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london, england (cnn) identifying the world's finest airports is easy hong kong international airport, singapore's changi and seoul's incheon have topped the ranks of airport awards for the last decade sitting comfortably? not at delhi's indira gandhi international airport, ranked by some as one of the worst these 21st century airports boast the best shopping, classiest restaurants, as well as features such as indoor pools, orchid gardens, and free wireless internet see world's best airports the world's worst airports, however, are harder to pin down it's a crowded field to choose from and the choice depends on what you class as bad see our pick of the world's worst airports » if it's for danger, then baghdad international airport, in the middle of a war zone, should rank pretty high lukla airstrip gateway to the mount everest region in nepal is also a strong contender landing involves a hair raising plummet onto an uphill airstrip cut into the side of a mountain on takeoff, the airstrip comes to an abrupt end at the edge of a mountain cliff what do you think is the world's worst airport? sound off below watch cnn's ayesha durgahee examine what it takes to become airport of the year in hong kong » in 2007, tripadvisor asked travelers to rank airports according to how easy they are to navigate, the cleanliness of the lavatories and parking facilities based on these factors, the 2,500 respondents classed london heathrow and chicago o'hare as the world's most hated yet neither of these major hubs appeared in foreign policy magazine's review of the five worst airports, published in 2007 the list here included the likes of mineralnye vody airport in russia for its feral cats and daggers on sale in the departure lounge charles de gaulle also gains little affection from those that pass through its interminable terminals as foreign policy says, 'visitors to paris should expect more than the grimy terminals, rude staff, confusing layout, and overpriced food' where was your worst airport experience in 2008? which airport do you think is the most dangerous, uncomfortable or aggravating? sound off below we're also looking for photos and video of your worst airport experiences send them to the business traveller page on cnn ireport here's your chance to grumble | judices nun pherkad | no related information |
(cnn) billy powell, keyboardist with the rock band lynyrd skynyrd, died of a heart ailment at his condo in the jacksonville, florida, suburb of orange park, police said thursday he was 56 billy powell, center, poses with other members of lynyrd skynyrd at rock and roll hall of fame induction in 2006 powell, who died early wednesday, had survived the band's october 1977 plane crash in mississippi that killed lead singer ronnie van zant; guitarist steve gaines; gaines's sister, vocalist cassie gaines; an assistant road manager; and the pilot and copilot powell was seriously injured in the crash more than 40 fans left messages on a fan web site 'billy, you are truely free now rock on with ronnie and the gang you also will be forever missed,' read a note signed by traceyspruill 'i cannot believe the hurt that i have felt from being a skynyrd fan, but i realize that it only hurts so much because i love the members of this band like my own family we will always miss you, billy i can hear your fingertips rolling off those ivory keys right now thanks for being you rest in peace and may god bless you,' another fan wrote according to orange park police lt mark cornett, powell called 911 around midnight tuesday from his condo at the club continental, complaining about chest pains 'when paramedics and police arrived, they found him unresponsive on the bed,' cornett said powell was pronounced dead at the scene, and his cardiologist signed the death certificate at 1:52 am et wednesday according to the officer, powell missed an appointment with the same doctor on tuesday powell joined the original skynyrd band in 1972, but he worked for the jacksonville, florida based band for several years before that as a crew member among the southern rock band's acclaimed songs are 'what's your name,' 'freebird' and 'sweet home alabama,' all released in the 1970s 'sweet home alabama' reached the top 10 in 1974 the band was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 2006 two years after the plane crash, powell, allen collins, gary rossington and leon wilkeson formed the rossington collins band it broke up in 1982 a new lynyrd skynyrd band formed in 1987 and included johnny van zant, ronnie's brother it began a tour in baton rouge, louisiana, where the plane was headed when it crashed the band's last album, 'vicious cycle,' came out in 2003 | billy powell tuesday night paramedics powell 56 1977 ronnie van zant lynyrd | billy powell called 911 tuesday night complaining of chest pains, police say . paramedics found him unresponsive and he was pronounced dead at the scene . powell, 56, survived 1977 plane crash that killed ronnie van zant and 5 others . 'thanks for being you,' one mourning fan writes on lynyrd skynyrd web site |
(cnn) the explosions that killed one person and wounded two others in central stockholm, sweden, were 'an act of terrorism,' a swedish police official said sunday two explosions occurred within minutes of each other saturday in the district full of christmas shoppers, swedish authorities said a swedish news agency and police said they received e mailed threats 10 minutes before the explosions, but swedish authorities have not confirmed the three events are connected, prime minister fredrik reinfeldt said sunday the swedish security service said the incidents appeared to be the work of 'a single perpetrator' reinfeldt called the explosions 'completely unacceptable' as he mounted an impassioned defense of swedish society in the face of what seems to be its first suicide bombing 'this is not the path we want to go down it is very serious that this has already happened,' he said 'sweden is an open society,' reinfeldt added 'it is an open society which has demonstrated a will that people must be able to come from different backgrounds, believe in different gods or not believe in any god at all be able to live side by side, together, in our open society' posts on websites that frequently feature statements and propaganda videos from islamic radical groups posted a name and photo of a man identified as the attacker on sunday but swedish police did not confirm the name sunday evening, saying they were still trying to notify relatives of the dead man regional police chief carin gotblad said the bomber had 'failed' 'while this was a very serious event, no innocent people were seriously hurt if that was the intention, then the perpetrator failed,' she said, adding that the country would not increase its terror threat level anders thornberg, head of the security measures division for swedish security police, told reporters sunday that based on the agency's criteria for terrorism and a chief prosecutor's assessment, 'it is our judgment that this was an act of terrorism' he said authorities are investigating whether the two explosions were related to one another, 'but there may well be a connection' on sunday night, london's metropolitan police executed a search warrant in bedfordshire, north of london, in connection with the stockholm probe, a police spokesman said the spokesman, who would not give his name, said the warrant was executed under britain's terrorism act 2000 and that 'no arrests have been made and no hazardous substances have been found' the writer of the e mailed threats to the swedish news agency and police mentions the presence of swedish troops in afghanistan and a swedish cartoonist who depicted the prophet mohammed, according to tt, a swedish news wire that received the threats the e mails contained sound files featuring a person speaking in swedish and arabic, tt reported about 500 swedish troops are in afghanistan, according to nato's international security assistance force the sender referred to swedish silence regarding the afghanistan troops and the controversial cartoon by lars vilks that depicted mohammed as having the body of a dog 'now your children, daughters and sisters will die like our brothers and sisters and children are dying,' the e mail states, according to tt 'our actions will speak for themselves,' the person said in an audio recording attached to the e mail 'as long as you don't end your war against islam and the humiliation against the prophet and with your stupid support to lars vilks the pig' police said the explosions were in a popular pedestrian shopping area 'one explosion happened at the intersection of drottninggatan and olof palmes gata,' two busy streets in central stockholm, said police spokeswoman petra sjolander she said the car exploded multiple times 'it is likely that this was some kind of gas tubes that have caused the car to explode multiple times,' sjolander said two people at the site of the car explosion were hospitalized with minor injuries, sjolander said video on sweden's tv4 showed flames spewing from the car, which was parked behind several other vehicles a second explosion occurred about five minutes later, at the intersection of drottninggatan and bryggargatan streets, sjolander said 'we don't know at this point what caused the second explosion,' sjolander said, describing it as suspicious an unidentified man was found dead at the scene of the second blast a bag was found near the body, sjolander said 'we had bomb technicians on site, but i can't give you any details of what they did,' she said a bomb robot rolled up to the body and removed the bag for examination, according to the swedish newspaper dagens nyheter thornberg said sunday that he could not confirm whether the man blew himself up when asked about the possibility of suicide bombing in stockholm becoming a new trend, thornberg replied, 'yes, absolutely if that is the case, then it is very serious' thornberg said authorities are working on both intelligence and a normal police investigation and will try to determine 'if there may be any more acts of terrorism like this one being planned at this point, we don't think there are more acts coming, but we can't say for sure' 'what has happened does not signify a change of the current terrorism threat level in sweden, but we will continuously be reassessing this to see if what has happened warrants a change in threat level,' he said in a message posted on twitter saturday, swedish foreign minister carl bildt said, 'most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central stockholm failed but could have been truly catastrophic' swedish terrorism expert magnus ranstorp told cnn that he did not believe the attacker acted alone 'this was not something where he just woke up and thought that he would blow himself up,' said ranstorp, a professor at the swedish military academy and a former professor in terrorism studies at the university of st andrews in scotland the e mail writer ended the message with a call for action 'to all mujahadeen in europe and sweden,' tt said 'now is the time to strike, don't wait any longer,' the message read, according to tt 'step up with whatever you have, even if it is a knife, and i know you have more than a knife fear no one, fear not prison, fear not death' tt said that it was not clear from the e mail or the audio files if the person belongs to any specific organization the person claimed to have been to the middle east and asked family for forgiveness for lying to them 'i didn't go to the middle east to work,' the writer said 'i went there for jihad' cnn's mila sanina contributed to this report | british swedish fredrik reinfeldt | new: british police execute search warrant in connection with swedish investigation . prime minister fredrik reinfeldt defends swedish society in the face of the attack . one person died, and two people were injured in the explosions . police say they received an e mail threat before the explosions |
asuncion, paraguay (cnn) relatives and a lawyer for a paraguayan soccer player who was shot in the head in mexico nearly a year ago reject a suspect's claim that he was not the triggerman jose jorge 'jj' balderas garza was arrested tuesday in mexico city in connection with the january 2010 shooting of soccer star salvador cabanas at a bar in the mexican capital cabanas suffered a gunshot wound to the head, but survived balderas was a suspect from the start of the investigation, but he eluded authorities for nearly a year once in custody, he denied that he was the one who pulled the trigger 'of course he is going to say barbarities and things that are not true,' cabanas' wife, maria lorgia alonzo, told a paraguayan radio station 'for us, the worst has already passed the important thing is that salvador is alive and recuperating' balderas pinned the shooting on his bodyguard, francisco barreto garcia, who was arrested in june as an accomplice but cabanas' lawyer, oscar german latorre, told cnn that evidence points to balderas 'because of the caliber of the gun, and the testimony of (barreto), i think jj's defense will have an arduous task to prove the innocence of their client,' he said the mexican authorities themselves have released the content of interrogations with barreto and a bar employee that implicate balderas in the shooting of the soccer player according to the barreto's testimony, he worked as a bodyguard for balderas and they were both at a bar in mexico city balderas went to the bathroom, and a few minutes later, barreto followed, the state run notimex news agency reported barreto found balderas and cabanas confronting each other in the bathroom, and says he saw balderas shoot him, he told investigators, according to notimex a bar employee who worked in the bathroom also witnessed the shooting and corroborated barreto's story, the agency said meanwhile, paraguayans were pleased that an arrest was made in the case 'finally we're content it was an atrocity that was committed against salvador cabanas and, well, we are confident in the mexican justice system,' said carlos ortellado 'the truth is, i hope that whoever shot at cabanas spends a lot of time in jail because he robbed us of an idol,' said another citizen, jazmin garcia journalist sanie lopez contibuted to this report | jose jorge balderas garza mexico city this week salvador cabanas mexican balderas cabanas | jose jorge balderas garza was arrested in mexico city this week . he says that he did not shoot salvador cabanas . mexican authorities released testimony that implicates balderas . cabanas family says balderas is being dishonest |
laredo, texas (cnn) rosalio reta sits at a table inside a laredo police department interrogation room a detective, sitting across the table, asks him how it all started gabriel cardona, who shows his tattooed eyelids, worked as a hit man for a mexican cartel reta, in spanish street slang, describes his initiation as an assassin, at the age of 13, for the mexican gulf cartel, one of the country's two major drug gangs 'i thought i was superman i loved doing it, killing that first person,' reta says on the videotape obtained by cnn 'they tried to take the gun away, but it was like taking candy from kid' rosalio reta and his friend, gabriel cardona, were members of a three person cell of american teenagers working as cartel hit men in the united states, according to prosecutors the third was arrested by mexican authorities and stabbed to death in prison there three days later in interviews with cnn, laredo police detectives and prosecutors told how cardona and reta were recruited by the cartel to be assassins after they began hitting the cantinas and clubs just across the border watch how the teens turned into drug cartel hitmen » cnn has also obtained detailed court records as well as several hours of police interrogation videos the detective sitting across the table from reta and cardona in those sessions is robert garcia he's a veteran of the laredo police department and one of the few officers who has questioned the young men 'one thing you wonder all the time: what made them this way?' garcia told cnn 'they were just kids themselves, waiting around playing playstation or xbox, waiting around for the order to be given' over a nearly one year period starting in june 2005, the border town of laredo, texas, saw a string of seven murders at first glance, the violence looked like isolated, gangland style killings but investigators started suspecting something more sinister then noe flores was gunned down in a clear case of mistaken identity investigators found a fingerprint on a cigarette box inside the suspected shooter's get away car that clue unraveled the chilling reality and led police to arrest gabriel cardona and rosalio reta prosecutors say they quickly discovered these two teenagers were homegrown assassins, hired to carry out the dirty work of the notorious gulf cartel 'there are sleeper cells in the us,' said detective garcia 'they're here, they're here in the united states' the cases against cardona and reta both are in prison serving long prison sentences for murder shed new light into the workings of the drug cartels prosecutor and investigators say reta and cardona were recruited into a group called 'los zetas,' a group made up of former members of the mexican special military forces they're considered ruthless in how they carry out attacks 'los zetas' liked what they saw in cardona and reta both teenagers received six month military style training on a mexican ranch investigators say cardona and reta were paid $500 a week each as a retainer, to sit and wait for the call to kill then they were paid up to $50,000 and 2 kilos of cocaine for carrying out a hit the teenagers lived in several safe houses around laredo and drove around town in a $70,000 mercedes benz as the teens became more immersed in the cartel lifestyle, their appearance changed cardona had eyeballs tattooed on his eyelids reta's face became covered in tattoo markings (prosecutors say during his trial reta used make up to cover the facial markings) and both sported tattoos of 'santa muerte,' the grim reaper like pseudo saint worshipped by drug traffickers 'these organizations, these cartels, they function like a fortune 500 company,' webb county, texas, prosecutor uriel druker said 'we have to remember that the united states is the market they are trying to get to' in cardona's interrogation tape, there are clues that 'los zetas' are reaching deeper and deeper into the united states cardona is asked, 'where else are the zetas?' and cardona responds, 'i've heard in dallas and houston' and that's why the cartel recruited these young americans cardona and reta could move freely and easily back and forth across the border with mexico just hours before they were arrested, federal authorities taped a phone conversation between them in which cardona brags about killing 14 year old inez villareal and his cousin, a cardona rival cardona laughs as he describes torturing the two boys and dumping their bodies in large metal drums filled with diesel fuel he says he made 'guiso,' or stew, with their bodies as the call ends, cardona says, 'there are three left to kill, there are three left' | subfamily associationalist limpidly | no related information |
(cnn) jd salinger, the famously reclusive author whose 1951 novel, 'the catcher in the rye,' became a touchstone for generations of readers, has died he was 91 the author died wednesday of natural causes at his home in new hampshire, according to a family statement that his literary agent, phyllis westberg, provided thursday 'despite having broken his hip in may, his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year,' the statement said 'he was not in any pain before or at the time of his death' salinger has long been known for his reclusiveness, and 'in keeping with his life long, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy there will be no service,' the statement said 'the family asks that people's respect for him, his work, and his privacy be extended to them, individually and collectively, during this time' though he wrote more than 30 short stories and a handful of novellas many published in the new yorker and collected in works such as 'nine stories' and 'seymour: an introduction' salinger's fame rests on 'catcher,' his only novel the book is narrated by a teenage boy, holden caulfield, who is expelled from a private school, pencey prep, in pennsylvania, and spends the next three days wandering around new york caulfield is mistrustful of authority, railing against corrupt adults and 'phonies,' and plans to decamp for the west ireport: tell us what 'catcher' meant to you 'an unusually brilliant first novel,' the new york times called it, one of many raves though intended for adult readers, the book touched a nerve among teenagers attracted by caulfield's nonconformist attitudes and has remained a best seller since its release it has gone through dozens of printings in its simple mass market paperback edition, clad in a simple maroon cover adorned with the title and author's name on the front and back it's also been a lightning rod for controversy schools have banned it troubled by caulfield's language and attitude as well as his adventures with a prostitute and some readers have been obsessed by it, most infamously mark david chapman, who murdered john lennon in 1980 in 2009, salinger always protective of his work sued to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of '60 years later: coming through the rye,' a novel written by an author calling himself jd california jerome david salinger was born january 1, 1919, in new york city, the son of sol a wealthy meat importer and miriam salinger he attended valley forge military academy in pennsylvania and spent time at three colleges he published his first stories in the early 1940s in 1942, he joined the us army he fought in the d day invasion at normandy as well as the battle of the bulge, but suffered a nervous breakdown and checked himself into an army hospital in germany in 1945 in december of that year, 'i'm crazy,' the first story featuring caulfield, was published in collier's in 1947, his short story 'a perfect day for bananafish,' featuring the troubled seymour glass, was published in the new yorker the glass family, a group of bright siblings who agonized over their lives, would become the subject of many subsequent stories, all of which were published in the new yorker and later collected in 'nine stories,' 'franny and zooey' and 'raise high the roof beam, carpenters and seymour: an introduction' his last published story, 'hapworth 16, 1924,' appeared in 1965 in his later life, salinger became as well known for his desire for privacy as his work, and when that privacy was shattered, he would sometimes lash out with lawsuits a 1987 biography by ian hamilton was blocked by a us appellate court; it eventually appeared, in heavily revised form, as 'in search of jd salinger' salinger also sued a writer, stephen kunes, for impersonating him he had a nine month affair with the 18 year old joyce maynard in the early '70s; she later wrote about it in a memoir and auctioned off his letters (the buyer, peter norton, said he would return the letters to salinger) salinger's daughter, margaret, wrote a memoir, 'dream catcher,' which was published in 2000 neither maynard's nor margaret salinger's books were positive, describing the author as controlling and having a host of unusual habits, including drinking his own urine throughout it all, salinger remained determinedly reserved he gave interviews sparingly, the last one in 1981 to the (baton rouge, louisiana) advocate occasionally he would release terse statements about his work thursday's statement from salinger's literary agent acknowledged the writer's isolation 'salinger had remarked that he was in this world but not of it his body is gone but the family hopes that he is still with those he loves, whether they are religious or historical figures, personal friends or fictional characters,' the statement said 'he will be missed by the few he was close to every bit as much as by the readers who loved reading him' salinger was married three times, most recently to colleen o'neil, who survives him he had two children, matthew and margaret, with his second wife, claire douglas, whom he divorced in 1967 | wednesday new hampshire salinger | reclusive author dies wednesday at new hampshire home . there will be no service, family says in statement . 'salinger had remarked that he was in this world but not of it,' statement says |
(cnn) i'm proud to be ukrainian born in america and raised in a bilingual home, pierogies, borscht and pysanky (ukrainian easter eggs) were all staples in my life so was ukrainian school where i was taught history, culture, literature and grammar every saturday morning for 13 years and ukrainian scouts and ukrainian dancing it is nearly impossible to separate me from the culture and i would never want that that's what makes it so hard to see the images of escalating violence on tv among the ukrainian people with whom i feel such a connection to many of them, the protests are fueled by memories of soviet control and fears that russia will use its economic pressure to pull ukraine back into its orbit the oppression of the soviet system is why my father fled the country 75 years ago, when he was only 18 he loved ukraine but escaped soviet rule to build a new life in america transplanting that ukrainian identity into parma, ohio, was not always easy and growing up in the midwest, when i would tell someone i was ukrainian, i was often met with a confused look that was generally followed by, 'so you speak russian?' i can't blame them for making that assumption after all, ukraine was the second biggest country in the ussr but there was no particular pride in that: hatred of the soviets runs deep among many ukrainians for my father, the flight from ukraine with his two brothers, sister, father and mother was dangerous and difficult he made his way to america via germany during world war ii he survived the bombing of dresden, and his family got separated they eventually found each other once they all landed safely in the united states, but for a frightened interval, they had no idea whether the others were alive or dead my sister, brother and i grew up riveted by my father's and uncle's stories about dodging the authorities to escape my father told of avoiding soldiers as he walked among the dead after the bombing in dresden; they had shoot to kill orders for anyone who might be looting it was like listening to a live thriller or spy novel my father may not have spoken english when he arrived in america, but he was determined he mastered the language and went on to become a chief financial officer of cardinal federal savings & loan in cleveland he dreamed of the day ukraine would become independent, as did my mother a ukrainian born in america both died before they could see it but i saw it and in 1992, i traveled to the country on a teach english program sponsored by a ukrainian organization it was a time when ukraine was like the wild west the country had just elected a new president and was newly independent but many didn't really know what that meant when i arrived in kiev, i assumed everyone would speak ukrainian and that i would fit right in i was mistaken, as many spoke russian more alarming to me was when i realized i didn't know who to ask for help in finding a telephone in america, it was easy you just ask a cop in ukraine, there were many different uniforms not so easy (hint: ask the old lady, or babushka works every time) one thing was crystal clear: there was a thirst for the west after years of oppression, my students wanted to learn everything they could from me about america one young girl even said her dream was to go to disneyland (whose isn't?) as a 'homeland journey,' for me it was at times a surreal experience i was suddenly seeing all the things i had only learned about in books (swimming in the black sea was not something you just dreamed about in ukrainian school!) even more precious was when my sister and i traveled to ivano frankivsk, the city of my family my sister and i saw the school where our grandfather taught and the pond where our father and his siblings went skating that my father and his family could leave such a place leave behind everything they knew and make a courageous leap of faith into a new country where they could not even speak the language filled me with admiration i have never felt more grateful to them for making that trek as when i met some local ukrainians who said they wished their families had done what mine did that's when it really hit me that i could leave that country, but their lives were going to be much more difficult as i watch the violent and deadly protests from afar, i think now about all these people i see in the ukrainians locked in confrontation the same national pride with which i was raised they no longer want to leave they want to have a strong independent nation the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of catherine tymkiw | catherine tymkiw ukrainian american soviet midwest ukrainian kiev russian tymkiw ukraine today | catherine tymkiw is a proud ukrainian american, raised in traditions of parents' homeland . father fled soviet oppression with family, settled in midwest, instilled in her ukrainian pride . it's hard for her to see violence in kiev, where protesters fear growing russian influence . tymkiw, who visited ukraine after independence, says nation today just wants to be free |
(mashable) is it just me or is the icann plan to corral online porn going terribly wrong? we already have reports that universities are snapping up xxx domains in an effort to get ahead of porn pranksters who want to besmirch a few good online names with smut i guess this turn of events was obvious to anyone with half a brain legitimate porn sites have little interest in the triple x domains, which went on sale earlier this week, for their businesses because they see them as potential censorship and, more importantly, they thrive on people accidentally stumbling on their urls in the early days of the web this was common because porn purveyors snapped up known names and brands none of which had to feature an obvious porn domain label that's how 'whitehousecom' ended up, for a time, as a porn site xxx was designed to improve the situation no more accidentally typing in, well, something you didn't intend with a designated porn domain, it's unlikely anyone would end up in the wrong place better yet, corporations and homes could easily block all xxx domains that's the plan, but if pornographers stay away and legitimate people, companies, businesses and universities race to snap up any and all xxx domain names that could be construed as theirs, then this triple xxx domain could be an embarrassing failure for the icann (internet corporation for assigned names and numbers) think i'm exaggerating? the ap reports that 80,000 xxx domains were sold in presale and many companies like pepsi and nike lined up to purchase adult domains the university of kansas reportedly just paid $3,000 for a variety of xxx urls it's unlikely anyone will ever type in wwwkugirlsxxx, but that's not the point the university just wanted to be safe i understand the impulse even as i'm writing this, i'm wondering if i, too, should try to protect my good name by buying the lanceulanoffxxx domain i know where to go godaddycom is registering them for $99 a year, making these domains considerably more expensive than standard domains (which you can buy at various sites at anywhere from $199 or $999 yearly maintenance fees are then more expensive) according to the website, if i wanted to launch an adult website under that url, i actually have to become an 'internet community member' and then confirm my status of 'the sponsored adult entertainment community' my guess is that this is how the icann polices the urls, to ensure that someone isn't registering someone else's brand as a porn site i have no plans to do so, which conveniently means i do not have to become a part of the 'community' godaddy tells me this too, and is fortunately, i guess only too happy to help me park my url for the same exorbitant fee atop godaddy's xxx domain registration page is this: 'let's be adult about it create an adult web presence or protect your brand' this is followed by an explanation of why you'd want to register an xxx domain note what it starts with: 'secure your brand protect your reputation' 'perhaps you'd like to create an adult entertainment website or maybe you're here to keep your brand from being registered as a xxx by someone else whatever your reasons for wanting a xxx domain, you've come to the right place to check the availability of your domain, type the name you want into the search box above ' godaddy has built its brand with coy references to sex (check out any of its super bowl ads), but it's not being coy here the message is clear: if you don't want someone launching a porn xxx domain with your name or brand, you'd better let godaddy take your money and register it for you while i see the parallels with the early days of the web, this situation is different in one fundamental way: those snapping up the domains for protection will never use them no one outside the porn industry wants to run a live xxx domain website these businesses and universities are simply buying them in what godaddy actually calls 'defensive registrations' to hide them from view forever (and they'll pay godaddy yearly fees to do so) instead of creating a solution, the icann's apparently misguided efforts have spawned a new anxiety: 'your brand name in porn' the fear is so strong that it's got all these people buying up domains just so the wrong people can't get them as i see it, this could be quite a windfall for godaddy the company should send the icann a thank you note see the original article at mashablecom © 2013 mashablecom all rights reserved | godaddycom 99 | universities are buying xxx domains to get ahead of porn pranksters . corporations and homes can easily block all xxx domains . godaddycom is registering them for $99 a year, making these domains more expensive |
los angeles (cnn) the national basketball association will proceed with a vote to force a sale of the los angeles clippers, rebuffing an effort by co owners donald and shelly sterling to sell the franchise voluntarily, nba spokesman mike bass said friday 'we continue to follow the process set forth in the nba constitution regarding termination of the current ownership interests in the los angeles clippers and are proceeding toward a hearing on this matter on june 3,' bass said his announcement followed reports earlier friday about how donald and shelly sterling agreed to a voluntary sale of the nba franchise as the league prepares a vote on a forced sale, according to a source familiar with the situation the couple have an agreement to allow shelly sterling to do the negotiations, and there have already been discussions between her and the nba, according to the source attorneys for the sterlings, who earlier declined to comment about the couple's effort for a voluntary sale, weren't immediately available to react to bass' statement the clippers declined to comment on the nba statements, spokesman seth burton said friday's events signal how the nba is standing by its ultimatum that a vote will be held on a forcible sale for their part, the sterlings appear to be running out of options short of suing the league and analysts say such a lawsuit wouldn't be inconceivable, as sterling is an attorney well versed in litigation meanwhile, pressure grows for donald sterling, a real estate billionaire he faces a deadline tuesday to respond to the nba's proposal to terminate his ownership in the team because of racist remarks he made the nba has banned donald sterling for life, and the league is advancing a vote by other team owners that would force the couple to sell the franchise the ban and pending vote along with a $25 million fine against donald sterling arise from how he slurred african americans a voluntary sale would be a new maneuver for the sterlings last week, donald sterling hired an antitrust lawyer to fight the nba about the proposed forced sale and his wife has said she wanted to keep an ownership stake in the team but doesn't want to be the controlling partner the couple own the team through a trust they are also estranged, shelly sterling's attorney has said the nba contends it was damaged by the 80 year old's racist remarks to associate v stiviano, 31, that were captured on an audiotape and posted online in april by tmz and in an interview with cnn's 'anderson cooper 360â°' 'among other things, mr sterling disparaged african americans and 'minorities'; directed a female acquaintance not to associate publicly with african americans or to bring african americans to clippers games; and criticized african americans for not supporting their communities,' the nba said in a recent statement in order to terminate the sterlings' franchise rights, three fourths of the team owners (23 of 30) would have to vote to sustain the charge and force a sale because sterling is banned from any nba activities, he is not allowed to vote, but the clippers will have a vote, the nba said report: nba says donald sterling asked v stiviano to lie nba charges donald sterling, schedules june 3 vote cnn's stephanie elam and jack hannah contributed to this report | clippers nba june 3 shelly sterling donald | new: clippers decline to comment on nba announcement . nba will proceed with hearing on forced sale on june 3 . shelly sterling is negotiating with nba about voluntary sale, source says . donald and shelly sterling agree to sell clippers voluntarily, source says |
(cnn) nearly a million acres were burning as 21 wildfires raged in the pacific northwest on sunday, fire officials said the unconfined fires in oregon and washington, mostly ignited by lightning from thunderstorms that swept through the region a week ago, covered 942,247 by sunday, northwest interagency coordination center spokeswoman carol connolly said the 21 large fires are the most the region has seen on the landscape at one time, she said according to okanogan county, washington, sheriff frank rogers, one person died attempting to protect his home from the flames authorities arrested two people over the weekend on suspicion of arson, the sheriff said they set backfires to protect their property more than 150 structures have been lost the sheriff expects that number to go up 'i've been here 30 years, never seen anything like this,' rogers said according to connolly, firefighters from across the united states, including mississippi, illinois, new mexico, utah and montana, have joined the battle, bringing to 8,928 the number of people involved in trying to contain the fires there are 35 'hot shot' crews involved, she said health officials in washington and idaho are warning residents that smoke drifting eastward from the washington wildfires would create unhealthy air 'the biggest health threat comes from the fine particles in smoke,' the national weather service said 'these can cause burning eyes, runny nose, bronchitis and other illnesses smokey air can also aggravate heart and lung disease, and even lead to death' hundreds evacuated as washington wildfire grows what to know about wildfires cnn's dave alsup and janet digiacomo contributed to this report | 942,247 acres the pacific northwest sunday health washington idaho | wildfires cover 942,247 acres in the pacific northwest on sunday . the 21 large fires are the most the region has seen at one time, an official says . health officials in washington and idaho warning smoke creates unhealthy air |
(cnn) we have all been duped in the trayvon martin case bamboozled this case was never 'open and shut' as martin family attorney benjamin crump insisted in a news conference at the start of the trial i doubted it was that easy from day one said crump then: 'the jury will have to hear all of the evidence we think this is a simple case no 1: zimmerman was a grown man with a gun no 2: trayvon was a child with no blood on his hands literally' when i heard crump's words, i was immediately suspicious could it really be that simple? or was the attorney just trying to placate a grieving family and spin an angle for the media? did crump really believe that 'justice for all' had finally arrived in our nation? and that the damning stereotypes associated with race and class would have no room in a florida courtroom where george zimmerman is being charged with second degree murder in the death of martin? get the latest updates at hlntvcom's live blog i'm no cynic but i am a realist a realist who's covered enough criminal trials to know for certain that the trial that plays out in the public over pep rally vigils and celebrity protests is never the trial that unfolds in the courtroom i understand that race still matters deeply in our courtrooms, just as it does in our nation and there's no getting away from that fact as the trial of zimmerman continues, nothing is as simple as it seems 'this case is a perfect storm,' says xavier donaldson, a defense attorney and former prosecutor in new york 'you have to look at the nature of the case and the racial, political and social economics of the defendant and accused you have a young black kid, walking with a sweatshirt on and some guy, who wants to be a cop, assumes he's a criminal and shoots him dead' zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder trayvon martin shooting: fast facts 'zimmerman had an image in his community as a good guy, who wanted to protect people so he and not martin, the victim has gotten the benefit of presumption of innocence normally, in murder cases that doesn't happen people generally believe that if you've been arrested and charged that you must have done something wrong, but those lines are blurred here,' says donaldson it seems zimmerman, in part because he belonged to his neighborhood watch group, has been granted the status of a police officer he even has police officers testifying in his favor that trayvon's father, tracy martin, told them that the voice screaming for help on the 911 call was 'not his son' when he heard the tape for the first time the father strongly denies he said those words to the police normally, the prosecutor in a high profile murder case puts forth evidence to prove the defendant's guilt and aggressively goes after any notion that suggests that the victim is at fault the prosecution's goal is to do anything it can to convince a jury that the killer is a menace that needs to be taken off the street that's how the battle is won in the courtroom but in the trial of zimmerman, the prosecution richard mantei appears to be lying low and taking too many punches could it be that mantei himself buys into the theory that zimmerman is some misunderstood do gooder in the community? it's just puzzling words matter, as we have seen over the course of the trial so when mantei told the court before resting his case: 'there are two people involved here one of them is dead, and one of them is a liar,' i was shocked this is a murder case one person is dead, and the other person is a murderer those words more accurately describe the facts presented in the case there is no question that zimmerman killed martin, so there's no reason to tiptoe around the words and that's exactly what is so troubling for myself and many others, especially in the black community it has been all too easy an idea for people to entertain that martin did something to cause his own murder history tells us that in our nation's courtrooms and even outside of those walls, my son, your son, our sons still don't have the presumption of innocence, even when they are the victims of a murder 'i would have told martin's parents, 'prepare for hell,' ' says donaldson 'it will not be easy they will present evidence that will make your son look like the worst criminal the defenses' goal is to turn your son into the criminal here and make him guilty of the crime' no one knows yet how this trial will end donaldson feels it's too close to call until rebuttals are made and the case wraps up 'it could go either way,' donaldson says but i do know one thing: we should not have to wear a trayvon t shirt to an awards show or attend a pep rally to remind america that when an unarmed child is confronted and gunned down in the street by a grown man who's trained to kill, that's murder end of story the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of roxanne jones | roxanne jones trayvon martin jones martin zimmerman | roxanne jones: we have all been duped in the trayvon martin case . jones: this case was never 'open and shut' as the martin family attorney said earlier . she says race still matters deeply in our courtrooms, just as it does in our nation . jones: in zimmerman trial, the prosecution appears to be lying low and taking punches |
(cnn) after years spent fighting in some of the world's worst wars, former us navy seal kristin beck says she knows what she wants 'i want to have my life,' she told cnn's 'ac360' 'i fought for 20 years for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness i want some happiness' beck recently came out as transgender she wrote about the experience in a book, 'warrior princess: a us navy seal's journey to coming out transgender' trapped in a man's body it chronicles her life as a young boy and man, known then as chris beck beck deployed 13 times, serving in places such as bosnia, afghanistan and iraq she earned a bronze star and a purple heart along the way though she's felt trapped in the wrong body since grade school, beck didn't come out until after she left the military in 2011 doing so earlier would have been too big a risk transgender men and women are banned from service 'that's a chance that if i took it, i might be dead today,' she said 'there's a lot of prejudice out there there's been a lot of transgender people who are killed for prejudice, for hatred when the book came out some amazing support and some amazing praises but also some pretty amazing bigotry and hatred' beck says she doesn't need people to love, or even like, her 'but i don't want you to beat me up and kill me you don't have to like me, i don't care but please don't kill me' 'no one ever met the real me' beck explains her years of hiding as living like an onion deep down, under various layers, or skins, she hid her female persona 'it is a constant, but as you suppress and as you bottle it up, it's not like on that surface,' she said 'you would never notice it because i can push it so deep, but then it does kinda, like, it gnaws at you so it's always there' looking back, beck believes she might have wanted to become a seal because they are 'the toughest of the tough' she thought: 'i could totally make it go away if i could be at that top level maybe i could cure myself' but the feeling of being born in the wrong body never went away and for her entire career, beck kept her mouth shut she says virtually no one, out of the thousands of people she worked with, knew her secret it was so well hidden 'no one ever met the real me,' she said though her identity was hidden, the rest of what beck offered was true 'i gave true brotherhood i did my best, 150% all the time, and i gave strength and honor and my full brotherhood to every military person i ever worked with' watch anderson cooper 360° weeknights 8pm et for the latest from ac360° click here | kristin beck navy more than 20 years chris beck beck 2011 | kristin beck served as a navy seal for more than 20 years . known then as chris beck, the war veteran deployed 13 times . beck retired in 2011 and has since come out as transgender . 'no one ever met the real me,' she says |
