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(CNN) -- The mayor of North Chicago placed the city's police chief on leave and hired a retired officer to lead an investigation into six cases of alleged excessive use of force by police over the past 18 months.
Police Chief Michael Newsome is on paid administrative leave, Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. said Tuesday.
"I do think that is something that we do need to look into and make sure that things are being done properly in our police department," Rockingham said. "There's a lot of things that have come to light that I think does warrant us to take a second look."
In addition, the gender and race of the people involved in the incidents will be investigated, and reporting requirements will be tightened, he said.
"I think that we, as the city of North Chicago, do need to make sure that the residents and people who are coming into our community are being handled properly," he said.
But Rockingham expressed confidence in police, whose job is to maintain order among the 36,000 residents of North Chicago, where the average income was $17,685, according to the 2010 Census.
"I will say, if there's anyone we find that is not doing what they should be doing, we will do disciplinary actions to those officers," he said. "But I think, all in all, if you look at our department, we have a fine police force."
Over the past four years, the department has been involved in some 88 use-of-force incidents, the mayor said. Asked how many of them were investigated at the time they occurred, Rockingham said that will be part of the newly announced investigation, which is to be completed by February 1.
Rockingham said the six cases came to light after publicity surrounding the November case of Darrin Hanna, who died days after police allegedly beat him and used a Taser on him during a domestic abuse call to his house.
"I'm a mother who lost her son by a beating," his mother, Gloria Carr, told reporters recently.
Lawyer Kevin O'Connor is representing Hanna's family and three other alleged victims in the cases under investigation.
O'Connor said the North Chicago Police Department has a problem with a group of officers that have repeatedly beat people.
"I think there are very good officers on the force, but it looks like the problem is in the night shift that is not very well supervised," said O'Connor. "There is about 10 that call themselves a gang. We have heard stories that they handcuff people and tell them they have a time period to run before they are beaten. So basically they are making them run, so that they can get a chance to beat them up."
O'Connor said his law firm has heard from more than 30 people who plan to come forward and tell their story about abuse from local police.
"They were scared before, but now they want to tell their stories," O'Connor said. "I am glad the mayor did this. This is the first step. But why did it take someone dying before someone finally did something?"
In a case that occurred last October, Christopher Harper, 31, of Waukegan, said he was preparing to leave his job as a bouncer at a North Chicago bar when a policeman pulled up shortly before midnight. The radio in Harper's Dodge Magnum was cranked, which apparently bothered the policeman, Harper said.
"He told me he was towing the car for loud music," Harper said.
Harper said he took his house keys out of his car's ignition and was walking away from the policeman toward the bar when he was struck repeatedly by electroshocks.
"He just Tased me in my back for no reason and kept doing it. I didn't understand that."
The officer fired a Taser at least six times into his back, he said.
"I ran 'til I couldn't take no more of the shockage, and then I just fell out. I was asking him why was he | [
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] | [
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"Police Chief Michael Newsome is on paid administrative leave,"
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"lead an investigation into six cases of alleged excessive use of force by police"
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"six cases of alleged excessive use of force by police over the past 18 months."
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] | North Chicago's police chief is on paid administrative leave, the mayor says .
Mayor orders investigation into six cases of alleged excessive use of force .
"Why did it take someone dying before someone finally did something?" attorney asks . |
(CNN) -- The mayor of Portland, Oregon, publicly apologized Tuesday for lying about a sexual relationship he had with an 18-year-old male in 2005, and for asking the teen to lie about it. "This was a serious error that happened about four years ago," Portland Mayor Sam Adams tells reporters. "I want to apologize to the people of Portland for my dishonesty and for embarrassing them," Mayor Sam Adams, a Democrat, said at an afternoon news conference. But the mayor -- who is openly gay and whose election last year possibly made Portland the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor -- said he has no plans to resign. "This was a serious error that happened about four years ago," Adams said. "My job now is to come clean -- I mucked it up -- and to press forward." Adams returned to Portland from Washington, where he had planned to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama, to hold the news conference. A day earlier, Adams issued a statement saying: "In the past, I have characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely nonsexual. That is not true. Beau Breedlove and I had a sexual relationship for a few months in the summer of 2005 after he turned 18 years of age." Adams issued the statement Monday after a local newspaper, the Willamette Week, published a story about the relationship between Adams, who was a city commissioner in 2005, and Breedlove, then a legislative intern. During the mayoral campaign, questions had emerged about whether Adams and Breedlove had a sexual relationship. Adams said he had lied about the relationship during the campaign, and had asked Breedlove to lie, because of "untrue rumors being circulated saying that I had broken the law regarding sex relations with a minor." "The allegation coming at me was 'sex with a minor,' " Adams said. "But still, I should have told the truth at the time and taken the consequences." The relationship was consensual and "although inappropriate, was legal," Adams said. "I'm the one that should be held accountable. I'm the older adult," he said. Adams was 42 and Breedlove was 17 when the two met, according to the Willamette newspaper. Adams emphasized that what he called a "romantic" relationship with Breedlove did not begin until after Breedlove was 18. Adams said the two had "maybe three or four dates" over two or three months in 2005 before the relationship ended. The mayor apologized to Breedlove for asking him to lie, and to Portland's gay community "for embarrassing them." It was not clear whether Breedlove was in attendance at Tuesday's news conference. Adams said that "this is fundamentally an issue of a public official lying." "I don't think this fundamentally is an issue about sexual orientation," he said. "Other people can debate that but, for me, it's about an error in judgment and then seeking to make amends for that and being very up-front about the mistake and then carrying on," he said. Asked by a reporter if he lied to get elected, Adams said: "I definitely lied to avoid what I thought was another lie that I couldn't overcome. So, in a way, yes." Asked if he had thought he could get away with lying, Adams responded: "I think that's going to be up to my colleagues and the people of Portland." | [
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] | NEW: Portland Mayor Sam Adams says he has no plans to resign .
"I want to apologize" for mistake, Adams says at news conference .
Adams had affair with 18-year-old intern in 2005, then asked him to lie about it .
Adams makes admission after newspaper reports relationship . |
(CNN) -- The medals have been presented, the caldron extinguished and the crowds dispersed, but there's one record from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics that may have been overlooked: Most condoms distributed at a Winter Games.
It's hard to say this conclusively, and judges from other host cities may demand a recount, but Clay Adams of Vancouver Coastal Health said the word on the public health street is that Vancouver is king of the prophylactic winter rings.
Over the course of 17 days, the health agency doled out 100,000 condoms, supplied by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. And after buzz, some based on rumors, grew that there was a shortage -- "We were not getting calls from people saying, 'Help, I need condoms,'" Adams laughed -- an emergency shipment of 8,500 additional rubbers came in from the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research.
Some media outlets reported that the supply was strictly for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and officials, totaling about 6,500 people according to the Vancouver Organizing Committee. That would suggest an average of at least 15 condoms per person, and rampant sex of Olympic proportions.
