it again,' becerra said how immigration reform would affect 3 families path to legal status the 1,000 plus page senate immigration bill passed last month takes a comprehensive approach that removes the threat of immediate deportation for most undocumented immigrants and provides a path to legal status and eventual citizenship it also includes stronger enforcement provisions including the virtual militarization of the mexican border with almost double the agents, new technology and a longer fence, as well as requiring employers to verify the immigration status of workers and improved monitoring of visa holders while the senate measure passed 68 32 with support from 14 republicans, house gop leaders insist they will not bring it up because most of their caucus opposes it boehner has repeatedly said any immigration bill brought up for a house vote must have support from a majority of republicans, and he repeated that guarantee to his gop caucus on wednesday democrats called on boehner to allow a house vote on the senate version, believing it could pass with unified democratic support along with several dozen republicans rep steny hoyer of maryland, the no 2 democrat in the house, said wednesday that republicans were 'splintered and confused' on immigration, describing what he called a 'deeply divided party' that was 'much more into ideology than they are into solving problems' opinion: should the us be more like mexico? midterms loom in 2014 the immigration issue will be significant in next year's congressional elections, with house republicans under pressure from conservatives to oppose what the political right wing calls amnesty in the form of a path to legal status and even citizenship for people who sneaked into the country illegally or overstayed their visas 'once you start down that line, you're destroying the rule of law,' conservative gop rep steve king of iowa said after wednesday's caucus meeting he and fellow conservative rep michele bachmann of minnesota described the gop caucus as evenly divided on the question 'the real issue is amnesty the whole game is about legalization, the status of legalization,' bachmann said on the other side was rep ileana ros lehtinen, a cuban immigrant from miami, who told reporters that 'we have different points of view' 'i hope we can also look at the 11 million people who want to legalize their status,' she added for obama and democrats, passage of immigration reform would mean following through on a promise to the nation's largest minority demographic hispanic americans to reduce uncertainty for millions of them living illegally in the united states searching for the american dream in mexico moderate republicans, including most of the party's leaders in congress, want a compromise that would represent a potential breakthrough for the gop with hispanics who voted overwhelmingly for obama in last year's election earlier wednesday, former president george w bush added his voice to calls for a solution, telling a ceremony for new citizens that the present system was broken 'i do hope there is a positive resolution to the debate,' bush said in a rare public comment about politics since he left office while he refrained from taking sides, he sounded moderate in saying he hoped that 'we keep a benevolent spirit in mind' 'we understand the contributions immigrants make to our country,' said bush, a republican 'we must remember that the vast majority of immigrants are decent people who work hard and support their families and practice their faith and lead responsible lives' white house keeps up pressure however, conservatives fear that legalizing undocumented immigrants means guaranteeing future electoral hardship for republicans by adding millions of new voters who generally lean democratic the white house sought to keep up pressure on house republicans, asserting wednesday that the senate immigration measure would boost the us economy and help create jobs a congressional budget office report released in june indicated the senate bill could reduce deficits by $175 billion over the first 10 years and by at least $700 billion in the second decade the cbo, working with the congressional joint committee on taxation, estimated that eight million unauthorized residents would become legal in the first decade in addition, the cbo report estimated the bill would boost the us population by a net of 104 million people by 2023 and by 16 million by 2033 'the benefits are clear the fact that there is a broad bipartisan consensus behind this is clear,' white house spokesman jay carney said wednesday 'it cannot be acceptable, broadly and in the long term, that immigration reform would be blocked because some minority of house republicans is concerned about a primary challenge from the far right that's not a good argument it's not a good argument politically it's certainly not a good argument economically,' he said senate immigration deal includes tougher border security 'fully comprehensive' on the house side, the bipartisan group working on an immigration package would require that border security measures be in place before any process toward residency for undocumented immigrants could begin gop legislators endorsed that strategy after wednesday's caucus meeting 'the american people want our border secured, our laws enforced, and the problems in our immigration system fixed to strengthen our economy,' said a joint statement by house gop leaders that expressed distrust in obama and democrats to fully enact tougher security laws before legalizing undocumented immigrants gop republican rep darrell issa of california told reporters the end result in the house would be 'fully comprehensive immigration reform' that would address undocumented immigrants he outlined legislation that would provide some with legal status, such as those who served in the military and children of undocumented immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents while other immigrants also could be considered for legal status, those with criminal records should be kicked out, issa said sticking points in the house debate include whether undocumented immigrants would be eligible for health care benefits during the years it would take to get legal status, and empowering state and local police to work with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws opinion: on immigration, gop offers fear, not ideas cnn's dana bash, alan silverleib, lesa jansen, ashley killough and cnnmoney's jeanne sahadi contributed to this report | cursitate paradiddle retaliationist | no related information |
(cnn) south africa inflicted the first home series defeat on australia in almost 16 years as they wrapped up a nine wicket win over the world's number one ranked test nation in melbourne on tuesday south african captain graeme smith led from the front with 75 as his team wrapped up victory captain graeme smith hit a fluent 75 as his side successfully passed a modest victory target of 183 on the final day at the mcg to take an unassailable 2 0 lead it was the south african's first ever test series triumph in australia and victory in the third and final match in sydney will see them leapfrog the home side at the top of the global rankings hashim amla (30 not out) scored the winning runs shortly after lunch as south africa became the first team to overcome australia at home since the west indies in 1992 93 south africa were never under any pressure in their run chase and did not lose a wicket until just before lunch when the inspirational smith was trapped leg before wicket by nathan hauritz smith had dominated a 121 run opening stand with neil mckenzie, hitting 10 boundaries mckenzie struggled to a half century and survived strong lbw shouts from brett lee, who was bowling despite an injured foot that will keep him out of the sydney test south africa's victory was set up by a brilliant maiden test century from jp duminy, who shared a stunning 180 run ninth wicket partnership with pace bowler dale steyn it gave the tourists a priceless 65 run lead on first innings before man of the match steyn worked his magic with the ball as australia were bowled out on the fourth day for 247 in their second innings the pugnacious smith was virtually lost for words in his victory speech 'it has been such a special moment for all of us, it has been an incredible team effort,' he said 'i have been smiling non stop since we hit the winning runs 'to be 2 0 up after this game was something we only dreamt of' south africa won the first test in perth from an unlikely position, chasing 414 for victory for the loss of only four wickets | aldononose secondhand chaga | no related information |
(cnn) wikileaks founder julian assange is trying to avoid extradition from britain to sweden over allegations of rape and other sex crimes by seeking asylum at the embassy of ecuador in london assange's move is dramatic, but he's not the first person to seek an escape route through a diplomatic mission here are some key precedents chen guangcheng us embassy in beijing, 2012 the self taught lawyer and activist escaped house arrest one night in april and fled to the us embassy, where he spent six days before leaving for medical treatment chen later flew out of china with his family for a fellowship at new york university ecuador grants asylum to wikileaks' assange jozsef mindszenty us embassy in hungary, 1956 1971 vocally anti communist hungarian catholic cardinal mindszenty lived in the us embassy in budapest for 15 years after the soviet led invasion of his country he finally agreed to go into exile and died in austria in 1975 assange will be arrested if he comes out of embassy in london, police rep says svetlana alliluyeva us embassy in new delhi, india, 1967 soviet dictator josef stalin's only daughter got permission to bring her lover's ashes to india, then defected by walking into the us embassy in new delhi and burning her passport she lived in the united states as lana peters until her death last november manuel noriega vatican embassy in panama city, 1989 us forces invaded panama to topple and arrest noriega, prompting the dictator to seek refuge in the holy see's mission american troops set up large speakers around the compound, blaring music at all hours, a psychological ploy to rattle the general he surrendered after 10 days and was taken to the united states for trial he was found guilty of drug trafficking and other crimes wang lijun us consulate in chengdu, china, 2012 one of china's best known police chiefs sought refuge at a us consulate amid a mystery over the death of british businessman neil heywood, a family friend of wang's boss, top communist party official bo xilai the case was reopened after wang's intervention, which appeared to implicate bo but wang was taken into chinese custody when he left the diplomatic mission and has not been seen since why assange needs ecuador and ecuador needs assange | chester planarity zealously | no related information |
(parentingcom) revising its policy on circumcision for the first time in 13 years, the american academy of pediatrics now says that the preventative health benefits of infant circumcision clearly outweigh the risks the aap is also emphasizing that the procedure should be covered by third party payers, including medicaid, so more families have access to it however, the organization stopped short of recommending circumcision routinely for all infant boys, saying it's still up to parents to weigh the health, cultural, and religious implications to make the best decision for their child circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin, a small flap of skin that covers the tip of the penis, generally performed in the days after birth many jews and muslims circumcise their sons because of their religious beliefs other parents choose to snip for hygiene reasons, believing it's easier to keep a circumcised penis clean, or cosmetic ones, wanting junior to 'look like dad' the aap's previous policy statement, published in 1999 and affirmed in 2005, took a more neutral stance on circumcision, noting 'potential medical benefits,' but saying it's 'not essential to the child's current well being' however, an aap task force formed in 2007 examined scientific studies conducted between 1995 through 2010 to evaluate if a revision was needed the new, stronger language is a result of emerging evidence that found links between circumcision and decreased risk of urinary tract infections, some kinds of cancer, hpv, hiv, and other sexually transmitted diseases parentingcom: why one mom decided to circumcise 'the evidence was becoming clearer, and it's now obvious there's a preventative effect,' says dr michael brady, chairman of the department of pediatrics at nationwide children's hospital in columbus, ohio, and a member of the aap task force the circumcision controversy once routine, circumcision rates have been declining since the 1980s the centers for disease control and prevention estimate that a little more than half of all infant males are circumcised now, although that figure is likely low since it only counts in hospital circumcisions globally, about 30% of men are circumcised, although rates range drastically from country to country passionate opponents of circumcision, who sometimes describe themselves as 'intactivists,' call the procedure barbaric and liken it to female genital cutting the internet, and its increasing use as a resource for medical decisions, has helped anti circumcision groups get their message out 'we believe that circumcision of children violates numerous legal rights of the child and is highly unethical, if not unlawful,' said a public notice posted by doctors opposing circumcision in anticipation of the aap's announcement some groups have even tried to make the practice illegal activists in san francisco proposed a measure to ban circumcision, but it was struck down by california governor jerry brown courts in germany recently called circumcision 'grievous bodily harm,' and ruled that the 'fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents' because circumcision is such a sensitive issue, moral or religious concerns might be more important than medical studies to many parents 'it's a reduction of risk, not an elimination,' says brady 'we recognize some people have very strong personal feelings about this issue, and those should be used in any decision making' what the research revealed many studies on the benefits of circumcision have been performed in africa, where, because of the prevalence of hiv and other stds, the effect can be seen more quickly the task force found evidence that circumcision has a preventative effect on: hiv: studies in africa and a cdc math model study found that circumcision reduces hiv infection among heterosexual men parentingcom: dad decides not to circumcise his sons hpv: another african study found that circumcision reduces the spread of human papillomavirus, some strains of which can cause cervical cancer in women other sexually transmitted diseases: a variety of studies suggest that circumcision is linked with decreased risk of contracting syphilis and genital herpes urinary tract infections: although still uncommon for boys, utis are more common among uncircumcised males in the first year of life treatment at this age can be painful and require hospitalization penile cancer: an association was found between circumcision and decreased risk of this rare type of cancer prostate cancer: a new study suggests that circumcision could be tied to a slightly lower rate of prostate cancer
while critics say circumcision decreases sexual pleasure, there are currently no scientific studies to support this claim in fact, study participants in africa who had been circumcised as adults reported either no effect or increased pleasure insurance implications one major impetus for new policy, according to brady, was to send a message to state lawmakers that circumcision should be an option for all families currently, medicaid programs in 18 states in the us do not provide coverage for routine circumcision of infant boys, and so 'families who could not afford it were having the decision made for them,' says brady in fact, over time, a higher circumcision rate might actually save money a new study from researchers at johns hopkins found that not circumcising would result in an average of $313 per person in related health costs over a lifetime an extra $2 billion at current circumcision rates however, opponents of circumcision may take issue with taxpayer dollars being used to pay for a procedure they find immoral despite the aap's recommendation, universal coverage is unlikely to be a reality any time soon, as states look for ways to cut back 'i'm concerned 2012 is not the best environment for getting state lawmakers add additional health care costs to medicaid,' says brady parentingcom: our complete guide to circumcision what to ask your doctor for many new parents, this is the first medical decision they are making for their child, and it's a tough one the new policy states that parents should get clear, unbiased information from their ob/gyn or pediatrician during pregnancy, which is when the decision on whether to circumcise is usually made brady suggests discussing with your doctor the health benefits and risks, and doing your homework to make sure that if you're considering circumcision, whoever is performing it has been properly trained it should be performed in a sterile environment with analgesia for pain relief parents should be clear on how to care for their newborn's penis, cut or uncut then, after talking to your doctor, it's up to you 'parents need to make the decision they feel is the best for their child,' says brady 'we don't want to put anyone in a position where they are being told what they have to do' the new policy statement will be published in the september issue of pediatrics it is also endorsed by the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists this article was originally published on parentingcom: aap: health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks get 2 free years of parenting magazine subscribe now!! copyright 2011 the parenting group all rights reserved reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited | american academy of pediatrics aap | american academy of pediatrics says circumcision should be covered by insurance . many parents choose the procedure for religious, hygiene or cosmetic reasons . aap's previous policy took a more neutral stance on circumcision |
(cnn) sergio garcia knows the law well he has a law degree and passed the california bar exam on his first try now he wants to practice that law, giving advice and taking on cases 'i'm fighting for my american dream,' he said wednesday was a landmark day his first case before the california supreme court but he's not able to act as a lawyer in front of the justices, because the law he loves is not on his side garcia, 36, has been an undocumented immigrant since he was brought to the united states as a child from his native mexico, and that means he cannot get a law license it doesn't matter what qualifications he has it also doesn't matter that he has been approved for a green card since 1995 and has been on the waiting list since the line for mexican citizens is so long it could be another six or seven years before his permanent residency is confirmed, he estimated he has the support of california attorney general kamala harris, who wrote in a brief to the state supreme court last year: 'admitting garcia to the bar would be consistent with state and federal policy that encourages immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to contribute to society' and the state bar wants to admit him in many ways it seems straightforward: how can someone without legal status become licensed as a lawyer, whose job entails upholding the law? that's the argument made by the department of justice in an amicus brief to the court 'aliens, including those that lack immigration status, are presumptively ineligible to receive public benefits,' such as a law license, officials wrote, referring to a 1996 law signed by president clinton the argument is that the court is partially funded by the state, and the state cannot fund an undocumented immigrant, so the court may not issue a law license but garcia and his supporters believe the issue is not that simple as they make their arguments before the california supreme court on wednesday in addition to garcia's lawyer, jerome fishkin, james wagstaffe for the california state bar, ross moody for the attorney general's office and tenny daniel for us department of justice appeared in court the case is being closely watched for the precedent it could set, not just for california, but the nation the court's decision could affect hundreds of other young professionals in this country seeking a license, according to vãctor nieblas, an immigration attorney based in southern california garcia's case has received nationwide attention because of two similar cases in florida and new york in florida, bar admissions candidate and undocumented immigrant jose manuel godinez samperio, 26, passed the bar and also couldn't receive his law license he, along with the florida board of bar examiners, petitioned the state supreme court in december 2011 for an advisory opinion: 'are undocumented immigrants eligible for admission to the florida bar?' in new york, city university of new york law graduate cesar vargas, 29, who was also brought to the united states illegally as a child, filed an application to practice law in 2012 vargas has also advocated for a federal dream act and helped launch the dream action coalition, a political and lobbying voice to help pass federal and state legislation for undocumented youth all three men have been open about their immigration status 'basically all i'm seeking is my law license in california, which i already had but was taken away from me because i'm undocumented,' garcia said to cnn en espaã±ol for about two weeks, garcia was sworn in as an attorney then he received a notice from the state bar that his admission was in error 'it was very, very hard for me to have to tell my family that the celebration we had meant nothing,' garcia said 'it killed me inside to tell them that i really wasn't a lawyer' many undocumented immigrants brought to the united states as children qualify for two year work visas under president obama's deferred action for childhood arrivals program, but garcia is too old to be eligible he qualifies for a green card through his father, who became a lawful permanent resident under the 1986 amnesty law, but is still waiting 'immigrants must wait longer if they are from mexico, india, china or the philippines, because lots of people from those countries want to immigrate to the us, and so demand is greater than supply,' said hiroshi motomura, professor of immigration and citizenship law at the ucla school of law, 'this seems superficially fair but i believe it's quite unfair and unequal, because the waiting period can vary so much' larry desha, former prosecutor for the state bar of california, said garcia shouldn't be given his law license because his immigration status would be in violation of a civil immigration statute and could affect his ability to represent his clients 'if mr garcia works or not is a separate question that deserves independent analysis,' nieblas said motomura's view is that although undocumented immigrants generally may not be employees, they can be independent contractors they could take clients as solo practitioners, to work on specific cases or projects, or to have an ongoing relationship as long as they had multiple clients this ability to work as an independent contractor also means they could do volunteer legal work of certain kinds the us constitution guarantees public educational access through high school beyond high school there is no constitutional guarantee of access, but traditionally each state can decide to admit undocumented students to its public colleges and universities some bar them, some admit them as nonresidents at higher tuition, and some, like california, admit them at resident tuition rates motomura said whatever california decides, 'it is a decision that the federal government should and must respect' the california supreme court has up to 90 days to decide on the future of garcia if it denies him his law license, he said he is prepared to take his case to the us supreme court should it be legal for an undocumented immigrant to practice law? share your thoughts in the comments | sergio garcia california american doj | undocumented immigrant sergio garcia fights for his california law license . is it legal for an undocumented immigrant to practice law?. 'i'm fighting for my american dream,' sergio garcia says . doj: how can someone without legal status become licensed as a lawyer? |
waretown, new jersey (cnn) in the shadow of the nation's oldest operating nuclear power plant, alfonse esposito fishes along oyster creek in central new jersey, where he's caught and eaten bluefish and kingfish for 37 years 'i never had a problem with the fish i'm fine,' says the retiree 'there's not anything wrong' but there is, warns waretown mayor joe lachawiec, who used to fish here himself he worries about leaks of radioactive water the oyster creek generating station revealed two years ago, shortly after the nuclear power plant's owner, exelon corp, won a license renewal from the nuclear regulatory commission in april 2009 exelon discovered two leaks in underground pipes, allowing radioactive tritium to enter the groundwater later that year, in august, exelon discovered yet another leak in a six inch aluminum pipe 'i know that tritium is a dangerous radioactive material,' lachawiec said tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen it occurs naturally but it's also a byproduct of nuclear power generation because of the leaks, tritium seeped into the aquifers directly underneath the power plant those underground waterways eventually feed into wells that provide drinking water monitoring wells in new jersey's cohansey aquifer last year detected tritium levels of 4 million picocuries per liter, 200 times what the environmental protection agency considers safe such radioactive spills are a problem nationwide more than half of the country's 65 nuclear power plant sites have suffered significant tritium leaks or spills, according to the nuclear regulatory commission the worst was at the braidwood plant, 60 miles southwest of chicago, also owned by exelon, which leaked more than 6 million gallons of contaminated water, causing some tritium to enter a drinking water well many of the leaks are the result of corroding underground pipes that have not been maintained that can lead to a variety of radioactive compounds entering groundwater, but tritium travels fastest through the soil the commission did not order exelon to clean up the spill at oyster creek, an example, some scientists claim, of the agency's failure to fully protect the public 'the nrc's almost acting like they're waiting till somebody dies till they enforce the regulation tombstone regulation that's too high a price to pay by americans,' said david lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project of the union of concerned scientists lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and former instructor for the nrc, claims the commission is playing what he calls 'regulatory roulette,' sanctioning plant owners and demanding a clean up in some cases, such as the braidwood spill, but not in other instances, like oyster creek 'the nrc can't have a 'wheel of misfortune' that decides when it acts and when it doesn't the nrc needs to consistently enforce its regulations so that all americans living in all states are protected,' lochbaum said the nuclear regulatory commission has taken such criticism seriously last year it conducted a self analysis to determine if it was responding adequately to nuclear plant leaks the commission's groundwater task force found that the 'nrc response to incidents could be enhanced to be more reliable' 'it's fair to say that we're inconsistent in our response,' concedes martin virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the commission 'that was one of the things that we took from that task force was that we needed to be more consistent in how we approach these problems' in the case of oyster creek and other similar plant leaks, however, the nrc argues it did the right thing in not sanctioning the plant operators because the radioactive water remained on the property of the nuclear plant 'none of the leaks have been significant if you think about the radiological effects of these leaks, none have exceeded our regulatory requirements or have caused any problems from a health perspective to anybody located either onsite or offsite of the nuclear power plants,' virgilio said new jersey's department of environmental protection sharply disagrees not only is it concerned about tritium entering the underground aquifers, but analysis also shows a plume of tritium headed toward oyster creek surface water so the state demanded exelon clean up the contaminated groundwater 'once that water moved off the plant into the water supply of the state of new jersey, we felt that it was in our responsibility to go after and protect that water supply,' said new jersey department of environmental protection commissioner bob martin 'we felt from new jersey's point of view, our number one job was to protect the health and safety of people in new jersey' exelon cooperated it drilled wells to pump out the contaminated groundwater subsequent measurements indicate tritium levels are steadily dropping as more groundwater is extracted in a written statement, the plant owner told cnn, 'exelon continues to meet with the state on a periodic basis to discuss progress of groundwater remediation for the plant, and we understand we have met expectations to date' the groundwater is processed through the oyster creek plant's cooling system, where it is diluted then it pours into the oyster creek so there are small concentrations of tritium in the creek where alfonse esposito fishes but both state and federal regulators say those levels are far below what the environmental protection agency would consider unsafe | allopathy refractable grosshead | no related information |
(cnn) there is nothing new about the tension between the united states and iran relations have swung from crisis to crisis ever since the fall of the shah in 1979 but recently, this tension is turning into outright confrontation and the threat of war in october 2011, an alleged iranian plot to kill the saudi ambassador to the united states became public a month later, the international atomic energy agency issued a report that showed iran had experimented with virtually every element of nuclear weapons production and studied how to put nuclear weapons on its missiles in december, the united states passed new sanctions designed to halt iranian oil exports that nearly crippled iran's ability to conduct international banking; the european union passed similar sanctions this january in response, iran carried out a massive naval exercise in the gulf and indian ocean it issued threats to close the gulf and even demanded that us warships should not enter the gulf iran announced it was dispersing the highly enriched uranium it had already produced at natanz and putting more advanced centrifuges inside a deeply buried site in a mountain in fordow on january 30, secretary of defense leon panetta warned that iran might have a basic nuclear device within a year, although actual weapons would take more time to produce israel's top political leadership threatened iran more directly than ever before, and iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad, issued new calls for israel's destruction iran is now far closer to making real nuclear weapons perhaps 2 to 3 years at most if it were to act decisively iran is also hiding its nuclear efforts and bringing new deeply sheltered facilities to full production as a result, israel may lose much of its capability to attack key targets in the course of this year, and some analysts put the deadline as early as this spring the fear such an attack might come when the us and european sanctions might still work is a key reason panetta and president barack obama have expressed their concerns to israel the united states is quietly building up its forces in the gulf, sending ballistic missile defense cruisers to the mediterranean and a 'mother ship' for special forces and mine sweeping to the gulf while it is making clear it prefer negotiations, the united states is also developing new weapons for its b 2 bombers that can strike at iran's underground nuclear facilities last week iran's supreme leader, the ayatollah khamenei, issued new threats to israel israeli leaders again raised the prospect of preventive strikes on iran secretary panetta cautioned israel against such action and president obama offered israel new security guarantees the us senate debated even stronger sanctions none of this has to end in war israel may be issuing veiled and not so veiled threats to push iran towards negotiations the united states may be publicly asking for israeli restraint as much to get iran's attention as out of fear that israel might strike iran could pause its programs and receive benefits in terms of cheaper fuel for its nuclear reactor program, a mix of trade and investment incentives, and an end to sanctions last week, visits by united nations officials to iran may have failed, but future visits may succeed as iran comes under greater pressure nothing about history offers any certainty about the future tensions and fears are rising in israel and the gulf a misstated or misinterpreted threat, or some seemingly minor incident in lebanon, syria, or iraq could trigger a process of escalation that could lead to serious conflict naval forces and capabilities for asymmetric warfare are steadily building on all sides the clock is ticking on preventive israel or us military options as iran gets closer to full nuclear capability unless iran begins to negotiate with the west and halts its nuclear program, every passing month will raise the threshold of risk of some kind of serious clash in the gulf israel may feel it ultimately cannot compromise the risk of war will grow and can lead to threats or actions that raise oil prices even further the united states is critically dependent on a healthy world economy that derives most of its oil from the gulf put simply, at a time of economic uncertainty, how the confrontation between iran and israel plays out has as much effect on those in the middle east as those in middle america the impact of the new us and european sanctions will not be fully felt in iran until july until then, it's hard to say what will happen from today to tomorrow follow cnn opinion on twitter join the conversation on facebook the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of anthony h cordesman | anthony cordesman us iran cordesman israel | anthony cordesman: tension between the us and iran is on the rise . cordesman: iran is now far closer to making actual nuclear weapons . he says that israel may be issuing threats in order to push iran towards negotiations . cordesman: risk of war will grow if iran doesn't halt its nuclear program |
(cnn) flamboyant and fearless, roberto cavalli is the peacock of the fashion world; with his body hugging clothes, he woos women the world over fashion designer roberto cavalli but his clients are no dainty damsels: cavalli's women are amazonian warriors and grecian goddesses, whose armor is fashion and whose weapon is sex his colorful creations are unabashed celebrations of the female form: dresses slashed to the hip or barely skimming the buttocks, necklines that plunge where no other designer dares cavalli's woman knows she looks fabulous, and isn't afraid to show it: to her, it's not just clothing, it's an announcement that she's arrived born in florence in 1940, cavalli was immersed in an intensely creative environment from childhood that influence came from his father, a tailor, and his artist grandfather, giuseppe rossi, whose work is shown in the famous uffizi galleries following in his father's footsteps, cavalli studied textile design at the local art institute by the early 70s, he had developed an innovative technique for printing on lightweight leather, and his florentine flair had led to commissions with hermes and pierre cardin in 1970, he presented his first namesake collection at the salon for prêt à porter in paris his trademark work with unconventional fabrics like embellished denim and leather, mixed with wild animal prints and exotic patterns, was embraced by the jet set and cavalli opened his first boutique in saint tropez in 1972 cavalli married his wife, eva duringer, a former miss universe, in 1980; she is now his business partner and right hand woman his fondness for bright color, exotics, fur and bold prints which he designs in his factory on the outskirts of florence have won him a name as the king of fashion excess beloved by a listers and pop princesses, these are not clothes for the shy: this is old school glamour, infused with power, wielded by women who have flounced and shimmied their way to the top see cavalli's designs on the catwalk » his main line is sold in over 50 countries worldwide, along with his diffusion lines rc menswear and just cavalli, plus a children's line, knitwear, accessories, eyewear, watches, perfumes, underwear and beachwear he's even ventured into cavalli branded vodka and wine his collaboration with high street fashion store h&m in november 2007 caused stampedes as his fans flocked to get their hands on his creations, desperate to capture some of that cavalli magic at tiny prices some have asked whether his latest collections have taken a more gentle direction but the tiger's inner fire still burns bright spring/summer 2008's bold flower prints and flirty feathered dresses were followed by autumn/winter 2008's flowered dresses that at first glance appear dewy and fresh but look closer, and the hip hugging cut belies their innocence cavalli is adored by his celebrity clientele, who flaunt his show stopping creations on red carpets from los angeles to sydney fans of his work include halle berry, sharon stone, madonna, jennifer lopez, gwyneth paltrow, beyoncè knowles, charlize theron and victoria beckham if anyone sums up the glamour and glitz of show business, it's cavalli: fashion as theatre, shameless decadence where the whole world is a stage that's underlined by his eponymous 133'9' long yacht, built 2004, and color coordinated, naturally, with his helicopter and fleet of cars | progs pterostigma cyamelide | no related information |
(cnn) the martin luther king, jr day of service is inspiring people across the country to volunteer this holiday weekend but if you're itching to do more perhaps turning your next family vacation into a series of teachable moments about the importance of giving back there are plenty of opportunities to make that happen more than disney a trip to orlando can easily involve service just 20 minutes from walt disney world is a theme park called give kids the world village its 70 acre grounds host 7,000 children with life threatening illnesses every year 'we partner with more than 250 wish granting organizations around the world to help fulfill a child's one wish to visit the beloved theme parks of central florida,' says colette krahenbuhl, a spokeswoman 'if a child's wish is to swim with the dolphins, we are the destination if a child's wish is to get a hug from mickey mouse, we help make that happen' the resort relies heavily on volunteers since its founding in 1986, more than 50,000 volunteer 'angels' have been put to work children as young as 12 can help out by scooping ice cream and serving meals, and children who love performing can even be part of the evening entertainment the minimum commitment is one three hour shift sweat soaked volunteering if your family wants a physically demanding volunteer vacation, the sierra club and local trails organizations offer unique, sweat soaked opportunities for as little as $400, a family of four can spend four to five days with the adirondack mountain club meals, lodging (usually tents), transportation and equipment included you'll be doing much needed trail maintenance, and reconstruction projects and your kids will be taught outdoor survival skills but hikers beware: 'while we know children have a lot of fun on these trips and they are exposed to an incredible experience, it can certainly be challenging,' warns wes lampman, the club's director of north country operations the club doesn't have age restrictions, but parents are urged to use their best judgment regarding their child's interest and physical ability trips are offered june through october chelsea clinton: we can make a difference good works and decent lodging the sierra club offers volunteer trips year round at some of the country's top tourist destinations at arches national park and bryce canyon in utah, parents and children can assist in removing unwanted vegetation, while in marin county, california, families can help protect endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout all meals and equipment are included, but the fee for joining is significantly higher helping out next october along the new jersey seashore, especially meaningful after hurricane sandy's devastation, will cost $595 per person but if you're looking to spend a week away from home doing good and staying in hotel style lodging this trip may still be a bargain pauline frommer, co host of the nationally syndicated radio program 'the travel show' and speaker at this year's new york times travel show, says volunteer vacations offer children what they often don't get enough of in school 'as volunteers, children can get down on the ground,' says frommer, who recommends global volunteers trips 'they can get dirty unlike any other kind of travel, kids will get to better understand different people and their communities and their problems' hiking to help others trekking for kids merges one of a kind hiking expeditions to places such as machu picchu in peru and mount kilimanjaro in tanzania with the ability to help orphans in those communities 'children are increasingly living a multicultural global existence,' says cindy steuart, executive director of the nonprofit travel group 'by being intimately involved in these service projects, they learn they can contribute to the greater good and make a difference our trips teach kids this lesson from the moment they sign up' that's because trekking for kids doesn't let parents just write a check and have their kids show up each participant pays his or her own expenses and commits to raising $1,000 children have raised money by holding bake sales, asking family and friends for donations and conducting tag sales 'we think this increases a child's personal stake in the trip kids become more passionate,' steuart says all money raised is poured into the orphanage the family will eventually visit, she says as you plan your family's volunteer vacation, frommer suggests keeping the following in mind: how long has the organization been in business? do volunteers come back? ask to speak with past volunteers; they are likely to be candid about their experiences no matter which organization you partner with, steuart says your child will likely learn an invaluable lesson 'they'll understand the world is not just about them it's about how others struggle to live and what we can do to help i think that's the kind of world martin luther king wanted' a life celebrated through service allison gilbert writes about parenting for cnn living she is the author of 'parentless parents,' 'always too soon' and 'covering catastrophe' | orlando the sierra club | children with life threatening illnesses can get their wishes at orlando's most famous parks . the sierra club and other groups offer opportunities for families to do good and sweat . trekking for kids requires participants to raise money for the orphanages they visit . kids come to 'understand the world is not just about them,' travel group leader says |