(cnn) ten man ajax beat barcelona 2 1 at the amsterdam arena in the champions league on tuesday evening to hand the catalans their first defeat under coach gerardo martino thulani serero put ajax in front in the 19th minute before danny hoesen doubled the lead three minutes before halftime barcelona were back in the game three minutes after the break when joel veltman was shown a red card for bringing down neymar inside the penalty area xavi converting the spot kick but the home side held on for a vital win 'we played a good match,' ajax coach frank de boer said afterwards 'they are not used to being under so much pressure as we created in the first half, nor a team that builds from the back,' he added 'we deserved to be 2 0 ahead at half time the (penalty) decision was key because it is a red card and a goal, but we fought hard' barcelona had already qualified for the knockout stages but will need a win in their final match against celtic at the nou camp to guarantee top spot in the group in the other group h match, scottish champions celtic had a disappointing night at celtic park going down 3 0 to ac milan goals from kaka, cristian zapata and mario balotelli means that milan remain in second with nine points but ajax are now one point behind on eight and will qualify if they can beat the rossoneri at the san siro in the final round of group h matches on december 11 in group f, arsenal took a big step towards the knockout stages with a 2 0 win over marseille at the emirates stadium two goals from jack wilshere in the first minute and 65th minute mean the current english premier league leaders are on 12 points and only need to draw their final group match against napoli to qualify top of the group last year's beaten finalists borussia dortmund kept their hopes of qualification alive with a 3 1 win against napoli at signal iduna park jurgen klopp's team, who are now level on nine points with rafa benitez's side, will travel to marseille in their final qualifying match meanwhile in group e, basel have a 100% record against chelsea in group e after snatching a late winner at st jakob park mohamed salah's 87th minute strike means the swiss champions leapfrog schalke into second with eight points, one point behind chelsea who, despite the loss, have qualified for the knockout stages schalke's 0 0 draw with steaua bucharest on tuesday leaves them on seven points meaning that the german side need to beat basel in their final match to qualify for the last 16 in group g, atletico madrid and zenit st petersburg drew 1 1 the spanish side, who had a 100% record in the group before tuesday's tie at the petrovsky stadium, took the lead with an adrian lopez goal in the 54th minute but a goalkeeping error by thibaut courtois 20 minutes later proved costly the belgian keeper misjudged a deflected cross from igor smolnikov which looped into the net to hand zenit a vital point in their quest to qualify second in the group porto could only draw 1 1 with austria wien the result leaves the portuguese champions in third with five points and means they will have to get something out of their trip to atletico on december 11 to stand any chance of qualifying | nonpoetic paddlefishes nondebtor | no related information |
(cnn) a former campaign staffer for san diego mayor bob filner became the second woman to publicly accuse him of sexual harassment, saying tuesday that the then congressman patted her 'posterior' while at a fundraising event laura fink, who now runs a political consulting firm, told kpbs tv that it happened in 2005 when she was working as filner's deputy campaign manager fink said she didn't go public with the incident at the time because she was trying to build her political career but she said she now feels emboldened to tell her story after filner's former spokeswoman, irene mccormack jackson, sued him for sexual harassment monday jackson said filner subjected her and other women to 'crude and disgusting' comments and inappropriate touching she said she resigned as filner's communications director in june after deciding the mayor would not change his behavior 'i had to work and do my job in an atmosphere where women were viewed by mayor filner as sexual objects or stupid idiots,' jackson said she said filner asked her to work without underwear and made repeated sexual advances toward her 'he is not fit to be mayor of our great city he is not fit to hold any public office a man who lacks character makes a mockery of his ideas,' she said fink told kpbs on tuesday that the incident happened as she was escorting filner from table to table at a fundraising dinner at one point, she said, someone at the event told filner that fink had 'worked her ass off' for him 'he turned to me and he said, 'turn around,' ' fink said tuesday 'and as a staffer, i know it sounds silly to just do it, but you just do it and so i turned around and he proceeded to take his hand and pat me on my posterior and laugh and say, 'no, it's still there' ' fink gave the station a copy of an e mail she sent to filner in which she asked for an apology a few days later, kpbs reported, filner mumbled 'i'm sorry' but told her she didn't understand what happened filner has been battling allegations of sexual harassment for several weeks, but none of the women leveling those claims came forward before jackson filed her suit in state court her lawyer, gloria allred, called on filner to resign, telling reporters, 'apologies alone will not take care of this injustice' in a statement issued monday evening, filner said he was 'saddened' by the accusations, but 'i remain committed to the people of san diego and the work that needs to be done' 'once due process is allowed to unfold, i am certain there will be a better understanding of this situation,' he said, adding, 'i humbly ask that through this vicious storm of controversy, people take a moment and temper their rush to judgment' filner said last week that he believes he will be vindicated by 'a full presentation of the facts' but he has also acknowledged, 'i need help,' and added, 'i'm clearly doing something wrong' 'i am embarrassed to admit that i have failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and that at times i have intimidated them,' filner said in a statement earlier this month 'it's a good thing that behavior that would have been tolerated in the past is being called out in this generation for what it is: inappropriate and wrong' the 70 year old filner served five terms in congress before being elected mayor in 2012 he says he will not resign jackson said she decided to resign after filner's deputy chief of staff resigned in june filner 'refused to listen to someone he had known for 35 years, and who told him explicitly, during a senior staff meeting, that his behavior with women was terrible and possibly illegal filner 'laughed it off,' she said she said filner challenged her to provide one example of improper behavior; when she brought up his comments about wearing underwear, 'he had no comeback,' she said cnn's matt smith contributed to this report | laura fink bob filner filner | laura fink says incident happened while she was a campaign staffer in 2005 . she says then congressman bob filner patted her 'posterior'. filner's former spokeswoman is suing him for sexual harassment . he has been battling such allegations for several weeks |
washington (cnn) washington police told the mother of slain congressional intern chandra levy that an arrest is imminent in her daughter's 2001 death, susan levy told cnn on saturday washington intern chandra levy's body was found a year after she disappeared in 2001 'i got a call from the washington police department, just to give me a heads up that there's a warrant out for the arrest,' levy said police chief cathy lanier of the metropolitan police department did not reveal the suspect's name when she contacted the parents on friday, levy said she said police told her they have 'enough evidence to convict somebody' a source close to the investigation told cnn the suspect was ingmar guandique, who is serving a 10 year prison sentence for two assaults in washington's rock creek park that occurred around the time of levy's disappearance levy's remains were found in the park view a timeline of her disappearance » the source would not speak on the record because the investigation is ongoing and the arrest warrant had not been finalized a california native working as an intern for the federal bureau of prisons, levy, 24, disappeared may 1, 2001 her remains were found in may 2002 by a man walking his dog in a remote area of the park the source said authorities are working to finalize the arrest warrant asked about reports that guandique, a laborer from el salvador, told a fellow inmate he killed levy, the source said guandique 'was running his mouth' guandique has been imprisoned at the federal correctional institution victorville, a medium security facility north of san bernardino, california, an official there confirmed to cnn on saturday watch cnn's mike brooks discuss guandique's background » he has denied any involvement in her death, the washington post reported saturday guandique was mentioned last year in a washington post article about the killing 'it's a bittersweet situation for me as the mother of a daughter who is no longer here i want justice i want to know that the person who did it is in jail and will not do it to anybody else,' levy said 'every day the elephant is there every day you get a knot in your stomach it doesn't go away it's a life sentence for the families and relatives that miss their loved ones we have a life sentence of hurt' referring to the impending arrest, chandra's father told cnn affiliate kxtv that lanier didn't say when an announcement would be made, but 'she said it would be really soon' 'she didn't say the name yet, but we think we know who it is i don't want to say until it's official, though,' the father said the search for levy and massive publicity that accompanied it stemmed largely from her connection to rep gary condit, d california condit and levy, who was from condit's district, had an affair, and police questioned condit many times in connection with her disappearance police never named condit as a suspect condit, a member of congress since 1989, lost the 2002 democratic primary and left office at the end of his term he later reportedly moved to arizona 'for the levy family, we are glad they are finally getting the answers they deserve for my family, i am glad that their years of standing together in the face of such adversity have finally led to the truth,' condit told wjla on saturday condit's lawyer, abbe lowell, blamed police and media attention on condit for delays in the arrest police never named him as a suspect 'it is a tragedy that the police and media obsession with former congressman condit delayed this result for eight years, and caused needless pain and harm to the families involved,' lowell said 'this should give the levys the answer and closure they deserve, and remove the unfair cloud that has hung over the condits for too long' cnn's carol cratty, karen zuker, justine redman and rachel streitfeld contributed to this report | stet jerseyites accurse | no related information |
washington (cnn) japanese prime minister taro aso met with president barack obama on tuesday making him the first head of state to be hosted by the new administration japanese prime minister taro aso steps off his boeing 747 at andrews air force base in maryland monday it was a long trip 6,800 miles (11,000 km) for a short meeting one hour and happened as obama was preparing his first address to a joint session of congress sitting next to aso in the white house, obama said: 'the friendship between the united states and japan is extraordinarily important 'it is for that reason that the prime minister is the first foreign dignitary to visit me in the oval office' obama said the us japanese alliance would be crucial in solving international problems including climate change 'we think we have to work together, not only on issues relating to the pacific rim, but throughout the world,' obama added aso said the global economy was also on the agenda at their meeting 'we are the number 1 and second biggest economies of the world we will have to work hand in hand 'i think we are the only two nations which are powerful enough to solve those very critical, vital issue,' aso said japan's cabinet secretary takeo kawamura said that being the first to visit the obama white house was an indication of the priority the new president placed on the relationship another topic likely to have been on the agenda was japan's asian neighbor north korea, which us intelligence says is preparing to test a long range missile pyongyang has denied the charge, instead saying it is making preparations to launch a satellite a test fire by north korea in 2006 failed 40 seconds after launch the missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which if true could give it the capability of striking alaska or hawaii aso's visit to washington comes, as his approval rating stands at a meager 11 percent, the second lowest ever recorded for a japanese prime minister yoshiro mori, a former prime minister, resigned after his rate bottomed out at 9 percent last week his finance minister shoichi nakagawa announced he will step down after coming under fire for appearing intoxicated at a weekend news conference during the g 7 meeting in rome cnn's chie kobayashi contributed to this report | 11 percent second japanese first obama congress | aso's approval rating at 11 percent, the second lowest ever for a japanese pm . aso is first head of state hosted by obama administration . obama will give his first address to joint session of congress hours later |
hong kong (cnn) more mainland chinese travelers are jet setting to foreign shores and global luxury brands are cashing in, according to a new survey by kpmg, the global auditing firm the report also revealed that rising chinese incomes are fueling demand for luxury goods right at home in the domestic market the findings from kpmg's 'the global reach of china luxury' echo reports over the past several months that show chinese consumers are able and willing to pay more an hsbc report in september estimated that 25% of the world's luxury purchases were made by chinese nationals a jump up from a 5% market share in 2007 the global management firm mckinsey & co reported in december that chinese consumers had become the prime engine of growth for the luxury sector, surpassing japan, which had long been the world's largest by 2015, mckinsey & co predicted china's luxury market would account for one fifth of global sales with a value of $27 billion the number of mainland chinese consumers polled who traveled overseas in 2012 climbed to 71% a 'significant change' from 53% in 2008, the kpmg report said of those travelers, 72% said they bought more high end products such as handbags, cosmetics and watches this rising tide of mainland chinese travelers means that global luxury brands need to take another look at their business strategies in order to take advantage, said nick debnam, kpmg china's asia pacific chairman of consumer markets 'it is no longer just about doing business in china brands need to therefore align their branding and marketing strategies both in china, and for those rising number of travelling chinese consumers,' debnam said in the report a majority of respondents 60% said hong kong, taiwan and macau were their favorite places to go to pocket perfumes and cosmetics one fifth of respondents said they went to europe in 2012, up from 3% in 2009 mainland chinese are also recognizing more global brand names 59 in 2012 compared to 34 in 2006 and have attached specific sentiments to products based on their country of origin most respondents 89% ascribed 'romantic' feelings to french products, while 72% said german products were known for being 'precise' four out of five respondents linked the idea of 'long history' to mainland chinese goods; just 15% attached the same sentiment to us manufactured items the kpmg report noted that 'china is not without its challenges' but despite the global economic slowdown the country's 'consumer sector continues to grow and also accounts for an increasing share of global sales for some of the world's largest luxury brands' | barkantine antipathist mnemic | no related information |
washington (cnn) on their son's last night as president, a melancholy former president george hw bush and his wife, barbara, made an impromptu visit to the white house's press briefing room and told reporters how much they'll miss the building ex president george hw bush says he'll miss coming and going from the white house 'we will miss coming and going, but it's time to move on,' said the former president, who was a frequent visitor during his son's two terms in office 'the bushes are going to a happy life' when a reporter suggested that perhaps one of their other sons, former florida gov jeb bush, will take the white house someday, the former president smiled 'maybe jeb will do something i'd like to see him try,' the former president said barbara bush, who was first lady from 1989 to 1993, said the hardest part of the night was saying goodbye to the white house residence staff a second time 'in tears twice,' she said, her eyes red she added that she and her husband are looking forward to attending tuesday's inauguration of president elect barack obama 'very exciting day,' she said in addition to the inauguration, the former first couple was to attend a final dinner at the white house with current president bush, first lady laura bush and the first couple's two daughters, barbara and jenna as the former first couple left the briefing room, some reporters and photographers spontaneously started clapping out of respect your view of history the ex president, who was using a long walking stick to get around, quipped, 'you didn't clap when i was president, what the hell is going on?' | white house george hw bush barbara bush barack obama | former president, wife visit white house on son's last night as president . george hw bush smiles when reporter suggests other son could run . barbara bush reflects on saying goodbye to white house staff for second time . former first couple attending inauguration of barack obama |
(cnn) ousted libyan leader moammar gadhafi's hometown of sirte will fall soon, perhaps within days, commanders of the anti gadhafi operation told us defense secretary leon panetta on friday, according to a senior us defense official traveling with him panetta met during the morning with the commanders at the naval base that hosts the us sixth fleet in italy, the official said the commanders said they have no reason to believe gadhafi can exercise command and control of those militia members who remain loyal to him, the official said they further believe that, although the anti gadhafi forces are gaining the ability to exercise control, they will likely need training to develop their capabilities, the official said still, no timetable has been drawn up for when commanders will recommend that nato forces end their involvement, the official said the fall of sirte could not come soon enough for libya's new leaders, eager to declare liberation once the birthplace of gadhafi is under their control but battles for the coastal city southeast of tripoli have raged for weeks as gadhafi loyalists dug in to put up stiff resistance complicating the matter was the resignation friday of mahdi al harati, the deputy head of the tripoli military council, a senior national transitional council official said 'he resigned due to differences with the ntc on the planning of the security of tripoli we are the official governing body and the efforts of the revolutionaries that fought for the liberation are appreciated but the command must be centralized,' mohamed sayeh told cnn he said ntc officials were trying to get that message across 'in a democratic, brotherly manner' al harati will continue as commander of the tripoli brigades, said fathi al wersali, a senior member of the tripoli military council 'there is overlapping in the role of the tripoli military council and the ntc,' he said 'a clear mechanism has not been finalized, which leaves us not clear on how to move forward in securing tripoli' early friday, hundreds of revolutionary fighters attacked from the west, ntc military field commanders said gadhafi's men control tall buildings in the city center, where they fire on their foes from rooftops they were striking with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns, said the council's commanders, mohammed ibrahim and jamal al raeis, from the front lines at least 12 revolutionary fighters were killed and 193 others wounded friday, the misrata military council said 'the battle will be difficult, but we have to finish it,' ibrahim said the international committee of the red cross evacuated three wounded people from ibn sina hospital in sirte to a field hospital on thursday dibeh fakhr, an icrc spokesman in misrata, said friday that the group is committed to re entering sirte to evacuate more casualties the red cross said thousands of civilians remain inside sirte and waves of war weary civilians were streaming from the coastal city every day 'we even saw entire families leaving on foot, bringing their small children with them, without any food or water,' red cross delegate ghafar bishtawi said more than 18,000 people, including many women, children and elderly people, are displaced east of sirte and hundreds have moved to safer locations west of the city, the red cross said sirte is one of two contested cities remaining in libya as the national transitional council moves forward to form new governance in the country the council's leader and the interim prime minister have promised to step down to clear the way for a new government once sirte is taken gadhafi, wanted by the international criminal court in the hague for alleged crimes against humanity, has not been seen in public in months syrian based television aired an audio message thursday that was purportedly from the deposed leader in it, the speaker urged libyans to protest the new leadership cnn's mohammed tawfeeq and journalist mohamed fadel fahmy contributed to this report | tripoli military council gadhafi sirte bani walid weeks | deputy head of tripoli military council resigns . anti gadhafi commanders: no reason to believe gadhafi can exercise command . revolutionary fighters launched a western sirte offensive . gadhafi's men have put up resistance in sirte and bani walid for weeks |
(cnn) the number of dead in clashes in southern sudan has more than doubled, an official said at least 211 people have been killed in recent attacks by breakaway militias loyal to george athor, southern sudan's humanitarian minister james kok said in a statement late tuesday earlier reports put the figure killed in jonglei state at 105 kok said the attacks had continued until tuesday evening and the death toll was expected to rise further as the bodies of women, children and other civilians who had fled into the bush were still being found the minister accused unspecified 'northern actors' of supporting athor and seeking to destabilize south sudan athor took up arms in 2010 when he was not elected governor of the southern sudanese state of jonglei state his forces have been attacking villages and clashing with the sudan people's liberation army, the military wing of the movement that governs southern sudan people in the region voted overwhelmingly for independence from the north in a recent referendum, setting the stage for it to become a new country athor's forces have attacked the towns of fanjak and bor, spla spokesman peter aguer said last week twenty spla soldiers, 39 civilians and 30 of the attackers were killed in the attack on fanjak, he said four spla soldiers and 12 attackers died in the bor attack, he added the clashes took place february 9 and 10, he said athor has accused the southern sudan government of election fraud, but signed a truce in january, days before the referendum as the nation readies for official independence on july 9, violence caused by renegade militias has been a concern earlier this month, a mutiny among the joint integrated units (jius) led by soldiers loyal to militia leader gabriel tang resulted in up to 50 deaths sixty five civilians were also injured the jius are a coordinated military force consisting of the northern sudanese armed forces (saf) and the southern spla tang's forces had been merged into the units along with saf doctors without borders said in a statement last week that it was 'currently responding to a large influx of wounded patients as a result of clashes that began in upper nile state, southern sudan' 'we are mainly seeing patients with gunshot wounds, and many have significant abdominal and limb injuries,' said tim baerwaldt, head of mission for msf in southern sudan cnn's nima elbagir and journalist isma'il kushkush contributed to this report | imperiling microphysically ennuyee | no related information |
washington (cnn) former gop presidential nominee john mccain warned wednesday that the united states is losing the war in afghanistan sen john mccain recommended expanding the afghan army to between 160,000 and 200,000 troops the arizona senator, the ranking republican on the senate armed services committee, said that while he approved of president obama's recent decision to send 17,000 more troops to the country, he believed an additional allied military and civilian surge would be necessary to prevent it from once again becoming an al qaeda safe haven the obama administration is conducting a review of overall us policy in the troubled islamic republic, the president said in his joint address to congress on tuesday 'with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for afghanistan and pakistan to defeat al qaeda and combat extremism,' obama said tuesday 'because i will not allow terrorists to plot against the american people from safe havens halfway around the world we will not allow it' but mccain said on wednesday, 'when you aren't winning in this kind of war, you are losing and, in afghanistan today, we are not winning' he delivered his remarks at the american enterprise institute, a washington based think tank mccain claimed that while the situation in afghanistan is 'nowhere near as dire as it was in iraq,' the number of insurgent attacks had spiked in 2008 and violence had increased more than 500 percent in the past four years growing portions of the country 'suffer under the influence of the taliban,' he added mccain's comments echoed those of defense secretary robert gates, who acknowledged last friday that the united states is facing a 'very tough test' in afghanistan 'but i'm sure we will rise to the occasion the way we have many times before,' gates told a news conference in krakow, poland, where nato defense ministers were meeting mccain said that the us was winning the war in afghanistan through early 2005, when some troops were withdrawn and 'our integrated civil military command structure was disassembled and replaced by a balkanized and dysfunctional arrangement' a vietnam war veteran, former prisoner of war and longtime member of the armed services committee, mccain said that while he knows americans 'are weary of war we must win [in afghanistan] the alternative is to risk that country's return to its previous function as a terrorist sanctuary, from which al qaeda could train and plan attacks against america' among other things, mccain stated that the us needs to establish a larger military headquarters capable of executing 'the necessary planning and coordination for a nationwide counterinsurgency campaign' he also said plans to expand the afghan army from 68,000 to 134,000 troops were insufficient he recommended expanding the afghan army to between 160,000 and 200,000 troops at the same time, he said, the us needs to boost the country's nonmilitary assistance to help strengthen 'its [civilian] institutions, the rule of law, and the economy in order to provide a sustainable alternative to the drug trade' southern afghanistan provides about two thirds of the world's opium and heroin over the years, those two drugs have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, including the taliban mccain warned that, even if his recommendations are adopted, the violence in afghanistan is 'likely to get worse before it gets better the scale of resources required to prevail will be enormous' the timetable, he concluded, 'will be measured in years, not months' | mccain afghanistan iraq us | mccain: 'when you aren't winning in this kind of war, you are losing'. while afghanistan is 'nowhere near as dire as it was in iraq,' attacks have spiked . us needs to establish a larger military headquarters, mccain says . 'the scale of resources required to prevail will be enormous,' senator says |
kansas city, missouri (cnn) friends and family gathered sunday for an emotional prayer vigil for a missing 11 month old missouri girl as new surveillance video surfaced from the night lisa irwin disappeared the video, taken from a bp gas station less than two miles from the home where lisa was last seen, shows an unidentified person walking along the road around 2:15 am october 4 the station manager, anuj arora, said it's unusual to see anyone walking at that time of night in the region arora, who shared the video with cnn on sunday, said he also turned it over to authorities investigating lisa's disappearance in hopes it will help in the search for the girl the fbi and kansas city police declined to comment on the video, citing the ongoing investigation meanwhile sunday, lisa's parents, deborah bradley and jeremy irwin, were seen wiping away tears at the candlelight vigil outside their home they wore t shirts emblazoned with lisa's image lisa was reported missing at 4 am october 4, after jeremy irwin came home from work to find the door unlocked, the lights on and a window that had been tampered with bradley said she last saw lisa at 6:40 pm the night before a cadaver dog searching the family's home indicated a positive 'hit' for the scent of a body, according to documents released friday the information was included in an affidavit, dated tuesday, police filed to request a search warrant of the home the warrant was executed wednesday 'the cadaver dog indicated a positive 'hit' for the scent of a deceased human in the area of the floor of bradley's bedroom near the bed,' the affidavit read it also said that interviews with people involved in the case 'revealed conflicting information' and that bradley told police she did not initially look for her baby behind the house because she 'was afraid of what she might find' the attorney for lisa's parents said the release of the affidavit friday was 'unfortunate,' as it could derail the search for the missing girl joe tacopina described his clients as 'very shaken up and they refuse to believe anything except that she is out there and alive' he said lisa's parents are 'terrified, not for themselves, but for the welfare of their daughter' bradley said in an nbc interview last week that she was drunk the night the infant disappeared and that she had last seen the baby about four hours earlier than initially reported bradley told nbc she is afraid she will be arrested police have accused her of killing lisa, she said, and told her that she failed a lie detector test 'i was the last one with her,' a tearful bradley said 'and from judging on how the questioning went, that's kind of a fear that i have and the main fear with that is, if they arrest me, people are going to stop looking for her and then i'll never see her again, and i'll never know what happened' asked whether he had questions about bradley, jeremy irwin told nbc, 'no there's no question to be had there i know who she is i know the kind of mother she is' irwin said it's possible someone could have entered the house without bradley hearing, as the couple's bedroom is on the opposite corner of the house from lisa's room and bradley sleeps with a fan at high speed lisa is described as being 30 inches tall with blue eyes and blonde hair, according to police she weighs between 26 and 30 pounds and was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it the missing girl has two bottom teeth and a 'beauty mark' on her right outer thigh, police said at the time of her disappearance, she had a cold with a cough cnn's sandra endo and sara weisfeldt contributed to this report | the early morning hours less than two miles lisa irwin lisa | gas station video shows unidentified person walking in the early morning hours of october 4 . the gas station is less than two miles from the home where lisa irwin was last seen . authorities decline to comment on the video, citing the ongoing investigation . lisa's parents attend an emotional prayer vigil for the girl |
mexico city (cnn) headlines heralding violent news of mexico's drug war splash across the front pages of the country's newspapers government tallies list more than 34,600 deaths since president felipe calderon began a crackdown on cartels in december 2006 but many stories behind the statistics are never told, mexican journalist marcela turati munoz told cnn en español 'more of a voice has been given to the violent people; more of a voice has been given to the drug traffickers, and the victims really have not spoken,' turati said through stories in her new book, 'fuego cruzado' spanish for 'crossfire' turati said she hopes long overlooked victims finally will be heard turati conducted interviews in 10 mexican states while researching the book, which hits shelves tuesday in one chapter, she describes a woman, nicole polito malaga, who keeps an altar to honor her three fallen children inside her wood hut they were among 24 construction workers whose bodies were found in a forest in the mexican state of veracruz in 2008 'we do not want their memory to be stained they were not involved with drugs they were poor, humble people,' she says a wife describes her family's collapse after her husband disappeared a pathologist explains what goes through his mind when he examines a decapitated head other stories are told in turati's voice, like that of 10 children killed by an explosion in durango state while on their way to receive 'opportunities' scholarships from the government unable to afford coffins, their families shrouded them in blankets, she writes in another chapter, 'no place for the children,' turati takes readers to an interrogation room inside a laredo, texas, police station, where a mexican teenager tells authorities about the first time he killed when he was 13 years old 'i thought i was superman,' rosalio reta says 'i loved doing it, killing that first person then they tried to take my gun, but it was like taking candy from a kid' turati said she hopes the stories in the book will not only 'make victims visible' but encourage others to act 'we still have time to see what is happening, reflect on what happened before and think about what type of society we are forming, with so much suffering, so much pain and so many losses,' she said cnn's mario gonzalez contributed to this report | spanish tuesday marcela turati munoz mexican 2006 | 'fuego cruzado' spanish for 'crossfire' hits shelves tuesday . journalist marcela turati munoz says she conducted interviews in 10 mexican states . 'the victims really have not spoken,' she says . government tallies say more than 34,600 have died in drug war since 2006 |
(cnn) rebecca mackinnon: we're losing control of our digital privacy the erosion of privacy rights under the fourth amendment, written to protect us against unreasonable search and seizure, began in earnest under president george w bush the patriot act, passed overwhelmingly but hastily after 9/11, allows the fbi to obtain telecommunication, financial, and credit records without a court order moreover, the foreign intelligence surveillance act's 2008 amendment act grants us companies immunity from being sued by their customers when they comply even with blatantly illegal government surveillance requests as a presidential candidate in 2008, barack obama pledged to reform the patriot act and rescind the fisa amendments act, but as president he reversed his position the obama administration has fought bipartisan efforts in congress to bring the change he once championed the result is the 'new normal': surveillance, often of questionable legality and sometimes clear illegality, against which americans have little effective recourse, on the rare occasions that we even know that violations are taking place read more rebecca mackinnon is a bernard l schwartz senior fellow at the new america foundation, co founder of the international bloggers' network global voices online, and a founding board member of the global network initiative she is the author of 'consent of the networked: the worldwide struggle for internet freedom' douglas rushkoff: nsa's phone snooping a different kind of creepy i'm finding it hard to get too worked up over the revelation that the national security agency has been authorized by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to collect all our call data from verizon hasn't everyone already assumed this? everything we do in the digital realm from surfing the web to sending an e mail to conducting a credit card transaction to, yes, making a phone call creates a data trail and if that trail exists, chances are someone is using it or will be soon enough read more douglas rushkoff writes a regular column for cnncom he is a media theorist and the author of the new book 'present shock: when everything happens now bruce schneier: the internet is a surveillance state all of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever this is what a surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond the wildest dreams of george orwell sure, we can take measures to prevent this we can limit what we search on google from our iphones, and instead use computer web browsers that allow us to delete cookies we can use an alias on facebook we can turn our cell phones off and spend cash but increasingly, none of it matters there are simply too many ways to be tracked the internet, e mail, cell phones, web browsers, social networking sites, search engines: these have become necessities, and it's fanciful to expect people to simply refuse to use them just because they don't like the spying, especially since the full extent of such spying is deliberately hidden from us and there are few alternatives being marketed by companies that don't spy this isn't something the free market can fix we consumers have no choice in the matter all the major companies that provide us with internet services are interested in tracking us read more bruce schneier is a security technologist and author of 'liars and outliers: enabling the trust society needs to survive' neil m richards: surveillance state no answer to terror terror attacks, plane crashes, even school shootings stick in our head out of all proportion to the danger they pose to us as individual citizens precisely because they are extraordinary but remember the big picture how many people do you know who have been the victims of terrorism? on the other hand, how many people do you know who have suffered from cancer, or obesity, or gun violence? if we're interested in safety, public health and gun control are much more important issues than terrorism they, not surveillance, should be our safety priority we should honor the victims we should praise the bostonians, police and private citizens, who helped find the culprits but we should also rest secure that our system of government is working we should reject, like edward davis did, any call to move further towards a police state read more neil richards is a professor of law at washington university he tweets about privacy at @neilmrichards and is the author of the recent harvard law review article, 'the dangers of surveillance' michael hayden: obama administration overreached on leak probes intelligence agencies often act on the edges of executive prerogative and move forward based on a narrow base of lawfulness and limited congressional notification—and these are often sufficient to underpin a one off covert action but democracies don't get to do anything repeatedly over a long period (like drone strikes and targeted killings) without political support—and political support is the end point of a process that begins with informed debate informed debate depends on information, the kind that most journalists seek we cannot make public the nation's legitimate secrets, but americans need a broad outline of what is being done on their behalf ironically, the public dialogue generated by a free press may be one of the best guarantors that the republic will, in the future, be able to act boldly (and occasionally secretly) in its own defense read more gen michael v hayden, who was appointed by president george w bush as cia director in 2006 and served until february 2009, is a principal with the chertoff group, a security consulting firm he serves on the boards of several defense firms and is a distinguished visiting professor at george mason university rand paul: don't let drones invade our privacy when assuming office, every government official must take an oath to abide by and uphold our constitution since 2010, i have made that my mission in congress unfortunately, the obama administration is not upholding nor abiding by the constitution in fact, this administration is going to great lengths to continually violate it its most recent transgression involves the use of domestic drones these small drones are to be used as a crime fighting tool for law enforcement officials but is unwarranted and constant surveillance by an aerial eye of big government the answer? read more rand paul, a republican, is a us senator from kentucky frida ghitis: google knows too much about you if americans or people anywhere decided to take up google's offer to check out its new policy, they would discover something so troubling, so frightening, really, that it would override the national tendency to leave companies alone to make money how they see fit at least in the case of companies such as google and now facebook which know more about us than even our closest friends read more frida ghitis is a world affairs columnist for the miami herald and world politics review a former cnn producer and correspondent, she is the author of 'the end of revolution: a changing world in the age of live television' follow her on twitter: @fridagcolumns david frum: privacy was good while it lasted to be a politician today is to live in some ways like a citizen of north korea a politician must assume that he or she is under 24 hour audio visual surveillance any objectionable remark, any untoward joke, any awkward facial expression may be recorded and broadcast professional and personal ruin can strike at any moment if george allen's 'macaca' moment didn't drive home the point, scott prouty's 47% video certainly should but it's not only politicians who live under perpetual surveillance we all do! read more david frum, a cnn contributor, is a contributing editor at newsweek and the daily beast he is the author of eight books, including a new novel, 'patriots,' and a post election e book, 'why romney lost' frum was a special assistant to president george w bush from 2001 to 2002 amitai etzioni: despite facebook, privacy is far from dead if you read closely the various alarmist articles about the death of privacy, you soon will note that many deal either with public spaces or with hypotheticals they claim that police could abuse these tools, might use them to ill effect and so on the american civil liberties union, for example, criticized the use of drones by law enforcement by arguing that such use 'could eventually eliminate the privacy americans have traditionally enjoyed in their movements and activities' facebook has been caught in the same crossfire between strong privacy advocates and the social benefits it generates for hundred of millions who use it to communicate with their families and friends, close and not so close it improved its privacy settings, though it still takes a considerable amount of effort to set them at the specific level one prefers however, if facebook users choose to ignore the risk to their privacy when they log in to this domain, which is known for its openness, their complaints must be taken with a grain of salt read more amitai etzioni is professor of international relations and director of the institute for communitarian policy studies at george washington university he is the author of 'the limits of privacy' the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors | citolas misosopher emigre | no related information |
(cnn) defending champion serena williams overcame a gutsy display from jelena jankovic on saturday to reach the final of the wta championships in istanbul the world no1 was forced to work hard against her serbian opponent in the sinan erdem dome, but eventually came through to win in three sets 6 4, 2 6, 6 4 to set up a showdown with china's li na in sunday's final williams started slowly and was soon 3 1 down but fought back to take the opening set but any thoughts of a quick finish were dashed as errors crept into the american's game jankovic took full advantage winning the set with ease a more composed serena returned in the deciding set which she won 6 4 but not before jankovic had gamely saved three match points 'i'm just really trying out here i think my body's a little tired after so many matches i think yesterday i kind of hit a wall but i'm just fighting out here,' williams said 'honestly i'm just happy to still be in the tournament, and i'm honoured to be in the final again' li's match against petra kvitova was a less exhausting affair with the 31 year old seeing off the czech left hander 6 4, 6 2 li had already broken new ground by becoming the first chinese woman to reach the semifinals of the wta championships, but by beating kvitova, she has risen to world no3 and becomes the highest ranked asian women in history with both li and williams undefeated in the tournament so far, the winner of sunday's match will walk away with â£2,145,000 while the runner up is guaranteed $1,090,000 fed to face del potro meanwhile at the atp world tour 500 event in switzerland, roger federer is safely through to the final of the indoor event in basel the swiss star who is currently no6 in the world rankings will face argentina's juan martin del potro on sunday after beating canada's vasek pospisil 6 3, 6 7, 7 5 on saturday del potro also needed three sets (6 4, 4 6, 6 2) to overcome france's edouard roger vasselin at the other atp world tour 500 event in valencia, david ferrer will face russia's mikhail youzhny in sunday's final the spanish star overwhelmed compatriot nicolas almagro 6 2, 6 3 in saturday's semifinal while youzhny beat his fellow countryman dmitry tursunov 6 2, 6 4 | ecize copyreader putlog | no related information |