But Adams, spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, clarified and said the free condoms were available not just to athletes and game officials. They were on the cruise ships that housed security, support staff and volunteers. They were in washrooms at public venues, including the downtown pavilions where visitors gathered for free concerts. They were handed out by volunteers and readily available in clinics.
The mass distribution of rubbers was part of a greater effort to improve HIV and AIDS awareness, Adams said.
Lots of people don't have the same kind of access to public health messages about disease prevention, and "when you've got a global audience like this, it's a huge opportunity to educate the world," he said.
Since the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, condoms have been distributed free to athletes. About 40,000 of the original 100,000 in Vancouver were for those staying in the athlete villages in Vancouver and Whistler, Adams said.
How many of them were actually used is an impossible question to answer. Some say condoms were snagged as souvenirs, although Adams said they were not branded with Olympic rings. He said he did hear stories of athletes from countries with inferior condoms stuffing their suitcases with the coveted rubbers.
But no matter what happened to the condoms, the public health effort in Vancouver is one that makes him proud.
"Indications are that Vancouver topped the podium for Winter Olympics," Adams said. "Although we recently heard that they issued 35 million condoms for Mardi Gras in Rio, so I suppose we all have a long, long way to go to reach that mark." | [
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] | Other may want a recount, but it seems Vancouver's tops for Winter Games condoms .
More than 100,000 rubbers were distributed; 8,500 more were sent as backup .
Since 1992 Barcelona Olympics, condoms have been free for athletes at games .
Health official proud of distribution, but hears Rio gave out 35 million at Mardi Gras . |
(CNN) -- The media has been abuzz since former Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair. Cubby Squires met John Edwards in 2007. He said news of the affair makes Edwards' political career "nonexistent." Edwards told ABC News' "Nightline" on Friday that he had an affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. The affair began in 2006 after Hunter was hired to make documentary videos for Edwards' presidential campaign. The scandal was a hot topic in the news, including among iReport contributors. "I took it really personally," said Cubby Squires of Charlotte, North Carolina. "I always thought John Edwards was different from the typical politician." Squires said there has been nonstop coverage of Edwards' affair in Charlotte. "It just makes his political career nonexistent," he said. "I really don't think he can get into politics again." Mike Daly of Santa Barbara, California, said he sympathizes with Edwards. Daly, who lost his wife to breast cancer six years ago, noted that Edwards had been facing a great deal: the loss of his child, a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and wife Elizabeth's diagnosis with cancer. "These are real hard hits and perhaps he's crumbling," Daly said. iReport.com: Read Daly's opinions Many iReporters questioned why the Edwards scandal deserves so much media attention. Carroll Byrd of Richmond, Virginia, described it as a "nonstory," adding that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain deserves the same level of scrutiny of his sexual relations. "[Edwards] is not a candidate for office now," said Byrd, a supporter of the former senator from North Carolina. "I think something that happened two years ago should be a private matter between him and his wife." Read below to see a sampling of responses from iReport.com users, some of which have been edited for length and clarity: iReporter jd1rymal: Good grief. ... He has an affair. Terrible. The shame, the agony of it all. I'm not talking about his moment(s) of weakness, but the blood in the water that the media are feeding on as if they were sharks. Get over it! Shellyta: No, I am not surprised by a powerful man having an affair. At least twice a year we hear about one of those. What amazes me is how in the world someone thinks that they can get away with something like this without thinking about the consequences. kardolfin: It is disappointing to hear that Edwards had an affair, but it's not the end of the world. He isn't the first person to do it and I'm sure he won't be the last. It is just a big deal because he was in the presidential race and that it is obviously a negative thing. I am disappointed in Edwards, but I don't think he is a bad person and I don't think it will destroy him. captain1944: Obama is in Hawaii, McCain is, as usual, taking the weekend off, and the Olympics are on. The media needs something to fill up airtime. Now CNN, please, this does not really need to be a 24/7 story. cgigante: I still believe in John Edwards' message. He was a true progressive candidate with a shot at winning, and it's a shame he'll now be sidelined over an indiscretion like this. Sure, it's no good that he was dishonest in his personal life, but I don't see how it has any bearing on his plans for economic equality and justice in the United States. JanaSagan: This affair in no way affects or concerns anyone other than the three adults involved. This should not even be in the news. We have no right to judge him or anyone else in matters of love. It is not a crime to fall out of love with one person and into love with another. Love is beyond our control. No one knows what causes love to begin or end. If we | [
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"What did John Edwards admit to?",
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] | Former Sen. John Edwards admits to an extramarital affair .
Many iReport contributors question why Edwards' affair is a big news story .
"We have no right to judge him or anyone else," one iReporter says .
iReport.com: What do you think? Share your verdict on Edwards' affair . |
(CNN) -- The medical examiner has ruled that the death of Daniel Kerrigan, the father of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, was a homicide, the Middlesex County district attorney's office said Tuesday.
The skater's brother, Mark, was arraigned in January on assault and battery charges in an incident involving his father, but the district attorney's office would not say if other charges might be filed against the younger Kerrigan in light of the medical examiner's finding.
Daniel Kerrigan, 70, died January 24 after an alleged altercation with his son at the Kerrigan home in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
The Kerrigan family released a statement through their attorney expressing disappointment "that the medical examiner would release a cause of death without having all of the relevant facts. We believe this finding to be premature and inaccurate."
"The Kerrigan family does not blame anyone for the unfortunate death of Dan Kerrigan, who had a pre-existing heart condition," said the family statement, released by attorney Tracy Miner.
Mark Kerrigan, 45, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him January 26. Through his attorney, he denied any responsibility in his father's death.
According to Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley, police responded to a 911 call at approximately 1:30 a.m. January 24 from Brenda Kerrigan, wife of Daniel and mother to Mark and Nancy Kerrigan.
Keeley told District Court Judge Mark Sullivan during the arraignment for Mark Kerrigan that there was a violent argument and struggle between the father and his son, resulting in the elder Kerrigan falling or collapsing on the kitchen floor. Keeley said Mark Kerrigan told authorities "that he did in fact have an argument with his father, the argument became physical, he grabbed his father around the neck, and at some point the father collapsed to the floor."
According to Keeley, police found Mark Kerrigan in the basement of the house, "clearly intoxicated" and "extremely combative." He refused to comply with police officers, said Keeley, and they had to subdue him with pepper spray before forcibly removing him from the home.
Mark Kerrigan's attorney, Denise Moore, said in court that Kerrigan was unemployed, was recently released from a correctional facility and was living at home with his parents. He is taking medications and seeking psychological help for post-traumatic stress, apparently from his time in the Army, she added.
Despite appeals from his attorney, the judge ordered Kerrigan held on $10,000 cash bail. His next court appearance is expected to be February 24.
Nancy Kerrigan first gained prominence by winning a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. In 1994 she earned a silver medal in Lillehammer, Norway. But she is perhaps best remembered for being injured in an attack before the 1994 Winter Games by skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband and an accomplice. | [
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] | NEW: Death of figure skater's father on January 24 ruled a homicide .
