(CNN)Iraqi forces battling to wrest Tikrit from ISIS are now in control of the city, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday on Iraqiya TV. Al-Abadi, who is also the top military commander, said on state television that the city was liberated. While al-Abadi has declared victory in the battle, pockets of fighting continues. Iraqi forces and Shiite militias are taking part in clearing operations. Iraqi forces reached the center of Tikrit and hoisted the nation's flag on top of the Governorate Building, al-Abadi said. Fighting continued on the outskirts of the city, he added. Tikrit had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit comes days after a series of U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS targets around the city. The airstrikes made it possible for the Iraqi forces to move through the city. Troops reported finding dozens of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings as they combed the city. At a Cabinet meeting before he declared Tikrit liberated, al-Abadi was already calling the operation a success. "The success of the Tikrit experiment will be repeated in other areas because of the results it has achieved on the battlefield, on a humanitarian level, protecting civilians as much as possible, in addition to the low casualties amongst our security forces," he said. Iraqi forces have tried multiple times to win back Tikrit since ISIS conquered the city as part of its campaign to amass an expansive Islamic caliphate but failed until now. This operation, however, was the biggest by the Iraqi military so far. "We managed to take (ISIS) by surprise," the Prime Minister said. "And our air force ... in addition to coalition air force, helping Iraqi forces, managed to deal severe blows to ISIS and the enemies of Iraq. And our ground forces with the blood of Iraqis, Iraqis alone with their own blood, were able to liberate this land." The latest push began after al-Abadi ordered Iraqi forces on March 1 to retake Tikrit and Salahuddin province. Militants have been under pressure ever since in the battleground city, which is the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and is located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad. The Iraqi forces were aided by a coalition made up of mostly Shiite militiamen and volunteers. The militia members, estimated to number around 20,000, are backed by Iran. The offensive marked the first very overt participation of Iranian advisers on the front lines. The victory in Tikrit sets the stage for Iraqi forces to take back an even bigger prize: Mosul. Mosul is Iraq's second-biggest city and the site of one of its military's biggest embarrassments, when Iraqi troops dropped their weapons and ran rather than defend their posts last June. A U.S. official said in February that up to 25,000 Iraqi troops plan to return to Mosul in April or May and, ideally, win it back. This comment came days after al-Abadi told the BBC that while there's still work to do, he felt confident Iraqis could recapture the key northern city. CNN's Arwa Damon, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jason Hanna and Mariano

Summary: ISIS still has some fighters in Tikrit; joint forces are in clearing operations . Prime Minister says that Tikrit is back under government control . Government has its eyes on a bigger prize with the city of Mosul .


Babylon, Iraq (CNN)ISIS has smashed priceless ancient statues in Mosul, bulldozed the ruins of Nineveh and Hatra, and dynamited centuries-old churches, mosques and shrines. In a battle between Iraqi forces and ISIS over control of Tikrit recently, the tomb of Saddam Hussein was squashed to rubble, though it's not clear which side did it. Luckily, the ancient city of Babylon is outside the extremists' grasp, south of Baghdad. For nearly 5,000 years it has stood as a symbol of the glory of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. Saddam Hussein renovated the ruins in the 1980s, leaving his own crude personal stamp on the bricks there. They bear his name and describe him as the son of Nebuchadnezzar, who had the reputation of being ancient Babylon's greatest king. One of Hussein's former palaces still peers down over the city. But it continues to be source of great pride for Iraqis who see themselves as the heirs of the world's oldest civilization. And many Iraqis know better than to buy the claims of their deposed despot. "This wasn't Saddam's," said Adnan Abu Fatima. "It belonged to our grandfathers, the Babylonians." Abu Fatima strolled through the ruins with his family. Saddam's vain brick inscriptions may annoy him, but ISIS' destruction appalls him. "The Mosul museum was destroyed. Why?" he wants to know from ISIS. "That is the heritage of your grandfathers. Why did you do that?" The defacers' reasoning? The artifacts, some of the oldest in ancient civilization, are from the "age of ignorance," ISIS says, before the advent of Islam. Antiquity is an integral part of Iraq's national identity. History is measured there not in centuries but in millennia, and Iraqi's take such vandalism to heart. They've had to watch since the U.S. invasion in 2003 how artifacts have been stolen. Baghdad's museum was plundered, during a lapse in U.S. security, and the priceless artifacts were smuggled around the world. The U.S. State Department has announced it will return more than 60 items on Monday, which had been sneaked into the United States. Safa ad-Din Hassan and other parents took Iraqi scouts on a camping trip near Babylon to teach them about their history and make ancient artwork with them. Hassan fled Mosul when ISIS overran it last year then later ransacked the museum. "When I saw what happened, I was determined to come her to preserve our antiquities from ISIS," he said. Iraq will defend its heritage against ISIS, said Mohamed Hattab from Iraq's Antiquities Department. "Babylon is our soul." It's a soul under assault by latter day barbarians, who have destroyed much of it in the North, which has been out of the defensive reach of Iraqi soldiers. The military has started a drive to retake Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from the extremists. After the rage of a battle subsided, they moved in to the outskirt town of Awja to find the former dictator's tomb flattened. Video of soldiers standing on top of it was posted to YouTube. They celebrated the posthumous slap against their former tormentor. One man fired shots into the

Summary: ISIS has ransacked museums, bulldozed ancient cities, destroying human history . But the ancient city of Babylon is out of their reach in Iraq's Shiite region .


(CNN)Kentucky is so awesome right now you are probably watching the NCAA men's basketball tournament to see who is going to get second. The undefeated Wildcats were scary good Thursday night in crushing West Virginia. The score was so lopsided the game was over before the first television timeout. While the Wildcats won in a blowout, Notre Dame and Wisconsin also advanced to the Elite Eight with less-than-comfortable wins. The Fighting Irish pulled away from Wichita State while the Badgers shook off pesky North Carolina. During the nightcap a lot of televisions -- outside the commonwealth of Kentucky -- probably changed channels. The good news was Arizona and Xavier played a terrific game in the final contest of the night. Perhaps you shouldn't provoke the beast that is Kentucky. In the week leading up to the game, West Virginia's Daxter Miles said, "I give them them their props. Salute them getting to 36-0. But tomorrow they're gonna be 36-1." Mr. Miles missed his guaranteed win by miles. The Wildcats smoked the Mountaineers 78-39 Thursday night in a Midwest Region contest that was never a contest. Kentucky raced to an 18-2 lead -- they should have stopped it then -- and had five players score in double figures on the night. Trey Lyles was the Wildcats' top scorer with 14 points. West Virginia couldn't guard anyone, except maybe the official who went down when he tripped over a Mountaineer waiting at the scoring table. Kentucky's 37-0 record is the best start in NCAA history, which has Kentucky superfan Ashley Judd super excited. It wasn't a pretty game for the Wildcats' offense, but Arizona scratched its way past Xavier 68-60 in a West Region semifinal. Arizona shot 40 percent, while Xavier wasn't much better at 43 percent. The Wildcats tightened their defense toward the end, closing out with a 19-7 run that pushed them to a win and a meeting Saturday with Wisconsin. It's a rematch of an Elite 8 game last year, which the Badgers won by one point. T.J. McConnell topped all Arizona scorers with 17 points while Matt Stainbrook led Xavier with 17 points. The Irish found the right balance in the second half, putting the Shockers away for a 81-70 victory in the Midwest Region. Notre Dame trailed by 1 with 16:43 left when it went on a spurt that saw six different players score as the lead grew to double digits. Demetrius Jackson, who started the run with back-to-back three-pointers, led the Irish with 20 points. Two-sport star Pat Connaughton had 16. Steve Vasturia, who one CBS analyst called a baby-faced assassin, chipped in 13 points. Jerian Grant, a national player of the year candidate, had a rough night shooting, so he set up his teammates for buckets instead. He had nine points but 11 assists. Junior Fred VanVleet led the Shockers with 25 points while Darius Carter maneuvered inside for 22. Wisconsin played cool and shot hot from the free-throw line in holding off North Carolina 79-72. Sam Decker was trending on Twitter but the Tar Heels were

Summary: Kentucky destroys West Virginia . Notre Dame's offense gets hot in the second half, led by Demetrius Jackson . Wisconsin holds off ACC's North Carolina with superb free-throw shooting .