(cnn) in a victory for whale conservationist group sea shepherd, japan's government said thursday it is considering canceling the whaling season if japan does so, this would be the first time the country has canceled its whale hunt in the waters of the antarctic since 2005, when it began a bitter battle with the animal rights group 'in response to interference conducted by sea shepherd, the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries has temporarily halted the whaling hunt in the antarctic ocean, considering the crew's safety as a first priority,' hiroshi kawamura, an official in charge of research whaling, said on thursday 'the ministry is considering what to do hereafter, but the total suspension of this season, which is scheduled to run until mid march, is included in the options' sea shepherd's capt paul watson said that the japanese whalers have not left yet 'as long as they're here, we'll be here,' he said from his ship in the antarctic japan has left its fleet of four whaling vessels in the antarctic, as it decides what to do about the winter hunt, according to the ministry the ministry announced wednesday that it was temporarily halting its controversial whale hunting season, blaming the sea shepherd activists for impeding the hunt japan annually hunts whales, despite a worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the auspices it is conducting scientific research the moratorium allows the culling of whales for purposes of scientific research critics call japan's hunt a cover for commercial whaling, since the whale meat ends up in supermarkets and restaurants animal rights groups, from greenpeace to sea shepherd, and the governments of australia and new zealand, have publicly condemned japan's hunts despite the condemnations, japan continued to hunt whales sea shepherd activists in 2005 started a renegade battle in the high seas against japan's whalers they've had a number of high profile clashes, most notably last year, when one of japan's whaling vessels collided with the sea shepherd's ady gil speedboat the captain of the ady gil, paul bethune, then snuck aboard the japanese whaling vessel bethune, a new zealand citizen, was arrested and tried in japan bethune was convicted of assault, vandalism and three other charges but released on a suspended prison term sea shepherd's paul watson says seven years of chasing the japanese whalers is beginning to pay off 'right from the beginning, our objective was to sink the japanese whaling fleet economically, to bankrupt them they're so far in debt right now, they're financially so strapped, even the japanese government is saying, how much will we pump into this? it's a dying industry it has no place in the 21st century i think it's only a matter of time before they shut it down' | semiparameter facing commos | no related information |
(cnn) after almost 10 months, the fbi has zeroed in on a suspect in the case of missing florida pilot robert wiles, who may have been kidnapped for ransom missing florida pilot robert wiles is thought to have been kidnapped for ransom 'we're close to solving the case,' said fbi special agent david couvertier he would not elaborate agents also would not identify the suspect, and they said the person is not in custody investigators would only reveal that the 'key suspect' is in florida, either in orlando, lakeland or melbourne 'they're holding that back in hopes of getting additional information,' said couvertier the fbi says it's also looking at several persons of interest in those same three florida cities wiles, 27, was last seen in the family's aircraft maintenance business, national flight services, at lakeland linder regional airport on april 1, 2008 the day wiles disappeared, he left behind his bags, his computer, and even his car his father says the next day, wiles was supposed to be on a flight out of orlando he never showed up two days after he vanished, wiles' father, thomas, received a ransom note it demanded money and threatened to harm robert wiles if the terms weren't met wiles' parents said they tried to comply but heard nothing back nearly a year later, the fbi says their investigation shows that those involved 'were very familiar with robert's work, robert's personal information and had knowledge of his parent's personal affairs' agents say they've tracked down leads in nine us cities and as far away as thailand where national flight services also does business the ohio based company services aircraft in 50 countries and has been in business since 1972 investigators are reaching out to the public in hopes of sparking any additional information about wiles to 'close the loop,' couvertier said investigators want to talk with 'people who knew about his work routine, who might know someone who was obsessed with him, who was upset or jealous of him, or complained about him, anything that might be helpful,' said couvertier wiles' parents told cnn they hope their son robert is still alive 'that is our hope until proven otherwise, ' said his mother, pamela 'we don't know what happened to him we don't know where he is we just hope somebody will call and tell us what their needs are,' she added 'sometimes, i stay up late and get up early and try to come up with any scenarios to make sense of this,' said wiles' father 'i have my very low moments when i think i'll never see him again, ' he added occasionally, wiles' mother says she plays back a voicemail message her son left her shortly before he disappeared it said 'hey, mom it's robert i just wanted to call and thank you for sending that stuff down to me and i hope you have a good weekend, and i'll talk to you later' 'i still listen to it, and it breaks my heart,' said pamela wiles the wiles are still offering a $250,000 reward for information about their son and arrest of those responsible for his disappearance 'but tom and i don't think you can put a dollar on his head,' said pamela wiles 'we want to provide them with security and a new life, if that's what they need,' she added his father doesn't think whoever is responsible is working alone he says his son is too strong to have left willingly or without knowing who his alleged captors are anyone with information is asked to contact the fbi wiles' parents have a message for the fbi's unidentified suspect 'i would say to him 'come forward and tell the truth and we hold no personal animosity,'' said pamela wiles 'someone made a bad mistake it's up to god to forgive him' | vicarly unprovably lamdan | no related information |
port au prince, haiti (cnn) though he faces charges of financial wrongdoing and possibly human rights abuses, former haitian dictator jean claude 'baby doc' duvalier has no plans to leave his homeland, one of his lawyers said wednesday attorney reynold georges told cnn that duvalier would fight any charges against him and could very well get back into politics 'you can bet your life on it,' georges said, referring to duvalier's intention to remain in haiti, adding that duvalier is looking into renovating one of his old homes duvalier made a brief appearance wednesday, stepping out onto a balcony of the karibe hotel and waving to dozens of supporters 'i will see you later,' he said henri sterlin, a duvalier associate, said duvalier planned to make a longer address later wednesday or thursday heavily armed police escorted duvalier on tuesday from the suburban hotel to a downtown court, where he was questioned for hours the strongman is facing charges related to the embezzlement of haitian money for personal gain during his 15 year rule, a government source told cnn a judge has 30 days to investigate and decide whether the accusations merit moving forward with a case against duvalier but georges said no firm evidence was presented in court 'blah, blah, blah,' georges said of the accusations 'we have nothing to hide and we are not afraid of nobody, nothing,' he said, adding that the judge asked duvalier when he was planning to leave 'if he wants to live in this country, that's his right,' georges said 'he is back to stay he can do politics he can come and go, do whatever he pleases as long as it is legal' the duvalier family ruled haiti for three decades starting in 1957, when francois 'papa doc' duvalier was elected president he later declared himself president for life when he died in 1971, he was succeeded by his 19 year old son, who went by the nickname of baby doc ousted from power after a popular rebellion in 1986, baby doc shocked the world by returning to haiti on sunday night after some 25 years of exile in france human rights groups have demanded justice for a rule of brutality during his years in power, thousands were tortured and killed and hundreds of thousands of haitians fled into exile, according to human rights watch the united nations said tuesday that duvalier's presence in haiti had taken the global body by surprise and it 'clearly raises issues of impunity and accountability' rupert colville, a spokesman for the un office of the high commissioner for human rights, said a range of human rights abuses and corruption issues surround duvalier it's still unclear why duvalier decided to go back to haiti but his presence certainly added to a bubbling cauldron of political turmoil sparked by a presidential election mired in controversy 'obviously this is an important and crucial time for the people of haiti,' said white house press secretary robert gibbs 'any political leader or any former political leader should focus not only on him or herself, but on making progress towards a set of important elections,' gibbs said, adding that such people should dedicate 'their time and their energy toward the reconstruction of the country' preliminary results of the november 28 election placed former first lady mirlande manigat in a runoff with jude celestin, the candidate backed by haiti's unpopular president rene preval however, international monitors charged fraud and a subsequent election review put celestin in third place observers suggested he be eliminated from contention preval's government has not officially commented on duvalier's return, though some haitians, craving a father figure to lead the nation out of crisis, have commented favorably on the days of duvalierism but garry pierre pierre, editor of the new york based haitian times, blamed the father son duvalier dynasty for a nation struggling to regain footing he said the scars still run deep from an era when no one trusted each other pierre pierre said he hopes justice will finally prevail 'if there is a bright spot,' he said, 'finally we have to face that decision that we have never faced straight up we've been in denial about what happened during the 29 year reign of dictatorship of the duvaliers' cnn's john zarrella, lonzo cook, kim segal, mary snow and moni basu contributed to this report | duvalier | new: duvalier waves to supporters waiting outside his hotel . the former dictator would fight formal charges and could return to politics, the lawyer says . duvalier has been accused of financial wrongdoing and human rights abuses . a judge must now decide whether there is merit in the accusations |
(cnn) the racing sanctioning body indycar held a public memorial service, punctuated by laughter and tears, sunday to celebrate the life of two time indianapolis 500 champ dan wheldon those at the memorial, held at conseco fieldhouse in indianapolis, recalled wheldon not only as a successful driver, but remembered his winning charm, his sense of humor, and his devotion to his family and his fans wheldon, 33, was near the back of a 34 car field at the las vegas indy 300 on october 16 when he got mixed up in a crash that saw several cars spin out of control and burst into flames, spewing smoke and debris he died of head injuries 'the victories and the accolades, they didn't define him,' said indycar ceo randy bernard 'his strong character, his enthusiastic approach to life, and the love of family, friends and fans did 'there was a reason he was a fan favorite,' bernard said 'i'd see him go out of his way to shake a serviceman's hand, or sign a young man's autograph, or do that extra interview, or just joke around with the drivers dan loved life and it always showed' featured on stage beside the speakers sunday was a car bernard said wheldon had been testing it had 'cutting edge enhancements that promised to move the sport of racing and automotive engineering forward' it also had additional safety features, testament to wheldon's commitment to improving the sport and increasing safety for drivers, he said 'he would want the drivers and the teams and the series to unite and to work together,' bernard said 'he'd want us to strive to make our sport safer' the memorial featured music from country artists reba mcentire and the band perry wheldon's family was in attendance 'it was a privilege for us to witness a young, carefree racer blossom into a true champion and a devoted family man,' said one of wheldon's managers, mickey ryan he recalled wheldon partying all night after his first indianapolis 500 win in 2005, then falling asleep while on hold waiting for an early morning radio interview after his second win in 2011, he pledged to take his children to a disney park, and dedicated the win to his mother, who was battling alzheimer's disease, ryan and manager adrian sussman said the two issued a message of gratitude from wheldon's family 'they'd like you to know how much they appreciate the amazing outpouring of sympathy, flowers, gifts and notes of condolences,' sussman said 'it's been a great comfort for them to know that there are so many others that share in their grief' despite the somber event, speakers recalled many humorous moments, recalling wheldon's penchant for practical jokes, his compulsive neatness and his liking for tight racing suits drivers brian herta, tony kanaan and dario franchitti wheldon's former teammates recalled messing wheldon's locker up on purpose once and then waiting for him before a run, as he could not come out and drive unless the locker was straightened 'he made us look like pigs,' herta said they also recalled entering wheldon's hotel room in japan once, stealing one of each of his shoes and sending them back to america, along with taking his television and some of his hair products herta said he was not saying goodbye to wheldon 'goodbye is final,' he said 'our friendship won't end' on saturday, hundreds gathered in st petersburg, florida, for wheldon's funeral born in emberton, england, wheldon had settled in the west florida city with his wife and two young sons susie wheldon spoke to her late husband through a letter read aloud by family friend michael johnson at the first presbyterian church audio from that message, and other parts of saturday's otherwise private ceremony, were recorded and released by cnn affiliate wtsp 'i am so scared scared i'm going to forget things as time goes by: the way you smell, the sound of your voice, the touch of your hand,' she wrote country singer wynonna judd whose half sister, actress ashley judd, is married to franchitti, one of wheldon's pallbearers sang at the funeral besides those inside, dozens of people stood nearby the church to pay their respects nascar said it will provide teams at the talladega superspeedway this weekend with a decal in honor of wheldon the decal features an image of a knight and the word 'lionheart' wheldon likened himself to richard the lionheart, the 12th century british warrior king, and often wore the image on the back of his helmets 'when i first started racing, a lot of the guys said that i raced with a lot of heart, occasionally not my head, but always with a lot of heart, like the way that richard the lionheart fought in battle,' wheldon wrote on a sponsor's blog in 2010 cnn's john branch contributed to this report | incensement piscatory palatally | no related information |
milan, italy (cnn) a judge in italy is set to announce whether prime minister silvio berlusconi will face an immediate trial on charges of abuse of power and sex with an underage prostitute prosecutors in milan filed the request for trial last week, setting in motion a five day clock for judge cristina di censo to make a decision she can order the trial to go ahead without the traditional preliminary hearing, as milan chief prosecutor edmundo bruti liberati requested, or dismiss it, allowing investigations to continue to determine if there is enough evidence for trial she can also refer the case to another jurisdiction, or request one more day to make her decision berlusconi's lawyers have argued that the milan courts do not have jurisdiction because of where the alleged crimes were committed or the authority to try a prime minister prosecutors are investigating claims that berlusconi paid for sex with nightclub dancer karima el mahrough, who was 17 at the time of the alleged activity, and later intervened with the police after she was arrested on an unrelated charge berlusconi dismissed the accusations as 'groundless' when the prosecution request was filed wednesday, saying the call for a trial was a 'farce' there was no abuse of power, he said and he said he was 'sorry because these (allegations) have offended the dignity of the country they've thrown mud on the government, on the country and on myself at an international level' thousands of italians took to the streets across the country sunday to protest berlusconi's alleged behavior toward women the largest gathering was in rome, where organizers said 100,000 people gathered, under the slogan, 'if not now, when?' in milan, organizers estimated that 60,000 people gathered protests also took place outside italy, including marches in tokyo and geneva, switzerland sunday's demonstrations were the biggest anti berlusconi rallies since the most recent sex scandal broke berlusconi has denied that he has ever paid anyone for sex the protests were organized by women's groups and publicized by internet the turnout surprised the organizers, who didn't want the demonstrations to be political, though that's what they became one woman who came with her family to the milan rally told cnn that she was 'fed up with the way women are portrayed as objects in the italian media the way that young girls are glorified by their looks and youth and then what? i don't want my daughter to grow up thinking that that is the only way to be that the only thing that matters is to be pretty and show off their legs we are more than that' in milan, demonstrators had banners that said, 'stop the merchandising of women,' and 'berlusconi enough you bring us shame' many of the speakers at the milan rally criticized the way berlusconi's sex scandal made italy look, his behavior towards women and his promoting ex show girls to high government positions protesters said leaked evidence from the investigation show he has little respect for female dignity, the state run ansa news agency reported wiretaps published in the media suggest he surrounded himself at parties at his home with starlets and other women hoping to use their looks to gain positions in politics or at berlusconi's mediaset tv empire, ansa reported the investigation began in december, after berlusconi called police in may, urging them to release el mahrough, nicknamed ruby, from jail, where she was being held on theft charges prosecutors say the activity took place from february until may 2010 both el mahrough, now 18, and berlusconi have denied they ever had sex el mahrough said she did not know berlusconi well but that she did receive 7,000 euros (about $9,300) from him the first time they met, on valentine's day 2010, because a friend told berlusconi she needed help the young woman's former roommate told investigators that el mahrough confided to her that she did have a sexual relationship with the premier berlusconi's party argued that he believed that ruby was egyptian president hosni mubarak's niece and the phone call to the police station on her behalf was done to avoid a possible diplomatic crisis with egypt the lower house of italy's parliament voted against allowing milan prosecutors to search property belonging to berlusconi as part of the investigation cnn's dan rivers contributed to this report | italian italians | prosecutors want the italian prime minister to face immediate trial . he's accused of sex with an under aged prostitute and abuse of power . berlusconi and the young woman deny they had sex . thousands of italians in some 200 cities rally against the prime minister |
editor's note: canadian writer margaret atwood is the author of more than 35 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction her novels include 'the handmaid's tale' and 'the blind assassin,' which won the booker prize in 2000 her new book, published this week by house of anansi press, is 'payback: debt and the shadow side of wealth' atwood says the book 'is not a practical guide about how to get out of debt instead it examines the underpinnings of the whole structure why we human beings have such a thing as a debt credit system in the first place' margaret atwood says we've come to feel that debt is essential to our lives (cnn) unless we value fairness, reciprocity, and honest dealing, and the concept of balances for debt and credit depend on them and unless we are able to trust our systems, we would not be able to have debt and credit no one would lend, because there would be no expectation of ever getting paid back what caused the massive financial mess we are in comes back ultimately to these concepts the rules were too loose, fairness and honest dealing were violated, the balance was upset we must now restore trust so people will take their pennies out of the sock under the mattress where they are now inclined to store them in my part of the world we have a ritual interchange that goes like this: first person: 'lovely weather we're having' second person: 'we'll pay for it later' my part of the world being canada, where there is a great deal of weather, we always do pay for it later one person has commented, 'that's not canadian, it's just presbyterian' nevertheless, it's a widespread saying among us what this ritual interchange reveals is a larger habit of thinking about the more enjoyable things in life: they're only on loan or acquired on credit, and sooner or later the date when they must be paid for will roll around it's pay up time or payback time, supposing that you haven't paid up in any case, the time when whatever is on one side of the balance is weighed against whatever is on the other side whether it's your heart, your soul or your debts and the final reckoning is made the financial world has recently been shaken as a result of the collapse of a debt pyramid involving something called 'subprime mortgages' a pyramid scheme that most people don't grasp very well, but that boils down to the fact that some large financial institutions peddled mortgages to people who could not possibly pay the monthly rates and then put this snake oil debt into cardboard boxes with impressive labels on them and sold them to institutions and hedge funds that thought they were worth something a friend of mine from the united states writes: 'i used to have three banks and a mortgage company bank number one bought the other two and is now trying hard to buy the mortgage company, which is bankrupt, only it was revealed this morning that the last bank standing is also in serious trouble 'now they are trying to renegotiate with the mortgage company question one: if your company is going broke, why would you want to buy a company whose insolvency is front page news? question two: if all the lenders go broke, will the borrowers get off the hook? 'you can't imagine the chagrin of the credit loving american i gather that whole neighborhoods in the midwest look like neighborhoods in my hometown, empty houses with knee high grass and vines growing over them and no one willing to admit they actually own the place down we go, about to reap what we sow' which has a nice biblical ring to it, but still we scratch our heads how and why did this happen? the answer i hear quite often 'greed' may be accurate enough, but it doesn't go very far toward unveiling the deeper mysteries of the process what is this 'debt' by which we're so bedeviled? like air, it's all around us, but we never think about it unless something goes wrong with the supply certainly it's a thing we've come to feel is indispensable to our collective buoyancy in good times we float around on it as if on a helium filled balloon; we rise higher and higher, and the balloon gets bigger and bigger, until poof! some killjoy sticks a pin into it and we sink but what is the nature of that pin? another friend of mine used to maintain that airplanes stayed up in the air only because people believed against reason that they could fly: without that collective delusion sustaining them, they would instantly plummet to earth is 'debt' similar? in other words, perhaps debt exists because we imagine it another part of the human imaginative debt/credit structure has to do with payback time the time when you have to pay the debt back, or else suffer the consequences all major religions have extended this structure to the afterlife, where, if you haven't righted the moral balances on earth, you must do so after death there are no clocks in heaven nor are there any in hell in both, everything is always now or so goes the rumor in heaven, there are no debts all have been paid, one way or another but in hell there's nothing but debts, and a great deal of payment is exacted, though you can't ever get all paid up you have to pay, and pay, and keep on paying hell is like an infernal maxed out credit card that multiplies the charges endlessly the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer | margaret atwood atwood | margaret atwood: rules of fair dealing were violated in the growth of debt . we have to restore trust so people are willing to put their money in banks, she says . atwood: debt is like air; we don't notice it until it disappears . in heaven, there are no debts, while hell is nothing but debts, atwood says |
(cnn) sudan has ordered a french medical aid agency out of south darfur state, accusing the organization of supporting rebel forces and for releasing what it called false rape reports against forces loyal to the khartoum government, according to state run media sudan news agency (suna) announced the expulsion of medecins du monde on tuesday appearing at a news conference in nyala, the capital of south darfur, gov abdel hamid moussa kasha accused the organization of sharing intelligence with the rebels of the sudan liberation movement, giving them access to satellite telephones and medicine kasha also accused the organization of publishing false rape reports and for delivering tons of expired medications to eastern jebel marra via the joint african union united nations mission in darfur médecins du monde, or doctors of the world, describes itself on its website as 'an international humanitarian organisation providing medical care to vulnerable populations affected by war, natural disasters, disease, famine, poverty or exclusion,' and has a network extending to 16 countries in four continents | sudan french medicins du monde | sudan expels french medical aid agency . government accuses medicins du monde of aiding rebels, making false rape allegations |
(cnn) former detroit mayor kwame kilpatrick is headed back behind bars, but only for a few days the michigan department of corrections charged him with 14 parole violations late thursday and he'll spend the weekend in jail kilpatrick agreed to report to the detroit reentry center late friday and will be released monday, according to corrections spokesman russell marlan kilpatrick is currently on trial in a public corruption case in us district court his release would allow him to be back in court next week the 14 violations include submitting a false and inaccurate report to a field agent by failing to report money transfers and cash gifts, as well as failing to report several months of his income, according to an e mail from russell kilpatrick is on parole after a 2008 state conviction for obstruction of justice by the numbers: politicians in trouble | kwame kilpatrick detroit | kwame kilpatrick has been charged with 14 parole violations . the former detroit mayor will spend the weekend in jail, a corrections spokesman says . convicted in 2008 of obstructing justice, he now is being tried on corruption charges |
(cnn) carol mackoff and her family were rescued friday morning after being trapped in their rooms in the taj mahal hotel in mumbai for more than 48 hours a text message from cnn correspondent sara sidner to mackoff, who was in contact with cnn during the attack 'they informed us the final assault was beginning and we got a call from the colonel of the [indian] army, and he said we will give you a password and if we come to the door and give it to you, come quietly with us,' mackoff said 'that's exactly what happened' upon arrival, the indian army rescued six people at a time, mackoff said 'it was only what we could carry,' she said 'they took us down a back service stairway that was very quiet we were tiptoeing through glass and blood and discarded shoes from people who it appeared had recently died' mackoff, her husband, sister and friend were on a three week trip to india 'in the beginning, we heard shots and we didn't know what was happening,' she told cnn by phone 'we saw men running down our hallway and we could see through the peephole in the door we could see guns in their hands' mackoff said they received a call from hotel staffers telling them to stay away from the door and lock it for 20 hours they sat in the dark at one point they taped the peephole so nobody could see in the chicago, illinois, resident said the attackers rang their doorbell twice, but she and her family didn't answer listen to mackoff describe what it was like inside the hotel » 'we locked every possible lock on the door and put heavy suitcases against it,' she said 'when the explosions started and smoke filled the hallways we put towels at the bottom of the door' she said she was told that attackers opened doors across the hallway and had thrown grenades inside 'all we were thinking was 'please don't try and blow this door open,'' mackoff said mackoff said because of the hotel wing's large atrium, which reaches from the bottom floor to the top floor, the sounds of gunshots and explosions echoed and reverberated throughout the two days she said looking through the peephole she could see that most of the attackers were carrying backpacks 'they were young and they all seemed to have the same kind of jackets and red and blue backpacks, that we were told officials believed were stuffed with grenades or some sort of explosives,' she told cnn 'we were able to see the barrel of their gun and at one point one of them had a cell phone and was conversing or coordinating with someone' while she was trapped, mackoff exchanged text messages with the us consulate, which coordinated the rescue with the indian army the four were told the exact time they would be rescued mackoff also kept in contact with cnn, including correspondent sara sidner, who was reporting from outside the taj mahal hotel watch sara sidner report on the rescue, talk about being mackoff's lifeline » a cnn staff member 'kept me filled in on what was going on and i kept her filled in on what was going on on what i could hear,' mackoff said those contacts were mackoff's only lifeline to the outside she said the satellite connection had been cut, so they couldn't watch tv to see what was going on throughout the 48 hours they were trapped, mackoff and her companions ate chocolate chip cookies from the minibar, health bars they had brought from home and cashew nuts finally, when mackoff and her family and friend were rescued, she sent a message to cnn to say she was safe 'it doesn't seem real you can't take it in,' mackoff said as she sat on a plane waiting to go home 'it's a surreal experience, you don't believe it really happened to you' | carol mackoff us consulate cnn mackoff woman rang doorbell | new: carol mackoff said they went down back stairs over glass, blood to escape . family stayed in contact with us consulate, cnn through text messages . mackoff: 'we saw men running down our hallway we could see guns'. woman says attackers rang doorbell, family stuck heavy suitcases against door |
(cnn) chemical testing of air samples from the trunk of casey anthony's car primarily showed the presence of gasoline, jurors in anthony's capital murder trial heard wednesday other compounds, including chloroform, were also found, but the amount did not appear to be large, university of central florida chemist michael sigman told jurors in the orlando courtroom testing was not done to determine the amounts, sigman said, but 'they gave very low responses in the instrument' while some of the compounds found are associated with human decomposition, sigman told defense attorney j cheney mason, he cannot definitively say that their presence indicated a decomposing body was in the trunk, because there are other natural sources for those compounds as well sigman took the air samples from the trunk, one of which was sent to arpad vass at tennessee's oak ridge national laboratory earlier in the trial, vass testified that testing on a carpet sample from the trunk showed chloroform at a level that was 'shockingly high' he also testified the odor in the air samples he received was 'extremely overwhelming' he identified it as human decomposition casey anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts in her daughter's death, including first degree murder if convicted, she could face the death penalty prosecutors allege anthony used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious, then used duct tape to cover her nose and mouth, suffocating her caylee's remains, prosecutors allege, were then put into anthony's car trunk and eventually disposed of the girl's skeletal remains were found in a wooded field on december 11, 2008, nearly six months after her family last reported having seen the child defense attorneys say caylee was not murdered, but that she accidentally drowned in the family pool on june 16, 2008, the day she was last reported to have been seen they argue that anthony and her father, george anthony, panicked and covered up the death george anthony has rejected that scenario in his testimony caylee was not reported missing to police until july 15, 2008, when casey anthony's mother, cindy, tracked down her daughter and demanded answers regarding caylee's whereabouts sigman was one of a handful of forensic experts testifying wednesday as anthony's defense continued presenting its case jurors also heard from fbi geologist forensic examiner maureen bottrell, who analyzed a number of items in the case for soil samples, including 22 pairs of shoes from the anthony home only three pairs had some material for comparison, she told defense attorney jose baez, and soil on them did not match that at the site where caylee's remains were recovered however, she acknowledged on cross examination that does not mean she can say for sure the shoes were never there, as soil can fall off or material from several locations can cloud testing results also, fbi forensic toxicologist madeline montgomery told jurors she tested the 'hair mass' found with the child's remains for the presence of 11 drugs, including xanax, valium and ketamine the results were all negative, she said the fbi lab does not test hair for the presence of chloroform, she said fbi forensic chemist michael rickenbach was recalled to the stand, where he testified that testing showed no chloroform was found on caylee's car seat, in the interior of anthony's car or the steering wheel cover in the car testing on a liquid found in a syringe, discovered inside a plastic bottle near caylee's remains, showed testosterone compounds but no significant amount of chloroform, he said fbi trace evidence examiner karen lowe, also recalled to the stand, said that of 'hundreds' of hairs she examined in the case, from the anthony home, anthony's vehicle and anthony's clothing, she only found one that showed evidence of decomposition but, she told prosecutor jeff ashton, that one came from anthony's trunk the subject of her previous testimony under questioning from ashton, montgomery said that sometimes drugs do not show up in hair and that a person still could have been given drugs with negative hair testing results on tuesday, prosecutors told orange county chief judge belvin perry jr they are looking into information regarding a woman who at one point was incarcerated with anthony, and whose child died in a way similar to how anthony's defense says caylee died the matter was mentioned in a conversation regarding discovery items provided to the defense april whalen's child died in a pool, and the child's grandfather discovered the body, prosecutor linda drane burdick told perry whalen says she never spoke with anthony, but did not know whether anthony may have talked to other inmates, burdick said 'it's being explored whether there was indirect contact,' she said the information came from someone who called the orange county sheriff's office last week, suggesting the two could have been in contact, burdick said in response to a question from perry, burdick said she does not currently plan for whalen to testify, but the information could become relevant whalen told cnn's sister network hln she never met anthony during the few days she was in jail for driving with a suspended license and that she has nothing to do with the case according to the orlando sentinel newspaper, whalen's 15 month old son, isaiah whalen, drowned in a backyard pool on christmas day 2007 after finding him in the pool, the boy's grandfather performed cpr and called 911, burdick said in court tuesday allen moore, a spokesman for the orange county sheriff's office, said whalen was in the same dormitory as anthony for five days, from june 4 through june 8, 2009 there are no jail records, investigations or reports that indicate any contact occurred between the two, he said a dutch forensic scientist testified tuesday that given even a small amount of dna, it would be possible to extract a dna profile from the duct tape covering the mouth portion of caylee's skeletal remains but dna expert richard eikelenboom testified that he did not ask to test the duct tape, although he said he offered to investigate eikelenboom testified about 'low copy number' dna, a technique by which small samples of dna are amplified and copied in an effort to obtain a full profile he said that when tape is used to cover a person's mouth, it is possible the sticky side of the tape could contain skin cells from the face as well as dna from the mouth however, he told ashton, factors such as heat and water have 'a very detrimental effect' on dna and it would be difficult to determine a profile from tape that, as in this case, had been exposed to the elements for as long as six months an fbi examiner previously testified that dna testing on the tape was inconclusive, but a possible indication of dna there did not appear to match that of caylee, casey anthony or george anthony also tuesday, marcus wise, an analytical chemist from the oak ridge national laboratory, testified that, while testing on carpet from anthony's car trunk showed the presence of chloroform, a test to determine how much chloroform was present would have been meaningless, as chloroform is a 'volatile chemical' that evaporates, much like gasoline, asked what effect a closed trunk would have on that, wise said it would not slow the chemical's volatility but might make it more difficult for the chemical to escape the trunk wise told ashton on tuesday that the 'relative abundance' of chloroform was 'very unusual to me' earlier tuesday, a forensic botanist testified caylee's remains could have been at the site where they were found less than a mile from her grandparents' home for as little as two weeks, based on plant evidence found there 'i don't know exactly when' the remains were placed there, jane bock said 'my best guess is what i have presented today' ashton introduced into evidence a photo of caylee's skull, showing leaf matter and debris that had accumulated up to the lower portion of the eye sockets he asked bock if that could have occurred in two weeks 'if these leaves are, in fact, the level that has fallen since the skull has been there, then clearly the skull has been there for a lot longer than two weeks, wouldn't you agree?' ashton asked 'given your hypothesis that it had lain there undisturbed all that time, the answer would be yes,' bock acknowledged she told ashton she could not say for sure if it was possible the skull could have sunk into the leaf litter as the photo of the skull was shown in the courtroom, anthony looked downward with her mouth pressed to the back of her hand bock also told jurors tuesday that fragments found on and in anthony's car did not match the vegetation at the scene where the remains were found the trial entered its fifth week monday perry told jurors that the trial will go only until about noon wednesday, adding that he has a meeting at 1 pm concerning state trial court budgeting he said the court day on saturday will be extended to make up the time in session's mayra cuevas, michael christian and grace wong and hln's selin darkalstanian contributed to this report watch nancy grace monday through sunday starting at 8 pm et on hln for the latest from nancy grace click here | caylee anthony's casey anthony 2 year old caylee 2008 | chemist says he can't say for sure a decomposing body was in the car trunk . toxicologist: drug testing on hair found with caylee anthony's remains was negative . casey anthony is accused of killing her 2 year old daughter, caylee, in 2008 . she has pleaded not guilty; her defense says the child drowned in the family pool |
paris (cnn) since the revelation on the front page of daily newspaper libération, on december 11, with a particularly vicious editorial talking about france's national treasure as a 'former genius actor,' gérard depardieu's departure to belgium, where he bought a property just a mile from the french border, has deeply divided and saddened france even more so since, as we have learnt this week, russian president vladimir putin has bestowed the actor russian citizenship read more: depardieu's puzzling love for russia back in mid december, the french media operated along political lines: the left wing press such as libération couldn't find strong enough words to describe depardieu's 'desertion' while right wing publications such as le figaro, slightly uneasy at the news, preferred to focus on president françois hollande's punishing taxes which allegedly drove throngs of millionaires to seek tax asylum in more fiscally lenient countries such as belgium or britain le figaro stopped short of passing moral judgement though others like satirical weekly charlie hebdo, preferred irony its cover featured a cartoon of the rather rotund looking depardieu in front of a belgian flag with the headline: 'can belgium take the world's entire load of cholesterol?' ouch quickly though, it became quite clear that depardieu was not treated in the same way as other famous french tax exiles french actor alain delon is a swiss resident as is crooner rocker johnny halliday, and many other french stars and sportsmen ensure they reside for under six months in france in order to escape being taxed here on their income and capital their move has hardly ever been commented on and they certainly never had to suffer the same infamy read more: actor depardieu makes russia trip after accepting citizenship for depardieu, a public war of words erupted it started with the french prime minister jean marc ayrault, and many members of his government, showing their disdain, and talking of depardieu's 'pathetic move' in response the outraged actor penned an open letter to the french pm in which he threatened to give back his french passport the backlash was not over fellow thespian phillipe torreton fired the first salvo against depardieu in an open letter published in libération, insulting both depardieu's protruding physique and lack of patriotism: 'so you're leaving the ship france in the middle of a storm? what did you expect, gérard? you thought we would approve? you expected a medal, an academy award from the economy ministry? ()we'll get by without you' french actress catherine deneuve felt she had to step in to defend depardieu in another open letter published by libération, she evoked the darkest hours of the french revolution before flying to rome to celebrate the new year, depardieu gave an interview to le monde in which he seemed to be joking about having asked putin for russian citizenship except, it wasn't a joke read more: french star depardieu ditches france for putin's russia in truth, french people have felt touched to their core by depardieu's gesture he, more than anyone, represents the gallic spirit he has been cyrano, he has been danton; he, better than most, on screen and off, stands for what it means to be french: passionate, sensitive, theatrical, and grandiose ambiguous too, and weak in front of temptations and pleasures for more than two weeks now, #depardieu has been trending on french twitter surveys have showed france's dilemma: half the french people understand him but there are as many who think that paying one's taxes is a national duty in other words, a majority of french people disapprove of his action but can't help loving the man read more: paris promises flurry of economic reforms putin's move in granting the actor russian citizenship has exacerbated things and first of all, it is a blow to hollande who, it was revealed, had a phone conversation with depardieu on new year's day the elysées palace refused to communicate on the men's exchange a friend of the actor declared that depardieu complained about being so reviled by the press and that he was leaving, no matter what if, in their hearts, the french don't quite believe depardieu might one day settle in moscow and abandon them, they feel deeply saddened by the whole saga however, with france's former sex symbol brigitte bardot declaring that she too might ask putin for russian citizenship to protest against the fate of zoo elephants in lyon, it looks as if the french may prefer to laugh the whole thing off proof of this: the last trend on french twitter is #iwantrussiancitizenship read more: brigitte bardot threatens to spurn france, embrace russia if 2 elephants killed the opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of agnes poirier | russian vladimir putin gérard depardieu depardieu france gallic agnes poirier french | russian president vladimir putin has bestowed russian citizenship on actor gérard depardieu . for depardieu, a public war of words erupted, with many in france disgusted by his move . depardieu more than anyone, represents the gallic spirit, says agnes poirier . majority of french people disapprove of his action but can't help loving him, she adds |
