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Chemical damages ozone and is being phased out, though it's used in strawberry fields, EPA says .
A Delaware family becomes ill at a resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands .
Preliminary EPA results find methyl bromide was present in the unit where they stayed . | (CNN)A Delaware father is in stable condition and improving as his two boys remain in critical condition after they became sick -- perhaps from pesticide exposure, federal officials say -- during a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Steve Esmond, his teenage sons and the teens' mother fell ill more than two weeks ago in St. John, where they were renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort. The family has confidence in their medical professionals and is hopeful for a full recovery, according to a statement released Monday from the family's attorney, James Maron. The teens' mother, Theresa Devine, was treated at a hospital and released, and is in occupational therapy, Maron said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the presence of a pesticide at the rented villa in St. John may have caused the illnesses, which were reported to the EPA on March 20. Paramedics were called to the villa, which the family was renting. Esmond was found unconscious; the boys and their mother were having seizures, Maron said. The lawyer did not say who called the paramedics. Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, said the agency's preliminary test results "do show that there was a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying." Exposure to methyl bromide can result in serious health effects, including central nervous system and respiratory system damage, according to the EPA. The use of the pesticide is restricted in the United States because of its acute toxicity. It's not allowed to be used indoors. Only certified professionals are permitted to use it in certain agricultural settings. For example, the pesticide is injected into the soil of some U.S. strawberry fields, said Judith Enck, an EPA regional administrator. "We trust that the strawberry producers are making sure that there's not excess pesticide residue on strawberries," Enck said. "You definitely want to wash them really good. "This is a pesticide that's been around for a long time, and ironically because of its impact and damage to the ozone layer, it's being phased out because of the air impacts of this fumigant," Enck added. Field workers at a Connecticut nursery were poisoned by the chemical in 1990, according to the Journal of Industrial Medicine. In 2011, warehouse workers in California fell ill after exposed to grapes imported from Chile fumigated with methyl bromide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, said many parts of the world banned the chemical, a neurotoxin. The agent is to be used only outdoors. The chemical is also odorless and colorless, Gupta said. "It's not something that you would have any warning of," Gupta said. The chemical is often mixed with tear gas so people can be aware of its presence, he added. The EPA said it is working with local government agencies to investigate whether the family was made ill after a fumigation at the resort on March 18 and whether any environmental regulations or laws were violated. Enck, the EPA regional administrator, said paramedics were called early on March 20. Sea Glass Vacations, which acts as a rental agent for several units at Sirenusa, said the unit directly below the one where the family stayed was recently treated for pests, but that the family's unit was not treated. The company said it licensed an outside company, Terminix, for the pest control services. On Monday, it ended its contract with Terminix. In an email to CNN before the termination, a spokesman for Terminix wrote that the company is "committed to performing all work ... in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees, the public and the environment" and is "looking into this matter internally, and cooperating with authorities." The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a criminal investigation. "Many questions remain why an odorless pesticide of this level of toxicity could be manufactured, distributed and applied in a residential area resulting in this family's injuries," Maron said. The attorney added: "The family is confident that the responsible parties will be brought to justice and held accountable." CNN's Rob Frehse, Jean Casarez, Sara Ganim, Jason Hanna, Laura Ly and Michael Martinez contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
A court allowed a wife to serve divorce papers via Facebook .
Danny Cevallos: Why not let people be found via social media? | (CNN)Recently, a New York judge issued an opinion authorizing service of divorce papers on a husband completely via Facebook. What exactly is "service of process"? Serving people with legal papers is an industry and its own body of law premised on one guiding principle: if you are going to sue someone, you should at least let them know about it. Sounds simple, right? In theory it is. In practice, it turns out people don't like being sued. It also turns out that, to many defendants, procrastination of a lawsuit is a viable defense. Just as you may avoid bad news in life, defendants tend to avoid process servers. Once a defendant has been served, that means the judicial proceedings begin. Unfortunately, that means defendants have an incentive to go "off the grid". Although every state is different, the law of service of process has evolved this way: the ideal and fairest way to notify a person of a lawsuit is to have another human hand the papers to the defendant in person, and have some proof that the person was the defendant. In-person service is not always possible, for obvious reasons. So, the law had to develop methods of alternate service, but carefully balance a defendant's right to have notice of a lawsuit, against a diligent plaintiff's access to court if a defendant is avoiding the inevitable. As reliable as the U.S. mail is, regular mail is not a reliable form of serving papers. Not because the postmen can't be trusted; they can. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, will keep them from delivering those papers. Instead, it's defendants -- no wait, all of humanity -- that can't be trusted. Every one of us has ignored mail or even pretended we didn't get it. Defendants are no different. One form of alternate service is "nail and mail" service. This means that you take a hammer and nail, and nail the papers to the defendant's front door. The problem with that is that many defendants are nomadic by nature. Just because you find a house that a defendant stayed at, doesn't mean he'll be back there anytime soon. Another, even odder form of "service" is service by publication. This is an almost laughable legal fiction. If you can't find a defendant, a judge might let you serve by publication. That means that a plaintiff can take out an ad in five point font for a week in an obscure publication, on the off chance you are reading the classified ads of the Secaucus Law Journal looking for lawsuits against you. As laughable as serving someone by tweeting it sounds, it's at least more rational than this antiquated method. At first blush, the idea of service by Facebook seems to offend traditional notions of ensuring notification of a defendant of a case against him. When it comes to serving papers, however, "traditional" doesn't necessarily mean "good." Service by publication or nailing paper to the door of an empty apartment is hardly reliable; it's just service of last resort. For those people who are concerned that being served papers will become a Facebook announcement in a news feed, along with the photos of dinner or kittens, to be "liked" by all your gawking "friends," we're not quite there ... yet. While the older forms of alternate service were public, most electronic service takes the form of email. Where email isn't available, it is Facebook private messaging, which should be as private as email. That's the form of service authorized by the court here. So for now, we're not quite putting lawsuits on Instagram ... but I wouldn't rule it out in the future. Online service may be a new frontier, but it's not unheard of. Most of us exist more online now than we "live" in a particular condo, or Mom's basement. Virtually everyone has a phone or access to the Internet. Not everyone has a lease or a mortgage. Plus, online service has the added benefit of tracking. Believe me, somewhere, some computer has already logged the fact that you read this article, how long you read it, and even how far down you scrolled before you got bored and bailed on the article (thanks for still being here, by the way). In a way, maybe online service is long overdue. You can outrun a process server for a while, but sooner or later, all of us have to go back online -- and no human can outrun an email. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief will visit Yarmouk camp Saturday .
Pierre Krähenbühl will assess the humanitarian situation there .
Yarmouk has been engulfed in fighting since December 2012 . | (CNN)The commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency will make an emergency visit to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria on Saturday, a spokesman says. Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl will assess the humanitarian situation in the camp and speak with individuals about ways to relieve the suffering of the people who remain there. "The visit is prompted by UNRWA's deepening concern for the safety and protection of 18,000 Palestinians and Syrian civilians, including 3,500 children," agency spokesman Christopher Gunness told CNN's Paula Newton. "Yarmouk remains under the control of armed groups, and civilian life continues to be threatened by the effects of the conflict." Krähenbühl will meet with senior Syrian officials, U.N. and relief agency staff members, and displaced people from the camp itself. The Yarmouk refugee camp, which sits just 6 miles from central Damascus, has been engulfed in fighting between the Syrian government and armed groups since December 2012. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the militant group ISIS and the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front control about 90% of the camp. The organization also claims that the Syrian government has dropped barrel bombs on the camp as recently as Sunday in an effort to drive out armed groups. Yarmouk was formed in 1957 to accommodate people displaced by the Arab-Israeli conflict and is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. The U.N. relief agency estimates that there were 160,000 people in the camp when the conflict began in 2011 between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters. That number has dropped to about 18,000, according to estimates. Yarmouk has been largely cut off from aid since November 2013. There have been widespread reports of malnutrition and shortages of medical care. "We will not abandon hope," Gunness said. "We will not submit to pessimism, because to abandon hope would be to abandon the people of Yarmouk. ... We cannot abandon the people of Yarmouk, and we will not, hence this mission." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Police in London are trying to catch the gang which staged a multi-million heist during the Easter vacation .
Former police commander: Such crimes require meticulous planning and use of information by criminals .
The masterminds behind such complicated crimes carefully assemble their gangs with men they can trust . | London (CNN)It wasn't messrs Clooney, Pitt and their nine accomplices who sailed down an elevator shaft and cracked open dozens of safety deposit boxes at a London vault during the Easter weekend. But last weekend's raid in the heart of the city's jewelry district feels like it has been taken from a movie like "Ocean 11" given its daring and planning. Such robberies are rare: the gang didn't follow the current criminal trend of manipulating digits in cyber space but instead went back to basics and committed their burglary in a way not seen in London for more than 40 years. In September 1971, the staff of a bank in Baker Street, central London, arrived at work to find that thieves had dug a 40-yard tunnel from a shop they had rented, hauled in a thermic lance and explosives and opened the strong room. The gang got away with a haul worth around £30 million (the incident later formed the basis of the movie "The Bank Job.") But how are such heists organized? Roy Ramm, a former commander of specialist operations at London's Scotland Yard for 27 years, explains. In the UK burglaries and robberies are often committed by working-class people, people who would otherwise have blue collar jobs. In more than 25 years as a Scotland Yard detective, I never met a Raffles- or a Thomas Crown-style criminal from a middle-class background who had then turned to the hard side of crime. Sophisticated heists like the Hatton Garden raid are generally not a natural progression for burglars who began with smaller domestic break-ins. Many neighborhood criminals commit burglaries to feed drugs habits and acquire long strings of convictions that mean they are always on the police radar. Occasionally, they steal things they can't sell and end up dumping valuable paintings or antiques when they are not able to sell them on quickly. More specialist criminals -- those, for example, who target museums or country houses -- will be very specific and steal only what they know they can quickly convert to untraceable cash. Many of those who commit the bigger crimes or run major criminal enterprises combine high IQs with a kind of raw street intelligence. One of their skills is the ability to recognize a criminal opportunity when it presents itself, possibly from a source of inside information. Probably the biggest difference between any heist you'll see in a movie and its real-life equivalent is the motive. I've never encountered any criminal who committed a high value crime just for the challenge or to prove that it could be done. The only reason has been for the money, often to support a certain lifestyle and to fund other criminal enterprises. Inside information is one way of identifying a criminal opportunity, using people who are able to provide that crucial detail or who will participate in some small way to facilitate the crime. The Brinks MAT robbery in 1983 -- a case which I was involved in at the time -- saw a criminal gang escape with gold bullion worth more than £28 million (around £88 million -- or $130million -- adjusting for inflation) from a warehouse at London's Heathrow Airport. The Knightsbridge safety deposit robbery of 1987 saw a gang make off with tens of millions of pounds in cash and valuables from an upscale London neighbourhood (the true amount will never be known). Both were made possible by inside information: it's an angle that London detectives investigating last weekend's heist will be looking at very closely. The planning behind the Hatton Garden raid will have been meticulous. The target will have been observed, perhaps for months, and the thieves will have decided on the right time to commit the crime. A long weekend or a public holiday are occasions when more time may be available, also perhaps when regular staff are away. Sometimes the mastermind behind the raid will need a larger team of criminals to do a specific job. Usually they will already be known directly to each other, perhaps because they worked on other jobs together. Possibly a specialist can be brought in by another team member -- but they have to be able to trust each other and trust comes from understanding, so gangs in the UK tend to come from the same social and ethnic group, maybe even limited to one relatively small geographic area. Even though there is more diversity in society, it would be unusual to find a broad ethnic or social mix in the team put together for a major crime. Vehicles will have been obtained, stolen or purchased for cash and their identities cloned or changed. Equipment will have been sourced. Everything will have been cleaned, cleaned and cleaned again to remove forensic traces. They will plan routes that avoid CCTV and timings that attract the least attention. They will have untraceable disposable phones and an outside team to warn the inside men of any problems. They will have planned their getaway, their clean-up and how and when they are going to dispose of anything that might link them to the crime scene -- and of course how they are going to sell on the proceeds of their crime. What criminals steal doesn't vary that much. Cash is probably first choice, followed by anything that can quickly and easily be converted to cash, like gold, jewellery and watches. The conversion of stolen goods to cash is risky and expensive: the Brinks MAT bullion that was traced was because it had been clumsily smelted and then sold on. Fine paintings and rare antiques are less desirable for experienced criminals -- unless they are stealing to order -- because they are so identifiable and because the black market is so much smaller. A painting may sell at an international auction for millions of dollars but it will only fetch a fraction of its true value from a dishonest collector. London detectives investigating the Hatton Garden heist will be looking very closely at the possibility of inside involvement. But police enquiries won't stop there. They will look at every aspect of how the target business operates, then try to think like criminals to identify the weaknesses in physical and operational security that the gang may have been informed about or else spotted and then exploited. The forensic assault on the crime scene will be immense. In recent years forensic science has made major advances in identifying trace evidence and investigators will look for any scrap of evidence that might yield the DNA of a criminal. CCTV footage from street cameras and from inside private premises will be analyzed and vehicle movements logged and cross-checked. Rewards for information will be offered. Witnesses will interviewed. In the police's criminal intelligence branch, the movements of known criminals will be analyzed and the networks of sources -- informers -- will be tasked to report what they hear. The details of any identifiable goods which have been stolen will be circulated to known markets, both in the UK and internationally. The detectives investigating these major crimes in the UK see them as an exciting challenge to their professionalism. They don't admire the criminals but they have less contempt for a gang that builds a sophisticated plan and causes no personal harm to anyone than say for a violent robber. But the investigation will still be relentless. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Moviegoers are tearing up during the emotional ending of "Furious 7"
The movie's end is a tribute of sorts to actor Paul Walker, who died during filming . | (CNN)Fans of the late actor Paul Walker knew that watching him in "Furious 7" would be bittersweet. Even so, many moviegoers said the final scenes of the new film, which earned a record $146 million over the weekend, still packed an emotional wallop. "Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears at the end of Furious 7. The tribute to Paul Walker was very well done," one woman said Monday on Twitter. Hers was just one of a flood of messages on social media from people who said they got choked up during scenes featuring Walker, who died at 40 in a car crash in November 2013, before filming on "Furious 7" was completed. To finish Walker's scenes, the makers of the movie used body doubles, computer-generated images and even the actor's brothers. But it was the ending that really got to moviegoers. In finishing "Furious 7," the film's producers sought to retire Walker's character, Brian, while paying homage to his role in the blockbuster "Furious" action franchise. But they felt that killing him off might appear exploitative. "If they had gone down the other path, I think I would have refused to finish making this movie," director James Wan told BuzzFeed. Instead, the movie's makers chose to "retire Paul's character in the most sincere and elegant way (they) could," Wan said. Their idea was to have Brian retire from his dangerous, high-octane lifestyle out of a sense of responsibility to his growing family with girlfriend Mia, who is pregnant with their second child. A scene late in the movie shows him and Mia playing on a beach with their son while the crew looks on -- essentially saying goodbye. Then his longtime buddy Dom reminisces about their years together, leading to a montage of Walker scenes from the first six movies. The song that plays over the montage is "See You Again," a collaboration between Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. Co-star Vin Diesel shared the video for the song late Sunday on his Facebook page, where it has more than 1.5 million likes. Fans on Twitter and Facebook mostly praised the movie's ending as a fitting tribute -- and an emotionally wrenching one. "Man I don't care how tough u are or how gangsta u claim to be . ...the last five minutes had me choked up in the movie theater ... I saw it 3 times in one day ... ...the ending is the deepest ending I've ever seen," one man wrote on the movie's Facebook page. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Selena Quintanilla-Perez will be re-created as hologram-like figure .
The Tejano singer is first to be part of a new technology, says sister .
Selena was killed 20 years ago but remains hugely popular . | (CNN)Tejano star Selena, who died 20 years ago, is coming back in a big way: with a hologram-like figure. Billboard reports that the singer's family is creating a version of the singer that will be "walking, talking, singing and dancing digital embodiment" of her persona. "By no means is this something that's creepy or weird," her sister, Suzette Quintanilla, told Billboard. "We think it's something amazing. A lot of the new fans that did not get to experience what Selena was about hopefully will be able to get a sense of her with this new technology that's going to be coming out." Selena: 20 years after her death . The technology is being handled by Acrovirt LLC, a Nevada-based tech company. "Using detailed individual personalized functions spanning the mind, brain and body, the individual's Digitized Human Essence will autonomously learn and react on behalf of its human counterpart's," the company explained. The project is being called "Selena the One." Twenty years after she was killed by her fan club president, Selena remains incredibly popular, with her Facebook page recording 2 million likes and fans continuing to post videos and tributes. Selena will be the first figure to use the Acrovirt technology, Quintanilla said. "I'm excited at the fact that she will be the first ever, and the fact that she's a Latina makes it even more awesome," she said. "It's not about replacing Selena in any shape, way or form; it's just something to help her legacy continue growing." The family intends to expand her legacy in another way: with some new music. Selena the One "will release new songs and videos, will collaborate with current hit artists, and aims to go on tour in 2018," said a statement on Selena's Facebook page. Selena isn't the first performer to try the virtual route. A Michael Jackson hologram appeared at the Billboard Music Awards in 2014, and a hologram of Tupac Shakur performed at Coachella in 2012. But the new technology is a step forward, Quintanilla said. "People don't realize how fast technology is moving," she told Billboard. "This is something that we're building for another two to three years, so when 2018 comes around they'll be like, 'Oh, OK, we get it.' " Fans can join an Indiegogo campaign, www.selenatheone.com, to support the launch. The campaign, which hopes to raise $500,000, begins April 16. The commemorative Fiesta de la Flor in Corpus Christi, Texas -- which celebrates her life -- is scheduled for April 17 and 18. CNN's Katia Hetter contributed to this story. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
100 passengers and crew members have been sickened on Celebrity Infinity .
The ship, which is based on the West Coast, left San Diego in late March .
The CDC is scheduled to board the ship Monday . | (CNN)Gastrointestinal illness has gripped 100 people on the cruise ship Celebrity Infinity, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control. Of the ship's 2,117 passengers, 95 have suffered from vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms, the CDC said. The illness has also affected five members of the 964-person crew. The CDC has yet to determine what's causing the ailments. Two staffers from the agency are scheduled to meet the West Coast-based ship in San Diego on Monday. The Infinity left San Diego on March 29. It made its last stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on April 10, according to MarineTraffic.com. Celebrity Cruises has been taking action since the outbreak began, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures, keeping passengers informed and taking specimens from the afflicted for testing by the CDC, the agency says. According to the Maritime Executive, this is the third time the Celebrity Infinity has suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, with others occurring in 2006 and 2013. The ship was built in 2001 and refurbished in 2011. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
"Twin Peaks" creator David Lynch announced he was departing the Showtime revival of the cult series Sunday .
Cast members of the show posted a YouTube video Wednesday pleading for him to return .
Wednesday was the series' 25th anniversary . | (The Hollywood Reporter)The original cast of Twin Peaks is backing David Lynch in his salary standoff with Showtime. The stars have teamed together for a video backing the show's co-creator with a #SaveTwinPeaks campaign that says doing the revival without Lynch is "like pies without cherries," among other nods to the original drama series. Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, James Marshall, Peggy Lipton and other familiar faces from the series appear in the video. (Some members have also set up a Facebook page.) Showtime renews 'Shameless,' orders 'Happyish' to series . Lynch announced Sunday that he was exiting Showtime's nine-episode revival over a salary dispute. He originally signed on to direct the project but noted that there was "not enough money offered to do the script the way I felt needed to be done." Showtime already had a deal in place with Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost to bring back the cult hit with star Kyle MacLachlan for a run in 2016, with sources telling THR that the scripts had already been written. Showtime chief on 'Twin Peaks' plans, 'Homeland' backlash and free speech . For its part, Showtime noted that it "continues to hold out hope" that Twin Peaks can be brought back with both its creators at the helm. MacLachlan is the only cast member currently confirmed for the reboot. Lynch to leave 'Twin Peaks' reboot . ©2015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Former TSA agent Daniel Boykin, 33, videotaped his female co-worker in the restroom, authorities say .
Authorities say they found 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer .
Boykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't do public security screenings, TSA official says . | (CNN)A judge this week sentenced a former TSA agent to six months in jail for secretly videotaping a female co-worker while she was in the bathroom, prosecutors said. During the investigation, detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department in Tennessee also found that the agent, 33-year-old Daniel Boykin, entered the woman's home multiple times, where he took videos, photos and other data. Police found more than 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer. The victim filed a complaint after seeing images of herself on his phone last year. Boykin plead guilty to unlawful photography, aggravated burglary and violation of the computer act, the Nashville District Attorney's Office said. Police said the incident happened in a TSA-only restroom, and that there was no evidence public restrooms were targeted. A TSA official tells CNN that Boykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't engage in public security screening. Assistant District Attorney Amy Hunter said this case was one of the worst invasion of privacy cases she's seen. "We are thankful that the sentence includes periodic confinement so that the sentence will hopefully make an impression on this defendant and others," Hunter said in a statement. The judge, Randall Wyatt, on Friday called the invasion of privacy "egregious." His sentence also includes five and a half years of probation, which will include GPS monitoring. Boykin was terminated last year when the investigation began. "TSA holds its employees to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace," TSA's Ross Feinstein said in a statement. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Five young women have been detained by China since early March .
They campaigned against sexual harassment .
Their detention has attracted international criticism . | (CNN)Five young Chinese feminists, whose detention has provoked an international outcry, may face up to five years in prison over their campaign for gender equality. The women were among detained on March 6 and March 7 in three Chinese cities -- Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou -- shortly before events they had planned for International Women's Day on March 8. Wang Qiushi, the lawyer for one of the women, Wei Tingting, said police had recommended on April 6 that prosecutors press charges of "assembling a crowd to disturb public order." Wang told CNN that prosecutors had to decide whether to pursue the charges within seven days of the submission -- by Monday. "We hope that the prosecutors will not approve a formal arrest warrant, following the laws and standing up to pressure," he said. "But nobody knows what to expect till Monday; we can do nothing but wait." The five were initially held on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Wang said he didn't know why the charge against the women changed. "Neither should constitute a crime," he said. Campaign group Amnesty International said the new charge was less serious but still carried a maximum jail term of five years. "The women were doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal. They were simply calling for an end to sexual harassment," William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International told CNN. "Everything they were doing was in line with China's own laws and policies." Wang said that Wei had been subject to lengthy cross examinations during her detention but was well the last time they met on March 31. Two of the women are said to be in poor health. He added that the charges relate both to the activities the women planned for International Women's Day and earlier campaigns against domestic violence and for more public toilets for women. The five -- who are members of China's Women's Rights Action Group -- had planned to hand out stickers printed with slogans saying "stop sexual harassment, let us stay safe" and "go police, go arrest those who committed sexual harassment!" on women's day. The detention of Wei, along with Wu Rongrong, Li Tingting, Wang Man and Zheng Churan has drawn harsh criticism from the international community. Protests have taken place in several cities, including Hong Kong, that urge Chinese officials to "free the five." A social media campaign also uses the phrase as a hashtag. On Monday, Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, tweeted that the activists' detention was "inexcusable." Her comment drew a rebuke from Chinese authorities, who said public figures should respect China's sovereignty and independence. Maya Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the activists were best known for their "performance art" style protests -- occupying public toilets to highlight long lines at women's restrooms, donning blood-spattered wedding gowns to protest domestic violence and shaving their heads to protest against barriers to higher education for women. "These activists epitomize the spirit of the times. They are young, confident, ready to challenge established norms," Wang said. As China prepares to mark the anniversary of landmark UN Fourth World Conference on Women in September, it will be hard for authorities to justify detaining the activists, she added. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Debris from boat to be dried, inspected and taken to landfill .
The debris contained fish normally found in Japanese waters .
The earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March 2011 . | (CNN)Those poor fish must have been wondering what the heck was happening to them. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has reported that a section of a fiberglass boat 20 or 30 feet long was spotted off the state's coast this week and has been towed into harbor. The debris is suspected to be from the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The boat fragment was found this week and towed to Newport, Oregon, where it is moored at a marina. Inside were found -- more than four years and 4,000 miles later, if officials' suspicions are correct -- some specimens of a variety of yellowtail jack fish normally found in Japanese waters. Biologists with the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center inspected the debris while it was still at sea and determined that the ecological threat posed by invasive species was small. The remnants of the boat will be dried out, inspected further and taken to a landfill. But for the yellowtail jack fish, the journey is not over. They'll be taken to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Case begins when police find video of what appears to be a gang rape .
2 students from Troy University in Alabama are charged in the case . | (CNN)Two Alabama college students are accused of gang raping a woman while on spring break at Florida's Panama City Beach. Ryan Calhoun and Delonte Martistee, students at Troy University, were arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, according to a statement from the Bay County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. The Troy, Alabama, Police Department found video of what appeared to be a Panama City gang rape during the course of an investigation into an unrelated shooting. The video was turned over to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. The Bay County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division has identified the victim in the video but said state law prevents the office from releasing any information about her. She was a visitor in Panama City. "We are not releasing her location or any additional information on victim to protect her from further trauma," said sheriff's spokesman Tommy Ford. After interviewing witnesses, Bay County investigators determined the alleged rape took place sometime from March 10, 2015, to March 12, 2015, behind Spinnaker Beach Club, a popular bar and dance club for spring breakers. A statement from Troy University confirmed the two men are current students. "The students have been placed on temporary suspension from school per the university's standards of conduct and disciplinary procedures. Martistee, a member of the track and field team, has also been removed from the team." The investigation continues and more arrests are expected, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said. Calhoun and Martistee will have their first court appearance Saturday morning, a Bay County deputy said. CNN could not determine if the men have attorneys. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
A couple named Burger and King?
Internet has a meltdown over "Vampire Diaries" departure . | (CNN)"Star Wars" is once again back in our lives, the Burger-King couple helped us believe love can be found in fast food, and Mindy Kaling's brother had a shocking announcement. Those are just a few of the stories that trended this week. 1. 'Star Wars' streaming . The Force is with the streaming device of your choice, thanks to this week's surprise announcement that the entire "Star Wars" saga (so far, anyway) would be released on digital HD at the end of the week. Between this and the release of "Daredevil," we imagine lots of nerds called in sick on Friday. 2. Mindy Kaling's brother: I faked being black to get into medical school . Actress Mindy Kaling's brother says that he posed as a black man years ago to get into medical school and that the experience opened his eyes to what he calls the hypocrisy of affirmative action. Among those who disapprove of the book he's planning to write about the whole thing: his sister. 3. Farewell, Rosco . "Dukes of Hazzard" fans mourned the loss of actor James Best, best known as Hazzard County's hapless sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, this week. Others who passed on: "L.A. Law" actor Richard Dysart and frequent Clint Eastwood co-star Geoffrey Lewis. 4. When Burger met King, it was love . Joel Burger is set to marry Ashley King in July, and when fast food giant Burger King got wind of the nuptials, the couple scored a free wedding. 5. Michelle Obama broke it down (again) The first lady's Let's Move campaign has featured her dancing on more than one occasion, but she brought the (White) House down on Monday with the "So You Think You Can Dance" all-stars during the Easter egg roll. 6. "The Vampire Diaries" crisis . Not since Zayn Malik announced that he was quitting One Direction has Twitter had such a meltdown: "Vampire Diaries" star Nina Dobrev is leaving the CW series. "Nothing will be the same again," one fan tweeted. Other things we loved: . More than 10 million people have seen Anne Hathaway's take on Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball," complete with props, from Spike's hit show "Lip Sync Battle." Go, greased lightning! "Late Late Show" host and Tony winner James Corden put on "Grease" for Los Angeles drivers waiting in traffic. The cast of the movie "Suicide Squad," including Will Smith and Margot Robbie, assembled for the first time this week in a Twitter photo from director David Ayer. And no worries, future Joker Jared Leto was taking the photo (in an image inspired by classic comic book "The Killing Joke"). The comments are the whole reason to read this "Humans of New York" post on a woman named Beyonce. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
ISIS says it controls several buildings at the Baiji oil refinery .
Iraqi government security officials say Iraqi forces remain in full control .
The refinery, Iraq's largest, has long been a lucrative target for militants . | Irbil, Iraq (CNN)ISIS claimed it controlled part of Iraq's largest oil refinery Sunday, posting images online that purported to show the storming of the facility, fierce clashes and plumes of smoke rising above the contested site. The group said it launched an assault on the Baiji oil refinery late Saturday. By Sunday, ISIS said its fighters were inside the refinery and controlled several buildings, but Iraqi government security officials denied that claim and insisted Iraqi forces remain in full control. CNN couldn't independently verify ISIS' claim. It wouldn't be the first time that militants and Iraqi forces have battled over the refinery, a key strategic resource that has long been a lucrative target because the facility refines much of the fuel used by Iraqis domestically. If an attack damaged oil fields or machinery, it could have a significant impact. The refinery is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, which Iraqi forces and Shiite militias wrested from ISIS less than two weeks ago. CNN's Jennifer Deaton and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Cuba pulled off a diplomatic coup by gaining attendance at Summit of the Americas .
First time since 1962, the U.S. has not blocked Cuba's attempt to join .