Dusseldorf, Germany (CNN)Years before he was at the controls of a Germanwings plane that plunged into the French Alps, Andreas Lubitz told the airline he worked for that he'd had a bout with depression. Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 who authorities accuse of deliberately crashing the plane, told his Lufthansa flight training school in 2009 that he had a "previous episode of severe depression," the airline said Tuesday. Email correspondence between Lubitz and the school discovered in an internal investigation, Lufthansa said, included medical documents he submitted in connection with resuming his flight training. The announcement indicates that Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, knew of Lubitz's battle with depression, allowed him to continue training and ultimately put him in the cockpit. Lufthansa, whose CEO previously said Lubitz was 100% fit to fly, described its statement Tuesday as a "swift and seamless clarification" and said it was sharing the information and documents -- including training and medical records -- with public prosecutors. What was mental state of Germanwings co-pilot? It's a development that will likely be a part of the crash investigation, but it's only one piece of the puzzle, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said. "We need to know what happened after he returned in 2009 and finished his training, because that tells us whether there was the correct procedure and process," he said. A Lufthansa spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that Lubitz had a valid medical certificate, had passed all his examinations and "held all the licenses required." Check out the latest from our correspondents . The details about Lubitz's correspondence with the flight school during his training were among several developments as investigators continued to delve into what caused the crash and Lubitz's possible motive for downing the jet. Earlier, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf said Lubitz suffered from suicidal tendencies at some point before his aviation career. Medical records reveal that Lubitz was suicidal at one time and underwent psychotherapy before he got his pilot's license, prosecutor's spokesman Christoph Kumpa said. Kumpa emphasized there's no evidence suggesting Lubitz was suicidal or acting aggressively before the crash. Investigators are looking into whether Lubitz feared his medical condition would cause him to lose his pilot's license, a European government official briefed on the investigation into last week's crash told CNN on Tuesday. While flying was "a big part of his life," the source said, it's only one theory being considered. Another source, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, also told CNN that authorities believe the primary motive for Lubitz to bring down the plane was that he feared he would not be allowed to fly because of his medical problems. Lubitz's girlfriend told investigators he had seen an eye doctor and a neuropsychologist, both of whom deemed him unfit to work recently and concluded he had psychological issues, the European government official said. Lubitz told the neuropsychologist that he was too stressed with work, the official said. But no matter what details emerge about his previous mental health struggles, there's more to the

Summary: Andreas Lubitz had informed his Lufthansa training school of an episode of severe depression, airline says . A police spokesman say reports about video found in Germanwings wreckage are "completely wrong" Journalists at Bild and Paris Match are "very confident" the video clip is real, an editor says .


(CNN)A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed in a parachute accident in Perris, California, near Riverside, a U.S. Navy official told CNN on Wednesday. He was identified Thursday as Special Warfare Operator 3rd Class Jason Kortz, 29, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. "Jason distinguished himself consistently throughout his career. He was the epitome of the quiet professional in all facets of his life, and he leaves an inspiring legacy of natural tenacity and focused commitment for posterity," the Navy said in a news release. Kortz joined the SEALs in September after enlisting in the Navy two years earlier. He was married, the Navy said. Initial indications are the parachute failed to open during a jump as part of a training exercise. Kortz was part of a West Coast-based Navy SEAL team.

Summary: Navy identifies deceased sailor as Jason Kortz, who leaves behind a wife . Statement says he was "epitome of a quiet professional"


(CNN)Many years ago I performed at the Surf Ballroom, in Clear Lake, Iowa, which was the last stop on Buddy Holly's final tour. He was killed in a plane crash in 1959 that also took the lives of singers J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens. By this time, Buddy Holly and I had had a pretty long history together. The concert that I performed at had all the old members of his group. Donna, who Ritchie Valens wrote a song about, was also there. Peggy Sue, who Buddy Holly sang about, was there too. The Picks were there -- they sang background vocals on Buddy's records -- as well as singer Tommy Allsup, who claimed that years later he got his wallet back from the crash site. Unfortunately some fans at this show were selling crash-site photos, which I thought was in extremely bad taste. I think the prospect of the National Transportation Safety Board delving into the crash again, which might mean exhuming bodies and all the rest, would be in similarly bad taste. I think there's a reason we say, "rest in peace." Buddy Holly would have the same stature musically whether he would have lived or died, because of his accomplishments which, in retrospect, nobody -- and I mean nobody, not the Beatles the Rolling Stones or anyone else -- can beat, for these reasons: By the time he was 22 years old he had recorded some 50 tracks, most of which he had written himself and each of them, in my view and the view of many others, a hit. Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the template for all the rock bands that followed. No rock 'n' roll records can touch songs like "Rave On," "Think it Over," "Not Fade Away," "Peggy Sue" and many, many more. He was also a sensitive, ballad composer and singer, which people often overlook, with songs like "Moondreams" and "True Love Ways," among many. As a paperboy, I cut open the stack of papers on February 3, 1959, and saw that Buddy Holly had been killed in the plane crash. The next day I went to school in shock, and guess what? Nobody cared. Rock 'n roll in those days was sort of like hula hoops and Buddy hadn't had a big hit on the charts since '57, nor had the others in the plane crash. Americans in those days were always looking ahead. Death was not lingered over. We'd had enough of that in World War II. Death and grief did not go with the exuberance and bright colors of the 1950s. Since then we have embarked on what I would call the "American death trip." One simply has to look at the slew of autopsy shows on television and the endless regurgitation of Marilyn, Elvis and JFK death details to get my point. Furthermore, because of the ever-growing psychological power of the media, we seem to think we can reach back half a century and touch things as if they are real. We live in a virtual

Summary: Don McLean: It's bad idea for NTSB to re-examine 1959 crash that killed Buddy Holly, "Big Bopper," Ritchie Valens . He says it's distasteful; they should "rest in peace" He says looking at crash case again is only part of the "American death trip" that pervades our culture .


(CNN)On Saturday, just hours after four suicide bombers set off a series of blasts in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri that left at least fifty people dead and scores more wounded, the militant organization thought responsible for the attacks, Boko Haram, reportedly announced that it was swearing allegiance to the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). According to a report quoting the SITE extremist monitoring organization, an audio recording purportedly from Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, hailed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as "caliph" and declared: "We announce our allegiance to the Caliph...and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity." This latest development is not entirely unexpected given the increasing convergence between the two groups over the course of the last year as well as the severe pressure that the militaries of Nigeria and its neighbors have recently (if somewhat belatedly) brought to bear on it. In fact, the "shout-outs" exchanged regularly between Boko Haram and ISIS were not just rhetorical flourishes, but indicative of a veritable courtship as the former appropriated more and more of the latter's symbolism, tactics, and ideology. This isn't the first time that Boko Haram has adapted itself to conform with a larger extremist network that could aid it: previously the group underwent a similar evolution after Shekau took over from its slain founder, Muhammad Yusuf, in 2009 and aligned it with al-Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which gave Boko Haram training as well as facilitated its carrying out of Nigeria's first suicide bombings in 2011. Despite the assistance that Boko Haram received from AQIM and other aligned groups in the years since, the Nigerian militants' ideology and brutal tactics have progressively drawn closer to those of ISIS. Like ISIS, Boko Haram has progressed far beyond asymmetric terrorist attacks to sophisticated military operations resulting in its successfully overrunning and effectively controlling large parts in northeastern Nigeria and displacing millions of people. Just two weeks ago, in his most recent annual Worldwide Threat Assessment, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned the U.S. Congress that "Boko Haram will probably continue to solidify its control over its self-declared Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria and expand its terror campaign into neighboring Nigerian states, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad." The timing of Shekau's pledge of allegiance is not without its strategic logic. Notwithstanding its string of victories through the beginning of this year, Boko Haram has been reeling in recent weeks from a series of military defeats at the hands of the Nigerian armed forces as well as a multinational force from neighboring countries, including Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The Nigerian government and its regional allies have been pushing back and, in quite a number of instances, retaking towns. Likewise, ISIS has seen its rampage through Syria and Iraq stall and it has increasingly been put on the defensive by operations like the massive Iranian-backed Iraqi offensive to retake Tikrit this past week. Thus for both groups the new linkage provides a much-needed propaganda fillip at a just the

Summary: Boko Haram has reportedly pledged its allegiance with ISIS . Peter Pham: In short term, the merger won't have big impact on battlefield .


Boston (CNN)Jurors in the Boston Marathon bombings trial were shown a key piece of evidence Tuesday: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's writings on the inside of the boat he used as a hideout. Prosecutors presented photos of three panels of the boat that had messages written in pencil. Boston police Officer Todd Brown, a bomb squad member who cleared the boat of explosives, was on the witness stand to talk about the writings. Tsarnaev is charged with 30 counts related to the April 15, 2013, bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. A fourth person, an MIT police officer, was ambushed and killed in his patrol car three days after the bombings as Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, allegedly ran from police. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed after a gunbattle with police. On Tuesday, Brown identified Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in court as the man he saw come out of the boat and get taken into custody. In the writings on the panels, some of Tsarnaev's words were struck out by bullet holes. "I'm jealous of my brother who ha (bullet hole) ceived the reward of jannutul Firdaus (inshallah) before me," one of the writings said, referring to the word for paradise. "I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive. God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions." Tsarnaev's connections: Who's who . Tsarnaev's defense has argued that he indeed participated in the bombings, but that he was influenced by his radicalized brother. In his writings on the boat, Tsarnaev asked Allah to allow him to reach the highest levels of heaven. "The US Government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that. As a (bullet hole) I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all. Well at least that's how muhhammad (bullet hole) wanted it to be (for)ever," Tsarnaev wrote in the boat. Also Tuesday, prosecutors called on FBI agent Steve Kimball to discuss two Twitter accounts linked to Tsarnaev. One, @J_tsar, contained 1,100 tweets and was the more mainstream of the two. "I shall die young," @J_tsar tweeted on April 12, 2012. And four days later, on the day of the 2012 Boston Marathon, a tweet from the account read, "They will spend their money & they will regret it & they will be defeated." Timeline of the bombings, manhunt and aftermath . Prosecutors argued that these tweets indicate an attack on the Boston Marathon was on his mind a year before the bombings. Tsarnaev attorney Miriam Conrad, who opted not to cross-examine the bombing survivors who testified during the first week of the trial, got Kimball to acknowledge that some of his information about the tweets came from other agents and that he didn't check them out for himself. Conrad also established that some of the tweets appeared to be rap lyrics. CNN's Ann O'Neill reported from Boston, and Mariano Castillo wrote in Atlanta.

Summary: A police officer testifies about the writings Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scrawled on a boat . The boat was Tsarnaev's final hideout before his arrest .