philadelphia (cnn) a fourth person was arrested in in the case of four mentally disabled people who were found locked in the boiler room of a philadelphia apartment building over the weekend, police said wednesday the daughter of linda ann weston, 51, who previously was arrested in the case, was brought in for questioning tuesday night and was arrested early wednesday, said philadelphia police spokesman officer christine o'brien the woman, whose name was not given, likely will face the same charges as her mother and two other suspects, which include criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment, o'brien said more information will be released later wednesday, she said no bail had been set on tuesday, philadelphia police commissioner charles ramsey said a woman rescued from the boiler room claims she had two children while being held against her will, and that authorities have located 10 other potential victims the four people, three men and a woman ranging in age from 29 to 41, were found locked in the room with no food and only a bucket for a toilet, police said the pitch black, 15 foot by 6 foot space houses what police described as a boiler used to heat the building a penetrating stench of urine and feces still hung in the chamber days after the discovery one of the four, identified as derwin mclemire, had been chained to the boiler, police said while police have not released the names of the four alleged victims, they confirmed the accuracy of media reports identifying them as mclemire, herbert knowles, edwin sanabria and tamara breeden weston; gregory thomas, 47; and eddie wright, 49, were previously arrested authorities were investigating whether the victims' social security checks had been stolen, as well as several other leads six of the 10 new alleged victims are children, ramsey said two of them, ages 2 and 5, are believed to be the children born to breeden, police said authorities did not divulge how breeden became pregnant another is a 19 year old niece of weston, ramsey said 'the 19 year old has visible injuries, she may have been beaten, and she has scars all over her body,' ramsey said breeden said while she was with weston, 'she says she gave birth to two children and we have no reason to doubt it,' he said weston had identification documents for about 50 people with her when she was arrested, ramsey said they included social security cards and court documents giving power of attorney, among others ramsey said police must track down all of those individuals and find out what happened to them and whether they were victims it is possible that weston has been involved in similar activity dating back to the late 1990s, he said 'we don't know the extent of this,' ramsey told cnn tuesday 'we do know it goes beyond the borders of pennsylvania at least texas, florida and virginia, and we suspect other locations as well' three of the four alleged victims spoke to the media about their harrowing experience on monday 'that was real dirty of you that was wrong,' a tearful mclemire told cnn affiliate kyw , talking about his alleged captors the alleged victims said they were beaten and were afraid of the suspects in the case breeden told kyw weston hit her in the head, 'and all this was bleeding and everything' mclemire, breeden and a third man, herbert knowles, told kyw their social security information was taken from them mclemire, who said he is from north carolina, said he met weston on an online dating site, according to kyw he said once he attempted to escape from a home of weston's, 'and i didn't get away, so they got me' bond for each of the three suspects was set at $25 million, according to the philadelphia district attorney's office the fbi joined the probe after detectives discovered one of the accused had traveled to at least two other states with the people found in the basement of the northeast philadelphia apartment building, police spokesman evers said weston served eight years in prison for killing her sister's boyfriend in the early 1980s, ramsey said earlier in that case, the victim 'was held captive for an extended period of time, locked in a closet and he literally starved to death,' he said 'that concerns us because obviously, she's capable of quite a bit of a lot of different things,' he said asked why weston is not still behind bars, ramsey said tuesday, 'that's a good question our legal system is what it is, but you would think that someone who's committed a crime that horrific would still be in jail but she wasn't, and obviously she wasn't fully rehabilitated, either' ramsey said he has a team of detectives working the case, and is likely to put a task force together for long term investigation, because 'this is not one that's going to end very quickly' weston is believed to have been in mclean, texas, with some or all of the alleged captives they then traveled to florida and philadelphia, evers said all seven had been traveling together, he said, but he did not know for how long a preliminary hearing for the suspects on the charges and evidence in the philadelphia case was set for october 24 no pleas were entered on monday, with that to happen at a formal arraignment at a date yet to be set cnn's melanie whitley, tom faust, ross levitt and kyra phillips contributed to this report | linda ann weston ages 2 and 5 | new: the arrested woman is the daughter of suspect linda ann weston . one of the alleged victims says she had two children while in captivity . the two children are ages 2 and 5, police say . the children are part of 10 new alleged victims in the case, poilce say |
los angeles (cnn) dr conrad murray's lawyers began presenting the defense case monday, calling a doctor who testified that jackson asked him for an intravenous anesthetic to help him sleep two months before his death a nurse, who began her testimony late monday, is expected to testify tuesday that jackson asked her, also two months before he died, for iv infusions of the surgical anesthetic propofol the prosecution rested its case in the involuntary manslaughter trial of michael jackson's doctor monday morning with the conclusion of testimony by its anesthesiology expert defense lawyers will use the next three or four days to challenge the prosecution's contention that dr conrad murray's alleged reckless use of propofol to help jackson sleep makes him criminally responsible for the pop icon's death a los angeles doctor who treated jackson off and on for about two decades for 'his profound sleep disorder' testified that jackson called him to his home to ask for help about two months before his death dr allan metzger testified that jackson asked him for 'intravenous sleep medicine,' but he did not specifically name a drug 'i think he used the word juice,' he said jackson told him he needed an anesthetic delivered by iv because 'he did not believe any oral medicine would be helpful,' metzger said metzger said that despite jackson's request, he only gave him a prescription for two oral sedatives to help him sleep the defense called metzger in an apparent effort to show jackson was seeking and getting drugs from other doctors at the same time dr murray was working as his full time physician the judge stopped the defense from asking metzger questions about jackson's visits to dr arnold klein, the dermatologist who gave jackson demerol injections during frequent visits to his beverly hills clinic in the months before his death deputy district attorney david walgren used the defense witness to make the prosecution's point that using propofol outside a clinical setting is unacceptable 'is there any amount of money that would have convinced you to give him intervenous propofol in his house?' walgren asked metzger 'absolutely not,' metzger answered the defense then called cherilyn lee, a nurse who practices nutrition and natural remedies, who testified that she worked with jackson to help his fatigue and insomnia from february through april of 2009 after two months of using iv infusions of vitamins, 'sophisticated' vitamin smoothies and bedtime teas, jackson began asking for more help, lee testified 'his complaint was 'i have a problem sleeping and all the natural remedies and everything you're doing is not working,'' she said 'when i need sleep, i need to go to sleep right away' the court session ended just before defense lawyer ed chernoff could ask lee to describe what kind of help jackson was asking for, but the nurse previously told cnn that he requested propofol 'i told him this medication is not safe,' lee told cnn on june 30, 2009 'he said, 'i just want to get some sleep you don't understand i just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep'' closing arguments could come as soon as friday, depending on the length of the defense's case and the prosecution's rebuttal, but they could be pushed to next monday, based on comments by lawyers and the judge janet jackson canceled shows in australia to be with her family in los angeles for the final days of murray's trial, but she did not arrive home in time to attend monday morning's session she sat with her parents and several siblings during the first five days of the trial, but she has not been at court in nearly three weeks 'after talking with my family last night, i decided we must be together right now,' she said in a statement posted sunday on her website, announcing that three shows this week in melbourne are canceled the concert promoter told jackson fans it was 'important that janet is with her family at this critical point in the hearing' katherine jackson will travel to london next weekend to fulfill a commitment to attend the premiere of 'michael jackson: life of an icon,' a documentary about her son, an aide to jackson said monday she agreed to the trip before it was known the trial could last into next week, trent jackson said the first three defense witnesses, called in rapid order monday morning, were all police officers a beverly hills police officer, the first defense witness, testified that a 911 call routed through her department at 12:20 pm on june 25, 2009, asked for help at jackson's holmby hills estate a los angeles police officer testified next about retrieving seven minutes of video from a security camera at jackson's home the video, shown to the jury, captured jackson's arrival home from his last rehearsal just before 1 am on the morning he died michael jackson fans sitting in court appeared to become emotional as they viewed the last video ever recorded of the pop icon alive, grainy security camera video of jackson arriving home from his last rehearsal murray's lawyers have said they plan to call about 15 witnesses, including three medical experts and several of murray's patients from his clinics in las vegas, nevada, and houston two other lapd investigators were called to the stand by the defense monday and testified briefly randy phillips, the head of aeg live, is also expected to called by the defense murray's lawyers have argued that jackson was pressured by phillips, whose company was promoting his comeback concerts in london, to show up healthy and on time for rehearsals or else the tour might be canceled murray told detectives jackson begged for his 'milk,' his nickname for propofol, after a sleepless night and just hours before he died from what the coroner has said was an overdose of the surgical anesthetic murray, in a police interview, said he was using sedatives to wean jackson from propofol, which he had used almost every night for two months to fight his insomnia but after a long, restless night and morning, the lorazepam and midazolam had no effect, murray said 'i've got to sleep, dr conrad,' murray said jackson pleaded to him 'i have these rehearsals to perform i must be ready for the show in england tomorrow, i will have to cancel my performance, because you know i cannot function if i don't get to sleep' murray said he gave in to jackson's pleas and gave him an injection of 25 milligrams of propofol around 10:40 am the testimony of anesthesiologist expert dr steven shafer, concluded monday morning, 11 days after he took the stand as the prosecution's 33rd, but perhaps most important, witness shafer testified last week that there was no way jackson got only the amount of propofol murray said he did, based on the high level of the drug found in blood taken during his autopsy the 'only scenario' to explain jackson's death was that he overdosed on propofol infused through an iv drip set up by murray, shafer said the los angeles county coroner ruled that jackson's death was a homicide, the result of 'acute propofol intoxication' in combination with sedatives the defense contends jackson self administered the fatal dose, along with sedatives, without murray knowing shafer said the level of propofol in jackson's blood taken during his autopsy could not have been from either murray or jackson injecting the drug, but only from an iv system that was still flowing when his heart stopped prosecutors, however, opened the door for one scenario in which jackson, not murray, could have triggered the overdose 'can you rule out the possibility that michael jackson manipulated something to cause it to flow?' deputy district attorney david walgren asked friday 'that's a possibility,' shafer said but that is assuming murray set up the drip and left jackson's side, he said would shafer's opinion that murray was responsible for jackson's death change if he knew jackson turned the drip on? 'no, if michael jackson had reached up, seen the roller clamp and opened it himself, this is a foreseeable consequence of setting up an essentially dangerous way of giving drugs,' shafer said 'it doesn't change things at all it would still be considered abandonment' | jackson allan metzger cherilyn lee cnn defense katherine jackson | new: jackson asked for 'intravenous sleep medicine,' dr allan metzger says . new: nurse cherilyn lee, who told cnn jackson asked her for propofol, testifies . defense starts case after prosecution rests monday . katherine jackson may miss the verdict if the trial lasts into next week |
new york (cnn) an expert on lincoln photography thinks a photograph found in gen ulysses s grant's family owned album showing president abraham lincoln in front of the white house could be one of the last photos taken of the 16th president before he was assassinated in 1865 a photo found in gen ulysses s grant's family album is verified to contain an image of abraham lincoln grant's great great grandson ulysses s grant vi had seen the previously unpublished image in the general's personal photo album, but didn't think much of it until he scrutinized it earlier this year 'i started to think that it might be the white house,' said grant, a construction business owner from springfield, missouri 'then i started to look at the height difference between the people in the photo' thinking that the towering individual commanding the attention of the other people in the image could be lincoln who stood 6 foot 4 and is the nation's tallest president grant called keya morgan, a renowned collector and scholar of lincoln and gen grant photographs, to see whether his suspicions could be verified morgan, who owns the world's largest collection of lincoln artifacts and original photographs, persuaded grant to take the small photo out of the album to see whether any clues could be found on the back particularly the name of the photographer 'if you don't know who the photographer is, it's like not knowing who your father and mother are,' morgan said sure enough, the seal of photographer henry f warren appeared on the back, along with an inscription: 'lincoln in front of the white house,' dated 1865 grant recognized the handwriting as that of his great grandfather and gen grant's youngest son, jesse grant those indicators, along with a revenue stamp used from 1864 66 to raise money during the civil war, helped convince morgan that the photograph could be the well documented missing photo from lincoln's last 'sitting' watch how photograph was verified » according to morgan who cites lincoln's secretaries john hay and john nicolay warren took the last three photographs of lincoln on march 6, 1865, just two days after his second inauguration morgan says warren was desperate to take pictures of lincoln, so he staged the first act of paparazzi photography according to morgan, warren first took photos of the president's son tad on his pony the following day, warren gave the pictures to tad and told him to summon his father morgan says that warren was already set up to take the photo outside the white house, and that lincoln gave him access afterward to take two more portraits on the white house balcony will stapp, founding curator of the national portrait gallery's photography department and a professional photograph appraiser, agrees with morgan's assessment of the long lost image 'the figure itself, the physique in looking at it under a magnifying glass, i can see the shape of his beard; i can see the hairline,' stapp told cnn 'it's similar to the impression you get from other photos taken of [lincoln] from the same distance, like at the gettysburg address and his inauguration' stapp and morgan also say it appears that lincoln is wearing the same clothes in the outdoor photo as he wore for the portraits taken the same day as one of only 130 photographs of lincoln, it is an extraordinary find not only because of its proximity to lincoln's death, but because it shows him in a natural stance 'you could put yourself in the shoes of the people around [lincoln] and see what it was like to live at the white house,' said morgan, who says he receives 10 to 20 requests a day asking him to verify potential lincoln photographs morgan, who purchased the photo from grant, says he has received thousands of e mails from lincoln aficionados commenting on the find his web site, lincolnimagescom, received more than 5 million hits on tuesday and crashed because of the traffic overload | ulysses s grant's henry f warren warren lincoln march 6, 1865 | ulysses s grant's great great grandson took family photo to scholar for verification . seal of photographer henry f warren appeared on the back of photograph . warren took the last three photographs of lincoln on march 6, 1865 |
(cnn) when new york city mayor michael bloomberg instructed five hospitals to evacuate their patients from hurricane irene's path, one replied it couldn't follow his order administrators from new york university langone medical center explained that six patients in the intensive care unit were so sick that moving them might kill them, and so the mayor's office gave permission to keep them in the hospital throughout the storm it then fell to elaine rowinski, nurse manager of the intensive care unit, to find seven nurses willing to stay at the hospital, right in the hurricane's predicted path and just 100 yards from the east river, which many feared would overflow it turned out she had nothing to worry about 'i could have had 20 nurses if i'd needed them,' she said 'that's how many called me up to volunteer' rowinski stayed at the hospital all weekend as the doctors and nurses who also stayed listened to the wind and the rain through the boarded up windows 'i had no qualms about staying, no fears at all,' she said 'we train for these disasters' brainstorming with her staff, rowinski came up with a list of what they might need during the storm the nurses kept flashlights by each bedside and plugged machines into the red outlets on the wall, which connect to the generators on top of the building, in case they lost power from con edison they also kept a three day supply of medicine next to each patient's bed in the event they needed to evacuate quickly about 200 staff members stayed at nyu, including engineers, security guards, housekeepers, blood bank staff, and two doctors four family members stayed all weekend with the patients some of the patients had neurological diseases, while others had respiratory problems or infectious diseases many were on life support, but those that were conscious were told friday they might have to be evacuated 'they were so relieved when they found out they could stay,' rowinski said as for rowinski, she finally went home monday afternoon after nearly three days straight at the hospital while she was working, her husband had to evacuate their house in oceanside, on long island 'he told me he kept a picture of me by the dog so he'd remember me,' she said with a laugh cnn's john bonifield contributed to this report | irene nyu langone medical center just 100 yards the east river elaine rowinski | as irene approached, 6 patients were too sick to evacuate from nyu langone medical center . the hospital is just 100 yards from the east river . nurses kept flashlights by each bedside, and a 3 day medicine supply for each patient . 'we train for these disasters,' says nurse manager elaine rowinski |
(cnn) manti te'o, the notre dame linebacker at the center of an online hoax involving his non existent girlfriend, will sit down for his first on camera interview this week with katie couric, the talk show host said sunday couric announced on her twitter account that te'o and his parents would take part in the interview airing thursday on the 'katie' show no other details were given sports website deadspin broke the story wednesday that the girlfriend that te'o, this year's heisman trophy runner up, had talked about and had claimed died in september of leukemia wasn't real notre dame athletic director jack swarbrick told reporters later that day te'o was the victim, having been fooled into believing that a woman he met on the internet, but never in person, was his girlfriend after issuing a brief statement wednesday, te'o sat down friday with espn for an off camera interview there, one of the best defenders in college football this season defended himself against allegations that he was somehow involved in the online scheme 'i wasn't faking it,' te'o told espn's jeremy schaap 'i wasn't part of this' manti te'o denies he was part of girlfriend hoax thursday's interview with couric would be the first time te'o has spoken on camera about the hoax his parents, brian and ottilia te'o, who also haven't spoken out since the story broke, will also answer questions, according to couric te'o rose to national prominence leading notre dame's fighting irish to an undefeated regular season as he and his team excelled, te'o told interviewers in september and october that his grandmother and girlfriend, whom he described as a 22 year old stanford university student, had died within hours of each other 'i miss 'em, but i know that i'll see them again one day,' he said then te'o told schaap that the hoax was created by a man named ronaiah tuiasosopo he said tuiasosopo contacted him via twitter the day the story broke, explaining he'd created the hoax and apologizing, according to schaap cnn has not seen the tweets te'o allegedly received from tuiasosopo 'two guys and a girl are responsible for the whole thing,' te'o said, according to espn ronaiah tuiasosopo hasn't spoken publicly, nor had members of his family, in the past week on sunday, though, cnn asked peter navy tuiasosopo about te'o blaming his nephew, ronaiah 'it definitely takes two to tango,' the uncle said 'this is not just a matter of blaming it all on ronaiah' peter navy tuiasosopo made his remarks after a service at oasis christian church of antelope valley in lancaster, california, near the family's palmdale home about 60 miles northeast of los angeles there, about 50 people attended an early afternoon service led by ronaiah's father, the rev titus tuiasosopo ronaiah tuiasosopo was not among them the almost two hour service was filled with singing, clapping, hugging and a few veiled references to the controversy the rev titus tuiasosopo welcomed members of the media, without cameras, and quipped, 'i've been practicing to say 'no comment' in 20 languages' the pastor made no reference to his son specifically, or the alleged girlfriend hoax, during the service at the conclusion of the service, he said, fighting back tears, 'i want to thank all of my church family, my cousins, those who are here: i love you' afterward, peter navy tuiasosopo told cnn that ronaiah 'is holding up well' 'i know he doesn't feel his best, but he definitely feels like this family is there for him,' said peter navy tuiasosopo, who is an actor 'and if not for this young man and his strength and family with god, he would have done something stupid' cnn's paul vercammen reported from southern california, and cnn's greg botelho wrote this story from atlanta | katie couric manti t'eo uncle | katie couric says she'll interview manti t'eo and his parents for her talk show . the interview te'o's first on camera in recent days will air thursday, she says . te'o has said he was duped in the creation of a girlfriend he met online but wasn't real . uncle defends nephew accused in the hoax, saying, 'it takes two to tango' |
baghdad (cnn) iraqi soldiers fired friday on sunni anti government protesters demanding the shiite prime minister step down, health officials said provincial health officials said that at least four people were killed and 42 wounded in the shootings in falluja in western anbar province, a sunni stronghold where protesters have been denouncing what they call second class treatment by the government the officials backed off earlier reports that at least five people were killed, citing the chaos of scene read more: thousands protest in shiite provinces in southern iraq witnesses told cnn that iraqi soldiers opened fire after they ordered the demonstrators to stop filming dozens of iraqi security forces on the rooftops surrounding al etisam square but other witnesses said that iraqi soldiers fired when protesters started throwing objects at them the soldiers continued firing live bullets for several minutes angry protesters chanted: 'those are al maliki's forces, those are al maliki's militias,' referring to prime minister nuri al maliki iraqi authorities imposed curfew in falluja on friday until further notice religious leaders in falluja have called for iraqi forces to leave the city and for a funeral procession saturday for those killed in the incident 'we have been demonstrating peacefully but now we warn al maliki that the blood of falluja martyrs will not be shed in vain,' protester abdul wahed ammar said al maliki on friday said the violence in falluja doesn't surprise his administration he cited 'conspiracies' plotted by regional intelligence services, vestiges of the old regime, al qaeda and those with sectarian agendas the government, he said, has warned before about 'those who have hostile agendas against iraq, its political process and its democracy' he said dangers are 'increasing day after day in an attempt to blow up the security situation in the country and drag the armed forces into confrontations' the minister of defense ordered an investigation into the shootings, anbar satellite tv said iraq's government spokesman did not immediately respond to a cnn request for comment the protest in falluja, dubbed 'friday of no retreat' by organizers, is the latest in a series held in predominantly sunni regions of iraq they have been countered by mostly shiite, pro government demonstrations, raising fears that the sectarian division could bring violence in the streets in another development , iraqi soldiers withdrew from several security posts in and around the city and went back to their main military headquarters in falluja, according to police officials in the city read more: clashes erupt at iraqi protest as sectarian tensions flare the protests have grown in recent weeks they began in late december when sunni demonstrators took to the streets in anbar province, which borders jordan and syria, to protest al maliki's order to arrest the bodyguards of finance minister rafaie esawi, a sunni the arrest of esawi's bodyguards came just hours after president jalal talabani, a kurd who is widely viewed as a stabilizing political force in iraq, left the country to undergo treatment for cancer the protesters also are demanding the release of detainees they said were held without charges, calling the government corrupt and accusing it of unfairly targeting iraq's sunni people iraq's arab sunnis and kurds have accused al maliki and his shiite political party of working to consolidate power in iraq by cutting them out of the political process, an allegation that comes as us lawmakers raise concerns about iraq strengthening its ties with shiite dominated iran sunnis make up about 20% of iraq's estimated population of more than 27 million, whereas about 60% to 65% are shiite since the fall of saddam hussein's sunni dominated regime in 2003, sunnis in iraq have been largely disaffected the gulf was widened in 2005 when sunnis boycotted the country's election, opening the way to a heavily dominated shiite government the sectarian divisions translated into violence in the streets in 2006 and 2007, with fighting that nearly ripped the country apart opinion: protests are as mindless as anti islam film cnn's chelsea j carter contributed to this report | nuri al maliki falluja iraq anbar shiite | new: prime minister nuri al maliki says he believes conspirators are plotting to undermine regime . at least four people are killed in the shootings, health officials and witnesses say . the shootings occur in falluja in iraq's western anbar province . protesters are calling for the shiite prime minister to step down |
(cnn) the crisis over the egyptian constitution triggered by president mohamed morsy's adoption of sweeping powers is just the latest chapter in a long standing ideological struggle in the middle east morsy, the muslim brotherhood candidate who came to power after the 2011 arab spring revolution that deposed long time egyptian president hosni mubarak, says he needs the new powers 'to speed reform' his rivals say it is all motivated by the brotherhood's islamist agenda for controlling the country morsy is not the first and given the upheavals of the arabic spring, is unlikely to be the last muslim leader to seek a constitutional way to create functioning state institutions in a region where the collapse of the ottoman empire led more often to tyranny or puppet regimes than strong democratic states the drive to institutionalize the states of the muslim world was the primary objective for most political parties in the region in the early 20th century muslim intellectuals, shocked by the tyranny and the deterioration of their nations especially when compared to the rapid advance of the west both politically and militarily tried to reverse the course by political means however, they soon found out that confronting the old establishment would require more radical approaches in 1907, a constitutional revolution was declared in shiite persia, and a year later muslims, christians and jews marched in istanbul triggering in 1908 what was called 'the second constitutional era' the events that followed eventually led to the dissolution of the sunni ottoman empire a decade later, the ottoman empire found itself in an unprecedented situation, defeated and occupied by the western allies of britain, france, russia and italy the young turkish leader, mustafa kemal ataturk, led a national movement, fought the allies and the sultan, then pushed for constitutional changes by which the last ottoman sultan, mohamed vi, would be a spiritual leader, or 'khalifa', without any governing or symbolic authority for the first time in the history of the muslim world, representatives of the people controlled the state mohamed vi was later expelled from turkey, and by 1924 the caliphate system was abolished this groundbreaking event left the muslim world in both religious and political chaos at the time when the allies were establishing new states for old peoples in the region, scholars and clerics from morocco to india went into extensive discussions about the vague future of the muslim 'nation' their task was not easy even ataturk had his own fatwa, or religious edict, to legitimize his deeds, issued by 'pro modernization' clerics divided about the ways to adapt to change, the most prominent muslim clerics in 1926 decided to accept an invitation from king fuad of egypt to submit a plan for the future the king thought that the conclusion of the conference would see him anointed as the new 'khalifa' of all muslims, but his dream vanished many egyptian clerics refused the idea of having a khalifa in a country under british occupation, and the liberal parties were keen to remind fuad about the 1923 constitution which he had issued himself in the wake of the huge changes, hundreds of miles away, in turkey the conference in cairo may not have been fruitful but it was decisive in reshaping the ideological map in the region on one hand there was sheikh rachid rida, an influential cleric from what is now known as lebanon, who led the call to re establish the caliphate system on the other side stood the clerics of north africa, spearheaded by sheikh abdulhamid ben badis from algeria and abdulkarim alkhattabi from morocco, who both praised ataturk for his strong leadership, which they believed would benefit the muslim nation amid confusion across the islamic world over about the proper source of power, the legitimate ruler and the true nature of constitutions, hasan al banna one of sheikh rachid rida's most loyal followers in 1928 formed the first version of what would later be known as the muslim brotherhood movement in one of his letters, al banna stated he was moving in the direction of establishing the movement in response to what he called the fall of the caliphate system he later came up with one of his movement's most famous slogans: the 'quran is our constitution' much has changed in the region during the last nine decades, but not the enigmatic nature of constitutionalism in this part of the world numerous coups, wars and crises strangled or mutated any attempt to modernize the local states and old 'dictators', whether they were army generals or liberals or leftists, continued to manipulate the laws constitutions were not social contracts, but rather a code of conduct imposed on the people 'subjects' were never transformed into 'citizens', and basic rights were 'boons' granted by the rulers and could be easily revoked constitutions had become just another tool in the hands of dictators during that time, most islamic mainstream movements, including the muslim brotherhood, acknowledged the need for having fundamental principles to run the political process an easily drawn conclusion, given the decades of oppression to which the movements were subjected but the movement couldn't overcome the critical duality of 'quran is our constitution' how could a divine script be protected by manmade principles and yet overpower them at the same time? it is not a coincidence that constitutional reforms were considered a priority in all the arab spring countries and that popular islamic movements in countries such as tunisia and egypt have the upper hand in redrawing laws muslim brotherhood branches in north africa, especially tunisia, were able to make use of the heritage of sheikhs ben badis and alkhattabi, and quickly abandoned the call for a sharia based constitution for them, the turkish model led by recep tayyip erdogan to deal with constitutional problems is a better option the task doesn't look as easy for morsy and the brotherhood in egypt he is surrounded by salafist hardliners who are trying to outflank him on the far right as the country's 'true representatives' of islam; and on the other side is a coalition of liberal and national movements, including members of mubarak's old party, who are 'united in opposition to the vague 'islamic project,'' according to opposition coordinator mohammad elbaradei one can argue that morsy's constitutional decree unleashed a crisis, and that the draft is far from being perfect, especially for women and minorities it might be a mistake, but it is a political one made by the first freely elected egyptian president the most important thing to observe in this 'spring' is that those who were labelled as 'radicals' for decades are moving towards finding a constitutional frame for the internal political struggle but those who are watching the scene from the west should keep in mind that the constitutional evolution in europe was a slower and equally messy process | muslim early 1900s years arab | drive to institutionalize states of muslim world was priority for most parties in early 1900s . for years constitutions were not social contracts, but a code imposed on people . constitutional reforms were considered a priority in all the arab spring countries |
(cnn) cher has announced on twitter that she is working on writing and starring in an autobiographical broadway show 'prods r writing mucial [sic] now about my life with my music,' reads the initial post, revealing that the musical will track three different versions of cher throughout the singer's life 'i'm help2 write cause i was there & know stories that no1 knows but me,' she follows cher's character will appear as a young singer through the sonny and cher era, then as a solo artist from the late seventies through her believe tour in 1999, and finally as a present day incarnation looking back on her life, career and earlier versions of herself no further casting or creative team members have been revealed, and no timeline has been given although cher has won at least one oscar, emmy and grammy, she has yet to win a tony award see the full story at rolling stonecom | cher broadway tony | cher tweeted that she is planning a broadway show . the singer/actress said she would write and star in it . cher has won several awards, but never a tony |
london, england (cnn) a devout hindu said wednesday he was confident that a british court will rule that laws preventing him from being cremated on an open air funeral pyre in 'a sacrament of fire' are a breach of his human rights davender ghai arrives at the high court for his challenge to be allowed to be cremated on a funeral pyre davender ghai, who emigrated to england from kenya in 1958, has a number of ailments including diabetes, asthma, anemia and a degenerative spinal disease but says he fears he will not be allowed to die with 'dignity' the 70 year old spiritual healer said that when he does die, he would like his eldest son sanjay, who lives in canada, to light the pyre as his family watches what they believe is his soul being released from his body local officials in his home city of newcastle, in northern england, rejected his request for a license for a pyre site, ruling that cremations outside of crematoria were illegal under the 1902 cremation act watch as hindu campaigns for pyres » ghai, a founder member of the anglo asian friendship society (aafs), subsequently took his legal challenge to the high court on the grounds that this refusal was discriminatory and violated his human rights he and his supporters were in court this week as his legal counsel ramby de mello said he was 'yearning to die' according to the hindu religion and to be cremated 'with dignity' what do you think? asked if he believed he would win the ruling, ghai told cnn on wednesday: 'i'm very, very hopeful that we'll get it the thing is we've got good support now when we first started we had a few people 'they thought it was illegal and outlawed, so they wouldn't come forward now we've got very, very good support i think about 90 percent of the hindu organizations are begging us' if he is successful when the court gives its ruling on thursday, other hindus and sikhs could be allowed similar last rites ghai said some hindus currently send the bodies of family members to india for cremation but if the ruling goes in his favor, uk cremations on funeral pyres would be much cheaper 'many people are offended and upset (by the refusal to allow funeral pyres in britain), because what they'll think is that all other religions got what they wanted, hindus didn't get what they wanted 'the reason being they're very peaceful people they're coming to me and say you've done well to ask them for this at least somebody has spoken on behalf of the hindus' he described normal cremation facilities as 'a mechanized humiliation of dignity a waste disposal process devoid of spiritual significance' 'confining bodies in coffins and concealing the cremation process' did not reflect his cultural values, ghai added in july 2006, ghai and the aafs escaped prosecution after cremating the body of rajpal mehat, an indian born sikh, on an open pyre in a remote field hired from an apparently unwitting landowner, pa reported ghai dismissed fears that cremation on funeral pyres could damage the environment and pledged to do everything to minimize pollution 'they burned about 200,000 cattles because of foot and mouth disease; if burning 200,000 cattles then didn't affect the environment, how can a few bodies affect the environment?' | british hindu 1902 | british hindu fights in court to be allowed to be cremated on funeral pyre . he says local officials' refusal to allow funeral pyre breach his human rights . officials: cremations outside of crematoria are illegal under 1902 cremation act |
hong kong (cnn) the mangled wrecks of cars being carried out of japan's sasago tunnel suggest there was little motorists could do to escape the sudden collapse of the ceiling above them a day after the disaster, one main theory has emerged as to what caused the collapse, which killed nine people who were trapped in their cars by rubble or the flames that broke out shortly after at a press briefing on monday, the executive officer of the tunnel's operator said it appeared that some 'anchor bolts' used to secure concrete slabs to the tunnel ceiling were missing 'there were parts of concrete (slabs) where bolts had fallen off,' ryoichi yoshizawa said, according to a spokesman for central japan expressway company or nexco central 'the aging of the bolts or the concrete slabs could be a potential cause (of the collapse),' yoshizawa said he did not say how many bolts were found to be missing or how they came to be loose yoshizawa added that while regular checks had been performed on the tunnel, they were visual checks and there was no physical testing read more: nine bodies recovered from tunnel emergency inspections have been ordered on 49 tunnels across the country with the same ceiling structure, according to the ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism there are 1,575 highways tunnels in japan and around a quarter of those are more than 30 years old, including the sasago tunnel which opened in 1977, the ministry said the tunnel's ceiling gave way on sunday morning at around 8 am local time witnesses recalled the horror of smoke filling up the tunnel as huge concrete slabs rained down on traffic below japanese highway police said monday the section of concrete that fell was 110 meters (360 feet) long charred bodies were pulled from the debris, including five from a single station wagon three others were in a burned vehicle, according to a police spokesperson, while another body was found in a truck 'it was terrifying i don't think i could ever drive through the tunnel again,' one shaken survivor told tv asahi, as black and white video released by nexco showed rescue workers in flashlight topped helmets stepping over rubble the tunnel has been closed for the removal of debris and while experts ascertain the risk of a secondary accident nexco says it's unsure how long the process could take speaking to reporters at the scene, motohiro takamisawa, the chief of nexco's otsuki safety center, also referred to a potential problem with the bolts securing the tunnel's ceiling slabs 'at this moment we're presuming that the top anchor bolts have come loose,' he was reported as saying takamizawa added that the bolts hadn't been changed since the tunnel first opened in the late 1970s however, a company spokesman told cnn that takamizawa's comments should not be interpreted as the company's official statement and that it could not confirm whether that was the case one expert told asahi tv said that it's possible that years of traffic vibrations had contributed to the tunnel's collapse 'over the course of 35 years, all the shaking caused by cars has probably caused the bolts and nuts in the tunnel to loosen as a result they fell off,' said hiroshi chikahisa, head of the geosystem engineering institute at yamaguchi university immediately after the disaster, a company spokesman said the sasago tunnel, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of tokyo, was subject to annual inspections with more detailed checks every five years it had been checked in the last couple of months at the company's monday briefing, a nexco spokesman said, 'there was no record that we have conducted the tapping inspection at top of the ceiling in the tunnel' he was referring to a method used to identify potential damage within concrete structures that was mentioned in the company's 2011 annual report it says, 'although hammer tapping test is commonly carried out to investigate concrete structures, it takes enormous time and cost to conduct the test on all concrete structures we have' instead, it says the company inspects concrete structures using infrared cameras, an inspection technology which measures the difference in temperature between 'sound conditions and damaged areas' to detect potential weak points there as no explicit reference to testing carried out on tunnels the sasago tunnel runs for 47 kilometers along a stretch of the chuo expressway which runs for 367 kilometers, through a mountainous region, connecting tokyo with the nagoya in the chubu region of japan its operator, nexco central is one of three companies started in 1995 after the privatization of japan's highway public corporation nexco central manages more than 1,700 kilometers of expressways in tokyo and the chubu, hokuriku and kinki regions, used by almost 19 million cars on any given day journalist toshi maeda, cnn's junko ogura and alex zolbert contributed to this report | sunday morning japan | collapse of sasago tunnel is being blamed on failure of 'anchor bolts'. the bolts secure concrete slabs to the ceiling of the tunnel . nine people died when concrete slabs fell on traffic on sunday morning . forty nine other tunnels of similar construction are being inspected across japan |