you could blame weeds, trees, and grasses if you start itching, sneezing, coughing, and wheezing this fall but the usual suspects aren't the only triggers a host of household items candles, chemicals, stuffed animals, and spices may be the real culprits from blue jeans buttons to limes to teddybears, allergy triggers come in many ways, shapes and forms 'many homes are filled with irritants, and if there's a high enough count of an irritant, you'll react,' says christopher randolph, md, an allergy expert and professor of pediatric immunology at yale university here, a rundown of 11 sneaky suspects and how to stop them from bothering you candles you can't be allergic to essential oils which make candles smell like autumn leaves or dune grass but their odors can inflame your nasal cavities, according to james wedner, md, chief of allergy and immunology at the washington university school of medicine 'people with nasal allergies have a natural increased sensitivity, so they're likely to get a runny nose or watery eyes around candles,' he says 'to the person with the sensitive nose, it's no different than cigarette smoke' what to do: if you're very sensitive, avoid candles altogether but if you love the smell and want to use them at home, buy candles that have few ingredients and feature just one scent, such as pumpkin by a process of elimination you may be able to pinpoint which scent or ingredient bothers you (smoke from candles can also be an irritant, though that usually comes from snuffing it out; open a window or blow out the flame outside) if you have a bad reaction to a scented candle, getting some fresh air should make you feel better perfume fragrances can contain hundreds of chemicals that are mostly untested on humans, wedner says when those chemicals bond with the essential oils in perfumes and are then sprayed into the air, sensitive people may take offense sneezing, congestion, and headaches can be the result what to do: kindly ask your colleagues to go easy on their favorite fragrances, and bring a portable fan to keep your area as scent free as possible if the thought of not wearing a fragrance leaves you blue, stick with body creams and moisturizers that have light scents these are less likely to irritate you soaps and detergents you think it's the chemicals in cleaning products that make you itch? surprise: 'the majority of skin sensitivities are caused not by the cleaning agent but by a perfume additive,' wedner says 'and nearly every soap now has some sort of plant in it to make it fancy roses, elderberries, etc the skin can respond with irritation, and give you a rash' read more on how to identify a rash what to do: buy organic or specially marked soaps; look for 'no additives,' 'nonscented,' or 'phthalate free' on the label phthalates are chemicals that help improve texture, but they've been linked to allergic reactions; products that contain them may have 'diethylphthalate' or something similar on the label dove, tide, and ivory all offer low irritant products, as do many organic brands if fabric softener seems to be giving your skin fits, try using a sheet of aluminum foil in your dryer instead; this trick will get rid of static cling or use a scent free, no additive version, like seventh generation free & clear natural fabric softener if you're in a public laundromat, wash and dry towels first, which will soak up the residue left behind by previous users then be sure to use that same washer and dryer to clean and dry your clothes stuffed animals dust mites living in mattresses and pillows are a huge allergy trigger roughly 15 percent of the population is allergic to these microscopic bugs encasing mattresses and pillows with impenetrable covers and cases is a useful step, but it's not enough the mites also love kids' favorite furry toys what to do: wash, dry, then repeat and use very hot water 'toys should be washed at 140 degrees, which will ensure that the mites are killed,' randolph says after they're clean store them on a shelf, not on the bed what to do with the nonwashable toys? every two to three weeks put them in a plastic bag in the freezer for a couple of hours, which will also kill the mites carpeting you may love the feel of carpeting under your feet, but mites find it just as attractive 'even if you vacuum constantly, you've still got mites,' wedner warns what to do: remove wall to wall carpeting who doesn't like a beautiful wood floor? and use small rugs that can be washed in hot water monthly 'and keep the humidity below 50 percent' with your central air system or a dehumidifier, randolph says 'dust mites thrive in humidity' read more on how to allergy proof your house spices they add nuance and zing to a variety of dishes, but there's no getting around spices' origin: pungent plants for some people, eating the spices made from these plants leads to a just little sniffling for others, it may cause itching, swelling, and even burning of the lips what to do: avoid the spices more likely to cause trouble: coriander, poppy seeds, pepper, dill, paprika, cumin, and saffron which, in broad strokes, means indian and middle eastern food if you're not sure which spices bother you, record what you've been exposed to each time you have symptoms and look for the common denominator need help planning an allergen free halloween? read on for some tips christmas trees a word to the wise before the holidays: mold grows fast on christmas trees 'when you put that tree in a bucket of water, invisible mold grows almost immediately,' wedner says 'most people are allergic to or irritated by mold spores' what to do: try a fake tree can't live without a real one? ask when it was cut down before you buy it; trees that were cut weeks in advance are already ripe with mold then, starve it of water and keep it for as short a period as possible mold grows on houseplants, too, so keep them on the dry side wall paint the solvents and synthetic resins used in paint often lead to itchy eyes and headaches oil based paints are a particular problem because they can continue releasing chemicals even after they dry what to do: keep windows open as often as possible and allow fresh air to circulate for four weeks after painting, no matter what kind of paint you use 'once it has dried and i mean really dried, weeks later the odor goes away, and you won't have a problem,' wedner says if possible, use latex paint, which emits less gas than oil based kinds due to its water base by the way, there isn't any real latex in latex paint, so if you're allergic to latex gloves the same won't apply to the paint what about paint with low levels of vocs (volatile organic compounds)? they spew fewer chemicals into the air and are less smelly than regular paints but that doesn't mean they won't bother you to find these paints, look for the 'green seal' certification mark on the label alcohol an actual allergy to alcohol is quite rare, but being allergic to the grains and additives used in liquor is not: wheat or the preservative sulfur dioxide could cause a rash or a stuffy nose new york city allergist wellington tichenor, md, founder of the information site sinusescom, also blames grains like corn, barley, and rye, as well as fruit flavorings wine and beer may create problems, too what to do: stick with grain free liquors like potato vodka, rum (made from sugar), and tequila (the agave plant) skip all flavored liquers and if sulfite preservatives in wine bother you, red wine tends to have fewer preservatives than white also, look for wine labeled 'sulfite free' (it won't stay fresh for long) and remember that anything with carbonation (like a wine cooler) increases the likelihood of an allergic reaction, tichenor adds blue jeans buttons the buttons on your jeans are probably made with the metal nickel a rash trigger for up to 20 percent of women a nickel rash near your waistline is usually itchy, red, and sometimes blistery what to do: take your pants to a tailor and have her replace the nickel buttons with plastic ones (another metal might also cause irritation) a second option: coat the button with clear nail polish, a remedy found to be effective in a recent st louis university study just be aware that nail polish itself may lead to a rash if you're sensitive to it lemons and limes limonene, a zesty compound in lime and other citrus fruits, gives many people watery eyes and a burning sensation in the nose, wedner says it might even irritate your skin, whether you touch it or eat or drink products containing limonene what to do: if you get a rash, treat it with topical hydrocortisone creams used for bug bites and poison ivy skip the lemon or lime wedge with your drink or salad, and look out for lime in salad dressings, desserts, and marinades (it's used in numerous dishes) enter to win a monthly room makeover giveaway from myhomeideascom copyright health magazine 2009 | 15 percent americans christmas | household items such as candles, wall paint, carpet may cause allergy symptoms . dust mites live in bedding and stuffed animals, irritating 15 percent of americans . mold can grow on christmas trees, household plants causing allergic reaction |
bakuriani, georgia (cnn) the 21 year old georgian luger who propelled to his death after sliding off the track during an olympic practice run in vancouver was laid to rest in his hometown saturday some 4,000 citizens from every walk of life mourned silently as nodar kumaritashvili was buried in his hometown of bakuriani the mourners included president mikhail saakashvili, who was clad in a georgian olympics shirt to show his national solidarity 'i wanted to throw a wedding feast for you,' the athlete's father, david kumaritashvili, said in a eulogy 'instead we have a funeral' kumaritashvili died during a practice run when he slammed into a steel pole near the end of the 4,500 foot long course and was propelled off the track, according to the international olympics committee a preliminary inquiry said human error caused the accident because he came out of a turn too late but nodar's family and many georgians don't accept that explanation there had been concerns from athletes about the speed of the record setting track at the whistler sliding center in vancouver ahead of the opening of the 2010 winter olympics, according to a georgian official 'there were some questions asked by other athletes even before this tragic accident,' said nikolas rurua, georgia's deputy minister for culture and sports, adding that there had been several crashes in the same area 'but at this moment it would be premature for me to jump to any conclusions' video of the crash shows kumaritashvili lying motionless after being thrown from his sled and striking the pole when he was coming out of the course's last turn he was given cardio pulmonary resuscitation by medical staff on site before being transported to a hospital where doctors were unable to revive him, the ioc said the luge is often called the 'fastest sport on ice' sliders use their legs and shoulders to steer small fiberglass sleds down an icy track, at times approaching or surpassing speeds of 90 mph, according to the vancouver 2010 winter olympics web site they are positioned on their backs with their feet straight out in front of them and their heads back to be as aerodynamic as possible a track speed record and world speed record was recorded at whistler on february 21, 2009, when a single men's luge athlete, germany's felix loch, topped 95 mph during competition american luger tony benshoof held the previous world speed record of 868 mph set in 2001 a somber seven member georgian delegation wore black armbands to the february 12 opening ceremonies, and a black ribbon was tied atop the georgian flag in tribute to kumaritashvili the team received a standing ovation from the 60,000 spectators in attendance kumaritashvili's death was the first time an athlete had been killed during the games since 1992, when a swiss skier crashed into a snow clearing machine on a public trail while training in the closing days of the games, according to nbc news, the official broadcaster of the vancouver games journalist eka kadagishvili contributed to this report | nodar kumaritashvili olympics vancouver kumaritashvili first 1992 | nodar kumaritashvili killed during olympics practice run in vancouver . preliminary inquiry says human error caused accident . other athletes expressed concerned about the speed of the luge track . kumaritashvili's death was the first since 1992 games |
(cnn) a recent study on global wellbeing showed the danes to be the happiest people on the planet and with about a fifth of them living in their capital it stands to reason that copenhagen must be a little bit special the amalienborg palaces are the royal family's winter residence so what are they so happy about? well, lifestyle magazine monocle recently named copenhagen as being the world's most livable city, highlighting the quality of its infrastructure, transport system and contemporary buildings it's true that the city is well planned and well managed; it boasts a new metro system, the main arteries in the centre are pedestrianized and the other streets are filled with cyclists rather than exhaust fumes but copenhagen is not some soulless exercise in sterile urban planning there are the winding medieval streets of indre by and the latin quarter, the picture postcard houses of nyhavn, the canals of christanshavn, and the palaces and parks of fredericksstaden and rosenborg the city is, simply, charming if you spend some time in copenhagen you'll quickly come to understand the danish concept of 'hygge', a word with multiple meanings that is best translated as something between 'cozy' and 'relaxed' but if that suggests a city of bygone cuteness it doesn't take into account the sleek modernism of danish design arne jacobsen's legacy can be seen throughout the city (check out the radisson sas royal and café stelling) but no less visionary are recent structures such as henning larsen's futuristic opera house or the dramatic new royal library, known as the 'black diamond' the clean lines and minimalism that characterize danish design are evident in the interiors of the city's stylish bars, restaurants and hotels and perhaps their influence can even be detected in the trend away from bland, stodgy cooking to a cleaner, healthier style that is earning the city's restaurants acclaim and michelin stars the alternative side of copenhagen can be seen in places like christiania, the 'free city' founded in 1971 by a collection of dropouts, hippies and social visionaries the fact that this semi autonomous experiment in communal living has survived for so long is testament to the open mindedness of the danish; but the very existence of christiania has always been controversial and government plans to 'normalize' the area suggest it may not be 'free' much longer like any city of its size, copenhagen has its share of social problems nørrebro has been the scene of a riots in recent years, with some commentators blaming social deprivation and others blaming boredom among young people but it is working class areas like nørrebro and vesterbro, away from the tourist trail, that are the beating heart of the city they are home to many of copenhagen's trendiest bars and clubs and they have a sense of community that is difficult to convey; it is something danes might describe as 'hygge' so why are the danish so happy? go to copenhagen and you'll understand | copenhagen danish | copenhagen has been described as the world's most livable city . the city is charming, with medieval streets, canals and royal palaces . sleek danish design is evident everywhere and gives the city a modern edge . the 'free city' of christiania is testimony to danish open mindedness |
london, england (cnn) one revolutionized women's hair in the 1960s another brought fear to middle earth another is a champion golfer who now designs courses all over the world christopher lee is famous for playing count dracula and his roles in 'lord of the rings' and 'star wars' films vidal sassoon, christopher lee and nick faldo are among those recognized this year on queen elizabeth's birthday honors list lee and faldo will both receive knighthoods, meaning they can now be known as 'sir christopher' and 'sir nick' lee, 87, is famous for his portrayal of dark villains, starting with count dracula in a series of movies from the late 1950s until the 1970s he gained a new generation of fans in in the past decade through is role as the bad wizard saruman the white in the the 'lord of the rings' trilogy, and as the evil count dooku in two 'star wars' prequels world famous golfer nick faldo holds six major championship titles three from the british open and three from the masters he has the record for the longest streak of majors played 48 dating to the 1987 british open, according to the pga tour faldo is now almost as famous for designing golf courses as he is for playing the sport he also serves as a television commentator a knighthood is the highest honor, and recipients may use the title 'sir' before their names the equivalent for women is to be awarded the title of 'dame' they recognize a 'pre eminent contribution' in any field next come cbes, or commanders of the order of the british empire, which recognize contribution to a slightly lesser degree recipients may not use the title of sir or dame but may use the initials after their names sassoon will be awarded a cbe for his services to the british hairdressing industry it recognizes a lifetime of achievement for sassoon, who as a young boy spent years in a london orphanage after his father left and his mother could not afford to care for him later, after his mother dreamed of her son being in a barber shop, she apprenticed him to a local barber that began a career that saw him develop two classic hairstyles of the sixties the bob and the even shorter five point cut along with an eponymous hair care line, range of hair care tools, and chain of salons also receiving a cbe is jonathan pryce, a golden globe nominated actor who has had roles in the 'pirates of the caribbean' movies, 'ronin,' and the james bond film 'tomorrow never dies' he won a best actor award in 1995 at cannes for his part in the movie 'carrington' actor alan cumming will receive an obe, or order of the british empire, awarded for notable achievement in any field he was recognized for 'services to film, theater and the arts and to activism for equal rights for the gay and lesbian community' a large number of artists and others in creative fields are featured on this year's list andrew motion, who was britain's poet laureate until he stepped down this year, will receive a knighthood, and several names in fashion will also receive awards fashion designer jeff banks will receive a cbe; frances marie corner, the head of the london college of fashion, will receive an obe; and mbes will go to christopher bailey, the creative director at burberry, and natalie massenet, the founder of online designer shopping site net a porter honors lists are published twice a year once on new year's day and once in june, to mark the queen's 'official' birthday the queen's actual birthday is in april but she celebrates it in june because the weather is better | hairdresser vidal sassoon nick faldo uk dracula christopher lee elizabeth jonathan pryce alan cumming | hairdresser vidal sassoon, golfer nick faldo honored by uk's queen . 'dracula' star christopher lee knighted in queen elizabeth's birthday honors list . actors jonathan pryce and alan cumming also honored |
(cnn) once again, thanks to everyone who made connections between canada and the ivory coast we were quite amazed at the links you found between two countries that at first glance appear to be worlds apart we started the week by talking to lonely planet editor tom hall he told cnn's max foster that one of the most interesting links is that both countries have brilliant borders canada's border with the united states is the longest land border in the world, hall said meanwhile the ivory coast, which has five countries neighboring it and a sea coast, has a most unusual border ailish coblentz in toronto made another interesting point related to borders the populations of both countries live near the periphery most canadians live near the us border, and likewise citizens in the ivory coast live around the edges 'jose nagbe,' like many of you, noted that a shared french heritage links canada and the ivory coast 'philip ideh' connected the two countries by pointing out that both countries have great monuments the ivory coast, for instance, has the largest church in the world ziebono nagbe also linked the two countries by religion, saying that there are sizeable catholic populations in both canada and the ivory coast we also interviewed canadian author yann martel, the booker prize winning author of 'life of pi' he told us about how canada inspires and shapes his work there were two main food related connections that many made 'curt,' a commenter on the blog, said the ivory coast is a major producer of coffee, and canadians love coffee bob nelmes pointed out that the ivory coast produces loads of cocoa and that canadians love drinking hot chocolate, especially during the wintertime we also took a closer look at the the cocoa industry in the ivory coast, highlighting some of the challenges farmers there face 'linda sampson' used sports fans to connect the two countries canadian fans of ice hockey and ivorian soccer fans are both 'crazy and dedicated,' she wrote on the blog please keep sending us your comments the next set of countries we're looking at is turkey and china check out our quiz to see how much you know about these two countries, and if you make any links, leave us a message on the blog as usual, we'll investigate the best on connect the world happy connecting! | canada the ivory coast food china turkey | we highlight the links you made between canada and the ivory coast . food, religion and sports were all used to connect the two countries . try connecting our next set of countries: china and turkey |
(cnn) alex trebek, longtime host of the television quiz show 'jeopardy,' was injured while chasing a burglar out of his hotel room early tuesday the 71 year old tv personality revealed his condition at the national geographic world championship in san francisco footage shot by cnn affiliate kgo showed trebek taking the long way to the stage, hobbling on crutches up the disabled access ramp he placed his crutches to one side and hopped over to the podium, where he told his story with the dry wit 'jeopardy' fans have come to love 'i deal with answers and questions,' trebek told the crowd 'and today i'm going to start with the answer to a question i suspect is on many of your minds right now the answer is 'at 2:30 yesterday morning, chasing a burglar down the hall until my achilles tendon ruptured and i fell in an ignominious heap, bruising my other leg in the process' trebek did not address the injury again except to say that he was fine and expected surgery to take place friday but when reached for comment, a communications director for the show confirmed the incident 'it's true!' said phil zimmerman, a spokesman for 'jeopardy' at sony 'alex is fine and all the details in this story are true alex isn't going to be making any official statement or commenting any further than what he said at the national geographic world championship this morning' but the san francisco police department revealed details of the case and the subsequent arrest in response to inquiries from cnn the police report does not identify trebek or his wife, who was also in the room, by name it does say that movement in the hotel room awoke one of the victims, who gave chase as a suspect left with stolen personal items the other victim notified hotel security, who were able to detain the suspect she was identified by both victims as the person in the hotel room the suspect was arrested by police, and identified as 56 year old lucinda moyers she has been charged with burglary and receiving stolen property | prostrator overphilosophize ozonosphere | no related information |
(cnn) anyone who doubts roland burris' qualifications to serve as the next senator from illinois may want to head to chicago's oak woods cemetery roland burris has erected a mausoleum listing his accompishments in chicago's oak woods cemetery there, burris, whom embattled illinois gov rod blagojevich appointed to succeed president elect barack obama in the senate on tuesday, has erected a granite mausoleum listing his many accomplishments under the seal of the state of illinois and the words 'trail blazer,' burris, 71, has listed his many firsts in granite, including being the state's first african american attorney general and the state's first african american comptroller the memorial also notes that burris was the first african american exchange student to hamburg university in germany from southern illinois university in 1959 there appears to be enough room to add 'us senator' to the memorial, but burris may never get a chance to serve in washington a senate democratic aide told cnn on wednesday that plans were in the works to prevent burris from being seated in the senate after blagojevich made the surprise move to appoint obama's successor, senate democrats praised burris but said they could not accept any appointment by blagojevich after his arrest on corruption charges earlier this month federal prosecutors say he conspired to 'sell' obama's senate seat for campaign donations and other favors | allotheist kernelless rizzonite | no related information |
(cnn) argentine coach diego maradona has urged carlos tevez to quit manchester united at the end of the season and head for italy tevez has been advised by argentine coach maradona to leave old trafford at the end of the season maradona watched united trounce chelsea 3 0 last weekend at old trafford where striker tevez remained on the bench despite a rousing reception when he went on a touchline warm up during the game 'i saw the manchester united match they won, but did so without tevez this situation is not good for him for sure, certain things are happening which mean his departure is nearing,' maradona told italian newspaper corriere dello sport 'italy, and inter (milan) in particular, would be great for him among other things, the fact that his contract is soon to expire facilitates a change of shirt' weekend reports claimed that united manager alex ferguson has already pinpointed lyon's french international striker karim benzema as his chief summer target benzema, whose contract runs until 2013, made his mark against united in a champions league tie last season when he scored in a first leg tie he hit the target 20 times as lyon secured a seventh straining french league title and he has netted five times in this season's champions league lyon are said to be willing to cash in at the right price with spanish giants barcelona and real madrid also monitoring the situation media reports said lyon would want around £40 million (45 million euros) for benzema while the asking price for tevez he joined united on a two year loan is likely to be around £32 million tevez, who hit the headlines during two seasons in brazil with corinthians, has struggled to retain a starting place at old trafford following his controversial stay at west ham he has indicated he would respond positively to any approach from real madrid, but is sure to take on board the advice of maradona who twice led napoli to the serie a title after joining the italian club from barcelona meanwhile, west ham face a fresh inquiry after the fa and premier league launched an investigation relating to dealings with tevez's representatives after the club had initially been fined £55m for breaching league rules over third party agreements it follows the findings of an arbitration tribunal in favour of sheffield united and against west ham last year which decided tevez should not have been able to play for the hammers at the end of the 2006 07 season premier league west ham insist that they have nothing to hide | diego maradona carlos tevez manchester utd end of season argentine italy inter milan tevez maradona united chelsea the weekend | diego maradona urges carlos tevez to quit manchester utd at end of season . argentine coach believes striker would be better off joining italy's inter milan . tevez on bench when maradona watched united beat chelsea at the weekend |
editor's note: peter bergen is cnn's national security analyst and a fellow at the new america foundation in washington and at new york university's center on law and security his most recent book is 'the osama bin laden i know: an oral history of al qaeda's leader' peter bergen says it's crucial to correctly frame the nature of a war before beginning it washington (cnn) president elect barack obama and his foreign policy advisers and speechwriters are wrestling with one of the most important speeches of his presidency, his inaugural address one of their toughest conceptual challenges is how to describe and recast what the bush administration has consistently termed the 'war on terror' the dean of military strategists, carl von clausewitz, explains the importance of this decision making in his treatise 'on war': 'the first, the supreme, the most decisive act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establishthe kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into something that is alien to its nature' clausewitz's excellent advice about the absolute necessity of properly defining the war upon which a nation is about to embark was ignored by bush administration officials who instead declared an open ended and ambiguous 'war on terror' after the united states was attacked on september 11, 2001 bush took the nation to war against a tactic, rather than a war against a specific enemy, which was obviously al qaeda and anyone allied to it when the united states went to war against the nazis and the japanese during world war ii, president franklin roosevelt and his congressional supporters did not declare war against u boats and kamikaze pilots, but on the nazi state and imperial japan the war on terror, sometimes known as the 'global war on terror' or by the clunky acronym gwot, became the lens through which the bush administration judged almost all of its foreign policy decisions that proved to be dangerously counterproductive on several levels the gwot framework propelled the bush administration into its disastrous entanglement in iraq it had nothing to do with 9/11 but was launched under the rubric of the war on terror and the erroneous claims that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction the theory was that he might give such weapons to terrorists, including al qaeda to whom he was supposedly allied, and that he therefore threatened american interests none of this, of course, turned out to be true the bush administration's approach to the war on terror collided badly with another of its doctrines, spreading democracy in the middle east as a panacea to reduce radicalism it pushed for elections in the palestinian territories in which, in early 2006, the more radical hamas won a resounding victory, propelled to power on a wave of popular revulsion for the incompetence and corruption of the fatah party that had dominated palestinian politics since the 1960s imprisoned by its war on terror framework, the bush administration supported israel in a disastrous war against hezbollah in lebanon in the summer of 2006 hezbollah is not only a terrorist group but is also part of the rickety lebanese government and runs social welfare services across the country, yet for the bush administration its involvement in terrorism was all that mattered as is now widely understood in israel, the war against hezbollah was a moral and tactical defeat for the israeli military and government events in the current israeli incursion in gaza will determine whether history repeats itself under the banner of the war on terror, the bush administration also tied itself in conceptual knots conflating the threat from al qaeda with shiite groups like hezbollah and the ayatollahs in iran in 2006, for instance, president bush claimed that 'the sunni and shiite extremist represent different faces of the same threat' in reality, sunni and shiite extremists have been killing each other in large numbers for years in countries from pakistan to iraq the groups have differing attitudes toward the united states, which sunni extremists attacked in 1993 and again on 9/11, while shiite militants have never done so so, how to reconceptualize the gwot? contrary to a common view among europeans, who have lived through the bombing campaigns of various nationalist and leftist terror groups for decades, al qaeda is not just another criminal/terrorist group that can be dealt with by police action and law enforcement alone after all, a terrorist organization like the irish republican army would call in warnings before its attacks and its single largest massacre killed 29 people by contrast, al qaeda has declared war on the united states repeatedly as it did for the first time to a western audience during osama bin laden's 1997 interview with cnn following that declaration of war, the terror group attacked american embassies, a us warship, the pentagon and the financial heart of the united states, killing thousands of civilians without warning; acts of war by any standard al qaeda is obviously at war with the united states and so to respond by simply recasting the gwot as the gpat, the global police action against terrorists, would be foolish and dangerous what kind of war then should the united states fight against al qaeda? for that we should learn some lessons from the conceptual errors of the bush administration nine days after 9/11, bush addressed congress in a speech watched live by tens of millions of americans in which he said that al qaeda followed in the footsteps 'of the murderous ideologies of the 20th centurythey follow in the path of fascism, nazism and totalitarianism,' implying that the fight against al qaeda would be similar to world war ii or the cold war for the bush administration, painting the conflict in such existential terms had the benefit of casting the president as the heroic reincarnation of winston churchill and anyone who had the temerity to question him as the reincarnation of hitler's arch appeaser, neville chamberlain but this portrayal of the war on terror was massively overwrought the nazis occupied and subjugated most of europe and instigated a global conflict that killed tens of millions and when the united states fought the nazis, the country spent 40 percent of its gross domestic product to do so and fielded millions of soldiers in his inaugural address, obama should say that the united states is indeed at 'war against al qaeda and its allies,' but that as roosevelt said in his inaugural address in 1933, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself if americans are not terrorized by terrorists, then the us has won against them al qaeda and its allies are threats to the united states and americans living and working overseas, but they are far from all powerful barring an exceptional event like september 11, 2001, in any given year americans are more likely to die of snake bites or lightning strikes than a terrorist attack despite the hyperventilating rhetoric of osama bin laden, al qaeda's amateur investigations into weapons of mass destruction do not compare to the very real possibility of nuclear conflagration that we faced during the cold war there are relatively few adherents of binladen ism in the west today, while there were tens of millions of devotees of communism and fascism obama should also make it clear that instead of the bush formulation of 'either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,' the obama administration doctrine will be, 'anyone who is against the terrorists is with us' after all it is only al qaeda and its several affiliates in countries like iraq, lebanon and algeria and allied groups such as the taliban that kill us soldiers and civilians and attack american interests around the globe everyone else in the world is a potential or actual ally in the fight against al qaeda and its affiliates, because those organizations threaten almost every category of institution, government and ethnic grouping this is the first of two commentaries on the war on terror read the second piece, peter bergen's commentary on what principles barack obama should follow in waging war against al qaeda and its allies, friday, january 9 on cnncom the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of peter bergen | peter bergen bush bergen us al qaeda | peter bergen: bush never correctly framed the 'global war on terror'. he says the president went to war against the tactic of terrorism . instead, bergen says, the us should be leading a war vs al qaeda . bergen: al qaeda is a formidable enemy, but not the equivalent of fascism |
(cnn) radovan karadzic, whose interpol charges listed 'flamboyant behavior' as a distinguishing characteristic, was a practicing psychiatrist who came to be nicknamed the 'butcher of bosnia' twice indicted in 1995 by the un international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia, karadzic faces charges of genocide over the massacre of nearly 8,000 muslim men and boys at srebrenica, and nine other charges related to ethnic violence during the breakup of yugoslavia in the 1990s he had filed a motion seeking acquittal on all 11 counts in june, but was successful on only one while president of the so called serbian republic of bosnia herzegovina, karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred over hundreds of thousands of muslims and croats during a campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' early estimates of the death toll from the 3 year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000 the us state department had a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture his arrest brings an end to more than 10 years as a fugitive karadzic was born on june 19, 1945, in petnjica, montenegro he studied psychiatry and medicine at the university of sarajevo during the 1960s and took courses in psychiatry and poetry at columbia university from 1974 to 1975 karadzic, a serb croat, in 1990 helped found the serbian democratic party (sds), a party aimed at unifying serbs into a common state, and became its president two years later, he became president of the newly declared serbian republic of bosnia and herzegovina, later called 'republika srpska' during the next three years, he ordered bosnian serb forces to seize the majority of bosnia and herzegovina he also announced, according to his un indictment, six 'strategic objectives' for the serbian people they included the establishment of state borders between the serbs and the other two ethnic communities, bosnian muslims and bosnian croats answering to him, according to the indictment, was bosnian serb military commander ratko mladic from may 1992, the indictment alleged, bosnian serb forces under mladic's command targeted civilian areas of sarajevo with shelling and sniping during a three year conflict within the city in july 1995, according to the un indictment, troops under mladic's command executed an estimated 7,000 bosnian muslim male prisoners in srebrenica, a un safe area, and then participated in a comprehensive effort to conceal the killings the massacre is considered the worst in europe since world war ii the indictment states that bosnian serb forces acted under karadzic's direction and worked to 'significantly reduce the bosnian muslim, bosnian croat and other non serb populations' in municipalities that were seized karadzic was last seen in public in september 1996, a year after the dayton peace accords brought a formal end to the conflict and banned anyone accused of war crimes, including him, from office he reportedly shaved his trademark bushy hair, grew a beard and donned priest's robes, moving from monastery to monastery in the mountains to avoid capture cnn correspondent alessio vinci said in 2008: 'he enjoyed protection from the local population, wherever he was hiding legend has it he disguised himself as a priest to take part in his mother's funeral 'in 2002, after nato launched one of its many failed raids to try to arrest karadzic in bosnia, i interviewed his mother at that time she said: 'serbs are righteous people and i can see that they support him, and that they adore him the way he is they would lose their lives to protect him'' despite years on the run, karadzic wrote 'miraculous chronicles of the night' 1,200 copies of which sold out at the 2004 belgrade international book fair after his arrest was announced, serb officials revealed the final chapter of his life on the run had seen karadic reprise his medical role, working in a clinic in belgrade under a false identity and heavily disguised by a white beard, long hair and spectacles | evocation unanticipatingly unscrewing | no related information |