Cuba is trying to re-establish itself at the two-day summit in Panama . | Havana, Cuba (CNN)All eyes are going to be on the new kid finally allowed to play and the big kid who for so long wanted nothing to do with him -- Cuba and the United States in the same diplomatic playground. Cuba pulled off a diplomatic coup by marshaling the support of other regional countries to insist on their attendance at the Summit of the Americas. And for the first time since 1962, the U.S. has not blocked Cuba's attempt to join. Now it's time to see how they play and who they play with -- especially Venezuela, which often falls out with Washington for crushing dissent at home and supplying Havana with billions of dollars in oil. Cuba is trying to re-establish itself at the two-day summit in Panama, arriving with more than 100 government officials, diplomats, small business people and artists. But Cuba's attempts to rebrand itself as an open, diverse society stumbled Wednesday when government supporters and anti-Castro supporters brawled in the streets of Panama. Video of the incident showed Cuban government officials exchanging punches and insults with dissidents until Panamanian police in riot gear broke up the melee. With the historic thawing in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, Washington now has urgent business to discuss with Havana. "We have really big issues with the Cubans that do need to be solved," said Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, who served as the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. She added "The Cubans are typical of their negotiating style. You think it's going to be easy because we have said 'We are going to have good relations with you' and they say, 'That's not exciting for us and it is for you.' So they are hard negotiators as they always have been." The forum could provide the opportunity to push forward an agreement to re-establish formal relations and re-open embassies after nearly four months of negotiations. While President Barack Obama is not scheduled to meet Cuban leader Raul Castro, U.S. officials said there will be opportunities for "interaction" between the two leaders. The first time the two heads of state met was in 2013 at Nelson Mandela's funeral. Their brief handshake captured the world's attention and lit up social media. Few people then knew that the two countries were secretly involved in negotiations to thaw five decades of deadlocked Cold War-era relations. Obama had said he had hoped a U.S. Embassy would reopen in Havana before the summit, but Cuban officials have said they cannot imagine a full restoration of diplomatic ties until Cuba is removed from the U.S. State Department list of countries that support terrorism. "It would be difficult to explain that diplomatic relations have been resumed while Cuba has been unjustly listed as a state sponsor of international terrorism," said Josefina Vidal, the general director of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry and lead negotiator in the talks. Cuba was added to the list in 1982, which includes Syria, Iran and Sudan. The designation carries financial sanctions which Cuban officials say further damages their already ailing economy. The State Department has sent a recommendation to the White House that Cuba be removed, paving the way for the White House to announce its intent to de-list Cuba as early as this week, two administration officials told CNN. Removal from the list "does not relate to whether or not we agree with everything a country does or whether we agree with its political system, or its foreign policy," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "It's a very practical review as to whether or not a government is sponsoring terrorism." Rhodes also dialed backed rhetoric on Venezuela, saying the country did not pose a national security threat to the United States, despite a recent declaration to that effect. The designation was meant to allow officials to target seven allegedly corrupt Venezuelan officials, but it ignited a firestorm, particularly in Cuba, which has close ties to Venezuela. Deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was a friend and admirer of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro continues to send Cuba tens of thousands of barrels of oil each day, despite his country's own economic turmoil. In exchange, Cuba sends doctors, military advisers and sports trainers to Venezuela. In Cuba's state-run media, criticism of U.S. policy towards Venezuela has overshadowed the improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations. In March, Fidel Castro published a letter criticizing the U.S.' "brutal plans towards" Venezuela and the Cuban government promised "unconditional aid" to help defend against American threats. Its remains to be seen how much Cuba will risk its warming relations with the United States to back up ally Venezuela. But apparently there is little doubt among the Cuban people on what their government should do. A poll of 1,200 Cubans released on Wednesday found that 97% of the people surveyed by Miami-based polling firm Bendixen & Amandi on behalf of The Washington Post and Univision Noticias/Fusion supported improved U.S.-Cuban relations. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Ramp agent tells authorities he fell asleep in cargo hold, Alaska Airlines says .
The cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled . | (CNN)Getting caught napping on the job is never good. Getting caught napping on the job in the cargo hold of a plane takes it to a whole different level. Alaska Airlines Flight 448 was just barely on its way to Los Angeles from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday afternoon when the pilot reported hearing unusual banging from the cargo hold. "There could be a person in there so we're going to come back around," he told air traffic control. The banging in the cargo hold did come from a person and he turned out to be a ramp agent from Menzies Aviation, a contractor for Alaska Airlines that handles loading the luggage, the airline said. The man told authorities he had fallen asleep. It appears he was never in any danger. The cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled, the airline said. The plane was also only in the air for 14 minutes. The passengers knew something wasn't right, almost as soon as the plane took off. "All of a sudden we heard all this pounding underneath the plane and we thought there was something wrong with the landing gear," Robert Higgins told CNN affiliate KABC. The pounding grew louder. "At that point, we started hearing yelling, screams for help, very, very faint," Jamie Davis said. "That's when we notified the flight attendant that there was somebody underneath us." As the banging continued, a federal air marshal sprang into action. "At some point, the marshal kind of made himself known," said Troi Ge. "He started banging back, and he yelled really loud and said, 'We're getting ready to land, hold on to something.'" The emergency landing spooked the folks aboard Flight 448. Affiliate KOMO spoke to Marty Collins, another one of the passengers. "We just took off for L.A. regular and then ... about five minutes into the flight the captain came on and said we were going back and we'd land within five to seven minutes, and we did," Collins said. "When we landed was when all the trucks and the police and the fire trucks surrounded the plane." "I think it's scary and really unsafe, too," Chelsie Nieto told affiliate KCPQ. "Because what if it's someone who could have been a terrorist?" The ramp agent appeared to be in OK after the ordeal. He was taken to an area hospital as a precaution, the airline said. He passed a drug test and was discharged. The employee started work at 5 a.m. and his shift was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., just before the flight departed. "During a pre-departure huddle, the team lead noticed the employee was missing. The team lead called into the cargo hold for the employee and called and texted the employee's cell phone, but did not receive an answer. His co-workers believed he finished his shift and went home," the airline's blog said. Alaska Airlines said it's investigating. The man had been on a four-person team loading baggage onto the flight. All ramp employees have security badges, and undergo full criminal background checks before being hired, according to the airline. After the delay, the flight with 170 passengers and six crew members on board made it to Los Angeles early Monday evening. CNN's Greg Morrison contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Nigeria's President-elect sends nation's prayers to families of girls .
World still expresses hope that the girls will return .
Boko Haram controls a portion of northeastern Nigeria . | (CNN)One year after it was perpetrated, the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by a jihadist group in Nigeria remains a crime almost too horrifying to comprehend: Hundreds of teenaged girls, just finishing school, destined perhaps for significant achievement -- kidnapped, never to be seen again. "This crime has rightly caused outrage both in Nigeria and across the world," the country's President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, said Tuesday in marking the anniversary. "Today is a time to reflect on the pain and suffering of the victims, their friends and families. Our thoughts and prayers, and that of the whole Nigerian nation, are with you today." The girls were abducted on the night of April 14-15, 2014, in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, about a two-hour drive from the border with Cameroon. The Government Girls Secondary School had been closed for a month because of the danger posed by Boko Haram militants, who are opposed to Western education, particularly for girls. But students from several schools had been called in to take a final exam in physics. The militants stormed the school, arriving in a convoy of trucks and buses and engaging in a gun battle with school security guards. Then they forced the girls from their dormitories, loaded them into trucks and drove them into the forest. Most have never been seen since, except in a photograph in which they sat on the ground in a semi-circle, clad in Islamic dress. They were between 16 and 18 years old. Police said the militants kidnapped 276 girls in all. About 50 managed to escape soon after they were abducted. Those who did not, it is feared, may have been raped, brutalized, enslaved and forced to convert to Islam. Their parents were stricken with grief. The world was appalled. On Twitter, a hashtag began trending and spread around the world: #BringBackOurGirls. On Tuesday, Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the face for speaking out in favor of girls' education, sent a message to the kidnapped girls. "I am one of the millions of people around the world who keep you and your families foremost in our thoughts and prayers," she wrote. "We cannot imagine the full extent of the horrors you have endured. But please know this: We will never forget you." One year later, a few things have changed. Each of the missing girls has had a birthday in captivity. Each is now a year older. Nigeria's current president, Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated in his campaign for re-election, in part, it is thought, because he failed to effectively combat Boko Haram. Buhari, the incoming president, has pledged an aggressive effort to wipe out the group. But much remains unchanged, as well. Boko Haram still controls swathes of northeastern Nigeria. According to UNICEF, 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict between the Nigerian military, civilian self-defense groups, and Boko Haram. Amnesty International says women and children continue to be abducted. And it says Boko Haram continues to kill in large numbers. Beyond that, more than 200 schoolgirls who had gathered one year ago to take their science exam are still missing. Their families are still bereft. And Tuesday on Twitter, a hashtag was still trending: #BringBackOurGirls. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The Walter Scott shooting inspired a local artist to create artwork .
Phillip Hyman crafted the angel-winged artwork in the middle of the night .
Protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement have started using it as his symbol . | (CNN)A hooded angel with black wings appeared on Tuesday near the spot where Walter Scott was shot and killed by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. Since then, it's been taken up as an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement. When protesters held the winged figure at a Wednesday morning rally outside North Charleston's City Hall, the artwork was widely photographed. Creator Phillip Hyman grew up in the neighborhood where Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot in the back several times by a white police officer on Saturday. Hyman now lives in another part of the city and couldn't stop thinking about it. He woke up about 3 a.m. a couple of days after Scott was killed and began searching for materials. "Art is really about that moment. I just couldn't take it any longer," he said. Hyman dug into the trash and found a piece of wood that was the perfect size. Then he picked up a can of black house paint and started making the reclaimed wood into a work of art. The 56-year-old said he crafted the artwork as a way of mourning with the family. "That's who all this should really be about, not about the propaganda and making it your own story," said Hyman, who talks quickly and passionately about his subject material. "Shooting him in the back and just the indignity of it all." The figure, painted black in mourning for the family, has wings because it's going to heaven, Hyman said. The man depicted in Hyman's piece is dressed in a hooded sweatsuit, though that's not what Scott was wearing when he was killed. Hyman said he prefers not to say too much about who the black angel figure is. People can look at the art and make their own interpretations, he said. "It's a statement of where we are in America today. It's relevant in Charleston, Ferguson, Florida, anywhere now." After Hyman put the piece up on Tuesday near where Scott was killed, he got a call from a local protester with the Black Lives Matter movement, which has staged protests around the country in the wake of high-profile deaths at the hands of police. The group asked for permission to use his artwork in its demonstrations at the North Charleston City Hall. Hyman was happy to oblige. Each day, the protesters call Hyman and he either carries the angel-winged artwork to the protest, or the protesters come over to his home to pick it up. "It's taken a life of its own, so I'm letting it do what it's supposed to do now," he said. Freelance photographer Joel Woodhall spotted the artwork and wondered where it came from. Woodhall, who lives in nearby Charleston, said the artwork made him feel sorrow for a life ended too soon. "It was very emotionally moving. It's beautiful," he told CNN. This isn't the first time Hyman has used artwork to effect change: He restored a local theater to its former glory. He commemorated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday by painting a mural in a bad neighborhood that needed light. Hyman's wife, Kay, says her husband always paints from the heart. "To see this recognized, he just goes into tears because it's very special to him." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Temperatures dipped into the mid-30s during 4 days man lay in woods of Philadelphia park .
Mom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday with blanket, Bible .
Victim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition . | (CNN)For more than four days, police say, a 21-year-old quadriplegic with cerebral palsy was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park with only a blanket and a Bible. The person responsible is the man's mother, who on Sunday faced a host of charges after allegedly abandoning her son and catching a bus to Maryland to see her boyfriend, said Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Walker told reporters that the man's mother, whom he did not identify for CNN, left him there Monday morning. "Sometime at 11 a.m., the mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park," Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to the back that has raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. "This kid's obviously a fighter," Walker said during a Saturday news conference. "It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that." Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, CNN affiliate WPVI reported. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. "She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland," he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. The mother now stands charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, neglect of a care-dependent person, unlawful restraint, kidnapping and false imprisonment, the station reported. Walker told reporters she bore "clear criminal liability in this case." Maryland police took her into custody on Sunday, and she will face the charges in Philadelphia following an extradition hearing, WPVI reported. There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. The mother has another child, a 16-year-old, who is also being taken care of by family members, WPVI reported. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about "how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies." CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
One man's entrepreneurial quest turned into unexpected success .
"100 Days of Rejection" took Jiang out of his comfort zone .
It's the fear of rejection, more than rejection itself, which holds us back . | (CNN)What would you do if a complete stranger asked you for $100, or offered you an apple in a parking lot without explanation? These are only two of the 100 challenges Chinese-born, American-based Jia Jiang put himself up to when he decided to blog about "100 Days of Rejection", a project he launched after he quit his comfortable six-figure job to follow his dreams of being an entrepreneur at the age of 30, just weeks before his first child was born. After his tech start-up was declined investment, Jiang decided to confront his fear of rejection head-on. This led to his writing his book called Rejection Proof, part self-help and part motivational/autobiography, which is being released this week. Famously, in 2012 on his third day of the project, Jiang asked Austin, Texas, Krispy Kreme manager (Jackie Braun) to make him five interlinked donuts to mimic the Olympic symbol. To his surprise, she rose to the challenge and his rejection request faltered. He shared his video and it went viral on Reddit. Before long, Jiang (and Braun) were invited on talk shows and Jiang was being asked to speak at events across the US. Jiang was even offered jobs as his project continued and his fame grew. That wasn't the goal of the project though. "I'm really just a person trying to overcome my own fears," explained Jiang. The project started out to help "fix my own problems, and now I'm helping others fix theirs," he said. "The fear of rejection really holds people back. I'm trying to demystify the idea of rejection." Jiang, who as a child dreamed of being Bill Gates and has been viewed 7 million times on YouTube, has found his entrepreneurial dream in a different role for the moment. "My goal is to turn rejection into opportunity. I always thought it was something to run away from, but if we can embrace it, we can turn it into a lot more than an obstacle." 8 top tips in making rejection work for you: . 1 - The fear of rejection holds us back a lot more than actual rejection. By putting ourselves out there, the world will usually open itself up to you. Though the world can seem cruel and cold, actually humans have a hard time saying no. So open yourself up, don't be afraid to ask for something. If you fail, remember it's not about you. 2 - Rejection is more or less a numbers game. Sometimes the most far-fetched idea gets a yes. If you talk to enough people, somebody will say yes to you. J.K. Rowling went through 12 rejections to get her yes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 3 - You cannot use rejection to measure the merit of an idea. Sometimes if you really want to change the world, getting rejection is a must. Rejection is a human interaction with two sides. It often says more about the rejector than the rejectee, and should never be used as the universal truth and sole judgment of merit. 4 - Don't run away after a no. The most common thing we do when we're rejected is we want to run because rejection is painful - you're hurt, angry and you lose confidence. But actually if we know how to handle it, we can often minimize the chance of rejection. Be confident, engaging, collaborate. I used all of these traits to maximise getting a yes. 5 - Ask why? When you get rejected you have to find out why. Then spend time to find solutions to solve that why. Sometimes through this process you learn there is something else you can ask for. Ask for an intermediate position rather than the top position. 6 - Set a number of how many no's you can take. In his book, Jiang helps his wife set out to get her dream job at Google. He tells her that instead of thinking about getting a job, she needs to prepare herself for how many no's she can take. In the end, she was offered a job at Google. 7 - Be invincible. By the end of his project, Jiang said he felt he could ask anything from anyone and not have the pain of rejection. It was a gradual process - gradually my comfort zone expanded. It's like a muscle, I could become stronger and stronger. 8 - Stand tall and remember rejection is an opinion. People are who they are. A lot of people will reject you because of their mood, their education, their upbringing, and you can't change who they are. But you can stand confidently. Innate confidence comes across. How missing sleep can damage your IQ . The surprising benefits of doing nothing . 7 habits of highly ineffective people . | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Bystanders stopped to rescue a lost brood of ducklings in D.C. Tuesday .
CNN's Brian Todd and Khalil Abdallah paused to capture the scene . | (CNN)It was like a scene out of "Make Way for Ducklings" on Tuesday on a rainy street in Washington. CNN Situation Room correspondent Brian Todd and photojournalist Khalil Abdallah were on their way to interview a legal analyst on L Street NW when they happened on a brood of baby ducks causing a stir. Abdallah reports the ducklings and their mom had crossed heavily trafficked street, and some restaurant patrons stopped on the sidewalk to corral them. A man gave up his umbrella for the cause "while the mom was going crazy." "One duckling tried to run back to the street but they caught it in time," Abdallah said. The mother duck followed the umbrella while pedestrians stopped cars on L street for them to safely cross the road. The Washington Post reports the pedestrians took the bird family to "a more enclosed grassy area" at 16th and L streets NW. (Yes, baby ducks warrant two national news stories.) "We thought it was an extraordinary situation," Todd said. "You see pigeons, you see squirrels, you see the occasional raccoon in the D.C. area, and ... you see deer ... We've never seen anything like this in the middle of town." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Philadelphia police add attempted murder to list of charges mom will face .
Mom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday alone in woods .
Victim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition . | (CNN)Police added attempted murder to the list of charges against the mother of a quadriplegic man who was left in the woods for days, Philadelphia police spokeswoman Christine O'Brien said Tuesday. Nyia Parler cannot be extradited to face the charges in Philadelphia until she completes an unspecified "treatment," Maryland police said Monday. When she does arrive, she will be charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses, in addition to the attempted murder count, O'Brien said. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police took Parler, 41, into custody Sunday after Philadelphia police reported that she left her 21-year-old son in the woods while she hopped a bus to see her boyfriend in Maryland. A man walking through the woods found him Friday "lying in leaves, covered in a blanket with a Bible and a wheelchair nearby," Philadelphia police say. Citing federal health care privacy laws, Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said he could not divulge why Parler was receiving treatment, but he said she had to complete it before she could be extradited. She remained in treatment as of Tuesday morning, Starks told CNN. If she chooses not to challenge her extradition, she will be transported to Philadelphia once the treatment is complete, he said. For more than four days, police say, the quadriplegic man, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker told reporters that the man's mother left him there the morning of April 6. Starks identified the mother as Parler on Monday. "The mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park," Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to his back that raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. "This kid's obviously a fighter," Walker said during a Saturday news conference. "It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that." Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes last week and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, Philadelphia police said. "The aunt was in contact via text message with Nyia throughout the week and when she expressed her concerns about the complainant, Nyia replied, 'We're OK,' which the aunt believed meant that the victim was with Nyia in Maryland," according to a police news release. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. "She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland," he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. Walker told reporters she bore "clear criminal liability in this case." There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. Parler's sister told police that Parler has another child, a 16-year-old. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about "how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies." CNN's Chuck Johnston and Carma Hassan contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The incident occurred on April 7 north of Poland in the Baltic Sea .
U.S. says plane was in international airspace .
Russia says it had transponder turned off and was flying toward Russia . | (CNN)After a Russian fighter jet intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane in an "unsafe and unprofessional manner" earlier this week, the United States is complaining to Moscow about the incident. On Tuesday, a U.S. RC-135U was flying over the Baltic Sea when it was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker. The Pentagon said the incident occurred in international airspace north of Poland. The U.S. crew believed the Russian pilot's actions were "unsafe and unprofessional due to the aggressive maneuvers it performed in close proximity to their aircraft and its high rate of speed," Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said. Russian state news agency Sputnik reported the U.S. plane was flying toward the Russian border with its transponder switched off, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the Russian jet flew around the U.S. plane several times to identify it and get its tail number. An official with the U.S. European Command said the claim that the transponder was off was false. Wright said the Pentagon and State Department will "file the appropriate petition through diplomatic channels" with Russia. This is not the first time the U.S. has complained about an incident involving a RC-135U and a SU-27. A year ago, a Russian jet flew within 100 feet of a RC-135U over the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific, according to U.S. officials who called it "one of the most dangerous close passes in decades." The Pentagon complained to the Russia military about that incident. Russian and U.S. aircraft often encounter each other, both in Northern Europe as well as the area between the Russian Far East and Alaska. CNN's Steve Brusk and Jamie Crawford contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Mother must complete "treatment" before she can be extradited, Maryland police say .
Mom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday alone in woods .
Victim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition . | (CNN)The mother of a quadriplegic man who police say was left in the woods for days cannot be extradited to face charges in Philadelphia until she completes an unspecified "treatment," Maryland police said Monday. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police took Nyia Parler, 41, into custody Sunday after Philadelphia police reported that she left her 21-year-old son in the woods while she hopped a bus to see her boyfriend in Maryland. A man walking through the woods found him Friday "lying in leaves, covered in a blanket with a Bible and a wheelchair nearby," Philadelphia police say. Citing federal health care privacy laws, Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said he could not divulge why Parler was receiving treatment, but he said she had to complete it before she could be extradited. She remained in treatment as of Tuesday morning, Starks told CNN. If she chooses not to challenge her extradition, she will be transported to Philadelphia once the treatment is complete, he said. For more than four days, police say, the quadriplegic man, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker told reporters that the man's mother left him there the morning of April 6. Starks identified the mother as Parler on Monday. "The mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park," Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to his back that raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. "This kid's obviously a fighter," Walker said during a Saturday news conference. "It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that." Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes last week and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, Philadelphia police said. "The aunt was in contact via text message with Nyia throughout the week and when she expressed her concerns about the complainant, Nyia replied, 'We're OK,' which the aunt believed meant that the victim was with Nyia in Maryland," according to a police news release. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. "She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland," he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. When she arrives in Philadelphia, the mother will stand charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses, a Philadelphia police spokeswoman said. Walker told reporters she bore "clear criminal liability in this case." There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. Parler's sister told police that Parler has another child, a 16-year-old. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about "how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies." CNN's Chuck Johnston and Carma Hassan contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
A new Kansas law bans what it describes as "dismemberment abortion"
Supporters say it's a groundbreaking step .
Opponents say it's dangerous and politically motivated . | (CNN)A new Kansas law banning a common second-term abortion procedure is the first of its kind in the United States. The law, signed by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday, bans what it describes as "dismemberment abortion" and defines as "knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus." Supporters of the measure described it as a groundbreaking step, while opponents warned it was dangerous and among the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The law does not spell out a specific time frame that limits when an abortion can occur, but it bans the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure commonly used during the second trimester of pregnancy. The law allows for the procedure if "necessary to protect the life or health of the mother," according to a statement on Brownback's website. On Twitter, Brownback, a Republican, said he was proud to sign a law "protecting life at its most vulnerable stage." Planned Parenthood Advocates of Kansas and Mid-Missouri sharply criticized the move, which it described as the latest in a series of "extreme political measures aimed at denying women access to health care and at undermining their decision-making ability." "Kansas is now not only the sole state with this atrocious law; it also now has more restrictions on abortion than any state in the U.S.," the advocacy group said in a Facebook post. Both sides appear to be prepared to take their battle over such measures to other states -- and to court. Carol Tobias, the president of National Right to Life, said in a statement that the Kansas law was the first of what her organization hopes "will be many state laws." "This law has the power to transform the landscape of abortion policy in the United States," she said. Julie Burkhart, CEO of Wichita-based South Wind Women's Center, said on Twitter that the signing of the law marked a sad day for Kansas and the United States. "This law puts women at risk and ties doctors' hands," she said. "We'll continue to fight!" CNN's Sam Stringer contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Dillard was the first of the Duggar daughters to be married .
Her 9-pound, 10-ounce son was overdue . | (CNN)The first daughter to be married from the hit reality show "19 Kids and Counting" has also become the first mother. People magazine reports that Jill (Duggar) Dillard gave birth Monday to a 9-pound, 10-ounce son she and husband Derick have named Israel David. Jill's parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, posted a video of the new family on their official Facebook page. The baby was a bit tardy, going past his due date by more than a week. Dillard, who is a student midwife, said she gave herself two due dates and was prepared for the wait. "I have told myself, 'First-time moms often go a week and a half over, so don't get discouraged,' " she told People. "When everyone else is asking you, 'When are you going to have that baby?' The baby will come when the baby comes." Dillard has a ways to go to catch up with her mother. Her super-sized family and their lives have been well-documented on their TLC series, including Jill and Derick's wedding on June 21. Eldest Duggar son Josh is already the father of three children, and his wife, Anna, is expecting their fourth in July. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Relatives of Wayne Community College shooting victim say he was gay, local media report .
The suspect had worked for the victim but was let go, college president says .
The suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, was found sleeping on a Florida beach and arrested . | (CNN)The killing of an employee at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, may have been a hate crime, authorities said Tuesday. Investigators are looking into the possibility, said Goldsboro police Sgt. Jeremy Sutton. He did not explain what may have made it a hate crime. The victim -- Ron Lane, whom officials said was a longtime employee and the school's print shop operator -- was white, as is the suspect. Lane's relatives said he was gay, CNN affiliate WNCN reported. The suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, worked with Lane as part of a work-study program, but was let go from the program in early March due to poor attendance, college President Kay Albertson said Tuesday. On Monday, Stancil walked into the print shop on the third floor of a campus building, aimed a pistol-grip shotgun and fired once, killing Lane, according to Sutton. Stancil has tattoos on his face. Sutton said investigators are looking into whether he is part of a white supremacist gang. He has no previous criminal record, authorities said. Sutton said Stancil fled on a motorcycle after the shooting and ultimately abandoned it in a highway median. Then, Stancil continued on to Daytona, Florida, but authorities don't know how he traveled, Sutton said. He was arrested just after 1 a.m. Tuesday, after he was found sleeping on a beach, about 550 miles (885 kilometers) from Goldsboro. Volusia County Beach Patrol had approached him for violating the city's ordinance against sleeping on the beach. He had a knife, police said. He was taken into custody without incident. Authorities in North Carolina expect to bring him back to face charges. Wayne Community College, a two-year school, has a student population of 3,837, according 2013 figures from the National Center for Education Statistics. Slightly more than half the students are part-time. Crime statistics from the center's website show no killings, assaults, robberies or motor vehicle thefts between 2011 and 2013. There were three arrests for illegal weapons possession in 2012 and three in 2013. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Richie Benaud first earned fame as a cricket player, later as broadcaster .
Prime Minister Tony Abbott calls him "a cricketing champion and Australian icon" | (CNN)Former Australia cricket captain and legendary broadcaster Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84. Benaud, whose witty one-liners from the commentary box resonated far beyond Australia's shores, said last year he was being treated for skin cancer. "After Don Bradman, there has been no Australian player more famous than Richie Benaud," Cricket Australia said on its website. "Benaud stood at the top of the game throughout his rich life, first as a record-breaking leg-spinner and captain, and then as cricket's most famous -- and most impersonated -- broadcaster." A veteran of 64 Test matches, Benaud was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. While many regarded his voice as the soundtrack to an Australian summer, Benaud was equally revered by the cricketing public on the other side of the world where he spent more than four decades with the BBC taking the game into millions of British living rooms. But whether you were sitting in Sydney or in South London, there were plenty of "marvelous" Richie moments from the box to savor: . "And Glenn McGrath dismissed for two, just ninety-eight runs short of his century." "From our broadcasting box you can't see any grass at all. It is simply a carpet of humanity." "Captaincy is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don't try it without that 10%." News of his passing quickly generated a wave of condolences, including from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. "To most Australians Richie Benaud was cricket. He personified its traditions and its values," Abbott said in a written statement Friday. "While many Australians only know Richard Benaud as the voice of cricket, we should not forget that in his day he was a cricketer with few equals. It was why he was so insightful as a commentator. "As a player his record has withstood the test of time. He led the Australian side from 1958/59 through to 1963/1964, never losing a series in his 28 Tests as captain. "As captain, he was first to lead a full Australian tour to India and Pakistan in 1959/60. He was the first cricketer to reach a Test double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets. "Given the special place Richie Benaud has in our national life, I have asked that on the day of his funeral flags fly at half-mast. I extend my condolences and the condolences of the Australian people, to his wife Daphne and his family and friends. Current Australian captain Michael Clarke posted an image of Benaud on Instagram with the message: "What a man. Extremely sad day. You were a lot more then just a cricketer Richie. RIP." Clarke's former teammate Shane Warne also took to Instagram to post a touching letter to the late commentator. He wrote: "Dear Richie, I've known you & Daphne for close to 30 years & to everyone you were a legend on all levels & rightly so too. "As a cricketer, commentator & as a person, you were the best there's ever been & to top it off, an absolute gentleman... For me it was an honour & a privilege to call you a close friend & mentor, we had so many wonderful times together, talking cricket & in particular, our love & passion of leg spin bowling. "I will cherish our entertaining dinners & all the fun times we shared over a long period of time. I would also like to thank you & Daphne for all your support & time you made for me as a young cricketer & leg spin bowler trying to make his way as an 18 year old, your tips & advice along the journey meant so much !!! "Richie, you were loved by everyone, not just the cricket family, you were the godfather of cricket & you will be missed by all... R.I.P my friend." Benaud, who was born in 1930 in Penrith, New South Wales, lead Australia into an era of world dominance as a player. But it was after he hung up his spikes that his legendary status was confirmed. Writing in a column in The Australian, cricket writer Gideon Haigh wrote "television was Benaud's calling, suiting his captain's spontaneity and intuition. "He was authoritative but not pedantic, dignified but not pompous, and never spoke unless he had something to say. He was so popular that many humorists strove to imitate him, so distinctive that none ever quite got him right." The BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew agreed. "He was quite simply peerless. Nobody else had his authority, popularity and skill," Agnew said in a column on the BBC website. "If you speak to any broadcaster from any sport, they will point to Richie as the standard-bearer." Australian national team coach Darren Lehmann said Benaud set "an incredibly high standard on and off the field." "The fact that Australia never lost a series under his captaincy says so much and those standards were just as high when he turned his attention to calling the game," he told cricket.com.au. "We loved listening to him commentate when the team was together in the dressing room. When he was on air, we always had the TV volume turned up because his comments were so insightful." Benaud's passing also drew messages of sympathy on social media from beyond his native Australia. Imran Khan, the former captain of Pakistan and now a leading politician there, tweeted: "Saddened by the death of Richie Benaud, one of the greatest cricketing brains." While Kumar Sangakkara, the current captain of Sri Lanka's Test team, posted: "So sad to hear about the passing of Richie Benaud. The great voice of cricket is no more. He defined an era with conviction and sincerity." British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "I grew up listening to Richie Benaud's wonderful cricket commentary. Like all fans of the sport, I will miss him very much." CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Company known for use of publicity stunts .
Tweet contained pun on name of Liverpool's Kop stand .
It was used to link to Liverpool-Newcastle stats .
Social media backlash leads to apology . | (CNN)Irish betting company Paddy Power is backtracking after tweeting that "Newcastle have suffered more Kop beatings over the last 20 years than an unarmed African-American male." The tweet, a pun on the name of the famous home end at Liverpool Football Club, alluded to recent controversial incidents in the United States in which unarmed African-American men have been killed by police. Paddy Power -- well-known for its use of publicity stunts -- used it to link to a piece showing statistics for games between Liverpool and Newcastle United ahead of their English Premier League match on Monday. A Paddy Power spokesman told CNN before Liverpool's 2-0 victory at Anfield: "It was a joke, and no offense was meant." The tweet has since been deleted, but its removal -- along with the statement -- did little to placate social media users who condemned the organization, with some calling for the person who wrote the tweet to be sacked. In January, Paddy Power attracted headlines after backing David Ginola's failed candidacy for the presidency of world football's governing body. The former Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham player could not persuade enough FIFA football associations to back his bid. He needed five to have any chance of unseating Sepp Blatter. Paddy Power started the funding for the candidacy, but its penchant for publicity stunts quickly led many people to dismiss Ginola's bid as another attempt to grab headlines. Paddy Power, the son of one the company's founders and its marketing spokesman, explained: "We've been known for some mischievous activity around the world. This is not that. This is for real." Last year, the company generated anger when it promised "money back if he walks" in relation to the trial of disgraced South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. Monday's win put Liverpool fifth in the table, four points behind defending champion Manchester City, which holds England's final European Champions League qualification spot with six games left to play this season. Young England forward Raheem Sterling, who has turned down a new contract, scored a fine solo goal in the first half, and midfielder Joe Allen's 70th-minute strike condemned 13th-placed Newcastle to a fifth successive league defeat. Newcastle, which had France international midfielder Moussa Sissoko sent off in the 83rd minute, has not won at Anfield since a 1-0 victory in the League Cup in November 1995. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The migrants were picked up 30 miles off the coast of Libya, an Italian leader says .