dongguan, china (cnn) the chinese factory floor ain't what it used to be heavy industry machines now sit idle, where once hundreds of workers would have crammed into dickensian sweat shops, slaving away for little pay china's army of migrant workers are smarter than ever, demanding higher pay and better conditions, armed with tough government labor laws ben schwall has ridden the wave of china's economic boom and now says the tide is turning 'when i first came to china you had 200 people outside the factory gate trying to get in,' he says 'people would ask favors 'can you get my cousin a job?' now that's gone and i'm asking 'do you have a cousin who can come help me?'' schwall is an old style middle man for two decades he's matched product hungry western companies with chinese manufacturers it worked for him, and it worked for the buyer and the supplier but it also left him branded a traitor: an american helping china steal american jobs it's a catch cry that's making a comeback in this us election year already anti chinese television commercials are playing to blue collar fears schwall says it is nonsense 'china's not taking these jobs, the jobs have left the question is where are they landing?' he says yes, it is true those jobs landed in their millions in china, transforming mid sized towns into booming cities china became the world's factory, running up breakneck economic growth but schwall says that was another era 'cheap china' is finished increased costs, he says, are just part of the equation the nature of work in china is changing; out with the old dirty factory jobs and in with cleaner high tech industries yang chunhong is feeling the brunt of these changes he was once a factory worker himself now he is the boss and simply can't find enough staff the orders keep coming, he says, but who will fill them? 'the lack of workers will definitely have an impact on my business we turned down many orders from our clients because we don't have enough workers to make these products it definitely has a huge impact,' he says while bosses may struggle, for now at least china's army of migrant workers is reaping the rewards hu yalan, 23, came here to guangdong in southern china from her home province two years ago her first job paid her rmb1700 a month, about $300 now she wants double that and is scouring guangdong's busy job market to upgrade 'i think it's a matter of improving my ability,' she says there are big factories offering 'good salary' and 'job training,' she says china is following a path chartered by the united states a generation ago it is in transition old industries will fold as it enters a new era of higher paid, smarter work ironically, president obama is leading the call for manufacturing to return stateside it is seen as an answer to america's stubbornly high unemployment old china hands like ben schwall say, forget about it 'the reality is jobs like this are not coming back to the us it may be unpleasant, you may say i'm un american but it is just the reality of it,' he says but with an election looming, that's not really a message us politicians are keen to send to disenchanted voters in meetings in washington with china's presumptive president, xi jinping, president obama has continued to raise his concerns about china's economic policies, what he argues is an artificially low currency and unfair export advantage china's real challenge is to bridge the gap between the old and new industries, between the low paid and better paid, more demanding workers if it fails the task, china may soon have its own political slogan: 'india is stealing chinese jobs!' | parto hexones conduits | no related information |
washington (cnn) two commercial jets that nearly collided north of hawaii last month were at altitudes assigned to them by air traffic controllers, the national transportation safety board tells cnn the cause of the near disaster in the skies east of the hawaiian islands on april 25 is still under investigation but a source with knowledge of the probe said the early focus is finding out why the planes were assigned to altitudes that put them dangerously close the incident was brought to public attention when a passenger on one of the planes wrote a blog titled: 'two weeks ago, i almost died in the deadliest plane crash ever' in the incident, united airlines flight 1205, which was headed east to los angeles from kona international aiport on the big island of hawaii, had to descend quickly to avoid a westbound us airways jet, approximately 200 miles northeast of kona the united pilots received an audible warning that the plane was in danger from its traffic collision avoidance system, which monitors airspace around a plane both planes were boeing 757s flight tracking websites show the united plane descended 600 feet in 60 seconds the passenger who wrote the blog post, kevin townsend, described feeling weightless as the united plane suddenly plunged 'i felt my body float upwards and strain against my seatbelt,' townsend wrote 'passengers around me screamed there was a loud crash in the back a coffeepot clattering to the floor and tumbling down the aisle our tray tables began rattling in unison as the 757 strained through the kind of maneuver meant more for a fighter jet' townsend estimated a total of 590 people were on the two planes based on the assumption that the other plane carried the same number of passengers and crew as the 295 people aboard his flight thus, according to townsend, the death toll in a collision would have been the worst air disaster in history, surpassing the 583 who died in the 1977 runway collision of two boeing 747s on a runway on the spanish island of tenerife however, airlines officials this week declined to say how many people were on the two passenger jets in last month's incident townsend said he believes it was his report that led the federal aviation administration to investigate he said he wants to make sure near collisions are thoroughly investigated 'i don't think there's some epidemic of near accidents that occurring, but it was a jarring experience dodging another plane,' he said an faa official, speaking on background, said the agency began investigating immediately after the incident, and independent of townsend's report on thursday, a joint faa ntsb team arrived at the honolulu control facility to continue the investigation, the ntsb said commercial airline pilot les abend said the collision avoidance systems worked as designed 'you're going to run into this situation, unfortunately nothing is perfect i know that's not a comforting answer, but indeed the system worked,' abend told cnn new video surfaces of teen stowaway jumping out of plane in hawaii drone, jetliner nearly collide | boeing 757s hawaii united airlines united | two boeing 757s nearly collided off hawaii on april 25 . united airlines flight 1205 had to descend rapidly to avoid a collision . a passenger on the united flight wrote a blog about the incident . commercial airline pilot says the collision avoidance systems worked as designed |
new york (cnn) former alaska governor and republican vice presidential candidate sarah palin will co host nbc's 'today' show on tuesday, according to megan kopf, a spokeswoman for nbc universal 'she'll reveal a different side of her than you've seen before,' the morning show's website boasted sunday last week abc announced that former 'today' host katie couric will fill in for robin roberts as co host of 'today's' rival morning show, 'good morning america,' all week couric co hosted 'today' for 15 years before leaving for cbs the matchup of the two women brings to mind couric's infamous 2008 interviews with palin for cbs news when palin was the gop vice presidential candidate among the details revealed in the course of those interviews was the fact that candidate palin could not name a single newspaper or magazine that she regularly read palin is now a paid contributor for the fox news channel in addition to rekindling memories of 2008, the two announcements come at a big moment for the competing morning talk shows according to nielsen, 'today' has won the ratings war for some time, but recently 'good morning america' has been making a steady comeback, threatening to overtake 'today' as the top watched morning show | sarah palin nbc tuesday katie couric abc good morning america'. couric palin 2008 | sarah palin will co host 'today' on nbc on tuesday . katie couric, meanwhile, will co host abc's competing 'good morning america'. couric interviewed candidate palin 2008 in an infamous session |
(cnn student news) october 21, 2013 cnn student news begins the week with a report on wildfires in australia, and we discuss the challenges that refugees face after fleeing violence in syria we also explore a dispute between a university and many of its football players plus, we check out a flying car, and we share the history of a violin that fetched a titanic record at auction on this page you will find today's show transcript, the daily curriculum, maps pertaining to today's show, and a place for you to leave feedback transcript click here to access the transcript of today's cnn student news program please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published daily curriculum click here for a printable version of the daily curriculum (pdf) media literacy question of the day: can media coverage of refugees in another country impact the refugees themselves? if so, how? if not, why not? why might a news organization choose to tell their story? key concepts: identify or explain these subjects you heard about in today's show: 1 wildfire 2 rms titanic 3 aerodynamics fast facts: how well were you listening to today's program? 1 according to the report, about how many registered syrian refugees are there? what do cnn reporters say about the refugees' living conditions and potential outlook? 2 why did grambling state university's football team forfeit a recent game? 3 what's the story behind a violin that was recently auctioned for $17 million in england? discussion questions: 1 what resources might syrian refugees need? where do you think these resources might come from? how might a refugee camp impact a surrounding area? under what circumstances might a refugee know that it's safe to return home? 2 what are your thoughts on the protests by football players at grambling state university? in your view, what should be the next steps taken by the players and by university officials? explain 3 what might be the pros and cons of owning a flying car versus owning both a car and a plane? do you think that flying cars could become popular in the near future? would you want to own the vehicle seen in the report? explain cnn student news is created by a team of journalists and educators who consider the common core state standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show and curriculum we hope you use our free daily materials along with the program, and we welcome your feedback on them maps download pdf maps related to today's show: australia asia syria feedback we're looking for your feedback about cnn student news please use this page to leave us comments about today's program, including what you think about our stories and our resources also, feel free to tell us how you use them in your classroom the educators on our staff will monitor this page and may respond to your comments as well thank you for using cnn student news! click here to submit your roll call request | weddinger mumbler japanophile | no related information |
(cnn) wildlife photographer david 'baz' jenkins seems to have a knack for photographing great white sharks his website is filled with pictures of the fearsome predators leaping from the sea and devouring seals but a photo jenkins took during a july shark watching cruise in south africa is garnering the irish photographer so much attention that his website was having trouble keeping up wednesday after numerous media outlets published his shots one photo shows a seal seemingly balanced on the tip of the rising shark's mouth, moments away from becoming a meal later photos in the series show the seal twisting away and escaping as the giant shark's jaws snap shut 'this seal was one lucky pup,' jenkins told caters news agency the seal was among a group returning to seal island off the coast of cape town, south africa, after feeding when the shark struck, he said 'the breaching sharks are amazing, the speed and agility just takes your breath away as they can explode from below without warning,' he told caters new legless lizards found in california rocket frog takes a flying leap into space | david 'baz' jenkins caters news agency jenkins | photographer captures seal balancing on shark's nose . 'this seal was one lucky pup,' david 'baz' jenkins tells caters news agency . jenkins' website struggled to keep up after media picked up on the image |
(cnn) all future singers of the national anthem should pay close attention to james taylor's performance at game 2 of the world series on october 24 if you're going to make a mistake, this is the way to make it on thursday, the musician was at fenway park in boston to lead the stadium in a rendition of 'the star spangled banner' but when he opened his mouth to sing, the words of 'america the beautiful' started pouring out rather than 'oh, say can you see,' taylor kicked off the song with, 'oh, beautiful ' but the singer quickly and rather smoothly recovered, going straight into the correct lyrics without missing a beat while other singers have caught major flak for messing up the words to the national anthem at such events, taylor did have an excuse: he was also performing 'america the beautiful' that same night during the seventh inning stretch he was joined by several survivos of april's boston marathon attack | james taylor america the beautiful the star spangled banner | james taylor messed up his national anthem performance . he began singing 'america the beautiful' instead of 'the star spangled banner'. the singer quickly and smoothly recovered |
(cnn) senate republicans on thursday blocked a democrat backed bill that would have extended tax cuts to small businesses both sides indicated the vote was political one democrats said republicans blocked the bill to cost president barack obama political points republicans said that the legislation was a campaign stunt and wasn't enough to have any impact on jump starting the economy by the numbers, here's a look at small business in america: cnn money: small business 3 small business tax cut bills that were rejected in the us congress this week 1953 year the us small business administration was founded 499 highest number of employees a business can have to be considered a 'small business' 249 maximum workers employed at a 'small business' in the 1950s 79 percent of american businesses that are non employee businesses, with no employees other than the proprietor dear america: it's time to up our entrepreneurial game $7 million largest amount of average annual receipts to qualify as a small business 20 percent of income eligible for tax deduction by small businesses under the small business tax cut act, proposed by house majority leader eric cantor $73 billion amount of the projected total increase in personal incomes if the democrats' small business jobs and tax relief act had passed in the senate $87 billion amount potentially added to the gdp health reform: what's at stake for small business 990,592 estimated number of jobs that would have been created 10% tax credit on new payroll, a hiring incentive for business owners under the senate small business jobs and tax relief act 7 shortage of votes needed for the senate to be able to invoke cloture and end the debate on the bill 5,749,797 firms in the us with fewer than 500 employees, as of 2009 family business: how to pass the baton 56,281,503 employees of small firms with fewer than 500 workers, in 2009 24 million businesses owned by veterans, making up 9% of all businesses, as of 2007 45 percent of new businesses established in 2004 that were still around in 2009 2 percent of americans with incomes higher than $250,000 annually, those who would be affected by the expiration of the bush era tax cuts, according to president obama 1 in 6 baby boomers surveyed in 2011 by aarp who expect to eventually have their own business | congress $7 million $87 billion | three small business tax cut bills were rejected by congress this week . $7 million is the largest amount of annual receipts a business can have and still be 'small'. $87 billion is the potential amount added to the gdp by small business |
(cnn) missed it by that much! in a year that forecasters said there would be a few more hurricanes than normal, humberto on wednesday fell just a few hours short of setting a record for the latest first hurricane to form in the atlantic ocean normally, three hurricanes would have formed in the area by this time in hurricane season all that it had to do was wait until after 8 am et, but alas, no three hours ahead of that mark, the national hurricane center in miami dubbed it a legitimate storm with sustained winds of a 75 mph, the threshold for a hurricane but it's not likely to cause much of a fuss early wednesday, it was about 310 miles west northwest of the cape verde islands, off africa's coast it's expected to fizzle into a tropical storm over the weekend back in may, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration climate prediction center said higher than average water temperatures were expected to help yield a few more atlantic hurricanes than usual noaa predicts above normal atlantic hurricane season between 13 and 20 named storms and seven to 11 hurricanes were predicted humberto is the eighth named storm of the year and, again, just the first hurricane for the atlantic ocean, a normal season would produce 12 named storms, including six hurricanes and three major ones there's still time, if you're rooting for more hurricanes hurricane season, which began on june 1, runs until november 30 cnn's sean morris contributed to this report | humberto atlantic hurricane season | 2013 was almost a record setter for latest first hurricane formation . humberto formed in the far eastern atlantic early wednesday . forecasters predict an above average year for atlantic storms . hurricane season ends on november 30 |
(ewcom ) after two seasons of in depth interviews with the likes of david letterman, george will, and david simon of 'the wire,' alec baldwin will retire his 'here's the thing' podcast on wnyc in october, just as he launches his new talkshow on msnbc the hollywood reporter claimed that baldwin was open to continuing but that wnyc lacked the funding to keep the podcast afloat, and a source close to baldwin said that the actor might resurrect a revamped version of the podcast for msnbc at some point in the future in a statement, wnyc said, 'wnyc will wind down production of here's the thing with alec baldwin this fall the podcast series will end with a much anticipated in depth conversation with jerry seinfeld we wish alec much success as he makes his transition to msnbc' beginning in october, up late with alec baldwin, will air at 10 pm fridays on msnbc see the original story at ewcom click here to try 2 risk free issues of entertainment weekly © 2011 entertainment weekly and time inc all rights reserved | alec baldwin october the same month msnbc jerry seinfeld | alec baldwin will end his podcast in october . it's the same month he begins his msnbc talk show . the podcast will end with an appearance from jerry seinfeld |
(cnn) a rash of sexual assaults in the armed forces undermines americans' confidence in the military, president barack obama told newly commissioned officers at the us naval academy friday 'those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong,' obama told the graduates, who were commissioned as naval ensigns and marine corps second lieutenants 'that's why we have to be determined to stop these crimes because they have no place in the greatest military on earth,' obama continued the president's remarks came amid mounting outrage over sexual abuse cases in the armed forces figures show the rate of assaults in the armed forced increasing, and some top officers are under fire for condoning such acts at least two officers responsible for preventing sexual assault are under investigation for allegedly committing the types of act they were tasked with stopping those factors have led to calls for major changes in how the armed forces handle sexual assaults obama has demanded his top military brass 'leave no stone overturned' in their quest to prevent abuse, and members of congress have introduced legislation that would make it easier for victims to get justice in his commencement address friday, obama characterized the us military as one of the few institutions americans still trust, but said incidents like sexual assaults, as well as other delinquency by servicemen in the field, could erode that faith 'even in our military, we've seen how the misconduct of some can have effects that ripple far and wide in our digital age, a single image from the battlefield of troops falling short of their standards can go viral and endanger our forces and undermine our efforts to achieve security and peace,' obama told the naval academy graduates, 206 of whom were women earlier this month, the department of defense released figures estimating 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact occurred in 2012, a 35% jump from 2010 those cases ranged from groping to rape the vast majority of those incidents went unreported as crimes, the study showed meanwhile, officers at bases across the country are under investigation for allegedly committing sexual assaults an army sergeant first class assigned to the sexual assault prevention unit at fort hood, texas, came under investigation in early may for alleged sexual assault, pandering, abusive sexual contact and maltreatment of subordinates the military said he's been relieved of duty while investigators look in to the allegations also in may, an air force officer who managed an assault prevention unit was charged with sexual battery and removed from duty he is accused of grabbing a woman and groping her buttocks and breasts in an arlington county parking lot not far from his washington office and this week, the army said it had suspended brig gen bryan roberts, the top general at fort jackson in south carolina, due to allegations of adultery and assault fort jackson is where most new army recruits go through basic training, which includes training about sexual assault prevention the president traditionally delivers the commencement address at one of the military service academies every year in 2012 he spoke at the air force academy in colorado springs the last time he delivered the commencement in annapolis was 2009 vice president joe biden spoke last weekend at the coast guard academy in connecticut defense secretary chuck hagel will speak saturday at the us military academy at west point, and also will address sexual assaults, according to a us official obama's remarks came the day after a much anticipated speech in which the president spelled out a new phase of america's war on terror he told the new officers friday they are entering a military vastly changed from four years ago 'just as you have changed in the past four years, so too have the challenges facing our military,' he said, noting the wars in iraq and afghanistan were still being engaged when friday's graduates entered the academy 'even as we move beyond deploying our large ground armies abroad, we need to conduct precise targeted strikes against terrorists before they kill our citizens,' obama said 'even as we stay vigilant in the face of terrorism, and stay true to our constitution and values, we need to stay ready for the full range of threats' cnn's jim acosta contributed to this report | obama | obama says military assaults threaten what 'makes our military strong,'. assaults have 'no place' in the military, obama says . figures show the rate of assaults in the armed forces is increasing . a number of officers at bases across the country are under investigation |
(cnn) a texas white hat has crossed through the pearly gates 'bum' phillips, the former nfl football coach who led the houston oilers to glory and struggled with the new orleans saints, died friday at age 90 'bum is gone to heaven loved and will be missed by all great dad, coach, and christian,' tweeted his son wade phillips, himself defensive coordinator for the houston texans phillips' white stetson cowboy hat was hard to miss, though he didn't wear it in domed stadiums his mother had told him never to wear his hat indoors his nickname stuck out like a sore thumb, especially whenever his team's stakes were down and fans weren't being nice about it he was born oail andrew phillips in 1923, but his older sister stuttered and couldn't say 'brother' it came out wrong, and the affectionate nickname was born, according to an official biography it was an term of endearment that had no derogatory meaning bumisms but phillips' true trademark were the deadpan sayings he regularly dropped, fully original and spiced with humor and gritty truisms they got him laughed at sometimes and admired at other times for their grains of truth they were coined 'bumisms' his most famous one: 'there's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired' he once told sportscaster bob costas that he took his wife on away games 'because she's too ugly to kiss goodbye,' the nfl said phillips started his career in the 1950s as a high school coach, according to the nfl he joined the oilers in 1974 as defensive coordinator, when they were defeated and down, then advanced to head coach and in the late 1970s turned them into a winning team the oilers are now the tennessee titans and houston's team is now the texans he had a reputation for being an affectionate motivator the nfl ranked him among the 10 most motivational coaches in professional football history saints struggle in 1981, phillips wearing cowboy boots moved to new orleans and tightened up the saints' defense two years later, he led them to their second ever non losing season an 8 8 record, but he didn't have the same level of success that he had enjoyed in houston in 1985, he resigned to dedicate himself to ranching, his family and christian charities, and didn't seem to miss football too much 'i still love football,' he told the nfl 'you can't do something for 50 years and not love it, but i love it where it's at, and i love where i'm at' his ranch in goliad, texas according to local news reports, that's where he died 'he meant a great deal to this franchise, the nfl and the city of houston, and he was instrumental to the oilers during the 'luv ya blue' era,' said titans owner ks 'bud' adams jr, in a statement, referring to the late 1970s movement by oilers' fans 'growing up in texas and working his way up through the texas football ranks, he was a natural match for our team those were such magical years, and his leadership and personality helped our team rise to the top he became an iconic figure on our sideline' people we've lost in 2013 | titans the houston oilers texas bum | new: 'he became an iconic figure on our sideline,' says titans owner . he led the houston oilers to glory in the late 70s, then gave the saints a try . he retired from pro football in 1985 and went to his texas ranch . 'bum,' a term of endearment given by his sister who stuttered, meant 'brother' |
(cnn) to help keep the peace with her in laws during holidays, julia smith adopted a rule several years ago about talking politics: don't do it, and don't take the bait if anyone starts in her relationship with her father in law in particular had always been fraught with tension, said smith, who asked that her name be changed to preserve family relations she was the 'screaming liberal from new york' who'd corrupted his texas bred son into moving to 'taxachusetts' and voting democrat as far as she was concerned, he was a good ol' boy who didn't like to talk politics as much as preach his views her resolve was put to the test three years ago at thanksgiving dinner, right after barack obama was elected president she was picking at her turkey when, she says, her father in law suggested an act of violence toward obama she attempted to keep cool by gathering her children and leaving the table but then he repeated it at dessert 'i finally said to him, 'you can't use that language in front my children' then he told me, 'you can't tell me what i can say in my home' that led to a tirade with all kinds of four letter words and him storming out,' she said 'before this, i just tried to ignore him, change the topic or walk away but this comment it couldn't be ignored,' she said unfortunately, things haven't been the same since, she says they haven't spoken in more than two years, and he refuses to visit her family, though her mother in law visits regularly smith's case represents an extreme example of a thanksgiving horror story, but most of us have one the holidays tend to bring out the best and worst in people, especially among those we love but as election season heats up, politics becomes an increasingly common topic around the dinner table as if we needed more stress when visiting family 'politics is dangerous because people identify so closely with their beliefs for my father in law, it wasn't just who he would vote for but a part of who he was, and if you disagreed with his political beliefs, it was like it was a rejection of him,' smith said 'for some people, political beliefs become too much a part of their personality, who they are, and they can't separate them from a person that's where we ran into trouble, because i truly wanted to get along with this man, even though i didn't agree with him on most fronts i still wanted to have a loving relationship for the sake of our family' politics may not be an easy topic for families with diverging viewpoints, but that doesn't mean it's off limits, said etiquette expert anna post of the emily post institute in fact, people don't need to agree as long as they're capable of respectful back and forth, as opposed to testy debate 'when people are willing to listen, which means not dominating the conversation and allowing yourself to be open to another idea, it can work,' she said 'you may already know what the other person's going to say, but letting their voice say it is where respect comes in' avoiding anger in your tone is another way to keep things healthy and family functional, she said 'it's about respect, not making judgments and not using words that carry judgments given what a big deal the political conversation is, i think it's one worth making an effort over' with some, a respectful conversation just isn't in the cards, and we usually know who those people are, post said identify the people who are your triggers, and be proactive in your conversation choices: set the agenda and the tone, and don't let it be politics if you already know that a lively conversation won't come out of it another key consideration is what you hope to achieve by engaging in such a discussion are you there to change their mind or talk about what's going on in the news? if it's the former, you're probably barking up the wrong tree, and you may damage the relationship in the meantime, she said it goes both ways, of course if it becomes clear that someone is not just listening but trying to convert you, have some exit phrases on hand to end the conversation or lead it elsewhere, she said something like 'we'll have to agree to disagree' or 'i'll consider what you said' are good ways to get someone to let go and move on, post said if the conversation proceeds, choosing your words wisely could mean the difference between a lively back and forth and an uncomfortable standoff, she said 'don't assume other people believe what you believe people will casually mention something about a candidate or a position or a piece of news and mention it in a way that clearly states a position and assumes everyone agrees with it that can be deeply uncomfortable and, depending on the position, leave someone stifled in a conversation,' post said in other words, leave the punditry to the pundits and focus on positions you can defend with facts instead of catchphrases 'in your own language with politics, cleansing it of idioms can make it more about facts and not opinions,' she said 'the goal is to avoid polarizing language for example, ask someone what they think about health care rather than 'obamacare' talk about the facts you know as opposed to 'i can't believe those guys are always pulling that stuff' it makes a big difference' not everyone goes by the same facts in the digital age, so even assuming that your facts are the ones everybody agrees on can land you in risky territory, said jodi rr smith, author of 'from clueless to class act: manners for the modern woman' as much as you can prepare for the ones you love, a few variables inevitably pop up, such as the new significant other, the exchange student or the friend without a place to go 'if someone brings home a new love interest, i'm going to hold back a little bit and say, 'what do you think of the debates so far?' so i will be able to gauge the new person's political leanings,' she said 'if we agree, that's great i can launch into personal philosophies if we don't agree, i will ask a couple of innocuous follow up questions to see if this is someone who can have civilized political discourse maybe they can educate me, and it won't sway my vote, but it will make me a more well rounded human being if person gets red in the face and voice starts to rise, i will say, 'that's interesting so, have you seen this new film?' ' if you're the one hosting dinner, lay down some ground rules and let guests know what to expect, especially those who are easily agitated by opposing viewpoints, smith said tell your liberal parents that you're inviting friends from the young republicans campus group you might also consider sitting them on the same side of the table so they can't make eye contact, she said setting ground rules for all guests is a new part of smith's routine ever since that fateful thanksgiving dinner three years ago politics are off limits as a topic of discussion, especially if alcohol is being served she wishes it didn't have to be this way; she also wishes that she had a better relationship with her father in law, she said 'hopefully, sharing my story will let others know they're not alone i also hope it makes people think about what they say and how they say it, especially when it comes to politics' | anna post post | it's possible to talk politics with family over turkey in a respectful conversation, experts say . anna post: avoid polarizing language; focus on positions you can defend with facts . know your limit, and devise an exit strategy if conversation takes turn for worst, post says . keep in mind that not everyone agrees on same set of facts, expert says |
(cnn) it was the late 1960s and tom repasky was in a fog h michael karshis owns thousands of albums but steely dan's 'can't buy a thrill' holds a special place in his heart 'i was trying to discover who i was, what i was and what i was doing here,' he said in 1963, at age 14, repasky was on a field trip with his seminary when he and another student accidentally fell down a steep ledge while throwing rocks at upperclassmen a tree broke his friend's fall, but repasky was not so lucky repasky awoke in the hospital, but says he was unable to remember even the smallest detail of his past 'it was as if i didn't exist before that time,' he said this experience scarred him, to the point that he was asked to leave the seminary by the end of the year 'i clearly was not the same person,' he said 'after my near death experience, there was this prolonged period of not being able to relate to reality very well' several years after his accident, repasky first heard the moody blues song 'nights in white satin' 'after i heard these lyrics, i thought, 'they know what i'm feeling' ' he sought out their album 'days of future passed' he was particularly drawn to the lyrics from their song 'dawn is a feeling:' 'you are here today; no future fears; this day will last 1,000 years, if you want it to' repasky, who now lives in danville, pennsylvania, and is an artist, often goes back to this album 'when i hear the music, it brings me to the point of realizing that i had experienced life and i could be alive, and it brings me great joy in knowing that' the part of 'nights in white satin' where the words 'i love you' are repeated always moves repasky, even 40 years later ireportcom: watch repasky tell his story repasky is one of many ireporters who shared the album that first hooked them and has stayed with them throughout their lives h michael karshis owns about 3,200 albums, but one holds a special place in his heart: 'can't buy a thrill' by steely dan even though his mother worked in a record store in 1973 (which helps explain the number of albums he owns), 'can't buy a thrill' was the first one he bought with his own money, at the age of 12 'reelin' in the years' was the song that hooked him 'it's almost an ode to a distant past,' he said 'i remember listening to that before i was 17 and thinking about how old 17 was it has a different connotation and meaning the older you get, but it's still a poignant, relevant song' whenever karshis moves into a new home, one of the first things he does is to crank up the stereo and play the album 'it's just one of those timeless albums and it's hard to describe how it affects me' karshis, who works as a graphic artist in san antonio, texas, thinks the cover of the album has influenced his artwork 'i'm not saying i got it all from the steely dan cover, but it's amazing how it permeates everything i do now' ireportcom: karshis talks about one album in his massive collection sal steels of denver, colorado, first rocked out to van halen's album '1984' about 20 years ago, and hasn't stopped since in fact, he demonstrated the way he feels when the song 'panama' starts in a video for ireportcom for steels, '1984' is 'one of those you have in the car it's one you make a backup cd for' he listens to it constantly and considers 'panama' his favorite song of all time ireportcom: sal steels rocks out to van halen not all ireporters listen to their most influential album regularly diane holder of ann arbor, michigan, had fond memories of pink floyd's 'the wall,' but it had been a while since she had heard it 'twice before, i went back and looked at something that i cherished as a memory from my childhood, [and] the results were not very good,' she said despite her hesitation, she listened to the album online in this case, she was pleasantly surprised by how well it stood the test of time, and she ended up downloading the whole thing 'for me, that is remarkable i can count on my fingers the albums i have bought' jill pearson of atlanta, georgia, is such a fan of elton john's 'goodbye yellow brick road' that she created a video quiz for the ireportcom community pearson has been going back to the album off and on for years 'it takes me back to my college days and he's just one of my favorite performers,' she said ireportcom: take the elton john quiz for some ireporters, one album opened their eyes to something new marvin gaye's 'what's going on' was not the first album tony bernez bought, but he considers it an important work, not just for himself, but for his generation he considers it 'one of the most ground breaking, consciousness raising and inspiring concept albums of its time, or any other time, for that matter' 'it marked a transcendent change from the motown r&b songs that marvin had previously released, and it spoke to the pain, injustice, and uncertainty of the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s,' he said 'i just listened to it yesterday, and it still moves me in a very special way' for lulis leal, one album completely changed her philosophy of life she had not been exposed to rush's music before their ninth album, 'signals,' was released, but when she heard the song 'subdivisions,' neal peart's drumming had her hooked leal listened to more of rush's music and soon learned that the band was influenced by author ayn rand after reading her novels, leal began to adapt rand's philosophy into her own life fred thorne was a big fan of much of the popular music of the 1980s when he was 14, but the moment he heard rem's song 'fall on me' on alternative radio, he was determined to own the album 'life's rich pageant' after buying not just one, but three rem albums, his musical tastes changed forever thorne went on to play in bands for 18 years 'if you ask me, rem is the godfather of indie sound' ireportcom: fred thorne pays tribute to rem whether it's nostalgia, an appreciation of great songwriting, or even a life changing experience, music has certainly done a lot to help these ireporters throughout their lives 'music can be that one thing that can bring a bright spot to anyone's life,' said ireporter crystal dickson 'where would we be without it?' | sevenbark toupeed jumpiness | no related information |
(cnn) amid public outrage over government corruption, unemployment and a lack of basic services, iraq's parliament approved the appointments of eight new ministers to the cabinet on sunday but key security posts remain empty the lawmakers greenlighted candidates tapped by iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki for ministries that include electricity, trade and municipalities the first female minister was approved for the cabinet to oversee women's affairs candidates for the ministries of defense, interior and national security have not been named, though parliamentary speaker osama al nujaifi told his colleagues that al maliki promised to submit nominees for those posts in the coming days meanwhile, hundreds of angry demonstrators took to the streets of ramadi about 100 kilometers west of baghdad on sunday, protesting against the government's inability to provide basic services similar demonstrations have been held across iraq in recent weeks, inspired by uprisings in tunisia, egypt and other countries in the region in december, after nearly a year fraught with political infighting, the parliament voted to approve al maliki's new government, despite the vacancies the long awaited legislative action came more than nine months after a hotly disputed national election that threatened to inflame the country's deep sectarian tensions the government composition is inclusive of iraq's major ethnic and sectarian groups, brought together by a fragile us backed power sharing deal agreed on in november but it is clear that sectarianism remains, as the posts were divided along ethnic and sectarian lines the prime minister has three deputies a shiite, a kurd, and a sunni arab, representing the three largest entities in iraq saleh al mutlaq, who has been one of al maliki's critics, is the sunni deputy he had been barred from politics because of alleged ties to the baathist party, the outlawed political movement of late iraqi leader saddam hussein parliament lifted that ban in december on sunday, the parliament failed to hold a vote on three vice presidents under the power sharing deal after some lawmakers had reservations on a shiite candidate at the end of 2011, the united states is set to withdraw all of its troops from iraq as part of a bilateral agreement with the baghdad government it is too soon to predict whether that will happen or whether the united states and iraq will negotiate an agreement to keep some us soldiers there after next year | subphosphate corve instantly | no related information |
(financial times) the erosion of central bank independence around the world threatens to unleash a round of competitive exchange rate devaluations, which leading economies have so far avoided during the financial crisis, the president of germany's bundesbank warned on monday jens weidmann, whose institution's own fierce independence from political influence was the model for the european central bank when it was founded, said stephen king, the chief economist at hsbc, was 'perhaps right' in forecasting an end to the era of central bank independence 'it is already possible to observe alarming infringements, for example in hungary or in japan, where the new government is massively involving itself in the affairs of the central bank, is emphatically demanding an even more aggressive monetary policy and is threatening an end to central bank autonomy,' mr weidmann said in a speech in frankfurt 'whether intended or not, one consequence could be the increased politicisation of the exchange rate,' he said, according to a text of his speech provided by the bundesbank 'until now the international monetary system got through the crisis without competitive devaluations and i hope very much it stays that way' both the bundesbank and later the ecb were founded on mandates that gave them wide powers and freedom from political interference in return for focusing solely on keeping inflation in check some observers argue that the ecb now faces a challenge if other central banks ditch their own inflation targets and act to lower exchange rates against the euro, making exports from the embattled eurozone economies less competitive asked about the trend for central banks to look less at inflation targeting and more at policy areas that affect exchange rates, mario draghi, president of the european central bank, said earlier this month that the exchange rate was very important 'as far as growth and stability' were concerned but was not a policy target for the ecb he also noted that the group of 20 leading industrial nations had pledged not to undertake competitive currency devaluations as such action undermines economic and financial stability mr weidmann said the period in the 1980s and 1990s during which central banks around the world had been made independent had heralded a period of 'great moderation' during which inflation fell but the outbreak of the financial crisis and the growing energy and raw materials demand from fast growing economies had put rising prices back on the agenda and complicated the job of a central bank this had led to demands on central banks to support the financial system, stimulate the economy and lower government refinancing costs 'or even secure the solvency of a state', he said 'overloading central banks with tasks and expectations is however certainly not the correct path towards sustainably overcoming the crisis' the bundesbank chief, whose concerns about straying from orthodox monetary policy prompted him to vote against and campaign openly against mr draghi's unlimited bond buying plan last year, concluded by quoting approvingly from an interview mr draghi gave to the financial times in december central banks could best defend their independence by narrowly interpreting their mandate, he said © the financial times limited 2013 | objurgatory indorse besetter | no related information |
(cnn) a man detained in the disappearance of a maryland woman during a vacation in aruba will remain behind bars at least until the end of october, aruban prosecutors said monday gary giordano was arrested by aruban police on august 5, three days after his traveling companion robyn gardner was last seen on a beach on the caribbean island attorney michael lopez went to court monday morning and asked for giordano's release lopez argued that authorities do not have enough evidence to continue to hold the 50 year old maryland man, but the court did not agree 'gary giordano defense attorney's request for release has been denied,' said ann angela from the aruban prosecutor's office giordano's next detainment hearing is scheduled for the end of the month, angela said giordano has maintained that he had been snorkeling with gardner, when he signaled to her to swim back, according to a statement from the prosecutor's office when he reached the beach, gardner was nowhere to be found, he allegedly said he was arrested three days after the incident at the airport in aruba as he waited for a flight back to the united states he has been held for more than 70 days authorities say giordano was the beneficiary of a $15 million accidental death insurance policy on gardner, taken out just days before their trip on friday, giordano hired a new lead defense attorney, chris lejuez, who spent two days in lengthy meetings with giordano at the prison in aruba where he is confined lejuez said giordano has never changed his account of what happened instead, it is the police who come at giordano with different theories as to what might have happened, he said even after all of their investigating, authorities 'cannot prove that a crime has been committed,' lejuez said lejuez said giordano is simply trying to 'hold it together,' and 'feels boxed in, accused of something he did not do' at one point in their conversation, lejuez said, his client 'broke down in tears' of frustration lejuez will be working with giordano's us based attorney, jose baez lejuez, who has 17 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney on the island, represented two aruban security guards who were arrested early in the natalee holloway case in 2005 and were subsequently released the guards had been implicated by joran van der sloot, who said he saw a security guard approach holloway after he dropped her off at her hotel the night she vanished holloway's disappearance remains unsolved van der sloot was arrested but never charged in connection with the disappearance, although he has faced other legal problems since then lejuez bristled at any suggestion of similarity between the gardner case and the holloway case 'you had a suspect that kept changing his story,' lejuez said of van der sloot 'in this case, (giordano's) story has been the same' | giordano aruban robyn gardner's gardner $15 million the end of october | new: giordano's request for release from aruban custody denied . he is a suspect in robyn gardner's disappearance . authorities say giordano is the beneficiary of gardner's $15 million insurance policy . giordano's next hearing is scheduled for the end of october |