(CNN)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the Congress this week was as eagerly anticipated in Tehran as it was in Washington. The Iranian reaction to the speech has been a combination of indignation and indifference. While some of Netanyahu's remarks are already being exploited by competing factions within the Iranian state, the likeliest impact of the speech is tied to Netanyahu's baseless charge that Iran's vendetta against the Jewish people is an ancient mission. The earliest official reactions were predictably the most vigorous in denouncing Netanyahu's message to the American people. Ali Larijani, the powerful speaker of the Iranian parliament, painted Netanyahu as the leader of a "tin pot regime" that is not as concerned about Iran's nuclear program as it is of Tehran's growing regional influence. The hardline Kayhan newspaper, the key official outlet linked to the office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the speech "trash talking" but it also made sure to use it an ammunition against its rivals in the moderate faction. The paper, skeptical of President Hassan Rouhani's nuclear negotiations with the Americans from the beginning, said Netanyahu's comments present an awkward truth for the pro-negotiation faction in Tehran: the Israeli leader and his American supporters are openly signaling the dispute with Iran can only be resolved once there is a change of regime there. Iranian media coverage of Netanyahu's speech mentioned the controversy in the U.S. around its timing but the hardline outlets warned against reading too much into it. As one hardline newspaper, Khorasan, put it, "although it is undeniable that Obama and Netanyahu disagree on Iran, the [recent] remarks of the two [leaders] shows that they both seek the same goal." The idea that the U.S. and Israel share the same strategic goal to rein in Iran but are in disagreement about how to achieve it is the cornerstone of the hardliners' stance in Tehran. The moderate outlets, supportive of President Rouhani, have put a different spin on Netanyahu's speech. Unlike the hardliners, they are not painting the Obama-Netanyahu fallout as some orchestrated good cop-bad cop ploy to maximize concessions from Tehran. Instead, they emphasize that there is a genuine difference in opinion between the U.S. and Israel. The moderate faction sees the controversy around Netanyahu's speech to the Congress and his failure to squeeze the Obama White House to toughen its negotiation terms with Tehran as an indication that Netanyahu is the one who is isolated. The hardliners and the moderates were in full agreement on one point, and that was the delight they shared about the absence of some 60 out of 232 Democratic members of the Congress from Netanyahu's speech. It is too early to gain a good insight into the reaction of ordinary Iranians to Netanyahu's speech. But one aspect of his speech is bound to create backlash among ordinary Iranians outside the corridors of the state: his invocation of festival of Purim, which commemorates the salvation of Jewish people in ancient Persia. The historic event is recorded in the Book of Esther but Netanyahu's characterization implied

Summary: Iranians met Netanyahu's speech with indignation, indifference, writes Alex Vatanka . Moderates believe Obama's cold shoulder is vindication of Rouhani's strategy, he says . Hardliners suggest the speech shows U.S. insincerity but have not argued against talks .


(CNN)A sixth suspect in the shooting death of a top Russian opposition figure blew himself up after a standoff with police in the capital of the Chechen Republic, state-run television reported Sunday. Beslan Shavanov, 30, was holed up in a building in Grozny when police arrived to arrest him Saturday afternoon, Russia 24 reported. Police surrounded the building and Shavano tried to escape, throwing a grenade at police officers before blowing himself up, the station said. The news came as Russian authorities reported making five other arrests in connection with Boris Nemtsov's killing. One of those arrested claims to have an alibi, according to Russia's Sputnik News. "At the time of the murder, I was at work as I usually am every day. There are many people, my colleagues, who will confirm this," the news agency quoted Tamerlan Eskerkhanov as saying in Moscow's Basmanny District Court. Two of the suspects have been formally charged and three "remain under the status of suspects," court spokeswoman Anna Fadeyeva told Sputnik. Nemtsov, one of President Vladimir Putin's most outspoken critics, was shot in the back on a Moscow bridge as he walked with his girlfriend near the Kremlin in late February. Surveillance video showed someone darting from the sidewalk and into a nearby car right after Nemtsov collapsed. Putin has been informed of the arrests in connection with Nemtsov's death, Russian media said, citing Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov. Two of the other suspects are Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, Bortnikov said in a televised statement. The others are Ramzan Bakhayev and Shagit Gubashev, Anzor's younger brother, according to a Sputnik report that also said Dadayev was the only one of the five to plead guilty -- though to what crimes was not clear. Bortnikov said those detained are from the southern region of the North Caucasus, which for years has been a hotbed of unrest and rebellion against Moscow. Dadayev had previously served as an officer in a Chechen police battalion, Albert Barakhayev, secretary of the Security Council of the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia, told the official news agency TASS. Dadayev was the deputy commander of one of the Chechen Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs groups, Sputnik reported, adding that Gubashev worked at a security firm in Moscow. Gubashev was arrested between the town of Malgobek and the village of Voznesenovskaya, while Dadayev was arrested in the city of Magas, Barakhayev told TASS. The slain opposition leader's daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, told CNN she is "not surprised both of them (are) of Caucasus origin. It was predictable." Nemtsova said the only things she knew about the arrests came from media reports, as authorities did not contact her immediately. Later Saturday, a southern Russian law enforcement official told state news agency RIA Novosti that two more men were arrested. The two suspects in the second arrest were not named, but one of them was driving with Dadayev, and the other man is Gubashev's younger brother, Barakhayev said. Like Gubashev and Dadayev, those two suspects are also ethnic Chechens, according to Barakhayev. After Nemtsov's shooting Putin

Summary: With police surrounding hiding place, sixth suspect kills himself, Russian media say . One of the men arrested reportedly served as an officer in a Chechen police battalion . Four of the five suspects are ethnic Chechens, law enforcement official tells media .


(CNN)In his writings, author Avijit Roy yearned for reason and humanism guided by science. He had no place for religious dogma, including from Islam, the main religion of his native Bangladesh. Extremists resented him for openly and regularly criticizing religion in his blog. They threatened to kill him if he came home from the United States to visit. On Thursday, someone did. As usual, Roy defied the threats and departed his home in suburban Atlanta for Dhaka, where he appeared at a speaking engagement about his latest books -- one of them titled "The Virus of Faith." He has written seven books in all. As he walked back from the book fair, assailants plunged machetes and knives into Roy and his wife, killing him and leaving her bloodied and missing a finger. Afterward, an Islamist group "Ansar Bangla-7" reportedly tweeted, "Target Down here in Bangladesh." Investigators are proceeding on the notion that Roy's murder was an extremist attack. His father, Ajay Roy, filed a case of murder with the Shahbagh police Friday without naming suspects. No one came to their aid as they were hacked down, a witness said. "I shouted for help from the people but nobody came to save him." But at night, secularist sympathizers marched through a street holding torches; by day, others held a sit-in to protest Roy's killing. The government condemned the attack. Who was the software engineer, a U.S. citizen from Alpharetta, Georgia, who drew such rage from some and adoration from others? Software was his career, but writing and blogging were his calling. And he did not speak alone. Roy founded the religion critical blog Mukto Mona, which served multiple writers. He called it "an Internet congregation of freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists and humanists mainly of Bengali and South Asian descent who are scattered across the globe." Its mission was to promote science, secular philosophy, democracy and religious tolerance in articles by academics and activists. Its headers contain quotes by famous scientists, including one attributed to Albert Einstein condemning the doctrine of heaven and hell as a means of enforcing ethics: . "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary." To the most devout and to extremists, Roy's criticisms amounted to blasphemy. He took aim at the sentiment in a blog post headlined, "Happy Blasphemy Day, Happy Birthday 'Mukto Mona.'" Some who felt oppressed by religion said he spoke for them. "Avijit Roy, your voice of reason and your passion for free thinking will never die. You were a voice to so many voiceless," a fan wrote after his death. Very. Roy and the blog's other critics took off the gloves when it came to religion, particularly Islam. Roy was a fan of Bill Maher's harsh reproach of Islam and a critic of Reza Aslan, who has countered Maher's standpoint. His blog called Aslan "an Islamic apologist, who obviously feels threatened by the growing Atheist movement in the U.S. and worldwide." Roy likened women in burkas to "living zombies," tweeting out a

Summary: Roy yearned for an age of reason without religious dogma . Islamist extremists resented him, threatened to kill him .


(CNN)Every time a snowstorm bears down on Danbury, Connecticut -- which has happened a lot this winter -- students and parents turn to Twitter to find out whether schools will be closed. They rarely get a straight answer. Instead, Danbury residents see jokes, meme-filled videos and teasing references to snow days at fictional high schools from "Glee" or "Grease" -- all courtesy of Mayor Mark Boughton, a social-media prankster whose @MayorMark account provides actual updates about school closings amid all the buffoonery. "Attention: West Beverly Hills High School is closed for tomorrow. #90210," read one recent mayoral tweet. Boughton always gets around to the real news eventually. But first come the wisecracks. He was in especially rare form Tuesday night, tweeting almost a dozen snow-day jokes, Storify user and freelance journalist Kristin Hussey chronicled, as yet another storm hit Danbury. Parents and students tuning in for real news about snow days might find this running gag irritating. But on Twitter, at least, many students seem to get the joke. "@MayorMark you better get each and every one of us a therapist after all of stress you're causing us," wrote one. "The kids take it tongue in cheek. They understand, because it's sort of a tradition around here," said Boughton, who told CNN he's been trading jokes about snow days with students on Twitter for several years now. "We go back and forth. But it's all in good fun." One twist of the whole thing is that Boughton doesn't even make the call about closing Danbury schools. That decision is left to Superintendent of Schools Sal Pascarella, who confers with Boughton by phone and then sends an automated update to every parent's phone. But Boughton, who ran for governor of Connecticut last year and has 18,000 Twitter followers, usually posts his school-closing tweets first. Finally, after hours of build-up, the mayor gave people of Danbury the news at 6:21 a.m. Wednesday: Schools would open two hours late. The mayor says he wants to help young people engage with public servants -- and show them that he can be funny. "I have a very serious policy side ... but I like to have a good chuckle," he said. "That's who I am. In the end, I think it (social media) is about being yourself." He says he rarely gets complaints about his Twitter feed, and that "parents think it's hysterical." But maybe not all Danbury parents. "As a parent, has it been helpful? No," said Stephanie Pabon, whose 6-year-old son attends a Danbury magnet school. "Because as a parent I don't have time for Twitter."