Daniel Kerrigan, 70, died after a "violent argument and struggle" with his son .
Mark Kerrigan in jail on assault and battery charges, may face additional charges .
He is being held on $10,000 cash bail; next court appearance is February 24 . |
(CNN) -- The mid-Atlantic region continued digging out Monday from the weekend's record blizzard, but snow-weary residents learned of a new winter storm due in the area on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning, with predictions of another 10 to 20 inches of snow, for northern Virginia and eastern Maryland, including the District of Columbia, beginning Tuesday afternoon and continuing through Wednesday. "A winter storm warning means significant amounts of snow are expected or occurring," said the statement from the weather service facility in Sterling, Virginia. "The combination of snow and strong winds will make travel very hazardous." If as severe as predicted, the new storm would be the third major snowfall to hit the nation's capital and surrounding region in just over seven weeks. In last weekend's blizzard, a record 32.4 inches of snow fell on Washington's Dulles International Airport over two days, breaking a January 7-8, 1996, record of 23.2 inches. Federal workers in Washington, with the exception of emergency employees, stayed home Monday and students in most schools in the nation's capital got a snow day. Many residents who spent the weekend playfully making snowmen and hurling snowballs also grumbled as they shoveled hip-high snow from driveways. "The streets are pretty well covered," Kingsley Barreto said Sunday about his subdivision in Gaithersburg, Maryland. "No cars coming in or out of here. Hopefully everyone in the community has enough supplies to last them for a little while, because it doesn't look like we're going anywhere anytime soon," Barreto said in a post he submitted to iReport, a CNN Web site that allows people to submit information, pictures and videos. Watch Barreto's iReport on his neighborhood Crews worked around the clock to clear roads and repair power lines, warning that it might take days to restore electricity to some customers from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Two of Dulles' four runways were open Monday morning, and officials hoped to have a third open later in the day, said Courtney Mickalonis of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The situation there is "getting back to normal," Mickalonis said. But airport officials asked travelers not to go there without confirmed flights. Reagan National Airport was scheduled to reopen at 10 a.m. Monday, with flights resuming on a limited basis, the airport authority said. Travelers were urged to check with airlines on flight schedules before heading to the airport. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was open Monday, with limited service, spokesman Jonathan Dean said. One of the two runways opened Sunday night, and some flights landed, Dean said. However, airport authorities expect carrier delays and cancellations because of the backlog. Are you there? Share your winter weather photos, video Airport crews were dealing with a refreeze from overnight, but officials intended to have both runways open by the end of Monday. Amtrak canceled several trains Sunday after trees and power lines fell on tracks, the train service said. Dozens of Greyhound bus trips in mid-Atlantic states also were canceled, the company said on its Web site. And officials across the region advised drivers to stay off slick roads. "Everybody's just trying to clean up and get a little bit ahead of the game before the next round comes," said Michelle Timberlake, who lives on a farm in Boyce, Virginia, about two hours west of Washington. The interior designer found herself running through a mountain of snow when about 40 cows escaped from the pasture on her husband's farm in search of food and shelter. "This was not what I imagined for myself," she said Sunday, laughing about the experience. CNN's Sarah Lee, Sarah Aarthun, Justin Lear and Rachel Rodriguez contributed to this report. | [
"How many inches of snow fell on Dulles international airport?",
"How much snow fell on Dulles International Airport?",
"How much more snow is expected ?",
"Who got a snowday?"
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] | Federal workers, some students get snow day in nation's capital .
Washington's Reagan National Airport set to reopen .
A record 32.4 inches of snow fell on Dulles International Airport over two days .
Five more inches of snow expected in Washington-Baltimore area . |
(CNN) -- The modern and dysfunctional man, who struggles to find his footing in relationships, career and, in fact, the world, has in many ways been the bread and butter of best-selling British author Nick Hornby's career. Best-selling British author Nick Hornby releases his latest novel, "Juliet, Naked." Best known for his novels "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy," both of which were turned into movies (as was his memoir, "Fever Pitch"), Hornby's latest novel, "Juliet, Naked," released in the United Kingdom on September 1, has just been released in the United States. It focuses on an American singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who still rests on the success he saw with one album in the 1980s, an obsessed English fan, Duncan, and his exasperated girlfriend, Annie. Hornby's love for music has inspired more than plotlines. It has fueled a partnership with the rock band Marah and other projects, which recently included penning the lyrics for Ben Folds' "Levi Johnston's Blues." Meanwhile, Hornby is also the force behind the screenplay of the critically acclaimed film-festival darling, "An Education," which will be released in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. CNN spoke with Hornby about how he develops the characters for his books, the challenges of writing in a woman's voice and his own prowess in relationships. CNN: Your newest novel, "Juliet, Naked," seems to revisit the kind of character that anchored "High Fidelity," the obsessive, somewhat dysfunctional music fan. What is it about this type that had you coming back, and how have the years changed this character? Hornby: Well, I conceived them as being different. Rob in "High Fidelity," he wasn't the obsessive. It was the people around him. This one [Duncan] is one of three characters; he's the nerdy obsessive. ... The Internet's changed everything. There are no record stores to hang out in anymore. Ten or 15 years ago, he [Duncan] wouldn't have found anyone to talk to. And nobody's career [character Tucker Crowe's included] is allowed to die. Way back, obsessives had to admit other interests into their lives. These people don't have to really do anything like that. Watch the author talk about music, comedy and relationships » CNN: Your books, and now your screenplay, are so rich in complicated and incredibly flawed characters who, in turn, have complicated and flawed relationships. How much of what they struggle with is autobiographical? Are there aspects to these characters that are reflections of you? Hornby: I think sometimes there are. I have three kids by two moms. Tucker has five kids by four women. But my experience is relatively ordinary. My relationships are fairly stable. A lot of this is trying to write comedy, and complicated relationships are funnier than straightforward ones. CNN: At times, for instance in your book "How to Be Good," you've narrated as a woman. What are the challenges of taking on a woman's voice? Hornby: Anytime the narrator is someone who is not you, the challenge is equal. The challenge is to make people laugh. My last book, "Slam," was for young adults, and I had to write as a 16-year-old boy. Of course, it makes me more nervous writing as a woman. I just made sure every woman I knew read the narrative as soon as I finished. But no woman speaks for all women. CNN: You've been open about having a son, now 16, who is autistic. How much, if at all, has that informed your writing when it comes to getting into the heads of kids and adolescents in, for example, "About a Boy?" Hornby: It hasn't. Not yet. The experience of fathering a child like that is so different, but I think you have to | [
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] | Nick Hornby, author of "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" releases new book Tuesday .
"Juliet, Naked," revisits the dysfunctional male, music fan kind of character .
Internet has changed how the obsessive type lives and thrives, Hornby says .