tokyo (cnn) a contentious crowd of tokyo electric power company shareholders showed up tuesday for their first meeting since the march tsunami to grill company executives about the future of the embattled company, as well as nuclear energy in japan but in the end, they rejected a motion for the company to abandon nuclear power, according to the japanese news agency kyodo, despite plenty of opposition 'i am against the idea of the board of directors' decision to maintain the nuclear plants i am here to see that the right decision is taken,' said kazuko takahashi, as she waited in line to get into the meeting 'the world is moving in that direction and i don't think tepco can resist that forever,' she said, referring to anti nuclear movements in nations like germany germany's government formally approved a plan this month to close all the country's nuclear power plants by 2022 more than 9,000 people attended the tepco meeting, which lasted six hours both numbers were record highs, kyodo said wrapped in a white tyvek protective suit and mask, similar to the suits worn by members of the clean up crews at fukushima daiichi power plant, mamiko nakanishi was urging a general vote in japan protesters, including several activists from the environmental group greenpeace, held up a banner that called tepco 'the worst ever polluting company' they called out to the shareholders: 'you can change things, get tepco to dismantle their nuclear plants' many of the shareholders had never been to a board meeting before but with tepco stocks in freefall they are worth about a tenth of their pre tsunami value the shareholders wanted to have their say about plans for the company in which they had invested more than three months after the march 11 earthquake and tsunami, tepco is still struggling to control the crisis at fukushima, the worst nuclear accident since chernobyl in 1986 three of the reactors experienced full meltdowns and continue to spew radiation recent efforts to decontaminate radioactive water that accumulated in the plant were halted because of continuing technical troubles | tricyanide infer somniosus | no related information |
(entertainment weekly) punctuation promises comedy in 'the informant!' as if the title subject is a cartoon secret agent maybe agent 86 in 'get smart' matt damon, as a corporate turncoat, offers up secrets in 'the informant!' but he's not the whistle blower worthy of an exclamation point in this groovy looking, chuckle baiting, fact based movie from protean director steven soderbergh is mark whitacre (matt damon), a biochemist and well placed executive at the agri processing giant archer daniels midland (adm) in decatur, illinois it's the early 1990s the company man is helping expose adm's alleged global price fixing activities to the fbi, cooperating with the feds long enough to gather invaluable evidence but what whitacre doesn't confide to his fbi handlers, and what his wheat colored jackets, dilbert ties, and weakling mustache hide, at least at first, is that this inside source is not completely trustworthy damon, fattened up to fit his boxy suits, wears whitacre's slack demeanor beautifully the star who has quietly and steadily turned into a great everyman actor is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies watch why damon gained 30 pounds for the role » soderbergh's amused study of the highest ranking corporate whistleblower in us history is adapted from 'the informant: a true story,' an amazing, deeply reported book by new york times reporter kurt eichenwald that book told the story without editorial eye rolling but somewhere between eichenwald's journalistic attention to detail and the bubbly, dialogue besotted script by 'the bourne ultimatum's' scott z burns, soderbergh has chosen to apply an attitude of arch whoopee, a greasy veneer of mirth over what is, no joke, a serious mess of malfeasance and mental instability it's tempting to laugh, but what's the joke: whitacre? adm? the fbi? the fashion trends of decatur? smarty condescension lurks behind the suburban bushes had a '90s date and place card not been supplied, i would have remained in an honest muddle about the era depicted on screen and since whitacre is subliminally likened to bumbling, fictional maxwell smart, that's probably as the filmmaker intended the artistic choice is reinforced by a '70s era 'laugh in' aesthetic seen in everything from the smiley yellow novelty typography of the opening credits to the fancy rubber chicken music served up in heaps of horns and whistles by essence of '70s composer marvin hamlisch sock it to me playing it straight and letting his sam donaldson meets spock hairdo suggest otherwise, scott bakula makes an appealing fbi agent with a deadpan grimace just this side or maybe it's the other side of 'dragnet's' joe friday comedian joel mchale from e!'s 'the soup' plays the fellow agent who stares with big round eyes while his partner squints at whitacre's successive leakages of truth/lie/ truth/lie the always wonderful, huggable melanie lynskey, who stole the show in 'away we go,' does more great wifely work as ginger whitacre, her husband's biggest booster a valued subset of soderbergh's audience is sure to dig iconic hipster comic brothers tom and dick smothers in small roles in fact, the wily pair would fit right in with an 'ocean's whatever' cast of coolios, enjoying some retro style ensemble fun, regardless of whether the audience does soderbergh is as smart, stylish, and attentive a filmmaker as they come and there are moments in 'the informant!' when i can almost be convinced that the tonal feints he establishes at the intersection of joke and no joke are seriously, thoughtfully meant to replicate the misaligned synapses in whitacre's own head ireportcom: damon's latest worth checking out but if that's the intention, soderbergh ultimately made the choice to abandon interesting, dispassionate empathy for the more quick fix payoff of amusement as whitacre goes through his days, damon recites interior monologues of distracted observation in voice overs meant to demonstrate how his character's unusual brain works in 'the informant!', that brain screwy and yet capable of doing important undercover work free associates like ellen degeneres on a swing through walmart cute, but as even agent 86 would say in 'get smart': missed it by that much ew grade: b click here to try 2 risk free issues of entertainment weekly copyright 2009 entertainment weekly and time inc all rights reserved | quadripolar undervaluer parthenophobia | no related information |
(cnn) a strengthening el nino is expected to bring torrential rain thursday to parts of southern california, including los angeles, and authorities warned of possibly severe mudslides in areas denuded by forest fires the storm could dump 8 inches to 10 inches of rain on the los angeles area and higher amounts in the foothills, the national weather service said late tuesday, los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa expecting a dangerous storm wednesday urged hundreds of californians to leave their homes a torrential rainfall tuesday unleashed flooding and spawned a rare tornado warning are you being affected by the storms? send your images, video there has been some resistance to the advice, a detective with the los angeles police department said the detective, who wouldn't give her entire name, said she didn't know how many people decided to leave flash flooding on california golf course there was heavy rain wednesday in san francisco and sacramento, california, but los angeles had little precipitation as of about noon driving by homes, businesses under water a warm ocean current from the south pacific is responsible for this week's storms, said cnn meteorologist chad myers with little vegetation to help contain the water, the vast expanses in southern california that were hit by wildfires late last summer are causing concern for officials the largest of the fires known as the station fire charred 250 square miles of land last summer north and east of los angeles 'if you are lower in elevation than where a fire happened earlier this year, you need to be very, very cautious,' myers said forecasters said several feet of snow would fall in the higher elevations of the sierra nevada through the rest of this week, as low pressure systems continue moving into the area | el nino thursday southern california the south pacific | el nino expected to bring torrential rain thursday to parts of southern california . authorities warned of possibly severe mudslides in areas denuded by forest fires . warm ocean current from the south pacific responsible for storm |
(cnn) tanya gray, 28, works at a preschool in florence, where she has lived for the last two years she first moved to the city seven years ago from her home in luxemburg, when she and a friend decided to travel to italy's cultural capital to enroll as students 'once you have seen the duomo and some of the old buildings you can't really compare it to anywhere else' while there she fell in love, and over the following years she was either in the city or planning her next trip there cnn: hi tanya what were your initial impressions on coming to florence? tanya: it's a very beautiful city, it's very young and there are always things to do: there's always a party; there's always something going on and that was very different from luxemburg for me luxemburg is a very small place and there's not much going on, but in florence there is so much energy i was expecting something a lot more like rome, a lot bigger florence is one of those places that is not too big, but it's still a city, so wherever you go you meet different people, it's not that everyone knows everything about you but it's small enough so that you can walk everywhere i don't have a car, and walk everywhere i have been totally immersed in the florentine way of life: i'm married to a florentine, i spend all my time with his friends i didn't even know there was an english language newspaper in florence until very recently cnn: what has made the city so special to you? tanya: that would have to be all the historic buildings and the architecture, because once you have seen the duomo and some of the old buildings you can't really compare it to anywhere else when you see the duomo, it's breathtaking and there are various places in the city, such as the piazzale michelangelo, from where you can see the whole of the city, and it's beautiful you can just spend ages there, especially if you are an art enthusiast cnn: if florence were a person, what would they be like? tanya: they would be a really fun, enthusiastic, very lively and cheerful person cnn: is florence a stylish place? tanya: yes, of course all the italians kit themselves out when they go around the center of florence, everyone is wearing the latest fashion even the mothers of 50 and 60 years old have all got them you get taken along with the current, even though in the beginning you think, 'no, i'm not going to be like them, i'm not' but in the end you just get taken along with the flow otherwise you just feel underdressed a lot of american students who come to florence and there are lots and lots of students in the center, most of whom are american are a lot less dressy than the italians, and the italians can spot them a mile away cnn: is it hard to find places away from the tourists? tanya: oh no the center is very touristy, but if you travel about a kilometer outside of the center it is actually hard to find someone to who speaks english i live about three kilometers from the center of the city and round there it's really tough to find someone who speaks english you walk into a bakery and everything has to be said in italian also, some of the clubs 10 minutes' drive from the center are a lot less touristy than the clubs in the center cnn: where do you shop? tanya: obviously there are lots of shops in the city, but there are also lots of markets, and many people shop at them i definitely shop at markets because the shops in town are so much more expensive, especially for clothes and they're not just in the center, they're also on the outskirts as well, which tend to be cheaper, because the ones in the center can rip you off if you're a tourist, or if you look like one cnn: could you describe a typical florentine's weekend? tanya: on saturday morning they would go for a walk into town and have a look at all the shops in the center and then the italians are very fond of aperitifs before they go out, and lots of the bars have these aperitifs put out one of the bars in town is called slowly and a lot of people go there and have their cocktail and their little things to eat, sausage rolls, crisps and all the different little things then they would go onto a club, a really good one is called otel, it's in the south of florence, a ten minute drive from the center, and it's a really nice club you can have dinner, watch a show with comedians, live singing and dancing, and then it turns into a club after about 1230 on sundays, lots of the italian people, if it's nice weather, like to go for a drive in the chianti region: it's beautiful they might stop for lunch in one of these very quaint little restaurants if it's terrible weather they can go to the big shopping center, which is called gilli sunday nights are very popular nights to have an aperitif, as well it's a big student town, and thursday night is a big night to go out as well well, in the city center any night you can find people going out there is constantly something going on where have you found the 'real' florence? do you agree with tanya? send us your comments in the 'sound off' box below and we'll print the best e mail to a friend | cnn florence tanya gray italian florentines | cnn spoke to florence resident tanya gray about life in the italian city . florence is small enough to walk everywhere, big enough to stay fresh . locals can spot the tourists they're not as dressy as native florentines . florence has a good nightlife, with many clubs and bars open late |
editor's note: in our behind the scenes series, cnn correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events here, soledad o'brien tells users about her work with young people who videotaped their stories in post katrina new orleans from left: shantia reneau, deshawn dabney, soledad o'brien, amanda hill and brandon franklin new orleans, louisiana (cnn) eighteen year old amanda hill sits on a plastic lawn chair in a gutted home, talking straight into a camera she looks shell shocked, as if she has survived a war, and in a way that is exactly what has happened amanda and her grandmother lost their home and their livelihood as a result of hurricane katrina 'i know what it is like not to have the finer things in life,' she says, 'and i don't need that to be happy, but i wake up at 3 am to hearing my grandma crying because she doesn't know if she'll have money to put milk in the fridge or bread on the table' watch amanda's story amanda speaks these words on the very first tape she sends to us in february of this year she is one of 11 new orleans area students, age 12 to 20, who received cameras from me and filmmaker spike lee in january their mission: take the cameras and tell us the story of your post katrina lives for instance, amanda tells us her grandmother, dolores, has mentioned suicide 'all i could say was it's going to be ok, when in my heart i don't think it is' dolores has raised amanda since she was 11 years old that was the year her mother died from cancer since returning to st bernard parish, east of new orleans, dolores has tried to support the two of them while working at mcdonald's in early spring, 15 year old deshawn dabney confides to his camera, 'i don't want to be dead at 15 i have dreams, a whole life to live i want to be this huge entertainer and there is no way i can do that if i'm dead' he has reason to be concerned he is speaking just days after a neighbor, 17 year old anthony placide, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head the shooting happened only a few hundred feet from deshawn's front door watch deshawn's story on another tape we get a few days later, deshawn is interviewing anthony's 14 year old brother, jamell hurst 'i was shocked,' jamell tells deshawn about his brother's murder by now, i'm a bit shocked too, by the emotions these kids are sharing on these tapes seventeen year old shantia reneau talks about her inability to afford the college of her dreams, southeastern louisiana university all of the family's extra money is going toward rebuilding their damaged home in the 9th ward they're living in a fema trailer in a parking lot 'i really want to go to southeastern, but if not, i'll have to stay down here,' she says while walking along her damaged street 'i didn't want to new orleans has nothing to offer, nothing, not a thing' watch shantia's story nineteen year old brandon franklin is looking outside new orleans, too he wants to go away to college to study to become a band director but it may be a tough road for him he is raising a 1 year old with his live in girlfriend, ivorionne, and they have another baby on the way 'i feel like we're a little bit too young for the responsibilities we have,' he tells the camera in a strong, confident voice 'but i feel like i can do anything i put my mind to' seeing and hearing him, you want to believe it watch brandon's story amanda, deshawn, shantia and brandon are among the approximately 30,000 students who attend public schools in orleans and st bernard parish nearly two years after the storm, down from more than 75,000 before katrina hit on the day we distributed the cameras, spike lee told the kids to 'just go out and shoot, tape is cheap' with this cheap tape these kids have taught us all a powerful, infinitely valuable lesson that will stay with me forever e mail to a friend | soledad o'brien spike lee january | soledad o'brien and spike lee gave kids cameras in january . one student's neighbor was killed by a gunshot . student may not go to chosen college as family's money goes to rebuild home |
editor's note: in our behind the scenes series, cnn correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events here, soledad o'brien takes users inside a jail where many of the inmates are mentally ill an inmate housed on the 'forgotten floor,' where many mentally ill inmates are housed in miami before trial miami, florida (cnn) the ninth floor of the miami dade pretrial detention facility is dubbed the 'forgotten floor' here, inmates with the most severe mental illnesses are incarcerated until they're ready to appear in court most often, they face drug charges or charges of assaulting an officer charges that judge steven leifman says are usually 'avoidable felonies' he says the arrests often result from confrontations with police mentally ill people often won't do what they're told when police arrive on the scene confrontation seems to exacerbate their illness and they become more paranoid, delusional, and less likely to follow directions, according to leifman so, they end up on the ninth floor severely mentally disturbed, but not getting any real help because they're in jail we toured the jail with leifman he is well known in miami as an advocate for justice and the mentally ill even though we were not exactly welcomed with open arms by the guards, we were given permission to shoot videotape and tour the floor go inside the 'forgotten floor' » at first, it's hard to determine where the people are the prisoners are wearing sleeveless robes imagine cutting holes for arms and feet in a heavy wool sleeping bag that's kind of what they look like they're designed to keep the mentally ill patients from injuring themselves that's also why they have no shoes, laces or mattresses leifman says about one third of all people in miami dade county jails are mentally ill so, he says, the sheer volume is overwhelming the system, and the result is what we see on the ninth floor of course, it is a jail, so it's not supposed to be warm and comforting, but the lights glare, the cells are tiny and it's loud we see two, sometimes three men sometimes in the robes, sometimes naked, lying or sitting in their cells 'i am the son of the president you need to get me out of here!' one man shouts at me he is absolutely serious, convinced that help is on the way if only he could reach the white house leifman tells me that these prisoner patients will often circulate through the system, occasionally stabilizing in a mental hospital, only to return to jail to face their charges it's brutally unjust, in his mind, and he has become a strong advocate for changing things in miami over a meal later, we talk about how things got this way for mental patients leifman says 200 years ago people were considered 'lunatics' and they were locked up in jails even if they had no charges against them they were just considered unfit to be in society over the years, he says, there was some public outcry, and the mentally ill were moved out of jails and into hospitals but leifman says many of these mental hospitals were so horrible they were shut down where did the patients go? nowhere the streets they became, in many cases, the homeless, he says they never got treatment leifman says in 1955 there were more than half a million people in state mental hospitals, and today that number has been reduced 90 percent, and 40,000 to 50,000 people are in mental hospitals the judge says he's working to change this starting in 2008, many inmates who would otherwise have been brought to the 'forgotten floor' will instead be sent to a new mental health facility the first step on a journey toward long term treatment, not just punishment leifman says it's not the complete answer, but it's a start leifman says the best part is that it's a win win solution the patients win, the families are relieved, and the state saves money by simply not cycling these prisoners through again and again and, for leifman, justice is served e mail to a friend | miami steven leifman cnn leifman | mentally ill inmates in miami are housed on the 'forgotten floor'. judge steven leifman says most are there as a result of 'avoidable felonies'. while cnn tours facility, patient shouts: 'i am the son of the president'. leifman says the system is unjust and he's fighting for change |
seoul (cnn) pictured giggling on a park bench, 89 year old lee soon sang and his wife, kim eun hae, look as though they met just yesterday in fact, they married more than 60 years ago but for half a century, kim believed her husband was dead, missing in action during the korean war (1950 53) then in august 2004, a telephone call came from china 'i thought someone was trying to make money off me i got many calls like that over the years from china, but i didn't pay attention,' she said this was no ordinary call the voice on the other end of the line shook her to the core it really was her husband 'i asked, 'are you really alive?' he answered, 'yes, i am alive' then i asked if he knew so and so, and he did know them that's how i knew it was real' when they finally met, they barely recognized each other 'he was so skinny, he was wobbling in,' recalled kim 'i could only recognize his nose' in contrast lee couldn't believe how well fed his wife looked 'she looked like one of those landlords from the old days,' he said 'and the propaganda, that all south koreans are starving to death that americans are taking all the rice and only giving back rotten flour i only heard this kind of propaganda, so i thought she was dead 'we just held each other and cried' lee soon sang had been captured by the north korean army in 1953, two days before the armistice was signed he spent three and a half years in a prisoner of war camp and was then sent to work in the notorious coalmines at aoji, north korea also a production site for gunpowder there he had remarried and had children though he said he never forgot about life before the war 'life in north korea was hard', he said 'so i always thought about my hometown even though i believed my wife was dead, i always thought i'd go back one day' decades later, in 2004, a 'broker' got in touch they are middlemen who make their living smuggling people in and out of north korea 'he told me that kim eun hae and my son were in china with lots of money, that i should take the money and go back to north korea to live a better life' aged 77 by then, he had managed to save up 20,000 north korean won (approximately us$150) selling cigarettes 'in north korea, that's a lot of money you could buy a small house with that i gave that to my wife and said, 'i'm going to pick acorns, i'll be back in two or three days' that's how i left' he said he meant to return but he never did he won't talk about the family he left behind 'i'm happy now you're my wife,' he told kim but the bitterness of his choice is a reality for many whose lives and loyalties were split by a divided korea why the korean war still matters lee attends a lunch organized for prisoners of war like him a group of about a dozen men who meet three times a week, all of whom were held captive in the north long after the 1953 armistice agreement when pyongyang agreed to return all prisoners of war kim sung tae left his adopted daughter behind in north korea when he fled in 2001 'how can we see each other unless there's reunification?' he's 81 he does not expect to see her again he described the terrible hardships of his life in north korea, especially the six months he spent in a prisoner of war camp 'we were fed just a few hundred grams of grain a day,' he recalled 'i would wake up in the morning and grab handfuls of lice from my body that was normal' for more than a decade after, his life was spent in a succession of regular prisons, often in solitary confinement in a cell no larger than the size of a crouching man 'when i came back to south korea, i asked them to take me to a prison here so i could compare it was like paradise south korean prisons treated their prisoners better than north korea treated their citizens' according to south korea's defense ministry, 8,343 former servicemen have returned to the south since 1953 eighty of those men escaped through a third country decades after the armistice was signed based on their testimony, the seoul government believes there are still some 500 pows living in the north kim sung tae feels the government should do more to bring them home recently, unification minister ryoo kihi jae repeated his call for north korea to resolve the issue of former servicemen and other abductees kept by the north pyongyang claims they are there of their own free will and in the absence of actual talks between the two countries, seoul has little leverage to orchestrate their release men like lee soon sang and kim sung tae are living proof that pyongyang is wrong but many korean war veterans are now well into their eighties no longer at an age where fleeing across treacherous borders is particularly feasible men whose fate was sealed when they were taken prisoner 60 years ago may never see freedom again | impartation blinking pacifists | no related information |
london, england (cnn) david prowse, who played darth vader in the original 'star wars' films, has revealed he is suffering from prostate cancer but is still feeling 'fantastic' david prowse signs autographs during the opening day of 'star wars celabration iv' in los angeles in 2007 prowse, who wore the black suit and helmet to play the dark lord of the sith, told a british radio station he had been undergoing radiotherapy at a hospital in south london and was helping its fundraising appeal 'i'm involved with the royal marsden hospital appeal because i'm undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, would you believe,' he told absolute radio 'i'm having my very last treatment this morning' 'i've had two months' radiotherapy treatment at the royal marsden it's the most fantastic hospital you could ever wish to go to' james earl jones did the voice for vader, luke skywalker's father, (and also for cnn promotional links) in the films as prowse's western english accent was thought to be unsuitable for the part prowse, 73, added he was fighting the disease 'the only thing i've had is hot flushes and my wife tells me i'm going menopausal,' he said 'it's amazing what can be done so long as you catch it early' 'every man over the age of 50 should have a psa test (a blood test for prostate cancer) and that just gives you some indication of whether you have prostate problems' | david prowse darth vader star wars london | david prowse, who played darth vader in 'star wars,' has prostate cancer . prowse says he is undergoing radiotherapy at hospital in south london . actor said every man over 50 should have a blood test for prostate cancer |
(cnn) america is heading toward an energy cliff in the next 20 years, and the impacts could be much worse than those of the recent recession simply put, we cannot keep out of economic downturn without a readily available supply of clean and abundant energy from sources that are affordable, scalable to meet long term demand and that do not compound the problem of global climate change cnn films' documentary 'pandora's promise' correctly suggests that nuclear power is the safest, most stable and most secure option for achieving that goal the us nuclear fleet is robust, but even with license extensions, plants soon will reach the end of their design life and an aging fleet of coal fired power plants has numerous challenges with environmental compliance combined, these two sources represent approximately 60% of this nation's electricity supply the us department of energy forecasts that somewhere between 35 to 60 gigawatts of coal fired power plants, or one fifth of the us energy supply, will be shut down by 2018 because of today's lower gas prices and rigorous enforcement of clean air standards electricity use at the same time is expected to grow by nearly 30% through the year 2040 energy efficient products have helped to reduce consumption, but they have been outpaced by new demand from other energy consuming lifestyle choices as 'pandora's' director robert stone rightly points out about the weakness of renewables, carbon sources of generation are needed to supply the intermittent electricity capacity when the sun isn't shining or when the wind isn't blowing nuclear power has been proven to be the safest form of energy since the first reactor went online in the us more than 50 years ago what's more, the new plants being built today by westinghouse feature advanced technology and design that take safety to new levels and are being built around the world for more than 35 years, the nuclear industry has provided over 20% of the electricity that powers the us economy, creating jobs and fueling economic growth many thought the 1979 accident at three mile island would mean the end of the nuclear industry in fact, the industry, with the oversight of government regulators, learned a great deal from that event and over the next decade reinvented itself in the years that followed, the us nuclear fleet and its suppliers developed, embraced and set the highest standards of nuclear plant safety in the world improvements in technology, design, plant maintenance, and operations enabled the nuclear industry to do more than survive it actually grew existing nuclear plants improved safety and were uprated, adding the equivalent of many new reactors without actually building a new one today the us nuclear industry consists of about 200,000 highly trained employees and is the world's leading exporter of advanced nuclear technology while the building of new nuclear power reactors in the us was slowed, the world increased its nuclear fleet to more than 430 reactors even today more than 70 new reactors are in some phase of project development and construction globally in 2010, two forward thinking utilities in the southeastern us made an investment in the future to protect stable pricing and hedge against pending environmental regulations that penalize carbon emissions they committed to building four new westinghouse advanced generation nuclear power plants the first in the us in 30 years the utilities understood that a balanced fuel portfolio creates stability, predictable costs, and hedges price and supply volatility in the natural gas market for most of the last three decades, nuclear generating costs have been lower than those for natural gas or coal today we are realizing the benefits of low priced natural gas, but history tells us that over time and increased use, price volatility will return it is important to remember that large scale energy infrastructure investments typically have a life span of 60 years or more investors trade off between higher construction costs and the long term price and supply security of nuclear versus a lower construction cost and high exposure to long term supply and price volatility in my lifetime, i have been assured at least twice of a new 100 year supply of natural gas, only to have those hopes dashed as increasing demand repeatedly burst the natural gas bubble in the us, concern over high natural gas prices, global natural gas shortages and potential carbon taxes gave rise to the so called 'nuclear renaissance' of just a few short years ago but the financial crisis and economic downturn that followed reduced the number of planned new nuclear plants from 25 to just five that actually started construction related story: 'nuclear renaissance' others have extended planned starts due to economic conditions in addition to the eight new units westinghouse currently has under construction around the world, we have another 30 units that will begin construction within the next 10 years our new advanced nuclear power capacity will help fuel global industrialization without long term environmental impacts and these new plants are designed with features that can withstand the kind of natural disaster that happened in japan one thing is certain we need the power that these new nuclear plants can provide in order to meet the expected shortfall that will occur in the years ahead the industry and government policymakers alike recognize that nuclear energy must be part of any national energy policy and is the most certain environmental solution to keep us from going off the energy cliff without taking away our clean air the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of danny roderick | westinghouse danny roderick us 20% 2018 nearly 30% 2040 roderick | coming 'energy cliff' could be worse than recession, says westinghouse's danny roderick . us estimates coal plants that produce 20% of the nation's energy supply will close by 2018 . meanwhile electricity use will grow by nearly 30% by 2040, author says . nuclear power is the best solution, without taking away our clean air, says roderick |
(cnn) he had a 1966 volkswagen bus, scraggly beard and a penchant for the arts she had blonde hair and liked the grateful dead that was all they needed craig rutman poses poolside with the grateful dead's bob weir before a 1997 show in reno, nevada 'i knew right away she was not like other girls, other girls,' muses mark goldfarb of woodstock, new york, quoting the grateful dead song, 'scarlet begonias' on a fateful day 28 years ago, goldfarb began a shaggy odyssey of love at a grateful dead concert when he literally bumped into his future wife, diane over the years, he has been to more than 125 grateful dead concerts the band literally changed his life goldfarb, who now makes moccasins for a living, is excited about the grateful dead's new tour the surviving members of the band will be reuniting for 19 shows this year he went to see them during their last organized tour five years ago 'what was special about the dead is you had a group of highly talented musicians who were able to get a sense of the audience,' goldfarb said 'when the audience was off, the band would be off there was a lot of back and forth energy' back in the late '70s and well into the '80s, goldfarb traveled the west coast in a volkswagen van playing music for a belly dancing troupe at renaissance festivals along the way, he went to grateful dead concerts whenever he could he sent a photo of his now short haired self to show the 'then and now' contrast though he lives now in woodstock, new york, he missed the two large music festivals in his town a businessman now, goldfarb says he feels he's grown up in a lot of ways the old bus is gone, but he dreams of getting another ireportcom: see the before and after contrast of this deadhead 'i was a huge fan, i still love the music, but like i said times change interests change,' he says readers across the board said the band has stood the test of time because of the personal connection they brought to the music they played ireportcom: what does the grateful dead mean to you? indeed, the revival has craig rutman of apex, north carolina, excited to revisit his past his brother, a caterer, often provided food for the band and this gave rutman access to members of the band he has seen more than 200 shows and been backstage to meet the band he and his young daughter laura met bandmember bob weir poolside in reno, nevada, in 1997 rutman said weir is always cordial and friendly 'whether it was backstage or poolside, whenever i saw him, bobby always took the time with whoever came by to talk, share a joke or sign an autograph,' rutman said after the pool side meeting, the rutmans attended what would be the toddler's first show ireportcom: see photos poolside with weir and at the concert later that day 'i sat way in the back of a general admission show to keep her from the crowd and the loud music, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless,' rutman said steve maaske of omaha, nebraska, said one of his fondest memories is seeing the band in east troy, wisconsin, on the 'wave the flag' tour he even plans to make the chicago, illinois, and denver, colorado, stops on the current schedule it's a good year for a new dead tour, he says 'we have a new 'just off the shelf' president in barack obama, some clear optimism for the future of this country, and hey, gas prices for that vw bus are lookin' pretty good about now' ireportcom: see a picture of a colorful volkswagen bus at the show greg sarafan, 19, of suffern, new york, last saw the band at a summertime obama rally at pennsylvania state university he's hoping to catch them on tour, and says he was amazed to see the diversity of people interested in the band 'i was sitting next to people that were my father's age and older it was an interesting experience,' he said sarafan likes to create works of art inspired by the band and has decorated his car with dancing multi colored bears he says the music is timeless, and he learned about it from his parents ireportcom: see a picture of the tie dyed fruit falling near the tree like his father many years before him, sarafan as a young man snuck out of the house to see the grateful dead perform does dad know? 'he does now,' responds sarafan, who says he was in trouble at first, but things slowly changed between father and son 'when i reminded [my father] that he did sneak away to see the grateful dead, he kinda didn't care as much,' he said geoff feusahrens of monterey, california, also represents the younger generation of grateful dead fans he was born in 1979 and never got to see the band in its heyday, but likes classic rock and the grateful dead in particular 'i like how they are a jam band,' says feusahrens, who has seen the band perform about eight times 'you go to their concerts and you hang out there's lots of people there and good music and history and i just fell in love with it' he got married october 11, 2008, and decided to have a cake decorated with a grateful dead motif though the wedding was mostly traditional, he had deadhead cufflinks and rock themed tables at the reception one of the tables had a dead theme and 'eyes of the world,' one of the band's songs, was played ireportcom: see feusahrens all gussied up for the occasion he plans to see the last show on the 2009 tour when it stops nearby in mountain view and previously saw them perform during the 2004 series the band figures importantly in his life feusahrens and goldfarb, too, have in common precious love affairs joined together by the grateful dead perhaps the band's own lyrics from that same song, 'scarlet begonias,' say it best ireportcom: see goldfarb's expression of 'grateful' feelings about his wife 'well, i ain't always right but i've never been wrong seldom turns out the way it does in a song' | seizable honker granddada | no related information |