washington (cnn) they are losing the battle over higher taxes on the wealthy, so now republicans are threatening a political war next year when it comes time to raise the nation's debt ceiling with cracks appearing in their anti tax facade and polls showing most americans favoring president barack obama's stance in the fiscal cliff negotiations, gop legislators are starting to advocate a tactical retreat to fight another day conservative sen lindsey graham, r south carolina, promised the newly re elected obama 'one hell of a fight' next year if the president forces through his plan for high income earners to pay more taxes without agreeing to substantive steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt 'but there will come a time in february and march where we have to raise the debt ceiling,' graham said tuesday on 'piers morgan tonight' on cnn 'i will not raise the debt ceiling ever again until we get significant entitlement reforms, because if we don't reform entitlements, we're going to become greece,' adding that the situation presented a chance for obama to lead 'but if he doesn't lead, there's going to be one hell of a fight over raising the debt ceiling' survey: 70% want compromise senate republican leader mitch mcconnell concurred on tuesday, telling reporters that 'we are going to insist that we have another discussion about the future of our country in connection with his request of us to raise the debt ceiling' meanwhile, mcconnell and house speaker john boehner on tuesday called for obama to make public the specific spending cuts he will offer in a deficit reduction deal both complained that obama was deliberately holding up progress in negotiations by refusing to provide the details of his cost saving plans 'where are the president's spending cuts?' asked boehner, r ohio, the lead gop negotiator 'the longer the white house slow walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff' in response, white house spokesman jay carney said boehner and mcconnell were wrong because obama detailed his proposed spending cuts more than a year ago he added that republican negotiators had yet to offer any details of their own on how to raise more revenue from taxes, 'and it would be helpful if they did' house democratic leader nancy pelosi, meanwhile, argued that the $1 trillion in spending cuts agreed to by congress in the past two years should be counted toward deficit reduction in the current negotiations 'where are the cuts? they're in bills that you, mr speaker, have voted for,' pelosi, d california, said tuesday three weeks remain to cut a deal before the automatic tax increases and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff go into effect on january 1 without an agreement during the current lame duck session of congress, everyone's taxes will go up, and economists warn the impact of the fiscal cliff could cause another recession obama, boehner speak by telephone after gop counter offer however, the administration has signaled it can delay some of the effects to allow time to work out an agreement when a new congress convenes in january obama has held a campaign style series of public events to back his call for extending bush era tax cuts for 98% of americans while allowing rates to return to higher 1990s levels on income over $250,000 the issue was central to his re election in november, and obama made clear on monday that he intended to adhere to his belief that the wealthy must contribute more 'i'm willing to compromise a little bit,' obama said at a michigan diesel engine plant however, he said higher tax rates on the the top income brackets was 'a principle i'm not going to compromise on' the president's public push appears to be working as polls show that most americans back the president's position a new politico/george washington university survey on monday said 60% of respondents supported obama's proposal compared with 38% who opposed it on tuesday, a gallup poll showed that 70% of adult americans want congress and the white house to reach a compromise that would avoid the fiscal cliff a similar gallup poll last week said 62% wanted compromise the deficit reduction debate hinges on the tax issue, with republicans opposing any increase in tax rates in their quest to shrink government, while obama and democrats want to secure more tax revenue as part of a broader package americans already making big decisions over fiscal cliff both sides call for eliminating tax deductions and loopholes to raise more revenue, but obama also demands an end to the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for the top brackets republicans oppose the return to higher rates, saying it will inhibit job growth because small business owners declare their profits as personal income and therefore would face a tax increase in response, obama and democrats note that their plan already approved by the senate and needing house approval to be signed into law by the president affects just 2% of taxpayers and 3% of small business owners while republicans argue those small business owners account for about half of all business income, democrats say that's because they include law firms, hedge funds traders and other high income operations obama and boehner met face to face on sunday for the first time since november 16 it also was their first one on one meeting in more than a year, when deficit talks broke down the outline for a deal has become clear in recent weeks both sides agree that more revenue from taxes should be part of the equation, with obama seeking $16 trillion and republicans offering $800 billion a source close to the talks said tuesday that the white house had floated the idea of dropping the revenue target to $12 trillion, then went up to $14 trillion on monday later, boehner spokesman michael steel said his side made a counteroffer to the white house 'that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more american jobs' steel also said boehner and obama spoke on the phone after the republican proposal was floated steel provided no further details on the counteroffer or the phone conversation, and repeated boehner's earlier assertion that republicans were waiting for obama to identify specific spending cuts he would be willing to make federal reserve may buy more bonds boehner's side wants additional revenue to come from tax reform, such as eliminating some deductions and loopholes, while obama demands the higher rates on income over $250,000 for families as part of the equation republicans also seek savings from entitlement programs totaling another $800 billion or so, while obama has proposed $400 billion in reduced entitlement costs social security would not be included in the president's plan another sticky issue whether the need to raise the federal debt ceiling early next year should be part of the discussion also remains unresolved obama says absolutely not, while boehner says that any increase in government borrowing to pay its bills must be offset by spending cuts graham's comments this week showed that republicans plan to regroup around negotiations to raise the debt ceiling from my home to the house: how to fix the fiscal cliff he noted that obama proposed making permanent a process originated by mcconnell that would allow the president to increase the debt ceiling and congress to then try to block it, an unlikely scenario given democratic control of the senate 'that's going nowhere,' graham told fox news on monday, adding: 'he's not king he's president' however, a top house democrat said that exploiting the debt ceiling for political gain would backfire on republicans 'threatening to tank the entire economy, which is what would happen if we ever defaulted on our debt, is not a kind of negotiating strategy that is going to be popular with the american people,' rep chris van hollen told msnbc on monday it remains unclear if a deal will happen before the end of the year or if the negotiations will carry over into 2013, after the fiscal cliff takes effect without action now on the fiscal cliff, the nonpartisan tax policy center estimates that middle class families would pay about $2,000 a year more in taxes even with a deal, revisions in the tax code and other changes would mean everyone pays a bit more starting next year all signs point toward a two step approach sought by obama, with initial agreement now on some version of his tax plan with targets set for comprehensive negotiations on a broader deficit reduction deal in the new congress next year opinion: generals, get real and cut pentagon spending such an outcome would put off the main worry of the fiscal cliff, the expiration of the bush era tax cuts that would result in higher rates for everyone obama and democrats say they would then be ready to negotiate significant savings from entitlement programs, while republicans say they need to first see commitment on entitlement reforms before accepting any higher tax rates mcconnell, r kentucky, warned on the senate floor on tuesday that 'until the president gets specific about cuts, nobody should trust democrats to put a dime in new revenue toward real deficit reduction or to stop their shakedown of the taxpayers at the top 2%' he and boehner want obama to take some of the political heat for proposing cuts to entitlement programs and other government spending on tuesday, congressional democrats rejected any cuts to the medicaid health care system for poor and disabled americans as part of a fiscal cliff deal the opposition by democrats showed the pressure obama faces from his liberal base to avoid significant changes to the entitlement program that benefits millions some in congress warn that the legislative process will need at least a week to work through potentially complex measures from any proposed deal, meaning there is a de facto deadline of christmas day at the very latest for negotiators retiring sen kent conrad, d north dakota, predicted tuesday on msnbc that a deal would get worked out in a week's time 'it would be wise on their part not to come too quickly with a deal because that would give all the interest groups a chance to get organized and try to kill it,' conrad said 'and we know that on the right, on the left, special interest groups are just salivating at the chance to attack any agreement because, look, any agreement is going to have controversy attached to it' ireport: how will the fiscal cliff affect you? cnn's dana bash, deirdre walsh, ashley killough and kevin liptak contributed to this report | white house republicans boehner obama graham gop americans | new: white house, republicans exchange counteroffers; boehner, obama talk on phone . new: graham promises 'one hell of a fight' over debt ceiling hike unless deficit cut . the white house challenges gop leaders over who lacks specifics . polls show most americans back the president on raising taxes on the rich |
(ewcom) holding off a nice run from '22 jump street,' the romantic comedy 'think like a man too' took the top spot this weekend with a $30 million opening that's great news for kevin hart, the gleeful star and narrator of the steve harvey inspired ensemble piece, though early estimates predicted the sequel performing closer to the tune of $35 million the sequel didn't match the original's 2012 opening weekend kitty of $336 million, but the laffer also cost a modest $24 million to make sony predicts a strong weekday play going forward, buoyed by man's strong word of mouth and a cinemascore rating there's a couple of great jokes in 'think like a man too' where the lone square fella of the core vegas bachelor party suggests the boys eschew a night of gambling and strip clubs and catch a performance of 'jersey boys' instead 'it won like eight tonys!' he says when the men recoil whether or not it was a pointed reference to 'think like a man too's' fellow new release or not is unknown, but the clint eastwood adaptation of 'jersey boys' hit a bit of a flat note in fourth place with $135 million going forward broadway fans and older audiences may seek it out as a break from the jarring noise of superheroes and metal machines clashing angrily into each other (though i'm not sure kevin hart and his vegas buddies would make that bet) but with a budget of $40 million, 'jersey boys,' which earned an impressive a cinemascore vote, still has some major singing to do for its supper meanwhile in its second week of release '22 jump street' nearly had its teeth in the no 1 spot the channing tatum/jonah hill buddy comedy took in $29 million this weekend, bringing its domestic grosses past $111 million with a second week drop of 498% in domestic markets, and a $141 million pickup in international territories, sony executives should be bumping chests also holding strong is the parent tested, kid approved 'how to train your dragon 2,' which pulled in $253 million in its second week of release all four aforementioned movies would do well to bow down to month old 'maleficent,' the angelina jolie phenom that dropped just 297% this weekend with $13 million the fairy queen will not go gentle into that good night here is how your top five shook out this weekend: 1 think like a man too $30 million 2 22 jump street $29 million 3 how to train your dragon 2 $253 million 4 jersey boys $135 million 5 maleficent $13 million see the original story at ewcom click here to try 2 risk free issues of entertainment weekly © 2011 entertainment weekly and time inc all rights reserved | intrusts towered cottontop | no related information |
(cnn) the united states and other western powers have 'exacerbated somalia's downward spiral' and must revise their policies in the east african country, a human rights watch report has warned recent image of islamist fighters at a camp in the northern outskirts of mogadishu the report, released monday, blames the policies under president george w bush for 'breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat' 'the new administration of us president barack obama should urgently review us policy in somalia and the broader horn of africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor,' the report said it also cites key european governments for failing 'to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis, with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive tfg (somali transitional government) forces will improve stability' somalia's weak transitional government, backed by ethiopian forces, continues to battle islamic militias with the fighting concentrated in the capital, mogadishu ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from the country, as required under a recent cease fire agreement ethiopia invaded somalia two years ago and successfully routed the islamic militia that seized control of the capital the hrw report states that the united states 'directly backed ethiopia's intervention' since the 2006 overthrow of the islamic courts union, somalia has suffered from 'unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses' by all warring parties 'all sides have used indiscriminate force as a matter of routine, and in 2008 violence has taken on a new dimension with the targeted murders of aid workers and civil society activists,' the report states 'the human rights and humanitarian catastrophe facing somalia today threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of somalis on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s' heavy fighting in mogadishu and across somalia has driven more than a million people from their homes the lawlessness has also spilled onto the seas off the horn of africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected somali pirates who demand large ransoms human rights watch offers specific recommendations to the somali and ethiopian governments, the main militias, and the international community to address the human rights abuses it calls on the west to 'insist upon an end to the impunity that has fueled the worst abuses and the right place to start is by moving the un security council to establish a commission of inquiry to document abuses and lay the groundwork for accountability' journalist abdinasir mohamed guled contributed to this report | sesquinonal stultification reciprocitarian | no related information |
washington (cnn) more than two dozen guests joined first lady michelle obama at the president's speech to a joint session of congress tuesday night leonard abess jr was recognized by president obama during tuesday's state of the nation speech one person on the first lady's guest list was leonard abess jr, a miami banker who received a $60 million bonus from the proceeds from the sale of shares of city national bank in florida and gave it out to his 399 workers and 72 former workers during his speech, president obama said abess didn't tell anyone about his generosity, but when the local newspaper found out, abess simply said, 'i knew some of these people since i was 7 years old i didn't feel right getting the money myself' abess demonstrates the kind of 'responsibility' the president has called for from high profile financial ceos, the white house said obama contrasted abess' story with the greed that he said got the country into the problems it faces now 'ceos won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet those days are over,' obama said obama also referenced in his speech an eighth grader who wrote a letter to members of congress appealing for help in rebuilding her deteriorating school ty'sheoma bethea, a student at the jv martin junior high school in dillon, south carolina, was invited after a letter she sent lawmakers appealing for help rebuilding her school made its way to president obama obama talked about the school during his first news conference earlier in february as evidence of crumbling schools across the country other guests of the first lady tuesday night included injured afghanistan veteran spc jonathan n james, equal pay advocate lilly ledbetter and blake jones, the co founder and president of a solar electric company the president and first lady also invited vermont gov jim douglas one of the president's key republican allies among the nation's governors in passing the massive $787 billion stimulus bill and ohio gov ted strickland, a key democratic governor whose state is among the hardest hit by the economic downturn the practice of inviting guests to sit in the house gallery is a tradition dating back to 1982 when president ronald reagan recognized lenny skutnick a good samaritan who pulled a survivor out of the frozen potomac river in washington after an air florida plane crashed into the 14th street bridge since then, presidential administrations steadily increased the number of invitees to the first lady box, often including prominent athletes and celebrities, citizen heroes, members of the military, and individuals likely to benefit from policies proposed by the president it has also become customary for the president to acknowledge a handful of guests sitting in the box during his speech, especially those who have a particularly compelling story or illustrate a point he is trying to make earlier tuesday, house speaker nancy pelosi announced an expansive guest list of her own, including hero us airways pilot chesley 'sully' sullenberger and several other crew members of flight 1549 cnn's alexander mooney contributed to this report | nonliterarily symmetricality odometrical | no related information |
beirut, lebanon (cnn) a lebanese bank has denied accusations by the us treasury department that it is involved in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of a drug kingpin and rejected claims it has links with hezbollah, the lebanon based militia on thursday the treasury described the lebanese canadian bank in beirut as a 'financial institution of primary money laundering concern' the treasury said it had reason to believe that managers at the bank were complicit in money laundering by ayman joumaa, an alleged trafficker accused by us authorities of shipping drugs from south america to europe and the middle east through west africa the treasury also said its action in designating the lebanese canadian bank (lcb) exposed links between the bank and hezbollah which is listed as a terrorist organization by the united states designation means that us persons are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with individuals listed, whose assets under us jurisdiction are frozen us under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence stuart levey said: 'any financial institution that collaborates in illicit conduct on this scale risks losing its access to the united states' the bank's chairman, georges zard abou jaoude, told cnn friday that the bank had no relationship whatsoever with hezbollah nor to the best of its knowledge with anyone designated by the us treasury department jaoude said the bank had identified an account in joumaa's name but it had not been used in four years it had notified lebanese regulators about the account, and the bank's books had been regularly inspected by the special investigation commission, a lebanese task force set up to counter money laundering the treasury said joumaa's network 'launders hundreds of millions of dollars monthly through accounts held at lcb, as well as through trade based money laundering involving consumer goods throughout the world' in its statement issued thursday, the treasury estimated that as much as $200 million was being laundered on a monthly basis 'at least one of the individuals involved in this global drug trafficking and money laundering network has worked directly with lcb managers to conduct his transactions,' the treasury said the us drug enforcement administration, which was also involved in the investigation, said: 'the lebanese canadian bank for years has participated in a sophisticated money laundering scheme involving used cars purchased in the united states and consumer goods overseas' the treasury said the bank's links to hezbollah included a subsidiary in gambia called prime bank, formed in 2009, which it said was 'partially owned by a lebanese individual known to be a supporter of hezbollah ' jaoude told cnn the bank rigorously adhered to all blacklists published by financial authorities around the world he said the bank had not been contacted in advance by the us treasury's office of foreign assets control before thursday's announcement and he was urgently trying to contact us authorities 'all our books are open to the american treasury,' jaoude said 'we have to clear our name,' he said in its most recent annual report, the bank said 'it is fighting money laundering by complying with international and [lebanese] central bank circulars' the lebanese canadian bank has 35 branches in lebanon, as well as its subsidiary in gambia and an office in canada the bank has grown quickly in recent years, from assets of $283 billion in 2005 to $518 billion in 2009 ayman joumaa was designated in january along with nine individuals and 19 entities connected to his drug trafficking and money laundering a treasury statement said he 'coordinated the transportation, distribution, and sale of multi ton shipments of cocaine from south america and has laundered the proceeds from the sale of cocaine in europe and the middle east, according to investigations led by the drug enforcement administration' joumaa's whereabouts are unknown he is believed to hold lebanese and colombian passports one of the entities designated along with joumaa was a company that runs a used car business in benin and congo out of southern lebanon its manager, iman kharoubi, told lebanon's daily star last month: 'we work in lebanon and congo and benin in africa but we do not know who ayman joumaa is; we don't have anything to do with him' cnn's attempts to reach kharoubi were unsuccessful for several years, us authorities have alleged that hezbollah is profiting from drug trafficking from south america to europe via west africa in june 2008, the us treasury department designated two venezuelans of lebanese descent as hezbollah financiers and supporters | indazole overventurously hydrocorisae | no related information |
london, england (cnn) part nationalized british banking group rbs announced massive losses for 2008, totaling £241 billion ($347 billion) on thursday the results are the worst in british corporate history rbs's loss exceeded the previous record set by vodafone in 2006 by more than £10 million ($142 million) 'last year was undeniably tough and a worsening economic environment means that 2009 will present significant challenges in all of our markets,' said philip hampton, rbs chairman 'the path to recovery will be neither smooth nor straight' the results were not quite as bad as had been expected, said cnn business anchor charles hodson, and they caused rbs shares to rise 255 percent by close of play thursday 'this is a watershed,' hodson said 'rbs hopes this is a positive turning point that now this is where the recovery begins, with the old regime being laid to rest' watch as cnn's charles hodson analyses rbs results » hodson added: 'rbs will hope this is as bad as it gets but there's a body of thought that says it's badly positioned' the 2008 financial report from rbs includes a three to five year restructuring plan that will focus the group's business in the united kingdom, with more limited global operations the plan includes changes in management, isolation of toxic assets, and selling or closing 'non core' businesses last october, rbs was one of three major banks the british treasury pumped $63 billion into to keep liquid the other two financial institutions were hbos and lloyds tsb the bailout saw the government take a 70 percent stake in rbs, making the government the bank's largest shareholder and effectively nationalizing the company 'we have moved purposefully to take major decisions that are necessary to restructure the group,' said stephen hester, rbs group chief executive 'we are charting a path to standalone strength and with it the goal of justifying the support of the uk government and all our shareholders' in january, the government announced the asset protection scheme an effort to help british banks caught up in the global financial crisis the treasury revealed details of the plan thursday the plan has a number of facets benefiting the bank and the government under the plan, the british government will insure £325 billion in rbs assets rbs must pay a 'participation fee' of £65 billion to the treasury and bear 195 billion of any loss a sort of deductible in addition, rbs will promise to lend £25 billion this year £9 billion for mortgage lending and £16 billion to businesses that commitment is key for the government, which has been urging banks to increase lending the government will also inject an extra £13 billion in capital a move that will raise the government's stake in rbs to 80 percent rbs must now start restructuring and cutting costs, and layoffs are likely 'we're going to see a much slimmer bank, a much smaller balance sheet, several billion dollars' worth of costs taken out, and hopefully that will guarantee them a future,' hodson said the royal bank of scotland is one of britain's oldest banks it was founded in edinburgh, scotland, in 1727 and branched out to england in 1874 after winning a takeover battle for british bank natwest in 2000, rbs set its sights on dutch bank abn amro two years ago, rbs bought abn amro as part of a consortium with santander and fortis, paying $15 billion for its share out of a total of $75 billion abn amro was the source of big write downs for rbs, leading to the government bailout in october former rbs chairman tom mckillop recently admitted publicly that buying abn amro was a mistake earlier this month, former rbs chief executive fred goodwin told members of the british parliament he was sorry for the bank's part in the global financial crisis watch consternation at goodwin's £16 million pension » 'there is a profound, unqualified apology for all of the stress that has been caused,' goodwin said but he said the troubles at the bank were not all due to him 'it's just too simple if you want to blame it all on me,' goodwin said 'if you want to blame it all on me and close the book now, that'll get the job done very quickly, but it does not go anywhere close to the cause of all of this' goodwin, 50, faced scrutiny thursday over his annual pension of 650,000 pounds ($933,000) following rbs's announcement british chancellor of the exchequer alistair darling urged goodwin to give up his pension, telling the bbc that 'these excesses' cannot be justified | british rbs $347 billion british treasury $63 billion | british banking group rbs posts huge losses for 2008, totaling $347 billion . results are worst in british corporate history . rbs was one of three major banks british treasury pumped $63 billion into |
amman, jordan (cnn) jordan's king abdullah ii swore in a new government wednesday with a mandate for political reform, a former general at its head and several opposition and media figures among its ranks abdullah shook up his cabinet last week amid protests at home while the king gave new prime minister marouf al bakhit orders to implement 'genuine political reform,' bakhit's appointment was seen as an attempt to shore up support among jordan's bedouin tribes the bedrock of the monarchy bakhit is a former national security official who served a previous stint as prime minister, ending in 2007 his cabinet includes members of several jordanian political parties, opposition groups, the editor of a newspaper that is sometimes critical of the government and one person considered an independent islamist jordan's economy has been hit hard by the global economic downturn and fast rising commodity prices as in nearby egypt, where longtime strongman hosni mubarak faces the toughest challenge to his nearly 30 year rule, youth unemployment is high officials close to the palace told cnn last week that abdullah is trying to turn a regional upheaval into an opportunity for reform bakhit will serve as defense minister as well as prime minister in the new government, while foreign minister nasser judeh and finance minister mohammad abu hammour kept their portfolios in the shakeup hussein mjalli, a former head of the jordanian lawyer's association and member of the country's opposition baath party, is the new justice minister a journalist, tareq masarweh, joined the cabinet as culture minister, while taher odwan, the editor of the jordanian daily newspaper arab al yawm, will take the post of communications minister jordan's muslim brotherhood has refused an offer to join the government, arguing that the prime minister should be chosen by parliament instead of the king but an independent islamist, abdul raheem ekour, was named the kingdom's islamic affairs minister cnn's caroline faraj contributed to this report | abdullah ii cabinet | king abdullah ii swore in a new cabinet wednesday . the new ministers include several opposition figures |
(ewcom ) producers announced thursday that lindsay lohan will star in the west end production of david mamet's 'speed the plow' in the hollywood satire, she'll be playing karen, an ambitious and seductive secretary, in a story about two film producers trying to close a big deal madonna famously played the role in the 1988 original new york show ew: see full coverage of stage the play, directed by lindsay posner, will open oct 2 and run to nov 29 at the playhouse theatre in london lohan's most recent film work was 2013′s the canyons, and her tumultuous own reality show, lindsay, aired this past spring james franco wrote a short story about lindsay lohan officially, this will be the troubled 27 year old star's first time performing onstage, though she made a memorable appearance at the north shore high school winter talent show, among many others see the original story at ewcom click here to try 2 risk free issues of entertainment weekly © 2011 entertainment weekly and time inc all rights reserved | bunko flamingo predormition | no related information |
washington (cnn) as voters headed to the polls on election day, several of mitt romney's senior campaign aides said, they truly thought he was going to win the presidency and retake the white house republicans lost four years earlier 'i was cautiously optimistic,' romney pollster neil newhouse said instead, barack obama garnered 51% of the popular vote and 332 electoral votes to 206 and approximately 48% of the popular vote for his opponent newhouse was one of the key romney campaign officials who joined counterparts from obama's campaign at a harvard university symposium last week that examined the election, the strategies and how various factors influenced the outcome reporting about the symposium, a post election ritual dating back to 1972, was embargoed until audio recordings of the forum were released to the public on monday on election day: romney polling showed obama lead in ohio on sunday during a session examining the general election, romney aides said they believed their campaign had an intensity and enthusiasm advantage that would help spur voters to come out in larger numbers for romney than the public polls were indicating 'we thought that we had the potential to tilt the partisan electorate a couple points in our direction,' newhouse said what the republicans didn't see was a massive and effective get out the vote operation by the president's campaign, which increased its share of the hispanic, african american and youth vote over 2008 rates as they heard the efficiency, breadth and depth of the obama initiative described firsthand, romney officials said their obama counterparts deserved much credit both for the organization and for the results romney re joins marriott's corporate board the general election panel, moderated by cnn chief political analyst gloria borger and cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, was just one part of the event sponsored by harvard's institute of politics besides the officials from the romney and obama campaigns, key personnel representing the republican primary contenders as well as strategists for the major super pacs participated in various sessions looking at the election full audio: harvard institute of politics symposium looking back at some of their efforts, romney aides said they realized they had work to do to try to increase their support among latinos especially in light of some of romney's comments made during the republican primary advocating self deportation of illegal immigrants romney aides maintained they did not consider having the candidate apologize for those remarks when the general election came 'we shifted resources to try to improve our numbers with hispanics in florida we did see some movement in florida but we definitely had issues we inherited we also did the same in nevada,' campaign manager matt rhoades said when asked about romney's secretly recorded comments at a fundraiser where he said 47% of the country would not vote for him because they are 'dependent on government,' officials said they did not know it existed immediately after it was released, campaign officials researched to see if there was any editing of the tape that changed what the candidate said then aides had to go into damage control mode analysis: why romney lost rhoades and others credited romney for knowing he made a mistake and not blaming others 'i remember speaking to him and there was a lot of negativity about our campaign as a whole, but he's a person who takes personal responsibility about it,' rhoades said 'and he would tell me 'you didn't say 47%, matt stuart (stevens, romney's senior campaign adviser) didn't say 47% i did' and obviously it was not a high moment for our campaign, but i think it speaks a lot to who mitt romney is, and i also like to think it speaks a lot to who this campaign team is that we're able to make a run and come back from that' rhoades discussed how the campaign was having problems in september after the republican convention confronting stories of infighting but praised romney, saying he never 'pushed through and plowed through' romney aides they 'never allowed ourselves to believe' they had no chance of winning obama aides said the roughest point of their campaign was the president's performance in the first debate in denver david axelrod, obama's senior campaign adviser, told the panel that aides had purposely decided to avoid bringing up such issues as romney's experience at bain capital or the 47% comments, but saw that strategy backfire 'we had a strategy of limited engagement that we took to an illogical extreme,' axelrod said, a comment that was met by laughter from the attendees 'what we assumed was that these guys, having practiced for as long as and as hard as they had, had an answer prepared, and we just felt like we were going to lead into something that may not be productive,' he added one key missed opportunity was when the republican nominee said he had been in business for 25 years, didn't know about tax breaks for companies moving jobs overseas and that 'i maybe need to get a new accountant' 'there were answers that we could have given but it would have been more personal in nature,' axelrod observed 'if there was a preparation problem, it was on that strategic level' obama engaged in more rigorous preparation for the second and third debates one part of that was a focus on reaction shots, especially during the town hall forum where he would be on camera a lot other interesting items to emerge: florida, florida, florida: the obama campaign had decided to wait until mid september before deciding whether to fully commit financially to an ad campaign in florida team obama saw some encouraging poll numbers that showed the state competitive after the democratic convention and dedicated $40 million it was a 'big moment,' campaign manager jim messina said, because it was one of the states the republicans had to get back into their column in order to get the 270 electoral votes needed for election the bain attacks: team romney was aware that attacks on romney's tenure at bain capital had been used in romney's previous runs for office in 1994 and 2002, so the campaign in the fall of 2011 set up a task force headed by bob white, one of his closest friends and also a former bain executive, to be ready to answer any charges when the pro newt gingrich super pac went up with bain attacks in january during the republican primaries, rhoades said, the team had rebuttal information ready within 24 to 48 hours while rhoades said aides thought the attacks could come during the primaries, 'we were surprised a little by the intensity' mr preparation: beth myers, who directed romney's debate preparation, said she wanted getting ready to debate the president to be the 'manhattan project' of the campaign the first general election debate prep came in june with policy sessions because officials knew this would be a good chance to give the campaign a jolt there were policy and strategy sessions in june, july and august myers made sure romney was armed with a research book for any cross country trip during the democratic convention in early september, romney went to debate camp doing five mock debates in three days and for 'fun at night' the aides would do whiteboard review sessions romney did 16 mock debates in total because those close to him knew that one way to help him relax was to make sure he was as prepared as possible rubio and ryan in political spotlight cnn's peter hamby and mark preston contributed to this report | disservices dalles wumman | no related information |
(cnn) jenni rivera add the mexican american superstar's name to a long list of beloved celebrities killed in the crash of a charter aircraft that list includes singer/actress aaliyah, golfer payne stewart and musicians ronnie van zant, buddy holly and ritchie valens in 2008, travis barker of blink 182 and adam 'dj am' goldstein were critically injured and four other passengers were killed when their charter jet crashed on takeoff in south carolina overall, the industry is overwhelmingly safe yet sunday's crash in northern mexico that killed rivera and six others, including a pilot and co pilot, has focused attention on charter safety related: plane owner linked to troubled businessman one red flag, experts say, is the 43 year old plane's age 'the learjet is a pretty reliable airplane, but this one was really old,' says ladd sanger, an attorney and licensed pilot who specializes in plane crashes 'as a general rule, over 40 years old, and i think you need to be concerned' however on its own age is not an indicator of an airplane's safety, says john mcgraw an ex faa deputy administrator 'this plane was 10 minutes in flight, so you wouldn't expect that to be a factor in this type of accident,' he said in general, experts say travelers can reduce their risk of choosing a charter that's poorly run or even illegal by asking a few smart questions owner of plane in jenni rivera crash under dea investigation pilots make sure the charter is well established and employs its own pilots, experts say leonard goldberg is president and owner of gold aviation, a 17 year old outfit based in ft lauderdale, florida, that flies six aircraft 'our search process is very stringent,' he says 'we see dozens of candidates at least before we settle on a pilot, which is pretty common, for good quality operators' the faa doesn't impose age limits for charter pilots, although pilots for airliners and other commercial carriers must retire at age 64 charter pilots must pass flight medical exams, which increase in frequency with age faa certificate in the united states, ask to see the charter operator's faa part 135 air carrier certificate it's what legally defines an operator as a charter carrier 'it should be posted inside their building,' sanger says brokers be aware that if you use a broker instead of booking directly from a charter operator, you're putting your journey in the hands of a middleman critics call it 'jet roulette' because you're essentially trusting the broker to hire a safe and legal charter plane maintenance ask charter operators if their firm performs its own aircraft maintenance find out if training for the charter company's mechanics is approved by the aircraft manufacturers safety audits many charters and brokers hire outside companies to oversee, rate and suggest improvements for their safety practices ask about safety audits insurance sanger says he has seen more than his share of illegal 'bootleg' charter operations, and one way to easily smoke them out is to ask about their insurance liability depending on the value of the plane, goldberg says look for a range between $5 million and $300 million 'get a copy of the policy,' sanger says'if they don't have at least a $10 million policy and you're chartering a jet run' the faa does require charter companies to carry insurance but it does not require insurance for non charter private planes that makes it very tempting, sanger says, for private plane owners to rake in fat profits by pretending to be a legal charter operator 'they need to pass a law that says you have to have insurance on any airplane, just like they do cars,' he says when contracting with a non us charter operator, it gets more complicated rules and regulations are different in every country, underscoring the importance of grilling the operator about maintenance, documentation and oversight appearances can mean a lot 'sometimes all you need to do is look at a plane to know you don't want to get on it,' sanger said deadly charter accidents increased in the united states last year, according to the faa, up from six fatal accidents in 2010 to 16 in 2011, when pilots logged more than 3 million hours in flight deaths rose from 17 to 41 worldwide so far this year, out of more than 17,600 business jets which include small private and charter planes there have been 12 major accidents and 25 deaths, according to the flight safety foundation cnn's mike ahlers, mariano castillo and aaron cooper contributed to this report | mexican jenni rivera sunday charter | mexican american superstar jenni rivera died in charter jet crash sunday . charter jet travel safe worldwide, experts say . charter owner, plane crash lawyer offer safety tips on booking |
havana, cuba (cnn) the cuban government announced tuesday it plans to end the country's dual currency system presently, most cubans are paid in the cuban peso, or cup, while the vast majority of goods on the island are available only with the hard currency convertible peso, or cuc convertible pesos are pegged to the us dollar, while the cuban pesos are worth only about 4 cents each neither peso is accepted as currency outside of cuba, where, according to government statistics, most cubans make about $20 a month from their official salaries the dual system came into being after the collapse of the soviet union, when cuba introduced the us dollar as the country's second currency in 2004, the government replaced the dollar with the convertible peso the dual currency system is unpopular with many cubans, who complain that the cuban pesos they received their salaries in are not accepted in stores that carry sought after imported goods the announcement in the cuban communist party newspaper granma said the change is to be a gradual process, but gave no timetable 'the currency unification isn't a measure that will resolve on its own the current problems of the economy but its adoption is vital to restoring value to the cuban peso,' the announcement in granma read for months, cuban officials have said ending the two currency system was a priority but the move would have a major impact on the government's gradual attempts to move from a centralized, communist style economy the announcement tuesday said the cuban central bank will continue to back both currencies and give cubans time to convert their savings | pucklike semiovoidal friendless | no related information |