"An Education," for which he wrote screenplay, gets critical acclaim, festival attention . |
(CNN) -- The moment I saw that guinea pig's corpse, I made up my mind. I would not tell my son Checkers was dead ... at least not that night. Drew had five tests within the next two days. I wasn't going to let grief jeopardize his grades. Checkers, on the left, enjoys a bit of kale with Andrea. I realize instantly the challenges of my decision. How could I keep this secret in a 10-by-12 room in which the guinea pig chalet was almost as big as the twin bed? I'd already goofed by yelping, "Oh, my!" when I saw the body. Drew heard me from his bathroom. "What's wrong, Mommy? Are you OK?" "I'm fine," I reply. But he recognizes that I haven't answered both questions. "But what's wrong?" "Nothing." "Well, why did you say that? Is it the guinea pigs?" I feel panicked. No sloshing! He's drying off! Pajamas are next! I realize I'm holding my breath, and in my head, I'm yelling, "Move, Christy! Move!" I exhale as I lie. "Everything's OK." In what seemed like one move, I reach in the closet, dump shoes out of a box, grab Checkers, plunk the stiff in the box, run downstairs, stuff the cardboard casket into a plastic bag, dash to the garage trash can, finish rapid hand-washing and make it upstairs as my third-grader steps into the hall. "We're having storytime in my bed tonight!" I say breathlessly. My bed is off-limits except for nightmares, illness or Saturday morning. Drew's so excited about the treat, he runs for the king-sized sanctum without asking questions. We read and pray, and then I give him a piggyback ride into his dark bedroom. It's Wednesday, 7:45 p.m., and for now, I'm in the clear. By the time Drew wakes the next morning, I have a plan: darkness and distraction. We're always 30 minutes into our commute before the sun rises. Between a disabled circuit breaker to prevent lights in his room from working, piggyback rides up and down the stairs, dressing in mom's room (where the lights work) while we review potential bonus words, multiplication drills, Scripture recitation for the Bible test, questions science and reading lessons, there are enough morning distractions to safeguard my secret. Thursday evening is a challenge. In our house, TV is for weekends only. It's cold and drizzly outside; Andrew has beaten me in chess -- twice. I pull out the biggest distraction of all. "I'm going to let you see a video tonight. You need to relax a bit from those tests today," I say. His eyebrows make a big V on his forehead. "But it's a school night, Mommy." I assure him it's OK. He's suspicious, but TV is as awesome as getting in Mom's bed, so no more questions. My co-workers split into camps. The Grief Gurus ream me for concealing the death. Andrew loves Checkers. He deserves timely notice of death. I care more about grades than his emotional health. Bad things will happen to Drew at inopportune times in his life, and he has to learn to juggle difficulties. I'm delaying his development. Whatever. The Practical Posse has opinions, too. That guinea pig still will be dead Friday. Andrew will be just as sad after his tests with fewer consequences than if he's sad before the tests. Make sure you're honest about why you delayed telling him. After school Friday, I break the news. There's a shriek and then loads of tears. I'll never forget the long drawn-out wail, "I loved her like a daughter!" I'm convinced that boy's been reading William Faulkner, | [
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"What died unexpectedly?",
"Who is being keep unaware of the loss due to school tests?",
"What animal did the mother find dead?",
"What secret did a mom keep from her son?",
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] | Mom discovers young boy's guinea pig has died suddenly .
She decides to keep it a secret because he faces several school tests .
Co-workers divided on whether mom's actions are correct . |
(CNN) -- The mood at Hong Kong's Metropark Hotel was subdued Thursday -- but only because most of the guests were in their rooms nursing hangovers from a night of partying the evening before. Quarantined guests and hotel employees wave through the glass at Hong Kong's Metro Park Hotel. And with good reason. For seven days, the 200 guests and 100 staff members at this modest business hotel in the Wanchai bar district have been in involuntary confinement after health officials determined that a guest there had contracted swine flu. But in another 24 hours -- at 8:30 p.m. Friday to be precise, as guests kept reminding themselves -- they would be free to leave. "Last evening, people perked up a bit," said Kevin Ireland, an Indian national. "We're cheerful. We're happy we're getting out tomorrow." For most of the guests here, it was a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They picked the same hotel as a 25-year-old guest from Mexico who tested positive for the H1N1 virus. And Hong Kong health officials -- unwilling to see a repeat of the SARS epidemic in 2004 that killed nearly 300 people -- placed the hotel on lockdown. That was last Friday night, when Ireland was headed out to grab some Italian food with friends but hotel staff stopped them at the door. Since then, the guests have kept themselves busy trying to ward off boredom as they waited out their seven-day confinement. Images from a British hotel guest » Most stayed cocooned in their tiny rooms, flipping through channels on the television or staying connected with their work colleagues via Internet chats. With no pool to lounge by and just one restaurant to pick from, guests milled about in the lobby to pick up food or get their temperatures taken once a day. "We go down to the lobby for food and then back to the room to eat your food," said Leslie Carr, a British man. "Not many people are downstairs hanging around to talk or discuss anything." Outside, bars and clubs lay only a short walk away. But police in face masks stood guard at the door, barring exit. Packs of reporters and camera crews peered through the hotel's glass windows. The British contingent organized a quiz night once. When a French national had a birthday, the country's consulate sent wine and champagne. The Hong Kong government, itself, tried its best to make living arrangements as comfortable as possible. They delivered a box of chocolates to guests, comped their rooms and offered them free long-distance phone calls. But food was a constant complaint. Guests, tired of hotel fare, were allowed to order take-out -- a boom in business for area eateries. "A tribal instinct sort of manifested itself," Ireland said. "You get into linguistic groups. You hang with people of the same country and region." Mark Moore, a British national, spent many hours kicking himself for changing his plans at the last minute -- the day before the quarantine. He was scheduled to fly home at the end of a business trip, but decided to spend the weekend visiting friends and family in Hong Kong. "I wish I'd left the day before," Moore said. "I definitely wish I'd gone home a day early." Tempers sometimes flared. Guests questioned the point of a quarantine when they were allowed to flout health safety recommendations. Many walked around without the blue surgical masks they were expected to cover their mouth and noses with. Each also had to take a 10-day dose of anti-viral medication. None have tested positive for the virus. "We were all using the same elevator when we knew the virus can spread through touching objects," Ireland said. "The health workers worked in shifts. I don't know if they go home or to some other place where there's some sort of quarantine. And we're handing money to pay the people outside bringing our food. I'm not wearing gloves, the | [
"what number of people are quarantined",
"What happened with SARS in Hong Kong?",
"How many people have been quarantined in Hong Kong?",
"How long are they due to remain in quarantine?",
"who is included",
"How many travelers have been confined?",
"what do they not want a repeat of",
"How many people were quarantined in Hong Kong following single case of H1N1?"
] | [
[
"200 guests and 100 staff members"
],
[
"killed nearly 300 people"
],
[
"200 guests and 100 staff members"
],
[
"24 hours"
],
[
"200 guests"
],
[
"200 guests"
],
[
"the SARS epidemic in 2004 that killed nearly 300 people"
],
[
"200 guests and 100 staff members"
]
] | More than 340 people quarantined in Hong Kong following single case of H1N1 .
Hong Kong health officials have been unwilling to see a repeat of the SARS .