Summary: Mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, teases students on Twitter about school closings . Mark Boughton tweets jokes, keeps kids guessing about snow days . Mayor: "It is sort of a tradition around here"


New Delhi (CNN)The quest to be educated in India has literally scaled new heights. Images of parents and family members clambering up school buildings and clinging on window ledges to pass cheat sheets to their children have left authorities in despair. The incident took place on Wednesday in the state of Bihar, where students were writing their year-end grade 10 examinations. Examples of cheating incidents are not hard to find in India. But, even compared to previous events, this seems to be unprecedented in its blatancy. Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi told reporters that children won't learn if they're constantly helped by family members. "Government can only hold fair examinations with the help of the parents, society and the children," he said. "This is a collective responsibility." In a developing economy like India, education is a precious commodity. With more than 1.2 billion people, proper schooling could hold the key for much of the population to get out of a vicious cycle of poverty. Earlier this week, a father in the city of Mathura was caught strapping his 8-year old daughter to a motorcycle after she refused to attend school to take her assessment. Tied with a multi-strand rope to the back of a bike, onlookers captured images of the trussed girl, her bare feet hanging low, scraping the asphalt. According to local police officials, the girl's parents offered her several incentives, such as chocolates and toys to entice her, however when the girl was still reluctant, her father decided to take matters in his own hands. After photos started making the rounds on social media, police officials took the man into custody and charged him with "breach of the peace." He is now out on bail. "Even after he got out, the father showed no remorse. He has five children to feed and he believes the only way they can get out of this poverty trap is through education," a senior police official handling the case told CNN. The flaws in India's education system are well-documented. The country has a literacy rate of only 74%, compared to 95% in China. Women suffer particularly badly here; only 64% have formal education. Earlier this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a nationwide campaign urging parents to send their children, especially daughters, to school and properly educate them. According to the United Nations, India has the largest youth population in the world, with more than a quarter of citizens aged between 10 and 24.

Summary: Images of parents sneaking their children cheat sheets have dumbfounded many in India . Education remains the way out of poverty for millions of young Indians, but the state is failing many of them . Some parents go to desperate lengths to get their children educated .


(CNN)It's the day the music died. In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, a small aircraft carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson crashed a few miles from Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. Pilot Roger Peterson also died in the crash. The voice of the hit songs "Peggy Sue" and "That'll Be the Day" was silenced forever. A few months later, the Civil Aeronautics Board blamed the accident primarily on the pilot's lack of qualification and certification to fly solely by instruments and secondarily on an inadequate weather briefing. (PDF). Now, the National Transportation Safety Board, the successor to the aeronautics board, may be taking another look. The NTSB received a letter from aviation enthusiast L.J. Coon, a self-described retired pilot and aircraft dispatcher, asking it to look at other possible contributing factors to the crash. They include the aircraft's weight and balance calculations (for passengers, baggage and fuel), possible issues with rudder panels and possible carburetor Induction icing, Coon told CNN in an email. "You have gotten our attention," the NTSB wrote in February, saying it would examine the information he provided, Coon's email said. The NTSB never fully closes a case, but any petition to re-examine a crash needs to show that there is new information suggesting the original probable cause is incorrect, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said. The agency has two months to review the petition and decide whether there's new information that would make it revisit the case. In 1959, Holly, Valens and Richardson were part of the Winter Dance Party, a tour that had started in Milwaukee and traveled to small cities in Minnesota and Iowa. The musicians had traveled in subfreezing temperatures in unheated buses, and people were getting sick. Holly booked the four-seat aircraft to fly to Fargo, North Dakota, where he planned to finally do laundry and rest in advance of the group's next concert in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota. Country legend Waylon Jennings, then Holly's bass player, gave up his seat to a sick Richardson. Jennings, who died in 2002 at age 64, was haunted by his decision for years to come. Dion and the Belmonts were also on the tour, but Dion gave up his seat on the plane after hearing the $36 per-person price tag. He was the only headliner not on the plane and the only headliner who didn't die that night. Fans remember 'the Day the Music Died' The crash has inspired generations of artists. Lou Diamond Phillips played Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela) in the 1987 hit movie "La Bamba." Gary Busey played Holly in the 1978 movie "The Buddy Holly Story." Don McLean, who was inspired by Holly's music, memorialized that day as "The Day the Music Died" in his 1971 song "American Pie."

Summary: Pilot error and snow were reasons stated for Buddy Holly plane crash . An aviation enthusiast has new theories for crash that also killed the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens .


(The Hollywood Reporter)Sam Simon, the nine-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer and producer who helped develop "The Simpsons," made millions after leaving the show in 1993 and then donated his riches to charity, has died, his foundation announced on Facebook. He was 59. Simon was diagnosed in February 2013 with terminal colon cancer. Yet through it all, he tried to remain upbeat and keep his sense of humor. "The Museum of Broadcasting called and said, 'We were thinking about doing an archive interview with you. Do you mind if we did it now?' " Simon said with a laugh on Marc Maron's WTF podcast that first ran in May 2013. During his brief career, the influential Simon also served as the showrunner on the sitcom "Taxi" at the age of 23; wrote for and produced the comedies "Cheers" and "The Drew Carey Show"; and created a Fox series for the legendary stand-up comic George Carlin in the mid-1990s. Simon also wrote the 1991 film "The Super," a 20th Century Fox comedy starring Joe Pesci as a New York slumlord. Most recently, Simon was a consultant on the Charlie Sheen series "Anger Management" and hosted a show on Radioio.com. He showed up frequently on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show and in March 2013 thanked the acerbic host for being "the perfect friend." Story: Terminally Ill 'Simpsons' Co-Creator Vows to Give Away Fortune . A cartoonist and Stanford graduate, Simon developed "The Simpsons" with Matt Groening (who came up with the characters based on his family) and producer James L. Brooks. All three had worked on "The Tracey Ullman Show," where Bart Simpson and his family got their start as animated sketches shown before and after commercials. "The Simpsons," centering on TV's "first fully self-aware dysfunctional family," as Simon put it, debuted on Fox on December 17, 1989, and is now the longest-running primetime series in American history. Ken Levine, an Emmy winner who has written for "The Simpsons" and other sitcoms, described Simon's contribution to the show during a 2009 interview published in Stanford Magazine. "Sam brought a level of honesty to the characters," Levine said. "Is it too bizarre to say he made cartoon characters three-dimensional? His comedy is all about character, not just a string of gags. In 'The Simpsons,' the characters are motivated by their emotions and their foibles. 'What are they thinking?' -- that is Sam's contribution. The stories come from the characters." Simon also is credited with assembling the show's elite writing team that included Al Jean, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, Mike Reiss, Jon Vitti and Conan O'Brien. Story: James L. Brooks on 'Simpsons' journey . "I remember Sam coming into the room, and me pitching to him and initially being really intimidated," O'Brien told Vanity Fair in 2007. "He's hilarious. It was fun to try and make him laugh. I remember that about Sam. If I could make Sam laugh, I was excited." Tired of the grind, Simon exited the show in 1993 after four seasons but worked out a deal tied to home video sales that he said

Summary: Sam Simon helped create "The Simpsons," oversaw first four seasons . Simon earned millions and was determined to give it away . Animal welfare was among Simon's primary causes .


Dili, East Timor (CNN)Stacey Addison, who says she was detained for months in East Timor because she unwittingly shared a taxi with a stranger carrying methamphetamine, is headed home. Addison boarded a plane Tuesday on the first leg of her journey back to Oregon. "I am thrilled to report that Dr. Stacey Addison has gotten her passport back, and is now on a plane returning home here to Oregon," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) said. "This is terrific news for Stacey, for her family, and for all the Oregonians who have followed Stacey's story and helped support her from afar," Merkley said in a statement. Addison, 41, was detained in September in the small Southeast Asian nation in a drug case in which she says she's innocent. She was released in December but she still couldn't leave because her passport -- seized during the investigation -- had not been returned. Former East Timorese President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, hosted her temporarily at his home. Addison's arrest in September was an unexpected bump in what had been a multi-year trip around the world. She said she had been traveling solo since January 2013, having quit her job as a veterinarian to explore the globe. On September 5, she was sharing a cab from near the Indonesian border to the East Timor capital of Dili. On the way, a fellow passenger asked to stop to pick up a package at a DHL office, her mother, Bernadette Kero of Oregon, has told CNN. After the man picked up the package, police surrounded the car and arrested the occupants, according to Kero. The package was found to contain methamphetamine, Addison has said. She initially was held for four nights, and a judge released her -- but prevented her from leaving the country while the case was still being investigated -- after the man testified that he didn't know her, Kero said. In late October, during a court appearance where she thought she'd retrieve her passport, a judge ordered her arrest again and sent her to Gleno prison outside Dili. Paul Remedios, a lawyer representing Addison, said at the time that the court detained her again because there was a warrant for her arrest, and that the reason for the warrant was unclear. Kero told CNN in November that the case was a "nightmare." Journalist Wayne Lovell in Dili and CNN's Greg Morrison from Atlanta. CNN's Kristina Sgueglia in New York and Jason Hanna in Atlanta also contributed.