At least 480 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean this year . | (CNN)Desperate migrants from Africa and the Middle East keep heading to Europe, with 978 rescued Friday in the Mediterranean Sea, the Italian Coast Guard said Saturday via Twitter. The migrants were picked up 30 miles off the coast of Libya, said European Parliament member Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's far-right Northern League. In the first three months of 2015, Italy registered more than 10,000 migrants arriving, the International Organization for Migration said, and about 2,000 were rescued at sea during the first weekend of April in the Channel of Sicily. Most migrants recorded this year come from countries in West Africa as well as Somalia and Syria, the IMO said. They use Libya as a country of transit. At least 480 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, often because of bad weather and overcrowded vessels used by smugglers, the IMO said. Sometimes the captains and crews abandon the ships, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. At this time last year, there were fewer than 50 deaths reported, the IMO said. Most of the migrants are asylum seekers, victims of trafficking or violence, unaccompanied children and pregnant women. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
In an interview with The New York Times, President Obama says he understands Israel feels particularly vulnerable .
Obama calls the nuclear deal with Iran a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. Republicans warn that Iran cannot be trusted . | Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama says he is "absolutely committed to making sure" Israel maintains a military advantage over Iran. His comments to The New York Times, published on Sunday, come amid criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the deal that the United States and five other world powers struck with Iran. Tehran agreed to halt the country's nuclear ambitions, and in exchange, Western powers would drop sanctions that have hurt the Iran's economy. Obama said he understands and respects Netanyahu's stance that Israel is particularly vulnerable and doesn't "have the luxury of testing these propositions" in the deal. "But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I'm willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them," Obama said. That, he said, should be "sufficient to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table," he said. The framework negotiators announced last week would see Iran reduce its centrifuges from 19,000 to 5,060, limit the extent to which uranium necessary for nuclear weapons can be enriched and increase inspections. The talks over a final draft are scheduled to continue until June 30. But Netanyahu and Republican critics in Congress have complained that Iran won't have to shut down its nuclear facilities and that the country's leadership isn't trustworthy enough for the inspections to be as valuable as Obama says they are. Obama said even if Iran can't be trusted, there's still a case to be made for the deal. "In fact, you could argue that if they are implacably opposed to us, all the more reason for us to want to have a deal in which we know what they're doing and that, for a long period of time, we can prevent them from having a nuclear weapon," Obama said. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Cape Verde seeking to tap-into rich cultural heritage .
Tiny island nation wants to grow creative economy . | (CNN)There's an old saying which states the Cape Verde Islands are home to a greater number of musicians per square kilometer than any other country in the world. In truth, such a definitive claim may be nigh on impossible to prove. But there is a certain factual accuracy behind the legend: the important and proud relationship the Atlantic island country of just 500,000 people has with music. Situated roughly 350 miles off the west coast of Africa, Cape Verde has long been a mesh of cultures, history and races. The former Portuguese territory was once a key location for the transatlantic slave trade, a target for 16th century pirates and a refuge for exiled Jews. From this diverse melting pot were born the unique sounds of the batuque, morna, funana and other distinct musical styles. Now, Cape Verde is seeking to tap-into the spoils of this rich cultural heritage in a bid to help its economy flourish. Bereft of oil, gas, gold, diamonds or the conventional natural resources that have fueled growth in many other African countries, Cape Verde has had to look for alternative sectors to aid its development. And what's more alternative than a jiving, swinging, musical economy? "Besides fish, it is pretty common (for Cape Verde) to say 'our biggest richness is in music and culture,'" said Christine Semba of Womex, an international networking platform for the world music genre. The economic potential of music has been also acknowledged by Cape Verde's prime minister, Jose Maria Neves, while the country's ministry of culture is run by Mario Lucio de Sousa, himself a popular musician. "The future of our country lies in our capacity to create, our capacity to innovate," Neves said in reference to the music and the arts at a World Trade Organization conference in 2013. Other elements of the creative economy include handicrafts, fashion and visual arts to name but a few. However, a 2013 report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development noted that Cape Verde's creative sector remained a relatively small part of its economy with much room for improvement and long term planning. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been some promising early signs that music has the potential to play a key role in the future. One early musical success has been the Kriol Jazz Festival. The event, which is celebrating its seventh edition, took place in the capital city of Praia this past weekend. Artists including Grammy-winning U.S. singer Esperanza Spalding have been invited to perform, as have acts from the likes of Luxembourg, Brazil and, of course, Cape Verde. According to Harold Taveres, a liaison to the mayor of Praia involved with promoting the festival, "KJF has become one of the most spectacular events in Cape Verde. "We breathe the music in Cape Verde, we live with the music," he added. "Now the festival has brought people from every corner in the world (to share in this)." During the festival, bars, hotels and restaurants are full to the brim while taxi drivers are seldom unable to find a fare during what locals refer to as "the week of party." It's a lucrative trade, for sure. Yet in order to take full advantage of this bustling scene the country's ministry of culture, alongside some enterprising private sector figures, thought a deeper relationship with the music business was required. Enter the Atlantic Music Expo, a three-year-old conference and networking event that seeks to help Cape Verdean artists secure international exposure. This year's AME took place in the days before the Kriol Jazz Festival. Delegates, local musicians and their management teams were exposed to roundtables, workshops and talks on the intricacies of the global music business. "We try to invite lots of producers and a lot of journalists from around the world to see the festival and the musicians from Cape Verde," said Jose Da Silva, long time manager of the late Cape Verdean songstress Cesaria Evora. Da Silva is one of the driving forces behind AME as well as being the founder of the Lusafrica and Harmonia record labels that aim to discover a new generation of artists from Cape Verde. He hopes that by exposing musicians to a range of experienced industry professionals and top-level musicians, they will become equipped with the tools and ambition to take the music of Cape Verde across the globe. Not only will this help launch the careers of artists and musicians (with all the respective behind the scenes business structures such developments require) but it will garner valuable attention for the country. This is where the greatest potential economic benefits lie. Tourism is expected to account for 20% of the country's GDP by 2024, according to research from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Getting Cape Verde's name out on the world stage through recognition of its rich musical culture is therefore increasingly important. "Economically it's beneficial for the country because the money we would have to spend on the market to give the country this exposure in the world would be too big," Da Silva said. "This way it costs less money." Semba agrees with this, and highlights the joined up thinking of the government and private sector actors like Da Silva for special praise. "In the long term, the whole country is behind this event," Semba said, adding "this is a very innovative approach which we would like to see in many more countries." It must be noted, however, that few countries have the same natural resources for music as Cape Verde. More from Marketplace Africa . | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
New research indicates that a play published in 1728 was written by William Shakespeare .
Scholar Lewis Theobald had passed the work off as his own .
Texas researchers used software to analyze and compare the language of the men . | (CNN)"Hamlet." "Romeo and Juliet." "A Midsummer Night's Dream." For centuries, these plays and three dozen more by William Shakespeare have formed history's most heralded literary canon. But now they may have to make room for an addition to Shakespeare's famous oeuvre. New research indicates that "Double Falsehood," a play first published in 1728 by Lewis Theobald, was actually written more than a century earlier by Shakespeare himself with help from his friend John Fletcher. The findings were published this week by two scholars who used computer software to analyze the writings of the three men and compare it with the language of the "newer" play. "The match between the 'Double Falsehood' play and Shakespeare was a landslide. It was shockingly clear," said Ryan L. Boyd, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. The study, co-authored by Boyd and UT colleague James W. Pennebaker, was published in the journal Psychological Science. "There's very little wiggle room to interpret the numbers any differently." Boyd said he and Pennebaker analyzed 33 plays by Shakespeare, nine by Fletcher and 12 by Theobald to create a "psychological signature" of each author based on word choices, phrase patterns and other factors. They compared those profiles to the language in "Double Falsehood" and determined that the play's first half was almost entirely written by Shakespeare, though the second half appeared to be split evenly between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Only tiny traces of Theobald's signature were found. "We're certainly not suggesting that Theobald didn't make edits," Boyd told CNN. "But he clearly did not write it." "Double Falsehood," also known as "The Distressed Lovers," is based on the "Cardenio" section of Don Quixote, the classic 17th-century novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Set in Spain, the play revolves around the romantic entanglements of two brothers: one virtuous, one sinful. Theobald said he based the play on three original manuscripts he had discovered, all of them written by Shakespeare. But many scholars have long dismissed the play as a fake, suspecting that Theobald tried to pass the Bard's work off as his own. Shakespeare, who died in 1616, wrote most of his published plays between 1590 and 1612. British publishers Arden Shakespeare published "Double Falsehood" in 2010 -- for the first time in 250 years -- amid renewed claims by experts that it was Shakespeare's work. But the new study by Boyd and Pennebaker, the first to analyze the writings from a psychological perspective, may settle the matter once and for all. Shakespearean scholar Brean Hammond, professor of modern English literature at Nottingham University in the UK, praised the Texas study for its scientific approach. Hammond said Boyd and Pennebaker "have got no dogs in the fight. They're not literary scholars, (so) their work could be seen as more objective than some of the literary studies." Hammond studied "Double Falsehood's" authorship from a literary perspective five years ago and found Shakespeare's DNA evident in the play. But he doubts the new research will put the matter entirely to rest. "Those people who don't believe the play was written by Shakespeare aren't going to just lay down and die," he said. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The attack at a Garissa university last week killed 147 people, mostly students .
The government is tracking the finances of people suspected of ties to Al-Shabaab . | Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)Kenya froze dozens of accounts linked to suspected terror supporters after militants massacred 147 people last week at a university in Garissa. The government is tracking the finances of people suspected of ties to Al-Shabaab, the militant group that claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack. So far, the government has frozen 86 accounts, but that number could go up, said Mwenda Njoka, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The government has tracked supporters of the terror group since 2011, and efforts to freeze their assets have gone on since then. It has a list of suspects from various parts of the country, but mostly in Nairobi and Mombasa, he said. Kenyans mourned the victims of the attack Tuesday night at Nairobi's Uhuru Park, where hundreds gathered. Organizers unloaded 147 crosses, some draped with the nation's flag, as candles flickered in the dark. Of the fatalities, 142 were students at the university, and the rest were security forces and campus security. "I can't even look at pictures of the people killed without crying," said Mary Wambui, 32, who lives in Nakuru, hundreds of miles from Garissa. "They were just children. They were trying to make a better life for themselves. Some were first to go to college in their communities. They died trying to get an education." Using the hashtag #147notjustanumber, Kenyans used social media to talk about the lives of the victims. They shared pictures of beaming faces, full of life and energy, in happier days. They talked about parents too shocked to speak after identifying their children's bodies. Some students remain unaccounted for, and wailing relatives alternate their searches between hospitals and morgues. Kenyan authorities have not released the names of the victims. Kenyan authorities had prior intelligence that a university in Garissa could be attacked, yet the country's rapid response team was stuck in Nairobi for hours after the massacre awaiting transport, a police source said Monday. The frozen accounts is the latest in a series of actions as the government faced heavy criticism for the siege, which lasted hours. A spokesman for President Uhuru Kenyatta said authorities "got the job done" and saved lives. The university had about 800 students. "With the benefit of hindsight, you can always say things could have been done better," Manoah Esipisu said. Kenya also launched airstrikes Monday targeting Al-Shabaab's training camps in Somalia, according to a military source, who said they were not retaliation for last week's massacre. "The latest attack of Al-Shabaab bases by the Kenya military is part of the ongoing operations that started in 2011," the source said Monday. Kenya has also offered 20 million Kenyan shillings, or about $215,000, for information on the whereabouts of Mohamed Mohamud, who allegedly organized the attack. Mohamud is a senior Al-Shabaab leader known by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere, authorities said. Al-Shabaab is based in Somalia, and its violence has spread to Kenya before. In 2013, militants attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall, leaving 67 people dead. The terror group has intensified attacks in Kenya since the country sent troops to Somalia four years ago to help battle the militants. CNN's Joseph Netto reported from Nairobi, and Faith Karimi reported and wrote from Atlanta. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Jodi Arias is sentenced to life in prison with no possibility for parole .
Arias expressed remorse for her actions . | (CNN)Jodi Arias was sentenced to life in prison Monday for the gruesome 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Maricopa County Judge Sherry Stephens could have sentenced Arias to life with the possibility of early release after 25 years, but decided the convicted killer should spend the rest of her life behind bars. Before her sentence was handed down, Arias expressed remorse for her actions. "To this day I can't believe that I was capable of doing something that terrible," Arias said. "I'm truly disgusted and repulsed with myself. I'm horrified because of what I did, and I wish there was some way I could take it back." Earlier, Travis Alexander's sisters gave their victim impact statements. Hillary Alexander said she's trying to block her brother from her life. "I don't want to remember him anymore, because it hurts too much to remember him alive. ... I remember how he was brutally taken from us and I can't handle it. This is what I've had to do so I can cope," she said through tears. Arias, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in May 2013. The jury that convicted her found the murder was especially cruel, making Arias eligible for the death penalty. However, that same jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should live or die. A new jury was empanelled in October 2014 to decide Arias' fate, but they, too, were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Because a second jury was deadlocked in the penalty phase of Arias' case, the death penalty was taken off the table, leaving Arias' sentence up to the judge. Arias will serve her sentence at the Lumley Unit in the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville near Goodyear, Arizona. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Maya Wang: 5 women held by China authorities after planning International Women's Day protests on sex harassment remain detained .
She says in a year when country poised to adopt anti-domestic violence law, Beijing also sending chilling message on women's activism . | (CNN)Last month Wu Rongrong was taken into custody for planning to protest on International Women's Day against sexual harassment in China. Since then, the Chinese authorities have formally detained her and four other activists for "creating disturbances." They also briefly detained some of the activists' supporters, raided a prominent nongovernmental organization that called for their release, and have at points denied some of the women access to medical treatment, lawyers and adequate rest. The fate of the five will be revealed by April 13, as their case reaches the legal time limit when they must either be released or "formally arrested," which almost always leads to conviction in China's legal system. The timing of the detentions of China's most inventive women's rights activists is ironic: Not only did they take place on the very day that marks women's achievements and their struggle for equality, but they also come in a year in which Beijing would have won praise for its role in promoting women's rights. It appears poised to adopt its first and long-awaited anti-domestic violence law, which is expected to get a reading before the National People's Congress Standing Committee this summer. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the influential Fourth World Conference on Women hosted in Beijing, during which Hillary Clinton famously declared that "women's rights are human rights." I first met Wu at a conference several years ago, at a time when there were very few women in China's weiquan or "rights defense" movement. It was common back then for male colleagues to publicly address them as "babes" or "little sisters," even in professional—and ostensibly progressive—settings. As women's rights activists, Wu and others fight on two fronts: against overt rights violations by the Chinese government and against the wider gender norms that relegate women to second-class citizens. By the time we met again two years later, Wu and her young "direct-action" feminist colleagues were clearly off and running. They staged small, public "performance art" protests that attracted media headlines, energized the more mainstream and academically inclined women's rights movement, and pushed women's rights into the national consciousness and onto the government's agenda. Wu had an upbringing typical of her times. She comes from the countryside, which for many has changed beyond recognition within their lifetimes. In recent decades the economy has soared, but her generation is confronting the unhappy consequences of unchecked growth: pollution, unsafe foods and growing inequality between rich and poor. Like many parents, she worries about how to find untainted milk powder for her infant boy, and whether to keep her child with her in the city or to send him to his grandparents in the countryside for a quieter, safer upbringing. Many in Wu and her colleagues' generation are clear-eyed about the problems of China's development model, and some want to address those. Wu joined Yirenping, a nonprofit organization that promotes social equality, whether it is between sexes or among people with and without disabilities, and later founded the women's rights organization Hangzhou Women Center. And it is in Yirenping that she became particularly attuned to the challenges confronting young women in modern China. Wu and her colleagues have used innovative tactics with a certain shock factor — "occupying" public toilets to show the need for more such conveniences for women, donning blood-spattered wedding gowns to protest domestic violence, shaving their heads to protest against barriers to higher education for women — that raises awareness of gender inequality in ways that resonate, especially with young women in the country. Perhaps this is what the government finds threatening: that these activists epitomize the spirit of the times. They are young, confident, ready to challenge established norms, and most importantly, they feel responsible for their society and they want to improve it. As China prepares to mark the anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in September, it will be harder for the authorities to justify detaining these activists. But even if they are released, their work promoting women's rights will have become exponentially more difficult. The women will now be labeled "sensitive" individuals at a time when the authorities are increasingly paranoid about independent groups, their role in fostering nonviolent protests and the overthrow of oppressive governments (known as "color revolutions"), and foreign funding of civil society organizations. What Wu and her colleagues are now enduring is consistent with a broader government effort to strangle independent activism. Authorities have harassed and detained an ever expanding list of activists, and imprisoned others, but they have also tried to co-opt some groups by allowing them to provide services the government finds acceptable, so long as they abandon their activism. This kind of "differentiated management" of nongovernmental organizations — punishing some but co-opting others — may work to neutralize some of the more outspoken groups. But ultimately the desires for change among ordinary people that make Wu and her friends' campaigns so popular are unlikely to be answered through "authoritarian activism" alone. The Chinese Communist Party now faces a dizzying array of challenges, not least that younger generations do not identify with the party or its values like past generations. Rather than lengthening its list of challenges, the party could resolve some and lessen concerns about its legitimacy by freeing and engaging activists like Wu and her colleagues, rather than treating them as criminals. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Astrophysicist Amy Mainzer says she was was touched by Malala's story of determination .
Mainzer also works on educating children about science . | (CNN)Malala Yousafzai's stellar career has included a Nobel Peace Prize. Last week, she made it into outer space. A NASA astrophysicist has named an asteroid after the teenage education activist from Pakistan, who was gravely wounded by a Pakistani Taliban gunman for promoting the right of girls' to go to school. It took a meticulous medical response to save her life more than two years ago. But Malala recovered with no serious neurological damage to become a powerhouse for her cause. After reading her story, scientist Amy Mainzer, who also consults for PBS on a children's educational science show, decided Malala deserved to be immortalized. So, she attached her name to the heavens. Thousands of asteroids swarm through the solar system mainly between Mars and Jupiter. Mainzer, working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discovered Asteroid 316201 in June 2010, which gave her the right to name it. "My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Carrie Nugent brought to my attention the fact that although many asteroids have been named, very few have been named to honor the contributions of women (and particularly women of color)," Mainzer wrote in a note to Malala. Mainzer gave it the name 316201 Malala, or 2010 ML48. Malala's asteroid circles the sun between Mars and Jupiter every five and half years, Mainzer said. "It is about 4 kilometers in diameter, and its surface is very dark, the color of printer toner." As a scientist, her support for Malala's work is logical. When girls around the world also get educations, it increases human potential. "We desperately need the brainpower of all smart people to solve some of humanity's most difficult problems, and we can't afford to reject half the population's," Mainzer wrote. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Emy Afalava is a loyal American and decorated veteran; he's also an American Samoan .
Sam Erman and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal: It is outrageous that he and others like him are denied citizenship . | (CNN)Emy Afalava is a loyal American and decorated veteran. He was born in American Samoa, a U.S. territory since 1900. He has been subject to American law his whole life and thinks he should be a citizen. The Constitution would agree. The Fourteenth Amendment declares that "All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Yet, Afalava has been denied the right to vote because the federal government insists that he is no citizen. How can it be, in the 21st century, that Americans born on U.S. soil are denied the rights of citizenship? That injustice clouds the recent celebration of the 115th anniversary of the decision of American Samoa to join the United States. It is a wrong that Afalava and other American Samoans are now seeking to right in a federal lawsuit before the D.C. Circuit. A decision could come any day. Since the United States was established, it adhered to the rule that those born on U.S. lands were U.S. citizens. The rule is colorblind, yet the only exception that the Supreme Court has ever declared was not. The infamous Dred Scott case legitimized slavery as it declared that free African-Americans had "no rights that the white man was bound to respect." Though they were Americans, they were not citizens under the Constitution. A Civil War later, the 14th Amendment reversed the ruling in the Dred Scott case. Today, the Dred Scott case has come to be regarded as one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. But racial discrimination didn't end there. In 1904, a Puerto Rican woman named Isabel Gonzalez sailed for New York. Because Puerto Rico was U.S. territory, she believed herself to be a U.S. citizen. But officials at Ellis Island labeled her an undesirable alien and prevented her from entering the mainland. She sued, with some reason to hope for a favorable ruling. Yet the Supreme Court that eventually heard Gonzalez's case was still racist. In preceding years, for example, it had permitted a flat ban on naturalizing anyone of the Chinese race. And, in a case addressing the status of recently acquired island territories such as Puerto Rico, the justices had cited the alleged racial inferiority of tropical peoples as reason to treat these lands as second-class U.S. territories. Justice Edward Douglas White's opinion stated that U.S. sovereignty extended over them, but that their residents did not hold the same constitutional rights as other Americans. He did so, he privately revealed, because "he was much preoccupied by the danger of racial and social questions." In the Gonzalez case, the justices agreed unanimously that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and thus not subject to immigration laws. But they declined to decide whether or not Gonzalez was a citizen. Though preoccupied by fears that islanders were "savages" and racially unfit for citizenship, they were unwilling to violate the Constitution. As a result of the court ruling, federal officials were able to deny Gonzalez and others the full panoply of rights conferred on citizens for years. As Isabel Gonzalez's lawyer told the Court, declaring that residents of America's island territories are not U.S. citizens would mean adding to "precedents in our history of which we are least proud." Those precedents, he warned the Court, had been "repudiated by the American people in the Civil War, by three amendments to the Constitution of the United States, by this court, and by ... advancing civilization." Surely, 147 years after the Dred Scott case was overturned, the time has come to put an end to this farce. In the past century, the inhabitants of every other U.S. island territory have become citizens. Today, Emy Afalava and his fellow American Samoans are the last Americans still waiting to become citizens. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
April 8, 2014, the WHO finally started reporting the Ebola epidemic was a "concern"
Front line health care workers and Ebola survivors say the world has to act quicker . | (CNN)Over the last year more than 25,000 people, a population about the size of Key West, Florida, have fought Ebola infections. More than 10,000 have not survived. But for those who have survived, life will never be the same. And even for those who did not experience Ebola personally, the "most severe public health emergency seen in modern times" showed the world its vulnerability to disease. It revealed real flaws in government systems that are supposed to protect us. While the intensity of the largest Ebola epidemic in history has died down, and the initial dire predictions that there would be over a million infections by January never came true, dozens are still newly infected each week. The latest World Health Organization Report confirmed a total of 30 new confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in the week of April 5. This is the lowest weekly total since May 2014. But reports are mixed on stopping the virus completely: In Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of cases has fallen so much, there are more treatment facilities than demand. WHO in Liberia is in the process of decommissioning surplus facilities. But in Guinea, of the 19 confirmed deaths from April 5, seven were only identified as Ebola post-mortem and there were reports of 21 unsafe burials. "Taken together these data indicate that though surveillance is improving, unknown chains of transmission could be a source of new infections in the coming weeks," the latest WHO report said. Click on the photos above to learn how a grave digger, a first responder, and many others have changed in the wake of Ebola. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Attorney General Holder reiterates Justice Department policy on prostitutes .
Soliciting prostitutes is banned, even in places where it's legal, Holder says .
His memo comes weeks after a report involving DEA agents and prostitutes . | (CNN)No prostitutes. No ifs, ands or buts -- and yes, that includes when and where prostitution is perfectly legal. That was the message Friday from Attorney General Eric Holder to members of the U.S. Justice Department, which includes the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies. "The solicitation of prostitution threatens the core mission of the department," Holder wrote in a memo to all personnel in the department he heads. "... Regardless of whether prostitution is legal or tolerated in a particular jurisdiction, soliciting prostitutes creates a greater demand for human trafficking and a consequent increase in the number of minor and adult persons trafficked into commercial sex slavery." Holder doesn't mention specific cases of federal agents and prostitution in his memo. Nor is he dictating a new policy; the attorney general said only that he wanted "to reiterate to all department personnel, including attorneys and law enforcement officers, that they are prohibited from soliciting, procuring or accepting commercial sex." Agents behaving badly overseas . The directive comes a few weeks after a Justice Department inspector general report found DEA agents in foreign postings attended sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels, among other indiscretions. That report, by department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, cited light punishments and poor handling of sexual misconduct cases at DEA and other Justice Department agencies. Justice Department employees don't have a monopoly on such stories: In 2012, a group of agents and officers in the Secret Service -- which is part of the Department of Homeland Security -- and officers sent to Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama were relieved of duty and returned home amid allegations of misconduct that involved prostitution. That prostitute visit was arranged for by a DEA agent stationed in Colombia, according to Horowitz's office. If someone from the ATF, FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons or a federal prosecutor is caught with a prostitute they'll be suspended or fired, according to Holder's memo. "This rule applies at all times during an individual's employment, including while off duty or on personal leave." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Nashville's district attorney banned prosecutors from offering female sterilization in plea deals .
Danny Cevallos: Present-day sterilization plea deals are voluntary and unlike creepy antiquated practices . | (CNN)Recently, Nashville's district attorney banned prosecutors from offering female sterilization in plea deals. Believe it or not, Nashville prosecutors have offered this option four times in the past five years. There has been public outrage at the notion that a defendant in America in 2015 would be offered a choice of sterilization as part of a plea deal. Except, it happens all the time. Some have claimed this practice "evokes a dark corner of American history" where the mentally ill or "deficient" were forced to undergo sterilization. Yeah, that's true. We did that. And it was bad. Except this isn't quite that. Female sterilization is linked to the controversial "eugenics" movement, which advocated for the notion that the human race can be improved by selective breeding of people with superior genes. There is even a 1927 Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, in which the justices ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit and "imbeciles," "for the protection and health of the state," was constitutional. The opinion in the case is stunning, especially because the Supreme Court has never technically overruled it. But Buck v. Bell dealt with involuntary sterilization of people because of their mental disabilities, not because they were being punished for a crime. You can hate sterilization, and the Tennessee case may have the creepy feel of the antiquated practice of eugenics, but it's not that. Present-day sterilization plea deals involve a voluntary choice of sterilization by persons accused of a crime, and for whom sterilization will be part of their punishment. Others may argue that the Supreme Court has already spoken on the issue of compulsory sterilization as punishment, and struck it down. That's true too, sort of. In Skinner v. Oklahoma, the Court struck down a law permitting compulsory sterilization of criminals as unconstitutional, but not because it was cruel and unusual. Instead, the law was struck down because the law was unequally applied for similar crimes. So the question remains: Is sterilization as a punishment unconstitutional? The Eighth Amendment provides: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Practically, however, punishments are rarely deemed cruel and unusual by the judiciary. We have executed people with hangings and by firing squad. Sterilization has to be somewhere below that, right? Ultimately, however, the constitutionality of sterilization may be a red herring in this analysis, because it appears that even if a punishment vciolates the Constitution, it is permissible, if you willingly choose it. Suppose arguendo (for argument's sake) that sterilization is judicially labeled a cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. This is where it gets interesting: It still might be an appropriate and constitutional part of a plea deal. Shocked? You shouldn't be. As citizens, we validly waive our constitutional rights all the time. You waive your Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure when you answer "yes" to an officer's "Mind if I look in your trunk?" You waive your Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when you try to explain to the detective in the interrogation room how that body got in your vehicle's trunk. So then, if we can validly waive our other constitutional rights, can we waive our Eighth Amendment rights and choose a cruel and unusual punishment, even if it would otherwise be unconstitutional? And are people outraged because this is a new step in punishment or a new frontier and a slippery slope in the world of plea deals? Nope. Sterilization statutes have been around for a while as punishment for defendants all over the country, and defendants have willingly chosen the procedure. If sterilization plea deals are likely constitutional, and we've been doing it for a while, then that begs the question: Why the outrage now? Why the story that a Tennessee prosecutor was fired for a plea bargain that appears to be widely practiced? There are really only two possibilities. First, some people just had no idea that this was going on until this story hit the news. Second, even if we knew about it, we didn't mind the practice until now because of one fundamental difference. Most of the sterilization defendants are men. Search your feelings, Luke. When we talk about castrating men who are recidivist sexual predators and child molesters, the idea of castration as punishment doesn't sound so bad right? Be honest: Let go of your "we're-all-equal-in-all-ways" banner for a moment. After all, not too long ago, execution was a legal punishment for nonhomicide sex crimes in some jurisdictions. So if we're OK with the gas chamber, we're probably OK with a snip. It's OK. You can admit it; we are all hardwired with a modicum of gender bias, whether we like it or not. Still not convinced? Watch this parlor trick: What if I suggested sterilization for a person convicted of having sex with a minor? So far you're not ruling it out. And what if it's a young female high school teacher having sex with her 17-year-old student? Most of our gut feelings shifted from "maybe" to "no" just now. It's OK to admit that, too. Of course, sterilization won't prevent a female sex offender from offending again, no more than sterilization will prevent a male offender from offending again. But the point is, somehow, the notion of sterilizing a male criminal somehow sits better with us than sterilizing a female criminal. Maybe it's that on a primal, unconscious level, what feels cruel and unusual punishment for a woman just feels less so for a man. Even if you're offended by this theory of why an old practice is now a "shocking" news story, you must concede it fits. Why else has castration of men not been a blip on the radar, but offering a woman the option of sterilization is suddenly a travesty? Of course, we have to consider the related justification. Overall, a lot more men commit acts that merit sterilization than do women. Just ask any domestic violence prosecutor. Are sterilization plea deals morally right? It's hard to say. For now, they appear to be constitutional, but controversial. If we know a mother is likely to kill or seriously hurt her current children or her unborn child, should the government step in? If so, to what degree? Fortunately, we can avoid a final decision and continue to attack the problem in a way that seems to be more acceptable for now: just keep neutering the men. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Haroon Moghul: Tsarnaev found guilty in terrorist bombing of Boston Marathon. How to prevent future such acts by young Muslims?