Those isolated due to remain in quarantine until Friday .
Confined persons include 36 travelers in three-row vicinity of sick man aboard flight . |
(CNN) -- The morning three women won the Nobel Peace Prize, Jody Williams was tired from a night spent strategizing about how to stop rape and other sexual violence toward women in war.
Williams won the prize in 1997 for her work to ban land mines. Thursday night, she'd joined other female Nobel winners and peace advocates in New York. They belong to a group associated with the Nobel Women¹s Initiative, founded in 2006 by female laureates and activists.
As the news broke Friday about the 2011 winners, Williams was just getting out of bed.
"My husband is already on his computer, and I hear him say, 'Woah! Three women!' "
Williams rushed to him and peered at the monitor. She read the names.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, activist Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and rights activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.
On television, a Nobel official explained the decision to award the prize jointly. The women were chosen "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights ...
"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence development of all levels of society," he said.
Williams was thrilled. She knows Gbowee, she said, and loved that the Nobel Peace Prize was being given to three women, raising the total number of women who have individually won the prize to 15, according to the prize's official site. Only nine Nobel Peace Laureates are still living, according to the Nobel Women's Initiative.
"Leymah is incredibly powerful and sure of herself," Williams told CNN.com. "She has no trouble dealing with the media. I can imagine she is stunned and yet excited and recognizes how much this changes what she does."
Williams was startled in 1997 when she got the call that she had won.
Looking out her window at 5 a.m. that day in October, she saw reporters camped out on her gravel driveway in Vermont.
Though she knew she was on the Nobel Peace Prize short list, she hadn't believed she would win. Williams assumed the award would go to more prominent people within the organization where she worked.
As an introvert, she said, she was worried. But she managed to do interview after interview that day. The spotlight hasn't dimmed as time has passed.
"It was a lot of attention all at once, which was hard for me personally, but it was incredible for the campaign and that was the important thing," she said.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines launched in 1992 with six nongovernmental organizations and grew to more than 1,000 NGOs in more than 60 countries.
Within six years, Williams told CNN.com, the campaign succeeded in getting an international treaty banning the weapons. The campaign worked with government, United Nations bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The agreement came during the diplomatic conference in Oslo, Norway, in September 1997.
She was awarded the Nobel a month later.
Williams predicts that the Nobel Prize awarded to two relatively unknown female activists will put more focus on democratic uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. And it will make Karman a visual representation of the Arab Spring.
"That is going to be totally intense," Williams said. "But it's awesome."
It will be impossible for these Nobel Peace Prize winners and the women they represent to be tamped down or forgotten or told what to do as the movements in their countries unfold and slowly resolve, Williams said.
"You can't have them go back into the kitchen once they've overthrown the dictator," Williams said.
Giving the Nobel Prize to all the women at once signals a declaration of sorts to the world. It says: We're not going back. We are stronger in numbers.
Sharing the prize, as two Irish peace activists have in the past, does not diminish the honor, Williams stressed. She has heard criticism to that point and believes it's important to quash that mentality.
"They were | [
"what did williams hear",
"Who was thrilled?",
"What prize did Jody win?",
"what year was the peace prize winner williams",
"When did Jody Williams win the Peace Prize?"
] | [
[
"'Woah! Three women!'"
],
[
"Williams"
],
[
"Nobel Peace"
],
[
"1997"
],
[
"1997"
]
] | 1997 Peace Prize winner Jody Williams was thrilled to learn three women had won .
Williams heard the news after spending all night working on an issue about women's rights .
Williams, who is American, worked on behalf of a campaign that banned land mines .
Her advice to the women recognized with Nobel Peace Prize: Stay true to who you are . |
(CNN) -- The most compelling action during Michigan's primary Tuesday will be on the Republican side. The Democratic Party has stripped the state of its delegates for moving up its primary date so early, and top-tier Democratic candidates have taken their names off the ballot, except for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The struggling auto industry has been a drag on Michigan's economy. In many ways, the Republican battle for Michigan will be similar to last week's New Hampshire contest. The primary is open, and any registered voter -- including independents and Democrats -- can participate. Sen. John McCain won New Hampshire with the help of independent voters, and he is campaigning hard to re-create that success in Michigan. In 2000, McCain defeated then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Michigan primary. In that vote, more than half -- 52 percent -- were either independents or Democrats. Among Republican voters, McCain lost to Bush 29 percent to 66 percent. In that contest, almost three out of every 10 voters identified themselves as members of the religious right. Overall, Michigan is a swing state, producing narrow margins of victory for presidential candidates and statewide officeholders. However, voting trends favor the Democrats. Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, is a Democrat, as are the state's two U.S. senators -- Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. The Democratic presidential nominee has carried Michigan in the last four elections. Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 standard bearer, won Michigan 51 percent to 48 percent over President Bush. The state's economy is powered by the automotive industry, which has experienced its fair share of struggles. Michigan's unemployment rate, 7.4 percent, is higher than the national average of 5 percent. Region by region Wayne County, in the southeastern corner of the state, contains the economically depressed Detroit, Michigan's largest city. Detroit is predominantly black and solidly Democratic. North of Wayne County are the more-affluent suburban counties of Oakland and Macomb, which have grown in population in the last two decades. These two counties have been the state's central political battleground in recent elections. West of Wayne is the "university belt," home to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing. The area also includes the industrial cities of Saginaw and Flint, where unions remain strong, as well as Jackson and Bay City. The state's capital, Lansing, and the sparsely populated upper peninsula are also part of this region. The southwest part of the state is dominated by Grand Rapids, Michigan's second-largest city. Grand Rapids is traditionally Dutch-American and has many Christian conservatives and generally votes Republican. The area also contains smaller industrial cities and farming communities. The economy of the sparsely populated north and northwest is based on agriculture, tourism and timber. It traditionally votes Republican. Endorsements The Detroit Free Press has endorsed McCain. "While the Free Press differs with McCain on a number of issues, the Arizona senator is a smarter, more tested and pragmatic leader who has shown since 2000 that he knows how to build bipartisan alliances around issues," the newspaper said in an editorial. The Detroit News also endorsed McCain, citing his fiscal conservatism and command of military and foreign affairs, over Michigan native Mitt Romney. "Other GOP contenders, most notably former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are capable figures with impressive resumes and a solid grasp of the issues. But McCain's longtime presidential ambitions are at last aligned with the needs of the nation," the newspaper said. E-mail to a friend | [
"What are most top-tier candidates not on?",
"What candidates are on the ballot?",
"What is the main concern?",
"Who are on the ballot?",
"What is the top concern for Michigan voters?",
"Where can Independents and Democrats vote?",
"Who can vote in open primary?",
"Who can vote in Michigan's Republican primary?",
"What is top concern for Michigan primary voters?",
"Who can vote in Michigan's open Republican primary?",
"Which vote is this about?",
"When does this occur?",
"Who is not on ballot?"
] | [
[
"the ballot,"
],
[
"Sen. Hillary Clinton."
],
[
"Michigan's economy."