(cnn) carly and her mom are friends on facebook, but that doesn't mean they share everything the 17 year old from marin county, california, has refined her facebook privacy settings so that her mother can't see all the posts that fill her timeline her father, meanwhile, never checks the social network 'right now, my mom can only see things that i post she can't see anything i'm tagged in or anything that my friends say to me on my profile,' said carly, a high school senior who asked to be identified only by her first name 'she doesn't know that, though i'm like, 80% sure that every other teenager has done that too' with teen agers and their parents (grandparents, even) increasingly active on social networks, both generations are joined in a delicate dance over privacy, safety and freedom of expression online interviews with a handful of teens and adults suggest that some teens seek out corners of social media where they can communicate with their friends and peers away from the watchful eye, or embarrassing comments, of their parents parents, meanwhile, are grappling with how to monitor their kids' online activity and keep them safe without being stifling or intrusive and both are seeking ways to coexist peacefully on the few social networks they do share reputation is everything today's teenagers are social media natives they've grown up putting their personal information online and are comfortable sharing photos and videos of themselves, updating relationship statuses and checking into locations what they don't share their parents' level of concern about privacy and worries about companies or the government abusing their data according to a recent study by the pew internet and american life project, only 9% of teens reported being 'very concerned' about third parties accessing their data that doesn't mean they're reckless with their personal information, according to pew research most teens exert careful control over what information is seen by whom, but more because they are acutely aware of how each nugget of posted information, even the number of likes it can get, shapes how they are perceived by peers pew found that teens have developed a variety of ways to control their privacy they are comfortable navigating facebook's notoriously complicated privacy settings, and only 14% have public facing facebook profiles they also edit what appears on their profile, deleting posts, comments and unwanted tags for teens looking to hide social media activity from adults, elaborate privacy settings can sometimes be unnecessary fifty eight percent of teens said they posted updates that were inside jokes or coded messages that only certain friends would understand seeking out new online homes many teens are learning how to compartmentalize the different parts of their lives online facebook is the most popular site for both teens and parents, according to pew, but teens reported 'waning enthusiasm' in the site in pew focus groups they cited the colonization of the site by adults and excessive amounts of 'drama' some teens use facebook for public posts but message each other on lesser known social platforms that their parents aren't aware of or haven't signed up for many teens are also on twitter, instagram, tumblr, vine and pinterest sites where they report feeling less social pressure and more freedom to express themselves twitter has seen rapid growth among young users, while vine, with its looping six second videos, is a creative form of messaging for a visually oriented generation even straight laced linkedin is courting teenagers earlier this month the social media site for professionals lowered its minimum age to 14 from 18 and announced special new pages for universities, hoping to edge into the college selection process if teenagers really don't want something to be seen, they'll retreat to more private messaging tools such as kik, whatsapp or snapchat, which can be used to send private messages to groups of friends snapchat is a mobile app which lets users share photos or videos that disappear after a few seconds for that reason, it's gained a reputation for promoting the exchange of risquã© images 'on snapchat anything goes!' said carly, the bay area teen 'snapchat gets a little crazier because it's supposed to be 'erased' after 10 seconds or less not sure if that's actually true, but there's definitely a different sense of security with snapchat than facebook or instagram' making peace with parents some kids and parents say they have worked out ways to share social networks harmoniously according to the recent pew study, only 5% of teens reported setting up filters for their parents, and the majority (70%) are friends with their parents on facebook julie larue and her 16 year old daughter are both mainly on facebook, but the two have agreed on some boundaries 'her ground rule for me is to not comment on her friends' comments unless they are directed to me, and not to tag her in photos without her consent,' said larue, who lives in baldwinsville, new york larue also stays off of her daughter's other social networks, including tumblr, twitter and deviantart in exchange, her daughter is heeding her warnings against sharing personal information online and has promised not to post any photos she wouldn't be comfortable showing her parents along the same lines, carly's mom will tag her daughter in photos and like her posts, but she doesn't comment much because she knows it's embarrassing to her daughter carly, for her part, tries to keep it clean 'i really try to not have any pictures of me from any parties or any captions/comments with swear words but it's hard to be 100% clean when your entire life is online,' she said | facebook the 81% 72% us | teens and their parents are grappling with how to navigate shared online spaces like facebook . facebook is the most popular site among the 81% of teens and 72% of us adults on social media . some teens seek out corners of social media where they can chat more privately with friends . parents are grappling with how to keep kids safe online without being intrusive |
(cnn) rep bill young of florida, the longest serving republican member of the house, died friday evening, his chief of staff said harry glenn said that cw bill young was surrounded by family when he died at 6:50 pm at walter reed national military medical center in bethesda, maryland 'the cause of death was complications related to a chronic injury,' glenn said news of young's death came two days after his family said in a statement that he was 'gravely ill' the 22 term representative wasn't on the house floor for the vote on reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling just last week, he announced that he wouldn't run for another term 'it's my time,' the 82 year old told the tampa bay times in a phone interview as to why he was retiring, young said, 'i don't know that i would pick out one thing it's a lot of things' among them, young said, was his frustration with congressional gridlock 'i'm a little disappointed it seems there's too much politics it's a different congress,' he told the times young was first elected to the house in november 1970 after serving 10 years in the florida state senate and 43 years in the us house, young spent more than half a century in elected office he served with a total of eight presidents during his tenure, young was heralded for his expertise on defense issues he chaired the full house appropriations committee and its defense subcommittee during his tenure on capitol hill former house speaker tom foley dead at 84 people we've lost in 2013 | young the us house | rep young had served 22 terms in the us house . young, 82, announced last week he would not seek re election . his family said earlier this week the congressman was 'gravely ill' |
(cnn) basketball is often viewed as a game of opposing sides but one man is using the game to bring young catholic and protestant men together on the same team in belfast, northern ireland after graduating college, michael evans coached basketball at two high schools in belfast, northern ireland former college basketball player, michael evans, 26, in partnership with another basketball player, dave cullen, created the organization full court peace to help forge friendships between between schools in the divided communities he spoke with cnn's nicole lapin about how full court peace works the following is an edited transcript of the interview lapin: so you wanted to use basketball as a bridge but you started full court peace almost to dupe these youngsters into working together? evans: yea that's one way to put it i think what i did was i just coached basketball separately in two high schools and, uh, on the opposite sides of these walls i've been talking about and i got roughly five on each side to latch on to me these 16 year old boys you know, they came from broken homes and i showed them loyalty that's what coaches do, is show their players loyalty and the kids latched on to me, so much that i was able to sell the idea of making an integrated team out of their enemies and it was a complete success watch more on michael evan's organization » lapin: they didn't think that they were going to work with the other side like robert, for example, one of your players who is protestant what did he think when he was going to work with a catholic team? evans:that was a pretty discouraging moment throughout the whole process of forming that team i told robert the news and he shunned me he couldn't believe that the time i'd spent with him alone was really just basically me trying to convince him to join this team i thought i might have lost him lapin: now he's also friends with the other side to this day there was a little bit of hesitation at first, i know they did speak, but are they still friends? evans:they are still friends i recently went back to belfast and had dinner with a lot of them all together and the ones that couldn't meet for the integrated dinner asked about their team mates the neighborhoods are too divided for them to visit each other so they communicate a lot online through bebocom which is a social networking site over there and they keep up with each other they're not bashful about having pictures of each other, arm in arm on their social networking sites, and they communicate through me about each other because i'm in touch with all of them lapin: so that's amazing, michael how do you think you do this? how does sports diplomacy, which is really what this is, succeed where world leaders, prime ministers and presidents have failed? evans: i mean just because a politician, two politicians come together and say they agree on something, it doesn't mean that the people on the ground are going to be agreeing on it and most importantly the youth that are growing up in these environments, that doesn't mean that they agree with what's going on so that's sort of just a face to the whole solution i think what sport does, namely basketball, is that you put kids in a small, very small group together and they're forced to communicate in order to succeed; in order to win and then the coaches role is very unique in that the kids all bond over having one voice and one person telling them what to do and guiding them along and helping them with success | cyclothem sagitta unelongated | no related information |
(cnn) fighting has prompted thousands of people in the southern part of sudan's darfur region to seek security and shelter at a refugee camp in the northern part of the war torn area, according to the united nations a member of the justice and equality movement (jem) stands guard near the sudan chad border in 2007 the un's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (ocha) reported that fighting in muhajeria and shearia between sudanese government forces, and the rebel justice and equality movement (jem), drove over 15,000 people north to the zam zam camp the water supply to the camp is becoming strained with displaced people arriving there every day, ocha said wednesday the government of sudan has waged a brutal counter insurgency against militias for the past six years, a war that some international critics have characterized as genocide an estimated 300,000 people in the western sudanese region have been killed through combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the united nations an additional 27 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and the violent janjaweed militias fighting continues in the region despite the jem and local government signing a 'goodwill and confidence building' agreement earlier in february, according to the un the un african union allied peacekeeping mission (unamid) will begin building a new community police center near zam zam in the next two weeks, the un announced saturday the violence in darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the sudanese government to counter the rebels, sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with arab militias that went from village to village in darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the united nations, western governments and human rights organizations the militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength last year, sudanese president omar al bashir was charged with genocide by the international criminal court for the government's campaign of violence in darfur under pressure to end the fighting, al bashir in november agreed to an immediate and unconditional cease fire in darfur but the rebel justice and equality movement was not included in the case fire talks cnn's katy byron contributed to this report | darfur six years 2003 sudanese | refugees seek security and shelter at refugee camp in north darfur . darfur government has waged counter insurgency war against militias for six years . darfur violence erupted in 2003 after rebel uprising against sudanese government |
(cnn) it's not over in steubenville, ohio although a judge has found two steubenville teenagers guilty of raping a 16 year old girl in a case that showcased jaw dropping examples of teenage alcohol use and tawdry text messaging all wrapped in allegations of a cover up ohio's attorney general said monday it's now time for a grand jury to look at whether anyone else should be charged 'i think the steubenville community needs really two things one is to get this over with,' attorney general mike dewine said in a nod to frustration the continued investigation is likely to cause in the city a small, down on its luck ohio river mill town that's been the focus of intense criticism and media coverage for months 'but the other is to believe that justice has been done, that we have left no stone unturned and that anyone who is criminally liable has been brought to justice,' he said healing process after rape never ends the victim's mother told cnn that the verdicts are 'the start of a new beginning for my daughter' but she added, 'we need to stress the importance of helping those in need and to stand up for what is right' 'we hope that from this something good can arise,' she said 'i feel i have an opportunity to bring an awareness to others, possibly change the mentality of a youth or help a parent to have more of an awareness to where their children are and what they are doing the adults need to take responsibility and guide these children' but the emotions inflamed by the case echoed past sunday's verdict, with sheriff's deputies and state investigators arresting two teenage girls monday for threatening the victim over twitter the girls one 15, one 16, both from steubenville were in a juvenile lockup monday night, awaiting an appearance before a judge tuesday morning, jefferson county sheriff fred abdalla said grand jury dewine said state investigators have examined tens of thousands of text messages, images and videos and talked to 56 witnesses from teenagers who attended the parties to assistant football coaches and the high school principal but 16 people who may know something about what happened that august night have refused to talk, he said 'i have reached the conclusion that this investigation cannot be completed that we cannot bring finality to this matter without the convening of a grand jury,' he said in a statement sunday opinion: steubenville case shows how the rules have changed the grand jury will begin meeting around april 15 and could take 'a number of days' to complete its work, dewine said 'and i should point out that the convening of a grand jury, of course, does not necessarily mean that indictments will be returned or that charges will be filed,' he said 'a grand jury is an investigative tool that is uniquely suited to ensure fairness and to complete this investigation,' dewine said in the sunday statement 'and this community needs assurance that no stone has been left unturned in our search for the truth' guilty verdicts dewine's announcement of the grand jury came shortly after judge thomas lipps found trent mays, 17, and ma'lik richmond, 16, guilty of rape lipps, who was hearing the case without a jury, also found mays guilty of disseminating a nude photo of a minor authorities accused mays and richmond of putting their fingers in the girl's vagina while she was too drunk to consent, an act that constitutes rape under ohio law the incident took place during a series of alcohol fueled end of summer parties in august some of the abuse was documented in photographs shown in court and in texts read aloud during testimony, including one text in which a state forensics investigator testified mays wrote, 'i should have raped since everyone thinks i did' trial focuses on text messages lipps sentenced mays to a minimum of two years in a juvenile correctional facility richmond received a minimum of one year juvenile authorities could decide to keep both in custody until they turn 21 richmond's father, nathaniel richmond, said he still believed his son was innocent 'even though he apologized in the courtroom' 'the evidence they had against ma'lik was minimal,' he told cnn's 'piers morgan tonight' 'ma'lik was just at the wrong place at the wrong time i know my son is not a rapist, even though he has been convicted of rape' both mays and richmond must undergo treatment and will have to register as sex offenders, lipps ruled richmond's attorney, walter madison, said his client would appeal in an attempt to avoid that designation meanwhile, the victim and her family remain under guard after the threats were posted online, abdalla told cnn 'she continues to be a victim and be victimized over and over,' he said 'and that's what's sad' one of the tweets that led to monday's arrests warned that if the poster saw the victim, 'it's gone be a homicide' another threatened a beating the girl accused of tweeting the death threat turned herself in after learning that investigators were looking for her, the sheriff said nevertheless, 'they're going to have to answer to it,' he said 'we're dealing with kids, again,' abdalla said 'but the attorney general had just left the building the judge was still in the building when i received messages that there's death threats already against the victim' no charges had been announced against the suspects monday night, but 'there's no question they're going to prosecute' 'i hope this sends a warning,' he said 'and i can assure you, we've been monitoring twitter for 24 hours and continue to if there's anybody else there crosses a line and makes a death threat, they're going to have to face the consequences' internet outrage the case received widespread attention after a blogger who once lived in steubenville uncovered some of the materials posted to social media sites the blogger, alexandria goddard, wrote pointedly about the possibility that the teenagers had been given preferential treatment because they played on the town's highly regarded football team police have denied that claim later, the loosely organized hacker group anonymous got involved, posting a lengthy video in which another teenager who has not been charged made joking references to the rape the ensuing ire over the case brought national attention and criticism to the city from around the country, leaving city officials struggling to defend the community and residents weary of the media spotlight teen rape trial shines unwelcome spotlight on ohio town broader problem acknowledging the town's frustration, dewine said monday that it would be a mistake to focus on one small ohio community, to think something unique in its culture is behind the incident 'i'm afraid people are going to walk away and say this was all about steubenville,' dewine said 'it's not it's a cultural problem' 'i'll guarantee that there are crimes very similar to this that occur every friday night and every saturday night in communities across this country where you have people, particularly young people, who are drinking too much and a girl is taken advantage of, and a girl is raped,' he said such incidents stem from a larger social problem a rampant lack of respect and human decency, he said 'one of the lessons of life is we have to take care of each other, and we have to try to help people and we have to do what's right' dewine said 'and there were precious few people that night that were doing what was right' teens treated girl 'like a toy,' prosecutor says cnn's poppy harlow, brian vitagliano, yon pomrenze, matt smith, steve almasy and chelsea j carter contributed to this report | steubenville ag mike dewine | 'adults need to take responsibility and guide these children,' victim's mother says . two steubenville teens arrested after twitter threats to victim, sheriff says . prosecutors will ask a grand jury to investigate the possibility of additional charges . ag mike dewine says it would be wrong to blame steubenville alone |
(cnn) kawasaki have announced they will run marco melandri in a one bike team in the 2009 motogp world championship italian melandri will be the sole kawasaki rider in the 2009 motogp championship the news comes just weeks after the japanese manufacturer confirmed it was to end its motogp activities due to the economic downturn a statement confirmed the team's return to the sport comes in the wake of 'constructive talks between kawasaki, motogp organisers and other involved parties' 'this decision was made after negotiations that followed kawasaki's january 2009 announcement to suspend its motogp activities due to the economic crisis,' the statement continued 'the rider for the new motogp team will be marco melandri the team will be equipped with kawasaki motorcycles and supporting materials 'that kawasaki have come to this new team approach is the result of, on the one hand, the need for a strong reduction of motogp racing investments and, on the other hand, the necessity to come to constructive solutions for all related parties' melandri moved to kawasaki from ducati at the end of what was a dismal 2008 season for the italian, but shortly afterwards was told his new team would not be on the grid in 2009 while the 26 year old has earned a welcome reprieve, the man who would have been melandri's team mate this season, american john hopkins, appears set for an extended spell on the sidelines | kawasaki marco melandri 2009 italian melandri ducati the end of the 2008 season | kawasaki will run marco melandri in a one bike team in 2009 motogp season . the news comes after manufacturer revealed it was ending motogp activities . italian melandri moved to kawasaki from ducati at the end of the 2008 season |
washington (cnn) officials are hopeful that the chamber containing the lincoln statue at the lincoln memorial, which was vandalized overnight, can be reopened sometime friday, national park service spokeswoman carol johnson told reporters the memorial's portico the columned area outside the chamber should be reopen before that, in the late morning, she said workers are cleaning the paint that had been splashed onto part of the marble statue, she said watch: obama surprises visitors at the lincoln memorial vandals splashed green paint on the base of the statue overnight, prompting officials to temporarily close the marble fixture on washington's national mall, authorities said police were alerted just before 1:30 am and found paint splattered on the leg and base of the 19 foot tall statue of abraham lincoln, us park police capt steven booker told cnn on friday there were no discernible letters or markings the memorial will be closed until it is cleaned up, booker said the memorial, one of the more iconic features of washington, honors the 16th us president the marble statue of a seated lincoln resides in nearly 100 foot high columned marble building facing the us capitol and the washington monument more than 6 million people visited the lincoln memorial in 2012, the national park service says dedicated in 1922, it has been the site of a number of protests and gatherings, including the 1963 march on washington, during which martin luther king jr gave his famous 'i have a dream' speech from the steps of the memorial see also: controversial mlk memorial inscription to be removed cnn's diane ruggiero and jason hanna contributed to this report | 19 foot abraham lincoln the lincoln memorial | paint is splattered on a leg and base of the 19 foot abraham lincoln statue, police say . the lincoln memorial is closed until the paint can be cleaned up . no timeframe of the closure is given |
london, england (cnn) if the craggy, icy west coast of greenland doesn't inspire them, perhaps vanessa carlton's vodka infusions will singer kt tunstall relaxes as the cape farewell tour heads towards disko bay on friday, the american singer songwriter and self professed 'expert infuser' will join an unlikely ensemble of 40 artists, scientists and musicians aboard the 10 day 'cape farewell' expedition to disko bay musicians jarvis cocker, kt tunstall, martha wainwright and leslie feist will be there negotiating the bridge with acclaimed french artist sophie calle, performance artist laurie anderson and novelist nicole krauss see the full crew list they're not there to perform but to be inspired by the scientists, their work and their surroundings, in the hope they'll return home with a deeper understanding of climate change 'it's two way traffic,' explains cape farewell founder, artist david buckland 'the place itself is inspiring, the dialogue about climate change is inspiring and the science that we actually do on board is important to the scientists, but it's also inspiring to see scientists working 'you don't just look at a graph; you actually see who gets the data that feeds into the graph and from all that, the output is that we find this new language, this new way of communication and that's what the creative souls are there to do' around midday friday, the sturdy and ice strengthened science research vessel, the 'grigory mikheev,' will depart kangerlussuaq in greenland bound for disko bay, a location on the west coast that provides some of the starkest examples of the island's melting ice caps there, the geologists on board will acoustically measure the seabed some two kilometers below 'what happens is that as ice melts from greenland it lessens the weight on the land and the land rises this causes cracks to appear in the ocean seafloor this is what we think,' explains buckland, adding 'so you can measure what's happening to the landmass of greenland by looking at the sea' it's fair to say that the work the artists are hoping to achieve on board requires less scientific rigor when cnn spoke with british comedian marcus brigstocke the day before departure, he was trying to decide which suit to pack 'i'm wearing a suit jacket and a waistcoat, trying to work out what's the lightest thing i can put in my bag which will also keep me sufficiently warm if i do a stand up routine on an iceberg' brigstocke joined the cape farewell crew last year on their most ambitious voyage yet, down the east coast of greenland after suffering the combined trauma of seasickness and a cabin awash with sewage after a plumbing failure, brigstocke vowed he'd 'never, ever' do it again 'when i asked him, he sort of went white,' buckland laughs 'i promised him a bigger boat this time, in a cabin that doesn't do somersaults we're not sailing this time, which is a sadness for me, but it means we can do a lot more work' on his return last year, brigstocke wove his experience into a stand up routine this time, he's hoping to complete the program they started filming last year on climate change and the cape farewell trip 'i don't know what the end result will be,' he says 'it doesn't particularly matter the footage already is astonishing' vanessa carlton, the us musician best known for her grammy nominated single 'a thousand miles,' describes herself as 'pretty green' 'right now i'm walking and i'm carrying a reusable grocery bag i've just been to the grocery store,' she tells cnn by cell phone from new york 'i wear mostly vintage clothes i have a very energy efficient house very long lasting light bulbs everything's off unless i really need something to be on if i'm away for a long time, i turn off my water heater' she's intrigued to see how her experience on the cape farewell expedition will manifest itself in her music she's also unsure of what she can teach the scientists on board 'perhaps i will have a more emotional response to the surrounding than they normally do,' she guesses, adding 'i hope that inspires their work and injects a bit of 'non scientific' spirit into the voyage' or perhaps another kind of spirit: 'i'm an expert vodka infuser and will be teaching a thing or two about infusions' it was a much more sober affair when cape farewell's youth expedition wound its way from iceland, around the southern tip of greenland, across the davis strait and down the coast of canada earlier this month see photos of the youth expedition » most of the 28 students on board returned to their respective schools this week luisa lizoain, a 16 year old grade 11 student from the university of toronto schools described the experience as life changing 'we went to a few small villages when we were in the north of greenland and baffin island,' lizoain told cnn 'meeting the people who live in the north put a face to climate change for me' 'i want to try and raise as much awareness as possible and tell as many people as possible about this experience and what i've just seen' martin rose, director of the british council canada, which organized the youth expedition with cape farewell, says, 'it was clear that the snow was late and the glaciers are retreating year by year' 'there are all sorts of complicated arguments around that, but symbolically it's quite powerful to see green and red hillsides when normally there'd now be snow,' he continued upon boarding, the youth expedition students were given sketchbooks and were encouraged to spend at least ten minutes a day being creative while sketchbooks won't be standard issue for the professional artists on the disko bay expedition, david buckland says creative freedom will be encouraged 'if anybody is inspired to do anything we'll stop the boat and we'll do it, we'll find a way to do it, and that's the rule, that's the only rule: follow the inspiration' and he doesn't care how long it takes author ian mcewan boarded the boat in 2005 and has only just revealed that his new book, 'a boot room in the frozen north,' is about climate change 'brilliant i can sit and wait for that, that's fine,' buckland says 'it's a difficult subject, it's a great big amorphous subject, it's abstract and therefore to try to make it real, on a human scale, that's the really important message they get across' everyone on board the boat will be blogging about their adventure you can have your say by posting a comment below | reddled recoagulate psychodynamics | no related information |
(cnn) tiger woods has not held golf's no 1 ranking since october 2010, but he is now within touching distance of adding to his record 623 weeks at the top the 14 time major champion can topple luke donald by winning the world golf championships bridgestone invitational tournament for the eighth time as long as the englishman finishes no higher than third come sunday 'it would be nice to get back there because obviously it meant that as far as i had dropped, to build my way back up to this point, i've had some wins, i've had some very high finishes, i've been consistent,' said woods, who dropped as low as 58th following his well publicized divorce and injury problems 'that's how you get to be one of the top players in the world to be ranked as low as i did and then come all the way back to, as of right now, no 2, that's pretty good' woods has finished tied for 40th, 21st and third in the three majors ahead of this season's final one next week's pga championship at kiawah island scott's collapse hands british open crown to els he tops the pga tour's fedex cup standings after three tournament victories which have taken him to second on the all time list with 74 he is the only three time winner on the us circuit, but will be teeing off at firestone on thursday with south africa's branden grace the only player on the european tour with a hat trick of victories in 2012 'i feel very comfortable where i am at because everything is progressing,' woods said on the pga tour website 'this year i've taken the steps headed in the right direction and shot better scores and been more consistent 'when you make changes like i've made in my game, it takes a little bit of time, and things are starting to click in now and to have three wins this year, it's headed in the right direction' woods pulled out of the final round of the last wgc event, the cadillac championship in march, but has since put his injuries behind him 'it's nice knowing that we have a big event with the best players in the world here right before a major championship,' the 36 year old said 'this will be a nice way to get our games ready for obviously next week but also really test us at the same time having back to back championships like this, it's a positive thing' donald has held the no 1 ranking for 55 weeks across four different stints, but is still seeking his first major title 'i'm certainly very proud of my no 1 ranking and how long i've kept it,' the 34 year old said 'that shows how consistent i've been over the last couple years, and i'll continue to try and work on accomplishing a lot more in this game 'and if i keep doing what i know i can do, winning more tournaments and hopefully winning majors, then hopefully i can stay there 'but obviously i've got a lot of great players behind me, including tiger it's good to have guys like that chomping at your heel they push you to work harder, to challenge yourself to try and get to that next level' | tiger woods luke donald wgc bridgestone invitational american eighth woods as low as 58th third british open 2012 branden grace | world no 2 tiger woods has luke donald in his sights at wgc bridgestone invitational . american will return to top if he wins the pga tour event for the eighth time . woods dropped as low as 58th but third place at british open continued his steady resurgence . he will be playing alongside the only other three time winner of 2012, branden grace |
(cnn) at least seven people were killed and 68 others were wounded after three car bomb explosions wednesday in iraq's oil rich northern city of kirkuk, said jamal taher, police chief one of bombings occurred outside a building in central kirkuk used by kurdish security forces another explosion occurred near an iraqi federal police patrol in central kirkiuk and another car bomb targeted a police patrol in south kirkuk, taher said these coordinated attacks resembled past attacks by al qaeda in iraq, kirkuk police said in other attacks, eight civilians were wounded wednesday morning when two roadside bombs exploded in two baghdad neighborhoods, police said on tuesday, an iraqi army officer, brigadier general ahsan ali mohammed, was killed when a bomb exploded outside his house in western baghdad's ghazaliya neighborhood, police said | iraq kirkuk | the attacks occurred in iraq's oil rich northern city of kirkuk, police said . there were at least 68 people wounded in the attacks in kirkuk |
(cnn) south african paceman dale steyn took four wickets as india struggled to 183 for six wickets on a truncated first day of the second test at kingsmead on sunday for the second successive match of the three test series, india were sent in to bat in helpful bowling conditions for the home side and again struggled styen, wth his pace and movement, proved a particular handful after the start was delayed by rain india, the world's no1 ranked test team, need a win to keep the series alive after a crushing defeat at centurion, but showed little signs of a revival england in command in ashes test at mcg steyn claimed both openers, virender sehwag (25) and murali vijay (19), in a spell of two for 19 in eight overs before lunch and added the wickets of rahul dravid (25) and vvs laxman (38) during the afternoon session left armer lonwabo tsotsobe chipped in with the prize scalp sachin tendulkar, caught behind for 13 in the first over after lunch tendulkar made his 50th test century to provide rare cheer for india in their innings defeat in the first match, but could not repeat his heroics tsotsobe claimed his second wicket just before tea as he removed cheteshwar pujara for 19 he also caught laxman superbly off steyn's bowling as india reached tea on 168 for six wickets only a few overs were possible in the final session before bad light brought a premature close with indian captain mahendra singh dhoni progressing to 20 not out and harbhajan singh on 15 india made three changes with vijay, pujara and zaheer khan coming in for the injured gautam gambhir, suresh raina and jaidev unadkat with south africa keeping faith with the same team | india first day second durban south african dale steyn south africa centurion | india struggle to 183 for six wickets on weather hit first day of second test in durban . south african paceman dale steyn takes four wickets after india put in . south africa lead three test series 1 0 after innings victory at centurion |
(cnn) the garden is overflowing with weeds and trash is riotously strewn across the lower floors upstairs, a makeshift curtain dangles by a string while an assortment of shelves and cupboards clutter the untidy space below not quite what you'd expect from a $11 million (£650,000) property but that's the price sought by the overseas owners of a house in london that until recently was the domain of illegal squatters the three bedroom home came on to the market in the peckham area of the british capital last week and is described by estate agents as 'spacious' and an 'exciting opportunity' for potential buyers despite the obvious need for 'modernization' clearly, the owners are hoping to cash in on the city's red hot property sector but $11 million? 'peckham as an area has witnessed a phenomenal uplift with property prices almost doubling in certain regions of the area,' said jason morris, managing director of jt clarke london, the estate agents in charge of selling the house when contacted by cnn 'for example in november 2012, our company sold a three bedroom period mid terraced, in need of some modernization but nothing too major, for £350,000' 'properties on that same street with an identical footprint are now currently on the market and achieving prices in the region of £650,000 ($11 million) this is not an isolated case but can be seen to be true of most properties within the locality regardless of style and size' it's not just peckham feeling the heat property prices in london increased by an average of 185% year on year in may according to the uk land registry, their fastest annual rise in 11 years this stands in comparison to a rise of 65% across the rest of the uk, leading some experts to conclude that the capital's property market is overheating relatively low numbers of affordable new homes being built, generous government lending schemes designed to make deposits more affordable for first time buyers and an influx of foreign investors plowing vast amounts into london's most salubrious districts have all played their part in the booming prices while peckham isn't traditionally one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods, its favorable location, good transport links as well as its up and coming vibe has ensured its status as a desirable spot morris still believes there's more to come from the area given the underlying market conditions and high demand for property although he cautions that other parts of london may soon start to cool off 'although prices have gone up in general, this is the one part of peckham that has not yet peaked,' he said even still, morris acknowledged that it is highly unusual for owners to put their property on the market in such an unkempt manner 'i would never advocate that any vendor puts their property on the market in such a condition unless they are open to offers that reflect the state and cost of remedial works,' he said '(but) such is the strength of the market at the moment that there are many who will still purchase the property as is, demonstrating that property (and especially in london) is still the number one choice for many not only as a home but also as a sure investment' | dyakish beardlike clogdogdo | no related information |
(cnn) new york police have collected dna evidence in the case of nighttime acrobats who replaced two american flags atop of the brooklyn bridge with two white flags, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation friday the swapped out bleached flags were spotted by construction workers at 5:30 am tuesday the dna was taken from tin pans used by the vandals to cover bridge lights, according to the official a clever move to elude detection while the flags were raised the tin shields were held in place with zip ties so far there is no match in existing databases where dna evidence of solved and unsolved crimes are kept, the official added among other leads investigators are following are five nicknames who tipsters suggest might be associated with the incident investigators are trying to learn the real identities behind the nicknames or street names it's too soon to know whether any of them were involved, the official said the motive is unclear: was it a stunt, prank or something more sinister? officials have said they are looking at whoever had access or familiarity with the bridge, including maintenance workers or anyone who worked on the fireworks extravaganza over the east river on independence day the event this year included pyrotechnics shooting from the bridge cell phone calls are being tracked and about 18,000 license tags were checked from vehicles that crossed the bridge in the overnight hours, according to the official more than 120,000 vehicles, 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 bicyclists cross the brooklyn bridge every day, according to the city department of transportation, which maintains the bridge the oversized white banners american flags that were pre bleached have prompted investigators to talk with flag manufacturers and check websites for anyone who may have recently purchased large stars and stripes, according to the official intelligence analysts are also looking into any possible significance of the day that was chosen to see whether that may yield clues the nypd's intelligence division has even reached out to other countries to see whether similar stunts have occurred elsewhere nypd deputy commissioner for intelligence john miller said at a news conference wednesday that the nypd has video that shows four or five people crossing the bridge just after 3 am tuesday within the hour, the light that normally illuminates the flag on the brooklyn side of the bridge flickered and appeared to go out a few minutes later the same thing occurred on the tower on the manhattan side 'at this time, it appears it has no particular nexus to terrorism or even politics,' miller said tuesday 'this may be somebody's art project, or it may be an attempt at making some kind of statement, but at this point it's not clear what the statement is' police commissioner bill bratton called the incident a matter of concern and requested the help of the public as investigators search social media for claims of responsibility 'if flying a white flag atop the brooklyn bridge is someone's idea of a joke, i'm not laughing,' brooklyn borough president eric adams said in a statement 'the public safety of our city is a paramount of importance, particularly our landmarks and bridges that are already known to be high risk targets' adams announced that he is offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible the brooklyn bridge opened in 1883 at the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the nation, according to the department of transportation the bridge has been designated a national historic landmark by the national park service, and a new york city landmark by the landmarks preservation commission who switched two flags atop the brooklyn bridge? cnn's poppy harlow, marina carver and rande iaboni contributed to this report | brooklyn bridge the brooklyn bridge nypd | dna collected from tin pans used to cover brooklyn bridge lights during flag switch . nicknames, cell phones and license plates also being tracked to find the culprits . mysterious white flags spotted atop the brooklyn bridge . nypd commissioner calls incident a 'matter of concern' |
(cnn) an outbreak of mumps, first reported at the ohio state university, has spread beyond campus and into the community, health officials said as of monday, 63 cases of mumps were reported in franklin county, ohio, according to columbus public health forty five of those are linked to the university outbreak, said jose rodriguez, spokesman for the health department 'the university cases have occurred in men and women between the ages of 18 and 48, while the community cases have occurred in residents of columbus and franklin county between the ages of 4 and 50,' the department said in a statement the first osu cases were reported on february 11, rodriguez said monday cnn health library: learn more about mumps the department is working with other universities to make sure they are ready to vaccinate members of the university community and promote infection control measures the most important of those are: wash your hands, cover your cough and stay home if you're sick, he said mumps is 'a highly infectious disease' that spreads the same way as a cold or flu does through respiratory droplets when someone coughs or sneezes five days of isolation is required, 'and that can be complicated in a university setting,' he said even more frightening one third of cases have no symptoms, he said the 63 cases are those who became ill; others may be spreading the disease unknowingly osu students went on spring break 'right as this was exploding,' rodriguez said, and local health officials contacted the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta to warn other departments to be on the lookout 'the numbers doubled when the kids came back,' he said cases of mumps were also reported at fordham university in new york last month some 97% of those in the ohio outbreak have been vaccinated, he said the vaccine is 80% to 90% effective, meaning 10% to 20% of people who have been vaccinated might become ill anyway mumps typically begins with a fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and loss of appetite, which is followed by the swelling of salivary glands, according to the cdc there is no specific treatment for mumps, and patients usually recover after a week or two, but occasionally the disease can cause serious complications such as encephalitis, meningitis, deafness or inflammation of the breasts or ovaries in girls who have reached puberty, the cdc said children should receive their first vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella at 12 to 15 months, and the second dose at 4 to 6 years, according to the cdc columbus public health is urging those at high risk including those who have not been vaccinated or those who only received one dose to get vaccinated 2013: east coast mumps outbreak linked to nightclub | ohio the ohio state university cdc | as of monday, 63 mumps cases have been reported in one ohio county . of those, 45 are linked to the ohio state university campus . mumps can occasionally lead to serious complications, the cdc says |