Summary: Stacey Addison was detained by police in September during a taxi journey . She says another passenger in the cab picked up a package containing drugs . Addison was on a nearly two-year trip around the world .


Atlanta (CNN)A report on lab safety at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together by a committee of external experts calls the agency's commitment to safety "inconsistent and insufficient." The report, which was completed in January but posted on the agency's website this week, also says "laboratory safety training is inadequate." The report was put together by an external group of 11 experts in biosafety, laboratory science and research. In the report, they say they are "very concerned that the CDC is on the way to losing credibility." The agency created the advisory group to improve lab safety in July in the wake of two mishaps and other issues that were uncovered through procedural reviews. One incident occurred in June when dozens of employees in a bioterrorism lab working with the deadly anthrax virus, were at risk because of a failure to properly follow sterilization techniques. The head of that lab resigned after the incident. This followed a May incident in which avian influenza samples, thought to not be dangerous, were unintentionally mixed with the deadly H5N1 influenza virus and then shipped to a USDA lab. Then in December, with the advisory group already working to reduce lab safety risks and improve the culture of safety, employees in the Ebola lab were potentially exposed to that virus when a technician mistakenly transported the wrong specimens from a high-level lab to a lower-level lab. Internal investigations were done after each incident, and various changes were recommended such as cameras being added to some labs and certificates being required to transfer samples from some labs, following the Ebola incident. The four-page report summarizes the groups findings and offers recommendations following visits to CDC labs, meetings with CDC staff and a survey about the laboratory safety culture at CDC. The report recommends all CDC labs go through an external review and accreditation process. They suggest the College of American Pathologists for clinical labs and the American Biological Safety Association for research labs. To that point, the committee says in the report, "The CDC must not see itself as special. The internal controls and rules that the rest of the world works under also apply to CDC." Other recommendations include: . -- Funding for lab safety programs and standardized training. -- Implementing risk assessments. -- Establishing a system of responsible science and accountability. -- Rewarding researchers who run safe labs. -- Hiring a director to oversee lab safety. In response to the recommendations, CDC Chief Operating Officer Sherri Berger said in a statement, "It's critical that we continue to solicit feedback on how we can improve our operations, especially functions as critical as lab safety. We brought this group of external experts together over the summer to assist us with identifying and implementing solutions, of which many are already underway."

Summary: External advisory committee to CDC warns the agency is on its way to losing credibility . Group of experts says CDC's commitment to safety is "inconsistent" and "insufficient " Advisory committee recommends all CDC labs go through external review and accreditation process .


(CNN)Former Vice President Walter Mondale was released from the Mayo Clinic on Saturday after being admitted with influenza, hospital spokeswoman Kelley Luckstein said. "He's doing well. We treated him for flu and cold symptoms and he was released today," she said. Mondale, 87, was diagnosed after he went to the hospital for a routine checkup following a fever, former President Jimmy Carter said Friday. "He is in the bed right this moment, but looking forward to come back home," Carter said during a speech at a Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. "He said tell everybody he is doing well." Mondale underwent treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The 42nd vice president served under Carter between 1977 and 1981, and later ran for President, but lost to Ronald Reagan. But not before he made history by naming a woman, U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York, as his running mate. Before that, the former lawyer was a U.S. senator from Minnesota. His wife, Joan Mondale, died last year.

Summary: Walter Mondale was released from the Mayo Clinic on Saturday, hospital spokeswoman said . The former vice president, 87, was treated for cold and flu symptoms .


(CNN)Three teenagers from northwest London were released on bail Sunday after their alleged plans to travel to Syria led to their arrest. Two 17-year-olds boys and a 19-year-old man were arrested "on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts," the Metropolitan Police said. The investigation started on Friday, after police learned the two 17-year-olds were missing and were believed to be traveling to Syria. They were traveling with a 19-year-old, police said. British authorities shared intelligence regarding the 17-year-olds with Turkish officials on Friday, and that night, the individuals landed in Istanbul on a flight from Barcelona, Spain, a Turkish official told CNN. The teens were stopped, along with another person who had been regarded as suspicious by Turkish intelligence working at the airport's risk analysis center, which monitors risky flights and runs checks on suspicious passengers trying to enter Turkey. Turkish authorities questioned the teens, the Turkish official said, and the Metropolitan Police said the three arrived back in London shortly before midnight Saturday and were arrested. "When we have intelligence shared with us there is no problem. We stop them and directly deport them. And of course Turkish intelligence is always on the lookout as well," the Turkish official said. Turkey on Thursday arrested a person who worked for an undisclosed nation's intelligence service on suspicion of helping the girls, according to Turkey's foreign minister. On Friday, a Turkish television network aired a video purportedly showing the girls preparing to cross the Turkish border into Syria. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Arwa Damon and Karen Smith contributed to this report.

Summary: Three teens were released on bail in London, where they face terror charges . Three males -- two of them 17, one of them 19 -- detained by Turkish authorities, police say .


Los Angeles (CNN)Three area residents were arrested and charged Wednesday for allegedly operating four Southern California schools for Korean and Chinese students who never attended classes and lived in other states on student visas in a "pay-to-stay" scheme. The three educators collected as much as $6 million in annual tuition from an enrollment of about 1,500 foreign students who were largely from South Korea and China, said federal prosecutors. The arrests came after a federal grand jury indicted the three defendants Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, money laundering and other immigration offenses. An allegation in the indictment would also require the defendants to forfeit property and proceeds derived from the fraudulent scheme, authorities said. Hee Sun Shim, 51, of Beverly Hills, is the owner and manager and of the postsecondary schools and is charged with 13 counts of use or possession of an immigration document procured by fraud, authorities said. The two other defendants are each charged with one count of that same offense: They are Hyung Chan Moon, also known as Steve Moon, 39, of Los Angeles who assisted in the operation and management of the schools; and Eun Young Choi, also known as Jamie Choi, 32, of Los Angeles, a former employee who also assisted in the operation and management of the school. Shim, who also went by Leonard Shim and Leo Shim, is also charged with three counts of encouraging illegal residence, as well as two counts of money laundering, prosecutors said. The three defendants and their attorneys couldn't be immediately reached for comment Wednesday. "Immigration fraud schemes potentially compromise national security and cheat foreign nationals who play by the rules," Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said in a statement. "In this case, officials at several schools allegedly abused their responsibility to ensure that only legitimate foreign students were allowed to the stay in the country. This type of fraud against the United States will be thoroughly examined to bring those responsible to justice and to protect the integrity of our immigration system," the federal prosecutor said. Three of the schools are in Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood: Prodee University/Neo-America Language School; Walter Jay M.D. Institute, an Educational Center (WJMD); and the American College of Forensic Studies (ACFS), authorities said. The fourth school is currently operating in Alhambra, California: Likie Fashion and Technology College, authorities said. "What we've broken up is a pay-to-stay scheme," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "That's a scheme where institutions purport to be schools, but are really not doing any education whatsoever," he said. "Any scheme where someone gains access to the U.S. through fraud is also a national security vulnerability," Arnold said. "Although we don't have any information that any of these people wish to do harm to the U.S., the point is anyone could take advantage of a vulnerability like this. Which is why it is so important that we identify these vulnerabilities and shut them down." Prodee University/Neo-America Language School was located on the fifth floor

Summary: CNN attends federal raid, finds school abandoned, resembling movie set . Three defendants collected as much as $6 million in annual tuition from about 1,500 students . Students largely came from South Korea and China, feds say .


Hong Kong (CNN)A Canadian pastor, who went to North Korea on a humanitarian trip in late January, is being held in the reclusive Communist state, his family said early Thursday. The family of Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim said they received notice from Canadian officials that Pyongyang has confirmed that the pastor is being held. "The Lim family and the church community is asking fellow Canadians and the international community to continue praying for his release and safe return home," a family spokeswoman said in a short emailed statement. Lim, 60, went to North Korea on a humanitarian trip as he had done over a hundred times before, said Lisa Pak, a spokeswoman for his church, based in Mississauga, Ontario. On January 30, Lim traveled to North Korea from China with a companion from the church who last spoke with him the following day. Lim was scheduled to return February 4 from what was described as a "routine" trip to Rajin, in northeastern North Korea, where his church supports a nursery, orphanage and nursing home, according to the Light Korean Presbyterian Church. In 1986, Lim immigrated to Canada from South Korea with his wife and son. He speaks fluent Korean and leads a 3,000-member church. Pak, the church's spokeswoman, said she doesn't believe Lim would have engaged in any type of proselytizing, which is prohibited in North Korea. "He knows the language, he knows the nature of the government, so we don't see that as a legitimate reason that he would be detained," she said. "We don't believe that's the way he would have behaved. He's very wise about that." Previously, North Korea has detained Westerners on religious grounds. Cases include American Kenneth Bae, who was detained for two years after North Korea accused him of trying to bring down the government through religious activities. Bae was released in November. Another American, Jeffrey Fowle, was arrested after leaving a Bible at a club in North Korea and released after five months in detention. Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a U.S. citizen sentenced to eight years of hard labor and believed to be a Christian activist, was released from North Korea in 2010 after a visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. CNN's KJ Kwon contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea, and Tina Burnside from Atlanta.