(cnn) rebecca sedwick should be 13 now she should be enjoying the birthday cupcakes and ice cream her mom planned for her but rebecca will never know what it's like to be a teenager she killed herself last month, jumping off a silo after she was tormented by bullying her mother, tricia norman, posted a birthday message to rebecca on facebook on what would have been her 13th birthday saturday 'i remember so clearly the moment you were born i knew i was gifted with a precious life and every moment since, i did my very best to protect you and now i feel like i failed that very important job that god gave me because he took you from me way too soon,' norman wrote 'i am doing my very best to make sure that other parents are made aware of how serious of a problem bullying is and i hope you are proud of me and satisfied with my progress i am also working hard to make sure those that wronged you pay the price for what they did to you!!' a day after a class on bullying, a suicide over a boy? rebecca and one of her alleged bullies were once friends, but they both had feelings for the same boy, police said it soured their relationship in november 2012, the bullying began, judd said, and it expanded beyond the initial tensions between the two girls police arrested a second suspect accused of intensely bullying rebecca, and they also confiscated the laptops and cell phones of 15 girls at crystal lake middle school, which rebecca had attended they found a barrage of horrible messages: 'nobody cares about u' 'i hate u' 'you seriously deserve to die' rebecca apparently gave up on herself, polk county sheriff grady judd said 'rebecca wasn't attacking back she appeared to be beat down' but rebecca's suffering was no secret at her school teachers saw her in tears in december, she was hospitalized after slitting her wrists her school started a campaign against bullying, giving talks before the student body to discourage it the night before her deadly plunge, she sent a message to a boy she met on facebook: 'i'm jumping i can't take it anymore' should parents be criminally liable for kids' cyberbullying? a suspect's defense two girls have been charged with aggravated stalking in rebecca's case: 14 year old guadalupe shaw and 12 year old kaitlyn roman cnn does not typically identify minors who are charged as juveniles, but the network is doing so in this case because their identities have been publicized by law enforcement and have received extensive publicity in their local media weeks after rebecca leaped to her death, a potentially incriminating message appeared on guadalupe's facebook page: 'yes ik i bullied rebecca nd she killed her self but idgaf,' the message read judd said the online vernacular meant: 'i don't give a (expletive)' the sheriff called in guadalupe and her family about the post police arrested the daughter mother of girl accused of bullying florida teen arrested on unrelated charges but guadalupe's father, jose, told cnn's 'new day' last week that his daughter couldn't have been the one to post that message the father had just finished watching the news on tv when he found her asleep and sent her to bed it was about that time that the message landed on facebook, he said 'i grabbed the computer and took it to my room, and the only other thing she could have used to send this message was my cell phone, and my cell phone is always with me,' he said he said he suspects someone hacked her account but the sheriff said he doubts that judd said investigators don't believe the teen's facebook account was compromised, judd said sheriff: taunting post leads to arrests in bullying death mother of teen suspect arrested not long after guadalupe's arrest, her mother was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and child neglect, authorities said friday judd said 30 year old vivian vosburg was arrested friday afternoon the sheriff emphasized that vosburg's charges are not related to those of her daughter and the other young suspect in rebecca's case vosburg's arrest came after authorities received tips from residents that she might have been involved in beating children, judd said a minute long video clip judd played at a friday press conference showed a woman, whom he identified as vosburg, punching two boys with her fist while shouting profanities join us october 29 for a google hangout on bullying judd said the mother first argued the beating was an accident but then said it 'got out of hand' partly because she was having a bad day the video had been posted to the internet and has since been taken down it wasn't immediately clear who took the video or when and where it was taken boy asks santa to make kids stop bullying his sister cnn's kim segal, john couwels and ben brumfield contributed to this report | rebecca sedwick's rebecca facebook | 'i did my very best to protect you and now i feel like i failed,' rebecca sedwick's mother says . rebecca, 12, jumped off a silo last month after she was bullied by schoolmates . rebecca's mom promises her that she will teach other parents about how serious bullying is . the father of a teen suspect says his daughter didn't post a nasty message on facebook |
lagos, nigeria (cnn) royal dutch shell said tuesday that it may not be able to meet its oil supply obligations in nigeria after an attack on its major pipeline heavily armed nigerian rebels pose a constant threat to oil pipelines in the country the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta (mend), a rebel group, said 'detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters' sabotaged two of shell's pipelines early monday after a helicopter flyover of the area, shell confirmed that parts of its large nembe creek 'trunk line' were damaged, company spokeswoman caroline wittgen said the company shut down some production 'to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,' she said hours later, it declared 'force majeure,' a legal term meaning it could not meet its supply obligations in the region because of the attack '[shell] is working hard to repair the line and restore production,' wittgen said nigeria is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the united states, and attacks by rebels have helped fuel the year long spike in crude oil prices it's one of many factors pushing up the price of gas in the us, where one in every 10 barrels of oil comes from nigeria mend the largest rebel group has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006 it has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment mend hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day its attacks on oil facilities have taken a toll 'anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,' said jim lecamp, a senior vice president with rbc wealth management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide exxon and shell are two of several companies that have been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in nigeria recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the niger delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days that decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil hungry regions such as china, russia and latin america 'anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system,' lecamp said in a recent interview with cnn | shell nigerian monday | shell says it may not be able to meet supply contracts after nigerian attack . two of shell's oil pipelines sabotaged by rebel groups on monday . company is working to repair the lines and get production running normally |
(cnn) from playing bat and ball in quiet corners of refugee camps to cricket's most glamorous tournament; afghanistan's national team, like the country, has come a long way the team's rise to the biggest stage of them all, the 2015 world cup, has been nothing short of remarkable and equally heartwarming the scenes of jubilation on the pitch as afghanistan recently brushed aside a disappointing kenya team couldn't have been farther from the reality of life for many afghans after decades of conflict and turmoil in their country the first afghans learned the game in pakistani refugee camps, having fled the soviet invasion of 1979 read more: afghan cricket's battle for acceptance sport was banned completely under the strict islamic fundamentalist rule of the taliban, between 1996 and 2001, with pitches and arenas more likely to host an execution than a training session or a match but as the taliban lost its grip, sport blossomed, with cricket among those leading the way cut strips appeared across the country and children would use roads as wickets, discarded pieces of wood as bats and wickets and the rest, as they say, is history afghan cricket has gone from strength to strength just 12 years ago, the team didn't even officially exist then a few afghan expats set up a team in pakistan and applied for accreditation to global cricket's organizing body, the international cricket council (icc) in 2001, afghanistan became an icc associate member, which meant cricket was recognized as an established sport in the country it was a start, but little more than that in 2008, the team played its first matches in division five of the icc's global league against japan and the tiny island of jersey, a self governing british crown dependency off the coast of northern france that's as low as world cricket goes but by winning the league, the players gave themselves a chance of qualifying for the 2011 world cup ultimately that proved to be a step too far, too soon, as they came up short but it wasn't all bad news the team did enough in the qualifiers to be granted the status of an international one day team they went on to qualify for the world twenty20 tournament, a shortened form of the game, in 2010 and again in 2012 despite some respectable performances, they did little to surprise the bookies and fell during the initial knock out stage but now, what appeared to be nothing more than a dream just a few short years ago has finally become reality afghanistan triumphed over kenya by seven wickets at the recent world cricket league championship in sharjah, uae to win the right to play at the 2015 world cup they will be part of a group that includes co hosts australia and new zealand, as well as bangladesh, england and sri lanka 'i can't express my feelings it is a very big day in my life i'm sure there will be huge celebrations back home,' the team's talismanic captain, mohammad nabi, told the icc website 'i didn't expect to play in a world cup when i started playing cricket but now i can cherish this moment and look forward to playing against the best sides in some of the best playing facilities' the melbourne cricket ground (mcg) is a far cry from the refugee camps many afghans can relate to | afghanistan kenya the 2015 world cup afghan pakistan soviet taliban | afghanistan triumphed over kenya to win the right to play at the 2015 world cup . far cry from 1979 when afghan exiles played in camps in pakistan during soviet invasion . cricket and sport was banned during taliban rule in afghanistan (1996 2001) |
(cnn) russian energy monopoly gazprom on wednesday said it would stop natural gas deliveries to ukraine over a dispute about payments gazprom chief executive alexei miller accused ukraine of using the issue as 'a political bargaining chip' gazprom chief alexey miller said talks with ukraine have been 'unproductive' and accused ukraine of using the issue as 'a political bargaining chip' 'the talks with ukraine haven't brought any concrete result gazprom hasn't received any money from ukraine as payment for the supplies of russian gas,' miller said in a statement on the gazprom web site the state controlled gazprom said supplies to its other european customers would not be affected by ukraine's cut off, which the company said would take place at 10 am thursday (2 am et) ukrainian prime minister yulia tymoshenko also assured the european union that there would be no disruptions in deliveries, the kiev post reported ukrainian president viktor yuschenko called 'for every effort to be made for the earliest possible signature of an agreement with russia,' yuschenko energy security commissioner, bohdan sokolovsky, told the russian news agency interfax on wednesday evening watch a report on gazprom's threats to cut off gas supplies to ukraine » it is the second time in three years gazprom has threatened to cut off gas supplies to ukraine the company made good on its threat on january 1, 2006, but turned the spigots back on a day later russia, the world's biggest producer of natural gas, supplies europe with more than 40 percent of its imports mainly via pipelines that cross the former soviet republic of ukraine ukraine owes gazprom about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries ukraine's state controlled energy company, naftogaz ukrainy, initially denied it owed the payment to gazprom, but later retreated from that claim the kiev post reported tuesday that naftogaz said it had paid $15 billion toward the debt, but gazprom said it had not received the payment also at issue is gazprom's contract for 2009 deliveries gazprom had wanted to more than double ukraine's payments, but on wednesday offered a much lesser payment of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas ukraine, which currently pays about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, balked at that figure 'we have heard a negative reply to the offers from the russian side on the favorable terms of gas supply to ukraine in 2009, and we are getting the impression that there are political forces in ukraine which have a strong interest in the gas standoff between our two countries,' miller said | russian gazprom 10 am thursday 2 am et company ukraine about $2 billion european january 1, 2006 a day later | russian gas giant gazprom says it will cut gas supply 10 am thursday (2 am et). company says ukraine owes it about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries . gazprom said supplies to other european customers won't be affected by action . gazprom cut supplies on january 1, 2006, but turned spigots back on a day later |
(cnn) the world famous hubble space telescope is owned by the us government and operated cooperatively by nasa and an institute under contract to nasa now that the government has shut down, the institute can still use existing resources to continue hubble operations for as long as possible its staff has tried to ensure that to the extent possible the shutdown will not affect telescope operations but events can overtake plans if hubble encounters a problem or a glitch, as happens occasionally, science operations will be suspended and the spacecraft will be locked into safe mode until government employees can issue spacecraft commands to restore operations safe mode means orienting the delicate instruments away from the sun while keeping the solar panels illuminated, to make sure no instrument loses power and is ruined but in safe mode, the instruments won't record any of the light coming to the telescope the approximate cost of one hour of hubble observing is somewhere between $8,000 and $25,000, depending on whether one adds the costs of operating and refurbishing the facility to its initial construction costs that means a two week government shutdown could waste $3 million, $5 million, even $8 million of taxpayer investment frankly, the loss to science is far greater each year thousands of astronomers from around the world compete to decide where hubble will point toward particular stars or planets or galaxies or gravitational lenses special science panels spend weeks setting priorities for the most important proposed science investigations for every 10 hours of observing time astronomers want to use, only 1 hour is eventually approved us shutdown threatens launch of nasa's next mission to mars that means each week the government is shut down could cost dozens to hundreds of critical astronomical observations the james webb space telescope, hubble's successor, is undergoing critical tests at the goddard space flight center this has to be done at extremely cold temperatures, mimicking conditions in space, and the amount of time to cool the system down is one of the drivers of schedule and therefore cost as long as the government remains shut down, the testing will have to wait if the shutdown lasts more than a few weeks, the jwst instrument module will have to be warmed up, probably pushing the launch date forward by a few months and raising the cost commensurately (about $1 million per day) nasa operates dozens of scientific spacecraft a few look out at the cosmos, like hubble many monitor the sun and the particle environment around earth such observations have provided early warning of major sunstorms (known by solar scientists as 'coronal mass ejections') that can knock out communications satellites and other fragile electronics to check on the number of satellites that might be affected by the shutdown, this author tried to access a nasa website, only to see the following message: 'due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available we sincerely regret the inconvenience' this prompted further searching the main nasa website defaults to the same error message the education and outreach pages maintained by astronomers at the goddard space flight center and read by schoolchildren across the country are not accessible the jet propulsion laboratory, because it is run under contract to nasa, still has a visible website their flagship mission, the mars science laboratory and its curiosity rover, is apparently still active, operated by team members who work for jpl or caltech or other participating institutions other than the federal government but as for hubble, if there is any kind of glitch, federal civil servants will be essential to the recovery of rover operations nasa grounded by government shutdown the work doesn't disappear, either scientists at nasa and the national science foundation are some of the hardest working people i know the government shutdown means they are forbidden to do any work they can't take their laptops home or phone into teleconferences from home, the way i might if a hurricane or snowstorm threatened yale so, you might think they are having a nice (though unpaid) vacation but actually, the same work is sitting on their desk when they get back, and it all has to get done so it means they'll work longer hours to catch up and for most civil servant scientists, there is no such thing as overtime pay a nasa colleague at the goddard space flight center is designing a powerful new telescope for the past few weeks, we've had intensive discussions with colleagues around the world about the science this telescope will be able to do now, there is radio silence his last e mail said, 'this is going to be my last e mail before the government shutdown ends any work during a shutdown is deemed a violation of the anti deficiency act you are welcome to continue to e mail me, but i might not be able to respond until the federal government opens for business' we are all waiting the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of meg urry | nasa meg urry two week $3 million to $8 million | government shutdown affects nasa, where employees are off the job . meg urry: a two week shutdown could waste $3 million to $8 million of taxpayer money . she says loss to science is greater as critical astronomical work could be affected . urry: nasa scientists can't do their work and must make up for it when shutdown ends |
(cnn) a louisiana teenager whose 2006 arrest in the racially charged 'jena 6' assault case drew thousands of protesters tried to commit suicide days after a separate arrest last week, a police report says mychal bell was released in september 2007 and later agreed to a plea deal in the beating of a classmate mychal bell, who was arrested last week after allegedly stealing clothes worth $370 from a department store, told investigators he shot himself monday evening 'because he was tired of all the media attention,' the report says the high school senior's mother and his grandmother also told an investigator that he'd indicated 'he did not feel like he could live anymore' because of media coverage of the shoplifting allegations, according to the report earlier, bell's attorney, carol powell lexing, told cnn that bell's family told her he'd accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun according to the police report, however, an officer responded to a 911 call from his grandmother's monroe, louisiana, home, where bell lives the grandmother, rosie simmons, told the officer that she had hidden the gun after the shooting 'for mychal's safety so he did not try to shot [sic] himself again,' according to the report bell, 18, suffered a wound to the upper right chest, the report says powell lexing told cnn that bell had surgery monday night, and monroe police sgt cassandra wooten said the wound was not life threatening bell was being treated tuesday at a hospital in shreveport, louisiana in december 2006, bell was one of a half dozen black teenagers who faced felony charges in the beating of a white classmate in the town of jena, louisiana, an incident that followed months of racial tensions in the community of about 3,000 people the case of the 'jena 6' drew national attention from civil rights groups that said the charges were excessive, and an estimated 15,000 plus people turned out for a september 2007 rally in jena on the youths' behalf bell eventually pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court and later moved to monroe, about 70 miles north of jena on christmas eve, bell was arrested at the pecanland mall in monroe and charged with shoplifting, simple battery and resisting arrest, monroe police lt jeff davis said tuesday bell was released on $1,300 bond, and the case was assigned to city court watch cnn's sean callebs report on the case » on monday, simmons and bell's mother, melissa bell, told investigators they heard a gunshot from the teenager's room and found him on the bed, according to the police report 'rosie and m bell stated mychal had made comments over the past two days that because of the current media attention he had because of a shoplifting arrest he did not feel like he could live anymore,' the police report says monroe police lt jeff harris said investigators do not know whose gun bell used bell's christmas eve arrest came after security guards at the shopping center were told bell and a male friend were seen stuffing clothing into a bag in a menswear section of dillard's, according to the investigative report once spotted, the men split up, police said bell, chased by security guards, ran from the store to a parking lot, where he tried to hide under a car, davis said as a store security officer tried to pull bell out, 'bell swung his arms wildly' and hit the guard with his elbow, the report says davis said the guard was hit in the face bell admitted to the thefts, which police said included four shirts and a pair of jeans, davis said the merchandise was photographed by store security and returned to stock, he added bell was taken to jail and booked davis said the second man escaped powell lexing told cnn her client went to the mall with someone to return a shirt, for which he had a receipt the person with bell did the shoplifting, and bell was caught in the middle, the attorney said powell lexing said bell has been trying to stay out of trouble since the jena arrest, and that he has been on the verge of getting a college football scholarship bell attends a monroe high school, but has not been allowed to play high school football since his arrest in jena, where he was a running back in april, after his move to monroe, bell told cnn that he wanted to keep his life on the straight and narrow in part because of the support he received during the jena case 'i feel like [after] all the people came down and supported me [and] gave money to the defense fund, i feel like if i would do something now, i would let the whole country down,' he said cnn's sean callebs and cnn radio's amanda moyer contributed to this report | mychal bell bell 370 louisiana | police report: mychal bell shot himself because he's tired of media attention . bell was arrested last week on suspicion of shoplifting . he is accused of stealing clothes worth $370 from a department store . bell was a defendant in the racially charged case in louisiana |
london (cnn) the five surviving monty python members on thursday announced their comeback performance in london next year, and fans are eagerly anticipating which vintage sketches will be dusted off for another airing but their combined age of 357 years has taken its toll, and it remains to be seen how the comedians' aging bodies stand up to the often slapstick nature of python sketches one that john cleese is unlikely to perform is the swivel limbed 'ministry of silly walks,' due to what he says are his ailing hips and knees cleese says the show at the o2 arena on july 1 will have some new material, but many old bits some featured in perhaps new ways that fans will expect, along with 'comedy, pathos, music and a tiny bit of ancient sex' 'i remember going to the royal albert hall and seeing neil diamond where he got booed in the second half for singing new numbers people really do want to see the old hits, but we don't want to do them exactly in a predictable way, so it's going to be a mix up, i think,' cleese adds asked what he believes the modern twist will be, terry gilliam replies: 'the fact that we can actually still walk and stand upright' while the python stars say they hope the new performance will appeal to a new generation of fans, they are brazen enough to admit that money was one of the main factors in their decision to reform for the first time since 1980 'i hope it makes us a lot of money i hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!' terry jones said days before thursday's high octane news conference at which the five pythons announced they will perform at the o2 the world's biggest grossing concert venue michael palin adds that 'money was part of it' but as the five aging comedians lumber onto the stage at the playhouse theatre in central london, it is evident how much mutual regard they still have, despite often fractious years working together and three decades apart 'we may not like each other, but we make each other laugh,' cleese reflects the show will be the first time cleese, jones, gilliam, palin and eric idle have performed together since the death of graham chapman from cancer in 1989 his presence will be sorely missed by both audience and stars 'we've told him he'll be on with us,' idle says, not entirely in jest, 'and if there is a god, he'll turn up' there'll be a nurse on hand just in case of emergencies, he adds quickly despite the show being billed as 'a final reunion' and 'one down, five to go,' the comedians say a world tour may follow 'depending on how long eric and mike live for,' cleese jokes when the pair protest, saying they believe the deaths could occur in alphabetical order, he quips: 'in your dreams gilliam' the longevity of python and excitement the reunion has stirred up among fans appears to have taken the five pythons by surprise 'no one expected this to be more than a sunday night show at the bbc,' idle says, referring to the first tv broadcast in 1969 forty five episodes and five films later, the pythons are comic legends, with their legions of fans around the world able to recite every line of their scripts word perfect 'i'm just shocked and amazed' at the reaction to the reunion, he says, adding that he thought they'd waited 'until demand had died down' the python shows mostly consisted of a string of barely coherent sketches, often lacking conventional punch lines and loosely tied together by gilliam's stream of consciousness animations the group dressed as old ladies, as transvestite lumberjacks, performed sketches about pompous middle class men, used catchphrases such as 'and now for something completely different,' and sang ditties such as 'spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam ' some of the material has never been performed on stage before, and the group says fans could expect the crunching frog sketch, a version of the dead parrot sketch and the spanish inquisition other material 'they hope people will have forgotten, so it'll appear new,' idle adds the sketches still make them laugh, despite the passing of time, palin says 'we had a read through of all the material, which to me was far more anxiety inducing than the press conference but it's still funny the show is going to be spectacular' python has appeal around the world, he believes, because 'it's seen as physical but not topical it doesn't require knowledge of british politics or way of life it's just quite jolly!' cnn's max foster, david wilkinson and claudia rebaza contributed to this report | pythons terry jones john cleese ministry of silly walks' | fans eagerly awaiting return of monty python stars for first time in three decades . money a factor in pythons' decision to reform, according to terry jones . john cleese says his ailing limbs unlikely to stand up to 'ministry of silly walks'. some of the material has never been performed on stage before |
kabul, afghanistan (cnn) a british soldier was killed on new year's day by an explosion in southern afghanistan, britain's ministry of defense said friday a british unit on patrol in helmand province's garmsir district, where another soldier has died the soldier, who served with the 6th battalion the rifles, had been taking part in a routine patrol in the garmsir district of helmand province when he was killed, the ministry said 'it is deeply saddening to confirm the loss of a british soldier who died while helping to provide security in southern helmand,' said commander paula rowe, a spokeswoman for task force helmand 'his family, friends and all those who knew and worked with him will mourn his loss our heartfelt sympathies go to them all at this terrible time' britain suffered its worst year of losses in afghanistan in 2008, with 51 british troops killed it was more than in any other year since the mission began in october 2001, the defense ministry said | british new year's day afghanistan the 6th battalion the rifles helmand garmsir | british soldier killed on new year's day by blast in afghanistan . soldier served with the 6th battalion the rifles in helmand province . he was on patrol in garmsir district when he was killed |
(cnn) the latest in a string of suspicious fires early thursday destroyed a home in detroit's internationally known heidelberg project, an installation that transformed decaying homes into works of art the blaze engulfed 'the penny house,' a small home adorned with images of pennies, around 3 am, fire officials said the two story structure was leveled by the time firefighters arrived the nonprofit behind that artwork set out to bring new life to detroit's crime ridden east side and draw attention to the community's plight the project was recently featured by cnn's anthony bordain on 'parts unknown: detroit' in the last two months, heidelberg project properties were hit with five fires, which destroyed three of the vacant buildings 'obstruction of justice,' 'house of soul' and 'the penny house,' according to the project only four properties remain in the installation, which draws about 300,000 visitors from around the world each year detroit senior fire chief larry gassel voiced his suspicions about the fires to cnn, saying of the buildings, 'they're all vacant; it's not like it's wiring so something is definitely going on there' detroit has long battled waves of arson no arrests have been made in connection with the fires heidelberg project staff said city's slow emergency response times were partly to blame for the destruction of the buildings 'it's kind of our thinking that this individual keeps doing this knows [because] he can get away with it,' katie hearn, marketing coordinator for heidelberg project told cnn artist tyree guyton created the heidelberg project in 1986, slowly bringing decaying homes back to life with decorations the group's annual fundraiser was to be held thursday night | fourth detroit the penny house heidelberg project | fire destroys fourth house in internationally known detroit art installation . 'the penny house' was leveled in latest fire at heidelberg project . 'something is definitely going on there,' says senior fire chief |
(cnn) the kellogg co announced wednesday it is recommending that consumers not eat its peanut butter crackers because they may be tainted with salmonella salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods the products affected are austin and keebler branded: toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers peanut butter chocolate sandwich crackers the michigan based maker of cereals and snacks posted the recommendation in a statement on its web site peanut butter produced by peanut corporation of america, one of several peanut butter suppliers to the company, has been linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has affected at least 434 people in 43 states, federal health officials said wednesday 'kellogg company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the company received any consumer illness complaints about these products,' the kellogg statement said 'nonetheless, kellogg company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of pca and kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue' all of the company's peanut butter crackers are made at its bakery in cary, north carolina, said spokeswoman kris charles though consumers are urged 'to hold the product until we have more information,' charles recommended anyone seeking a refund call 8883142060 for details about how to get one | keebler kellogg | some types of austin and keebler branded sandwich crackers affected . one of its peanut butter suppliers has been linked to outbreak of salmonella . kellogg says warning is strictly precautionary; no incidents of illness reported . outbreak of salmonella poisoning has affected at least 434 people in 43 states |
(the frisky) by t minus 18 days until the oscars and, of course, we are all starting to place bets on who we think will walk away with little golden men this year luckily, the academy has proven itself to be pretty darn predictable over the years if you're america's sweetheart, you'll probably win best actress if you sing in a flick, you are almost guaranteed oscar gold but there's another trend we've been noticing lately: the winners for best actress and best actor tend to be the person who's taken on the based on a true story role in fact, 10 of the 20 top honors given in the 2000s went to actors who portrayed real people let's take a look, shall we? last year, sandra bullock won best actress just days after taking home a razzie for playing leigh anne tuohy, the southern mom who took in michael oher and helped coach him toward football greatness the real leigh anne was in the theater to see sandra accept her award the frisky: 12 female celebs reveal their true size in 2008, sean penn won the academy award for best actor again! for playing harvey milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in california i still remember the gorgeous mermaid scale gown that marion cotillard won when she accepted the oscar for best actress in 2007 for her role in 'la vie en rose' in the movie, she played edith piaf, an extremely popular singer in france who was also known for her out of control social life in many ways, marion won for playing the britney spears of 1950s france the frisky: 12 starlets married and divorced by 26 in 2006's 'the queen,' helen managed to out elizabeth queen elizabeth ii herself in the movie about the aftermath of princess diana's death helen, of course, won oscar gold for her efforts philip seymour hoffman was one of two actors to portray writer truman capote in a two year span his uncanny portrayal netted him a best actor win in 2005 the frisky: 10 celebs who fancy themselves doctors that same year, reese witherspoon won best actress for playing another beloved real character june carter cash, the wife of johnny cash in the movie, reese didn't sound exactly like june as she warbled 'jackson,' but put her own spin on the classic tune blame it on the al al al alcohol, but sometimes i forget that jamie foxx is an oscar winner he won best actor in 2004 for his portrayal of iconic ivory tickler ray charles in 'ray' the frisky: scandalous 9 celebrity pairs spotted leaving a party together charlize theron broke out of the former model mold when she played aileen wuornos, a prostitute who killed at least six men by gaining 30 pounds, rocking a mullet, and perfecting an eyebrow less, terrifying stare, charlize won best actress in 2003 adrien brody may be in beer ads now, but in 2003 he was riding high after winning the oscar for best actor in 'the pianist' in the movie, he played jewish piano virtuoso szpilman, who survived the nazi invasion of poland in 2000, julia roberts took on the role of a brash single mother who, without a law degree, helped construct a lawsuit against pacific gas and electric company she won an oscar for her real life role in 'erin brockovich' the real erin, however, did not get a statue for her cameo in the flick as a waitress who takes julia's order the frisky: 10 reasons why we need the 'arrested development' movie to happen so who will the real character effect benefit this year? interestingly, none of the nominees for best actress played screen versions of actual people but this will make for a very tight race for best actor, with jesse eisenberg portraying facebook creator mark zuckererg in 'the social network,' colin firth playing a stuttering king george vi in 'the king's speech,' and james franco as aron ralston, a mountain climber who has to hack off his own arm in '127 hours' which of them do you think will win? tm & © 2010 tmv, inc | all rights reserved | sandra bullock best actress leigh anne tuohy sean penn the academy award harvey milk julia roberts oscar erin brockovich | sandra bullock won best actress for playing leigh anne tuohy . sean penn won the academy award for for playing harvey milk . julia roberts won an oscar for her real life role in 'erin brockovich' |
oakland, california (cnn) a former police officer for the bay area transit system pleaded not guilty thursday in the new year's day shooting of a passenger at an oakland rail station former transit officer johannes mehserle is charged with homicide in the death of oscar grant iii johannes mehserle, 27, appeared in a packed alameda county courtroom, with his supporters separated by a courtroom aisle from relatives of shooting victim oscar grant iii and other spectators mehserle is charged with shooting grant, 22, in an incident that spurred violent protests in oakland after being captured on video mehserle resigned his job as a bay area rapid transit police officer days after the shooting, and he was arrested in nevada earlier this week thursday's proceedings took less than five minutes, with mehserle appearing behind heavy windows in an enclosure out of view of all but a handful of spectators superior court judge robert mcguinness ordered the ex officer held until his next hearing, scheduled for january 26 bart police had been called to oakland's fruitvale station january 1 after passengers complained about fights on a train officers pulled several men, including grant, off the train when it arrived at fruitvale, and video taken by witnesses showed mehserle shooting grant in the back as another officer kneeled on the man investigators have not said whether grant was involved in the fight the shooting spawned public outrage and a string of protests that led to more than 100 riot related arrests watch some of the recent rioting in oakland, california » thursday's proceedings drew an overflow crowd to the courthouse, with some would be spectators grumbling that they could not get into the hearing vicki behringer contributed to this report for cnn | johannes mehserle alameda county oscar grant iii mehserle nevada grant | ex cop johannes mehserle appears in packed alameda county courtroom . supporters separated by aisle from relatives of shooting victim oscar grant iii . mehserle was arrested in nevada earlier this week . grant's death spawned public outrage and a string of protests |
washington (cnn) the grooved, gray concrete wall rising from a few inches to a few feet seems to be solely for blocking the noise from the nearby highway, but like many parts of the new pentagon memorial, there is more to the wall than meets the eye seven years after the september 11 attack on the pentagon, the wall is designed to remind visitors of the youngest and oldest victims, wrapping the memorial in symbolic imagery it stands 3 inches tall at its beginning, representing the youngest person killed there 3 year old dana falkenberg and continues to a height of 71 inches, corresponding to the oldest victim, retired us navy capt john d yamnicky sr both were aboard american airlines flight 77 when terrorists hijacked the plane and smashed it into the pentagon that day falkenberg died with her mother and father, charles falkenberg and leslie whittington, and her 8 year old sister, zoe president bush attended a solemn ceremony on the grounds thursday, along with dignitaries and family members of those killed in the attack see images of 9/11 » a flag was raised at half staff and the national anthem was played the words on a big screen seemed to capture the moment: 'we will never forget' 'the pentagon memorial will stand as an everlasting tribute to 184 innocent souls who perished on these grounds,' bush said 'a memorial can never replace what those of you mourning a loved one have lost we pray that you will find some comfort amid the peace of these grounds we pray that you'll find strength in knowing that our nation will always grieve with you' watch bagpipes play at the site » donald rumsfeld, who was defense secretary when the pentagon was attacked, said, 'we will never forget the way this huge building shook we will not forget our colleagues and friends who were taken from us and their families and we will not forget what that deadly attack has meant for our nation' the symbolism inside begins for visitors as they first step into the memorial watch as the pentagon remembers 9/11 victims » as they enter the cenotaph, they pass over etched stone that reads, 'september 11, 2001 9:37 am,' the exact moment of the attack on the pentagon the stone in which that infamous date is carved was recovered from the smoldering ruins of the pentagon, still stained with the burn marks from the explosion and fire from flight 77 slamming into the building across the memorial grounds, 184 bench like structures, each one dedicated to a victim, are clustered in what seems like an uneven and unsettling array throughout the main grounds of the memorial see the symbolism driving the memorial's design » 'we've tried to keep everything subtle to the extent that people can discover,' said keith kaseman, the memorial co designer thomas heidenberger stopped recently with his son, tom, to pay tribute to his wife, michelle, a senior flight attendant on flight 77 they wept as they sat on the bench honoring her ireport: how are you observing 9/11? 'these were the first to die in this so called war on terror,' heidenberger said 'why shouldn't we not just remember the day, but remember their sacrifice, remember their lives?' his son said the memorial was touching because it started with an artist's rendition, but now is a reality and a fitting tribute to those who died 'it looks great,' he said 'i'm very impressed' the benches are laid out in a pattern according to the year each victim was born, from 1998 to 1930 some rows, called birth year aisles, have just one seat, and some have three or more all of the granite covered benches, called memorial units, are oriented in the direction the plane hit the building, pointing east each unit rises smoothly from the ground in a gentle slope to form the bench a small pool of water beneath each one gently gurgles, adding to the relaxing nature the designers intended on the end of each unit, the name of the victim is inscribed in stainless steel family members who lost loved ones have already begun leaving flowers and notes at the benches the names on the benches face east or west, depending on where the victims were when they died if the victim was on the plane, visitors read the name as they look toward the western sky if the person was inside the pentagon, you read the name looking at the building, facing east 'the idea that this place is just an invitation for your thoughts and your interpretations is what we see as persisting through time, and i think that's what sets it apart to some extent,' kaseman said just steps from the pentagon complex, it is like many of the washington memorials in that access is freely available 24 hours a day but it stands in a different place from the more well known monuments tucked away on a small patch of super secure land between a busy highway and the nation's military headquarters, the symbolism of a post 9/11 security environment is present an iron fence surrounds the memorial, providing visitors with unintended symbolism just outside the fence, a pentagon police guard shack is on one side, and a giant earthen berm designed to deflect bomb blasts from the pentagon is on another on a third side is a checkpoint with explosives sniffing dogs and a secure road that leads to a pentagon delivery facility away from the building it is hard to imagine that a few years ago, this land was once just flat grass and the original location of the building's helicopter port before the attack it has taken seven years to build the memorial but the time has not lessened the memories or the solemn nature of the location, feet from the impact site a kind of peace is still present between the whirring traffic and the occasional low flying military helicopter preparing to land at a helipad plantings and trees will eventually fill it in the young memorial, creating a more private and intimate setting; and for those who lost family, friends and colleagues, the symbolism outside the memorial will be drowned out by the intimate symbolism inside thomas heidenberger said those who lost loved ones in the new york attack still don't have a memorial 'no place to go, have no closure' he stressed the importance of such sites to families left behind 'we have a place to go other than a burial plot or a vacant stone in a cemetery,' he said 'the children who were born to 9/11 moms who don't have a dad, they have a place to go and the elderly now have a place to go visit their children, their loved ones' | pentagon the year new york washington cnncom live | pentagon unveils 9/11 memorial to honor the 184 victims killed there . benches are laid out in a pattern according to the year each victim was born . son visits site with dad to honor his mom: 'i'm very impressed'. watch 9/11 memorials in new york and washington on cnncom live |