Pew reports by 2050, one in 4 will be Muslim. Many equate terror with Islam. Not true, but we should grasp what causes radicalization .
Moghul: Muslims see their community besieged around world, some think solution is violence. They must be shown other way to help . | (CNN)After two days of deliberation, jurors found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all counts in the Boston Marathon bombing. The verdict isn't surprising. What might be, however, is the answer to how we prevent this kind of violence from happening again. Because there could be other more young men just like him, which means the lessons we take from Boston will affect whether we can keep America and Americans safer. Today, nearly 1 out of 4 people in the world are Muslim. By 2050, Pew reports, that will be some 1 out of 3. By 2070? Well, I'll quote the all-caps headline reprinted by the Drudge Report: "Muslims to outnumber Christians!" Many Americans read such numbers and worry: Will this mean more Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs? But that's only if you believe Islam causes extremism, which many have argued. And that's wrong, of course. On the other hand, there are people who claim Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Which is true — and false. Sure, the Islamic faith forbids murder, but there's a small but significant minority of Muslims murdering people in terrible ways, and in Islam's name. Understanding what leads young Muslims like Dzhokhar down a dangerous path requires we understand radicalization. At any given moment in the Middle East, we have little idea who's going to attack whom next, who's on whom's side, how this is going to end, or what anyone's even fighting over anymore. This bad news is going to turn worse before it gets better. But it will get better. To understand why, we have to take a stab at understanding what radicalizes Muslims . Contrary to common belief, Muslims aren't unusually predisposed to violence. Radical Islam, which has taken on an ugly life of its own, began at the intersection of politics, religion and religious identity. Islam is about what you believe, but it's also about being part of a community. And what happens when you are a member of a community and you see it under attack? Some Muslims who have turned to violence have done so with good intentions (the road to hell, after all). Consider: The tragedy of modern Islam is in its endless sequence of tragedies. Before my time, the brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan horrified many Muslims. When I was in high school, Bosnia occupied all our attention. There was of course Russia's brutal war on the Chechen people — Dzhokhar shares his name with a recent Chechen patriot -- and Israel's ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories. And the blows against Muslims don't end there. There was Serbia's war on Kosovo, another war in Chechnya, the invasion of Iraq, oppression in Myanmar, civil strife in Syria, the colonization of East Turkestan, massacres of Muslims in the Central African Republic, wars on a besieged Gaza and West Bank still under Israeli rule. Imagine how this looks to a restless young Muslim. Countless places where co-religionists have been killed, and nobody seems to do anything about it. Nobody even wants to. Extremists have long offered crude reasons for why the violence was happening, and then moved quickly to a single, tempting, terrible response: Take up arms — and kill. In her new book, "Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now", Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that extremism isn't caused by political circumstances, but by Islam itself. Her conclusion is wrong. To fight extremism, we don't need to reform Islam. We need to show young Muslims that extremism is doing the opposite of what it claimed to. Rather than help Muslims, it's harming them. When I was a teenager, our Massachusetts mosque hosted a delegation from Bosnia that shared graphic, heartbreaking stories of rape, exile, and massacre inflicted on Muslims, all because of their faith. The mosque raised money, collected food, blankets, medicine. Promises were made to provide more, and regularly. But we all knew that wasn't enough. As we left the mosque, my peers and I were disgruntled and confused. Shocked. Angry. Our teachers could've told us: Go and fight. Defend your Muslim brothers and sisters who are under siege. Or they could've told us to keep our heads down and make money and live comfortably. Neither answer would have satisfied. Fortunately for us, they offered us a third way. They showed us, patiently, how to work with others, how to compromise, how to get things done. A more engaged American Muslim community, they explained, could use its resources to help people suffering all around the world. They were right. We saw the dead-end road of radicalism from afar, but we also saw, up close, how communities that isolated themselves and turned inward found themselves powerless, ineffectual and ignored. Thanks to social media, a medium that the world's burgeoning young Muslim population is increasingly comfortable with, more Muslims can and will see this, too. Radicalism will be done in by fellow Muslims who want to save their religion from this monster within it. It's happening already. Our national conversation about Islam is focused on the wrong issues. Does Islam need a Reformation? What in Islam causes violence? We would do a lot better if we accepted that Muslims the world over have real grievances — dictatorships, corruption, foreign intervention, religious illiteracy, lack of economic opportunity -- and radicals exploit these. We need to show the young Dzhokhars that, if they want to help, then violence isn't going to help. To fight extremism, we need to pose this question to young Muslims: "Do you want to help your brothers and sisters in faith?" Because those who claim to be defending us are making things so much worse. Their narrative has failed. Their solution is bankrupt. The Caliph wears no clothes. It's the reason why increasing numbers of Muslims reject extremism -- and not just because our numbers are increasing. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Errol Louis: By chance a bystander video caught South Carolina officer shooting apparently unarmed black man .
Federal law on reporting of such shootings goes unenforced -- how many instances do we never hear about? he asks .
Louis: It's long past time for officials to tell the truth -- even when there's no video . | (CNN)It's a good thing -- a lucky thing -- that a bystander had the courage and presence of mind to record the shocking video that shows a white police officer, Michael Slager, gunning down and killing an apparently unarmed black man named Walter Scott after a traffic stop in North Charleston, South Carolina. And the resulting national wave of revulsion and indignation -- along with the prompt arrest of Slager on murder charges -- is a welcome and appropriate response. But the event raises broad, troubling questions about how often such incidents take place without the benefit of a third-party recording. It's not supposed to be a mystery: More than 20 years ago, Congress approved a law, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, signed by President Bill Clinton, that requires the federal Justice Department to collect data on deaths caused by police. The law has never truly been implemented, leaving us with patchy information about particular episodes rather than a comprehensive sense of how race and policing play out in America. "What happened here today doesn't happen all the time. What if there was no video? What if there was no witness -- or hero, as I call him -- to come forward?" said L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Scott's family. "As you can see, the initial (police) reports stated something totally different." That's putting it mildly. In early police statements -- issued before the video came to light -- Slager reportedly said that Scott attacked him, that he fired only after a scuffle and that cops made medical efforts to revive Scott. The video makes hash of those claims, and likely contributed to Slager's swift arrest and pending murder charges. "When you're wrong, you're wrong," said North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. That leaves Slager to face murder charges that could land him on death row -- and the rest of us to face a disturbing reality. I'm all for having police use body cameras, although they are not a magic cure for preventing or stopping the excessive use of force. But the much bigger problem is that we simply don't know when and where police killings take place, or whether they cluster in particular cities or states. And that means we don't know for certain whether unjustified or excessive force correlates with particular forms of officer training or detectable underlying racial bias. We don't even know the role played by officers operating under stressful conditions or while dealing with mental or physical illness. These vital questions aren't supposed to be a mystery. According to Section 210402 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, "The Attorney General shall, through appropriate means, acquire data about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. ... The Attorney General shall publish an annual summary of the data acquired under this section." That section of the law has effectively been ignored, beyond a first attempt at a comprehensive report published in 1996. By 2001, a New York Times article noted that when it comes to police uses of deadly force, "No comprehensive accounting for all of the nation's 17,000 police department exists." There are multiple reasons the law has been ignored. Collecting information from the nation's thousands of jurisdictions -- the myriad villages, counties and cities -- is a tough, expensive assignment. The job is even harder because many police departments, reluctant to air their dirty laundry, fail to distinguish between justified and unjustified killings on the reasonable grounds that it's up to the courts to rule on whether an officer has committed brutality -- something that's often established only after years of court proceedings. These hurdles could be overcome by a determined effort from Washington, but Congress has failed to press the Justice Department to demand the data and comply with the 1994 law. A weak substitute called the Death in Custody Reporting Act was passed in 2000 and renewed in 2014, but it is a voluntary reporting program intended to coax information out of local departments. Some of the data gap has been filled by media organizations -- and what they have discovered only underscores the need for muscular, mandatory enforcement of the data-gathering law. In 2011, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published an extensive investigation of police killings in and around Las Vegas and found 378 shootings over a 20-year period, 142 of which were fatal. In no case was an officer convicted or even fired because of an on-duty shooting. In South Carolina last month, The State newspaper published an examination of 209 instances in which officers shot at suspects, and found that only a handful of officers were charged, and none found guilty. "In South Carolina, it remains exceedingly rare for an officer to be found at fault criminally for shooting at someone," the Columbia newspaper concluded. A group of activists has created a website called MappingPoliceViolence.org that flags cases of police killings; its estimate that at least 304 black people were killed by police in 2014 may stand as the best guess we have about the dimensions of a national problem. But we shouldn't be guessing. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorialized in 2011: "How many lives might be saved if taxpayers everywhere were better informed about police shootings? How can they know about a potential local problem without information? ... Police already track everything from domestic violence to child abuse to murder, and police routinely lobby state and federal lawmakers to put new crimes into statute. The budgetary impact of adding another reporting category to local police forces would be minuscule. The social impact of such an addition, however, would be huge." That common-sense observation is being echoed by the Obama administration -- specifically, the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, created in December in response to widespread protests following the police killings of unarmed black men including Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The recently released interim report of the task force calls, one more time, for the Justice Department to collect comprehensive data from local departments. But it will take more pressure -- from activists, victims' families, members of Congress and President Barack Obama himself -- to demand an end to the stonewalling of information. It's long past time we got to the truth of how many more killings like Walter Scott's are happening without a video to set the record straight. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Dean Obeidallah: Apple's new emoji lineup is diverse in race, ethnicity and sexual orientation .
It's just like America, but what took Apple so long? Obeidallah asks .
He says change may rankle (or win over?) conservatives who discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation . | (CNN)The new emojis are here! On Thursday, Apple released a new version of its mobile operating system that includes more diversity than ever when it comes to the race, ethnicity and sexual orientation of its emojis -- those cute little images that users can insert into text messages or emails when words alone just won't cut it. The reaction to this new lineup is, as should be expected with almost anything new in today's hypersensitive climate, a range of cheers and jeers. Why is any of this important, you may ask? For many, these images are far more than tiny clip art for texting. Rather they are seen as recognition that their own ethnicity, sexual orientation, race or even hair color is part of mainstream America -- despite what others might say. This matters in a digital age where texting is how most people communicate and represent themselves dozens -- if not hundreds -- of times every day. Think receiving a text of an image of a person smiling. Or more accurately, think of a white face smiling because up until Thursday's update, all the emojis had pale skin. But that has all changed. Now there's a range of emoji skin tones to pick from, including yellow, brown and black. I'm sure few people will be upset with this development. But how about in December? Why? Now that will be able to choose the skin tones for each human emoji, and that will also include ... Santa Claus. That shrieking sound you may have heard was from Fox News' Megyn Kelly, who famously stated in 2013 that Santa Claus is absolutely, definitely and without a doubt a white guy. In fact, thanks to Apple, we may even see Brown Santa emojis this December. (Could that mean he's a Muslim Santa?! Cue even more shrieking from Fox News.) There is more. Apple has now given us gay and lesbian couple emojis, kissing with a heart over their heads. This inclusiveness was cheered by at least one gay news service on Twitter. It's not yet clear if a person who likes to use same-sex kissing emoji couples can be denied service by a person who objects on grounds of "religious liberty." But it would be interesting to hear what any of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates might have to say about "gay emojis." And I would predict some conservative will claim that the kissing gay emojis will turn children gay. The fact is, when you embrace diversity, you will still leave out other minority groups. Redheads, for example, are pretty pissed off because there are no emojis featuring their hair color. In fact, supporters of a redheaded emoji have started a petition that has already garnered several thousand signatures. Even expanding the flags represented by emojis, as Apple has done, comes at some peril. Apparently Canada is overjoyed that finally Apple has included it. But Armenians are not happy they were left out. I must admit that being partially of Palestinian heritage, it's heartening to see that despite the fact that some refuse to recognize a Palestinian state, Apple has chosen to now include a Palestinian flag emoji. Armenia, I feel your pain. Of course the bigger question in the whole diverse-emoji issue is: What took Apple so long? How hard could it have been to add different skin colors to pick from? That the company (finally) did is a step in the right direction: America's demographics are changing, so our representations of who we are -- even representations as tiny as emojis -- should reflect this. Apple has "evolved" in showing diversity -- from brown people to same-sex couples. Maybe "religious liberty" conservatives who discriminate will follow. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Jennifer Lawless: There's a strong temptation to view Hillary Clinton's candidacy as all about cracking the glass ceiling for women .
She says the reality is that most people will vote not on gender but on the economy and partisanship . | (CNN)Hillary Clinton finally answered the question we've all been asking for years: Will she run for president in 2016? With official news of her candidacy just hours old, one thing is already crystal clear: For the next year and a half, Clinton will be the barometer by which we assess gender equality in the United States. Win or lose, this creates a burden for her that no male candidate will ever have to shoulder. Just consider the two potential outcomes. A win would mean a woman in the White House, which is a vital step in the march toward women's full political inclusion. But it's possible that the march will end right there. We'll break our arms patting ourselves on the back for how far we've come. We'll raise the "Mission Accomplished" banner over the women's movement. And we'll call it a day. Granted, 80% of elected officials throughout the country will still be men. Women will continue to be less likely than men even to consider running for office. And pay inequities, sexual assault and human trafficking will persist as challenges that no one person can solve, no matter how hard Clinton might try. "But we've elected a woman as president," we'll say. Let her take care of it. A loss would be even more difficult. Clinton will be blamed for running a subpar campaign regardless of how brilliant her strategy is. More generally, her loss would perpetuate the myth that women cannot win big elections, that the electoral environment is rife with bias and discrimination, and that women must be twice as good to get half as far. "If Hillary Clinton can't win an election," potential female candidates will ask, "How can I?" Extrapolating from one female candidate's experiences to women in politics more broadly is always suspect. But in the case of Clinton, it is particularly flawed for at least two fundamental reasons. First, Clinton is no ordinary female presidential candidate, if there is such a thing. She began the 2008 race with levels of name recognition that many candidates never achieve, and she is even more well-known today. But that means that she also enters the electoral arena with 23 years of public accomplishments and 23 years of well-publicized baggage. Voters, donors, journalists and pundits all hold clear impressions of Clinton before she ever eats a corn dog in Iowa, steps onto a debate stage in New Hampshire or takes a shot of bourbon in Kentucky. Too often, we treat Clinton's loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary as a referendum on how citizens feel about electing women to positions of political power. In reality, what people knew about Hillary Clinton likely shaped their views of Hillary Clinton. Widespread sexism and misogyny likely did not. After all, for decades, women who have run for office have performed just as well as men. They win elections at equal rates and routinely raise comparable amounts of money. Do some voters still question women's suitability as leaders? Of course they do. But these attitudes, which have become increasingly rare, do not translate into systematic biases against female candidates. Second, presidential politics is, first and foremost, a partisan affair. The D or R in front of the candidates' names -- not the X or Y chromosomes in their DNA -- tells us about how more than 90% of the population will vote. Party polarization has essentially rendered the importance of sex on the campaign trail far less relevant than might otherwise be the case. Now, I'll be the first to predict that by the middle of the week, we will be able to assemble a reel of sexist comments uttered by pundits, and we will be one mouse click away from a steady stream of misogynistic memes, photos and captions that have taken hold on social media. The Clinton campaign will once again have to determine which incidents to address, which to ignore and how to preempt future episodes. I don't want to diminish the problems associated with this type of behavior or the fact that it is inappropriate, disrespectful and appalling. And incorporating these concerns into a broad campaign strategy is likely something that male candidates won't need to consider. But men yelling "Iron my shirt" at a campaign rally, cable news pundits associating Clinton with their ex-wives outside of probate court and manufacturers producing Hillary Clinton nutcrackers do not change the fact that when it comes to presidential elections, partisanship and the state of the economy tell us almost everything we need to know. If Clinton wins the race, it will be because it was a good year for Democrats. And if she loses, it will be because the GOP developed a winning message. But how much does any of this really matter? Sure, voters are amenable to electing women. Any Democratic nominee would face the same electoral landscape. The problems confronting women in society are just as grave regardless of who occupies the White House. And inferring too much from Hillary Clinton's experiences is a risky endeavor. Yet the minute Clinton announced her candidacy, she became the official litmus test for true gender equality in the United States. That's a label that no female candidate should have to wear. Let the burden begin. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Sequel to popular "Bible" miniseries debuting on NBC .
"Mad Men" premieres the first of its final episodes .
Netflix premieres its first Marvel series, "Daredevil" | (CNN)In 2013, "The Bible" broke ratings records on the History Channel, so of course, a sequel was ordered up -- and this one is on NBC. The new miniseries from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey is one of six shows to watch this week. 1. "A.D. The Bible Continues," 9 p.m. ET Sunday, NBC . Just in time for Easter, the peacock network debuts the "Bible" sequel, picking up with Jesus' resurrection and following the early days of Christianity. NBC scored on picking up the follow-up to the smash cable hit, starring Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus and Greta Scacchi as Mary (replacing Downey in the role). The full miniseries will run for 12 weeks, so consider it a spring revival. 2. "Mad Men," 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC . We've arrived at the end, "Mad Men" fans. This is the first of the last several episodes, where we'll learn the fate of Don Draper and the cast of characters. Click here for more on "Mad Men." 3. "American Odyssey," 10 p.m. Sunday, NBC . Anna Friel ("Pushing Daisies") stars as a special forces translator in Mali who is believed to be dead by those back in the States. On the show, she struggles to get back home, while we discover how she ended up how she did. 4. "Louie," 10:30 Thursday, FX . Louis C.K.'s critically-acclaimed comedy is back for a fifth season. Will Louie continue to offend people in his life? All signs point to yes. Is Louie still dating his best friend-turned-girlfriend, Pamela? We'll have to tune into find out. 5. "The Comedians," 10 p.m. Thursday, FX . Billy Crystal returns to television, with co-star Josh Gad, as two people starring in an FX comedy. It's a meta mockumentary about the making of a comedy show. "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Larry Charles is among the producers. 6. "Marvel's Daredevil," Friday, Netflix . This ain't Ben Affleck's movie. Now that Marvel has the rights to the "Man Without Fear" back, they've decided to launch several series for Netflix, starting with this dark, gritty drama about blind lawyer Matt Murdock, and his moonlighting as a costumed avenger (no pun intended). | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Pentagon releases map showing coalition forces have taken back 25-30% of Iraq territory from ISIS .
Counterinsurgency specialist Afzal Ashraf on what new data tells us about fight .
Ashraf: Where it counts (ISIS is) not standing and fighting . | London (CNN)The Pentagon released a map this week showing coalition forces have taken back 25-30% of Iraqi territory seized by ISIS. The map, above, shows gains in key central and northern areas of Iraq where the terror group was previously the dominant force. The gains made in the fight against the terror group by Iraqi security forces and coalition air power certainly look impressive -- although as the U.S. Department of Defense acknowledges it's a dynamic conflict and territory can change hands depending on "daily fluctuations in the battle lines." So, how exactly should we read this information? What does it say about the wider fight against ISIS? CNN asked Afzal Ashraf, a counterinsurgency specialist and consulting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute to give us a steer on what this new data tells us about the fight against ISIS in Iraq. Below is an edited version of the conversation. CNN: So, is the tide turning in Iraq -- is the coalition winning? Afzal Ashraf: When it comes to insurgencies it's always problematic to think about the tide turning in terms of territorial gains because insurgencies by their very nature are extremely good at adapting to change. The one difference between ISIS and insurgencies in general is that ISIS declared itself a state, a caliphate once had territory so any loss is very strategic loss of prestige and image for them. (There have been) significant gains against ISIS -- particularly in Tikrit -- and it's no coincidence we've seen ISIS make spectacular attacks in refugee centers in Syria. It's asymmetric warfare, they know they cannot hold conventional force back for very long so what they do is they withdraw ... then take initiative elsewhere. They have to distract attention from those losses by gains and attacks elsewhere. It continues their image of initiative, of shocking, of reshaping the world -- which is what they are trying to do. CNN: What does the map tell us about the coalition's strategy? AA: It's very telling. There are losses but most of the losses are around the edges of their territory and what that means is a very conventional push forward by the Iraqi forces. It's a push against the front line of ISIS rather than being brave and creative and going in behind ISIS's lines and breaking it up. What this isn't is using maneuverist warfare -- which is a military philosophy that exploits the capabilities of conventional forces to project power by using air forces to take land along main supply routes and put friendly forces on that land to cut land into chunks which causes massive disruption to command and control and their supply chains which can cause forces to collapse much more rapidly than a frontal push. The capability you need (for this kind of warfare) is much more high-tech than the capabilities the Iraqis have. Those capabilities are available in the region -- Jordanians, Egyptians and other forces have helicopters and aircraft -- and it's very interesting that the Middle Eastern nations have not developed an effective coalition to target ISIS which is an existential threat. CNN: What about Ramadi? ISIS seems to be winning there. AA: Ramadi has been a potential battlefield for the past decade. But in this context (ISIS) will ... be pushing in Ramadi because that's an area they have lots of support. It also diverts their attention away from losses to their gains. The concept of success is hugely important to them -- it's what sustains the recruitment effort of ISIS. Nobody wants to join a bunch of losers, so it's very important for them to be seen to be succeeding. Above all this is a rhetorical war that is being fought deliberately in the media. They are losing so of course they are going to try to distract us by destroying ancient statues in Nimrud and killing refugees in camps like Yarmouk. But where it counts they are not standing and fighting. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Arsenal beat Burnley 1-0 in the EPL .
A goal from Aaron Ramsey secured all three points .
Win cuts Chelsea's EPL lead to four points . | (CNN)Arsenal kept their slim hopes of winning this season's English Premier League title alive by beating relegation threatened Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor. A first half goal from Welsh international Aaron Ramsey was enough to separate the two sides and secure Arsenal's hold on second place. More importantly it took the north London club to within four points of first placed Chelsea, with the two clubs to play next week. But Chelsea have two games in hand and play lowly Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, a team who are themselves struggling against relegation. Good form . Arsenal have been in superb form since the start of the year, transforming what looked to be another mediocre season struggling to secure fourth place -- and with it Champions League qualification -- into one where they at least have a shot at winning the title. After going ahead, Arsenal rarely looked in any danger of conceding, showing more of the midfield pragmatism epitomized by the likes of Francis Coquelin, who also played a crucial role in the goal. "He has been absolutely consistent in the quality of his defensive work," Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports after the game when asked about Coquelin's contribution to Arsenal's current run. They have won eight games in a row since introducing the previously overlooked young Frenchman into a more defensive midfield position. "He was a player who was with us for seven years, from 17, he's now just 24," Wenger explained. "Sometimes you have to be patient. I am very happy for him because he has shown great mental strength." Now all eyes will be on next week's clash between Arsenal and Chelsea which will likely decide the title. "They have the games in hand," said Wenger, playing down his club's title aspirations. "But we'll keep going and that's why the win was so important for us today." Relegation dogfight . Meanwhile it was a good day for teams at the bottom of the league. Aston Villa continued their good form since appointing coach Tim Sherwood with a 1-0 victory over Tottenham, who fired Sherwood last season. Belgian international Christian Benteke scored the only goal of the game, his eighth in six matches, to secure a vital three points to give the Midlands club breathing space. Another Midlands club looking over their shoulder is West Brom, who conceded an injury time goal to lose 3-2 against bottom club Leicester City. But it was an awful day for Sunderland's former Dutch international coach Dick Advocaat, who saw his team lose 4-1 at home against form team Crystal Palace. Democratic Republic of Congo international Yannick Bolasie scored Crystal Palace's first ever hat trick in the Premier League to secure an easy victory. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Mark O'Mara: Video captured Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott; if cop had been wearing a body camera, he probably wouldn't have fired .
O'Mara says such cameras are expensive, but cheaper than wrongful death payouts -- and the cost of a human life.
The underlying problem is racial bias in policing; until that's solved, body cameras are a good interim solution . | (CNN)I'm haunted by the video of Officer Michael Slager firing eight shots at Walter Scott as he fled his encounter with North Charleston police -- his back turned to the officer. What I find more disturbing is how the officer cuffs the fallen Scott and allows him to die face-down in the dirt while Slager appears to plant an item next to his body. I understand why people are skeptical of self-defense claims -- especially from law enforcement. If not for the video taken by a bystander, I can't help but think that this story would be shuttered behind the wall of an active investigation. As a defense attorney, I am more sensitive than anyone to the assumption of innocence for those accused of a crime, but this single piece of evidence -- a video of a man shot in the back while in full retreat -- defies any reasonable explanation. Thank God there was a camera. It will help ensure that justice will be served in this case. However, there is another camera that -- had it been deployed -- might have prevented the entire tragedy: a police body camera. Throughout the entire encounter with Scott, it's clear Slager had no idea someone was filming him. Had he known there would be video of his every move, would he have drawn his weapon on a fleeing man? Would he have fired? Eight times? Would he have misrepresented the encounter on his police report? Of course not. If Slager had been wearing a body camera, Scott would probably still be alive, and Slager wouldn't be facing the possibility of life in prison -- or a possible death sentence. Body cameras are expensive to deploy, sure. And storing the massive amounts of data that body cameras create costs even more. That cost, however -- if we're talking the monetary kind -- may be eclipsed by the punitive damages delivered to Scott's family in an inevitable civil suit against the North Charleston Police Department. Most importantly, we have to ask ourselves this: What's the value of a human life? Certainly it's worth the price of some mass data storage. And there's something else at stake. The public is losing confidence in law enforcement, and the strained relationship between minorities and police is reaching a breaking point. Every police shooting that captures headlines justifies an ever increasing fear of cops in the street. As fear ratchets up, so does the tension between cops and the people in the communities they serve. As tension rises, the risk of more shootings increases. It is a cycle of destruction that could lead to chaos. Police body cameras can help break this cycle. Studies have shown that both cops and people in the community act better when they know they are on camera. Complaints against cops decrease, and, most importantly, use-of-force incidents drop. I will admit that body cameras are only an interim solution. They only help compensate for the real underlying problem, which is this: There is a bias against black men that has infiltrated the criminal justice system, and we are seeing it in the disproportionate shooting of black men. When we look at this footage -- and when we see the dashboard camera from the other South Carolina officer who last year shot a man who was reaching for his driver's license -- it's clear that many cops are more likely to interpret actions, even routine actions, from black men as potentially aggressive. These may not be overtly racist cops. They may not intentionally treat black men differently, but we can't pretend that black men aren't being disproportionately targeted. All across the country, we see it happening, and with the proliferation of video, we're seeing it happen with alarming frequency. Somehow, we're going to have to beat this bias out of our system. Set tougher employment screening standards when hiring cops. Institute more training to help officers recognize the bias and adjust for it. As a society, we have to focus on the broad social changes needed to address disparities in income, education and opportunities -- disparities that keep us a racially divided nation. But social change, sadly, may take generations of hard work. In the meantime, if we can't immediately root out racial bias, we can at least put a bright spotlight on it, and we can start by focusing on the one interaction where racial bias results in the loss of life -- we can start by placing body-mounted cameras on cops. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Edward McCaffery: There's a fundamental unfairness to U.S. tax laws .
But Americans don't care because most of us get a refund on Tax Day, and that makes us happy . | (CNN)Danny Kahneman, my good friend and co-author who got a Nobel Prize in economics, once helped to run an experiment involving patients undergoing colonoscopies. One group received a mildly pleasurable experience at the end of the procedure; the other group, which experienced the same type of colonoscopy, did not. It turns out that the group for whom things ended well had significantly more positive recollections of the whole affair from its beginning. The psychology of it is simple to understand: Happy endings matter. Even an unpleasant experience can lead to happy memories in hindsight if it ends well. So too with taxes. Let's just say that when it comes to taxes for the average American, "stuff" happens (keeping the colonoscopy metaphor running), paycheck to tax-reduced paycheck. But recent statistics suggest that 8 out of 10 American taxpayers get a refund when they file their taxes, and the average amount is close to $3000. That pays for a lot of stuff. To make the good news even better, tax filing has gotten rather simple for most people, with various software and service providers offering to do the dreaded paperwork for free. No filing headaches and a check to boot. What's not to like? The fact of the matter is there is plenty not to like when it comes to the U.S. tax system. For example, the laws are biased against two-worker marriages; taxes go up when two relatively equal earners marry, as the rate brackets for couples are less than double that for single filers. Taxes are also overly complex and essentially optional for the truly rich, who make their wealth off of their existing wealth, the largely untaxed returns from capital, rather than by getting ordinary paychecks like most of us. But now is not the time to explain such serious matters; the people are too busy spending their refunds. The once dreaded Tax Day has become a happy spending spree for most Americans. This state of short-term bliss follows from some deep trends in our tax laws. In brief, the U.S. income tax system is increasingly a wage tax, with limited taxes on capital (what the rich have) and limited deductions for most of us. For example, 3 out of 4 Americans using a standard deduction get no break for their charitable contributions. All of this has been hashed and rehashed by politicians, professors and pundits. But who has time for that? Let's go to our television sets and check out the commercials. One clever spot ran during the recent Super Bowl, suggesting that the Boston Tea Party -- a tax revolt -- could have been averted with free online filing, which the sponsor was eager to provide. Filling out 1040s was part of what made the income tax so odious for the masses for such a long time -- who doesn't remember our parents fretting over shoeboxes of receipts sometime in April, the cruelest month? Now as Tax Day approaches, we are flooded with advertisements about America getting its billions back, without even having to pay to prepare the forms. We get paid to play! Here is the happy ending that Kahneman and others have shown can mitigate the memories of unpleasantness past. The simple fact is that a simple tax is also rather simple to administer. Service providers kindly offer to help out the masses of befuddled Americans. Of course, these kind souls want their happy endings too. They are betting that once the large refunds become obvious to their customers, the grateful taxpayers-turned-consumers will happily purchase add-on services, such as "audit protection insurance," or perhaps deposit the money in financial accounts managed by the provider. Just as lottery winners notoriously go on impulsive spending sprees, the "found money" of tax returns can finance many nice purchases. Of course, there are still those annoying matters of the deep unfairness of the tax laws, biased against modern families and wage earners, and in favor of the rich living off capital. No real bother -- stuff happens. Let others fret about fairness. As long as our taxpaying or colon procedures end with a smile -- or a check -- who has time to dwell on the bad stuff that came before? | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
ISIS raided Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus on April 1 .
18,000 Palestinian refugees remain in the camp, cut off from vital aid .