],
[
"Sen. Hillary Clinton."
],
[
"The struggling auto industry"
],
[
"The primary"
],
[
"any registered voter"
],
[
"any registered voter"
],
[
"economy."
],
[
"any registered voter"
],
[
"Michigan's primary"
],
[
"Tuesday"
],
[
"top-tier Democratic candidates"
]
] | Independents, Democrats can vote in Michigan's open Republican primary .
No Democratic delegates at stake, and most top-tier candidates aren't on ballot .
Economic woes top concern for Michigan primary voters . |
(CNN) -- The mother and brother of a 31-year-old woman found strangled with her two young sons in the bedrooms of their home filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the alleged killer -- the husband and father of the victims. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty in the triple homicide police say took place early in the morning on May 5 in the family home in the small southwestern Illinois city of Columbia. "To strip the culpable party of all financial holdings -- all that he has now and all that he may ever have," is the aim of the suit, said a statement accompanying the suit filed in Monroe County circuit court by Angela DeCicco and Mario Weiss, the mother and brother of Sheri Coleman. "To allow one penny of ill-gotten gain to be derived at the expense of Sheri, Garett and Gavin is not acceptable to those who dearly love them." The money would go to a memorial fund set up for Coleman and her sons, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9 and "these funds will be used to erect a lasting tribute in the city of Columbia," according to the complaint. "Our goal is to extract something positive from such a horrific and senseless tragedy and to honor the lives of my sister and her two young sons," Weiss said. The wrongful death suit also names Coleman's father, Ronald, and the Joyce Meyer Ministries, where Coleman worked until shortly after his family was killed, as "respondents in discovery," which means they may be forced to hand over financial documents and information such as Coleman's personnel file, his work schedule and travel itineraries and the Ministries' employment policies. In addition, the suit tries to establish a timeline of events before and after the killings, saying the Colemans took the deed to their home in 2005, but six months ago, ownership was transferred to Christoper Coleman alone. "Sheri did not voluntarily sign the deed transferring title to the residence to Christopher," the document says. Lawyers in the civil suit also allege that in the period between the killings and his arrest, Coleman removed personal property from the home. The suit asks that Coleman and anyone "acting at his direction" be forbidden from entering the home again and that he provide a list of items already removed. Coleman remains in jail after a judge denied bond. | [
"Where were Coleman and her sons killed?",
"Who's sons were killed?",
"Who was accused in the deaths?"
] | [
[
"bedrooms of their home"
],
[
"Christopher Coleman"
],
[
"the husband and father of the victims."
]
] | Sheri Coleman, 2 sons killed in Columbia, Illinois, home .
Christopher Coleman, husband and father, is accused in the deaths .
Family says it hopes to prevent "ill-gotten gain" from the three deaths . |
(CNN) -- The mother of Lisa Irwin, an 11-month old Missouri girl missing for nearly two weeks, said in an interview she was drunk the night the infant disappeared.
Deborah Bradley made the admission during an NBC interview, portions of which were aired Monday on "Today."
She also said she last saw Lisa at 6:40 p.m. October 3, when she put the girl to bed, not at 10:30 p.m., as initially believed.
Lisa was reported missing at 4 a.m. October 4, after Lisa's father, Jeremy Irwin, came home from work to find the door unlocked, lights on and a window that had been tampered with at the family's Kansas City home.
Bradley told NBC she is afraid she will be arrested. Police have accused her of killing Lisa, she said, and told her that she failed a lie detector test, with deception indicated when she was asked where Lisa was.
"I was the last one with her," a tearful Bradley said in the interview. "And from judging on how the questioning went, that's kind of a fear that I have. And the main fear with that is, if they arrest me, people are going to stop looking for her. And then I'll never see her again, and I'll never know what happened."
Asked how much she had been drinking that night, Bradley said, "enough to be drunk."
But she rejected the notion that she could have harmed her daughter while under the influence of alcohol.
"No, no, no," she told NBC. "And if I thought there was a chance, I'd say it. No. No. I don't think alcohol changes a person enough to do something like that."
She said it's "terrible" that police may be focusing on her. "My daughter is missing," she said. "The last thing that I want to have to worry about is something like that. I shouldn't have to put any energy, any time or effort, into anything but finding her."
Asked whether he had questions about Bradley, Irwin told NBC, "No. There's no question to be had there. I know who she is. I know the kind of mother she is."
He said it's possible someone could have entered the house without Bradley hearing, as the couple's bedroom is on the opposite corner of the house from Lisa's room and Bradley sleeps with a fan at high speed.
Police have said three cell phones were also missing from the home along with Lisa.
On Sunday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the one-day deployment of 25 National Guardsmen to help search for Lisa.
Two anonymous benefactors have offered a $100,000 reward for Lisa's safe return, according to Bill Stanton, a private investigator working with the family.
Irwin and Bradley told NBC they have refused to let authorities re-interview Lisa's older brothers.
"They said they heard noises (the night Lisa disappeared)," Bradley said. "I don't know if that was before we went to sleep or after." She said she has not talked to her sons about it because she is reluctant to put them through "anything else."
Asked what she would say to someone who might be holding Lisa, Bradley told NBC, "She needs her family, and we need her. We're losing more sanity as each day progresses."
Lisa is described as being 30 inches tall with blue eyes and blond hair, according to police. She weighs between 26 and 30 pounds and was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it.
The missing girl has two bottom teeth and a "beauty mark" on her right outer thigh, police said. At the time of her disappearance, she had a cold with a cough. | [
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"Who is she accused of killing?",
"What did she admit?",
"Bradley says police",
"Where did she make the admission?",
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] | [
[
"NBC"
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"Lisa Irwin,"
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],
[
"during an NBC interview,"
],
[
"killing Lisa,"
],
[
"at 6:40 p.m. October 3,"
]
] | Deborah Bradley made the admission in an interview with NBC .
She says she last saw Lisa four hours earlier than the time initially given .
Bradley says police have accused her of killing her daughter . |
(CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student who vanished over the weekend on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, says she did not give her daughter permission to go on the trip.
Brittanee Marie Drexel's mom says she thought she was at the beach in New York, not South Carolina.
In an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace, Dawn Drexel said her daughter, Brittanee Marie Drexel, has never run away.
Drexel said the high school junior stayed in touch with her by phone, and she last spoke with Brittanee on Saturday afternoon.
"I asked her what she was doing and she says 'Oh, mom, I'm at the beach.' And it was an 80-degree day in Rochester so, of course, I thought maybe she was at the beach in Rochester with one of her girlfriends that she had said she was staying overnight," Drexel said. Watch mom describe daughter's last call »
Drexel said she asked Brittanee to call her later and the girl agreed. "I said, 'I love you, Brittanee' and she says, 'I love you, mom.' And then we hung up the phone."
Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening, though an unconfirmed sighting may have placed her at a restaurant on Sunday.
She was staying with friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, according to police reports. | [
"Who was last seen on Saturday evening?",
"where was she going",
"Who disappeared?",
"Who did not know where she was?",
"Who has disappeared?",
"What did mom say?"