Summary: Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, speaks Korean fluently and has visited North Korea numerous times . North Korea has detained Westerners on religious grounds.


(CNN)Warning: This article contains offensive language. Slut, ho, hussy, heifer, bitch -- long before I ever heard those words flow in a rap song, I heard them first in my own home, my own neighborhood. And too many times, they were directed toward me or one of my grade-school girlfriends. You see, for generations, black girls have been so conditioned to being called these over-sexualized names -- first by our slave masters, then our mothers, sisters, friends and eventually the world -- that today many times we don't even take offense. We deny our pain or hurt feelings. We even make excuses for the name-callers because it's difficult to decipher, especially for young girls, when the offender means it in a tough love, sisterly kind of way or a "he didn't mean it in that kind of way," as Little League standout Mo'ne Davis said on ESPN's SportsCenter on Monday. She was explaining why she had forgiven Bloomsburg University baseball player Joey Casselberry recently. Davis emailed the university to ask for Casselberry to be reinstated. Here's what he had tweeted after hearing that Disney plans to produce a movie based on Davis' life titled: "Throw Like Mo": . "WHAT A JOKE. That slut got rocked by Nevada." Ugly, jealous, hateful words meant to intimidate and objectify a 13-year-old girl. But Davis was quick to respond with a class beyond her years: "Everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance," she told ESPN. "... I know right now he's really hurt and I know how hard he worked to get where he is. I mean, I was pretty hurt on my part but I know he's hurting even more," said Davis, the first girl in Little League World Series history to earn a win and pitch a shutout. Bloomsburg immediately kicked Casselberry off the team but now says it will review the matter. I hope the school sticks to its decision. It was the right call and the university's action spoke volumes about its integrity -- and how it values women and girls. Surely, Bloomsburg University believes that sports are meant to teach more than simply how to hit, catch and run. We talk about using sports to build character, leadership and respect for others. Casselberry seems to have missed those lessons, or maybe he just thinks they don't apply to women. His promising college baseball career doesn't have to end over this mistake. Let the school review the situation next season; see then if Casselberry has had time to truly understand his actions. Good for Davis, for rising above the hateful remark — and also above the outrage on social media, where millions rose to her defense — to offer such a gracious response. But it should go without saying: It's never OK or excusable to attack a successful 13-year-old girl with such a chauvinist remark. Neither little girls, no matter their ethnicity, nor grown women are open targets for sexist, ignorant public attacks. The incident provides a good opportunity, however, for we in the black community to consider how we

Summary: Roxanne Jones: Ballplayer called Mo'ne Davis slut in a tweet. She graciously asked his college to reinstate him after he was kicked from team . Jones: Black girls conditioned from young age by culture and even family to accept being called over-sexualized names . She says it's hurtful, confusing, can have long-term effect. Community should recognize the harm this does to young, smart, strong girls .


Dulles, Virginia (CNN)Two quick-thinking passengers in the third row of a United flight to Denver tackled and subdued a man who was heading toward the cockpit, other travelers on the plane told CNN on Tuesday. The incident started shortly after United Flight 1074 took off around 10:15 p.m. Monday from Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington. The Boeing 737 jet was supposed to take its 33 passengers and six crew members to Denver, but turned back because the unnamed passenger "failed to comply with crew instructions," United Airlines spokesman Luke Punzenberger said. Joshua Lindstrom told "Anderson Cooper 360˚" Tuesday night that a man was acting strangely as he moved up the aisle. "The flight attendant gave some sort of command to stand back, and he turned and started heading toward the cockpit. And the guy in 3E was a lightning bolt and just jumped out of his seat and took the guy down to the ground." The hero's seatmate piled on and grabbed the out-of-control passenger's legs, Lindstrom said. Passenger Donna Tellam told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" the men reacted so quickly she thought they were air marshals. She said the unruly man had come down the aisle, screaming about the plane going too slow and flailing his arms. A flight attendant used plastic ties to bind the man's wrists as the plane headed back, she said. Earlier, a government official with direct knowledge of the incident told CNN that the detained passenger had run toward the cockpit screaming "jihad, jihad." Lindstrom told Cooper he didn't hear those words but after the flight was back on the ground the man who tackled the unruly passenger mentioned it. "He said, 'Did you hear it? Like he said 'jihad' a couple times (while he was being restrained)," Lindstrom said. "... In the end it was more surreal than it was scary. It was wild." Lindstrom said two other people helped keep the man on the floor for the 20 minutes or so that it took the flight crew to return to Dulles. During that time, the subdued man's mood would change. The man was rattling on about someone trying to bring the plane down, then become despondent and cry, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." A cell phone video shows the man, bruised on his face, being held down. At one point, he pleads, "Please stop, please stop, they said call it off." At another, the man seems to cry as he says, "I'm so sorry." "Don't move," one passenger says, apparently trying to calm the man. "You're OK. We're going to get you off this plane, buddy." The plane returned to Dulles around 10:40 p.m., said Kimberly Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs the northern Virginia airport. Airport police took the unruly passenger off the plane, and airport firefighter-EMTs transported him to a nearby hospital, according to Gibbs. As of late Tuesday evening, the passenger had not been arrested or charged with a crime, officials said. There is nothing, so far, in the tackled man's background to suggest he has

Summary: Witness on plane says unruly passenger talked about someone trying to bring plane down . Another passenger tells CNN man said plane was going too slow . Airport spokeswoman: Passenger not arrested or charged with a crime so far .


(CNN)A photography teacher at a Southern California high school appears to have committed suicide by hanging herself in a classroom. Jillian Jacobson, 31, was found Monday at El Dorado High School, said Lt. Eric Point, with Placentia Police. There was no indication of foul play, and every indication that she took her own life, he said. According to Steve Concialdi with the Orange County Fire Authority, students had been waiting outside the classroom to get in. Another teacher opened the door. When they went inside the classroom, they found Jacobson hanged. They quickly brought her to the ground and called 911, said Concialdi, but she was declared dead at the scene. If you're in crisis or contemplating suicide, please contact The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Students posted tributes to the teacher on social media, saying she would be greatly missed. One called her caring; another said she was a beautiful soul. Crisis counselors are expected to be on campus all week to support staff and students. CNN's Stella Chan and Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.

Summary: A photography teacher is found dead at El Dorado High School in Placentia . Another teacher and students found her in a classroom .


(CNN)A runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport reopened Friday morning, a day after a Delta Air Lines plane skidded off it before halting near the icy waters of Flushing Bay. Runway 13 remained closed until the plane could be removed and brought into a hangar. It reopened at 10:30 a.m. ET Friday, according to Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Delta plane slid off the runway Thursday morning, with its nose busting through a fence before skidding to a halt mere feet from frigid waters. Delta Flight 1086 briefly circled New York due to issues with snow and ice before touching down shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday, passenger Jared Faellaci told CNN. Almost as soon as it did, those aboard realized something was wrong -- the aircraft's wheels seemed to have little to no traction, sliding for about 20 seconds. "You didn't feel the wheels take," Faellaci said. Then it was a matter of "where we are going to end up," he said. About 4,500 to 5,000 feet down Runway 13, the MD-88 veered to the left and mercifully stopped on a small embankment. A little farther, and the plane -- with 127 passengers and five crew members -- would have been in Flushing Bay rather than on the airport's snow-covered ground. Contrary to what Delta said in a statement, the aircraft's slides did not deploy, according to Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye. Still, with help from first responders, everyone was able to get off and onto buses that took them to LaGuardia's Delta terminal. Video showed passengers exiting the plane into the subfreezing temperatures as emergency vehicles converged on the area. Twenty-four people suffered injuries that were non-life threatening. Three of those were transported to nearby hospitals, the New York City Fire Department tweeted. Faellaci said he was thankful for the plane's crew, first responders and God that it wasn't much worse. "It was cause for a moment of prayer and a moment of reflection, as people were scared," he said. "The pilot did a phenomenal job." The plane left a relatively balmy Atlanta shortly after 9 a.m. LaGuardia was dealing with snow and freezing fog as the flight approached its destination about two hours later. Before touching down, the plane's pilot said weather problems could cause a delay. Still, little prepared passengers for what happened. Faellaci said he was reminded of the U.S. Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River in 2009. All 155 people aboard that flight -- heading from LaGuardia to Charlotte, North Carolina -- famously survived thanks to the skills of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. The landing of Delta Flight 1086 was terrifying for many. "There were people that were calm, there were people that were praying, there were people that obviously were frantic, there were people that were crying," Faellaci said. Jihad Lateef, another passenger, was traveling with his brother. "When the plane landed it was like me falling off of the top bunk -- didn't really know what was going on -- I just

Summary: LaGuardia Airport's Runway 13 reopens after plane removed . Passenger: Airplane skidded for about 20 seconds before stopping feet from water . Fire department reports 24 non-life-threatening injuries, three headed to area hospitals .


(CNN)The aircraft carrier USS Ranger, which saw action in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm and had appearances in the movies "Top Gun" and "Star Trek IV," is on its final journey, a five-month cruise at the end of a tow cable from Bremerton, Washington, to a scrapyard in Texas. The 56,300-ton warship, which was launched in 1956, was decommissioned in 1993 but kept in storage for possible reactivation until March 2004 when it was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and made available for donation to a group that could preserve it and turn it into a museum. But attempts by groups in Long Beach, California, and Fairview, Oregon, to do so came up short of meeting U.S. government requirements for donation. The Long Beach group called itself Top Gun Super Carrier in reference to the Ranger's role in the 1986 Tom Cruise movie. The carrier was used for interior shots in the film, which also featured appearances by the carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Enterprise, according to Internet Movie Database. In December, the Navy paid International Shipbreaking of Brownsville, Texas, a penny to take the carrier off its hands. The shipbreaker makes its profit by selling the parts of the ship for scrap. The Ranger, which left Bremerton on Thursday, follows two of its predecessors in the Forrestal class of carriers -- the Forrestal and the Saratoga -- to scrapyards in Brownsville. Another carrier, the USS Constellation, part of the Kitty Hawk class, was towed to Brownsville last year. Like the Ranger, the Constellation was stored in Washington and because of its size had to be towed all the way around the southern tip of South America, as it would not fit through the Panama Canal. The Ranger's final journey is expected to take four to five months, the Navy said.