One defiant elderly resident told CNN: "I will not leave the Yarmouk camp even if I am 75 or 76 years old" | (CNN)Even in the horror of Syria's civil war, there are few places that showcase the scale of the destruction -- and the senselessness of the loss of life -- more than the Yarmouk camp on the outskirts of Damascus. Set up as a refugee camp for Palestinians in the 1950s, it slowly evolved into a neighborhood over the years, but since 2012 it has been engulfed in the Syrian conflict. Two weeks ago ISIS fighters stormed Yarmouk, and that made life for those still inside even worse than it was before. The Syrian government responded by unleashing a bombing and shelling campaign on the area, residents told CNN, including barrel bombs that flattened many of the buildings already scarred by the three-year-long conflict. Death comes day and night. "I looked up and saw dust," one resident said. "I opened the door and started walking outside and started shouting to the neighbors. One told me 'I am wounded,' another one didn't answer me at all. That second one -- may god have mercy on his soul -- he was martyred." While the battle for Yarmouk is very typical of Syria's civil war, the conflict here is unique. Most of those fighting on all sides are Palestinians. Pro-government factions besiege the area from the outside, cutting off supplies and aid most of the time. The inside is held by anti-regime groups, some of which are Islamists. The situation in Yarmouk was thrust in to the headlines on April 1 when ISIS fighters stormed the rebel-held area and unleashed a campaign of violence and killings. Since then, a local activist tells CNN, ISIS has withdrawn to another area and left the al Qaedalinked group Jabhat al-Nusra in charge of the district. 'The deepest circle of hell': Terrified Yarmouk residents describe ISIS raid . But this is only the most recent in a deadly urban war that is slowly grinding down Yarmouk's buildings and people. Of the more than 100,000 that used to live there, only about 18,000 remain, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency tasked with aiding Palestinians. I have been to Yarmouk on various occasions, and the picture has always been the same. Pro-government factions surrounded the area and there was house-to house combat, mostly at night. A lot of destruction, very little territorial gain for either side, all of it taking a horrifying toll on the civilians trapped in the middle. "We have no food or water," one resident said, standing amid the ruins of Yarmouk's houses. "They should open a route so we can eat and drink and they can deliver assistance and food. We have nothing. What can we do?" But international aid groups can do very little. There are few occasions where aid is allowed into Yarmouk, or where civilians are allowed out. UNRWA can only care for those who do manage to escape. U.N. official to visit besieged refugee camp . The agency, along with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, runs several shelters for displaced people in government-controlled areas near the camp. Pierre Krahenbuhl, the Commissioner General for UNRWA, recently visited some of them and acknowledged that far too little help was reaching those who need it most. "We have to call on the world and call on all the actors in the world who can influence the situation to mobilize," Krahenbuhl said. "But much more has to be done to respect the civilians and to make sure that they are safe inside the camp." But of course those still inside are by no means safe -- subjected to shelling, bombing and street combat on top of being thirsty, hungry and in need of medication. But one thing that has not been broken is the residents' self-respect and pride. "This is Yarmouk camp and we are not leaving our homes," one man said. "Whatever happens, if they keep hitting us with barrel bombs we will die." An elderly woman recalled her life as a Palestinian refugee. "I fled Palestine when I was seven years old," she said. "But I will not leave the Yarmouk camp even if I am 75 or 76 years old. Yarmouk camp is equal to my soul. I built it with my bare hands. I carried its stones on my head from a village and laid the foundation to my home. Block by block I carried them on my head." But despite their defiance, there's seemingly nothing that can be done to prevent Yarmouk from being reduced to rubble. This is a war of attrition, two sides fighting for inches in tough combat without seeing that they are wrecking the prize they claim to be fighting for. Desperation for Palestinians trapped in Syrian refugee camp . | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
MTV Movie Awards host Amy Schumer had some hits and misses during the show .
Rebel Wilson tossed in a censor-worthy joke . | (Billboard)From Channing Tatum twerking for Jennifer Lopez to host Amy Schumer's archery fail, there were plenty of highlights and misfires from the 2015 MTV Movie Awards. 2015 MTV Movie Awards: See the full winners list . Here are the jokes, performances and moments that hit the target and the ones and missed it. Best Moments . Amy Schumer's opener: From a "Boyhood"/HPV joke to nearly flashing J.K. Simmons to her run-in with a cancer support group, Schumer's opening video segment was as reliably hilarious and inventive as her Comedy Central show (which can't come back on TV soon enough). Plus, her monologue killed: "Half of you know who I am, half of you think I'm Meghan Trainor." Channing Tatum doing his thing: When the cast of "Magic Mike XXL" presented J.Lo with the Scared As Shit Performance award, she asked them exactly what we were all thinking: "Why aren't you dancing?" Channing Tatum obliged, popping a twerk (in a suit) onstage in front of Lopez. "Your turn," he told her. Sadly, she did not oblige. Amy Schumer takes on Hillary Clinton, Zayn Malik and more in monologue . Rebel Wilson's censored moment: Introducing an exclusive clip from "Pitch Perfect 2" as an "exclusive clit" was easily the funniest non-Schumer joke of the entire night. Even her castmates seemed shocked when she slipped it in. Fall Out Boy meets Fetty Wap: "Centuries" didn't need a rap breakdown, nor did "Trap Queen" need a punk-rock edge. But did it sound killer on both counts? Hell yeah. Fetty with an electric guitar is something that needs to happen again. Charli XCX, Ty Dolla $ign & Tinashe: There's a reason Charli gets invited to every MTV awards show: She attacks a pop song with the abandon of a rock 'n' roll tidal wave. "Drop That Kitty" was Tinashe's time to shine, though. It's only a shame she got about 30 seconds to command the stage. Kiss Cam: Amy Schumer sensuously kissing Amber Rose just before a commercial break? Well played, Amy. Kevin Hart's Comedic Genius Award: While Kimmel's intro jokes were a little one-note (we get it, Kevin is short), it was pretty adorable that Hart brought his kids onstage to accept his Golden Popcorn. As his son held it, you realized the award was bigger than the kid's head. MTV Movie Awards: See all the photos . Robert Downey Jr. accepting Generation Award: His speech was fine (kudos for the "keep your nose clean" quip), but his Avengers castmates taking a knee while he accepted his award was just perfect. Misfires . Archery fail: Schumer's bow-and-arrow misfire was a literal misfire. It wasn't a big deal, but the fact that it ruined an entire gag (with Jimmy Kimmel pretending to get shot in the chest) was naturally awkward. Of course, Schumer poked fun at herself almost immediately. "Gone Girl" joke: "How good was Gone Girl? It's the story of what one crazed white woman -- or every Latina -- does when a man cheats on them," Schumer joked. It wasn't awful, just kinda off. MTV immediately cut to J.Lo laughing like "ummm, OK" -- which is an accurate response. Vin Diesel sings 'Furious 7' Paul Walker tribute song at MTV Movie Awards . Shailene Woodley speech: Woodley definitely marches to the beat of her own drum, which is part of her appeal. But halfway through her Trailblazer award acceptance speech, the neo-hippie charm wore off, leaving most people wondering what she was trying to say. One of those wondering where she was going was Woodley herself, who wrapped up her speech by admitting it had totally gotten away from her. Zac Efron and Dave Franco: Was the punchline for their whole shtick really just Efron grabbing Franco's balls? Yes. Apparently, a man touching another man's junk is still comedy gold in 2015. Dwayne Johnson: The Rock shouting into the camera about 2014's movie highlights was totally unnecessary. At this point, MTV has to realize we've heard jokes about "American Sniper", "Gone Girl", "Boyhood" and "Whiplash" for almost a year now, and we're all ready to move on. But God Bless The Rock for giving it his all. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Marvel Studios releases first looks at Paul Bettany as the Vision in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and Charlie Cox in full "Daredevil" costume .
Jamie Bell's character of The Thing was also unveiled for 20th Century Fox's Marvel-based reboot of "Fantastic Four"
Bryan Singer unveiled the first look at "X-Men: Apocalypse" Angel played by Ben Hardy . | (CNN)For superhero fans, the cup runneth over. Most of us know the members of the Avengers by now: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and the rest, and the fact that a few more like Quicksilver are joining the cast in the "Avengers: Age of Ultron" sequel. But there was one character who remained a mystery: the Vision, to be played by Paul Bettany. Thus far, we've only seen his eyes in a trailer. With less than a month to go before the movie hits theaters, Marvel Studios put all the speculation to rest with a poster featuring Bettany as the heroic android, who was a member of the superhero group for many years in the comics. Meanwhile, as many Marvel fans know, Thursday was the eve of the new Netflix series "Daredevil," and after a photoshopped first look at Charlie Cox's iconic red Daredevil suit went out, Marvel put out a video of the real one. Not to be outdone, director Bryan Singer announced a new character for next year's sequel "X-Men: Apocalypse," by telling Empire magazine that Ben Hardy would be playing the role of the winged mutant Angel. He even had a photo to share. And Thursday's new super images weren't quite done, because the questions over how Jamie Bell's rocky character The Thing in the rebooted "Fantastic Four" movie (out August 7) might look were also finally answered. And he looks ... pretty much like The Thing we already knew (but reportedly, CGI this time). Within 24 hours, we got yet another indication that the superhero trend isn't going anywhere anytime soon (and we didn't even talk about the new photo of Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool"). | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Ursula Ward talks about the shock and pain of her son's murder .
Odin Lloyd's sister said her brother's death has felt like 'a bad dream' | (CNN)Ursula Ward kept repeating her son's name -- Odin. She steadied herself against the podium in the Fall River, Massachusetts, courtroom and occasionally paused. She was tired after more than two years of pain, punctuated Wednesday when her son's killer, Aaron Hernandez, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Odin Lloyd was her first born, her only son. "Odin was the backbone of the family. Odin was the man of the house. Odin was his sisters' keeper," Ward told Judge Susan Garsh, before Garsh sentenced the former pro-football player. Lloyd was 27-years-old and working for a landscaping firm when he was killed in June 2013. He played football for the Boston Bandits, the oldest semi-pro team in Boston and the winner of four championships in the New England Football League, according to the team's website. His mother, sister, uncle and cousin described him as a champion of family, a gifted athlete and a hard worker with a sense of humor. They said he rode his bike several miles to get to work. He went to all of his niece's recitals. "Odin was my first best gift I (will) ever receive," his mother said. "I thank God (for) every second and every day of my son's life that I spent with him. "The day I laid my son Odin to rest," she continued, pausing to maintain her composure, "I think my heart stopped beating for a moment. I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son, Odin." She can still hear him talking to her: "'Ma, did you cook? Ma, go to bed. Ma, you're so beautiful.'" Ed Lloyd followed Ward to address the judge. Odin Lloyd's uncle thanked everyone who worked on the case against Hernandez. His nephew, he said, "meant a lot to me." "To see how he grew, the respect he had, the toughest thing for me is that I won't get to see him have a child...," Ed Lloyd said. He loved watching his nephew and his son together. "A lot of people won't see from the outside the value and the riches (Odin Lloyd) had," he said. "I'm sorry for where I stand today but I know that all the time I had with him was special and he'll always be with me." Who was Odin Lloyd? Odin Lloyd's sister Olivia Thibou wept as she explained what it has felt like to lose her brother. "These last couple years have been the hardest of our lives," she said, recalling that she was asked to writer her brother's eulogy. "I got to write all the great memories I have of him." She laughed, recalling his insistence on wearing the same Adidas flip-flops until the soles wore away. He was "prideful," she said. He would take her car out and just when she was starting to angry, he'd pull in with the car shining and clean, inside and out. He taught her daughter how to ride a bike. His murder, she said, "feels like a bad dream." Ward told the court that she constantly thinks about her son. "I miss my baby boy Odin so much," she said. "But I know I'm going to see him again someday and that has given me the strength to go on." She has also apparently gained strength from the act of forgiveness. "I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder," she said. "I pray and hope that someday everyone out there will forgive them also." What's next for Aaron Hernandez? | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty in Odin Lloyd's death, but his troubles are not over .
He also faces murder charges in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, but trial was postponed .
In addition, Hernandez will face two civil lawsuits; one is in relation to Suffolk County case . | (CNN)Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez will need to keep his lawyers even after being convicted of murder and other charges in the death of Odin Lloyd. The 25-year-old potentially faces three more trials -- one criminal and two civil actions. Next up is another murder trial in which he is accused of killing two men and wounding another person near a Boston nightclub in July 2012. Prosecutors have said Hernandez fatally shot Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado when he fired into their 2003 BMW. Another passenger was wounded and two others were uninjured. Hernandez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. The trial was originally slated for May 28, but Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, said Wednesday the trial had been postponed and no new date had been set. "We expect to select a new court date in the coming days and then set the amended trial track. The Suffolk indictments allege two counts of first-degree murder for the July 16, 2012, shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston's South End; three counts of armed assault with intent to murder and one count of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon for shots fired at three surviving victims; and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm," he said. The families of de Abreu and Furtado filed civil suits against Hernandez, and a judge froze his $5 million in assets, pending the outcome of the double-murder trial. The freeze includes the disputed $3.3 million signing bonus payment Hernandez claims he is owed by the New England Patriots. Hernandez is also being sued by a man who claims Hernandez shot him while they were in a limousine in Miami in February 2013. Alexander Bradley claims the then-New England Patriot tight end wounded him after the two got into a fight at a Miami strip club. In a lawsuit filed four months later, Bradley said Hernandez fired at him during a limo ride after leaving the club and that Hernandez intentionally "possessed a gun which he was not legally licensed to have." Hernandez's lawyers have argued he couldn't defend himself properly while on trial in Massachusetts. There was no criminal charge in the case. And then there is the grievance over unpaid bonus money filed by the NFL players union on behalf of Hernandez, who signed a contract in 2012 that potentially was worth more than $40 million. If the grievance is heard by the league, Hernandez will be represented by the the National Football League Players' Association. Who was Odin Lloyd? CNN's Lawrence Crook contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Critically acclaimed series "Orphan Black" returns .
"Turn: Washington's Spies" starts a second season .
"Game of Thrones" is back for season five . | (CNN)SPOILER ALERT! It's not just women getting cloned. That was the big twist at the end of "Orphan Black's" second season. The kickoff to the new season leads the list of six things to watch in the week ahead. 1. "Orphan Black," 9 p.m. ET, Saturday, April 18, BBC America . The cloning cult sci-fi series remains one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV, thanks in large part to the performance of Tatiana Maslany, who has taken on at least six roles on the show so far, including a newly introduced transgender clone. Maslany told reporters this week that we can expect even more impressive scenes with multiple clones. "We like to push the boundaries of what we're able to do and the limits of those clone scenes," she said. "So, yes, you'll definitely see more complex clone work this season and that's just because we're getting more comfortable with the technology and we're excited by getting to sort of further complicate things." And the introduction of a group of male clones will certainly increase the suspense. "There definitely is a shift towards the Castor clones that we get to explore them a little bit more," she said. The fans of the show, dubbed the "Clone Club" have a lot to look forward to when the show premieres on Saturday the 18th, and Maslany is blown away by the response to the series so far. "We've always been really humbled and really inspired by our fans and by their dedication to the show and their knowledge of the show, and just how it changes their own lives. It's incredible." 2. "Turn: Washington's Spies," 9 p.m. ET, Monday, AMC . The series about spies in the early days of the Revolutionary War returns with a new subtitle, "Washington's Spies," and a new Monday night time slot. Series star Jamie Bell told CNN what we can expect in the second season. "This year we have a lot more battles; we have the journey of [George] Washington and we're getting under his skin a little bit as well. We also introduce new characters like Benedict Arnold, a very infamous character in American history." Bell hopes the series might bring more recognition to the Culper spy ring and everything it did. "I think there should be a monument to all of the Culper ring somewhere. I was amazed that there is nothing [in Washington] about these people who did something extraordinary." 3. "Game of Thrones," 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, HBO . The world of Westeros returns for a fifth season in one of the biggest season premieres of the year. Click here for more on what to expect. 4. "Justified," 10 p.m. ET, Tuesday, FX . Timothy Olyphant's tour de force performance as Raylan Givens comes to an end Tuesday night, as the modern-day Western airs its season finale. We'll have to see how his final showdown with Boyd Crowder goes. 5. "Veep," 10:30 ET, Sunday, HBO . Hugh Laurie joins the cast and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now the president of the United States on HBO's hit comedy. 6. "Nurse Jackie," 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, Showtime . The final season of Showtime's long-running melodrama begins. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Milano had pumped while on plane .
Travelers are asked to carry only what they need . | (HLNtv)Actress Alyssa Milano had some angry tweets for Heathrow Airport authorities Thursday morning after workers there allegedly confiscated breast milk she'd pumped for her daughter while she was on a plane. Milano, who was on a trip with her husband that she described in an earlier tweet as a "romantic getaway," was furious. According to the Heathrow Airport guidelines on its website regarding baby food and/or milk, the airport asks that travelers carry only what they need for the flight. A blogger mom apparently experienced a similar issue at the airport in 2011 when her pumped milk was also confiscated. Per the UK Department of Transport, travelers can carry breast milk through security and are allowed quantities larger than 100ml if necessary. Milano, who has long been an outspoken advocate of breastfeeding, said the cooler the milk was in was also confiscated. See the original story at HLNtv.com. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Prosecutor Ray Gricar has been missing for 10 years .
His laptop and hard drive were found too damaged to read .
Gricar has been declared legally dead . | (CNN)Ten years ago, a prosecutor in Centre County, Pennsylvania, took a day off work and vanished. Since then, the case of Ray Gricar has become one of the most intriguing and talked about missing persons stories in the country. Investigators have taken dives to the bottom of lakes, dug up a grave, chased more than 300 reported sightings from Arizona to North Carolina, dropped fliers over Slovenia, consulted a psychic, interviewed a member of the Hell's Angels and enlisted NASA technology. But no one has been able to find the veteran district attorney, who was 59 when he disappeared. When he went missing that Friday morning on April 15, 2005, he left behind a live-in girlfriend, a beautiful and successful daughter and a bank account that was supposed to fund a fast-approaching retirement. His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned near a bridge on the Susquehanna River about 55 miles away from his home. Months later his county-issued laptop and hard drive were found -- separately -- on the banks of the river, too damaged to read. As far as hard evidence goes, that's about all police have. The best lead they got was the sighting of a woman who has not been identified, and information that he had searched online for ways to destroy a hard drive. What's left is theory, speculation and a case that's been cold almost from the beginning. "When a district attorney goes missing, you know, it's pretty big. It's going to catch people's attention. A lot of people don't have a large footprint. This guy had influential friends, he was well known," said Todd Matthews, director of communications and case management for the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, or NamUs. From the start, investigators have considered three possibilities: Gricar committed suicide, fell victim to foul play or deliberately walked away. The prevailing theories have been suicide or walk-away, especially since 2009, when a search of his Google history on his home computer found that someone had been searching "how to fry a hard drive" and "water damage to a notebook computer." Gricar, a private and quiet man, was spotted with a woman who was not his girlfriend the day he went missing, and cigarette ash was found near his car, even though he was not a smoker. Friends and colleagues recalled him being distant in the weeks that led up to his disappearance, and recounted his fascination with another law enforcement official from Ohio who vanished in 1985. Matthews said that NamUs has compared Gricar's DNA to unidentified bodies nine times since the database became available in 2009, but so far, none has been a match. "Even if he chose to make himself go missing, it sounds like something was terribly wrong that caused a drastic change in his life. There's something wrong if he's Googled how to fry a hard drive. Did he Google it? Did someone else Google it? Was he threatened? Did he do something and is trying to cover it up? It's not a normal thing to Google that." Matt Rickard, the former investigator who had been in charge of the investigation for several years, thinks that hard drive is the key to cracking the case. He said he's still holding out hope that someday technology will allow investigators to recover the damaged data. "I think there is something out there. Whether it's evidence or a person, there's something that could lead us to something," he said. "In all honesty, somebody destroyed the hard drive and there was a reason. We have very few solid leads and the biggest one could be contained on that hard drive." In 2011, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys, it was revealed that it was Gricar who decided not to charge Sandusky when the first victim came forward in 1998. Gricar cited a lack of evidence. The intrigue already simmering in Gricar's case exploded. Sleuths desperately tried to find a link between the two cases, but investigators said there was no evidence that Gricar's disappearance had anything to do with Sandusky's crimes. But some have stuck to the homicide theory, suggesting that Gricar was an enemy of mob-like gangs in central Pennsylvania who were upset at his drug and corruption prosecutions. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, said he considered writing a book about Gricar, his ties to the Sandusky case, and whether it led to suicide. But, Wecht said, he abandoned the book idea when it became clear there was not enough evidence. "I don't think it's a great stretch," Wecht said. "He was one of those guys with a very strong sense of justice and professional discipline and in light of what evolved and came to be disclosed -- I speak as a forensic pathologist who's done so many suicides over the years and what can bring someone to that point. It's pure conjecture, not based on any factual knowledge." Plus, Wecht said, if it was a suicide, "I don't understand how they never recovered the body." Bob Buehner, a former district attorney in Montour County, Pennsylvania, who was Gricar's friend, has never accepted a suicide or walk-away theory. He believes his colleague was killed. Buehner has doubts that, 10 years later, state police can recover from what he considers a bungled start to the case. "It didn't seem like there was any overall game plan that made sense in terms of a systematic investigation," Buehner said. "One of the things I'd asked them to do from the first couple weeks is now impossible to do -- to do a hotel-motel canvas looking for the mystery woman seen with Ray and then match the names with photo IDs which police have access to." Buehner said those records are now gone and his faith in finding Gricar is dwindling. "I give it a 50-50 at best and only because I'm an optimist and I hope that's what will happen," he said. "As a pessimist, maybe 1 in 10 that we'll find him." Despite fresh eyes on the investigation when it was handed over to state authorities last year, the mystery woman has not been found. "Pennsylvania State Police continue to chase down new leads and take a fresh look at old leads and we continue to hold out hope that something will break out in this case," said Centre County's District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller. "Everybody, regardless of what position they held, deserves this kind of attention. In any missing persons case, he's not the only one, we feel discouraged when we can't answer the questions for the family, but it doesn't change our dedication to the case." The case has gotten significant attention on the national level, appearing on several true-crime television shows, including HLN's "Nancy Grace." So it was strange to many in Pennsylvania that for years a case with such a high profile would be handled by the tiny Bellefonte Police Department, where one investigator was assigned to juggle Gricar's case along with several more. In 2014, the state police took over, but that was nine years after Gricar went missing and two years after he had been declared legally dead. Sources close to the investigation told CNN the case, as state police received it, was disorganized and porous. Evidence had been compromised in storage. Reports were missing. Evidence had been collecting dust in file cabinets. There was never a forensic audit of his finances. Today, some of Gricar's friends believe the case is damaged beyond repair. They have lost faith that there will ever be any answers. When asked if she thought things might change when state police got the case, Barbara Gray, his ex-wife and the mother of his daughter Lara, said no. "The evidence is the same," she said. Lara declined to comment, and investigators said they've had trouble reaching her. "There is always a remote possibility that we might never have an answer," said Lt. James Emigh, who leads the investigation for the Pennsylvania State Police after inheriting it last year. "We still hold out hope, and the state police will however continue to diligently follow up every possible lead and attempt to bring closure to the family and friends of Ray." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Akhil Amar: Lincoln's two biggest legacies, keeping union together and abolishing slavery, had Midwestern roots .
Lincoln saw the federal government as pre-eminent and believed there was no logical border for dividing the U.S. | (CNN)As Americans mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death this week, let us remember that he not only belongs to the ages, but also belongs, in a special way, to Illinois. Lincoln's two greatest legacies -- indivisible union and irreversible emancipation -- grew organically from his Midwestern roots. He knew firsthand that no defensible border shielded the land of corn from the land of cotton. The entire region from the Appalachians to the Rockies drained through the Mississippi River, enabling farmers in this vast basin to float their goods down to market through New Orleans and from there to the world. He thus could never allow a potentially hostile power to control this geostrategic chokepoint in particular, or Dixie more generally. The U.S. landmass, he insisted, "is well adapted to be the home of one national family; and it is not well adapted for two, or more" because "there is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary upon which to divide." Lincoln supplemented his Midwestern geography lesson with a distinctly Midwestern claim about constitutional history: "The Union is older than any of the States; and in fact, it created them as States." Lincoln did not need to make this controversial claim to prove his case, and elsewhere he stressed the decisive legal point that the Constitution's text clearly prohibits unilateral secession. The Constitution is always and everywhere the supreme law of the land -- no matter what an individual state says. But Lincoln's additional assertion that the Union created the states, not vice versa, provoked strong disagreement in other parts of the country. Most Virginians, including Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, insisted that of course Virginia had come first! At the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Old Dominion was already a century and a half old. Generations of Lees had helped govern Virginia long before the United States was born. But if Lee was, first and always, a Virginian, Lincoln was an American. His father came from Virginia, his grandfather hailed from Pennsylvania, and before that, the family had probably lived in New England. Abe himself had been born in Kentucky and had moved as a boy to Indiana, and later, as a young man, to Illinois. These latter two Midwestern states had undeniably been formed by the Union itself. These places had begun as federal territory -- the common inheritance of all Americans -- and it was the federal government that had indeed brought these new states to life. When young Abe moved to Indiana, it was just becoming a state, thanks to federal governmental action. It was a wise set of federal policies -- proper land surveys and a commitment to public education -- that had drawn the Lincolns and countless other Kentuckians to leave the Bluegrass State for a brighter future in the Midwest. Retracing Lincoln's assassination 150 years later . That brighter future also involved freedom from slavery. The Old Northwest had always been free soil, as provided for by a Northwest Ordinance that predated the U.S. Constitution. The words of the 13th Amendment -- the only constitutional amendment that Lincoln would live to sign -- promised to end slavery everywhere in America and did so by borrowing verbatim from Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance. True, geography is not inexorable destiny. Many other Midwesterners in Lincoln's era embraced slavery and secession. Hugo Black, the Supreme Court justice who did the most to make Lincoln's constitutional vision a reality over the next century, was born and raised in Alabama. But geographic variation has always been a large part of America's constitutional saga. In the 1860 election that brought him to power, Lincoln swept almost all the Northern states, but did miserably in the slaveholding south. John Wilkes Booth, the dastard who ended Lincoln's life 150 years ago this week, was an embittered extremist from a slave state. So was Lincoln's nemesis on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger Taney. Taney's most infamous ruling, the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision in 1857, had emerged from a court dominated by the South; although slave states accounted for less a third of America's free population, this region held an absolute majority of the seats on the court. Remembering Lincoln's murder . In our era, given the fact that Republican appointees have held a majority of the court for the last 40 years, the court has been rather moderate. Much of this moderation has come courtesy of northern Republicans on the Court -- most notably, Minnesota's Harry Blackmun, Illinois' John Paul Stevens, and New Hampshire's David Souter. All nine of the current justices learned their law in liberal New England, at Harvard or Yale, and the Republican appointee most attentive to gay rights, Anthony Kennedy, grew up in northern California, a corner of the country renowned for its respect for alternative lifestyles. Which takes us back to Lincoln. When Anthony Kennedy was a lad in California's state capital, the governor, a friend of the Kennedy family, was a Lincoln Republican named Earl Warren -- a man who would later author the Court's iconic opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, vindicating the constitutional amendments enshrined by Lincoln and his allies. Today, both parties at their best claim Lincoln. Jeb Bush aims to appeal to the better angels of our nature and Rand Paul is a Kentuckian who professes interest in racial outreach. Hillary Clinton was born an Illinois Republican. And the leader of her adopted political party -- who also happens to be president -- is a lanky and brainy lawyer from Illinois who knows how to give a good speech, and who swept to power in 2008 by recreating Lincoln's geographic coalition, winning every state within a four-hour drive of Chicago. In the largest sense, then, all Americans, of both parties and all regions -- whether or not they have ever set foot in Illinois -- are living in the Land of Lincoln. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Marvel's long-awaited show "Daredevil" began streaming early Friday .
Binge-watchers are already giving the series high marks . | (CNN)Justice may be blind, but it's easy to see that Marvel's "Daredevil" is already a hit with fans. The pitch-black-dark new series streamed its entire first season on Netflix on Friday morning, and the early word is quite good. Charlie Cox is perfectly cast as blind attorney Matt Murdock, whose nights are consumed with cleaning up the New York neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen while dressed in a black ninjaesque outfit. As the season unfolds, he heads toward a confrontation with Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin. Two love interests enter Murdock's life in the form of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson). Oh, and there's that red suit. So what do critics think? Quite a lot, with 94% giving it positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. "Marvel's 'Daredevil,' Netflix's latest offering, is a well-scripted, beautifully acted superhero saga that is surprisingly impressive," said the Philadelphia Inquirer's Tirdad Derakhshani. "The series stays incredibly faithful to Daredevil's pulp roots and does something delightfully unexpected -- trust its fans enough to spare us a long, drawn-out origin story," said Sadie Gennis of TV Guide. Early risers on Twitter praised the show as well, especially Cox's performance, as well as a drawn-out, well-choreographed fight scene in episode 2. Does Netflix have a "House of Cards"-like hit on its hands? Time will tell. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
29 elephants currently live at the circus sanctuary, and 13 more will join by 2018 .
The expansion comes after Ringling Bros. said it would stop using elephants in circus .