(cnn) shia labeouf has at least one high profile supporter during an interview conducted at the karlovy vary international film festival and posted on indiewire, mel gibson said he can sympathize with labeouf who was recently arrested after on outburst in new york city 'when i see someone like shia labeouf with the bag on his head and stuff, my heart goes out to the poor guy,' gibson said, referencing an appearance the actor once made on the red carpet with a paper bag covering his face 'it really does because i think he's suffering in some way' gibson who was at the festival in the czech republic to receive a lifetime achievement award knows a thing or two about run ins with the law and being labeled 'troubled' he said it's tough because 'you are under scrutiny if you achieve any type of notoriety' 'people are in line to sort of point the finger at him and say that he's this, that, or the other,' gibson said 'it's easy to judge but i'm sure he's going through some kind of personal, kind of very very painful, cathartic thing that he has to exorcise and get out there and he'll probably play it out and come back' but gibson holds out hope for labeouf who recently announced he was receiving treatment for alcohol addiction 'he'll be alright,' gibson said 'i actually like the kid, i've never met him but i think he's good' | eczematization inconcinnately bello | no related information |
washington (cnn) even as it prepares to hand over the libyan embassy in washington to the rebel government, the state department is warning the transitional national council to get its act together an administration official told cnn the united states has warned the tnc that this is a 'do or die moment' for the organization to carry out a credible and thorough investigation of the killing of its military commander, abdel fatah younis last week's mysterious assassination has raised concerns that it might have been carried out by feuding groups within the rebels themselves 'we do welcome the transitional national council's move to set up an impartial committee that will investigate the incident and we look forward to hearing the results,' deputy spokesman mark toner told reporters monday 'it's important that, given the fluidness of the situation on the ground, that the transitional national council work to ensure that it takes the right kinds of actions, such as an investigation into the death, and sends a clear and transparent message that they speak on behalf of the libyan opposition and the libyan people and that they are diligently carrying out their mandate' the tnc has been rocked by internal divisions, with rival rebel groups battling each other the divisions create a dilemma for the obama administration, which recognized the rebel movement based in benghazi as libya's rightful government on july 15 at an international meeting on libya in istanbul the move, done in coordination with the international community, paves the way for the united states to reopen the embassy, accredit diplomats and unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen assets the internal strife within the rebel movement comes as the state department prepares to hand over the libyan embassy to the tnc as the recognized government of libya, according to us officials the officials say the move would allow the tnc to re open the embassy, accredit diplomats and regain control of the embassy's frozen bank account, worth about $13 million it follows a formal request from the tnc to re open the embassy under its control and accredit ali aujali, the former libyan ambassador to the united states, as its charge d'affaires in march, the state department ordered the libyan embassy in washington closed and kicked diplomats loyal to libyan leader moammar gadhafi out of the country aujali had resigned his post as the regime's ambassador to the united states in february and has since represented the opposition in washington 'we are consulting with the national transitional council on a broad range of issues, and that includes diplomatic accreditation and representation,' toner said despite the divisions within the tnc, the state department publicly expressed confidence in the rebels 'we believe that this is the legitimate representatives of the libyan people during this transition period,' toner said 'this is an extremely challenging period for libya and they are dealing with these challenges as they come but we have confidence that they can weather this' but privately, us officials acknowledge there is some concern about the apparent disarray within the rebel movement, although officials say it is not surprising 'this is a tribal society,' one official said 'we knew from the start this could be messy and there was always the concern about not moving too fast we had no illusions about the tnc, but they have done a pretty good job and look better to us than gadhafi at this point' nato has been bombing libya for more than four months under a un mandate to protect civilians from troops loyal to gadhafi, who is battling a rebellion that has claimed control of the eastern half of the country the us embassy in tripoli was shuttered and american personnel evacuated by sea and air in late february, after the current revolt against gadhafi erupted libyan and us officials held face to face talks in tunisia last month, but washington says the sole point of the meeting was to repeat its demand that gadhafi 'must go' also sunday, state tv aired video of saif al islam gadhafi, gadhafi's son, speaking to what was described as displaced families he has not been seen speaking in public for weeks 'whether nato stays or not, the battle will continue until libya is freed,' he said, stressing the right of people to fight 'let me say to you that the battle will not stop every one of you: return to your homes and farms and villages and jobs with peace of mind we will not stop!' | octaeteric bobtailing yarwhip | no related information |
tehran, iran (cnn) the united nations nuclear monitors plan to return to iran at the end of the month after a positive assessment from both sides of the latest visit an international atomic energy agency (iaea) team spent three days in tehran this week another meeting is planned for february 21 22 'the agency is committed to intensifying dialogue,' said director general yukiya amano 'it remains essential to make progress on substantive issues' the iranian foreign minister called the talks 'a positive forward step' ali akbar salehi told the semiofficial fars news agency that the iaea 'had some questions and we had very good meetings' the team did not ask to inspect nuclear facilities, salehi said 'if they wanted an inspection, we were prepared to comply with their request,' salehi said the six member delegation including chief inspector herman nackaerts and second in command rafael grossi arrived in tehran shortly after the european union imposed new sanctions on iran aimed at cutting off funding to the islamic republic's nuclear program australia and the united states have also ramped up sanctions on iran recently western powers believe tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, an assertion iran denies speaking friday at the davos forum in switzerland, amano told reporters the visit was intended 'to clarify the issues with possible military dimensions 'we are not very sure whether iran has declared everything and, therefore, we are not very sure that everything stays in peaceful purpose,' he said 'in addition, we have information that iran has engaged in activities related to the development of nuclear weapons therefore, we need to clarify' inspectors are in and out of the country regularly, an agency spokeswoman said monday, but a high level visit is more unusual iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad has said he is ready to discuss the program with a group of nations great britain, china, france, germany, russia and the united states that have held intermittent talks with tehran the energy agency reported in november that it can no longer verify that the iranian nuclear program remains peaceful, and iran is under increasing international pressure to halt its nuclear fuel work salehi told fars wednesday that tehran will soon send a letter to the six world powers to reiterate its readiness for talks 'we hope that the meeting will be held in a not far future,' he said | international atomic energy agency late february iran tehran | new: international atomic energy agency monitors will return in late february . both sides called the meetings a positive step . western powers believe iran is developing nuclear weapons, a charge tehran denies . the watchdog agency wants to keep pushing on talks, its director says |
tokyo (cnn) workers at the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant have discovered a radioactive hot spot far more lethal than anything previously recorded at the damaged facility, the plant's owner reported tuesday the reading at the base of a ventilation tower between the no 1 and no 2 reactors monday afternoon was 10,000 millisieverts per hour, the tokyo electric power company announced high enough that a 60 minute exposure could kill a man or woman within weeks a us expert told cnn that radioactive particles most likely concentrated in that area in the first days of the disaster, as plant operators tried to vent the damaged reactors by comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives 3 millisieverts of background radiation per year, while the highest level reported in the days following the disaster was about 400 millisieverts tokyo electric immediately cordoned off the area and is investigating both the cause of the high radiation and how it will affect the recovery work, company spokesman naoki tsunoda said none of the workers who made the discovery have been injured, the company said the fukushima daiichi plant, located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of tokyo, was flooded by the tsunami that followed japan's march 11 earthquake the result was the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 chernobyl disaster, as the plant's three operating reactors melted down and spewed vast quantities of radioactive particles across the surrounding area the disaster has caused japan to rethink its commitment to nuclear energy, and germany has since announced plans to abandon atomic power entirely by 2022 gary was, a nuclear engineering professor at the university of michigan, said the location of the hot spot suggests the radioactive material was filtered from air and steam released to relieve pressure inside the reactors during the meltdowns 'as they were venting, either intentionally or unintentionally, the building air was being sent through filters,' was said those filters may have been concentrating radioactive particles 'into one spot,' he said was said the use of a gamma ray camera could help identify whether the source of the radioactivity was reactor waste products, bits of nuclear fuel or both tokyo electric mounted a gamma ray camera on a three meter (975 foot) pole to capture images of the hot spot monday, the company said tokyo electric says it expects to fully wind down the crisis at fukushima daiichi sometime between october and january engineers are struggling to manage an estimated 100,000 tons of highly contaminated water that was used to cool the reactors during the emergency, and was said workers may face issues similar to the one discovered monday as they try to decontaminate that fluid 'those filters are going to be screaming hot,' he said 'as bad as the water is, those filters are going to be worse' cnn's matt smith contributed to this report | us tokyo electric power company | new: the hot spot may have resulted from reactor venting, a us expert says . tokyo electric power company is investigating the cause of the high radiation . these are the highest radiation levels since the early days of the disaster . a single 60 minute dose would be fatal to humans within weeks |
los angeles (cnn) actor charlie sheen on friday declared 'we are at war' following canceled production of the hit cbs sitcom 'two and a half men' and his impending loss of $12 million per episode 'they know what they did is wrong,' sheen, who claimed he is clean, said in a call from the bahamas to the 'loose cannons' radio program producers cited charlie sheen's actions and statements when they announced they were calling off production for the rest of the season 'defeat is not an option,' sheen said in the friday interview with 'loose cannons' host pat o'brien 'they picked a fight with the wrong guy they are in absolute breach' 'they kept telling me how to live my personal life,' said sheen, making repeated references to money he brought to the network 'it was a toxic environment for eight years' the actor, who began rehab treatments at his home in the wake of an emergency hospital visit in january, told abc's 'good morning america' in text messages friday he is going to show up for work anyway sheen appeared to challenge producers to take action thursday when he went on a rant as a guest on 'the alex jones radio show' 'i was told if i went on the attack, they would cancel the show and all that, so i'm just sort of seeing if they're telling the truth or not,' sheen told jones the decision to halt 'two and a half men' was announced thursday after sheen spoke with the jones show 'based on the totality of charlie sheen's statements, conduct and condition, cbs and warner bros television have decided to discontinue production of 'two and a half men' for the remainder of the season,' the network and studio said in a joint statement thursday warner bros television is owned by time warner inc, the parent company of cnn cbs placed the sitcom on 'production hiatus' after the actor began rehab treatments the show had been scheduled to resume taping on four more episodes next week it's not clear if 'two and half men' will return for a ninth season industry insiders estimate that the show has already grossed $400 million in reruns, putting total syndication fees for the 177 shows at a cool $1 billion a warner brothers spokesman said that at least 250 members of the cast and crew will be out of work during the canceled production sheen said the employees should be focused, patient and to understand 'there are ways to deal with these clowns and take all their money' sheen said on the jones show that he was dealing 'with fools and trolls' and people with 'loser lives' he also had some unkind words for alcoholics anonymous 'this bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as alcoholics anonymous, reports a 5% success rate my success rate is 100% do the math another one of their mottoes is 'don't be special, be one of us' newsflash: i am special, and i will never be one of you! i have a disease? bulls**t! i cured it with my brain, with my mind,' sheen told the show the actor also went after show co creator chuck lorre a short time after the cancellation was announced, sheen sent a statement to celebrity news website tmz 'i gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows,' sheen wrote to tmz 'i fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can't handle my power and can't handle the truth' sheen's battle with producers is in sharp contrast to the kind words he had for them earlier this month when he thanked network executives for their support 'i have a lot of work to do to be able to return the support i have received from so many people,' sheen said in a statement then 'like errol flynn, who had to put down his sword on occasion, i just want to say, 'thank you' ' lorre had no comment friday sheen's father, actor martin sheen, told sky news earlier this week he likened sheen's addiction to having cancer 'if he had cancer how would we treat him?' the elder sheen asked 'the disease of addiction is a form of cancer and you have to have a equal measure of concern and love and lift them up that's what we do for him' addiction specialist dr drew pinsky told hln on friday that charlie sheen 'is clearly manic' pinsky said sheen is exhibiting traits of advanced addiction, which he said has a grave prognosis without proper treatment 'when their workplace is affected, that's when you know things are really bad,' said pinsky, whose new hln show premieres april 4 another sheen radio interview last week raised concern about the actor's stability sheen, talking on 'the dan patrick show,' advised people to stay away from crack cocaine 'unless you can manage it socially' he told patrick then that he was ready to return to the show 'i healed really quickly, but i also unravel really quickly, so get me right now guys,' sheen said 'get me right now' sheen was 'very, very intoxicated, also apparently in a lot of pain' on the morning of january 27, according to a 911 call from a doctor who had just talked to the actor porn actress kacey jordan has told media outlets that a two day party preceded sheen's collapse paramedics went to sheen's los angeles home and then took him by ambulance to a hospital, where he spent several hours while his representative blamed a hernia for sheen's pain, he later announced the actor was undergoing rehab at home cnn's alan duke, aaron smith and brittany kaplan contributed to this report | sheen cbs tmz next week | producers picked 'a fight with the wrong guy'. 'sheen's statements, conduct and condition' led to the shutdown, cbs says . the show's producer 'can't handle the truth,' sheen tells tmz . four new episodes were to begin production next week |
atlanta, georgia (cnn) an advisory panel is recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have h1n1 influenza one expert says that based on current knowledge, n95 respirators offer health workers the best protection the institute of medicine said thursday, in recommendations requested by the centers for disease control and prevention, that loose paper masks are inadequate because the workers could still breathe in the virus instead, health workers should switch to n95 respirators that form an airtight seal around the nose and mouth if properly fitted and worn correctly, n95 respirators filter out at least 95 percent of particles as small as 03 micrometers, which is smaller than influenza viruses, the report notes the institute provides independent, evidence based advice to policymakers, health professionals, private entities and the public it is one of four groups that make up the national academies the study released thursday was requested by the centers for disease control and prevention and the occupational safety and health administration 'scientists do not know to what extent flu viruses spread through the air or whether infection requires physical contact with contaminated fluids or surfaces,' a summary of the report says it calls for 'a boost in research to answer these questions and to design and develop better protective equipment that would enhance workers' comfort, safety and ability to do their jobs' 'based on what we currently know about influenza, well fitted n95 respirators offer health care workers the best protection against inhalation of viral particles,' said committee chairman kenneth shine, executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the university of texas in austin he is a former president of the institute 'but there is a lot we still don't know about these viruses, and it would be a mistake for anyone to rely on respirators alone as some sort of magic shield' health care workers should use several strategies to guard against infection, such as innovative triage processes, washing hands, disinfecting, wearing gloves, getting vaccinated and using antiviral drugs, shine said the institute was asked specifically to evaluate personal protective equipment designed to guard against respiratory infection, and therefore the committee focused on the efficacy of medical masks and respirators | potsie nebulosus nonratably | no related information |
phoenix, arizona (cnn) 'always you have to run for your life,' says boo htoo, who grew up in a refugee camp in thailand just across the border from myanmar boo htoo and his family lived at the maela refugee camp before being resettled in phoenix, arizona ethnic minorities still flee the repressive military regime in myanmar, formerly burma some 111,000 myanmar refugees live in nine camps in thailand, according to the united nations high commissioner for refugees htoo, now 29, recalls making the long trek with his parents to cross the border when he was about 5 '[it's] a very long way,' he says 'we don't have a car, a plane we don't have a bicycle to ride my parents just take what they can carry, and then we started walking across the jungle, sleeping in the jungle' htoo and his family are now resettled in phoenix, arizona thanks to carolyn manning and her welcome to america project, they got a warm welcome to the big city, complete with furnishings and household items for their first apartment and toys for his two young children 'that day that i have a lot of american friends in my apartment,' recalls htoo, 'this is the day that i feel very happy' for htoo, it was a remarkable transition from 'a really hard life in the refugee camp' 'they have a wire fence around the camp; they put soldiers around the fence,' htoo says 'you are not allowed to go outside to work you don't have a chance to go to university even if you are willing to go i cannot express the feeling of how difficult it is' watch htoo tell his story » according to the international rescue committee, about 27 million refugees have been resettled in the united states since 1975, and 52,000 of those have been relocated to arizona through her welcome to america project, manning helps legal refugees being resettled to phoenix by the united nations since 2001, she and volunteers have provided furniture, clothing and support to more than 550 refugee families nominate your hero at cnncom/heroes the first family manning welcomed came to her attention in a local newspaper manning's brother in law terence had died in the september 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in new york the family in the newspaper was from afghanistan and had lost a relative to the taliban manning immediately saw a parallel 'knowing that terence was killed innocently and then seeing the afghan family who had someone killed in their family, i started to make a connection between myself and that family,' manning recalls 'we lost a family member, too the difference was we had a safe place that we lived and they had to flee their country' at a time when many americans were putting up walls and shunning foreigners, manning reached out to them she and her family took up a collection of furniture for them and the welcome to america project was born 'they've been invited here,' says manning 'everybody has a right to find a place where they belong i want the refugees to feel that this is their home' the families assisted by the welcome to america project typically have languished in refugee camps for 10 12 years, says manning, and come from countries including iraq, myanmar, liberia, somalia, sudan, nigeria and bhutan places where they were often persecuted because of their race, religion or political views 'there are a number of different things they have to learn how to do when they first arrive,' manning says 'they've never seen buildings built like ours they've lived in huts literally made out of bamboo, with leaves on top there's a lot of transition for them' watch manning describe the refugees' strikingly different backgrounds » over the last seven years, manning says, she's learned a lot from the refugees and finds herself looking at american customs from a new perspective 'we brought a toaster into a family from africa and they didn't know what it was,' recalls manning 'the woman was very dutiful in watching [when] we tried to show them how to toast bread but then through a translator her response was, 'why would you want to ruin bread?'' manning says the refugees are resourceful and eager to start a new life, developing strong ties to their new communities, making active contributions, working hard and paying taxes 'it's not an 'us and them,'' she says 'we're all part of one humanity and we're trying to do what's right, and what is fair' watch the welcome to america project in action » as word continues to spread the project is currently bigger than ever, says manning the welcome to america project is nearing its 600th family donation manning says she isn't surprised the project has taken off 'that's how terrance's life was,' she says 'every time he had an idea it was big and bold he was a very, very generous person i guess that's the legacy we're passing on with the project' want to get involved? check out the welcome to america project and see how to help | phoenix arizona carolyn manning september 11 myanmar boo htoo cnncom/heroes | welcome to america project helps refugees being resettled in phoenix, arizona . carolyn manning founded the group after relative died in september 11 attacks . myanmar refugee boo htoo among 550 plus families the project has helped . nominate your hero at cnncom/heroes |
(cnn) a 75th minute strike by striker graziano pelle gave az alkmaar a 1 0 home win over nec nijmegen on sunday to leave his side top of the dutch standings italian star pelle scored the winner to keep az on top heading into the dutch break the italian's decisive goal means louis van gaal's men will head into 2009 with a three point lead over ajax amsterdam after 17 rounds the eredivisie is set to resume on january 16 after a three week break earlier, dario cvitanich scored a hat trick as ajax beat ado den haag 3 0 to temporarily draw level on points with the leaders but az, who are unbeaten in 15 games, then saw off nijmegen, who had also been on a fine 14 game unbeaten run az have 41 points, with ajax on 38 steve mcclaren's fc twente are in third place, seven points adrift of az, after holding defending champions psv eindhoven to a goalless draw on saturday psv are fourth with 30 points and looking set to relinquish their league title on friday, feyenoord snapped a run of three successive losses by beating nac breda 3 1, but the struggling rotterdam giants are in 12th spot | btise aqueously nonsensualistic | no related information |
nairobi, kenya (cnn) pirates holding a saudi owned oil supertanker off the coast of somalia have set the vessel free after receiving a ransom payment, a piracy monitor in neighboring kenya and the us navy fifth fleet said saturday a small aircraft drops a ransom payment during a flight over the sirius star on friday 'the supertanker vlcc sirius star is currently under way to safe waters,' andrew mwangura of the kenya seafarers association said in an e mail mwangura said all 23 crew members of the sirius star, the largest ship ever hijacked by pirates, are safe and in good health they are citizens of croatia, great britain, the philippines, poland and saudi arabia 'anytime a ship is released, it is positive news,' said cmdr jane campbell of the bahrain based fifth fleet 'but too many people see it as a ship and its cargo being released when merchant mariners are released, it is always good news' the ship is a vlcc, or 'very large crude carrier' according to the fifth fleet, the tanker is more than three times the size of a us navy aircraft carrier pirates seized the supertanker november 15 the tanker was carrying two million barrels of crude oil worth about $100 million the liberian flagged tanker is owned by vela international marine ltd, a subsidiary of the saudi arabian based saudi aramco saleh k'aki, president and ceo of vela international, said in a statement, 'we are very relieved to know that all crew members are safe and i am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits this has been a very trying time for them and certainly for their families we are very happy to report to their families that they will be on their way home soon' mwangura said it would have been a 'disaster' if the pirates had fired guns aboard the ship, harming the cargo or igniting a fire 'the capture of the sirius star raised the specter of an environmental disaster should the hijackers decide to turn the ship into a weapon or foreign navies attempt to release it by force,' he said the pirates had been expected to release the supertanker after receiving the ransom payment friday, but four pirates drowned after their skiff capsized in rough seas while they were leaving the sirius star, according to a journalist who spoke to one of the pirates on board watch ransom being parachuted to ship » there were five pirates in the skiff and one survived, the journalist said the bodies of the other four were recovered, he said the pirates told another journalist they received $3 million in ransom money but lost part of it when the skiff capsized 'initially, the gunmen were demanding $25 million for its release but the latest reports indicate that the demand had been lowered to below $35 million,' mwangura said meanwhile, pirates also have released the mv delight, an iranian chartered ship carrying wheat from germany, mwangura said it was captured in november details were not immediately available hijackings off east africa are a cause of growing international concern, spurring a number of international navies to patrol the pirate wracked gulf of aden dozens of ships have been attacked in the gulf by pirates based in a largely lawless somalia in recent months see how pirate attacks are on the rise » campbell said the number of attacks may have gone up in recent months, but the number of successful hijackings has gone down she attributed that to measures taken by merchant ships, such as vigilant keeping of watch and evasive ship maneuvers, and the increased naval presence in the at risk areas campbell stressed, however, that they are only preventive measures 'piracy is a problem that starts on the shore,' she said 'the international community needs to address the situation on the ground in somalia' cnn's david mckenzie contributed to this report | second saudi sirius star | new: second hijacked ship also released . pirates release saudi owned oil supertanker after receiving ransom . all crew members on sirius star are safe, according to piracy monitor . four pirates drowned, some ransom lost after skiff capsized in rough seas |
(cnn) denmark's thomas bjorn and american kevin streelman are tied for the lead after thursday's opening round of the world cup of golf in melbourne both men fired rounds of 66 to finish on five under par at the royal melbourne golf club to take their respective nations to the top of the team standings historically, the tournament has been primarily a team event, but format changes this year have made it 'an individual event with a team component,' say organizers gallery: world's greatest island greens individual players are competing in 72 holes of stroke play and vying for $7 million of the $8 million prize pot the remaining $1 million will be shared between the leading teams bjorn's danish teammate thorbjorn olesen and streelman's partner matt kuchar (who won the team event with gary woodland in 2011) both shot level par rounds of 71 portugal are currently lying second on two under par thanks to rounds of 69 from ricardo santos and 71 from jose filipe lima 'i played well today,' bjã¶rn told reporters 'i got off to a bit of a not so great start when i four putted number four and then i thought, 'well, this could be a long day', but i kept my composure and made some good birdies i did everything well today i drove it pretty well' streelman was equally content despite dropping two shots in the closing three holes 'i was very pleased with that start it's just an incredible golf course, i love it i just had a lot of fun there to be honest,' streelman said he and bjorn are one shot ahead of south korea's kj choi, welshman stuart manley and scot martin laird home favorite jason day shot a highly respectable 68 to take sixth place on his own the 26 year old, who is mourning the loss of eight relatives in the philippines following typhoon haiyan, finished three under par after claiming five birdies and two bogeys read more: jason day loses eight relatives there were mixed fortunes for some of the bigger names on show at the famous old course masters champion adam scott, who won the australian masters at the same course last week, carded a four over par 75 which included a quintuple bogey nine at the par four 12th hole northern ireland's graeme mcdowell had a day of wildly fluctuating fortunes the former us open champion only had two pars on the opening nine which included three bogeys, a double bogey, three birdies and an eagle two at the par four ninth hole his erratic form continued on the back nine and he eventually closed out with a double bogey to card a one over par 72 | cotraitor roche inspiratrix | no related information |
(cnn) the roof of a shopping mall collapsed in latvia's capital on thursday evening, killing four people and trapping dozens of others, officials in the baltic country said thursday the country's national news agency leta, citing a government official, reported there were four deaths a toddler was among the injured at the maxima shopping mall, located on priedaines street in western riga's zolitude neighborhood, according to leta riga mayor nils usakovs told cnn that authorities think as many as 30 people may be trapped in the building he said it appeared building materials stored on the roof caused the roof to collapse at least 13 fire brigades, a large number of ambulances and the city's mayor arrived at the scene, leta reported deadly south africa building collapse investigated | riga latvian | roof of mall in western riga collapses, latvian news agency says . deaths are reported . mayor says perhaps 30 people are trapped |
tokyo, japan (cnn) when pictures of prime minister yukio hatoyama's multi colored button down shirt started spreading on the internet, people around the world cringed but not peter crawfurd and michael yang they saw brilliance 'extraordinary,' said yang, of hatoyama's purple, red, yellow, blue and green shirt 'that's exactly what we see in the japanese prime minister mr hatoyama is a great symbol for that we believe in individuality and people should be able to dress as they want' and for $500, you can own your own hatoyama shirt crawfurd and yang, two 26 year old buddies who met in high school in denmark, run a build your own shirt business based in china by build, they mean pick your own fabrics, cuts and colors on their web site, wwwshirtsmywaycom the company claims users can design over 7 trillion different men's dress shirts, by breaking the shirt into components and custom tailored fits you pick, they make, and ship it to your door they said they like very individual fashion choices which is why even though they're not the original designers of hatoyama's shirt, they're launching a replica, a special 'prime minister hatoyama shirt,' so you, too, can have hatoyama's every color of the rainbow shirt they are convinced someone out there really does want it 'regardless of what people out there think is fashionable or not, it's one of the bravest moves we've ever seen,' said yang 'we honor his bravery because it takes a brave man to face the world with so many colors, especially a man in his position we stand behind him 100 percent' 'there's a lot of integrity in what he's doing,' added crawfurd 'just because he's prime minister, doesn't mean he loses this part of him' the entrepreneurs are by no means just looking to honor japan's leader they see a business opportunity by coat tailing off the internet buzz on hatoyama's bold shirt but they also think critics are 'too harsh,' said yang 'i don't know what else to say yes, too harsh' the prime minister under fire this week, from both outside the political halls of tokyo and within, after he backed out of a campaign promise to move a disputed us air base off the island of okinawa but as tensions in the korean peninsula and pressure from washington mounted, the prime minister caved on that campaign promise on sunday this week, the political fallout has begun members of the opposition party, the liberal democratic party, are now calling on him to resign in okinawa, it is full on name calling, with residents saying he is a liar national polls show his approval ratings are below 30 percent but outside of japan, at least two entrepreneurs are cheering him on they just launched their hatoyama shirt special wednesday morning in asia and say they have already gotten an order they hope customers will at least want to look like the prime minister, regardless of the political turmoil hatoyama currently faces | dottrels levelish unseven | no related information |
(cnn) the prospect of competing in the 2012 london olympics left british rower mohamed sbihi with a big dilemma as a practicing muslim, sbihi, who has moroccan family, should be starting his month long ramadan fast on july 21, abstaining from food and water during daylight hours but it clashes with what should be the pinnacle of his career so far when he competes in the british men's eight at the olympics on home water a compromise was needed 'my faith is really important to me,' sbihi said in an interview with cnn's human to hero series 'i make sure i say the first verse of the koran before every single race, whether it be out loud or in my head 'i spoke to my family here, spoke to my family back home in morocco, and at the end of the day i'm making the right decision for me, and that's to postpone my fast' it isn't only his faith that will inspire him the devoted arsenal football fan will also turn to music to fire him up before he races 'i like to listen to quite violent hip hop rap kinda of stuff before i get on the water,' he said 'i do listen to one song: eminem feat lil wayne no love' football fan born in britain to an english mother and moroccan father, sbihi had one sport on his mind when he was 15 and it wasn't rowing sbihi nicknamed 'moe' by his friends spent as much time as possible on the football pitch, but the visit of british rowing's talent identification scouts to his school in surbiton persuaded him to try a different pursuit 'i wasn't really for the idea i just wanted to play football,' he said 'the coach that was testing at the time saw me and said, 'make sure that boy is there' i had the raw parameters to be a really successful rower' that same year, he won under 15 gold at the british indoor championships and he went on to win bronze in the men's four at the under 23 world championships hitting the heights now the 24 year old is preparing to compete in his first olympics and he shouldn't be too hard to spot at six foot eight inches (203 meters), sbihi is the tallest member of the british eight although his physique is not unusual in rowing 'if i wasn't a rower, i'd love to be a basketball player i love basketball, i love watching it,' he said 'and basketball you kind of fit in it's the same thing with rowing, you just sit here and everyone is tall and you're like, 'is this the land of the giants?' ' size matters being the biggest member of a crew is not necessarily an advantage, sbihi says, so keeping his weight down is crucial 'when it comes to summer racing i'm the biggest guy i can also easily be the heaviest guy by me being lighter, and keeping the same power, it would be beneficial to the crew' gold target sbihi moved up to the eight crew in 2010, having raced in the pair and the four at youth level, and britain looks set to renew its rivalry with germany at the games the british eight finished second behind the dominant germans at the 2010 and 2011 world championships however, sbihi isn't interested in collecting another silver medal 'i'm in this to win,' he said 'i only want one thing and that is an olympic medal i went four years not winning anything and if i just win that gold medal i'll be happy my legacy would be that gold medal' britain's rowing legends if he does win gold, sbihi will follow in the footsteps of some of the biggest names in british rowing steve redgrave won titles at five successive olympics, while matthew pinsent won four in a row and james cracknell won gold in the coxless four in 2000 and 2004 'pincent, cracknell and redgrave they were able to do that for 20 years, 16 years and 12 years,' sbihi says 'that's pretty impressive it's unimaginable for me to be able to try to better redgrave' | british mohamed sbihi britain moroccan muslim london six foot eight inches sbihi | british rower mohamed sbihi was born in britain and has a moroccan father . sbihi is a practicing muslim and will delay his ramadan fast to compete in london . he was picked up at the age of 15 by british rowing's talent spotting scheme . at six foot eight inches, sbihi is the tallest member of the british crew |