Summary: Aircraft carrier USS Ranger's final journey likely will take four to five months, Navy says . Ranger, which was launched in 1956, appeared in movies such as "Top Gun" and "Star Trek IV"


Jerusalem (CNN)A newly released ISIS video shows a child shooting a man the group claims is an Israeli spy. The video identifies the man as 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent. In the video, ISIS shows Musallam's Israeli passport and claims he's an agent sent to infiltrate the group. The 19-year-old's family told CNN Tuesday that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS. "Mohamed told me and his brother that ISIS took him," according to Said Musallam, his father. "They sent him money through the Western Union. They said you will have girls, money, cars, villas, paradise, but afterwords he discovered that there is nothing." It wasn't long before Musallam's family members didn't recognize him when they talked to him on Skype. The man they knew as a kind and funny brother and son who was once a volunteer firefighter had grown a long beard and was carrying a rifle. His father tried to help him get home, sending him money and even enlisting the Red Cross. But his son never made it back to Israel. About a month ago, Said Musallam said, he was told his son was taken by ISIS when he was on his way back and trying to cross the border. A video posted Tuesday on ISIS-affiliated social media accounts shows a man who appears to be Musallam on his knees, wearing an orange jumpsuit. An adult ISIS fighter and a child -- both in fatigues -- stand behind him. The adult, speaking French, gives a command to the child to go forward with the killing. The child steps in front of the man and raises what appears to be a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and shoots Musallam in the forehead. The man immediately falls forward to the ground. The child appears to then fire at least two more shots into the body. Ahmad Musallam said he'd seen the video of his brother and was devastated by his death. "I used to take care of him and babysit him when Mom went to work," he said, crying. "Mohamed is not a brother. He is a son." But he refuses to show the video to his parents, who still can't believe their son is dead. An issue last month of ISIS' English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, included a purported interview with Musallam and described his alleged work for the Israeli spy agency. In the ISIS video, Musallam seems to be reading what appears to be a prepared confession, saying he is an Israeli intelligence agent working for Mossad, sent to infiltrate ISIS. Musallam's family members said they believe he was coerced in the video, forced to lie about ties to Israeli intelligence. "Mohamed is not an agent. Mohamed doesn't have a shekel. If he was an agent he would have lived a beautiful life," his mother, Hind Musallam, said. "We could have been living a different life and I would not be working cleaning houses so we can live." This isn't the first time

Summary: A video claims to show the killing of Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam . Musallam's family says ISIS recruited him . ISIS claims the 19-year-old is an Israeli spy .


(CNN)Actor Jon Hamm, who plays hard-drinking Don Draper on the hit AMC show "Mad Men," has recently completed a 30-day stint in rehab for alcohol abuse, TMZ reports. The celebrity-news site says Hamm checked himself into the high-end Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, at the end of February. "With the support of his longtime partner Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm recently completed treatment for his struggle with alcohol addiction," said representatives for Hamm in a statement to TMZ, People and other media outlets. "They have asked for privacy and sensitivity going forward." The news comes less than two weeks before "Mad Men," which explores the lives of New York advertising executives in the 1960s, begins its final eight-episode run on April 5. Filming for the final episodes was completed months ago. Missouri native Hamm, 44, toiled in near-obscurity for years in Hollywood before finding fame in 2007 as the tormented, womanizing Draper, for which he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV drama. He has been nominated for an acting Emmy seven times for "Mad Men" but has never won.

Summary: Report: Actor Jon Hamm of "Mad Men" has completed a 30-day stint in rehab for alcohol abuse . AMC's "Mad Men" begins its final eight-episode run on April 5 .


(CNN)Vladimir Putin is not a self-effacing man. That's why when the Russian president suddenly disappeared from view people took notice. When Russian officials tried to trick the public by passing off old photos as new appearances, speculation about Putin's whereabouts went viral. Hashtags such as #Whereisputin and #ПутинУмер -- Russian for #PutinIsDead -- became the tip of a giant social media iceberg, much of it streaked with dark humor. In Ukraine, the neighboring state besieged by Putin's forces, someone reportedly left a large funeral wreath at the gate of the Russian embassy. A handwritten message addressed Putin with an expletive, telling him, "Thank you for croaking." The fast-moving iceberg of speculation may melt as fast as it emerged. The Kremlin has now started pushing harder against the rumors, trying to prove that Russia's foremost -- nay, only -- major political leader, is alive and well. Early on Friday, officials released what they said was a picture of Putin taken the day of. But on social media, onlookers accused officials of dusting off old images. Those keeping track insist Putin has not been seen since March 5. Regardless of how or when this speculation ends, it tells us much about the political realities of Russia. This whole thing started after Putin's trip to Kazakhstan was canceled on Wednesday and a Kazakh official told a reporter that the Russian President had fallen ill. Then the Kremlin released a picture of Putin speaking with the leader of the Republic of Karelia. But it turns out that happened on March 4. On Thursday, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the President would miss his regular meeting with the Federal Security Service (FSB). When asked about his boss's health, Peskov said he is "absolutely healthy," his handshake so strong he could "break your hand." To illustrate the point, the Kremlin's Russia Today posted a picture of the mighty President slamming a judo opponent hard against the ground. Peskov says Russia is in the grips of a "spring fever" that is causing people to dream up harebrained scenarios. Amateur sleuths and creative minds have speculated wildly about Putin's health problems. The Swiss magazine Blick said Putin is in Lugano, where his girlfriend just gave birth to their baby. Some have said he has cancer; others report a heart attack or a stroke. There are even suggestions that he went off to join ISIS, or is playing hide-and-seek a la Where's Waldo. Does Putin ever catch a cold? Does he ever get sick? The Kremlin doesn't want to allow Putin's image of virility and strength to become tarnished by the weaknesses of mere humans. That's hardly surprising. Putin is not your average president. On paper, Russia is a democracy. But no objective observer believes that. Putin is the state. Every important decision is made by him. Putin rules in the old-fashioned style of a personality cult. His approval ratings are stratospheric, even if his brazen policies would warrant more significant levels of disagreement. Approval ratings nearing 90% are the product of suppression of dissent and media maneuvers demonizing, ridiculing, and

Summary: Frida Ghitis: It's unclear where President Vladimir Putin is at the moment . Ghitis: Speculation about his whereabouts went viral as Russian officials posted old photos .


(CNN)India's highest court has reversed a controversial law that gave the authorities sweeping powers to arrest and potentially jail people for comments posted on social networks and other Internet platforms. The Supreme Court ruled that Section 66A of the 2008 Information Technology Act was "unconstitutional" and "hit at the root of liberty and freedom of expression, the two cardinal pillars of democracy." Under Section 66A, alleged offenders could face up to three years in jail for posting material that is "grossly offensive," has "menacing character," -- or perhaps even more ambiguously -- causes "annoyance or inconvenience." The court said this wording was "vague" and could be "misconstrued," according to Ranjeeta Rohatgi, an advocate who was present at the hearing in Delhi Tuesday. India's cyber laws have ignited a furious debate about curbs on freedom of speech in recent years. In 2012, a university professor was arrested for circulating a cartoon that poked fun at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The cartoon, which was a parody of a scene in a popular Indian movie, went viral on social media. He was charged with a range of offenses including defamation, insulting a woman and sending offensive messages from a computer. Mahapatra called the charges a misuse of the law "in the name of surveillance, to curb democratic rights, freedom of speech and human rights of common people." A year earlier, Delhi went one step further with its digital crackdown when the so-called "intermediary guidelines" implicated web platforms themselves. The rules now require Internet companies to take down any content seen as "disparaging," "blasphemous," or "defamatory" within 36 hours of a user submitting a formal request for removal. In Mumbai, India's financial center, police spokesman Dhananjay Kulkarni told CNN in February that some 650 posts and pages were blocked last year under these regulations. Google says in the last half of 2013 it removed 540 items from its pages in compliance with orders issued by Indian courts, government agencies, and law enforcement. It's a similar story with Facebook. The social networking site took down nearly 5,000 pieces of content reported by the Indian government in the first half of 2014. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Kunal Sehgal in Delhi, as well as Mackenzie Sigalos in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Summary: Supreme Court rules Section 66A of the 2008 Information Technology Act was "unconstitutional" Offenders previously faced up to three years in jail for posting "grossly offensive" material . Court said this wording was vague and was misused by police .