$65,000 worth of care annually includes pedicures, stretching and tons -- literally -- of food . | Polk City, Florida (CNN)If you drove by it, you wouldn't even know it's there. The Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation sits on 200 acres of land in rural central Florida, halfway between Orlando and Sarasota, off a nondescript country road. An armed security guard greets you at the entrance. After a short drive down a gravel road, you get the sense this is a special place. "You can walk around and you don't hear anything," said Kenneth Feld, who opened the center in 1995. "These elephants, they have these large feet and they travel silently through the fields. I think it's very peaceful." Twenty-nine elephants currently live here, and 13 more will join the group by 2018, after Ringling Bros. decided this year to stop using elephants in its traveling circus. "This was a decision that our family had discussed for quite some time," said Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The change comes after years of repeated criticism and lawsuits by animal rights groups. The ultimate decision to phase out the elephants, Feld said, is the result of the different laws regulating the use of the animals in each of the 115 cities the circus visits every year. "You can't operate any business, much less with animals, if you don't have consistency from city to city," Feld said. "It's a definite expense to be in litigation and to be fighting legislation, and there is a saying and it's been around for a long time: 'You can't fight city hall.' And we found that to be the case in this situation." The circus business has been a part of the Feld family since 1967, when Irvin Feld purchased Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. When Irvin died in 1984, his son, Kenneth, took over. "This is a whole family affair," he said. "It's a family affair for our family but also for all the elephants." When the center opened 20 years ago, it housed fewer than 10 elephants. "It was a place for elephants to retire," Feld said. Today, the center houses elephants of all ages. "We have lots of different elephants, meaning males and females, youth elephants, older elephants, so it is a great place to study behavior," he said. The center is also focused on breeding the animals. Wendy Kiso, a research and conservation scientist, spends her days at an onsite lab, trying to figure out how to keep the species from going extinct. Part of her lab includes several tanks that "cryo-preserve" elephant sperm at negative-196 degrees. "We process the semen and we extend it in such a way that we can freeze it," Kiso said. "This is a genetic resource bank for Asian elephants." Twenty-six elephants have been born here, Feld said. Mike, the newest pachyderm to join the group, was born at the center's birthing barn nearly two years ago. "We have the largest and only sustainable herd of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere," Feld said. Caring for the elephants is no small task. Trudy Williams and her husband, Jim, spend their time taking care of the animals' daily needs. It takes the couple hours to bathe, walk and feed the elephants every day. "First thing in the morning, we water them, and give them some treats and feed them some hay," Williams said. Each elephant eats about 150 pounds of food a day. Twenty-one tons of hay usually lasts only 10 days at the center. Exercise is also part of the daily routine, including stretching. "We just do that a few times on each leg with them, just to give them a good stretch," Williams said."We do some footwork with them. All of our elephants, generally once a month, get a pedicure, just to make sure their feet are in good condition." All of this care isn't cheap. "Each elephant costs over $65,000 a year, per year, over all the years of their life," Feld said. "We're fortunate we're for profit. We do make a profit and we're a privately owned family business, and so we've made a decision we want to devote a lot of resources here." It's a price Feld said he's willing to pay to keep this species -- some varieties of which in Asia and Africa are endangered -- alive for generations to come. "I always say, it's sort of like Jurassic Park with a happy ending," Feld said. "We knew that if we didn't do something, maybe my grandchildren would never have the opportunity to see these incredible animals." CNN's Javier de Diego contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Citizens gather to honor victims on One Boston Day, two years after the marathon bombings .
"Today will always be a little emotional for me," one Bostonian tells CNN . | (CNN)Two years ago, the storied Boston Marathon ended in terror and altered the lives of runners, spectators and those who tried to come to their rescue. Just last week, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges related to the bombings at the race and the dramatic violence that dragged out for days afterward. The jury will begin deliberating his punishment next week. The death penalty is on the table. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police, were intent on terrorizing not just Bostonians, but all Americans, prosecutors said. But the Tsarnaevs were not on the minds of most people in Boston on Wednesday. The injured victims and those who lost their lives were spoken of with reverence in somber ceremonies. Relatives of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the attack's youngest victim, and the family of Krystle Campbell stood with Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin Walsh. Bagpipes played and banners whipped in the wind on Boylston Street, the Boston Globe reported. Boston University graduate student Lingzi Lu also was killed in one of the two horrific blasts that brought chaos to the competitors and spectators near the race's finish line on April 15, 2013. Who were the victims? Many bombing survivors were in the crowd for Wednesday's events, the newspaper said. They wore white, blue and yellow pins celebrating "One Boston Day," which was created to recognize acts of valor and to encourage kindness among Bostonians. Many there and those who couldn't observe the day in person tweeted their respect and memories using #BostonDay. The marathon historically happens on a Monday. This year, runners will take on the 26.2 mile challenge April 20. "I think today will always be a little emotional for me -- Marathon Monday is my favorite day of the year, and will continue to be, despite these tragedies," Boston resident Lindsey Berkowitz told CNN. "I have so much respect and support for all of the survivors, and hope the city continues to come together on this day to embrace the strength and resilience of Boston, and the love we all have for this great city." Melanie DiVasta was working just a mile from the finish line in 2013 when one of the bombs set by the Tsarnaevs exploded. Several of her friends were waiting at the finish line. They were unharmed. "It was just an overwhelming feeling of shock to start hearing about it and seeing images," DiVasta said. "You couldn't help but cry and just ask why." What's next for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev? CNN's Jareen Imam contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Students stampeded; some jumped from a fifth story at a dorm; one student died, school officials say .
The blasts were caused by faulty electrical cable, and Kenya Power is at the school .
The panic came less than two weeks after terrorists attacked Kenya's Garissa University . | Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)University of Nairobi students were terrified Sunday morning when they heard explosions -- caused by a faulty electrical cable -- and believed it was a terror attack, the school said. Students on the Kikuyu campus stampeded down the halls of the Kimberly dormitory, and some jumped from its fifth floor, the university said. Hundreds were injured and were taken to hospitals. One person died, according to the school. The confusion and panic came less than two weeks after Al-Shabaab slaughtered 147 people at a college in Garissa, Kenya. Kenyan teachers and students have said they fear being targeted by the Somalia-based terrorists. On Sunday, as many as 108 students from the University of Nairobi were admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital. Among them, at least 63 students have been discharged, and at least four are slated for surgery, the school said. Almost all of the 54 students being treated at PCEA Kikuyu Hospital have been released, the university said. Kenya Power authorities and its CEO are at the school and looking into the electrical issue. Normal power supply will resume after repairs, the university said. "As we mourn the unfortunate loss of the departed student, we are also praying for the quick recovery of those who were injured," said Vice Chancellor Peter M.F. Mbithi in a statement. He called on the students, staff and public to remain calm. CNN's Lillian Leposo reported from Nairobi and Ashley Fantz wrote this story in Atlanta. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Reserve Deputy Robert Bates surrenders to authorities, posts bail of $25,000 .
Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Eric Harris . | (CNN)The Tulsa County reserve deputy who fatally shot a man instead of using his Taser turned himself in to authorities Tuesday at the Tulsa County Jail. Video shows Reserve Deputy Robert Bates announcing he is going to deploy his Taser after an undercover weapons sting on April 2 but then shooting Eric Courtney Harris in the back with a handgun. Bates was charged with second-degree manslaughter Monday. He surrendered Tuesday morning, accompanied by his attorney, Clark Brewster, and immediately posted bail of $25,000. As he exited the jailhouse, Bates paused in front of television cameras for a moment but did not speak. His attorney reiterated that he believes the charge against his client is unwarranted. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says a sting operation caught Harris illegally selling a gun. Harris ran when officers came in for the arrest. Authorities say Bates thought he pulled out his Taser but "inadvertently" fired his gun. Harris' brother, Andre Harris, told CNN that he is pleased District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler pressed charges. In his opinion, however, no type of force should have been used in the arrest of his brother. Watching the video of the shooting, Andre Harris said he can see that three or more officers were already on top of his brother. That manpower should have been enough to arrest him, he said. "It was a situation where I didn't necessarily think that a Taser should even be used," Andre Harris said. Scott Wood, another Bates' attorney, has said the shooting was an "excusable homicide." Investigators' efforts to defend Bates and the other deputies involved in the arrest have sparked a mounting chorus of criticism online. Harris' relatives are demanding an independent investigation of what they call unjustified brutality. They're also questioning why the 73-year-old Bates -- the CEO of an insurance company who volunteers as a certified reserve deputy -- was on the scene in such a sensitive and high-risk sting operation. Daniel Smolen, an attorney representing the Harris family, said Bates paid big money to play a cop in his spare time. Bates, who was a police officer for a year in the 1960s, had been a reserve deputy since 2008, with 300 hours of training and 1,100 hours of community policing experience, according to the sheriff's office. He was also a frequent contributor to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, including $2,500 to the re-election of Sheriff Stanley Glanz. The sheriff's office has said that Bates had law enforcement certification, but Smolen said he has not seen any field training records. "We're holding up all right at this point," Andre Harris said. "We're putting our faith in God that justice will be served, and we can get some closure in this situation." How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? In a statement released Tuesday, Eric Harris' family members said they know there are many good deputies working in Tulsa County. "However, the treatment of Eric of April 2 clearly shows that there is a deep-seated problem within the TCSO," the statement said. The family said that the sheriff has not apologized and that the department has not shown remorse or indication it will change its policies. CNN's Jason Morris and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Somali sisters, Iman and Siham Hashi, make up Faarrow .
A fusion of hip-hop, world pop and Afrobeats, they are currently finishing debut album . | (CNN)Laying down tracks for their debut album in the recording studio in Los Angeles, Iman Hashi, 25 and her sister Siham, 27 could not be further from their hometown of Mogadishu. The sisters were born in the Somali capital but were forced to flee after war broke out in 1991. Along with their parents, the girls relocated to Canada as refugees where during their teens they discovered a passion for music. Heading south to LA by way of Atlanta, the singing sisters with a bold flair for fashion are now embarking on a musical journey, gearing up to unleash their Afro-pop sound to the world. CNN's African Voices caught up with the sister act -- known collectively as Faarrow (combining the translation of their names into English -- Iman means "Faith" and Siham means "Arrow") to talk about music, aspirations and Somalia. CNN: Hi guys, thanks for chatting with me today. What are some of your musical influences? Iman: We love Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie -- stuff my mom would listen to and play -- and the Spice Girls. We used to die for the Spice Girls. I love new artists now but I don't know if it's a nostalgia, but I remember ... my mom used to pump whatever -- Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. CNN: You are working on your debut album now -- how's that been? Siham: We've been working with Elijah Kelley -- he's actually an actor. He was in "Hairspray," "The Butler," and most recently he was in the George Lucas animation, "Strange Magic." That's what he's more known for but his first passion is music. He's an incredible producer, writer and singer. I just felt like he was always the missing piece. He brought everything together. CNN: So now that you've found your "missing piece," how would you describe your sound? Siham: Our music before was experimenting with Afrobeat sounds but now it's more of a fusion (of what) we are inspired by. It's pop with undertones of hip hop and rhythmic African percussion. It's a fusion of everything. CNN: And do you guys write the songs as well? Siham: The entire album was pretty much (written and produced) by me, my sister and Elijah. And when we signed we already had a lot of those songs already done. Warner Brothers Records is really great in that way that they already loved what we were doing and let us do our own thing. CNN: What are you listening to right now? Siham: Oh my God, there's so many! Iman: Sia with "Chandelier." Siham: I really love this new song -- I don't know if Iman is going to agree with me -- but his name's LunchMoney Lewis, it's called Bills; I love it. CNN: As well as your music, you both work with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) -- how did you start your humanitarian work? Iman: Ever since we were kids we wanted to help Somalia, we always talked about it. But we were like "what can we physically do?" We were doing some research and we called our mom and she said 'You know you still have family over there. There's a refugee camp in Kenya and your great uncle and his kids live in a refugee camp.' And we did some research about Dadaab refugee camp, it's a massive camp that has taken in Sudanese refugees, Somali refugees, Rwandan refugees -- pretty much anywhere there was a conflict. Everybody fled to Dadaab. In the beginning (it was) pure advocacy talking about it on Twitter and Facebook. CNN: But then you decided to "up your game" as it were... Iman: Yes, then we started a non-profit and we'd do small benefit concerts in Toronto and in San Diego -- wherever there was a big Somali community we would do outreach but all we had was our singing, working with UNHCR in a capacity as a spokesperson. We headlined World Refugee Day at the Kennedy Center, as well as the Nansen Awards twice in Geneva. We felt like this platform of singing -- the bigger it gets, the more we can do. Siham: We obviously love fashion so we wanted to do our own socially conscious brand so we've been making these bracelets and necklaces called "Wish Creatively." Wish stands for "Women Internationally Selling Hope." We wanted to do a socially conscious brand where we sell these bracelets where it goes back to projects in Kenya or Somalia with women providing them with a sustainable income. CNN: So what's next for you two? Siham: We're actually in the mixing process right now. We still have a few (tracks) to finish up but the majority of the album is pretty much done. We want to turn it in as soon as possible so they can put together a rollout plan and get ready for the first single to drop. Iman: I don't feel like we ever lost that feeling like we're creative spokespersons for our generation as well as for Somalia. I feel like now because we followed our dreams it's like 'they're not just refugees anymore.' We don't have to become doctors so we can one day give back to Somalia and help rebuild -- it's such a beautiful dream but not ours. In our culture, anything creative is not really respected or appreciated. But I feel like now but even with our new deal we're still trucking along. I feel like we inspire people. Read this: Nigerian soul singer Nneka is back! Read this: Angelique Kidjo takes no prisoners . More from African Voices . | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
ISIS attacked the Baiji oil refinery Saturday .
The refinery, Iraq's largest, has long been a lucrative target for militants . | Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)Hundreds of additional Iraqi troops are being sent to reinforce colleagues who are trying to fend off ISIS' attempt to overrun Iraq's largest oil refinery, a key paramilitary force said Tuesday. The reinforcements come four days after ISIS began attacking northern Iraq's Baiji oil refinery, a key strategic resource that has long been a target because the facility refines much of the fuel used by Iraqis domestically. The additional troops came from Camp Speicher, a fortified Iraqi base near the city of Tikrit, according to the media office of the Hasd Al-Shaabi militia. The reinforcements include two federal police regiments, an Iraqi military quick reaction force battalion and a regiment from Hasd Al-Shaabi, which is a predominantly Shia militia that worked with the Iraqi military as well as Sunni fighters to liberate Tikrit from ISIS about two weeks ago. ISIS launched an assault on the Baiji oil refinery late Saturday. By Sunday, ISIS said its fighters were inside the refinery and controlled several buildings, but Iraqi government security officials denied that claim and insisted that Iraqi forces remained in full control. The Hasd Al-Shaabi media office said Tuesday that Iraqi troops already at the refinery were holding their ground, preparing to push ISIS out of the facility entirely. The attack could have a significant effect if it damages oil fields or machinery. The refinery is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Tikrit. CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Baghdad. CNN's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Arwa Damon and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant said it has abandoned a robotic probe inside one of the damaged reactors .
A report stated that a fallen object has left the robot stranded .
The robot collected data on radiation levels and investigated the spread of debris . | Tokyo (CNN)The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has given up trying to recover a robotic probe after it stopped moving inside one of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) deployed the remote-controlled robot on Friday inside one of the damaged reactors that had suffered a meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. It was the first time the probe had been used. The robot, set out to collect data on radiation levels and investigate the spread of debris, stalled after moving about 10 meters, according to a statement released by TEPCO. A newly released report and footage from the robot shows that a fallen object had blocked its path and left it stranded. TEPCO decided to cut off the cable connected to the device Sunday as it had already covered two-thirds of the originally planned route. It managed to collect data on radiation levels in 14 of the 18 targeted locations. Four years after the devastating nuclear crisis, the radiation levels inside the three damaged reactors are still extremely high and remain unsafe for people to enter. Decommissioning work is estimated to cost $50 billion and will take years to complete. TEPCO called the robotic probe an "unprecedented" experiment. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki reported from Tokyo, Japan and Naomi Ng wrote from Hong Kong. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Saudi general says more than 1,200 airstrikes since campaign began March 26 .
Three Saudis were killed in attack on border position, source tells CNN . | (CNN)More than 500 Houthi rebels have been killed since the start of Saudi-led military operations against Yemeni Shia fighters, a Saudi Defense Ministry official said Saturday, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. A Saudi general said Saturday the nine-nation coalition has undertaken 1,200 airstrikes since they began on March 26. Gen. Ahmed Asiri added that the raids aim to keep the rebels from moving toward southern Yemen, according to the SPA. Clashes took place Friday near the Saudi-Yemeni border, in the Najran region. Saudi forces responded to mortar rounds fired by Houthis on a Saudi border site. Three Saudi military officers were killed and two others were wounded in the shelling, a defense official said, according to SPA. A Saudi source also confirmed to CNN's Nic Robertson that three Saudi soldiers were killed in the shelling. The Yemeni Health Ministry on Saturday said 385 civilians have been killed and 342 others have been wounded. The World Health Organization has put higher figure on both tolls -- 648 killed and 2,191 wounded -- but includes militant casualties in the totals. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Houthi rebels -- minority Shiites who have long complained of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- forced Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January. And even before the crisis escalated with the Saudi airstrikes, most of the 25 million people in Yemen required humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs, the United Nations said Friday. CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Tourists and locals queue for several hours to get their hands on Jenny's butter cookies .
People are even hired to stand in line to buy the cookies, which are later sold at an up-to-70% mark-up .
Food frenzies have also taken place in other parts of the world . | Hong Kong (CNN)There's a booming black market in Hong Kong, but it's not for fake Apple Watches, or the iPhone. Instead, people are going crazy for tins of butter cookies. Tourists and locals line up around the block for several hours just to get their hands on Jenny's cookies -- at $9 a tin. Its popularity has spurred bakeries to make and sell knockoffs, and the original store has signs warning against buying 'fake' Jenny's cookies. The tiny shop, located in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's main shopping districts, is swarming with people handing over wads of cash for the "little bear cookies" as they are known across Asia. People are even hired to stand in line to buy the goods and are later resold at a 70% mark-up yards away, something the bakery also tries to discourage. A few meters away from the long cookie line, old ladies hold up paper signs advertising the cookies for sale. But when they see cameras approaching, they scurry away, only to reappear on another street corner. The frenzy in Hong Kong over the buttery treats is by no means an isolated example. In other parts of the world, food mania has erupted, swiftly winning people's hearts and stomachs, only to fizzle out in a few months. From cronuts to ramen burgers, here are some foods that people around the world have spent hours of their lives waiting for. Were they worth it? | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Woman leaves explosives-laden handbag beside bus during boarding .
No group has claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram is suspected . | Kano, Nigeria (CNN)An explosion late Thursday outside a bus station in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe killed at least five people and injured more than a dozen others, witnesses said. The explosion outside the Bauchi Motor Park happened around 8:30 p.m. after a woman left her explosives-laden handbag near a bus filling up with passengers. The bus was heading to the central Nigerian city of Jos, 125 kilometers away. "There has been an explosion just outside the motor park and five people have been killed while more than 12 others have been seriously injured," said Adamu Saidu, an employee at the bus station. "Some of the injured have had their limbs blown off and one of them has had his eye gouged out," said Saidu, who was involved in the evacuation of the victims to a hospital. The woman pretended to be going to Jos and lingered around the bus, which was waiting to fill up with passengers, according to Falalu Tasiu, a grocer near the bus station. "The woman kept talking on the phone and dropped her bag beside the bus, pretending to be waiting for the bus to fill up," Tasiu said. "She moved towards shops overlooking the bus station as if she was going to buy something and disappeared. Moments later the bag exploded and set the bus on fire, killing five people and inujuring around 15 others," Tasiu said. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Boko Haram Islamists have repeatedly carried out suicide and bombing attacks on bus stations and markets in Gombe and other northern cities, making the group the main suspect. Boko Haram has in recent months been under sustained pressure from sweeping offensives from a four-nation regional alliance of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The regional offensives have considerably weakened Boko Haram's capabilities, which has prompted the Islamists to resort to attacks on soft targets such as bus stations, markets and schools. The explosion was the first attack since Nigeria held its presidential election at the weekend, which was won by opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who vowed to crush Boko Haram when he assumes office in late May. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Obama's point man in ISIS fight doesn't rule out U.S. military action beyond Iraq and Syria .
Brett McGurk: Iraqi leader making progress with Sunni tribes in planned Anbar offensive . | Washington (CNN)ISIS is a problem that is "off the charts historically" and has sent the United States into "uncharted territory" when it comes to putting down the terror group, the Obama administration's point man in the fight recently told CNN. The comments, which Brett McGurk made in an exclusive interview, were some of the administration's strongest to date in describing the challenge the United States and its allies face in battling ISIS. "This is a problem that is off the charts historically," he said, referring to the more than 20,000 foreign fighters who have gone into Syria. "Just put that into perspective: It's about twice the number that went into Afghanistan in the 1980s over a 10-year period to fight the Soviet Union, and those came really from only a handful of countries." He concluded, "We're in unchartered territory here." McGurk just returned from an urgent summit of coalition nations held in Jordan. Last week, Canada became the latest nation to conduct airstrikes against ISIS over Syria. The United States now lists 62 countries in the coalition. As the U.S.-led coalition has focused attention on Iraq and Syria, ISIS has expanded its reach to Libya, Egypt and Yemen, often with existing extremist groups pledging allegiance to the militants. McGurk did not rule out expanding U.S. military action beyond Iraq and Syria to combat the increasing regional threat. "We have a lot of tools to protect ourselves and our national security interests, some of which are military tools," he said. "Of course we apply those tools when the president determines and our chain of command makes the recommendation that that is the right thing to do." The United States has also been stepping up efforts to involve Sunni groups in the fight against ISIS. To date, that involvement has been extremely limited as Sunni tribes see Shiite militias, many with horrendous human rights records, take the lead. But McGurk said that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is making progress getting Sunni tribes to support a planned Iraqi offensive against ISIS in Anbar province in the coming weeks. He stressed the importance of working with al-Abadi, noting that the Iraqi leader was in Anbar province last week handing out more than 1,000 AK-47s to tribal fighters who are going to join the Iraqi security forces. "We are helping to enable and train (them) as they begin to go on the offensive over the coming weeks and months in Anbar," McGurk said. "They put out this very perverse, twisted vision, and it's very attractive to a lot of young men around the world," he acknowledged. "But in fact, what the foreign fighters are finding in Syria and Iraq is that they're more likely to get killed in Iraq and Syria, and in fact, instead of getting a slave bride as ISIS leaders promise them, they're more likely to get killed by a female Peshmerga fighter in the streets of Kobani." That bottom line, he assessed, could turn the tide: "The foreign fighters are learning the reality of what it's like when they go to join this twisted version of a caliphate, and I think we're going to see those networks begin to dry up." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
"Amy" features archival footage of the singer and original music tracks .
"Amy" seeks to "truly capture not just the great artist that she was," filmmakers say .
Winehouse, who died at 27, said fame would probably drive her "mad" | (CNN)The first trailer for a documentary on the life and music of late British singer Amy Winehouse was released Thursday. The teaser for "Amy: The Girl Behind the Name," set for UK release on July 3, features early footage of Winehouse talking about how her music career was born and where she believed she was headed. "Singing has always been important to me, but I never thought, 'I'll end up singing' or 'I'll be a singer,' " Winehouse said. "I felt like I had nothing new that was coming out at the time that really represented me or the way I felt, so, you know, I just started writing." Winehouse, known for her bluesy voice, bouffant hairdo and numerous tattoos, struggled publicly with drugs and alcohol during a career in which she recorded two albums and won six Grammys (one posthumous). She died from alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 on July 23, 2011. Her biggest hit, "Rehab," chronicled the efforts of those around her to get her to submit to substance abuse treatment. "Amy" seeks to "truly capture not just the great artist that she was, but also the funny and loving person that most people didn't get a chance to know," the filmmakers said on Facebook after announcing the film in 2013. Amy Winehouse documentary gets UK release date . The trailer conveys Winehouse's ambivalence about fame. "I'm not a girl trying to be a star or trying to be anything other than a musician," she says. "I don't think I'm gonna be at all famous," Winehouse tells an interviewer early in her career. "I don't think I could handle it. I would probably go mad. Do you know what I mean? I would go mad." A life cut short: Remembering the tragedy of Amy Winehouse . Unlike an earlier look at the singer's life, 2013's "Fallen Star," the documentary has been endorsed by Winehouse's family. It will feature "extensive unseen archive footage and previously unheard tracks," Deadline reported. The team behind the new film includes Asif Kapadia, director of the documentary "Senna," on the life of Brazilian Formula 1 racer Ayrton Senna. The film won two BAFTA awards. "The award-winning producers of Senna presented a vision that would look at Amy's story sensitively, honestly and without sensationalising her," the family statement said. "We want this to be a tribute to her musical legacy."' A U.S. release date for the film has yet to be announced. CNN's Michael Pearson contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty of all 30 counts, may face death penalty .
The sentencing phase starts April 21; a judge predicts it will last four weeks .
He warns jurors not to do anything that could be prejudicial to the case . | Boston (CNN)The Boston Marathon is traditionally an event in which people in and around the Massachusetts capital come together, celebrate and enjoy. But not in 2013, when three people died and over 200 were injured when a pair of bombs went off within 12 seconds of each other at the finish line. And not this year -- at least not if you're a member of the jury that convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the bombings. That's what federal Judge George A. O'Toole told jurors Tuesday, stressing the importance of avoiding anything that could be prejudicial in the trial's sentencing phase. That begins April 21, a day after this year's edition of the landmark race. "Do not attend the Boston Marathon or any events or gatherings related to the anniversary or the current running of the Boston Marathon," O'Toole said in court. The judge spoke for less than 10 minutes, and stressed the seriousness of his warnings. The first phase of Tsarnaev's trial began March 4, after which federal prosecutors called 92 witnesses, and the defense just four. Timeline of the bombings, manhunt and aftermath . Tsarnaev's lawyers never disputed that their client was at the scene of the bombings and part of the days-long mayhem that followed. Tsarnaev lawyer Judy Clarke acknowledged in opening arguments that: "It was him." But Clarke argued that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev only took part in the plot under the influence of his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died after the bombings, but before his brother was captured in a boat parked in a Watertown backyard, . That argument wasn't enough to sway the jury, though. Rather, they convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on all 30 counts he faced -- including using weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use, conspiracy and aiding and abetting. A look at all of the charges . The only question now, short of a successful appeal of that verdict, is what price he'll now pay. The maximum penalty for several of the charges is death. Talking to the jury on Tuesday, O'Toole predicted that the sentencing phase will last four weeks before cautioning that forecasting a specific timetable is less reliable than guessing the weather. The plan is for the court to be in session for four days a week, as long as the process takes. Until then, O'Toole told the jurors, "Please put the case out of your minds. Enjoy the warm weather." What's next for Tsarnaev? CNN's Ann O'Neill reported from Boston. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Alexandra Field, Aaron Cooper, Kevin Conlon, Jason Hanna and Steve Almasy contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Alexander Blair, 28, of Topeka accused of knowing about bomb plot but not contacting authorities .
Fort Riley's security was never breached and the device was "inert" and not a threat, authorities say .
John T. Booker Jr., 20, of Topeka had acquired bomb parts and made a propaganda video, the Justice Department says . | (CNN)A former U.S. Army enlistee who posted on Facebook about "the adrenaline rush" of dying in jihad was arrested Friday and charged with trying to detonate a car bomb at Fort Riley military base in Kansas, authorities said. A second man, who allegedly knew about the bomb plot but didn't call authorities, was charged with failing to report a felony. John T. Booker Jr. of Topeka, an American citizen also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was taken into custody near Manhattan, Kansas, in a van that contained what he thought was a bomb, the criminal complaint said. The "bomb" had actually been put together by two confidential informants with nonexplosive materials, the complaint said. Fort Riley's security was never breached and no people were in danger, the U.S. Justice Department said in a press release. Booker enlisted in the Army last year and was due to ship out to basic training April 7, 2014, said Army spokesman Wayne Hall. The criminal complaint said the FBI questioned him March 24, 2014 about comments posted on Facebook, such as, "Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush. I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scare to die but I am eager to meet my lord." Booker waived his Miranda rights and told the agents he enlisted to commit an insider attack against American soldiers like Maj. Nidal Hassan had done at Fort Hood, Texas, the complaint said. Hassan opened fire in a building in November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30. His enlistment was terminated March 24, 2014, at the request of Army Criminal Investigation Command, Hall said. Booker began communicating with a confidential informant later in 2014, the complaint said, and often talked about his plans to engage in violent jihad in support of ISIS. He and the informant watched ISIS videos together, the complaint said, and Booker talked about how he wanted to go to Iraq and turn his weapon on American soldiers when ordered to shoot the enemy. On March 9, Booker said he believed ISIS wanted him to commit a truck bombing in the United States and thought a good target would be nearby Fort Riley, a large Army base that's home to the 1st Infantry Division, known as "The Big Red One." Booker said "that detonating a suicide bomb is his No. 1 aspiration because he couldn't be captured, all evidence would be destroyed and he would be guaranteed to hit his target," the criminal complaint said. He made a video with a Fort Riley airfield in the background and said ISIS was coming to kill American soldiers, both abroad and in the United States, the complaint said. Booker acquired components for a bomb and rented a storage locker to store the components, the complaint said. The plan was for confidential informants to build a bomb and for Booker to drive to Fort Riley and detonate it, the complaint said. But the bomb was built with "inert" parts and would never explode, the complaint said. On Friday, the informants and Booker drove to what Booker thought was a little-used utility gate near Fort Riley, the complaint said. While Booker was making final connections on the "bomb," the FBI arrested him, the complaint said. He was charged with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq, a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Alexander E. Blair, 28, of Topeka was taken into custody Friday and charged with failing to report a felony. The FBI said agents interviewed Blair after Booker's arrest. Blair said he shared some of Booker's views, knew of his plans to detonate a vehicle bomb at Fort Riley and loaned him money to rent storage space, according to the FBI's criminal complaint. He said he thought Booker would carry out his plan but did not contact authorities, the complaint said. If convicted, Blair faces a maximum of three years in prison. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is trying to live on $29 worth of food for one week .
It's a part of the #FoodBankNYCChallenge, which is bringing awareness to food poverty .
Paltrow was nominated by her friend chef Mario Batali . | (CNN)Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress turned lifestyle guru, is known for promoting detoxes and health cleanses on her site, Goop.com. But she's now bringing awareness to the difficulties of life on food stamps. In a tweet Friday, Paltrow showcased an array of leafy greens, dried beans and rice, purchased for the amount a person living on food stamps is allotted each week, she explained. The amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits a person can get is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Thrifty Food Plan. The plan estimates how much it costs to buy food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. In this case, Paltrow will be spending just under $30 for groceries. Her participation is part of the #FoodBankNYCChallenge. Celebrity chef Mario Batali, a close friend of the star's, nominated Paltrow and musicians Sting and Deborah Harry for the challenge through a video. The challenge urges participants to use only $29 for all the food a person eats for seven days. "For one week, walk in someone else's shoes," Batali is quoted saying on the Food Bank for New York City's website. "By truly understanding what our friends and neighbors are going through, we will be better equipped to find solutions." The #FoodBankNYCChallenge is an attempt to live on a food stamp budget for one week, which translates to $1.38 per meal, according to the site. The effort is in response to recent cuts to food stamps. "Congress cut food stamps twice since 2013, and soup kitchens and food pantries saw an immediate increase in visitors," the site explains. Organizers hope the challenge will raise public awareness of the struggles for families to afford food while on food stamps. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Rowing team at Washington University attacked by flying carp .