] | [
[
"Brittanee"
],
[
"Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,"
],
[
"Brittanee Marie Drexel,"
],
[
"Brittanee Marie Drexel's mom"
],
[
"Brittanee Marie Drexel's"
],
[
"she thought she was at the beach in New York, not South Carolina."
]
] | Brittanee Drexel disappears on trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina .
Mom says she spoke to daughter but didn't know she was out of state .
Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening . |
(CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student who vanished over the weekend on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, says she did not give her daughter permission to go on the trip. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mom says she thought she was at the beach in New York, not South Carolina. In an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace, Dawn Drexel said her daughter, Brittanee Marie Drexel, has never run away. Drexel said the high school junior stayed in touch with her by phone, and she last spoke with Brittanee on Saturday afternoon. "I asked her what she was doing and she says 'Oh, mom, I'm at the beach.' And it was an 80-degree day in Rochester so, of course, I thought maybe she was at the beach in Rochester with one of her girlfriends that she had said she was staying overnight," Drexel said. Watch mom describe daughter's last call » Drexel said she asked Brittanee to call her later and the girl agreed. "I said, 'I love you, Brittanee' and she says, 'I love you, mom.' And then we hung up the phone." Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening, though an unconfirmed sighting may have placed her at a restaurant on Sunday. She was staying with friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, according to police reports. | [
"Where is Brittanee Drexel from?",
"Where is Myrtle Beach located?",
"Where was she going?",
"When was she last seen?",
"Who disappeared?",
"Where was Brittanee Drexel last seen?",
"Who is Brittanee Drexel?"
] | [
[
"Rochester, New York,"
],
[
"South Carolina,"
],
[
"Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,"
],
[
"Saturday evening,"
],
[
"Brittanee Marie Drexel,"
],
[
"Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,"
],
[
"17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student"
]
] | Brittanee Drexel disappears on trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina .
Mom says she spoke to daughter but didn't know she was out of state .
Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening . |
(CNN) -- The mother of a Virginia Tech junior who disappeared Saturday night during a Metallica concert says she helped her daughter choose an outfit for the show that same morning. Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, disappeared at a Metallica concert Saturday night. Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old education major, went to the concert at the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville with several girlfriends but disappeared from their sight around 8:40 p.m., according to police, who are calling it a missing person case. "She was excited about the concert and she brought home three outfits that she tried on for me," Gil Harrington, said Tuesday on HLN's "Nancy Grace." "We chose one and she said, 'Mama, it is a rock concert so it is probably not what you would choose, but is this one OK?'" Harrington said she told her daughter, 'That will do fine.' "You know you have to give your kid wings," Harrington said. Watch mom describe daughter's excitement » Morgan Harrington had been so excited about the concert, according to her mother, that she posted the tickets on the refrigerator six months ahead of time. Metallica posted a message about Harrington's disappearance on their Web site under the heading "One of our fans is missing." "We are deeply concerned about the disappearance of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington, who was last seen while attending our concert at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA, on Saturday night," the message said. The message described Harrington and asked that anyone with information contact Virginia State Police or University of Virginia police. "Our thoughts are with Morgan and her family for her safe return," the message concluded." Harrington, who lives off-campus, was reported missing Sunday afternoon when she did not show up at her parents' home to study for a math exam with her father. "It's important to us as police officers to realize that people do come up missing," said Lieutenant Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police in a news conference on Monday. "However, it's very, very unusual that we have not heard anything, either, from her friends or from her family regarding her whereabouts. That is the biggest concern currently -- her whereabouts and her welfare." Harrington is 5'6", 120 pounds, has blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt, black mini skirt, black tights and black boots. | [
"What day was the student last seen?",
"When was the Metallica concert?",
"What did Metallica post?",
"What was Harrington wearing?",
"Where was the student last seen?",
"Who was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt?",
"What is the name of the student that disappeared?",
"Where did Metallica post a message?"
] | [
[
"Saturday"
],
[
"Saturday night."
],
[
"a message about Harrington's disappearance on their Web site under the heading \"One of our fans is missing.\""
],
[
"black Pantera T-shirt, black mini skirt, black tights and black boots."
],
[
"disappeared at a Metallica concert"
],
[
"Harrington"
],
[
"Morgan Harrington,"
],
[
"on their Web site"
]
] | Student was last seen at Metallica concert Saturday night .
Harrington is 5'6", 120 pounds, and was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt .
Metallica posted a message about Harrington's disappearance on their Web site . |
(CNN) -- The motorsport community was in mourning on Monday as competitors from across various racing disciplines paid tribute to Marco Simoncelli, the Italian MotoGP rider who lost his life after a crash in Malaysia on Sunday.
Simoncelli, 24, sustained critical injuries when he was struck by compatriot Valentino Rossi and American Colin Edwards after losing control of his Honda bike and sliding across Turn 11 of the Sepang Circuit.
Rossi, a seven-time MotoGP world champion, used the @ValeYellow46 Twitter account to pay tribute to Simoncelli, who he described as "a younger brother."
"Sic [Simoncelli's nickname] for me was like a youngest brother. So strong on track and so sweet in the normal life. I will miss him a lot," read the Tweet.
Simoncelli killed in Malaysia crash
Honda president and CEO Takanobu Ito praised Simoncelli's commitment and personality, while expressing the team's gratitude for the results he achieved during two seasons with the Japanese outfit.
"Marco Simoncelli was a passionate rider bubbling over with a challenging spirit and blessed with a cheerful personality," Ito said on Honda's official website.
"With a promising future on the Grand Prix circuit, Marco had both genuine ability and a large following among racing fans.
"We are very thankful for his sterling results riding for Honda Racing Corporation as a factory rider. We express our heartfelt condolences to Marco's family."
Last year's title winner Jorge Lorenzo missed the race due to surgery on his finger, but the Yamaha rider also paid tribute to Simoncelli -- who was sixth in the 2011 MotoGP standings at the time of his death.
"I don't know what to say on a day like today," Lorenzo said via his official Twitter account. "Only that you will be missed - rest in peace Marco."
Another former world champion to pay his respects to the Cattolica-born star was 2006 winner and current Ducati rider Nicky Hayden.
"Sometimes life just don't make sense," said the American. "RIP #58 you were a star on & off track we all going to miss you."
Spaniard Jorge Martinez is a former rider and current owner of the Aspar Racing Team. The 49-year-old expressed his sadness, while also stating there was nothing Rossi or Edwards could have done to avoid the collision.
"Marco lost the front end and attempted to save the crash, but unfortunately the inertia of the bike took him onto the inside of the corner just when Edwards and Valentino were passing," Martinez told the sport's official website.
"There was nothing that they could do to avoid him. Today is a tremendously sad day for the entire paddock and for those who love motorcycle racing."
Outside of MotoGP, drivers from other motorsport disciplines also passed on their condolences to Simoncelli's family and friends.