decatur, georgia (cnn) somber chords sounded at a funeral service wednesday for a drum major whose death has sparked an investigation of hazing allegations at his florida university criticisms of hazing and rallying cries for change echoed throughout the three hour church ceremony 'i call on every mother, every father, every niece, every uncle: do what is necessary now to stop this tragedy so that it will never happen again,' the rev john tatum shouted into a microphone as he pointed at hundreds of people packed into the pews at beulah missionary baptist church in decatur, georgia authorities have not specified what caused 26 year old drum major robert champion's death after a performance earlier this month with the marching 100 band from florida agricultural and mechanical university (famu) officials said hazing was involved, and his family has said it plans to sue the school 'to get answers' speaking at wednesday's service, famu president james h ammons pledged to 'wage a campaign to stomp out hazing on the campus at famu,' drawing cheers and applause from the crowd 'i vow as president of famu that robert's death will not be in vain,' ammons said music and testimonials filled the service for champion a band performed from southwest dekalb high school, where champion first became a drum major at the end of his sophomore year as a recording of 'flight of the bumblebee' from the soundtrack of the 2002 movie 'drumline' played, audience members stood and pantomimed performing the song on band instruments a jazzy trumpet solo marked the funeral's final moments several speakers described champion as a kind person and a strong leader who was dedicated to achieving his goals 'robert gave us his all every time that he took the field whenever robert heard the sound of the drum, his knees raised, his toes pointed and he was on a mission to make the famu community proud,' said julian e white, who has led the 420 member famu band since 1998 the university's president moved to fire white shortly after champion's death, citing 'alleged misconduct and/or incompetence involving confirmed reports and allegations of hazing with the department of music and the 'marching 100'' white has hired an attorney to fight for his job and has said he did everything he could to put a stop to hazing white made no mention of the allegations at wednesday's funeral he said that he considered champion a son and regretted not telling him he had been selected to be the band's next head drum major 'i loved that young man the world is a better place because of robert champion,' he said while uncertainty swirled over the hazing allegations, there was no doubt among mourners wednesday that champion was doing what he loved a program distributed at the service showed several photos of him performing with famu's band inside the program, an obituary said champion proclaimed his goal of becoming a drum major in the marching 100 after seeing them perform when he was just 5 years old his childhood next door neighbor described memories of watching champion marching around his yard mourners filing past the open coffin before wednesday's service began saw champion's body clad in the band's uniform, his hand holding a baton a group of drum majors draped his coffin with the university's flag as the service began band members who attended famu decades ago were among those who attended the ceremony brian joyner, 49, said after the service that champion was kind and humble when they met at a recent homecoming game the hazing allegations are 'baffling' for many of the prestigious band's alumni, said joyner, who was a drum major in the band in 1980 'there's nothing i've heard of in 32 years where a drum major was required to go through any type of initiation,' he said he defended white, the band's longtime director 'the rumors that you hear about dr white not being active and eradicating hazing, that's a lie,' he said wednesday's service came two days after champion's family said they would sue famu 'we are concerned about the culture of cover up, that hazing has been covered upfor generations,' the family's lawyer, chris chestnut, said monday the medical examiner has not issued a report on the cause of death of the 26 year old student but, chestnut said, evidence points 'to the fact that hazing was a cause of robert champion's death, and it was under famu's watch' champion became ill at an orlando hotel after a football game on november 19 he reportedly vomited in the parking lot and started complaining of not being able to breathe, authorities said champion was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead orange county sheriff jerry demings said last week that hazing was involved, but added that authorities were trying to determine an official cause of death under florida law, any death that occurs as the result of hazing is a third degree felony after the death, ammons suspended all band performances and said he would convene a task force 'to determine if there are any unauthorized and questionable activities associated with the culture of the marching 100' | richard laminectomy archfoe | no related information |
(cnn) australian novelist julia leigh's first film as writer director was inspired by a dream she had or maybe it was a nightmare? judging by the movie, it could have been a bit of both emily browning the doll like child actress from 'lemony snicket' who graduated to the status of action babe in 'sucker punch' earlier this year plays lucy, a college student who takes on a series of menial jobs over the course of the film, including waitress, lab rat, secretary and sex toy in the brilliantly creepy first scene, she somehow refrains from retching as a lab researcher threads several feet of tubing down her throat it's a strong indication that whatever else, lucy has the willpower to dissociate mind from body to mentally switch off this remains her defining characteristic throughout: a kind of abstention that serves her well in trying circumstances, but which also makes lucy a frustratingly vague, ill defined personality with her pale skin and wide eyes, browning has a particular pre raphaelite beauty that's oddly impassive it's as if she's sleepwalking through the story or, perhaps, this is her own erotic/masochistic dream? interviewed for another position by the immaculately coiffed and polished clara (a chilly, regal rachel blake), lucy uncomplainingly strips down to her undies for an intimate physical inspection clara apparently likes what she sees, and next thing you know lucy is serving champagne to a dinner table of aristocrats who get their kicks by ignoring the near naked servants this proves to be something of an audition for a better paid gig at clara's country mansion, where rich old men pay handsomely for a night with a beautiful young girl house rules permit anything short of actual penetration or physical harm meanwhile the girl is so heavily drugged she sleeps through the entire experience where's the fun in that, you might think? is leigh delving into the murky waters of female sexuality, or making a political point about exploitation and prostitution? again, the movie seems to want to do both, though it doesn't go far enough down either route to reach any firm conclusions sticking with a mostly static camera and lengthy takes, leigh seems to be shooting for the kind of slow, somber surrealism of luis bunuel's foray into similar subject matter, 'belle de jour' but she's not that accomplished a director not yet, anyway and the film sometimes drifts into a stilted somnolence scenes of lucy's everyday life away from work bickering with flat mates, or caring for a dying friend fail to shed much light on the character or her motivations, and are shot in the same monotonous rhythm more effective are the quietly ugly, anti erotic chamber pieces: the one sided encounters between the slumbering lucy and the aging, all but impotent clients these scenes are emotionally and visually frank, shedding a hard, cold light on what men want from the opposite sex in the end, there's enough here to make us see why leigh felt compelled to turn her dream into a movie, even if this suggestive, frustratingly elusive effort is not an entirely pleasurable experience for the rest of us | emily browning lucy sleeping beauty | emily browning plays lucy, a college student who takes on a series of menial jobs . lucy has the willpower to dissociate mind from body to mentally switch off . 'sleeping beauty' doesn't go far enough down either route to reach any firm conclusions |
washington (cnn) an array of talents was on display sunday at the kennedy center honors gala where president barack obama toasted the lifetime achievements of an iconic ballerina, a famed comedian, a timeless actor and two chart topping musical acts in the 35th installment of the honorary event, late night show host david letterman, ballerina natalia makarova, actor dustin hoffman, blues musician buddy guy and the rock group led zeppelin joined the ranks of the top musicians, dancers and actors of their time the festivities kicked off at a white house reception where obama honored the award recipients and recounted highlights of their careers 'each of us can remember a moment when the people on this stage touched our lives maybe they inspired us to see things in a new way, to hear things differently' obama said 'it is that unique power that makes the arts so important' the kennedy center honors has long been a tradition that bridges hollywood and washington, and this year was no exception aside from the honorees, other notable attendees included actors alec baldwin, jack black and morgan freeman; rockers lenny kravitz and jeff beck; and such politicians as house minority leader nancy pelosi, sen thad cochran of south dakota and secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius after the white house reception, the cadre of luminaries and guests moved to the kennedy center, a performing arts space overlooking the potomac river, for an event dedicated to their respective talents this is the fourth time obama has honored kennedy center award recipients last year's group included singer neil diamond, composer sonny rollins, theater actor barbara cook, cellist yo yo ma and actress meryl streep read more: cnn honors heroes, hollywood style while the 2011 pool of honorees had a noticeable music bent, the backgrounds in this year's group are more diverse but equally talented letterman, host of 'the late show' on cbs, was recognized for his 30 years in late night television and joined a small group of past comedians who have won the award in a press release, kennedy center chairman david rubenstein described letterman, 65, as 'one of the most influential personalities in the history of television' with more than 5,000 broadcasts, letterman, holds the title as the comedian with the longest late night career in the united states, recently surpassing the industry's previous standard bearer, the late johnny carson in his witty style, letterman joked about learning he was an award recipient 'when i stopped laughing, i was very excited this was great for my family; they think i'm working at a jiffy lube in mexico,' he said on his program obama, someone who has been on letterman's show a number of times, remarked at the white house reception that letterman was 'a true gentleman' who 'has always offered us an authentic piece of himself' the president did joke, however, that not being in front of the microphone was a difficult position for the usually opinionated comedian 'you are looking a little stressed, aren't you,' obama said to letterman speaking to reporters on the red carpet before the event, letterman expressed more surprise about the honor 'i don't know what to tell you,' he said 'it just keeps getting better and better and better and i am not supposed to be here' asked if there's anything he was particularly looking forward to at the event, he pointed to his special ride home 'well, afterwards, we get joy rides in marine one that is going to be something' hoffman, meanwhile, has become a household name with a resume that includes 50 movies, not to mention two academy awards for kramer vs kramer (1979) and rain man (1988) while the 75 year old actor has said he grew up thinking movie stars had to look like rock hudson, it didn't take long for the los angeles native to get into acting and start a career that spans five decades and covers just about every genre of film many of his titles were featured in his tribute at the kennedy center, which is not far from the famous watergate hotel a site he knows well after playing the ambitious reporter, carl bernstein, in 'all the president's men' (1976) asked on the red carpet how he was feeling, the actor had a line all ready to deliver 'my wife keeps reminding me that when i say, 'pretty good i am a nominee,' she says 'no, you are an honoree' so it is spectacular,' he said russian born makarova is perhaps best known for leaving her mark on the production of la bayadã¨re, a ballet that dates to 1877 she transformed the scene 'kingdom of the shades,' and went on to stage the full production in theaters around the world makarova, 72, is no stranger to the kennedy center she won a tony award for best actress in a musical for the center's 1984 production of 'on your toes' makarova said before the gala that she considers american ballet 'fantastic,' adding, 'i think it will grow and grow the interest will never stop' the audience sunday night will also feel the rhythm in performances honoring blues legend buddy guy born into a louisiana sharecropper family, guy eventually made chicago his home at the peak of the blues era in the windy city and with his distinct guitar sound, the six time grammy award winner helped pioneer the electric blues with other legends including muddy waters and howlin' wolf 'from picking cotton in the field to picking a guitar in the white house, that is a long ways man,' guy told reporters at the kennedy center the president called guy 'one of the last guardians of the great american blues' and the stage will continue to rock in a tribute to john paul jones, jimmy page and robert plant the three surviving members of the band led zeppelin famed drummer john bonham passed away in 1980 having sold more than 100 million albums in the united states alone, the british band has churned out a number of classics, including 'whole lotta love,' 'thank you,' and the enduring song: 'stairway to heaven' though thanking the group for 'making us all feel young,' obama took the liberty of joking about the trio during his remarks in the east room, noting how the group redefined 'the rock and roll lifestyle' 'there were some hotel rooms trashed, mayhem all around,' the president said 'so it is fitting that we are doing this in a room with windows three inches thick' 'so guys, settle down, these paintings are valuable,' obama joked asked on the red carpet if part of him wanted to get on stage and join the tribute, plant said, 'absolutely' 'i've always got a little bit of agitation in me,' he continued 'that's what keeps me going but i'm not going to show anybody how to do it' the trio is scheduled to join fellow honoree letterman on the 'the late show' on monday the kennedy center honors will air december 26 on cbs | obama white house david letterman late night led zeppelin the united states dustin hoffman buddy guy natalia makarova | obama welcomes honorees at white house reception . david letterman has been a late night comedy host longer than anyone . led zeppelin sold more than 100 million albums in the united states . other honorees include dustin hoffman, guitarist buddy guy, ballerina natalia makarova |
(cnn) at least 40 bodies all of them wearing uniforms identifying them as army officers have been found in a mass grave inside the headquarters of the bangladesh rifles paramilitary in the capital, dhaka, authorities said friday bangladeshi army soldiers gather near the bangladesh rifles headquarters in dhaka thursday the discovery brings to at least 62 the number of army officers who have been found dead after mutinous paramilitary forces took dozens of superiors hostages at the bangladesh rifles (bdr) headquarters on wednesday the rifles laid down their arms after prime minister sheikh hasina agreed to grant them amnesty the bodies were found in a grave behind the mortuary building inside the bdr compound in the pilkhana area of dhaka, said cmdr abdul kalam azad with the rapid action battalion (rab), an elite internal security team that is helping with the recovery effort 'it's a bad scene,' azad said 'you can only see their legs we're carrying away only as many as we can fit in ambulances then we're going to go look for more' earlier, 22 bodies had been recovered from the buriganga river after the rebelling troops dumped them down a sewer during the standoff, authorities said the rifles took their superiors all military men hostage wednesday morning after a rebellion they said was spurred by years of their grievances not being addressed discontent had been bubbling for years among the ranks of the bdr troops, a 65,000 strong paramilitary outfit primarily responsible for guarding the country's borders watch how the paramilitary revolt spread » the recruits complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and opportunities to participate in un peacekeeping operations bangladesh and its south asian neighbors contribute the most troops to such un operations and the pay is far greater than the meager salary the jawans as the bdr troops are called make | regnancies heterosomi unpresumably | no related information |
(cnn) the israeli military calculated the number of calories residents of gaza needed to avoid malnutrition during israel's embargo from 2007 to 2010, according to a document released wednesday under court order a spokesman for the coordinator of government activities in the territories said the document was a draft that was never implemented 'no action was ever carried out based on the paper,' a written statement said gisha, an israeli human rights group, said it acquired two versions of the study from 2008 the document concluded that 106 trucks per day could bring the appropriate amount of food, medicine, hygiene items and agricultural 'inputs' the group said that was in contrast to the more than 400 trucks that entered gaza before june 2007 'how can israel claim that it is not responsible for civilian life in gaza when it controls even the type and quantity of food that palestinian residents of gaza are permitted to consume?' said sari bashi, executive director of gisha gisha said the 106 truck standard was the model for what israel deputy defense minister matan vilnai approved, and it demanded israel allow the free passage of goods fawzi barhoum, a hamas spokesman, said: 'this is good evidence against israel we will use this report against israel to show its crimes against humanity' israel had enacted a ban on the import of many goods after the hamas takeover of gaza in 2007 israel, the united states and the european union consider the islamist group a terrorist organization israel is concerned that hamas will use some materials for the purpose of attacking its territory israel eased its food embargo in 2010 arab spring fallout: more sophisticated weapons in gaza | unbedabbled agasp cloudcap | no related information |
beirut, lebanon (cnn) lebanon's prime minister condemned the firing of rockets into northern israel after an attack wounded two israelis on thursday he said his government is trying to determine who was responsible un soldiers on thursday inspect the site in lebanon thought to be the source of rockets fired into israel israel's military warned israeli civilians to stick close to shelters after police said at least four rockets hit near the city of nahariya, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the lebanese border the israeli military said it returned fire across the border with mortars schools and kindergartens were closed in nahariya and the nearby town of shlomi, the israel defense forces reported 'what happened in the south [of lebanon] is a violation of resolution 1701 and is rejected by lebanon,' lebanese prime minister fouad siniora said, referring to the un resolution that ended the 2006 conflict between israel and lebanon's hezbollah militia in a statement issued by his office, siniora said he has asked lebanese authorities to investigate the attack alongside troops from the un peacekeeping force deployed along the border he also condemned the israeli retaliatory strikes, which the lebanese military said inflicted no casualties watch cnn's christiane amanpour discuss rocket attack » there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came as israeli airstrikes on gaza, to the south, entered a 13th day the israeli campaign in gaza is aimed at halting rocket fire from the hamas ruled palestinian territory israel fought a similar battle against the lebanese shiite muslim militia hezbollah in 2006, during which hezbollah rained rockets on cities in israeli's north for a month before a cease fire was reached but hezbollah has kept a tight rein on its forces in southern lebanon since the cease fire, and a number of palestinian factions operate in southern lebanon as well andrea tenenti, a spokesman for unifil, the un peacekeeping mission in lebanon, said the rockets appear to have been fired from a point about 45 miles east of naqoura, where the peacekeepers are headquartered 'we've been intensifying our patrols on the ground in order to prevent any further incident,' tenenti said he said unifil's commander, maj gen claudio graziano, is in 'constant and close contact' with both sides 'and has urged maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation' cnn's michal zippori in jerusalem and cal perry and nada husseini in beirut contributed to this report | fouad siniora un lebanese united nations siniora lebanon israel israeli | new: prime minister fouad siniora calls attack a violation of un resolution . new: lebanese government, united nations investigating, siniora says . four lebanon based rockets strike northern israel, authorities say . israeli military returns fire toward source of rocket attack |
(cnn) numerous arab governments have used violence to quash demonstrations in the wake of mass protests in egypt, a leading human rights group says in a new report human rights watch, which says it conducts 'rigorous, objective investigations,' issued the report tuesday alleging clampdowns by palestinian leadership, saudi arabia, sudan, syria, the united arab emirates, and yemen 'images of the uprisings in tunisia and egypt have mesmerized the arab public but have terrified their rulers,' sarah leah whitson, the group's middle east and north africa director, said in a statement 'they have responded with their usual mix of repression and intimidation to nip the buds of any wider democratic blossoming' human rights watch said the palestinian authority, which controls the west bank, 'used violence against peaceful demonstrators' during a rally last week in which people were supporting the egyptian protesters 'witnesses told human rights watch that regular police and 'special forces,' identifiable by their uniforms, punched, kicked, and detained participants, as well as at least two journalists and a human rights watch research assistant,' the report said the report added that on january 30, the palestinian authority shut down a solidarity demonstration hamas, which controls gaza, 'quashed a solidarity demonstration on january 31,' human rights watch said 'the police arbitrarily arrested six women and threatened to arrest another 20 people, who had responded to a call on facebook for a demonstration, as soon as they arrived at the park of the unknown soldier in gaza city' cnn reported on the january 31 demonstration, in which hamas security broke up the event and detained some female protesters cnn has also reported on the palestinian authority breaking up two attempts to stage small rallies the palestinian authority said participants did not have government permission for the rallies witnesses said participants were pushed and shoved, and some were detained later, both the palestinian authority and hamas allowed some events supporting solidarity with egypt to take place on saturday, palestinians demonstrating in support of egyptian anti government protesters, at an approved event in ramallah, were forcibly dispersed when a few dozen men in civilian clothes disrupted the protest a spokesman for the palestinian authority security services, maj gen adnan dmeiri, told cnn that that demonstration 'had all the permits needed, and it is our duty as the palestinian security to protect the demonstration, which the police and the security did our duty is to protect and serve the people' human rights watch said that in syria, security services briefly detained five young demonstrators at three different protests, and that on february 2, 'a group of 20 people in civilian clothing beat and dispersed 15 demonstrators who had assembled in bab touma in old damascus to hold a candlelight vigil for egyptian demonstrators police nearby failed to intervene, one of the gathering's organizers told human rights watch 'when demonstrators went to the local police station to file a complaint, a security official insulted and slapped suheir atassi, one of the main organizers, and accused her of being a 'germ' and an agent of foreign powers syria's security services had summoned more than 10 activists to pressure them not to demonstrate' syria had no immediate public response to the report on its state run news agency, sana a representative of the syrian embassy in washington had no immediate response in the united arab emirates, human rights watch said, state security arrested hasan muhammad al hammadi, who 'had spoken out publicly in solidarity with the egyptian demonstrators' during a mosque sermon 'he remains in detention' uae officials did not immediately respond to a call from cnn in saudi arabia, human rights watch said, 'security forces briefly arrested between 30 and 50 demonstrators in jeddah' on january 28, according to reports 'police arrested demonstrators as soon as they gathered, with dozens of others scattering' saudi arabia had no mention of the report on its state run news agency, the saudi press agency the saudi embassy in washington had no immediate response in yemen, human rights watch said, 'police and military forces used live and rubber bullets to disperse protesters on february 3 six people were injured and 28 arrested, the yemeni observatory for human rights reported' mohammed al basha, spokesman for the yemeni embassy in washington, told cnn on wednesday that the february 3 protests were generally peaceful 'there were some incidents' in which 'demonstrators physically provoked police officers' or destroyed properties, and those demonstrators were detained, he said, adding that most were later released 'live ammunitions are never shot directly at any demonstrators,' he added, saying that sometimes authorities will shoot into the air to disperse crowds, such as when they get close to a government building on monday, yemeni prime minister ali mujawar told cnn his country is 'democratic' with a 'democratic regime,' and accused opposition parties of 'trying to duplicate what happened in tunisia and egypt, and act as if it should be imposed on the people here in yemen' in sudan, human rights watch said, 'authorities used excessive force during largely peaceful protests on january 30 and 31 in khartoum and other northern cities to call for an end to the national congress party (ncp) rule and government imposed price increases' 'witnesses in khartoum and omdurman reported that armed riot police and national security personnel dispersed groups of protesters using pipes, sticks, and teargas, injuring several people and preventing some people from joining the protests some protesters threw rocks at riot police, but most were peaceful, witnesses said the majority of those arrested were released within hours, but more than 20 are still missing and believed to be held by national security forces' the sudanese embassy in washington responded that the country 'affirms and protects the right of the citizens to demonstrate as they wish, provided that people abide by the rules and regulations in place, guidelines meant to ensure public order and safety' in a statement, the embassy said 'some opportunists capitalize' on incidents aimed at maintaining safety 'to inspire chaos or smear sudan's image' 'a few zealous individuals from both sides of the aisle might act in a way that contravenes the right to free expression,' the statement added the protests might reflect 'genuine grievances relating to the economy,' which the government recognizes, the sudanese embassy said 'but for effective results, order must prevail, not chaos' us state department human rights reports have criticized all these governments, to various extents, for cracking down on protests or dissent cnn's mohammed jamjoom, jennifer fenton and kevin flower contributed to this report | seizable intinction subcavities | no related information |
manila, philippines (cnn) dramatically played out on live television, an opposition politician and rebel military officers surrendered to government forces after taking over a luxury hotel in manila 'we're going out for the sake of the safety of everybody,' philippines sen antonio trillanes said the senator made the decision to give up after the military peppered the inside of the hotel with tear gas live pictures from inside the hotel showed reporters and rebel soldiers covering their faces an armored personnel vehicle was also seen firing into the lobby of manila's peninsula hotel and later rammed through the front entrance of the building 'the situation is contained within the peninsula hotel, philippine defense secretary gilberto teodoro told cnn 'the perpetrators are in the process of being arrested' those who held the hotel were shown being loaded into a philippine national police bus teodoro said no one was injured, but associated press reported that at least two people were injured the standoff began hours earlier when a group led by trillanes and army brig gen danilo lim bolted from a court hearing on charges linked to a failed 2003 coup attempt watch footage of troops storming the hotel in manila » 'what happened, to me, was clearly either an attempted rebellion or an attempted coup d'etat,' teodoro said philippines military and police personnel had been surrounding the hotel, where the group was asking for president gloria macapagal arroyo to step down after trillanes' announcement, soldiers milled around the outside of the hotel, but the scene had calmed noticeably arroyo had issued orders to the military and police in response to the seizure of the hotel, located in manila's makati financial district, journalist adrian addison told cnn few supporters of the rebels were visible around the peninsula hotel, addison said philippine authorities gave the rebel group until 2:30 pm (0630 gmt) to allow guests to leave the hotel, and until 3:00 pm (0700 gmt) to surrender, the abs cbn news service reported businessman peter parcel was caught in the middle of the hotel's takeover and subsequent tear gassing listen to the eyewitness in the hotel describe what happened » 'i couldn't see and couldn't breathe,' he said, noting he faced 'at least 100 guns' as he exited the hotel e mail to a friend | manila rebels gloria macapagal arroyo | renegade officers and politician surrender and leave manila hotel . shots and tear gas fired into the hotel by government troops . rebels entered hotel after walking out of court hearing where they were on trial . the group was asking for president gloria macapagal arroyo to step down |
(cnn) if you're a james bond fan, times right now are as dark as one of 007's tuxedos the next bond movie has been put on hold because of mgm's lingering financial troubles and no one knows when, or even if, a bond movie will hit the big screen again but this week, the promise that appears at the end credits of every bond film ('james bond will return ') is being kept by a pair of video games activision is releasing two new bond games 'goldeneye 007 ' for the nintendo wii and 'james bond 007: blood stone' for the playstation 3, xbox 360 and pc and the voice and image of current bond star daniel craig appears in both activision's kyle walker boldly declares: 'this is the bond event of 2010' like james bond at the beginning of a mission, these new games face potentially hostile territory with two years gone by since the last bond movie, 'quantum of solace,' it seems the only place you see the phrase, 'bond james bond,' these days is in the financial pages will bond fans raise their martini glasses to toast 007's long awaited return in these games? or will bond's absence from the pop culture radar cause fans to put out their own burn notice on the missing superspy and move on to something else? 'fans are going to be very happy with it,' promises michael o'donnell, lead producer for 'james bond 007: blood stone' he believes 'blood stone's' original story (written by bruce feirstein, who's co written screenplays for three bond films), international locations and intense action sequences will satisfy gamers and bond film devotees alike 'the [game's] cinematic presentation will take a lot of people by surprise,' says o'donnell, who also cites a new bond girl singer joss stone, who performs in the game and sings its theme song 'we're definitely going to do [james bond] justice' the makers of 'goldeneye 007' have to pull off more than just doing james bond justice that new wii game is an update of the classic 1997 'goldeneye' game for the nintendo 64, which itself was based on the 1995 film that introduced pierce brosnan as james bond the game is still widely considered one of the best shooting games ever 'goldeneye's' makers are well aware that tinkering with a classic can be as dangerous as messing with odd job when he's cranky 'it was a massive thing when we found out we were going to working on this,' says 'goldeneye' lead producer dawn pinkney 'you have to live up to the best shooter of all time' the new 'goldeneye' has gotten a fresh coat of paint for its relaunch the dialogue has been adapted to suit daniel craig's man of few words style; the 1990s setting of the original has been updated to resemble a 2010 world; and unlike the original, the new 'goldeneye' will have an online multiplayer option but even with all the changes, pinkney insists, 'we didn't stray too far from 'goldeneye' it still is 'goldeneye' ' 'it was a bold choice on their part to remake such a favorite,' says morgan webb, host of g4's video game review show 'x play,' about the 'goldeneye' update webb, who has yet to play the new bond games, fears some gamers might slam the new 'goldeneye' for straying too far from the beloved original while others may slam it for not having changed enough to suit the times 'it runs the risk of making absolutely nobody happy,' she says and both bond games have to deal with another pitfall: despite being reliable million plus sellers, bond titles generally don't get much respect in the video game world 'they just were so forgettable,' g4's webb says of 007's past gaming ventures 'they didn't really appeal to the core gamer' with a few exceptions, most notably the original 'goldeneye' game and 2003's 'everything or nothing,' too many previous bond games suffered from uninspired gameplay, recycled storylines and a rushed, thrown together feel that spotty record might make gamers wary of giving 007 another shot still, the makers of the new bond games are confident there are enough bond deprived fans out there to make 'blood stone' and 'goldeneye' hits the question now is: will those folks who can't see bond on the silver screen be satisfied to play bond on their video game consoles? | james bond daniel craig's activision kyle walker new wii nintendo blood stone bruce feirstein | two new video games reboot the james bond movie franchise with daniel craig's likeness . activision's kyle walker boldly declares: 'this is the bond event of 2010'. new wii game is an update of the classic 1997 'goldeneye' game for the nintendo 64 . 'blood stone' was written by bruce feirstein, who's co written screenplays for three bond films |
baghdad, iraq (cnn) a suicide bomber wearing an explosives packed vest attacked a police recruitment center in northern iraq tuesday, a bloody strike that killed at least 65 people and wounded 160 others the attacker who blew himself up when he was among hundreds of recruits staged the assault at a checkpoint where people usually wait their turn to enter the center the explosion caused a fire at a fuel station nearby, police in tikrit said, and most of those killed and wounded were young men who came to join police forces tikrit's general hospital was overwhelmed with wounded people, some of whom had to be sent to hospitals in nearby towns of the salaheddin province and to other locations, such as irbil and kirkuk salaheddin deputy governor ameen mohammed told iraqiya state tv that security forces in the province are on full alert, and police said the local government announced a three day mourning period in salaheddin iraqi prime nuri al maliki wants to get to the bottom of the incident, which he calls the latest of similar 'heinous crimes' he said it reflects 'clear negligence and a shortcoming by the concerned authorities, so we will follow up this matter with all seriousness in order to determine those who are negligent, particularly those who are responsible of the recruitment cases and those who are behind today's painful tragedy' vice president tariq al hashimi deplored what he called a 'cowardly' act 'this new tragedy added to the tragedies of the unemployment of iraqi youth,' al hashimi said the vice president called on authorities to tackle unemployment and to keep young people from sinking into hunger and crime he also said authorities need to reconsider how to protect recruits at such centers, which he called soft targets mosques urged tikrit residents to donate blood for the wounded the center is located nearly 100 miles north of baghdad in tikrit, the hometown of late iraqi leader saddam hussein, and the facility is in one of hussein's former palaces there has been no claim of responsibility but al qaeda in iraq, the sunni muslim dominated militant group, has frequently claimed responsibility for such attacks tikrit is largely a sunni muslim city iraqi recruitment centers have frequently been targeted in warfare over the years on august 17, 48 were killed when suicide bombers attacked a military recruitment center in the bab al moudham commercial area of central baghdad the same center was attacked again in september, and 12 people were killed the islamic state of iraq, an umbrella group for al qaeda in iraq and other sunni extremist groups, claimed responsibility for that bombing, authorities said us troops have ended their combat mission in iraq and have focused on training and advising but they feel the violence that occasionally erupts on saturday, three us soldiers were killed, two in northern iraq and another in the central part of the country under a us iraqi security agreement, all us troops are to leave iraq by the end of the year there are fewer than 50,000 american service members there now cnn's jomana karadsheh contributed to this report | tikrit nearly 100 miles baghdad | police say the attacker targeted police recruits . tikrit is nearly 100 miles north of baghdad . recruitment centers have been frequently attacked |
(cnn) eleven people were killed and 29 injured during a stampede at an election rally for nigerian president goodluck jonathan, officials said the stampede happened during a rally at port harcourt stadium in the country's southern delta, rivers state spokesman rita inoma abbey told cnn the area is the president's home turf and a main area of support a presidential spokesman said that jonathan has called for a full scale investigation into the cause of the stampede the president 'has received with shock and sadness, news of the unfortunate loss of lives' at the stadium, ima niboro said 'i am sad, and heavily weighed down by this incident it is sad, unfortunate and regrettable i mourn with those who mourn tonight may god grant us all the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss,' jonathan said the stampede follows what has been an imperfect start to jonathan's campaign at his first campaign stop in nassarawa state, youths defaced his posters, burned tires, and two people were killed in the confusion at another stop in kano, supporters walked out before his speech, and in ogun state he was criticized for calling opposition candidates 'rascals' | goodluck jonathan jonathan | a stampede at an event for president goodluck jonathan killed 11 . it was at a stadium in an area where jonathan has a lot of support . it has been an imperfect start for the president's campaign |
washington (cnn) president barack obama called wednesday for a series of steps to help americans conserve and get in touch with nature, including full funding of the $900 million land and water conservation fund for only the third time in its existence at a white house event, obama also proposed creating a conservation service corps to help young people find work in the outdoors, and extending the tax deduction for donating private land for conservation the proposals are part of an action plan by the america's great outdoors initiative, which obama launched last year to promote community conservation efforts to protect the nation's natural heritage and help people experience it 'these are the right steps to take for our environment, but they're also the right steps to take for our country,' obama said, citing job creation and economic growth, scientific research and helping american kids experience nature the action plan calls for creating more urban parks, restoring rivers and creating recreational 'blueways' river trails designed to generate economic activity, and increasing support for protecting rural landscapes mindful of the budget battle in washington, obama noted that existing government revenue from oil and gas extraction would pay to fully fund the land and water conservation fun, which was created in 1965 to help purchase land and water property for conservation it would be only the third time in history that the fund reached its maximum level of $900 million, obama said to applause, adding that 'our attitude is if you take something out of the earth, you have a responsibility to give a little bit back to the earth' the conservation service corps would be roughly modeled on the civilian conservation corps of the 1930s to help young americans find work involving nature and conservation 'to encourage young people to put down the remote and video games and go outside, we're going to establish a new conservation service corps so they can build a lifelong relationship with their national heritage,' obama said to more applause every year, america loses about 16 million acres of its working farms, ranches and forests to development, according to a report by the us department of agriculture cnn's sarah jones contributed to this story | the land and water conservation fund conservation service corps | president calls for creating a 21st century conservation ethic . the plan includes fully funding the land and water conservation fund . a new conservation service corps would provide outdoor jobs for young people |
(cnn) erin and raleigh hill of north carolina kept their $1 million lottery prize to themselves for almost six months, hiding the ticket in an envelope, a bible, a shoebox and, finally, a work locker until they were ready to cash in midafternoon tuesday, the nervous couple knew they had to face 'the hoopla' they drove to raleigh to claim the mega million prize that was set to expire at 5 pm wednesday, officials said that brought an end of recent frantic searches by others through glove compartments, cupboards and wallets just in case they had the winning ticket the hills each received a lump sum of $340,000 after taxes, the north carolina education lottery said in a statement the couple purchased the winning mega millions ticket at the market express in stallings, near matthews, in august 2010 raleigh hill said he wasn't ready just then to collect the cash and hid the ticket, the lottery said winners have 180 days to come forward raleigh hill matched all five white balls (4 13 20 29 48) with a $2 megaplier ticket, earning an automatic $1 million prize raleigh hill, a baggage handler, waited several weeks after the purchase to tell his wife, erin, a federal government employee, the lottery said he informed erin at the end of a bad day for her 'things aren't all that bad,' he told her as he left the winning ticket on a computer screen after displaying the winning numbers at one point, raleigh hill told lottery officials, he thought he had lost the ticket before remembering it was in the shoebox in a closet the hills, who live in stallings, may buy a new home and take a trip to ireland because of erin hill's heritage, the lottery said cnn left messages tuesday for the hills esther roach, store manager at market express, told cnn she had gotten about 15 calls in the past two days from people who bought lottery tickets and wanted to the know the address of her store they may have purchased tickets at multiple locations and were trying to recall whether they had been to the stallings store 'today has been tremendously busy,' she said tuesday afternoon before learning the hills had come forward 'i barely had time to get my work done today' the north carolina education lottery says it has advice for people to avoid confusion on whether they are a winner 'we advise people to sign the back and have a system to keep up with them,' communications director van denton told cnn market express, which won $10,000 for selling the ticket, saw a jump in sales after the lottery announced where the august winner was sold 'they thought it was a lucky store,' roach said 'it is good for business' since its inception in march 2006, the education lottery has provided about $176 billion for four school programs that includes money for school construction, college scholarships for students in need, teacher pay and programs to keep class sizes small, denton said if no winner had been certified at lottery headquarters in raleigh by the deadline, the $1 million prize would have been split between education and a fund to pay down a medicaid shortfall in north carolina according to the lottery, a winterville man had less than two full business days left before his $200,000 powerball ticket was set to expire january 4, 2009 the ticket had been sitting on his dresser since he purchased it, completely forgotten about until a friend from greensboro heard of the missing ticket and called to ask if he had ever checked his the largest prize that went unclaimed was a $800,000 powerball ticket sold in april 2008 | north carolina $1 million day ireland | couple from stallings, north carolina, claims $1 million mega millions prize . they waited until day before deadline to come forward . they say they may buy new home, travel to ireland |
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