Member of the team caught the attack on video . | (CNN)It was a typical practice day for the Washington University of rowing team, but then danger came from beneath. The scene was Creve Coeur Lake outside of St. Louis early Friday morning. The team's boat got near the dock, when suddenly a swarm of Asian carp emerged from the water and went on the attack, some even going into the boat. Team member Devin Patel described the moment of terror: "The fish was flopping on my legs. It was so slippery that I couldn't get a grip on it." Patel screamed at teammate Yoni David, "Yoni, get it off me!" Thankfully, no rowers were injured during the ordeal, but the strong smell of fish lingered in the moments afterward. Watch iReporter Benjamin Rosenbaum's video above. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Muhammadu Buhari tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he will fight corruption in Nigeria .
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and is grappling with violent Boko Haram extremists .
Nigeria is also Africa's biggest economy, but up to 70% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day . | Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)A day after winning Nigeria's presidency, Muhammadu Buhari told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he plans to aggressively fight corruption that has long plagued Nigeria and go after the root of the nation's unrest. Buhari said he'll "rapidly give attention" to curbing violence in the northeast part of Nigeria, where the terrorist group Boko Haram operates. By cooperating with neighboring nations Chad, Cameroon and Niger, he said his administration is confident it will be able to thwart criminals and others contributing to Nigeria's instability. For the first time in Nigeria's history, the opposition defeated the ruling party in democratic elections. Buhari defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by about 2 million votes, according to Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission. The win comes after a long history of military rule, coups and botched attempts at democracy in Africa's most populous nation. In an exclusive live interview from Abuja, Buhari told Amanpour he was not concerned about reconciling the nation after a divisive campaign. He said now that he has been elected he will turn his focus to Boko Haram and "plug holes" in the "corruption infrastructure" in the country. "A new day and a new Nigeria are upon us," Buhari said after his win Tuesday. "The victory is yours, and the glory is that of our nation." Earlier, Jonathan phoned Buhari to concede defeat. The outgoing president also offered a written statement to his nation. "I thank all Nigerians once again for the great opportunity I was given to lead this country, and assure you that I will continue to do my best at the helm of national affairs until the end of my tenure," Jonathan said. "I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word." Buhari, 72, will be sworn in on May 29. He will take the helm at a critical time, as Nigeria grapples with Boko Haram, serious economic woes and corruption. This isn't Buhari's first time leading Nigeria, but it's his first time in nearly 30 years. A military coup brought Buhari to power in late 1983, closing a brief period of popular rule by Shehu Shagari. But Buhari himself was ousted by another military coup in August 1985. Read more: Who is Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari? His presidential win is the result of his fourth attempt to lead the country since he was ousted 30 years ago. Buhari is a Sunni Muslim from Nigeria's poorer North, while Jonathan comes from a Christian and animist South that is rich with oil. Buhari praised voters for exercising their right peacefully. "Your vote affirms that you believe Nigeria's future can be better than what it is today," he said in his statement. "You voted for change, and now change has come." Buhari campaigned as a born-again democrat to allay fears about his strict military regime. He stressed that Nigeria's security needs to be the next government's focus. His campaign was also fiercely anti-corruption. He ran under the slogan of "new broom," and his supporters were often pictured holding brooms in the lead-up to the vote. Despite years of democracy, analysts say, corruption has hindered Nigeria from building a stable economy. One of Buhari's biggest challenges will be Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing Nigeria as it tries to institute a strict version of Sharia law in the country. In the past few years, the terror group has bombed churches and mosques, killed hundreds of people and kidnapped more than 200 teenage girls from a boarding school. Even the presidential vote had to be postponed because of the radical militants. The election was originally scheduled for February 14, but was delayed six weeks because the military needed more time to secure areas controlled by Boko Haram. Yet the violence persisted. On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists. Jonathan had been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram. Before the election, African affairs analyst Ayo Johnson said the vote would come down to who could make Nigeria feel safe. "Many Nigerians will not forget (Buhari) was a military leader during a dictatorship," Johnson said. "Or maybe they will feel that they need a military leader to address fundamental problems such as terrorism." Boko Haram isn't the only obstacle facing the new president. The economy is another major issue. Nigeria overtook South Africa last year as the region's largest economy. Nigeria is one of Africa's largest oil producers and is a major supplier of crude oil to the United States. It also hosts many international oil companies and workers. But many complain that the country's vast wealth from oil exports doesn't trickle down to the average citizen. As many as 70% of Nigerians live below the poverty line, surviving on less than a dollar a day. Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos; Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Stephanie Busari, Faith Karimi and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Families flee parts of western Iraq amid continuing onslaught from ISIS fighters .
Officials there say the Iraqi government is failing to protect them .
Thousands have been forced to grab what they can and head east toward the capital . | West of Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)The call from Faleh Essawi, the deputy chief of the provincial council, who we were supposed to be meeting up with, came just as we were about to hit the bridge -- the only safe route from Baghdad to neighboring Anbar province. "ISIS has taken the east of the city, it's not accessible," he says, sounding frantic, rapidly rattling off the neighborhoods and areas ISIS fighters had just stormed into. Moments later, we see the impact: An endless stream of humanity, shell shocked, and exhausted. Parents cradle babies in blankets, some struggle under the weight of their belongings, some carry small plastic bags, while others nothing but the children clutching at their hands. Cars are not permitted to cross this bridge across the Euphrates. The government feels that restricting vehicles will decrease the likelihood of explosives making their way into Iraq's capital. Those too young or too tired to walk pile into metal carts pushed by boys or young men, normally used to carry produce to markets. An elderly woman sits in one, a child in her arms, a worn down plastic doll in her hand. Many don't want to talk, at least not for long. What they just went through is too raw, too painful. One man we encounter describes how ISIS fighters commandeered his house. "We heard clashes in the early morning, and we couldn't see the security forces anywhere," he recalls. "We saw the ISIS fighters, they just came into the house, they didn't say a word. They just sent a sniper to the roof. I grabbed my children and ran." His wife bursts into tears, prompting him to apologize for not being able to talk anymore -- they just want to keep going. Another older woman, sitting in one of the carts surrounded by her grandchildren, starts sobbing the moment we approach her. "They took our homes and kicked us out," she cries. Over the weekend ISIS moved into towns just to the north of Ramadi, which lies 68 miles (110km) west of Baghdad, sending thousands fleeing on foot into the city. ISIS had already blocked off access from the south months ago, and the west was contested territory. The east, until now, was not just a relatively safe zone but the only viable entrance and exit. At a hospital in Amriyat al-Falluja, about a 15-minute drive away, a wounded local fighter winces in pain. He was shot by a sniper in Ramadi that morning as ISIS fighters advanced -- the bullet barely missed his heart. "We had been warning we could see their movements," he tells us. "But we just didn't have the force to hold them off. We didn't leave a single person we didn't call and ask for back up." But none came. Hours after our morning conversation we speak to Essawi again by phone. "Security is collapsing in the city," he screams. "This is what we warned Baghdad would happen. Where is Baghdad? Where is al-Abadi? "Just God knows if we will survive this," he says and hangs up. Amriyat al-Falluja regularly comes under attack from rockets and mortars from ISIS positions nearby. The hospital's façade is scarred by shrapnel. The wards are full of people injured during these attacks. Fifteen-year-old Mustafa Ahmed has bandages on his neck, leg, and other parts of his body. "A mortar fell on our street, one of my neighbors was wounded," he explains. "We went out to help him and the second one fell on us." His friend died, he says. In the next room Amal Ahmed speaks softly. "I was in the garden and a rocket hit and the shrapnel sliced me open," she says, as tears roll down her face. "Something fell out of me and I grabbed it and I put it back in and I lay down." She starts to cry harder. Her husband was killed by U.S. forces in Fallujah -- another city in Anbar -- in 2003. Her children have all moved away except her youngest, who broke his arm in the same attack. "When I see the situation I don't have hope, it's just getting worse." A few moments later, we hear two massive explosions from another of the hospital's buildings. They think it's an ISIS rocket or mortar attack so we take cover along with the Iraqi forces we are with in the hallway, away from the windows. More explosions go off in the distance. Then another actually shakes our building. "Anyone want tea?" one of the policemen with us asks, laughing as he pours. "This happens all the time, we're used to it." The police chief, Major Aref al-Janabi, radios to his men to respond. Al-Janabi, like so many others, is frustrated with the lack of support from Baghdad. Earlier, he had taken us to the front lines, a long berm that stretches along the northern and western parts of the town that is dotted with fighting positions. He says he regularly provides the joint command center with coordinates for ISIS positions, but so far there have been no significant air strikes or reinforcements. More explosions follow in the distance. We're quickly moved out and leave the town, heading back towards the bridge and the long, snaking lines of refugees. An ambulance passes us, trying to force its way through the crowds. The swell of people fleeing has grown considerably in the last hours -- not surprising given Essawi's dire assessment and warning. "Ramadi is under siege from all sides," he'd told us earlier, anger mixed with an air of resignation. "I consider the city to have fallen." He claimed that 150,000 have fled, scoffing at statements from Iraqi officials in Baghdad that reinforcements have been sent to Ramadi. He has yet to see them. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Amina Ali Qassim's family sought shelter in a mosque before fleeing Yemen .
Thousands like them are boarding boats to sail to Djibouti .
Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen in a bid to defeat Houthi rebels . | Obock, Djibouti (CNN)Amina Ali Qassim is sitting with her youngest grandchild on her lap, wiping away tears with her headscarf. Only a few months old, this is the baby girl whose ears she desperately tried to cover the night the aerial bombardment started. She lay awake, she says, in a village mosque on the Yemeni island of Birim, counting explosions as the baby cried. It could have been worse though. They could have still been in their house when the first missile landed. "Our neighbor shouted to my husband 'you have to leave, they're coming.' And we just ran. As soon as we left the house, the first missile fell right by it and then a second on it. It burned everything to the ground," Qassim tells us. Qassim and her family fled Birim at first light, piling in with three other families. Twenty-five of them squeezed into one boat setting sail through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to Djibouti. Bab al-Mandab is one of the busiest waterways in the world, a thoroughfare for oil tankers and cargo ships. It's now being crossed by desperate Yemenis in rickety fishing boats seeking refuge from the conflict threatening to engulf their country. Qassim's son Mohamed describes the families' journey across this part of the Red Sea as "a window into hell." "The women were violently ill," he tells us. "It was a catastrophe." It took them five hours to cross into the north of Djibouti, where the government is providing the refugees with temporary shelter in this unfinished orphanage here in Obock. And the U.N. says thousands more refugees are expected. Qassim and her family will soon have to move to the plastic tents that have been prepared for them on the dusty outskirts of the town, taking with them only the collection of plastic mats and pots neatly stacked in the corner. It's all that remains of everything they once owned. Her two daughters are trapped back in Yemen, in Taiz. She hasn't been able to reach them and the worry she says is almost unbearable. I ask her how many days it was after the Saudi aerial bombardment began that they left. She looks at me and laughs, "How many days would you have stayed?" Then she goes quiet, looking down at the granddaughter in her lap. Finally she tells me, "I thought she would never be able to stop screaming. That the fear would stay with her forever." "May God please have mercy on Yemen." | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signs a medical marijuana bill .
The bill is inspired by Haleigh Cox, a 5-year-old whose seizures threatened her life . | (CNN)The Coxes can rest more comfortably living in Georgia now that their 5-year-old daughter can get the marijuana extract she needs. "This means the world to us," said Haleigh Cox's mother, Janea Cox. Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill Thursday that will legalize low-THC cannabis oil for certain "medication-resistant epilepsies," while creating an infrastructure, registration process and research program for the drug. (THC is the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana.) The bill is dubbed Haleigh's Hope Act. Haleigh, who has been the face of the bill, was having hundreds of seizures a day and the five potent drugs meant to control them weren't making life better for the little girl. Janea Cox said in a March 2014 interview that she made the difficult decision to move her daughter to Colorado, where medical marijuana is legal, in hopes of saving her life. "She was maxed out," Cox said. "She'd quit breathing several times a day, and the doctors blamed it on the seizure medications." 10 diseases marijuana could affect . Cox had heard that a form of medical marijuana might help, but it wasn't available in Georgia. So a week after hearing a doctor's diagnosis that Haleigh might not live another three months, she and Haleigh packed up and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Haleigh began a regimen of cannabis oil: four times a day and once at night. "Every time she smiled I knew we did the right thing, because we hadn't seen her smile in three years," Cox said. "Now she's thriving, she's healthy, she's happy, and they're absolutely shocked at the difference. So I think we've turned some nonbelievers into believers of cannabis oil." Deal is apparently one of those believers, signing HB1 on Thursday and opening the door for the use of cannabis oil to treat certain medical conditions. The bill will benefit not only people who suffer from chronic seizure disorders, but it also will allow patients to receive in-state treatment. To obtain a license in Georgia, you will need to have a specific covered condition, such as acute seizures. "For the families enduring separation and patients suffering pain, the wait is finally over," Deal said Thursday. "... Now, Georgia children and their families may return home while continuing to receive much-needed care." For Cox, it's a blessing "to be able to come back home, and with Haleigh's medicine, it's done wonders for her -- going from 200-plus seizures a day and on her deathbed to a smiling, happy girl who says words now and looks us in the eye and lets us know she's in there." She added, "Colorado has been good to us, but Georgia's home. Georgia's definitely home." With medical marijuana legal in nearly half the states, doctors are increasingly studying what effect the drug has on various ailments. While Georgia's law is specific to a handful of conditions, medical marijuana laws in states such as California permit marijuana use for an array of ailments. But as states rewrite their regulations, federal law remains the same: Marijuana is illegal to grow, sell or use for any purpose. Under the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed on Schedule 1, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." To backers of reform, it presents a Catch-22: Marijuana is restricted, in large part, because there is scant research to support medical uses, yet research is difficult to conduct because of tight restrictions. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Carolina Sandretto focuses on the crumbling buildings many Cubans live in together .
The maze-like "solares" often include separate families under one roof . | (CNN)The Cuba that photographer Carolina Sandretto captures is a world away from the images of neon 1950s American cars and postcard-worthy white sand beaches that most visitors to the island bring back home. Instead Sandretto focuses on "solares," the crumbling buildings that many Cubans divide and cohabitate, often with several generations and separate families sharing one dwelling. "This situation of bringing into your house your husband or your wife and living with your own parents in your late 30s and 40s, I always thought is really interesting and different than the U.S. but similar to my country since that's the way it was 50 years ago," said Sandretto, who is from Italy. Following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, houses and apartments were redistributed throughout Cuba and the government promised that everyone would have a home in the new socialist utopia. But building did not keep pace with the population, and Cubans were forced to adapt by dividing and re-dividing up homes to make room. "It ends up to be a very interesting habitat," Sandretto said. "Because there (are) so many different layers of people. It creates a whole community, even if neighbors really don't like each other." Sandretto said she first visited Cuba three years ago and was instantly hooked. "I stayed and went back and back because it's a very unique place and people are really beautiful and amazing and with interesting stories," she said. Gaining entrance to the maze-like solares was a constant negotiation, Sandretto said, and plenty of times she was turned away. "I always try to explain what I do, why I am there, why I am interested in where they live, the aim of my project," she said. Toting a 30-year-old Hasselblad 500cm camera, Sandretto found it was a good way to strike up a conversation with her subjects. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. "They get curious when see someone going around with a bulky old camera," she said. "I talk a lot. I am Italian. I speak Spanish, which helps but not a lot because you have to speak 'Cuban,' which is another language." Her persistence allowed her to capture intimate moments of Cubans resting in the sweltering heat, crowding around a communal TV or just going about life despite their disintegrating surroundings. There are no modern appliances or conveniences in her photographs. The people in these solares aren't the fortunate Cubans who have relatives visiting from Miami with flat-screens and smartphones in tow. Instead, there is the sense of time being whittled away -- one game of dominoes or one TV soap opera a time. Sandretto said she hopes to continue to document the changes on the island that occur as the United States and Cuba work to restore diplomatic relations and an inevitable influx of American visitors arrive. The thawing in relations could even change life in Cuba's solares. "People want to travel, have access to the Internet and improve their economic situation," she said. "I hope that's what happens." Carolina Sandretto is an Italian photographer based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Framework agreement with Iran over its nuclear program was reached this month .
Julian Zelizer: White House should seek congressional approval for final deal .
There's a history of Congress causing trouble for major international treaties, he says . | (CNN)The White House insists it doesn't need congressional approval for the Iran nuclear deal announced this month. But while historical precedent suggests the President might indeed have the authority to move forward without Congress, the Obama administration should probably learn another lesson from history: Getting Congress' signature might be worth the effort. True, the fight for congressional approval would be politically bruising and consume a huge amount of energy. But it would still be a mistake to move forward with the deal as an executive-based agreement rather than obtaining the consent of the legislative branch -- a diplomatic breakthrough of this magnitude would be far more enduring with the imprimatur of Congress. The President and his advisers have avoided using the term "treaty," instead explaining that it would be a "nonbinding agreement." According to Secretary of State John Kerry: "We've been very clear from the beginning. We're not negotiating a 'legally binding plan.' We're negotiating a plan that will have in it a capacity for enforcement." On "Meet the Press," Kerry said, "What we're looking for is not to have Congress interfere with our ability, inappropriately, by stepping on the prerogatives of the executive department of the President." There is a big legal argument that will play out over these definitional issues, with the potential for court challenges. But outside of the legal debate, there are also significant political questions, and those are a different beast altogether. For a start, there is growing pressure on Capitol Hill -- from members of both parties -- to pass legislation that would give Congress the right to review the deal and make a decision about lifting sanctions. On Tuesday, a deal was reached on legislation proposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker that would require President Barack Obama to submit the final deal to Congress, giving it 52 days to review and approve the agreement. Corker told MSNBC on Tuesday that negotiators had reached a "bipartisan agreement that keeps the congressional review process absolutely intact, full of integrity." What's in the Iran bill and why all the fuss? There is good reason for Obama to avoid calling this a treaty. After all, given the contentious political environment on Capitol Hill, where legislators struggle to pass even a routine budget, the notion that they would move on a treaty of this importance seems dubious at best. But there is also a history of Congress causing significant trouble for important international treaties. In the late 1970s, for example, President Jimmy Carter tried to obtain consent for the SALT II treaties, but conservatives argued the agreement was evidence that Carter was weak on defense. Carter pushed for the treaties as essential to international peace but to no avail. After Iranians took American hostages and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the treaties died in the Senate. Yet there are other examples where even in a contentious congressional environment, presidents successfully pushed for the ratification of treaties that they knew would cost them important political capital, and even once the White House exited the struggle bruised and battered, the historic treaties endured. Top GOP, Dem senators say Iran compromise reached . This was the case with another treaty that Carter asked the Senate to ratify: the Panama Canal Treaties of 1978. Carter decided that turning authority of the canal over to Panama was essential to regional peace and stability. He knew this would be tough sell, and Tennessee Republican Howard Baker for his part predicted he wouldn't even get 20 votes as conservative groups coordinated their campaign through the Committee to Save the Panama Canal and the Emergency Coalition to Save the Panama Canal. Indeed, they dispatched speakers to warn that the deal would give the Soviets a foothold in the region. However, Carter countered aggressively, both on a personal level -- helping secure the vote of Sen. Richard Stone of Florida by sending a personal letter to the senator, dispatching experts to Florida to answer the questions of constituents and addressing audiences through state-of-the-art telephone hookups. In the end, the Senate ratified the treaties by one vote more than the required two-thirds majority, although Carter also paid a political price after energizing the right during the fight. President Ronald Reagan faced a similar challenge. Toward the end of his presidency, he reached a historic breakthrough on intercontinental ballistic missiles with the Soviet Union. Yet despite excitement in the White House and across the nation about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington in December 1987, many conservatives blasted the decision, arguing that Reagan had betrayed the conservative cause. During a meeting at the White House, eight Republican senators who opposed the treaty shared their feelings with Reagan. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming, one of Reagan's closest allies, said: "The Soviets have broken most every treaty they have ever signed. ... How do we assure compliance with the new treaty?" Right-wing organizations, meanwhile, compared Reagan with Neville Chamberlain. Reagan responded with an aggressive effort to halt their rebellion. In a hearing on the treaty, Secretary of State George Shultz attacked North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms, who had accused Reagan of "confusion, misstatements and ... even misrepresentation." He met with Republicans, spoke with reporters and lobbied the public to endorse the deal. Despite their protests, most Republicans eventually came around. On May 27, 1988, the Senate ratified the treaty 93-5. Helms, one of the few to vote against the treaty, admitted they were "licked." And the treaty, which marked the beginning of the end for the Cold War, has endured. The reality is that the signature of Congress is still worth a lot in American politics -- the ratification process brings legitimacy to a major and controversial agreement and makes it much more difficult for opponents to attack in the future as some power grab by a president. Congressional support also makes the strength of the treaty greater in the eyes of leaders overseas. All this will be true with Iran, especially as many members of Obama's own party are leery about the agreement. Ultimately, the President probably has the right to go his own way with this, and his frustration with Congress might create strong incentives for doing so. But in the long term, persuading and pressuring a sufficient number of legislators to sign on to this deal would greatly improve the chances of avoiding a regional war -- and would help prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. The good news is that there have been some statements from the White House that offer hope it recognizes the centrality of Congress in a solid deal. Now it's time to see if the administration follows through. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Country band Lady Antebellum's bus caught fire Thursday on a Texas freeway .
A CNN iReporter captured the dramatic scene on video .
Singer Hillary Scott shared a pic of the charred bus on Instagram . | (CNN)Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott's tour bus caught fire on a Texas freeway Thursday morning, but everyone on board was safely evacuated. Michael Barnett captured dramatic video of the fire, on Interstate 30 just northeast of Dallas, and uploaded it to CNN iReport. Smoke and flames poured from the rear of the bus as traffic slowed to a crawl and Barnett slowly approached in his vehicle. As he drew closer to the bus, Barnett decided to stop filming because he didn't know what to expect. "It was shocking," he said. "I didn't know what I was about to see. I didn't know if anyone was hurt." Barnett said he didn't realize at the time that the bus belonged to the country band. Hillary Scott, co-lead singer for the band, posted a photo of the charred bus on Instagram and noted that she, her husband, the tour manager and the driver were all evacuated safely. "Thanking God for our safety and the safety of all of those who helped put this fire out and keep us safe," she wrote. The tour manager told CNN affiliate KTVT that the bus stopped after a rear tire blew out. It burst into flames after everyone had gotten off. Scott also posted an Instagram photo and message saying that the fire destroyed everything in the bus's back lounge except her Bible. The band's two other members, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, were not traveling on the bus, KTVT reported. Lady Antebellum is set to perform at the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday in Arlington, Texas. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Bill passes 92 to 8; passage came just hours before cuts to physicians would have taken place .
GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio vote against the bill, candidate Rand Paul votes for it . | Washington (CNN)In a broad bipartisan vote, the Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to a Medicare reform bill that includes a permanent solution to the "doc fix," a method the government has used to ensure payments to Medicare providers will keep up with inflation. The bill, which passed 92 to 8, also includes a two-year extension of a popular children's health insurance program. The issue of payments to Medicare providers has been a thorny issue for years. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah called passage of the bill a "major, major accomplishment." "Tonight, the Senate is voting to retire the outdated, inefficiency-rewarding, common sense-defying Medicare reimbursement system," said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee just before the final vote. The House approved the same bill overwhelmingly more than two weeks ago and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it. Senate passage came just hours before cuts to physicians would have taken place since the last temporary "doc fix" had already expired. Some conservative senators, including Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz of Texas, balked at the more than $200 billion price of the bill and pushed an amendment to have the costs offset. The bill, "institutionalizes and expands Obamacare policies that harm patients and their doctors while adding roughly half a trillion dollars to our long-term debt within two decades," Cruz said in a statement. "Any deal should be fully paid for and include significant and structural reforms to Medicare." But that amendment was defeated, as were several others from each party that came up for votes. Earlier, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio warned the Senate not to change the bill. "Unless the Senate passes the House-passed 'doc fix,' significant cuts to physicians' payments will begin tomorrow," Boehner said. "We urge the Senate to approve the House-passed bill without delay." Cruz voted against the bill, as did Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another Republican running for president. GOP presidential contender Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted for the bill. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
An Australian woman finds a ring while snorkeling in Bali .
Words engraved on the antique ring give clues to its owner's identity . | (CNN)Caught up in a rip current while snorkeling at Finn's Beach in Bali, Roxy Walsh was holding on to some rocks when she spotted something special. Engraved with the words, "Darling Joe, Happy 70th Birthday 2009. Love Jenny," the antique ring lodged in the rocks clearly meant something to both Joe and Jenny. But there were no other clues (besides the fact that the words were written in English) as to where the couple might live. When she returned home to Palm Beach, Australia, Walsh was determined to reunite the ring with its owner. She went to the 5,000 members of her company's Facebook page, Kids in Adelaide, to reunite Joe and Jenny with the ring. She also created a "Find Joe and Jenny" page to track them down. "Hi all. It's Roxy here. This is a reaaaallyy long shot but would love some SHARE love on this post to help find Joe. Found this gold ring snorkeling at Finns Beach in Bali today. It's got a family crest on it, and engraved with the message 'Darling Joe, Happy 70th Birthday 2009. Love Jenny' How amazing would it be to find him! Please click share." The post got shared all over the world. Nine months earlier, Joe Langley had been snorkeling in the same spot in Bali when he lost the ring, which his wife, Jenny, had purchased an antique store and had engraved for his birthday. "I went for a swim, got caught in a rip, decided the rip was going to take me and finished up on the rocks," Langley told Sunshine Coast Daily. "In clawing my way over the rocks, the ring pulled off my finger." The Langleys' 19-year-old granddaughter saw the Facebook post April 9 and made the connection. It turns out that the Langleys are fellow Australians, living in the town of Noosa, just three hours from where Walsh lives in Palm Beach. Walsh had the ring professionally cleaned before she met the happy Langleys in Noosa to return it. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Six people, including one civilian, are killed when a car bomb explodes near a police station .
Six others are killed when their armored vehicle is attacked on a highway in northern Sinai .
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an ISIS affiliate, claims responsibility . | Cairo (CNN)At least 12 people were killed Sunday, and more injured, in separate attacks on a police station, a checkpoint and along a highway in Egypt's northern Sinai, authorities said. Six people, including one civilian, were killed when a car bomb exploded near the police station in Al-Arish, capital of North Sinai, Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghafar told Ahram Online. He said 40 people were injured. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an ISIS affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack, which came hours after another operation that the group also claimed. In that earlier attack, a first lieutenant, a sergeant and four conscripts were killed when their armored vehicle was attacked on the highway from Al-Arish to Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai, the military said. Two other soldiers were injured and taken to a military hospital. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed many attacks against the army and police in Sinai. A third attack Sunday on a checkpoint in Rafah left three security personnel injured, after unknown assailants opened fire at them, according to state media. The attacks come as the military announced a reshuffle of several senior military positions, state media reported. Among those being replaced are the generals in charge of military intelligence and Egypt's second field army, which is spearheading the battle against the insurgents in the northern Sinai. Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency, which has spiked since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsy in the summer of 2013. Hundreds of police and soldiers, as well as civilians, have been killed in militant attacks in the past months. Ian Lee reported from Cairo. Anas Hamdan reported from Atlanta. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
P!nk took to Twitter to address online comments about her body .
Her "squishiness" is a result of happiness, she says . | (HLN)HLN's #MeForReal is an uplifting, revealing conversation about the way we present ourselves online. We want to see the REAL parts of life, the ones that don't get a filter or a Facebook post but are a part of our realities nonetheless. Tag your favorite unscripted, unedited, un-perfected moments using #MeForReal and see what others are sharing on Facebook, Twitter and the Daily Share. The Internet is always quick to dish out judgmental opinions, such as the body-hate people showed to singer P!nk after she posted a photo of herself in a black dress she wore to a cancer benefit this past weekend (which, if you ask us, was pretty fantastic, and she looked fabulous in it.) As a woman with a lot of experience singing to her detractors, though, she knew exactly what to say and how to say it. And when it came to keeping her tongue firmly in cheek while she schooled people who had nothing better to do than be totally rude, she owned it. Clearly, it's not troubling P!nk or her hubs, Carey Hart (who, by the way, is quite handsome himself, so clearly he has rad taste). Not only did P!nk's response rally her fans, but they also started sharing their own photos of themselves post-pregnancy and embracing what P!nk tells her daughter is her "squishiness." Postscript for the haters: We think you just racked up MORE fans for P!nk. Now go look in a mirror, and tell us -- are YOU perfect? | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Cynthia Lennon was John Lennon's first wife .
She was there during the rise of the Beatles .
Her death was announced by her son, Julian . | (CNN)Cynthia Lennon, who married John Lennon when he was a struggling musician and was there when he rose to fame with the Beatles, died Wednesday, according to a post on the website of her son, Julian. She was 75. "Cynthia Lennon passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain, following a short but brave battle with cancer. Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout," his website says. "The family are thankful for your prayers. Please respect their privacy at this difficult time." John and Cynthia Lennon were married for six years, from 1962 to 1968. The pair met at art school, where Cynthia studied to be an illustrator and John practiced painting -- in between concerts with a band that would become the Beatles. "When we were at art college, I think he was more interested in the music than he was in the art," she told ClassicBands.com. Cynthia Lennon, born Cynthia Powell in 1939, was a stabilizing force for the young John, who lost his mother when he was a teenager and was raised by his Aunt Mimi. "John was always insecure," she said in a 2005 interview, having lost his mother at a young age. But his humor -- and his wildness -- were attractive, she told ClassicBands.com. "He was a rebel. He was outrageous. That was something I hadn't experienced before the age that I was, which was about 16 or 17. I'd had quite a normal, straightforward life," she said. "I was just instantly attracted to him." The two married in 1962, just as the Beatles were making their rise. Their son, Julian, was born April 8, 1963. Lennon's sometimes-brittle personality and his overwhelming fame became a challenge for Cynthia. During her pregnancy, "I was not supposed to be known or heard about. In the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, anything to do with somebody becoming famous, male, was not supposed to be married or have (a) girlfriend." She was threatened by fans and occasionally in danger of being left behind in the band's whirlwind; when the group traveled to Bangor, Wales, to meet with the Maharishi in 1967, Cynthia was caught in a scrum and couldn't make the train in time. She was also there on the 1965 night George Harrison, Patti Boyd and Lennon were dosed with LSD -- an experience she disliked -- and traveled to India with the band in early 1968. The couple divorced in 1968, by which time John was seeing Yoko Ono. Cynthia Lennon married three more times after John and wrote two books about her marriage to the Beatle, "A Twist of Lennon" and "John." She had no contact with the surviving members of the band until meeting up at the 2006 Las Vegas premiere of "The Beatles Love." For all the difficulties and disappointments -- she described Julian, for whom she wrote "John," as "very scarred by life" -- she acknowledged that the whirlwind could also be enthralling. "The whole situation changed my life completely. God knows where I would've been ended up. I probably would've been a schoolteacher with about three or four children in a boring situation," she told ClassicBands.com. "I've had the most amazing life, a wonderful life." She is survived by her son. Her fourth husband, Noel Charles, died in 2013. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this story. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
President Barack Obama is attending the Summit of the Americas .