(CNN)Another Kardashian heard from. Usually the Kardashian-industrial complex is dominated by comments and social media postings from Kim, followed closely by Khloe and perhaps one of the Jenner children. But on Sunday, it was Rob, the youngest of the four Kardashian siblings, who drew most of the attention. In an Instagram post, Rob Kardashian compared his sister to the sociopathic Amy Dunne, the murderous wife played by Rosamund Pike in "Gone Girl." "My sister kim, the b**** from Gone Girl,,," he posted. He accompanied the text with a photo of Pike's character drenched in blood, fresh from (spoiler alert!) killing her ex-boyfriend. He also unfollowed his entire family, though he changed his mind later. It's not the first time Rob has been at odds with the heavily spotlighted Kardashian clan. He missed out on Kim's wedding to Kanye West, with various (unnamed, of course) gossip sources reporting at the time that he wasn't getting along with members of his family. Khloe Kardashian, who has stayed close to Rob, told Wonderwall.com that he may have a "kind of social anxiety." "I just feel, especially over the last year, Rob has become very introverted and has a kind of social anxiety," she said. "He's definitely not at his happiest place that he once was, and I know he can get to that happy place and he will."

Summary: Rob Kardashian posts a pic from "Gone Girl" on Instagram . He compares the lead character to his sister Kim . Rob Kardashian has had an uneven relationship with family members .


Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN)Islamic militants with the extremist group Al-Shabaab mounted a bloody attack Thursday on government administration offices in Baidoa, Somalia. Initial reports to police indicate that nine people, including four attackers, were killed after gunmen in military uniforms attacked the house of the former Somali parliament speaker and current president of the newly established southwest regional administration, said Col. Mahad Abdi, a Somali police officer. The attack began when a car bomb detonated at the gate of the state palace in Baidoa city, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu. Heavy gunfire broke out between Somali troops backed by Ethiopian forces inside the house of the regional president, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. Explosions and gunfire were still going on over an hour after the initial assault, Abdi said. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. A broadcast by the group's official radio station, Andulus, said that Al-Shabaab gunmen had entered the regional president's house and killed seven Ethiopian soldiers. The African Union's special representative for Somalia, Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou, condemned the attack, saying it had targeted troops who have worked to restore peace to Baidoa. "I am deeply saddened by news of the attack in Baidoa this morning," he said in a statement released by AMISOM, the African Union mission to Somalia. Sidikou said he had also received reports of an attempted attack at a Mogadishu hotel Wednesday night. "These are desperate attempts by Al-Shabaab to seek relevance, following the massive defeats they continue to suffer from the Somali National Army working together with AMISOM troops," he said. Al-Shabaab started with a goal of waging a war against the Somali government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia. It has since shifted focus to terrorist attacks in Somalia and beyond, even calling, in a video released last month, for attacks on shopping malls in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. U.S. authorities downplayed the threat. How big a threat is Al-Shabaab to the United States? CNN's Laura Smith-Spark and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.

Summary: The African Union's Somalia representative condemns the attack, says it targeted troops . Al-Shabaab says its militants attacked the state palace in the city of Baidoa . Police say initial reports indicate nine people are dead, including four attackers .


(CNN)He may be suffering from the effects of a dislocated shoulder -- but golf legend Arnold Palmer has vowed that won't stop him from hitting his ceremonial opening tee shot at the Masters in Augusta next month. The 85-year-old, speaking to reporters at the Trump Doral resort where he was opening a villa named after him, said he would look forward "to being out on that tee even if I fan it." Palmer's injury happened when he had a fall at the Father-Son Challenge in Florida shortly before Christmas. He explained: "I was going to make a speech at the Father-Son and I tripped on a carpet and did a 360." But the four-time Masters champion, who hit his first ceremonial opening shot back in 2007, said nothing would prevent him from joining fellow greats Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player on the course on April 9 -- even though doctors won't allow him to swing a golf club just yet. "Oh yeah, I plan on it," Palmer, known as 'the King,' said. "I haven't been practicing... I'm not allowed to swing yet. [But] I will whatever." Palmer's Masters triumphs came in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964, and he made his final competitive Masters appearance -- and his 50th in all -- in 2004.

Summary: Four-time Masters winner suffered dislocated shoulder in December . He has struck ceremonial opening tee shot at Masters since 2007 . Doctors won't allow him to swing a golf club yet . He vows to be "out on that tee even if I fan it"


(CNN)Think back to your high school's senior prank. Maybe you and your pals slipped a pig into the building or greased all the door handles or turned all the chairs upside-down. So it's no surprise that Wichita high school Principal Sherman Padgett was reluctant to play along last week when a student showed up and told him to stand in the hallway holding a bucket. "She didn't say anything about why. She just said 'hold the bucket,' " the North High School principal told CNN affiliate KWCH. "I'm not going to hold the bucket unless I have a little inkling of why it could be." Good thing he changed his mind. Once he did, student after student streamed by, dropping notes of praise and thanks into the bucket. "Thank you for making high school the best years of my life," one said. "You've made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember," read another. One student recalled how Padgett "helped me get through my eating disorder and helped me get into therapy." The notes were the idea of senior Emily Jones. She decided she wanted to do something nice for the principal and cooked up the plan with her mother. "Padgett's an awesome principal," she said. For Padgett, who has been principal at North since 2006, the experience was priceless. "Became a little emotional on some of them," he said, "I kind of read them and thought, 'man, this is better than a paycheck. This is why I do the things that I do.' "

Summary: Wichita, Kansas, high school students surprise principal with kind-hearted senior prank . "This is why I do the things that I do," the principal says .


Aberdeenshire, Scotland (CNN)In an exclusive interview ahead of his U.S. tour -- and ahead of his 10-year wedding anniversary -- Prince Charles paid tribute to the "brilliant" way his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has taken on the "real, real challenge" of defining her public role. "It's always marvelous to have somebody who, you know, you feel understands and wants to encourage. Although she certainly pokes fun if I get too serious about things. And all that helps," Prince Charles told CNN. The couple first visited the U.S. together as newlyweds in 2005, and Camilla was confronted by hardcore Princess Diana fans with abusive placards. Polls at the time found that between 57% and 73% of Brits opposed Charles' new wife being known as queen. If you go back even further, to 1997, the year Diana died, an Ipsos MORI poll put it at 86%. Reporter's notebook: Interviewing the royal couple . But there's been a change in sentiment since they married. A new poll conducted by Comres for CNN found that only 35% now oppose Camilla being known as queen. Nearly one in four said they liked her more now than they did 10 years ago. This coincides with a change in palace strategy -- away from the aggressive spin machine of the 1990s to simply allowing Camilla to be herself. When she appears in public, she's either seen supporting her husband or promoting a set of causes she has a genuine connection with. Prince Charles praised how his wife has handled herself. "She's done an enormous amount for the whole issue around osteoporosis, which of course runs in her family," he said, noting that Camilla's mother and grandmother both suffered from the bone disease. He also points to other issues Camilla is associated with, including literacy and preventing sexual violence. The Duchess of Cornwall, by sticking to what she knows and cares about, is able to connect with the people she meets, which doesn't always come across on camera. When Charles and Camilla married in 2005, there was huge sensitivity around the legacy of Diana, who was expected to be queen herself. With this in mind, royal aides announced that Camilla would not use the title of Queen when Charles becomes King. Instead she would be known as Princess Consort. That still stands, although the public of today looks less likely to oppose the title of Queen.

Summary: Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, preparing for U.S. trip . Charles praises Camilla for how she has defined her public role . The two are coming up on their 10-year wedding anniversary .


(CNN)Many years ago, a colleague told me how frustrated her husband was by "Amazon Mom," a special membership program offered by the retail giant that provides discounts, recommendations and other information to help parents during the crazy toddler years. In bold print, the company says the program is "open to anyone, whether you're a mom, dad, grandparent, or caretaker." But still it is called "Amazon Mom," irking my colleague's husband to no end since he was the one ordering the majority of diapers and other products for their babies. 'Dad' gets a makeover in Super Bowl ads . My friend's husband was not alone. A petition created a few years ago calls on Amazon to change the name of the program from "Amazon Mom" to "Amazon Family." But the drive didn't get much traction. That changed after the recent death of a beloved dad blogger, Oren Miller, who created a Facebook group for dad bloggers in 2012 that has grown to more than 1,000 members. In 2013, Miller called on men and women to sign the petition to get Amazon to change the name of the program. "Why did Amazon bother changing the name of its parenting program when the program started in the UK? What made them realize they couldn't get away with calling it 'Amazon Mom,' and why do they get away with it here?" Miller wrote. "Someone actually started a petition to change the name to 'Amazon Family' in the US, and so far it has less than 100 signatures. Why is that? Why are we OK with letting England be more progressive than we are here when it comes to fatherhood? They have a queen! They are ruled by a freakin' queen! We can do better than that!" he wrote. No more dumb old dad: Changing the bumbling father stereotype . I had the pleasure of interviewing Miller for a story last year on whether modern dads get enough credit. The 42-year-old stay-at-home father of two, who fought perceptions of fathers as nothing more than babysitters in essays on his blog, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. Miller, of Owings Mills, Maryland, died Saturday. Now, members of the dad blogging community are rallying in his honor, trying to step up the pressure on the Internet powerhouse to finally change the name of its program and get with the times. Mike Heenan, a stay-at-home father of two in Northern California and founder of the blog At-Home Dad Matters, never got to meet Miller but says that when Miller welcomed him into his community of dad bloggers, it changed his life. "He got me writing again, inspired me to publish, to contribute, to tell my story ... to be a better dad for my daughters." Heenan, like several other dad bloggers, took to Twitter using the #AmazonFamilyUS hashtag to call for Amazon to make the change. "The push for inclusivity in the parenting arena has been well received by many a brand in the past few years and, like Oren, many of us think the change to 'Amazon Family'

Summary: Two years ago, a dad blogger called attention to the "Amazon Mom" program . After his death, dads are urging the retail giant to change the name to "Amazon Family" The petition drive has gotten more than 4,800 signatures .