(cnn) police dropped assault and harassment charges against a man who lindsay lohan said choked her during a scuffle over cell phone photos early sunday, a new york police department official said instead, christian labella, 25, and lohan, 26, filed harassment claims against each other 'cross complaints for harassment were filed and labella's assault arrest was voided after detectives investigated further,' nypd deputy commissioner paul browne said the incident happened in a guest room at new york's union square w hotel at 5 am, according to a police official who did not want to be named lohan said she and three other friends another woman and two men, including labella went to the room after a night of partying at a nightclub, another police source said from there, the accounts differ lohan told police she asked labella to borrow his cell phone because her battery died, and then discovered photos he took of her at the nightclub, the source said labella told police lohan took his phone without permission and refused to give it back when she refused to return the phone, lohan told police that labella pushed her onto the bed and she suffered scratches, the source added lohan said she then ran out of the room and into the stairwell with labella in pursuit, according to the source she accused labella of choking her during the struggle for the phone, the source said police, who responded to a fire alarm that officers said had been pulled by lohan, arrested labella on two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment based on lohan's description of what happened those charges were dropped when investigators decided there was not enough evidence to support them both lohan and labella could have difficulty pursuing competing civil claims, a police source said labella could argue she took his phone without permission, and lohan can argue he attacked her, the source explained lohan did not seek medical treatment, the source added 'while she did sustain some injuries, she was not hospitalized,' lohan publicist steve honig said police will have no further involvement in the case lohan, who is on unsupervised probation for a shoplifting conviction, moved to new york this summer following a series of late night controversies in los angeles labella told police he is a clerical worker from valley village, a suburb of los angeles a spokesman for us rep john shimkus confirmed to cnn that labella is an employee in the illinois congressman's washington office 'obviously, the congressman does not condone his actions,' said shimkus spokesman steve tomaszewski, declining to comment further nypd releases video of lohan traffic incident lohan recovering after hospital visit lohan's probation nears end cnn's susan candiotti and deirdre walsh contributed to this report | lindsay lohan christian labella lohan grabbed labella's | new: lindsay lohan and christian labella file harassment claims against each other, official says . lohan grabbed labella's phone when she realized he took photos of her, a police source says . labella says she took the phone without his permission, according to the source . lohan 'did sustain some injuries, she was not hospitalized,' her publicist says |
cairo (cnn) the trial of international aid workers including 16 americans accused of fraud in egypt got a brief start sunday as intense behind the scenes diplomatic discussions simmered over the case out of the 43 defendants facing fraud charges, only 14 non american workers showed up to court for a trial unfolding in the wake of the revolution that ousted former president hosni mubarak, and increasingly shaky relations with the united states after charges were formally read, the judge adjourned the trial and scheduled it to resume april 26 the accused were detained as part of a crackdown on pro democracy, non government groups, which egyptian officials say is part of a pattern of foreign interference that is stoking unrest 'we are having intense talks at the highest levels of the egyptian government because, obviously, we would like to see this resolved,' secretary of state hillary clinton said during an interview with cnn in morocco clinton declined to discuss the details of the negotiations or whether the us would surrender the americans for trial 'i don't want to go making this a dramatic situation,' clinton said she also refused to discuss what the case could do to the 30 year relationship between the two countries 'we have a problem we have a problem with a lot of our friends around the world' the accusations read out loud in court included the unlicensed formation of international organizations as well as illegally receiving and distributing funds from the united states authorities claim that millions of dollars in unlicensed funds were deposited directly from abroad into accounts in egypt the 14 defendants who appeared in court denied all charges they sat in a caged section of the courtroom, which is customary in egyptian courts, and were not in detention they were released at the end of the hearing upon their exit, the courtroom audience broke into chants of 'down, down with military rule' yahia ghanem, a local journalist, is a member of an accused ngo he said the funding he did receive was required by egyptian authorities to open an office and was much smaller than the amount he was accused of having 'they said we received 22 million dollars,' said ghanem, who maintains that the sum was closer to $40,000 the list of charges continued with the unapproved conducting of political training and opinion polls and sending reports to the united states the aid workers are charged with operating in egypt without being officially registered and receiving foreign funding of the americans charged, only seven are still in egypt those in the country are all believed to be at the us embassy, though the egyptian government has not asked for them to be turned over or to turn themselves in among the americans charged in the case is sam lahood, director of egypt operations for the international republican institute and the son of us transportation secretary ray lahood clinton has met repeatedly with egyptian foreign minister mohammed amr in recent days in london and tunis, and other senior administration officials are also involved, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue members of congress say egypt's action could mean the end of $13 billion in us aid in a letter to clinton and defense secretary leon panetta, 41 members urged the administration to withhold aid to egypt until the country's leadership allows the offices of those organizations to reopen and returns seized property clinton's remarks came as an attorney for the americans was in a packed cairo courthouse asking for additional time 'to read evidence' 'we have not read or even seen any of the case documents,' attorney sarwat abdel shadi said shortly before the hearing an official with one of the us based nongovernmental organizations at the center of the case said none of the americans has been served with papers to appear in court 'none of the foreigners have been served documents to appear in court or received anything in writing as far as i know, none of the foreigners are appearing in court today,' said les campbell, regional director of the national democratic institute campbell, who has been in cairo to follow the case, said there were 2,200 pages of evidence presented by the egyptian government that have not been reviewed in december, egyptian authorities carried out 17 raids on the offices of 10 organizations, including the us based freedom house, national democratic institute and the international republican institute they seized property and prevented some staff from leaving the country it was not immediately clear what, if any, ramifications the americans would face for not attending the hearing earlier, the egyptian general prosecutor's office said a failure to appear could result in a maximum, mandatory sentence of five years and possible additional charges, a spokesman for the egyptian general prosecutor's office said earlier this month, the united states was presented with a 24 page document from an egyptian court laying out charges against us and other international democracy building groups the state department sent lawyers to egypt to pore over the document the united states has maintained that despite the charges, it does not consider the case truly a judicial one, but a matter between the two governments about the role of ngos in egypt the two judges handling the cases have said the charges could lead to five year prison sentences cnn's elise labott and journalist mohamed fadel fahmy contributed to this report | underpain bidented difficultness | no related information |
washington (cnn) iraq is open for business, and american companies should make an effort to invest there, secretary of state hillary clinton said friday 'president obama and i and our government believe strongly that expanding economic opportunity is as essential as building democratic institutions,' clinton said while surrounded by executives from companies as far ranging as occidental petroleum, jp morgan chase, general electric, microsoft and lockheed martin, in a round table discussion aimed at getting companies focused on commercial opportunities in iraq despite its current 'tough environment' the meeting comes as the united states transitions from a military led to a civilian led partnership with the iraqi government by the end of the year the state department is leading an inter agency effort to support american companies in their efforts to secure commercial opportunities in iraq with one of the largest customer bases in the arab world, along with one of the best educated work forces in the region, clinton said, iraq poses significant opportunities for american companies the international monetary fund has projected for iraq to grow faster than china over the next two years, she said the united states, through its embassy and consulates throughout the country, stands ready to assist american companies 'to help create the conditions for investment and growth that will be broadly spread and create a ladder of economic opportunity for those willing to work hard,' clinton said 'iraqis are looking to rebuild every sector of their economy, not only their oil sector but agribusiness, transportation, housing, banking and many others' with additional help from the departments of treasury, energy and agriculture, among others, the united states will actively support efforts of american businesses to set up operations to compete with turkish, chinese, french, jordanian and iranian companies already seeking business opportunities in iraq james jeffrey, the us ambassador to iraq, is also working to establish an american chamber of commerce in iraq to serve as an advocate for american businesses despite the opportunity iraq offers, clinton said, she would 'not sugarcoat' the difficulties posed by the current working environment in iraq 'there are still significant security challenges, bottlenecks in infrastructure, unclear regulations and, unfortunately, corruption but as our iraqi colleagues will tell you, they are working hard to make it easier to do business in iraq for iraqis and foreign investors alike' clinton said the united states would also make it a priority to support the integration of women into the iraqi work force 'i know that a lot of the best students in iraqi universities happen to be women, and i hope that iraq takes full advantage of half the population, ready to work, ready to roll up their sleeves to assist in the transformation of their country,' she said thirty companies were represented at the event in the benjamin franklin room at the state department the iraqi ambassador to the united states, samir sumaidaie, attended as well | us iraq imf china clinton | 'expanding economic opportunity' as essential as democracy, she says . federal agencies join forces to support us companies in iraq . imf says iraq's growth will outpace china in two years, clinton says |
so ill he could not move, wolfgang amadeus mozart supposedly sang parts of his final masterpiece, 'requiem,' from his deathbed two centuries later, the exact cause of the austrian composer's premature death, in december 1791 at age 35, is still a mystery this portrait by painter johann georg edlinger, showed mozart not long before his mysterious death in 1791 theories abound it's known that his entire body was so swollen he couldn't turn over in bed; some say jealous rivals poisoned him, while others suggest scarlet fever, tuberculosis, or lethal trichinosis from undercooked pork now, new evidence points to an altogether different conclusion: mozart may have died from kidney damage caused by a strep infection, possibly strep throat healthcom: can't stop coughing? 8 causes of chronic cough dr richard hc zegers of the university of amsterdam and his colleagues analyzed data from vienna's death registry researchers had not previously analyzed the daily death registry begun in handwritten script in 1607 and maintained until 1920 for clues to mozart's death zegers and his team looked at information for 5,011 adults who died during three consecutive winters starting in 1790, as well as eyewitness accounts of mozart's death, according to the study published this week in annals of internal medicine 'by looking at the patterns of death during mozart's time and combining them with the signs and symptoms of his final disease, we have not one but two pillars on which our theory is built,' said zegers 'although we can't be 100 percent conclusive, i'm convinced that we have come very near the exact reason he died' the researchers found that there were more than 500 deaths related to edema, the swelling caused by fluid in the body's tissues edema was the third most common cause of death at the time, after tuberculosis and malnutrition/cachexia, a physical wasting away that was possibly caused by cancer or diabetes healthcom: your nutrition needs in your 30s, 40s, and 50s during the winter of 1791, there was a spike in edema related deaths among younger men, possibly because of an epidemic of strep throat, according to zegers he and his colleagues suspect that the epidemic's origin was the local military hospital, since crowded quarters are more conducive to the rapid spread of airborne bacteria such as group a streptococcus, which can cause strep throat strep throat can progress to rheumatic fever, which can lead to heart valve and joint damage; scarlet fever, which is characterized by a skin rash; and poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (apsgn), a condition that causes fluid buildup throughout the body because of kidney damage healthcom: how one doctor helps patients avoid kidney problems strep bacteria's serious side effects are why today's experts recommend testing and prompt antibiotic treatment of strep, which causes a fiery red throat, severe pain and a high fever however, most present day throat infections are caused by viruses (in which case antibiotics are useless), and they often go away without treatment or serious complications dr martin schreiber, the head of the nephrology and hypertension department at the cleveland clinic, in ohio, said that the researchers might be on the right track 'is this plausible? yes,' said schreiber 'but is it definitive? no' contrary to previous theories suggesting that mozart died in extremely rare circumstances, the new study does have a more reasonable conclusion based on what was happening in the community, schreiber said 'using the most credible sources available from that period, they're relying upon deductive reasoning i'm not sure if there's a more scientific approach to doing this,' he added even though the death registry's data helps shed light on mozart's cause of death, significant gaps still leave doubt many people witnessed the composer's final days, but most of those accounts were published decades after his death historians have found no written accounts by mozart's physicians, and have relied largely on medical reports by a doctor who was familiar with the case but didn't treat the composer other sources used in the study include a biography written by the composer's wife's second husband, georg nikolaus von nissen, and an eyewitness account given by mozart's sister in law, sophie haibel, 33 years after his death dr stephen gluck, a nephrologist at the university of california, san francisco, finds some faults with the new theory: there are no accounts of mozart suffering from a sore throat in the last weeks of his life; nor were there reports of high blood pressure or blood in his urine all are telltale signs of apsgn gluck adds that apsgn now occurs mainly in children and is nonfatal in most cases mozart's cause of death is listed on the city's official registry as hitziges frieselfieber, or miliary fever, a condition whose symptoms include a high temperature and rash zegers suggested this guess was made by a layperson instead of a medical authority because it was a term widely used to describe symptoms instead of an actual medical diagnosis although a rash is a symptom of scarlet fever, which is also caused by strep bacteria, it's more likely that mozart's death was due to strep throat, zegers said none of the people who were with him during the last weeks of life reported that he had a rash, suggesting that he had the rash only at the time of his death scarlet fever's rash shows up the first or second day after you get sick and then subsides within six to nine days, said zegers, so that condition is unlikely to have been the cause of death healthcom: four things you didn't know about natural medicine what's more, mozart was reported to have had a fever in the fall of 1791, which may have been caused by the initial strep infection, the researchers say some strep complications can occur weeks after the initial infection, and it's possible that mozart had a sore throat before or at the time of his death and it wasn't recorded enter to win a monthly room makeover giveaway from myhomeideascom copyright health magazine 2009 | turkeyberry collembola bob | no related information |
(cnn) pakistani civilians were given a brief window on friday to flee the ongoing fighting between government forces and taliban militants in the country's north, according to military officials pakistani civilians pack a bus leaving mingora, the capital of the troubled swat valley the pakistan army is trying to push the taliban away from regions within the troubled swat valley a curfew was relaxed until 2 pm local time friday in kabal, kanju and mingora in the swat valley and in malakand agency, which is a separate district the government provided an estimated 150 vehicles to evacuate people, as private cars are not allowed to enter mingora the taliban have been concentrating forces there digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops, according to strategic expert reva bhalla of stratfor, a firm that describes itself as a global intelligence company 'the taliban are concentrating forces in mingora digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops,' said bhalla 'it is not clear if the pakistani military is trained and even equipped to go into a situation like that,' she said, adding that even the united states military 'would have to think twice' about such an offensive she estimates there are 5,000 taliban fighters in the area 'the question is: are they going to try to stand and fight, or try to regroup?' she asked with a government offensive against the taliban nearly three weeks old, a spokesman for pakistan's army said the military intends to drive the taliban out of the contested area 'the whole resolve of the government and the military is to once and for all finish the taliban from the valley of swat,' pakistani military spokesman maj gen athar abbas told cnn's reza sayah the pakistani military is trying to push the taliban away from the heavily forested and mountainous regions of the swat district toward the south, so the army can encircle the militants, bhalla added according to the chief minister of pakistan's north west frontier province, some 15 million people have been displaced by 10 months of fighting between the military and taliban militants along its border with afghanistan the number of people at the yar hussain displaced persons camp in swabi district is expected to reach 2 million, amir haider hoti said the military announced earlier this week the number was 13 million the huge refugee camps that the conflict is creating could be 'the perfect recruiting grounds for the taliban to prey on,' bhalla said meanwhile, the united nations' top official on refugees told cnn thursday the world must launch a 'massive international effort' to care for the refugees, or it will be 'absolutely impossible' to provide for them pakistani prime minister yousuf raza gilani, in a speech to parliament thursday, called the refugee crisis a massive and unprecedented predicament 'they are our own people and their children are my children,' gilani said | 6 am 2 pm swat valley malakand taliban pakistan 10 months | curfew relaxed from 6 am until 2 pm local time in swat valley, malakand . taliban 'digging trenches, laying mines' in disputed western city, expert says . pakistan wants to push taliban south so it can encircle militants, expert says . some 15 million people have been displaced by 10 months of fighting |
washington (cnn) house speaker john boehner has a liability on his hands rep trey radel, r florida, has taken a leave of absence after pleading guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession boehner has been praised by congressional watchdogs for having little tolerance for derelict members of congress but for now, radel is retaining his seat 'i believe that members of congress should be held to the highest ethical standard,' boehner told reporters thursday 'the issue is between he and his family and his constituents' other members of congress caught in compromising situations heard a similar refrain from the speaker after rep chris lee, r new york, was caught soliciting women with shirtless selfies on craigslist in 2011, the watchdog group citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington (crew), said that boehner 'serves as a ruthless judge and jury within his party when it comes to the extracurricular activities of members of his conference' while boehner insisted that it was lee's decision, the new yorker immediately resigned his seat boehner said, 'members should be held to the highest ethical standard' that's not the only time boehner has given this canned response when republican rep mark souder of indiana admitted to having an affair with a staffer in 2010, boehner's spokesman at the time said 'he will hold our members to the highest ethical standards' and when republican vito fossella of new york was arrested for drunk driving in 2008 and then admitted to having a child in an extramarital affair, boehner said his political future is a 'decision between he, his family and his constituents' lee and souder resigned immediately fossella did not seek re election, which was just a month out while boehner took no credit for the members' decision to step down, the situation behind the scenes is likely much different radel's office confirmed to cnn on thursday that the congressman has checked into a drug treatment facility his office released this statement: 'today, i checked myself into a facility to seek treatment and counseling it is my hope, through this process, i will come out a better man i will work hard to gain back the trust and support of my constituents, friends and most importantly, my family' while radel retains his seat, melanie sloan, executive director of crew, said she doesn't 'see how he survives this' boehner and the republican party should have little tolerance for radel, who is the first member of congress since at least the 1980s to be caught with drugs, sloan said 'it's surprising that they haven't pushed radel out yet,' sloan said a senior house gop aide said boehner is coming down lightly on radel because his is an issue of 'addiction and substance abuse' sloan immediately dismissed that justification she said cocaine use is 'pretty bad' and that blaming drug use on alcohol addiction is 'irrelevant' members of congress are 'supposed to uphold the law,' she said radel, who has been in office for 11 months, is a first time politician the former tv journalist turned conservative radio talk show host represents the southwest florida coastal cities of fort myers and naples radel's future comes with political risks radel represents a safe republican district it contains the fewest registered democrats in the state and he won election with 62% of the vote if he stays, voters in the popular retirement community might not be forgiving with the election a year away, there's still plenty of time for republicans to find a replacement or the party could stay out of it and wait to see whether a republican challenges radel in the primary, assuming he decides to run again who is trey radel? back in washington, the congressman responsible for getting republicans elected to the house, rep greg walden, r oregon, offered a noncommittal response about radel's future 'he's going to need to explain what happened and then make some decisions,' walden, chair of the national republican congressional committee, said wednesday house minority leader nancy pelosi said radel's drug use shows 'inconsistency' within the republican party, which is pushing drug testing of food stamp recipients, a position radel voted for this summer ethics problems are not confined to the republican house democrats eric massa of new york quickly left office after he was accused of sexual harassment, as did anthony weiner for posting lewd pictures of himself on twitter there appears to be a little more tolerance in the senate republican mike crapo of idaho still holds his seat after pleading guilty to drunk driving and sen david vitter, r louisiana, remains in office after his involvement with a prostitute sen john ensign, r nevada, resigned amid an ethics investigation that involved an extramarital affair sen larry craig, r idaho, also resigned after alleging soliciting a police officer for sex in an airport bathroom cnn's deirdre walsh contributed to this report | lagoonside nonfragrant isoamylamine | no related information |
denver, colorado (cnn) a former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis c after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say a hospital worker has admitted to secretly injecting herself and using unclean syringes for patients kristen diane parker, who worked at rose medical center in denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said she had hepatitis c, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in new jersey in 2008, authorities said she was a surgical technician at rose from october 2008 to april 2009 nine patients who had surgery there during that time have tested positive for hepatitis c investigators are looking into whether they contracted the virus from parker according to an affidavit filed by an investigator with the food and drug administration, rose medical center knew parker tested positive for hepatitis c she was counseled on how to limit her exposure to patients parker quit after she was found to be in an operating room where she was not allowed to be she subsequently tested positive for fentanyl hospital officials then contacted the dea parker is in federal custody facing three drug related charges if she is found to have done serious harm to a patient, she could face up to 20 years in prison if a patient dies because of her actions, she could face life in prison in a statement to police, parker said, 'i can't take back what i did, but i will have to live with it for the rest of my life, and so does everyone else' her attorney could not be reached friday rose medical center is contacting 4,700 patients who had surgery at rose during the time parker was employed there however, hospital officials do not believe that many patients were exposed 'we are taking a very conservative and cautious approach by contacting everyone who had surgery during this broad time period,' a statement on the hospital's web site said, adding, 'it is likely that most of the patients who receive letters will not have been exposed to hepatitis c' an additional 1,200 patients may have been infected between may 4, 2009, and july 1, 2009, when parker worked at audubon ambulatory surgical center in colorado springs audubon is also contacting patients according to the centers for disease control, hepatitis c is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer | kristen diane parker denver october 2008 april 2009 | kristen diane parker believes she contracted hepatitis c from sharing dirty needles . she was a surgical technician in denver from october 2008 to april 2009 . hepatitis c is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer |
harare, zimbabwe (cnn) zimbabwe's opposition said sunday that it will not 'commit political suicide' by entering into a government with president robert mugabe without the power to deliver change, food and jobs zimbabwe president robert mugabe, in a speech to supporters saturday, refused calls to step down movement for democratic change spokesman nelson chamisa made that comment after his party's national executive meeting and ahead of talks slated for monday on forming a government of national unity last september, mugabe and mdc leader morgan tsvangirai signed a power sharing deal, but they have not formed a government of national unity the agreement, brokered by former south african president thabo mbeki on behalf of southern african development community (sadc), stalled as tsvangirai accused mugabe of grabbing all key ministries such as defense, information, foreign affairs, finance and home affairs south african president kgalema motlanthe, chairman of the regional body sadc, is coming to zimbabwe monday with his predecessor, mbeki, and with mozambique leader armando guebuza to try to resolve the impasse in an interview with cnn, chamisa said of monday's planned meeting: 'we cannot go into positions of authority without the attendant and consequent power to enable us to deliver on change, food and jobs 'it is an act of political hari kari, political suicide, and we are not ready to commit suicide yet we cannot commit political suicide by entering into a government limping and in pain it's like swallowing poison and we become the victims 'we are going to insist on the outstanding issues, which are to do with equity of ministries, making sure that we attain the position of governors in line with march 29 election and therefore we are going to insist and stick to our position and we hope mister mugabe and zanu pf will appreciate the nobility of our very vital position' zanu pf is mugabe's party describing monday's planned meeting as a 'watershed,' chamisa said his party wanted the protracted talks to end mugabe told the state media that monday's meeting would be the final one, and that he would form a government without the opposition if no agreement was reached chamisa responded by saying: 'mugabe is a failure and cannot dictate pace if they choose to terminate the talks by their arrogance, let it be, we will not give mugabe latitude to be funny 'we are the winners and therefore we should be indicating which issues to deliberate on so we will not give mister mugabe latitude to be funny because there is no time for that, people are suffering' the agreement, under which mugabe would remain as zimbabwe's president and tsvangirai would become prime minister, follows last june's hotly disputed presidential runoff, which was marred by more than 200 deaths, mainly among opposition supporters tsvangirai had won the first round in march, but failed to reached the threshold required the deal is seen by many as the panacea to the plethora of problems facing zimbabwe the once prosperous nation is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis acute shortages of essentials have raised inflation, now the highest in the world the united nations says more than five million people face starvation and there is no food aid added to that, a cholera outbreak has claimed more than 2,200 lives as the country fails to import adequate stocks of chemicals to treat the water the epidemic has coincided with a strike, now in its fourth month, by doctors and nurses demanding a salary review, more medicines and better hospital equipment tsvangirai returned home saturday and said he was committed to a power sharing deal with mugabe, despite recent threats to abandon the deal but he vowed that he would not be rushed to join an inclusive government | zimbabwe mugabe morgan tsvangirai | opposition: power sharing deal must give it genuine power to deliver change . zimbabwe's president mugabe to hold talks monday with morgan tsvangirai . mugabe says talks are last chance for opposition before he forms government . power sharing deal signed by pair has been deadlocked since september |
colombo, sri lanka (cnn) five members of the sri lanka's civil defense force (cdf) were killed in a suicide blast in sri lanka at a church outside the capital of colombo sunday morning, police said sri lankan police officers investigate sunday's suicide bombing near colombo eight other cdf officers and two civilians were wounded, police said nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but police suspect the bomber was a member of the tamil tiger rebels there was no immediate response from the tamil tiger rebels to the incident, which, police said, occurred at st anne's church in the colombo suburb of wattala, located on a roadway to the country's only international airport about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the capital the attack happened during a weekly festival that usually draws a large crowd shopping for vegetables and household goods the suicide bomber walked into an area where cdf officers were stationed and detonated his explosives, police said investigators suspect the bomber targeted the area because 150 police officers who help patrol the road to the airport are billeted there government forces have engaged rebels in heavy fighting for more than a year in the kilinochchi region, once the center of political power for the tamil tigers the 25 year civil war between ethnic tamil separatists and the sri lankan government has left more than 65,000 people dead the tamil tigers were founded in 1976, and the us state department designated the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 the rebels, formally known as the liberation tigers of tamil eelam (ltte), are fighting for the creation of an independent nation, citing discrimination by the country's sinhalese majority earlier sunday, sri lanka's navy said it had destroyed a tamil tiger rebel boat allegedly attempting to smuggle in military supplies through the northern coast commander dkp dissanayake, a navy spokesman, told cnn that four rebels were killed in attack after the boat was engulfed in fire he said the incident occurred just after midnight sunday but gave no other details there was no immediate response from the tiger rebels to that incident cnn could not independently verify the government's claim because media is debarred from sri lanka's battle zones in the past, both sides in the conflict have exaggerated accounts of military operations on december 20, the navy said it destroyed a similar rebel boat trying to smuggle military supplies through the coast near the northeastern coastal village of mullaitivu however, a second supply boat was caught on air force aerial surveillance cameras unloading along the coast 'they included assorted ammunition, artillery shells, mortar shells and other items,' a senior air force official told cnn he spoke on grounds of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media | tamil tiger tiger navy | new: attack coincided during a weekly festival that draws a large crowd . new: police suspect the bomber was a member of the tamil tiger rebels . no immediate response from tiger rebels on church blast, destroyed boat . four rebels killed in boat attack after midnight sunday, navy says |
editor's note: for 85 years, yankee stadium has hosted some of the greatest moments in sports on sunday, the yankees will play their last game before the stadium is torn down former yankee pitcher jim bouton played on the 1963 american league all star team and in two world series he wrote the classic baseball book, 'ball four,' named as one of the 'books of the century' by the new york public library, and has been a sportscaster and actor for bouton's web site, click here jim bouton was photographed as a rookie in 1962 at yankee stadium, before the renovation of the ballpark egremont, massachusetts (cnn) i'll never forget my first day in the house that ruth built: april 9, 1962, the day before opening day i made the team that spring as a non roster player, having pitched in the texas league (aa) the year before and i had just turned 23 the yankees had scheduled an afternoon workout, but i was so excited that i couldn't sleep and i drove in from my parents' house in new jersey at 7 in the morning after introducing myself to a skeptical guard, he led me down two flights of stairs and through a hallway, where i was greeted by the clubhouse man pete sheehy (who died in 1985 and for whom the room is now named) the yankee clubhouse in 1962 was like a large subterranean living room a wall to wall grayish green carpet muffled all sound, and the overhead lighting was subdued three walls of walk in wood lockers faced a wall of large frosted windows that cast shafts of light from the street above everything was painted a muted gray green to match the carpet, including the exposed ductwork in the ceiling above a cleat dented wooden stool sat in front of each locker and hanging in the lockers, with military precision, were the classic yankee uniforms 'your locker is right here by the door,' said pete i couldn't help smiling when i saw whitey ford's nameplate just one locker away i asked pete if this was the same room that babe ruth and lou gehrig and all those guys used he pointed to a locker across the room where he used to bring 'a bi carb and coffee' each day to the babe pete returned to his duties and i touched my uniform reverently with no one around, i decided to try it on perfect fit i adjusted my hat in a mirror that looked good, too ireportcom: share your memories of yankee stadium then i grabbed my glove and went out to the field you know, just to get oriented after sitting in the dugout a few minutes, i trotted out to the mound looking up at the three tiers of stands was like being in the roman coliseum of course, i had to toe the rubber and look in for the sign fortunately, at that hour of the morning, it was just me and the pigeons what would it be like to pitch there when the stands were filled with people? my big chance came on may 7, 1962, in the second game of a double header against the washington senators, in front of a real crowd that included my mom and dad, my brothers and a whole bunch of neighbors from new jersey i was thrilled and scared at the same time maybe a little more on the scared side i walked the bases loaded with nobody out then i fell behind 3 and 1 on the fourth hitter my next pitch was a little bit high and manager ralph houk stepped out of the dugout either to calm me down or remove me from the premises but the umpire, bless him, called it a strike and houk stepped back into the dugout the inning seemed to last forever, but i finally got out of it and ended up pitching a complete game shutout maybe the worst shutout in history 7 walks and 7 hits after the game houk said to me, 'any more shutouts like that and we're going to need a new bullpen' the best part was when i walked into the clubhouse after the game i arrived a few minutes late because i'd done a tv interview in the dugout and when i opened the door, there was a path of white towels leading to my locker and mickey mantle was laying down the last towel this is my favorite memory of yankee stadium unless it was mantle's 9th inning walk off home run in '64 world series that beat the cardinals 2 1, which also happened to be my first world series win after that it was all down hill in 1968 a sore arm got me traded to the seattle pilots for a bag of batting practice balls that's the year i kept a diary that became ball four a book that also mentioned mantle hitting a home run with a hangover which got me banned from old timers day at yankee stadium for 28 years my eventual return to yankee stadium came after my son michael wrote a letter to the new york times, saying the yankees should let bygones be bygones and invite me back it was such a beautiful letter the yankees were embarrassed into inviting me after 28 years, yankee stadium was a different place a strange and garish place a makeover in 1973 75, under the new owner george steinbrenner, added cantilevered stands that destroyed the elegant upper façade, and exterior elevators which spoiled the view of the of the lower facade inside, the grayish green carpet was now bright blue and featured a giant yankee logo the honest ceiling with its exposed pipes was now a dropped ceiling with stark white tiles everything was painted blue and white the yankee colors, get it? now, instead of restoring the stadium, they're going to tear it down raze the clubhouse where pete sheehy made coffee for ruth destroy the dugout where stengel slept bulldoze the field where mantle roamed and level the mound where larsen pitched the only perfect world series game and they're going to build an underground parking garage on the site! this will no doubt be 'the garage that ruth built' which could produce a reverse 'curse of the bambino' if you check the current standings, you'll see this may already be happening the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer | riata play acidulent | no related information |