Frida Ghitis says he must work to improve ties with region . | (CNN)It's no surprise which image is making the headlines from this week's gathering of leaders from nearly three dozen nations in Panama: A historic handshake between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. But this first meeting of Obama and Castro since they announced plans to start normalizing diplomatic ties should not be the end of the summit story. Or at least Obama is hoping it won't be. After all, the President has had some unhappy experiences at hemispheric summits, where the headlines have often focused on some less than flattering moments. The reality is that the United States has been losing ground in this increasingly important region, and Obama needs to put on a strong performance in Panama at the Summit of the Americas if the U.S. is to have a chance of improving ties with neighbors who should be best friends, but who have drifted away as America has been focused on challenges at home and instability in the Middle East. Unfortunately, America has lost influence in Latin America to a hyperactive China, a cunning Russia and a troubling Iran, all of which have made inroads in the region at Washington's expense. This gathering therefore offers a chance for the U.S. to reverse the tide and build on the potential offered by a natural alliance strengthened by millions of people with Latin American and Caribbean blood who make their homes in the United States. The foundations for a strong hemispheric bloc are there. But they need attention, and the Panama meeting offers a good opportunity to start building. But first: Do no harm. Large diplomatic gatherings are minutely orchestrated events, and the U.S., with its vast experience in preparing for high-level multilateral meetings, knows the importance of dotting the I's and crossing the T's. But this hasn't stopped recent summits descending into diplomatic and PR disasters for the U.S. Just look at the last summit, held in Cartagena, Colombia, which stayed in the news much longer than anyone expected after Secret Service agents embarrassed the United States by hiring prostitutes and bringing them to their hotel rooms, in violation of basic security protocols. They were reportedly caught after one of the women accused an agent of refusing to pay an agreed fee. As a result of all this, the Americans looked dumb, incompetent -- and cheap. And back in 2009, the President -- new on the job -- was caught flat footed by a fast-talking, fiery anti-American president of Venezuela. The late Hugo Chavez outplayed the leader of the free world, who had just taken office and was trying to show America's new "outstretched hand" toward the foe of the George W. Bush era. The summit hit a depressing low for the Obama administration when Chavez walked up to Obama and, as the cameras clicked, handed the American President a copy of the book "Open Veins of Latin America," which blames the region's woes on the U.S. and Europe. Yet the problems in Cartagena weren't just symbolic. Regional leaders lined up against Washington, which had refused to include Cuba in the summit, and vowed they would not hold any more of the gatherings unless Havana was also invited. America was cornered. All this stands in contrast to the optimism of the early Clinton years, when the President issued an invitation to "democratically elected" heads of state of Latin America, which was then breaking the chains of military dictatorship. Back then, the U.S. had just led the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and actually seemed to stand for something attractive to the region, namely democracy, free trade and economic growth. That's what it should aim for every time: articulating a clear vision and rallying neighbors behind it. Can Obama manage something similar this time? True, the President has come armed with his new Cuba policy. Unfortunately, in an effort to placate critics who say Obama is not doing more for pro-democracy activists, the White House has miscalculated with Venezuela, handing the repressive regime of Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, a stick with which to beat the U.S. Obama has long and rightly ignored Maduro's claims that the U.S. planned to overthrow him. But a modest plan to impose sanctions has suddenly handed Maduro -- who has presided over an economic catastrophe in his country -- a way to portray himself a victim of the U.S., something he will no doubt play that up in Panama. All this risks again reviving memories of past tensions with Latin Americans who already have complicated feelings toward the U.S. over its Cold War support for unseemly right-wing dictators, a policy it claimed to pursue in the name of preventing Soviet-backed communism from taking hold. But those days are behind us. Today, the people want prosperity, they want democracy, and they want the rule of law -- all of which leave a potential opening for the United States. Too many national leaders are eroding democratic norms: Opposition leaders are in prison in Venezuela; a prosecutor who criticized the President was found dead in Argentina; press freedom is under siege in several countries; and corruption is reaching new highs. All of this suggests that if Obama plays his cards right, he will have the opportunity to explain to the people of Latin America that their goals are also America's goals; that like them, he supports democracy, human rights, the rule of law, full freedom of expression and free elections in every country. The fact that he met with Cuban dissidents was welcome, and sends a message that he is not neglecting other issues such as human rights as he recasts relations with Cuba. For the millions in Latin America that still live in poverty, these freedoms can seem like a distant luxury. But if Obama can show them that the United States is a true partner in efforts to improve their lives, then he will leave a longer-lasting legacy in the region than just a handshake. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Australia to cut welfare benefits for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children .
The "no jab, no pay" policy will come into effect in January 2016 .
The Australian government estimates more than 39,000 children who have not been vaccinated . | (CNN)Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children can lose up to $11,000 of welfare benefits a year under a new government policy, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced. Currently parents can choose to opt out of vaccinations for medical or religious reasons, or by stating they are "conscientious objectors," and still receive taxpayer funded child care benefits. Under the new "no jab, no pay" policy, the exemption as a conscientious objector will be removed starting January 2016. "The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of child care payments," said Abbott in a joint statement with Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison. Thousands of families could lose out on welfare payments, with the Australian government estimating more than 39,000 children under the age of seven have not been vaccinated because of their parents' objections. The number of children in Australia who have not received immunization against measles and other diseases has almost doubled in the past decade, according to the government. Anti-vaccination campaigns have recently gained traction in Western countries. Some parents believe the shots cause autism, but the theory has been widely discredited. Existing exemptions on medical or religious grounds will continue said Abbott, but guidelines on religious exemptions will be tightened. "It requires the formal position of that religious body being advised to the government and approved by the government. This is a very significant narrowing," Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Sunday. He added that no mainstream religious organizations have made any formal objection to immunizations. In response to the announcement, more than 7,000 people have signed a petition in opposition to the reforms. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
The items were originally given to a historian who opposed the camps, CNN affiliate reports .
Auctioneer hoped they would be bought by museum or someone who would donate them for historical appreciation .
Japanese-Americans were furious about items from family members, others being sold . | (CNN)A New Jersey auction house has removed items from its April 17 event after an uproar from the public. The items are crafts and artifacts made by Japanese-Americans confined to World War II internment camps. A grass-roots campaign of a change.org petition, a Facebook page, and mediation by "Star Trek" actor George Takei has resulted in Rago Arts and Auction Center agreeing to pull the items from the sale. "There is an essential discussion to be had about the sale of historical items that are a legacy of man's inhumanity to man. It extends beyond what is legal. It is something auction houses, galleries and dealers are faced with regularly," the auction house said. "We hope this controversy will be the beginning of a discourse on this issue." Takei, who with his family spent time in one of the camps, thanked people for working to stop the sale. According to a comment on the Facebook page "Japanese American History: NOT for Sale," he was working on the issue while on a trip to Australia. "It took a few calls today here in the wee hours, and I'll be issuing a formal statement later, but we can all celebrate a bit today at this news," he wrote. The auction house said 24 lots of an original collection of works of art and crafts were removed. During World War II, about 117,000 people of Japanese descent were forced to live in 10 internment camps. The government called them relocation centers. Many of the people who lived there and their descendants had another phrase for the facilities. They call them concentration camps. Two-thirds of the people who were ordered there were native born U.S. citizens, according to the National Archives. CNN affiliate KGO reported the items were given to historian Allen Eaton, who opposed internment camps. The items were inherited from the historian's estate. Miriam Tucker, a partner with the auction house, said it had hoped the items would go to someone who cared about their historical meaning. "For us, there could be no better resolution than for a suitable museum, foundation or members of the Japanese-American community with the means to preserve this collection to come forward and secure it for education, display and research," she said. KGO reported the people it talked to would like items returned to family members if possible and any other artifacts put in an exhibition. "This was a gift and let the gift come full circle," said Judy Hamaguchi with the San Francisco Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. She was referring to a letter the organization sent to the auction house. "It should be returned as a gift." The lots have been packed away for now, said auction house partner David Rago in an email. "Once the dust settles from this auction weekend (1,200 lots in three days) we will work with a small group of people from the Japanese-American community who have identified themselves through this process as generous, informed, voices of reason," he wrote. He said a suitable institution is the best possible home and the auction house will work with the current owner to find the right place. The seller -- known in the auction business as the consignor -- has never been in a position where the items could be donated, Rago said. "But the consignor, who has been a sensitive and dedicated custodian of this collection for over 35 years, has agreed this evening to work with Rago Auctions to secure appropriate placement of Eaton's life work," he added. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Hanan, 19, was captured by ISIS when militants took the town of Sinjar .
She was among the women and girls separated to be sold as sex slaves . | Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan (CNN)In the canvas expanse of the Shariya refugee camp, thousands of Yazidis live within hearing distance of one of Iraqi Kurdistan's frontlines with ISIS. The vast majority of the camp's occupants are from the town of Sinjar and fled the ISIS assault there back in August. But not everyone escaped. ISIS took thousands of Yazidis captive. Men faced a choice -- convert to Islam or be shot. But the Islamist militants separated the young women and girls to be sold as sex slaves. In its fourth edition of "Dabiq," the ISIS online magazine, an article titled "The revival of slavery before the hour," outlines the group's twisted justification and guidelines for the enslavement of the Yazidis. "One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar (infidels) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of Shariah," the article reads. We're told that women who have just given birth or are breastfeeding are considered impure and cannot be taken as sexual slaves -- but Hanan, 19, was neither of those things. "They separated all of us," she says. "They dragged us away by our hair. They took married women, young ones. The youngest with us was just 10. We were all crying. "They said we are going to marry you off, you will forget your family." ISIS: Enslaving, having sex with 'unbelieving' women, girls is OK . For the first week, Hanan was held with 50 others, regularly beaten and threatened with torture, and fed just a bowl of rice. The group was then taken to a three story building in Mosul she described as a sex slave warehouse, where hundreds of girls and women were held. "They would line about 50 of us up at a time, in rows of 10. They would say don't move, don't cry or we will beat you. The men would come in and describe the kind of girl they wanted and then they would pick and choose as they pleased," she recalls. She was eventually chosen, part of a group of 25. From that group Hanan was separated into a smaller group of seven and taken into a house in a village. 'Treated like cattle': Yazidi women sold, raped, enslaved by ISIS . Two ISIS fighters guarded the door and ordered the girls to clean and bathe themselves. "They brought in a Yazidi girl who had been with them for two months. She was wearing the black niqab. They said to us we are going to do to you what we did to her," Hanan says. "The girl spoke to us in Kurdish and said they beat me, they cuffed me and raped me." Hanan and the others decided they had to try to escape. That night they crawled out the bedroom window. "The fourth girl jumped out, I was the fifth. I crawled to the wall and was about to jump over it and then I saw their flashlight," she tells me. "They caught the last two girls." They ran, and somehow evaded capture. Four hours later they were out of ISIS territory. "If I just see someone with a beard I start shaking," Hanan says. Now physically free but mentally still captive, Hanan remains tormented -- like so many others, by what she has been through and what those still with ISIS are being forced to endure -- a fate worse than death. Fleeing ISIS -- A Yazidi family's tale . | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
V. Stiviano must pay back $2.6 million in gifts from Donald Sterling .
Sterling's wife claimed the ex-Clippers used the couple's money for the gifts .
The items included a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover . | (CNN)Donald Sterling's racist remarks cost him an NBA team last year. But now it's his former female companion who has lost big. A Los Angeles judge has ordered V. Stiviano to pay back more than $2.6 million in gifts after Sterling's wife sued her. In the lawsuit, Rochelle "Shelly" Sterling accused Stiviano of targeting extremely wealthy older men. She claimed Donald Sterling used the couple's money to buy Stiviano a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover, and that he helped her get a $1.8 million duplex. Who is V. Stiviano? Stiviano countered that there was nothing wrong with Donald Sterling giving her gifts and that she never took advantage of the former Los Angeles Clippers owner, who made much of his fortune in real estate. Shelly Sterling was thrilled with the court decision Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN affiliate KABC. "This is a victory for the Sterling family in recovering the $2,630,000 that Donald lavished on a conniving mistress," attorney Pierce O'Donnell said in a statement. "It also sets a precedent that the injured spouse can recover damages from the recipient of these ill-begotten gifts." Stiviano's gifts from Donald Sterling didn't just include uber-expensive items like luxury cars. According to the Los Angeles Times, the list also includes a $391 Easter bunny costume, a $299 two-speed blender and a $12 lace thong. Donald Sterling's downfall came after an audio recording surfaced of the octogenarian arguing with Stiviano. In the tape, Sterling chastises Stiviano for posting pictures on social media of her posing with African-Americans, including basketball legend Magic Johnson. "In your lousy f**ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with -- walking with black people," Sterling said in the audio first posted by TMZ. He also tells Stiviano not to bring Johnson to Clippers games and not to post photos with the Hall of Famer so Sterling's friends can see. "Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don't put (Magic) on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me," Sterling said. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the league, fined him $2.5 million and pushed through a charge to terminate all of his ownership rights in the franchise. Fact check: Donald Sterling's claims vs. reality . CNN's Dottie Evans contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Officers arrested Jason Rezaian and his wife in July on unspecified allegations .
It took months to charge him; charges were made public last week .
The Washington Post and the State Department find the charges "absurd" | (CNN)Jason Rezaian has sat in jail in Iran for nearly nine months. The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tehran was arrested in July on unspecified allegations. It took more than four months for a judge to hear charges against him. They remained publicly undisclosed until last week. The Iranian-American will be tried soon on espionage, Tehran's chief justice said. He is accused of economic spying, the Post reported, citing Iranian state media. The Washington Post did not mince words on the allegation. "Any charges of that sort would be absurd, the product of fertile and twisted imaginations," the paper said in a statement. The State Department also reacted with term "absurd" after hearing of reports in Iran's press about the charges. "If the reports are true, these charges are absurd, should be immediately dismissed and Jason should be immediately freed so that he can return to his family," the State Department official said. Since officers picked up Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, on July 22 at their home, the Post, the State Department and Rezaian's family have protested and called for his release. Salehi was released on bail in October. Rezaian was denied bail. And for months, he was denied access to proper legal representation, his family has said. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, also an American Muslim, appealed to Tehran last month to give Rezaian full access to legal representation and free him on bail. "To my knowledge, Jason is a man of peace and great faith, a man whose dedication and respect for the Iranian people is evident in his work," Ali said in a religiously worded statement. The journalist has also not been allowed to see visitors aside from his wife and has endured long interrogations, family members have said. In December, after a 10-hour hearing, Rezaian signed a paper to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him, the Post reported. Iran's human rights chief, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told news outlet France 24 last year that he hoped Rezaian's case would come to a positive conclusion. He said, "Let us hope that this fiasco will end on good terms." More on detained Americans . CNN's Sara Mazloumsaki and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Thabo Sefolosha says he "experienced a significant injury and ... the injury was caused by the police"
He and teammate Pero Antic were arrested near the scene of a stabbing early April 8 .
They were not involved in the stabbing police said, but they were arrested for obstruction, other charges . | (CNN)NBA player Thabo Sefolosha says police caused his season-ending leg injury when he was arrested last week after leaving a nightclub in New York. In a statement Tuesday, the guard/forward for the Atlanta Hawks described his injury as "significant," and said it "was caused by the police." Sefolosha suffered a fractured fibula and ligament damage when he and teammate Pero Antic were arrested near the scene of the stabbing of Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland and two other women early April 8. Police said Sefolosha and Antic were not involved in the stabbing incident, but they were charged with misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration. TMZ Sports released video last week that shows a group of police officers arresting the 6-foot-7 Sefolosha and taking him to the ground. It also shows an officer within that group getting out a baton and extending it near him, but what may have caused the injury is not clear in the video. Sefolosha appears to be limping as he is led away by officers. New York Police Department Sgt. Daniel Doody said Wednesday that the matter is being reviewed by the Internal Affairs Bureau and would not comment further. Internal Affairs had no comment. Sefolosha did not specify his injury in his statement Tuesday, but the Hawks said last week that he has a fractured fibula and ligament damage, will undergo surgery and will miss the rest of the season, including the playoffs, which begin this weekend. The Hawks enter as the top seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Sefolosha, who turns 31 in May, is in his ninth NBA season and his first with the Hawks. He averaged 5.3 points per game this season. "I am extremely disappointed that I will not be able to join my teammates on the court during the playoffs and apologize to them for any distraction this incident has caused," Sefolosha said in his statement. "I will be cheering for them every step of the way and will be diligent in my rehabilitation. "On advice of counsel, I hope you can appreciate that I cannot discuss the facts of the case. Those questions will be answered by my attorney in a court of law. I will simply say that I am in great pain, have experienced a significant injury and that the injury was caused by the police." Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said in a statement last week, "This is a very difficult situation for Thabo and our thoughts and support will be with him during his recovery. We know that his approach and dedication will serve him well in his rehabilitation. Our team remains focused and will be prepared as we head into the postseason." Antic, a 31-year-old, 6-foot-11 center/forward, missed the April 8 game against the Brooklyn Nets, but has played since then. In a joint statement last week, Sefolosha and Antic said they will contest the charges. According to the Pacers, Copeland underwent surgery on his abdomen and left elbow for stab wounds. He was released from the hospital two days after the incident, according to Bleacher Report. The Pacers, with one regular-season game left, are trying to secure the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. If they do, their first-round opponent would be Atlanta. CNN's Camille Cava contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Gaioz Nigalidze is banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament .
Officials say he frequented the bathroom, where his phone was hidden in toilet paper .
That phone had a chess analysis application open, officials say . | (CNN)Sometimes the best ideas come from the bathroom. But Gaioz Nigalidze's ideas from the loo were a little too good. The Georgian chess grandmaster has been banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament after officials discovered he was darting to the toilet to consult his smartphone, which was logged onto a chess analysis app, the Dubai Chess and Culture Club said. Nigalidze's opponent, Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, grew suspicious when Nigalidze kept bolting to the restroom. "The Armenian noticed the Georgian was oddly frequenting the toilet after each move during a crucial part of the game," the Dubai Chess and Culture Club said. When officials first checked Nigalidze, they didn't find any device on him, the club said. But after looking into the bathroom stall he visited, they found the smartphone hidden in toilet paper. At first, Nigalidze claimed the smartphone wasn't his, the Dubai chess organization said. But the phone was logged on to a social media network under his account. "They also found his game being analyzed in one of the chess applications," the chess club said. The infraction has been reported to the International Chess Federation. The Dubai tournament's chief arbiter, Mahdi Abdul Rahim, said players found guilty of cheating will be suspended for three years from all sanctioned tournaments and up to 15 years for a repeated offense, the chess and culture club said. But this wouldn't be an isolated case of cheating in high-stakes chess matches. In 2008, an Iranian player was banned from the Dubai Open after getting help from someone who was watching the game's live broadcast and was sending suggestions via text messages, the Dubai chess club said. Nigalidze's resume includes victories in the 2013 and 2014 Georgian Chess Championships. It's not clear how many times he went to the bathroom during those matches. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Al Qaeda confirms that two of its leaders were killed in January drone strikes .
Other leaders have been killed or captured recently .
The terrorist group's capacity to carry out attacks in the West has been greatly diminished . | (CNN)While the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq holds the world's gaze, a simultaneous transformation is getting less attention: the deterioration of al Qaeda. In an audio message released Sunday, al Qaeda confirmed that two of its leaders, known as Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Abdullah Mansur, were killed in CIA drone strikes in January in North Waziristan, near the Afghan-Pakistan border. Farooq's real name was Raja Mohammad Suleman, al Qaeda said. He was a Pakistani who acted as the group's liaison to the Pakistan Taliban and was the deputy commander of al Qaeda's South Asia branch. (Mansur's real name was Qari Ubaidullah, a Pakistani who oversaw suicide missions against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan). Al Qaeda's South Asia branch is relatively new, announced with some fanfare back in September by al Qaeda's top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The creation of the terror group's South Asia branch was seen by some terrorism analysts as an attempt to steal some of the limelight from ISIS, which is embroiled in a public dispute with al Qaeda for leadership of the global jihad movement. The deaths of the two men continue the decimation of al Qaeda's bench of leaders. On Monday, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, local al Qaeda commander Nurul Hassan was killed in a raid, said Arif Hanif, district inspector general of police. Florida-raised Adnan Shukrijumah, 39, who was in charge of al Qaeda's operations to attack the West, was killed in December in a Pakistani military operation. Texas-born Mohanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, who also played a planning role for al Qaeda's operations, was arrested in Pakistan last year. The deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman underline the fact that there are almost no top leaders of al Qaeda left except al-Zawahiri. Both Ubaidullah and Suleman were Pakistani. This is an indicator of how al Qaeda has become a largely Pakistan-focused group, increasingly able to do nothing of any significance outside of Pakistan or Afghanistan. Indeed, al Qaeda has virtually no capacity to carry out attacks in the West. The last successful al Qaeda attack in the West was the London transportation system bombings a decade ago. Al Qaeda is now reduced only to holding American hostages such as 73-year-old aid worker Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped from his home in the Pakistani city of Lahore on August 13, 2011. To be sure, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, continues to pose a threat to American aviation. The group has built hard-to-detect bombs, which it has placed on U.S.-bound flights. Luckily, those bombs were faulty or were detected. The group also trained one of the gunmen who attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January, killing 12, but it's not clear if AQAP had any direct role in planning this attack. Meanwhile, ISIS continues to attract Western recruits and also inspire "homegrown" terrorists in the West, but the core al Qaeda organization that killed almost 3,000 men, women and children on 9/11 is on life support. Al Qaeda's confirmation of the deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman is just one of the latest pieces of evidence for this assessment. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona says Robert Bates never trained with them .
"He met every requirement, and all he did was give of himself," his attorney says .
Tulsa World newspaper: Three supervisors who refused to sign forged records on Robert Bates were reassigned . | Tulsa, Oklahoma (CNN)Amid growing scrutiny over whether a 73-year-old volunteer deputy who killed a suspect during a sting operation was qualified to be policing the streets, a new report raises a troubling allegation. Some supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were told to forge Reserve Deputy Robert Bates' training records, and three who refused were reassigned to less desirable duties, the Tulsa World newspaper reported. Claims that the volunteer deputy's records had been falsified emerged "almost immediately" from multiple sources after Bates killed Eric Harris on April 2, reporter Dylan Goforth said. Bates claims he meant to use his Taser but accidentally fired his handgun at Harris instead. The newspaper's story does not say who allegedly asked the supervisors to falsify the training records or why. But the orders apparently started years ago, before Harris' death, "back when (Bates) was trying to get on as a deputy," reporter Ziva Branstetter told CNN's "New Day." The Sheriff's Office denied the allegations in the Tulsa World's report. It also declined a CNN interview to respond to the claims. In an email to CNN, the department's Maj. Shannon Clark said the lack of named sources in the newspaper's report leaves him dubious. "Just keep in mind that the Tulsa World reporter cannot validate her sources and claims anonymity, which leaves us skeptical that her claims are unsubstantiated and deceptive," Clark wrote. Clark Brewster, an attorney who represents Bates, said the accusations are based on an affidavit from a former Sheriff's Office employee who's now facing a first-degree murder charge. "I don't put a lot of stock in that report or the credibility of who would further that report," Brewster said. Shooting casts spotlight on volunteer police programs . Sheriff Stanley Glanz and other sheriff's officials have repeatedly insisted Bates was properly trained. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has released a summary of Bates' training courses only over the past seven years. The office rejected CNN's request for the full training records because Bates' case is under investigation. Branstetter said she's run into similar obstacles when asking for the names of supervisors who'd signed off on Bates' training records. "You would think the Sheriff's Office, if in fact there has been no pressure applied, no falsification of records, that they would be forthcoming with these documents," she told CNN's "New Day." "We've asked for them. They've said they don't believe they're public records." Bates was classified as an advanced reserve deputy for the Sheriff's Office. That means he would have had to complete 480 hours of the field training officer program to maintain that classification, the paper said. Bates would also have needed firearms certification training. But the sheriff himself has acknowledged there is a problem with Bates' gun certification records -- his office can't find them. "Bob went out and qualified with three different weapons with an instructor," Glanz told KFAQ radio this week. He said Bates "qualified with a young lady that was a firearms instructor." But she is no longer there. "She has left the Sheriff's Office and is now a Secret Service agent," Glanz told KFAQ. "And we're trying to get a hold of her and talk to her about ... we can't find the records that she supposedly turned in. So we're going to talk to her and find out if for sure he did qualify with those." Opinion: Who gave this reserve cop a gun? Even before the Tulsa World story, inconsistencies were apparent in Bates' history with the Sheriff's Office. In his statement to investigators, Bates said he "became an advanced TCSO Reserve Deputy in 2007." But the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has said Bates had been a reserve deputy since 2008. It also said Bates had undergone 300 hours of training. That would be less than the 480 hours of field training that the Tulsa World said is required to be an "advanced" reserve deputy, which Bates claimed to be. In a statement he made to investigators after the shooting, Bates said the gun he used was his personal weapon, adding that he last qualified at the range in autumn. He also said he'd attended "numerous schools and seminars related to drug investigations and the tactical operations associated with the apprehension of suspects involved in drug trafficking," a five-day homicide investigation school in Dallas and training from Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on responding to active shooters. But an Arizona official told CNN Bates never trained with the agency. "He didn't come to Arizona," the official from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said, "and he certainly didn't train with us." Brewster said that line in Bates' statement was referring to a lecture given at a seminar in Washington by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The seminar was part of extensive training Bates received at classes across the country and through work in the field, he said. "He met every training regimen," Brewster said. "He met every requirement, and all he did was give of himself." Bates is now charged with second-degree manslaughter for Harris' death. He turned himself in to authorities Tuesday and immediately posted bail of $25,000. His attorney has said he's not guilty, calling the death an "excusable homicide." The lawyer for Harris' family claims Bates wasn't qualified to be on the force, but received preferential treatment because he'd made donations to the agency and was a friend of the sheriff -- an accusation officials deny, saying they stand by his training record. Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark, who has been brought in to review the case, has said Bates fell "victim" to something called "slip and capture," a term to describe a high-stress situation in which a person intends to do one thing and instead does something else. It's a controversial claim that hasn't convinced critics of the department, and calls for an independent investigation into the Sheriff's Office and the case are growing. Earlier this week, the office spokesman rejected any idea of outside investigators into the shooting. "We're not scared to prosecute our own. ... There's nobody in this culture that can be tougher on cops than their own," Clark said. "You know that analogy that you'll eat your young? You know, that's the same thing in law enforcement. If we have a dirty cop in our ranks, we will disclose them much quicker than the media." A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said his office is concerned about allegations reported in the media about the case "and will continue to monitor and assess what appropriate measures, if any, are warranted." Glanz has stated publicly that he's reached out to the regional office of the FBI to look into the shooting. Special Agent Terry B. Weber told CNN there's no open FBI investigation into the case. How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? CNN's Ed Lavandera reported from Tulsa. CNN's Holly Yan and Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN's Dave Alsup and Jason Morris contributed to this report. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
TV5Monde went black late Wednesday and was still out hours later .
The network blames an "Islamist group"; there's no claim of responsibility . | (CNN)Eleven channels associated with the French-language global television network TV5Monde went black late Wednesday due to an "extremely powerful cyberattack," the network's director said. In addition to its 11 channels, TV5Monde also temporarily lost control of its social media outlets and its websites, director Yves Bigot said in a video message posted later on Facebook. On a mobile site, which was still active, the network said it was "hacked by an Islamist group." ISIS logos and markings could be seen on some TV5Monde social media accounts. But there was no immediate claim of responsibility by ISIS or any other group. The outage began around 10 p.m. Paris time (4 p.m. ET), and network teams were still working to restore service more than five hours later. According to France's Ministry of Culture and Communications, TV5Monde offers round-the-clock entertainment, news and culturing programming in French that reaches 260 million homes worldwide. It functions under a partnership that consists of the governments of France, Canada and Switzerland, as well as the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Other networks that provide content to TV5Monde include CNN affiliates France 2 and France 3, France 24 and Radio France International. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be campaign manager, distributes a "values statement"
The memo maintains that the campaign must remain humble, disciplined and united . | (CNN)Hillary Clinton's campaign-in-waiting met on Saturday in its Brooklyn headquarters, a day before the former secretary of state officially announces her campaign for president, according to a Democrat who attended the meeting. Robby Mook, Clinton's soon-to-be campaign manager, distributed a "values statement" at the meeting that outlined what the campaign will stand for, what their goals are and how they plan to win -- something Clinton failed to do in 2008. The campaign's purpose, the document states, is "to give every family, every small business, and every American a path to lasting prosperity by electing Hillary Clinton the next President of the United States." The document makes clear that the campaign will try to avoid mistakes that plagued Clinton's failed 2008 run. Many of the "guiding principles" in the memo mention issues that sunk Clinton's first campaign. The document, according to the source, includes the ideas from Mook, along with a wide array of Clinton's soon-to-be staffers and advisers. The memo maintains that the campaign must remain humble, disciplined and united, something voters in Iowa and others states have said Clinton did not do in 2008. "This campaign is not about Hillary Clinton and not about us," reads the document that was obtained by CNN. In the section about the campaign's guiding principles, the document reads, "We are humble: We take nothing for granted, we are never afraid to lose, we always outcompete and fight for every vote we can win. We know this campaign will be won on the ground, in states." It also calls on campaign staffers to remain "disciplined" and "open to a diverse range of views." "When we disagree, it's never personal. Once a decision is made, we execute it -- together," reads the memo. "We know there will be tough days, but we will bounce back and get back to work." The document also appears to telegraph the name to Clinton's campaign: "Hillary for America." Clinton is planning to launch her presidential candidacy on Sunday through a video message on social media, according to Democratic sources. Shortly after her announcement, Clinton will travel Iowa and New Hampshire, critical early caucus primary and caucus states. | Provide a summarization for the given article while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and race, and reducing stereotypes. |
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