washington (cnn) the federal aviation administration has ordered its inspectors to make sure regional airlines' training programs are in line with federal regulations, authorities announced tuesday regional airline colgan air's flight 3407 crashed near buffalo, new york, on february 12 'it's clear to us in looking at the february colgan air crash in buffalo that there are things we should be doing now,' faa administrator randy babbitt said 'my goal is to make sure that the entire industry from large commercial carriers to smaller, regional operators is meeting our safety standard' colgan air flight 3407 crashed near buffalo, new york, on february 12, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard one person on the ground was also killed federal investigators held hearings on capitol hill last month on the cause of the crash but have not concluded their inquiry several shortcomings of the crew came to light during the national transportation and safety board hearings when it was revealed that colgan air capt marvin renslow failed to reveal two pilot exam failures in his job application testimony at the hearings also revealed that fatigue apparently contributed to the failure of renslow and first officer rebecca shaw to save the plane as it approached buffalo niagara international airport usa today newspaper reviewed the safety board's accident reports over the past 10 years and found that in nearly every serious accident involving a regional airline during that time, at least one of the pilots had failed multiple skill tests 'in eight of the nine accidents during that time, which killed 137 people, pilots had a history of failing two or more 'check rides,' tests by federal or airline inspectors of pilots' ability to fly and respond to emergencies,' usa today reported sunday 'in the lone case in which pilots didn't have multiple failures since becoming licensed, the co pilot was fired after the nonfatal crash for falsifying his job application' in addition to reviewing regional airlines' training programs, babbitt and transportation secretary ray lahood have called on representatives from major air carriers, their regional partners, aviation industry groups and labor to participate in a 'call to action' in washington on monday, according to a us department of transportation news release the review will address pilot training, cockpit discipline and other flight safety issues, the release said | faa ntsb buffalo usa today | faa to examine training at regional airlines to make sure it meets federal standards . ntsb investigation into fatal crash in buffalo revealed pilot exam failures . usa today inquiry found pilot test failures in eight of nine regional airline crashes |
lagos, nigeria (cnn) royal dutch shell said tuesday that it may not be able to meet its oil supply obligations in nigeria after an attack on its major pipeline heavily armed nigerian rebels pose a constant threat to oil pipelines in the country the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta (mend), a rebel group, said 'detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters' sabotaged two of shell's pipelines early monday after a helicopter flyover of the area, shell confirmed that parts of its large nembe creek 'trunk line' were damaged, company spokeswoman caroline wittgen said the company shut down some production 'to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,' she said hours later, it declared 'force majeure,' a legal term meaning it could not meet its supply obligations in the region because of the attack '[shell] is working hard to repair the line and restore production,' wittgen said nigeria is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the united states, and attacks by rebels have helped fuel the year long spike in crude oil prices it's one of many factors pushing up the price of gas in the us, where one in every 10 barrels of oil comes from nigeria mend the largest rebel group has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006 it has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment mend hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day its attacks on oil facilities have taken a toll 'anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,' said jim lecamp, a senior vice president with rbc wealth management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide exxon and shell are two of several companies that have been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in nigeria recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the niger delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days that decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil hungry regions such as china, russia and latin america 'anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system,' lecamp said in a recent interview with cnn | shell nigerian | shell says it may not be able to meet supply contracts after nigerian attack . two of shell's oil pipelines sabotaged by rebel groups on monday . company is working to repair the lines and get production running normally |
(cnn) in style and substance, barack obama is looking like he could be a different president than the candidate voters got to know during the campaign barack obama has taken on a more somber tone as he prepares to take office his message of changing the country has been replaced by one of repairing the country as he inherits crises that demand immediate action 'i want to be realistic here,' obama said in an interview that aired sunday on abc's 'this week' 'not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped' during the campaign, obama stressed fixing the economy as one of his top priorities, but his recent language has taken on an urgent tone obama painted a dire picture of the economy last week, warning that if congress does not take 'dramatic action' on his economic aid package as soon as possible, the nation would face devastating long term consequences 'for every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more americans will lose their jobs more families will lose their savings more dreams will be deferred and denied and our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,' he said it's a far cry from what voters heard from obama the democratic candidate, who inspired roaring crowds of thousands by telling them, 'this is our moment this is our time' but with the economy in a recession and people afraid for their financial future, obama's soaring campaign rhetoric has given way to grim reality and as if the economic crisis weren't enough, obama has an international crisis awaiting him as well the president elect said sunday that the suffering on both sides of gaza's borders has led him to ramp up his commitment to working for a peace deal in the middle east these urgent items on obama's agenda are forcing his team to reconsider some campaign pledges just as soon as he went from presidential hopeful to president elect, obama warned the nation of tough times ahead and lowered expectations that he would be the one to solve it all watch more on the expectations for obama » 'we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,' he said on the night of his election victory 'the road ahead will be long our climb will be steep we may not get there in one year or even in one term but, america, i have never been more hopeful than i am tonight that we will get there,' he said he told voters that change couldn't happen without them, 'without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice' he reiterated that same message this weekend, explaining what it's going to take to reform the government 'everybody is going to have to give everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game,' obama told abc ireportcom: what should obama do first? some of the pledges obama might have to rethink include his proposal to give some homeowners a 10 percent tax credit, an idea that has little support in congress during the campaign, obama also told voters, 'i don't believe in running up debt for the next generation' but just last week, he acknowledged that the cost of the economic recovery plan he is pushing would be 'considerable' and would 'certainly add to the budget deficit in the short term' obama has not put a price tag on his stimulus package, but observers have estimated it would cost in the neighborhood of $800 billion obama also has proposed repealing the bush tax cuts on the wealthy, but now it's more likely that the president elect will delay any tax increases on the wealthy until 2011, when the tax cuts expire some of the maneuvering is aimed at attracting republican support for the incoming president's recovery plan, but that could set up an early battle in the now heavily democratic congress house speaker nancy pelosi, for example, is adamant about seeing those tax cuts repealed ireportcom: what does obama's presidency mean to you? obama says everyone will have to sacrifice, and that includes congress, too some political observers say the economic crisis that obama is inheriting is raising the stakes to get a move on his recovery plan even if congress isn't 100 percent behind it 'this strengthens barack obama's hand with the congress and with the public it's so urgent, that it's going to be very, very hard, i think, for people who don't like parts of this package to vote against it,' said david gergen, cnn's senior political analyst and while the public is well aware of the economic battle ahead, republican strategist and cnn contributor ed rollins said obama has little time to wait 'you've got to have results,' rollins said, 'he doesn't have four years to get it done he has two years if there's not improvements dramatically in two years, you have a midterm election, and certainly by the second part of this first term, this economy better be moving' cnn's jim acosta, kristi keck and christine romans contributed to this report | obama | obama says not all of his campaign promises will happen at pace he wanted . president elect's tone has become more somber as he prepares to take office . obama says, 'everybody is going to have to give' to get things back on track . president elect's priority is getting his economic recovery package passed |
(cnn) even as anti american violence eased saturday around the muslim world, tensions remained high stoked, in some nations, by the prospect of us troops arriving to protect us diplomatic missions the widespread protests connected to an online trailer for an inflammatory anti islam film privately produced in the united states were relatively thin and calm, and in some places nonexistent, on saturday compared to earlier in the week yet even with this relative break, the furor has not gone away completely, nor has concern over safety and security at us embassies to that end, us officials said earlier this week that marine teams would be dispatched to protect us diplomatic missions in libya, yemen and sudan in the wake of anti western unrest in those countries but us troops haven't necessarily been welcomed clinton demands arab spring nations protect embassies yemen's parliament issued a statement early sunday demanding us marines leave the arab country immediately, calling the presence of any foreign forces and us troops in particular 'unacceptable' some leading politicians, like ahmed al bahri of the opposition haq party, warned that even a few dozen american troops could 'open the doors of hell for yemen and give terrorists an excuse' others like abdul majid al zindani, president of yemen's cleric committee, equated the us troops arrival to a foreign occupation zaid al thari, a political adviser to yemen's ruling general people's congress, speculated that the us marines recent arrival raises doubts about who was behind this week's attacks on the us embassy in sanaa that left four protesters dead 'in the end of the day, the united states is benefiting more than all and was able to bring its forces inside yemen,' said al thari even with the arrival of its troops, the us government isn't taking chances in yemen closing its embassy in sanaa through saturday, september 29, because of the threat of 'potential demonstrations,' according to the state department meanwhile, us marines that were to travel to sudan have returned pending further talks with the government there, a us official said state department spokeswoman victoria nuland said saturday that washington has requested 'additional security precautions' in sudan, whose government 'has recommitted itself both publicly and privately to continue to protect our (diplomatic) mission' sudan's foreign ministry turned down a us request to send 'special forces' to protect its embassy in khartoum, saying sudanese security forces would protect 'the diplomatic missions (and) its guests,' according to a report from the state run sudan news agency secretary of state hillary clinton has warned the united states will act to protect its diplomatic facilities if countries in question did not prevent violence and seek justice for attacks what the mideast protests reveal 'reasonable people and responsible leaders need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts,' she said friday 'and we will keep taking steps to protect our personnel around the world' in egypt, where violent protests began in earnest last tuesday and continued to rage for days, government officials have recently criticized violence targeting the us embassy in cairo and promised to protect it notably, too, the thousands who participated in these demonstrations represent a fraction of the roughly 11 million people in the egyptian capital still, statements from the muslim brotherhood the islamist group that controls parliament and whose former leader of its political party, mohammed morsy, is now egypt's president that are in english differ from those in arabic, which tend to be less sympathetic to diplomatic missions and focus more on the inflammatory 'innocence of muslims' video and anti american sentiments remain high in certain places, as was evident at a protest outside a mosque friday those participating accused the united states of supporting 'international terror' and being an 'enemy of god,' with some chanting, 'obama, there are a million osamas' 'relations between countries of the so called arab spring and the west have not yet taken complete shape,' saying this is especially true with egypt, prime minister hesham kandil said saturday, according to the state run mena news agency on the ground saturday night, there was a marked change in cairo as relatively calm returned to the area around the us embassy for the first time in nearly a week earlier in the day, egyptian security forces pushed protesters away from the embassy toward tahrir square, where they were eventually dispersed calm returns to cairo that gave workers the chance to finally clean the debris ridden streets, business owners to assess the damage, and drivers to start moving against all under the watchful eye of hundreds of egyptian riot police, who remained in the area the most heated demonstrations saturday occurred not in the middle east, ironically, but in a staunch united states' ally, australia carrying signs that read 'obama, obama, we like osama' and 'behead all those who insult the prophet,' hundreds gathered on the steps of the us consulate in sydney the demonstration turned violent when authorities using tear gas and police dogs tried to push protesters away from the building they were met with thrown bottles and shoes, the latter act considered a grave insult among muslims six police officers were injured and eight people were arrested, sydney police said seventeen people were treated for effects of pepper spray used by police here's a breakdown of other developments saturday from around the globe tied to furor over the anti islam film and related violence: kandil, egypt's prime minister, said saturday that his government has reliable information 'a number' of people admitted to getting money to protest outside the us embassy in cairo, while noting other demonstrators were genuine and not paid four protesters died and 49 were wounded during an attack friday on the us embassy in the tunisian capital of tunis, the state run tunisian news agency reported saturday, citing charles nicolle hospital interim general director souad sadraoui interim tunisian president al munsif al marzouki said late friday on state run tv that two were dead and more than 20 were injured, but authorities later hinted the death toll could rise all nonemergency personnel and relatives of state department personnel at us missions in khartoum, sudan, and tunis, tunisia, have been ordered to leave and travel warnings have been issued for american citizens for both those nations, nuland from the us state department said saturday in his weekly address, us president barack obama urged americans not to stereotype all those in the muslim world 'let us never forger that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom and dignity and hope that our flag represents,' he said fbi investigators probing tuesday's killings of us ambassador to libya chris stevens and three other americans in benghazi put off a visit to libya until conditions are safer agents had hoped to arrive in the north african nation saturday, federal law enforcement officials said libyan authorities said they are cooperating with us investigators 'things are moving very, very well,' said muhammad alkari, a spokesman in the prime minister's office disagreement over how benghazi attack began in egypt's northern sinai peninsula, a large number of security forces backed by tanks on saturday regained control of a base housing an international peacekeeping force that was breached a day earlier by islamist militants, state run egynews reported egyptian security forces, including the military, have been fighting militants in sinai since august after 16 border guards died in an attack by islamist militants us intelligence warned embassy in egypt about anti muslim film in afghanistan, the taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on a joint us british base in helmand province that left two troops dead, saying the attack was in response to the film the attack follows a call by the taliban on its fighters to take revenge for the film by increasing assaults on nato troops in sudan's capital, khartoum, the german and british embassies shored up their security after protesters managed to get inside a compound that is shared by both diplomatic missions, according to the foreign ministers of both nations the man behind the 'innocence of muslims' video, identified as nakoula basseley nakoula, was willingly interviewed early saturday by a federal probation officer, said steve whitmore of the los angeles county sheriff's department the questioning came hours after federal officials said they were reviewing nakoula's probation in connection with a 2010 bank fraud conviction the council on american islamic relations said saturday it had released a video appeal to those protesting the movie a message in arabic tells viewers in the middle east that 'ordinary americans and the us government should not be blamed for the religious hatred expressed in the film,' the group said in a statement filmmaker linked to anti islam video meets with probation officer cnn's amir ahmed, ian lee, amanda watts, jessica king, ben wedeman, susan candiotti, barbara starr, elise labott, greg botelho and journalist hakim almasmari contributed to this report | solubilize propessimism photographable | no related information |
washington (cnn) there was no shortage of superstars in washington this week, including the middle school students of atlanta, georgia's ron clark academy ron clark academy students singing their newest song, 'dear obama,' in washington this week 'there are those obama kids!' 'those are the kids from tv!' 'sing for us!' the middle schoolers' ode to the political process, 'you can vote however you like,' set to the tune of rapper ti's 'whatever you like,' has garnered exhilarating fame nationwide invited to perform at inauguration events, the boys and girls were stopped along every block in the capital by people who asked them to sing and pose for a picture 'i have a sleepy energy,' sixth grader kennedy guest pritchett said 'i feed off of the crowd and their cheers' the students' new song, 'dear obama,' which they have performed this week, offers advice to the president on energy, taxes, financial regulation and al qaeda and urges him to 'control ahmadinejad' 'dear obama hear us sing/we're ready for the change that you will bring/gonna shine the light for the world to see/to spread peace hope and democracy fight for health care for the young so that coverage is available to everyone/it's time to find a renewable way to fuel our needs so we don't end up depending on chavez and the middle east' watch the students sing 'dear obama' » the kids will perform tuesday at the africa and international friends inaugural ball, sharing a stage with usher and patti labelle, one of many events in their packed schedule highlighted by a luncheon gala monday to honor the rev martin luther king jr 'i want to do good every song we perform when the crowd cheers, i feel like we did a good job,' said willie thornton, a seventh grader 'i feel a lot of adrenaline afterwards' the students have met the kenyan boys choir, who told their american counterparts what kind of animals they might see when the ron clark students travel to kenya on a school trip in june at another luncheon, the sixth and seventh graders were thrilled to catch a glimpse of actor ed norton, the man who played the incredible hulk but he didn't compare to singer beyonce, who closed sunday's star studded lincoln memorial concert and drew giggles and shouts the kids gained notoriety just before the election when they appeared on cnn, singing 'you can vote however you like' they became media favorites overnight, appearing on several networks and shows dressed neatly in their school uniform of khaki pants, light blue shirts and navy blue blazers, they discussed the iraq war, the economy and taxes with the composure of adults their teacher, ron clark, known for his innovation, has used pop music to teach his students he once changed the words of rihanna's infectious hit 'umbrella' to teach geography 'you have to give students something they can identify with, something that catches their enthusiasm and spirit,' he said 'i'm so proud of them all they've taught me a lot' before founding his school in the rough neighborhood of south atlanta, clark taught in harlem, where he penned 'the essential 55,' a rule book for educators that caught oprah winfrey's eye she talked about it on her show, and it soon became a new york times bestseller this past christmas, clark received another gift from the talk show host: $365,000 winfrey donated $1,000 for each day of the year clark has said that the money will help provide scholarships for a year the teacher said he plans to incorporate barack obama's inauguration into lessons throughout the rest of the school year 'our school is about politics and world issues and helping the kids understand that they have an important role in all of that,' he said cnn's john murgatroyd and ashley fantz contributed to this report | atlanta 6th ron clark academy vote however you like obama | singing atlanta schoolkids perform at inauguration festivities . 'i have a sleepy energy,' one 6th grader says of the group's packed schedule . ron clark academy singers gained fame for their 'vote however you like' song . they have written another song, 'dear obama,' which offers advice to the president |
kabul, afghanistan (cnn) a british soldier was killed on new year's day by an explosion in southern afghanistan, britain's ministry of defense said friday a british unit on patrol in helmand province's garmsir district, where another soldier has died the soldier, who served with the 6th battalion the rifles, had been taking part in a routine patrol in the garmsir district of helmand province when he was killed, the ministry said 'it is deeply saddening to confirm the loss of a british soldier who died while helping to provide security in southern helmand,' said commander paula rowe, a spokeswoman for task force helmand 'his family, friends and all those who knew and worked with him will mourn his loss our heartfelt sympathies go to them all at this terrible time' britain suffered its worst year of losses in afghanistan in 2008, with 51 british troops killed it was more than in any other year since the mission began in october 2001, the defense ministry said | british new year's day afghanistan the 6th battalion the rifles helmand garmsir | british soldier killed on new year's day by blast in afghanistan . soldier served with the 6th battalion the rifles in helmand province . he was on patrol in garmsir district when he was killed |
(cnn) to date, britain has avoided the politicized and polarized abortion debate that is so prevalent in the us traditionally, our political parties have seen abortion as a 'private' matter of personal and public 'health' and not a matter of rights the law gives women no 'right' to abortion as in most western democracies but, if two doctors certify that it's best for her health and well being and the pregnancy is less than 24 weeks gestation, abortion is a legal option most people support this we want people to be able to plan their families and to support and be responsible for their children, yet we know contraception sometimes fails and people fail to use it abortion, as a back up to birth control, is generally seen as regrettable, but a fact of life even in northern ireland, where abortion remains illegal, it's accepted that women travel to the mainland i am stunned when i talk with american colleagues about the violence and intimidation that their abortion doctors face for them, a typical protest is several hundred strong for us a large protest is sometimes several dozen protesters, but more typically it is just several individuals but, small as our protests are, they upset and disrupt women seeking safe and legal care from legitimate pregnancy advisory services in recent weeks the bedford square clinic of the british pregnancy advisory service (bpas), close to london's oxford street, has been the focus of a lent long 40 days for life vigil it is a 'mini me' version of us campaigns women attending the clinic face a gathering of people praying for them to reject abortion they are handed leaflets with fanciful claims about how abortion will raise their risk of cancer and mental illness they are shown 'life size' models of their unborn baby and subjected to 'pavement counselling' to encourage them to 'choose life' for the present at least, women are no longer tormented with 'gifts' of little knitted baby bootees, a feature of some previous vigils the problem with the protests is this: the protesters oppose abortion in principle but their actions are against women who want to consider abortion not in principle but as a private medical solution to a personal, individual problem women attend our clinics for care or counseling because they need help they do not come to demonstrate support for abortion the protesters should leave them alone, to deal with their problems privately with those they have chosen to seek help from as the main abortion provider in britain, bpas is not shy of debate public education is part of our job and seeing more than 60,000 women with problem pregnancies each year puts us in a good position to explain what these women want and need of course, society should debate the rights and wrongs of abortion there are places for that and persons who are ready and willing to engage with the issues outside a clinic is the wrong place, and women in immediate need of care are the wrong audience the protesters have allies in the uk parliament to voice their concerns they have no need spend 40 days in the cold plaguing women it is my job to answer for what bpas does, and i could not be more proud of the charity, its staff and its work bpas really is 'genuinely' pro choice part of our charitable mission is to alleviate distress in relation to fertility by providing advice, treatment and assistance in the past we have provided infertility care as well as abortion and we hope to do so in the future one marvelous response to the protests was that some complete stranger to bpas set up a website encouraging support for us the comments posted speak volumes those who accuse us of running 'abortion mills' should ponder this comment by 's' on march 17, 2012: 'your advice and support helped me decide the right thing to do was keep my baby being able to talk through my choices without judgment was undoubtedly the most important part of that process long may you be able to support other women like me' when a woman comes to us with a 'problem pregnancy,' if she is undecided, our first aim is to help her to make the decision that she feels is right for her we may not be able to make her feel 'happy' about her decision; she may choose what seems the 'least worst' option but the decision will have been hers this is what the protesters, who stand with their banners or lurk around our clinic entrances soliciting the attention of women approaching our doors, refuse to understand they boast of the occasional woman they 'turn away' but refuse to accept that thousands of 'bpas clients' decide against abortion in any case and we are glad when they are satisfied with that decision just as we are glad when a woman is satisfied with her abortion decision that is what it means to be pro choice the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of ann furedi | uk ann furedi us | abortion is a legal option in the uk if doctors agree . ann furedi says she is stunned by the intimidation that abortion doctors face in the us. 'women attend our clinics for care or counseling because they need help,' she says . ann furedi argues that protesters refuse to accept that thousands of 'bpas clients' decide against abortion |
(cnn) when it comes to the sport of wrestling, longtime adversaries iran and the united states are friendly enemies andy hrovat, right, seen wrestling reineris salas of cuba, is among the us wrestlers touring this winter a us freestyle men's wrestling team will go to the islamic republic where the sport is widely popular for a prestigious tournament in march nine american wrestlers will take part in the takhti cup competition, scheduled for march 12 13, according to state iranian media and usa wrestling the national governing body for olympics wrestling in the united states 'in iran, wrestling and soccer are the two major sports,' said gary abbott, director of communications for usa wrestling in colorado springs, colorado 'they know their wrestling as well as anyone in the world they treat our athletes like kings' relations between the united states and iran ended after iranian militants seized the us embassy in tehran in 1979 and held americans hostage there for 444 days more recently, the two countries have been at odds over iran's nuclear ambitions and have been sharply critical of each other's policies and actions in the middle east but abbott said there has been a history of us and iranian wrestling exchanges despite the politics both sides are always looking for opportunities to compete abbott said iran is one of the top wrestling powers in the world, along with countries such as the united states, russia, turkey and ukraine competing in a wrestling crazy society like iran is special to americans, who look forward to getting on the mats before large crowds in sold out arenas 'for the common citizen, an american wrestler in iran is like michael jordan going over there,' abbott said, referring to the world famous american basketball legend usa wrestling said the trip is one of several overseas events this winter for american wrestlers us teams also will also be competing in russia, ukraine, sweden, cuba, bulgaria, belarus, turkey, serbia, hungary and slovenia the team going to iran includes four men who have represented the united states in the olympics | longtime iran the united states us islamic | longtime adversaries iran and the united states are friendly enemies on the mat . us freestyle men's wrestling team will participate in iran tournament . sport of wrestling is hugely popular in the islamic republic . us official says of iran: 'they treat our athletes like kings' |
(cnn) in baseball crazy japan, where players are treated as celebrities, yu darvish is a superstar a new giant of the game? the 6ft 5 in yu darvish could soon be thrown a deal into the big time of mlb he's been called the greatest pitcher in the country, but the relaxed 23 year old takes any pressure that comes his way, on and off the field, in his substantial stride standing 6 feet 5 inches (196 centimeters) he immediately stands out from most other players in the game and has added some extra color to the sport, as well as some peerless pitching 'i don't really feel that much pressure,' he told cnn 'instead, i'm just happy to play the game here i have a pride in being a baseball player with poor results, i would feel responsible for it and feel embarrassed i don't want to become like that so setting high standards for myself doesn't cause frustrations' he joined the hokkaido nippon ham fighters straight after high school where he had been identified as the most promising player for many years he was almost immediately thrust into the media spotlight as an 18 year old when he was photographed smoking a cigarette in a pachinko parlor the media outcry that followed would have been comparable to a us major league player caught in a doping scandal with an iranian father and japanese mother, darvish had a different upbringing from most of his schoolmates 'i grew up in a different environment from the typical japanese family,' darvish said 'compared to them, we had quite different life but my parents gave me the great influences and i am very grateful for that' he remains in contact with his family heritage in iran, organizing games in the country and sending over kits to youth teams he has also helped to set up the yu darvish water fund to help provide clean water to communities in developing countries but mostly for darvish, 'it's baseball all the time' he practices every day, even on days off, and has no problem living and breathing baseball 'baseball is a game where you can never predict what will happen next,' he said 'with great players, the sport creates drama if you come to the stadium, you will soon understand how exciting baseball is i wish everyone could see a game in japan' japanese baseball players are expected to lead an exemplary life off the field, and while darvish was never the enfant terrible of the game, he believes that marriage to actress saeko in 2007 has had a particularly positive effect on his life and his game 'my lifestyle became more stable after the marriage marriage gave me many positive influences if i'm in a tight spot on the mound, i think of my wife and i think how sad she will be if i am batted down this helps me to throw better,' he said he maintains he's happy playing in japan, but he could be the next big thing from japan to hit the us major league rumors have circulated that the likes of the new york yankees and boston red sox are willing to pay the fighters millions of dollars just to talk about the prospect of signing him the unflappable darvish refuses to play up the attention coming his way from the other side of the pacific 'ichiro suzuki, hideki matsui, daisuke matsuzaka and all the other japanese players are doing a great job in the states they really encourage me to become a better player but i don't particularly dream of playing in the major league or in the states now' but if he produces more stellar performances he may well be living that dream, sooner rather than later | 23 year old japan hokkaido nippon ham fighters iranian japanese us major league | 23 year old has been feted as the best pitcher in japan and has celebrity status . plays with hokkaido nippon ham fighters; father is iranian, mother is japanese . touted as next japanese player to make an impact in us major league |
(cnn) sherri shepherd is leaving the daytime talk show 'the view,' sources close to her told cnn on thursday producers and people close to shepherd have known for months that she was ready to go, they said, adding that shepherd kept the news quiet because she didn't want to upstage or disrupt barbara walters' retirement co host walters bid farewell to 'the view' last month, although she will still serve as the show's executive producer one of the sources close to shepherd said staff at 'the view' learned about some 'abrupt' changes thursday the source could not say what those changes are jenny mccarthy, another co host on the show, later tweeted: 'if sherri goes i go too' she added: 'my view will be changing too thanks to everyone at the show for your dedication and an amazing year' cnn's breeanna hare contributed to this report | shepherd months barbara walters the view last month jenny mccarthy sherri | people close to shepherd have known for months she was ready to go, sources say . barbara walters bid farewell to 'the view' last month . co host jenny mccarthy tweets: 'if sherri goes i go too' |
new york (cnn) a rarely seen portrait of michael jackson is on display inside a harlem luxury car dealership macky dancy, a partner at dancy power automotive, said the oil painting titled 'the book' is believed to be the only portrait for which jackson sat the oil painting titled 'the book' is on display at dancy power automotive in harlem, new york a different portrait of the entertainer was among items auctioned from his neverland ranch in april it is not clear whether jackson sat for that painting the painting on display in harlem belongs to marty abrams, a friend and customer of the owners of the high profile dealership the 40 inch by 50 inch portrait, by australian painter brett livingstone strong, sold for $21 million in 1990 abrams acquired it as part of an unrelated business deal in 1992 and had it stored the painting shows jackson sitting in renaissance era clothes and holding a book jackson sat for the portrait because he was a friend of livingstone strong's the painting was unveiled at the dancy power automotive group showroom on thursday but was removed friday because of crowd concerns it returned to the showroom floor monday morning dancy said the painting's owner chose the showroom because it's near the apollo theater in harlem, where the jackson 5 won their first taste of fame by winning amateur night in 1967 he said abrams hopes the painting in some way can raise money for charities in the harlem neighborhood dancy said abrams is not necessarily interested in selling the portrait when news broke about the resurfacing of the painting, dancy said, he received a phone call from representatives of livingstone strong, the artist now, dancy said, 'we are in the middle of possibly putting together the artist with the painting again maybe for some auctions or charitable shows or something of the sort' the showroom features rolls royces, ferraris and other pricey cars and is famous for its celebrity clientele | michael jackson harlem jackson renaissance apollo theater | oil painting said to be the only portrait for which michael jackson sat . painting is displayed at harlem based automotive showroom . it shows jackson in renaissance era clothes, holding a book . partner: painting's owner chose showroom because it's near apollo theater |
washington (cnn) when you see people at the office using such internet sites as facebook and myspace, you might suspect those workers are slacking off a social networking site for the world of spying officially launches for the us intelligence community this month but that's not the case at the cia, the fbi and the national security agency, where bosses are encouraging their staff members to use a new social networking site designed for the super secret world of spying 'it's every bit facebook and youtube for spies, but it's much, much more,' said michael wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis the program is called a space, and it's a social networking site for analysts within the 16 us intelligence agencies instead of posting thoughts about the new avenged sevenfold album or jessica alba movie, cia analysts could use a space to share information and opinion about al qaeda movements in the middle east or russian naval maneuvers in the black sea the new a space site has been undergoing testing for months and launches officially for the nation's entire intelligence community september 22 'it's a place where not only spies can meet but share data they've never been able to share before,' wertheimer said 'this is going to give them for the first time a chance to think out loud, think in public amongst their peers, under the protection of an a space umbrella' wertheimer demonstrated the program to cnn to show how analysts will use it to collaborate 'one perfect example is if osama bin laden comes out with a new video how is that video obtained? where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a context that's not apparent to the rest of the world?' wertheimer asked 'in the past, whoever captured that video or captured information about the video kept it in house it's highly classified, because it has so very short a shelf life that information is considered critical to our understanding' the goal of a space, like intelligence analysis in general, is to protect the united states by assessing all the information available to the spy agencies missing crucial data can have enormous implications, such as an fbi agent who sent an e mail before september 11, 2001, warning of people learning to fly airplanes but not learning to land them 'there was the question, 'was that a dot that failed to connect?' well, that person did this via e mail,' wertheimer said 'a space is the kind of place where you can log that observation and know that your fellow analysts can see that' even though facebook, myspace and other social networking sites that inspired a space are predominantly the domain of young people, there apparently is no such generational divide on a space 'we have found that participation in a space crosses every conceivable age line and experience line people are excited, no matter what age group,' wertheimer said of course, the material on a space is highly classified, so it won't be available for the public only intelligence personnel with the proper security clearance, and a reason to be examining particular information, can access the site the creators of a space do not want it to be used by some future double agent such as jonathan pollard or robert hanssen to steal america's 21st century secrets 'we're building [a] mechanism to alert that behavior we call that, for lack of a better term, the mastercard, where someone is using their credit card in a way they've never used it before, and it alerts so that maybe that credit card has been stolen,' wertheimer said 'same thing here we're going to actually do patterns on the way people use a space' yes, analysts can collect friends on a space the way people can on facebook but nobody outside the intelligence community will ever know because they're secret cnn's barbara starr and pam benson contributed to this report | us a space al qaeda | us intelligence agencies are urging staffers to use a new social networking site . called a space, it's for analysts within the nation's 16 intelligence agencies . analysts can use a space to share information about al qaeda, other issues . only intelligence personnel with the proper security clearance can access the site |
(cnn) a motorcade carrying secretary of state hillary clinton in the philippines was pelted with eggs and other objects wednesday, the state department confirmed, but the car carrying clinton was not hit and there were no injuries the incident occurred at 2:45 pm in manila, when the motorcade was traveling from the presidential palace to another location, deputy state department spokesman mark toner told reporters in washington 'the secretary's motorcade ran into a crowd of approximately 40 to 50 people, protesters,' toner said 'they threw objects at the lead vehicle i believe it was eggs and paintballs, they maybe threw rock and the motorcade pulled out of that area and went to the next scheduled meeting place' toner later clarified that the 'paintball' was more likely a balloon filled with paint he also said that at no time was clinton in danger clinton is in the philippines for commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the us philippines mutual defense treaty as part of that treaty, she signed the manila declaration binding the countries to work together on a variety of mutual interests | cheer blately lesson | no related information |
washington (cnn) four months ago, north korea threatened to scrap the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the korean war and resume hostilities against the united states and south korea in response to tougher un sanctions against pyongyang after its latest nuclear test this week, the famously reclusive dictatorship welcomed a large western media contingent, including cnn journalists, to cover the 60th anniversary of the armistice on saturday, young leader kim jong un made an unprecedented move when he deliberately walked through the throng of foreign media as he toured a new museum commemorating what north korea calls its victory in the korean civil war such a shift in public posturing is common for north korea, which is known for bellicose threats followed by diplomatic overtures intended to wring desperately needed aid and concessions from the outside world fast facts: korean war 'this is just a recurring pattern nothing special,' said kongdan 'katy' oh, a brookings institution senior fellow who specializes in east asia the outward appearance of possible change in north korea under kim after decades of secretive dictatorship comes amid strained relations with its powerful neighbor and benefactor, china it followed followed xi jinping's ascendancy to power in china, which essentially props up north korea through its economic ties and aid since xi became head of the ruling communist party last november, beijing has signaled growing impatience with pyongyang's tactics in march, less than a week before xi also became president, china joined the rest of the un security council in backing tougher sanctions against north korea in response to pyongyang's nuclear test in february pondering pyongyang: beijing's problem child the sanctions prompted the war threats by north korea and test firing of missiles, raising tension on the korean peninsula oh explained that china was angry with kim for a december satellite launch in violation of un resolutions that raised regional tensions during xi's transition to power the february nuclear test further exacerbated china's anger, she said before xi headed to the united states for a trip that included a june meeting with president barack obama, north korea sent an envoy to china who got treated 'like cold rice,' according to oh kurt campbell, who recently served as us assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs, told cnn before the xi obama meeting that the chinese 'have just about had it with north korea 'they recognize that the steps that they have taken nuclear provocations are creating the context for more military activities on the part of the united states and other countries that ultimately are not in china's best strategic interests,' campbell said then however, oh dismissed any chance that china would use its leverage to try to force reforms in north korea, saying the history and structure of the military backed dictatorship made it impossible for kim to undo the legacy of this father and grandfather opinion: what obama should tell china's xi about north korea the satellite launch in december and nuclear test in february were kim's way of establishing his leadership with the military, on which his power depends, oh explained she likened north korea to an impoverished african dictatorship that happened to have nuclear weapons now, with chronic food shortages exacerbated in the months before the harvest, kim is putting on what oh called 'an early summer charm offensive' to ensure his regime gets all the aid and economic benefit available from china and others that means allowing in the western media for the armistice commemoration events and reportedly signaling support for resuming long suspended six party talks on curtailing north korea's nuclear program in addition, recent visits from google executive chairman eric schmidt and former us basketball star dennis rodman have boosted north korea's popularity as a travel destination tour operators say a record number of foreigners were coming to this year's arirang festival, a seven week celebration of gymnastics and music that began monday at pyongyang's may day stadium to oh, it amounts to cosmetic changes rather than anything close to real reform on friday, china's state run xinhua news agency reported that kim supported china's call for resuming the six party talks with the united states, south korea and others according to xinhua, kim's backing for more six party talks came after he met with chinese vice president li yuanchao, the highest level chinese official to visit north korea since kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father, longtime dictator kim jong il however, a report on li's visit by the north korea's state run korean central news agency made no mention of his call for resuming the nuclear talks or kim's supporting it behind the veil: a rare look at life in north korea cnn's diana chan, tim schwarz and jethro mullen contributed to this report | palaeodendrological taxemes fluorescigenous | no related information |
oxford, iowa (cnn) brianne leckness stares into the camera, a crooked smile spread across her face it's the epitome of youth a young girl with bows in her hair ready to tackle the world a dog scampers behind her in a blur brianne leckness is one of 100 people featured in a new book called 'the oxford project' but then you learn her story and how her life has changed since that day in 1984 when photographer peter feldstein took her picture in oxford, iowa, a town of about 700 people you may pause you may even cry 'my mom left me at a church when i was 3 she used to travel with the carnival, and the carnival ended up going broke in iowa when my mom and my stepfather had a hard day, they'd take it out on me so she left me at this church with our dog freddy,' she says 'she pinned a note to my shirt that said, 'please take care of her we can't any longer' ' brianne's story is one of 100 captured in a new book called 'the oxford project' it combines black and white portrait photographs one from 1984, a second 20 years later with oral histories to give a mosaic of a small town, of hopes and dreams, of triumphs and tragedies, of life and death 'old hippie' works hard, parties hard; meet other townfolk too » intimate details are shared: pat henkelman was the last in town to learn her husband of 45 years was cheating; hunter tandy says his second cousin, ashton kutcher, once visited with demi moore and stayed in the super 8; jim hoyt sr breaks his silence and describes being one of the first four us soldiers to liberate the buchenwald concentration camp in germany during world war ii feldstein began his project in 1984 with a simple idea: snap photos of all 676 residents of oxford he typed up letters in april that year and delivered them to every home, most of the time taping the notes to the back door 'the sessions will take about 5 minutes and of most importance is that you feel comfortable we would like you to dress 'as you are,' not as you might look in your sunday best,' he wrote by summer's end, the university of iowa arts professor had photographed 670 people, six shy of the whole town he displayed the photos at the american legion, but then tucked them away the prints were destroyed in a flood; the negatives were stuffed in boxes see photos of how people changed » two decades later, feldstein set out on a new quest to rephotograph as many people as he could find from 1984 but this time he brought along stephen g bloom, a university of iowa journalism professor, to interview the residents and record their life histories 'i learned secrets i learned things that some of them hadn't even told their spouses,' says feldstein, a resident of the town since 1978 'more than anything, i learned about my neighbors more' watch no 'hallmark questions' here » many stand in nearly the exact same pose as two decades before, their shoulders drooped with age children are now men; girls are now mothers bloom, with feldstein present, interviewed each person separately, and the townspeople revealed their innermost feelings now, feldstein traces his finger along cracks on the wall where residents stood for the photos the second time around the cracks look like varicose veins breaking through plaster 'the wall has changed just like the people have changed,' feldstein says bloom says journalists these days too often talk to the nation's power players and too few times to working class people 'the idea was not to talk to the decision makers, but talk to the people whose lives are affected by the decision makers,' he says 'my job in oxford was to talk to the voiceless, to people who don't have any voice who are the backbone of america' on a recent sunday, oxford residents flocked to st mary's hall for the big debut books were sprawled out on 1960s style wooden tables residents snatched them up and began signing each other's copies, as if it were a high school yearbook signing learn facts about oxford » kathy brack clutched her book to her heart 'i've been hugging it ever since i got it,' says the schoolteacher of 34 years 'there were things in there that the gossip line didn't know about!' nearby, one of her former students, ben stoker, held his copy in 1984, his father, dave, held his boy proudly for feldstein's camera the father's arms are outstretched, his newborn son asleep in his hands a gentle smile can be seen from beneath his dad's thick beard ben's mother, darnell, was photographed a couple of weeks before she's dressed in a plaid maternity outfit, pregnant with ben 'when i was 10, my dad died,' ben stoker told bloom and feldstein 'pretty much i think about my dad every day i remember feeling his beard against my face i remember his hands they were soft and warm 'two years ago, when i was 19, my mother died of cancer she was my guiding light' in a corner of the hall this day, kevin somerville a large man in overalls, a bushy beard and a boisterous laugh sits with his wife, mary, and grown daughter, kristi they say they thought they knew everything about everybody in town, until they got ahold of the book everyone seemed to spill the beans to two 'east coast jews,' as feldstein puts it why would residents of an entire town open their hearts? 'people will talk if you're willing to listen,' kristi somerville says 'they're not small town stories they're human stories' her mother adds of bloom's at ease style 'he said, 'tell me about your life' how often does somebody ask you that: tell me about your life?' brianne leckness, now 30 years old, shows up with blanche smith, her foster mother during her years in oxford blanche has taken in more than 500 foster children over the years but she still remembers that day when she gave up brianne to another foster home she was raising three teenage sons and couldn't handle a young girl in grade school 'yes,' she says, crying when asked if she wished she had kept brianne later in the day, about three dozen oxford residents make the 16 mile trek to iowa city hundreds of iowans pack the englert theatre for an on stage performance of the oxford project sixteen local iowans read the stories of the oxford residents as told in the book only one person tells her own story it's brianne leckness 'when i was 9, blanche said to me, 'i really can't be your mom any longer' in my next family, the mother would put my hair up but i was a tomboy, and it drove them mad i went to three or four other foster homes after that' ' on my 18th birthday, my mother blew into town she wanted us to go on 'the montel williams show' and say how she really never wanted to give me up' she ends with: 'nothing for me has been normal, so why should now be normal?' brianne is a mother now, determined to raise her own children and not to make the same mistakes her mother made as the night drew to a close, she stood with the 16 others on stage to raucous applause she smiled and took a bow she was a portrait of courage a model of a small town a real american afterward, she said it felt good to 'relive part of my past that was a good experience' 'it was nice it was really nice' what are we to make of stories like these? 'i walked away from this knowing that life turns on a dime,' bloom says 'i realized that life is really dependent on moments, and you don't know when those moments are going to take place when you wake up and sometimes when you go to sleep at night, you don't realize those moments have taken place' 'the story in oxford really isn't about oxford, iowa it's about any small town in the united states anywhere in the world' | wafermaker nonalarmist horizontalism | no related information |
(wired) hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough now scientists worry that someday, they'll try to take over your brain scientists can use brain signals to control computers hands free in the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use twitter all without lifting a finger but as neural devices become more complicated, and go wireless, some scientists say the risks of 'brain hacking' should be taken seriously 'neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future,' said computer security expert tadayoshi kohno of the university of washington 'but if we don't start paying attention to security, we're worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we've made a big mistake' hackers tap into personal computers all the time but what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep brain stimulators used to treat parkinson's and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs? according to kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns july 1 in neurosurgical focus, most devices carry few security risks but as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom 'it's very hard to design complex systems that don't have bugs,' kohno said 'as these medical devices start to become more and more complicated, it gets easier and easier for people to overlook a bug that could become a very serious risk it might border on science fiction today, but so did going to the moon 50 years ago' some might question why anyone would want to hack into someone else's brain, but the researchers say there's a precedent for using computers to cause neurological harm in november 2007 and march 2008, malicious programmers vandalized epilepsy support web sites by putting up flashing animations, which caused seizures in some photo sensitive patients 'it happened on two separate occasions,' said computer science graduate student tamara denning, a co author on the paper 'it's evidence that people will be malicious and try to compromise peoples' health using computers, especially if neural devices become more widespread' in some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals hacking into these devices could enable patients to 'self prescribe' elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain's reward centers despite the risks, kohno said, most new devices aren't created with security in mind neural engineers carefully consider the safety and reliability of new equipment, and neuroethicists focus on whether a new device fits ethical guidelines but until now, few groups have considered how neural devices might be hijacked to perform unintended actions this is the first time an academic paper has addressed the topic of 'neurosecurity,' a term the group coined to describe their field 'the security and privacy issues somehow seem to slip by,' kohno said 'i would not be surprised if most people working in this space have never thought about security' kevin otto, a bioengineer who studies brain machine interfaces at purdue universty, said he was initially skeptical of the research 'when i first picked up the paper, i don't know if i agreed that it was an issue but the paper gives a very compelling argument that this is important, and that this is the time to have neural engineers collaborate with security developers' it's never too early to start thinking about security issues, said neural engineer justin williams of the university of wisconsin, who was not involved in the research but he stressed that the kinds of devices available today are not susceptible to attack, and that fear of future risks shouldn't impede progress in the field 'these kinds of security issues have to proceed in lockstep with the technology,' williams said history provides plenty of examples of why it's important to think about security before it becomes a problem, kohno said perhaps the best example is the internet, which was originally conceived as a research project and didn't take security into account 'because the internet was not originally designed with security in mind,' the researchers wrote, 'it is incredibly challenging if not impossible to retrofit the existing internet infrastructure to meet all of today's security goals' kohno and his colleagues hope to avoid such problems in the neural device world, by getting the community to discuss potential security problems before they become a reality 'the first thing is to ask ourselves is, 'could there be a security and privacy problem?'' kohno said 'asking 'is there a problem?' gets you 90 percent there, and that's the most important thing' subscribe to wired magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a free gift! click here! copyright 2009 wiredcom | twitter neurosurgical focus | scientists can use thoughts to operate computers, wheelchairs and twitter . as tech develops, risk of 'brain hacking' become more real, scientists say . neurosurgical focus article says risks are slim now . but security 'should proceed in lockstep with the technology,' expert says |
(cnn) authorities investigating the case of a boy who disappeared in kansas almost a decade ago plan to search an undisclosed residence wednesday, the butler county sheriff said an age progression photo shows what adam herrman would like today, as a 21 year old man sheriff craig murphy would not disclose details about the residence or why authorities want to search it he said his department will also search on an area of the whitewater river, in southern kansas, on saturday near where adam herrman was last seen adam was 11 when he went missing in 1999 he was living in a mobile home park in towanda, a town about 25 miles northeast of wichita, with his adoptive parents, doug and valerie herrman, authorities said wichita attorney warner eisenbise, who is representing adam's adoptive parents, said the couple believed adam had run away and didn't report him missing they 'really rue the fact that they didn't' report him missing, he said monday a few weeks ago, an undisclosed person contacted the wichita sedgwick county exploited and missing child unit, expressing concern about adam, the sheriff said the herrmans told eisenbise that adam ran away frequently, the attorney said, and they believed he was either with his biological parents or homeless although the herrmans did not report him missing, 'they were very worried about him,' eisenbise said in an interview published tuesday in the wichita eagle, valerie herrman said adam ran away in may 1999 after she spanked him with a belt she said she was upset but doesn't remember why, the eagle reported the couple never reported adam missing, valerie herrman told the paper, because they feared authorities would take adam and his siblings away because of the spanking the couple adopted his two younger siblings as well, according to the eagle 'we love him, and we made a terrible mistake' by not reporting him missing, doug herrman told the eagle the couple said they searched the mobile home park and other areas for two days after adam left 'then we came to the conclusion that the police probably have him, and they're coming to us, probably to get us in trouble,' doug herrman told the newspaper, but the 'police never came' authorities have searched an empty lot in the pine ridge mobile home park where the family lived there, police found an 'answer' to one of their questions, murphy said monday without elaborating eisenbise said that on december 15, authorities also searched the herrmans' homes in derby, outside of wichita, and took the couple's computer, he said the national center for missing and exploited children has released an age progression picture that depicts adam as he might appear now: a young man with blue eyes and light colored hair adam had been placed in the herrmans' care when he was about 2, murphy said monday he had been named irvin groeninger iii when he was born june 8, 1987, murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed his biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and adam and his siblings were put in foster homes, cnn affiliate kwch reported 'i thought what i was doing for them was in the best interest of the children, and evidently it wasn't,' irvin groeninger, adam's biological father, told kwch 'if he was still in my custody, this would have never happened' adam's sister, tiffany broadfoot, 22, said she had last seen her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party 'he had the cutest little round face, little bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek,' she told the station cnn's taylor gandossy contributed to this report | fleer morocco getaways | no related information |
beijing, china (cnn) china has become the world's third largest economy, surpassing germany and closing rapidly on japan, according to government and world bank figures commuters drive along a road in downtown beijing, china, on thursday the chinese government revised its growth figures for 2007 from 119 percent to 13 percent this week, bringing its estimated gross domestic product to $34 trillion about 3 percent larger than germany's $33 trillion for the same year, based on world bank estimates beijing is expected to release its 2008 gdp figures next week although the world's top economies, the united states and japan, are in recession, the most pessimistic estimates for china's growth in upcoming years runs about 5 percent that could allow china's gdp to overtake japan's, currently $43 trillion, within a few years the us economy, the world's largest, was about $138 trillion in 2007 the world bank's estimate of china's economic growth is about 75 percent but china has seen a sharp decline in exports in november and december as other major economies struggle, and the bank's analysts say rates below 6 percent could worsen the rest of the world's slump watch how china was able to overtake germany » and michael santoro, author of the 2008 book 'china 2020,' said china will have other problems to overcome if it is to maintain its rapid expansion 'it's no longer sufficient for china to become a manufacturer of sneakers or toys and the like,' santoro said 'now they're looking to become players in the area of pharmaceuticals and foods and other high value added products, where safety and quality are important characteristics for improving in the global economy' china recently announced a $600 billion economic stimulus package, and its state council on wednesday laid out a new plan to boost its steel and auto industries including about $15 billion to develop alternative fuel vehicles cnn's john vause and judy kwon contributed to this report | china japan world bank's about 75 percent $600 billion | china's gdp could overtake japan's within a few years . world bank's estimate of china's economic growth is about 75 percent . china announced $600 billion economic stimulus package recently |
gonaives, haiti (cnn) four major storms have raked the desperately poor country of haiti in the past month, leaving at least 341 people dead a man carries drinking water through the flooded streets of gonaives, haiti, on monday nine of the deaths were attributed to fay, 79 to gustav, 183 to hanna and 70 to ike, said abel nazaire, deputy head of haiti's civil protection service the country's fragile infrastructure was overloaded after the storms and officials were concerned that the floodwaters could spread disease, sophie boutaud de la combe, a spokeswoman for the united nations stabilization mission in haiti, said tuesday gonaives, on the west coast, is one of the hardest hit cities this week, gonaives was knee deep in filthy water and reachable only by water or air, with many of haiti's bridges destroyed and roads flooded 'my home is destroyed i have no place to live with my kids everything i had just washed away,' roselene josef told cnn watch desperate survivors in gonaives » another survivor said, 'the flood washed away everything i couldn't save anything they should just move this city floods always destroy it' aid workers warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis as attempts to deliver aid were frustrated by logistical problems the us navy's uss kearsarge arrived in the waters off haiti on monday to support the us agency for international development's efforts to assist after the devastation the vessel will help move cargo and equipment between affected cities and will deliver relief supplies, said the us naval forces southern command but monday, the kearsarge wasn't able to deliver anything to gonaives, because the ship's scout helicopters couldn't find a suitable place for supplies to be unloaded, according to the associated press a us coast guard ship carrying 35 tons of relief supplies arrived saturday in gonaives the us cutter was preceded by a ship carrying un relief supplies, including 19 tons of high energy biscuits, 50,000 bottles of water and water purification tablets, which arrived friday in gonaives, said myrta kaulard of the united nations' world food program cnn's karl penhaul watched as un troops handed out scant supplies of food and water to a long line of haitians the line became chaotic, with people fighting over supplies watch the devastation penhaul found in haiti » hundreds of people had taken shelter in a school they told penhaul they had not received relief aid in a week an official in gonaives told the ap on monday that nine people had died in shelters, including two children it was not clear if they had died of starvation or some other cause, daniel dupiton of the region's civil protection department told the ap when floodwaters were at their highest, some residents camped out on their roofs, their clothing and blankets hung over the sides of buildings some people 'have lost really everything these are not rich people, these are people who were really struggling [already] against high food prices,' kaulard said us navy capt frank ponds said he had flown over part of southern and northern haiti 'i saw towns that were completely flooded,' ponds said 'i saw infrastructure, such as bridge[s] and roads, totally wiped out' the eye of hurricane ike never touched haiti earlier this week, but the storm system did bring heavy rains and winds to gonaives and other towns jean pierre guiteau, executive director for the red cross in haiti, said 52 people were killed when a river burst its banks in the mountain town of cabaret near the capital, port au prince another 21 bodies were pulled from sea at fort liberté, haiti, close to the border with the dominican republic 'it's a very grim picture,' guiteau said sunday 'things certainly are getting no better' cnn's karl penhaul contributed to this report copyright 2008 cnn all rights reservedthis material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed associated press contributed to this report | gonaives haiti | gonaives, haiti, cut off from rest of country by flooded roads, washed out bridges . some flood survivors say they haven't received aid in a week . logistical problems prompt aid workers to warn of deepening humanitarian crisis . at least 341 people have died in four storms in haiti |
washington (cnn) on his final full day in office, president bush issued commutations for two former us border patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting and wounding an unarmed illegal immigrant suspected of drug smuggling at the time and then covering it up an artist's sketch shows ignacio ramos, left, and jose compean the prison sentences of ignacio ramos and jose compean will now end march 20 ramos had received an 11 year prison sentence; compean had received a 12 year term they began serving their sentences in january 2007 the office of the pardon attorney was still reviewing the clemency request when bush made his decision, justice department spokeswoman laura sweeney said 'the president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they, and their families, have suffered enough for their crimes,' a senior administration official said 'commuting their sentences does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes ramos and compean are convicted felons who violated their oaths to uphold the law and have been severely punished,' the official stated 'this commutation gives them an opportunity to return to their families and communities, but both men will have to carry the burden of being convicted felons and the shame of violating their oaths for the rest of their lives' the official noted that both democratic and republican members of congress have supported a commutation, including president elect barack obama's incoming white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel, and texas gop sens kay bailey hutchison and john cornyn the head of the labor union representing border patrol agents told cnn radio he was 'grateful' that bush commuted the sentences but questioned why the prison terms won't end until march 20 'i would be quite curious to learn why they have to wait another two months for an unjust sentence,' said rich pierce, president of the national border patrol council he said the union's ultimate goal would be for the men to get their border patrol jobs back the shooting happened february 17, 2005, on the border southeast of el paso, texas during their trial, ramos and compean said the illegal immigrant, osvaldo aldrete davila, had brandished a gun while actively resisting arrest aldrete davila, however, said he was unarmed and was attempting to surrender when compean attempted to beat him with a shotgun aldrete davila was shot while fleeing toward the rio grande ramos and compean were ultimately convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, lying about the incident and violating aldrete davila's fourth amendment right against illegal search and seizure after receiving immunity to testify in the case against the two agents, aldrete davila was arrested in 2007 on charges of bringing more than 750 pounds of marijuana into the united states the case quickly became a political flash point, with advocates of tighter border controls defending the agents and civil liberties groups saying that the agents had used illegal and excessive force against aldrete davila bush has granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations over his eight years in office, far fewer than presidents bill clinton and ronald reagan in their two term administrations during the final months of the bush administration, speculation has swirled around the question of whether former vice presidential aide lewis 'scooter' libby would be granted the presidential favor libby was convicted in march of 2007 of four counts of lying and impeding a federal investigation into the leak of information that revealed that valerie plame was a covert cia operative among the more notable people who have applied for but not received some form of clemency are: former rep randall 'duke' cunningham, r california, who was convicted of receiving bribes; publishing executive conrad black, who was found guilty of fraud; former junk bold salesman michael milken, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud; and former worldcom ceo bernard ebbers, convicted of accounting fraud the parents of john walker lindh, who was given a 20 year sentence after pleading guilty to supporting terrorists in afghanistan, held a news conference in december urging bush to commute their son's sentence there is a long tradition of presidents issuing pardons and commutations during their final days in office clinton pardoned fugitive financier marc rich during his last hours in office, setting off a firestorm of controversy a commutation reduces a convict's prison term, but the conviction remains on the person's record a pardon, however, wipes the slate clean by erasing the record of the conviction a president has the sole authority to grant clemency to whomever he chooses, although a justice department office usually reviews applications and makes recommendations after considering such standards as a person's degree of remorse and ability to lead a responsible and productive life after release those applying for a pardon through the justice department are required to wait at least five years after their conviction or release from confinement | bush ignacio ramos jose compean ex border patrol march 20 | bush commutes sentences of ignacio ramos and jose compean . president believes 'the sentences they received are too harsh,' official says . ex border patrol agents will be released march 20 . pair convicted of shooting undocumented immigrant allegedly running drugs |
bangkok, thailand (cnn) at least 59 people were killed in a fire that broke out early thursday at one of bangkok's most upscale nightclubs, where about 1,000 revelers were ringing in the new year, thai police said rescue officials work at the scene of the fire in thailand most of the dead were thai, but foreigners have been identified, among them from australia, the netherlands, nepal and japan, police said another 100 people were believed injured the fire, at a club called santika, started at about 12:35 am (1735 gmt), police told cnn the blaze started near a stage where fireworks were being used as part of a performance, according to authorities watch the fire engulf the building » most of those who died in the building suffered smoke inhalation or were trampled in a rush to get out of the club, they said british citizen andrew jones said he was celebrating in the area when he walked up on the fire he said he saw victims being rushed out of the fire on stretchers and spoke to witnesses, including a fellow briton who saw fireworks being lit onstage 'he immediately ran out of the building, but immediately when he'd done that the lights went out and he couldn't see,' jones said the club is located in one of bangkok's busiest commercial districts its web site features images of bands and djs performing on both indoor and outdoor stages, and says that it 'innovatively blends the comfort of nature with the excitement of the bangkok nightlife' the site advertises the club's new year's party, which was named 'goodbye santika' cnn's kocha olarn contributed to this report | fireworks club bangkok | fireworks were used as part of a performance, authorities say . most of those who died suffered smoke inhalation or were trampled, authorities say . club is located in one of bangkok's busiest commercial districts |
(cnn) baseball's biggest stars are in new york for tuesday's all star game, as the sport says goodbye to one of its most famous landmarks joseph cornacchia, left, used to play with babe ruth when he was a kid, his son jim says it's the yankees' final season at the 'house that ruth built,' and mlbcom reports that 40 hall of famers are expected to attend the historic event we asked cnncom readers to share their baseball memories and to tell us about meeting their favorite players ireporter jim cornacchia of rye, new york, says his grandmother taught babe ruth to 'make a mean batch of chili' he said the legendary slugger would come to greenwood lake, new york, during the off season and would visit with his family ireportcom: ever met your favorite player? cornacchia's father, joseph, who just turned 76, would play wintertime games with 'the babe' as a child, and even built a snowman with him patrick palmer, 43, has been a yankees fan since he was a kid, even though he grew up in iowa 'my father was a yankees fan, and it was just handed down through the generations,' he said palmer has a baseball signed by about 20 yankees players and other memorabilia, but said his biggest thrill was meeting relief pitchers sparky lyle and rich 'goose' gossage 'it was also amazing to shake hands with one of the most feared pitchers of his day, goose gossage, and really see what a gentle person he could be,' see what palmer wrote on ireportcom new yorker matthew friedman said he met hall of famer ryne sandberg last august after singing 'god bless america' before a peoria chiefs minor league game friedman was in town as part of the broadway touring production of 'movin' out' he said he would sing at the game only if he could meet sandberg, who was managing the chiefs 'he was such a nice guy,' he said friedman is a mets fan, but said the cubs legend was 'the kind of player i thought other players should be' he said it was a meeting he'll never forget, and one he'll tell his children about again, and again, and again 'i have a child on the way,' he said 'i can't wait' meeting a childhood hero was a test of courage for many young fans ireporter thedeke almost didn't get to shake slugger roger maris' hand during a trip to yankee stadium as a 10 year old 'he was only 3 kids from me when he turned and started for the field,' he wrote 'why i said what i did, i will never know, but i actually yelled at roger saying, 'roger maris! don't you dare walk away with out shaking my hand!' ' maris smiled, walked up to him and 'grabbed my hand with both of his and without saying a word he gave me a wink and off he went,' thedeke wrote phil miller was a 17 year old bat boy for the tacoma rainiers in 1995 when he got to meet star outfielder ken griffey jr griffey was playing for the seattle mariners at the time and was in the minor leagues while he was recovering from a wrist injury chasing fly balls griffey hit during batting practice is something miller said he will never forget 'i wish i could freeze time and relive that 15 minutes over and over,' he wrote miller was nervous about talking to griffey in the locker room, but he said he broke the ice by asking him about his wife's pregnancy news that wasn't out yet griffey laughed when he found out his mother in law had shared the news with miller's mom in a tacoma hair salon, miller said even baseball's most controversial figures provide fond memories kenny lucas met barry bonds, the all time leading home run hitter, in 2006 at a colorado rockies game the former giants star has been dogged by steroid allegations and has a reputation for being difficult, but lucas said 'he was a very cool guy' 'i used to think of barry as another arrogant athlete, but he treated me as an equal and invited me into his conversation,' lucas said ireporter natsmom24 met pete rose at a golf course when he was 11 years old in 1991, rose and other members of the cincinnati reds were at a golf course near his house, so natsmom24 tried to get some autographs several players ignored him and walked past, but he said rose approached him and asked to sign his ball he talked to him and then took him to the clubhouse and bought him a snickers and a coke 'i was on top of the world! i was hanging out with pete rose! the hit king! charlie hustle! no one was going to believe me when i told them this,' he wrote he said that not even his parents believed him until he showed them the autographed ball | baseball ireporters ruth goose gossage sparky lyle | baseball's current and former stars getting ready for all star game . ireporters met ruth, bonds, goose gossage and sparky lyle . got a baseball memory? share it on ireportcom |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.