"My thoughts are with his family, friends and team at this extremely sad time. Another tragic loss at such an early age," Tweeted 2008 Formula One world champion and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton's teammate and 2009 champion Jenson Button also used Twitter to pass on his sympathies.
"R.I.P Marco ... Such an exciting talent lost. My thoughts are with his family, friends and everyone involved in MotoGP," said the British driver, before later adding, "Sometimes motorsport can be so cruel."
Simoncelli's death came a week after British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon lost his life during a fatal multi-car crash at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The president and CEO of the venue Jeff Belskus praised Simoncelli as a racer who was loved among motorsport fans.
"We are deeply saddened at the passing of Marco Simoncelli," said Belskus in a statement. "He was one of the most charismatic figures in the world championship and had a fantastic future ahead of him in MotoGP.
"Marco was one of the most popular riders at the MotoGP event at Indianapolis, as his talent on the motorcycle and his ability to connect with fans both were very special. We extend our sincere sympathies to his family, | [
"What happen to Simoncelli in Malaysia on Sunday?",
"What is the motorsport community mourning?",
"Where was the fatal crash?",
"Who pass away?",
"When did it happen?",
"What MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi said about Marco Simoncelli?",
"What did Simonelli lose after a crash?",
"Who described Simonelli as a brother?",
"Who the motorsport community mourns?"
] | [
[
"lost his life after a crash"
],
[
"Marco Simoncelli,"
],
[
"Malaysia"
],
[
"Marco Simoncelli,"
],
[
"Sunday."
],
[
"\"a younger brother.\""
],
[
"his life"
],
[
"Rossi,"
],
[
"Marco Simoncelli,"
]
] | The motorsport community is in mourning after death of Marco Simoncelli .
Simoncelli lost his life after a fatal crash in Malaysia on Sunday .
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has described Simoncelli as like a brother . |
(CNN) -- The mountain gorillas in a national park in Congo appear to be hanging on well despite such dangers as civil warfare and poaching, according to an ongoing census.
Park rangers conducting the census in November.
Workers have identified 75 "habituated" gorillas in Virunga National Park, three more than there were in the last census nearly a year and a half ago, said Samantha Newport, the park communications director.
Habituated gorillas are those who are accustomed to contact with humans. They are easier to spot than non-habituated gorillas, thought to number around 120.
Newport said the census should be completed by around January 20 and officials hope that more habituated gorillas will be identified.
She said the fact that gorillas have survived amid civil war in the region is "nothing short of a miracle."
Laurent Nkunda's Tutsi armed force that had been fighting Congolese soldiers and their militia allies has had control of large swaths of the 8,000 square-kilometer park.
The gorilla section is in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda.
Officials have long said that the 250-square kilometer gorilla reserve in the southern part of Virunga National Park is where around 200 of the world's 700 mountain gorillas live. | [
"Are mountain gorillas in DR Congo safe in war zone?",
"What happened during the war?",
"Exactly, how many gorillas found already?",
"How many more is that than last census?",
"How many gorillas have been found?"
] | [
[
"appear to be hanging on well despite such"
],
[
"gorillas have survived"
],
[
"75"
],
[
"there were in the"
],
[
"75"
]
] | Census of mountain gorillas in DR Congo doing well despite war, poaching .
So far, 75 gorillas found which are accustomed to human contact .
That's three more than last census and conservationists hope to identify more . |
(CNN) -- The murderer of a 16-year-old girl who bragged about his crimes was electrocuted Thursday night, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections said. Paul Warner Powell was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m. at a correctional center in Jarratt, Virginia. He did not make a last statement at the execution attended by the victim's family. Powell was convicted in the 1999 murder of Stacie Reed and the rape of her 14-year-old sister in their Manassas, Virginia, family home. Powell's execution comes after Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell denied him clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the execution. The killer claimed double jeopardy after state prosecutors put him on trial for a second time in the killing. In July, the high court delayed Powell's execution while considering the broader constitutional claims, which were finally rejected. Powell rejected lethal injection, the state's usual method of execution. "I'm hopeful this is the last legal chapter in the long history of this case," said Powell's prosecutor, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert. "The survivors -- Stacie's mother and [her sister] -- have really been traumatized by delay after delay. Hopefully they're going to get some peace and closure after all these years." CNN does not identify sexual assault victims without their permission, even though the surviving victim, now 25, has talked publicly about the case. The crime shocked the Washington area. Reed knew Powell, then 20 and an admitted racist. The state's highest court eventually threw out the 2000 verdict in the first trial, saying prosecutors had not proven other necessary death-eligible offenses were committed against the 16-year-old. Such "aggravating" factors could include rape, attempted rape or robbery in commission of the murder. The sexual assault and attempted murder of Reed's younger sister was upheld, and Powell was given a long prison sentence. Powell, believing he was free from execution, proceeded to write a taunting, profanity-filled letter from behind bars to Ebert, laying out explicit details of the crime unknown to investigators at the time. "Since I have already been indicted on first degree murder and the Va. Supreme Court said that I can't be charged with capital murder again, I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan. 29, 1999, to show you how stupid all of y'all ... are," wrote Powell, who is white. He said he had gone to the family's home to confront Reed about dating a black man. He admitted pinning the victim, threatening to rape her, then stabbing her in the heart when the girl resisted. He then stomped on her throat. "I guess I forgot to mention these events when I was being questioned. Ha Ha!" he wrote in 2001. "Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid ... and saving me?" The killer also said that after that crime, he waited in the house until the younger girl returned from school, then attacked her, leaving her for dead. In the meantime, he drank iced tea from the family refrigerator and smoked a cigarette, part of the forensic evidence that investigators used to place Powell at the scene of the crime. With this first-hand account from Powell, he was indicted again and charged with murder and attempted rape of Stacie Reed -- a capital-eligible crime. He was convicted again, and federal and state courts subsequently upheld the conviction on appeal. | [
"Who is Powell accused of killing?",
"What method of execution did Powell reject?",
"Who wrote a profane letter that detailed the crime?",
"What did Powell reject?",
"Who was the victim?"
] | [
[
"Stacie Reed"
],
[
"lethal injection,"
],
[
"Paul Warner Powell"
],
[
"lethal injection,"
],
[
"Stacie Reed"
]
] | Paul Warner Powell did not make a last statement at the electrocution .
Powell rejected lethal injection, the state's usual method of execution .
Killer wrote a taunting, profanity-filled letter laying out details of the crime .
Based on letter, prosecutors put Powell on trial for second time in Stacie Reed's death . |
(CNN) -- The music isn't new, but the discovery that a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "almost certainly" composed it is a stunning revelation. A researcher in Austria says the works were probably transcribed by Mozart's father, as young Mozart played. The two compositions -- a concerto in G and a prelude in G -- have long been in the files at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, as anonymous works and were even published in the book "New Mozart Edition" in 1982. Now Ulrich Leisinger, director of the foundation's research department, believes the works actually were composed by Mozart before he was old enough to write music, and that Mozart's father, Leopold, transcribed them. The foundation said in a statement that Leisinger analyzed the handwriting and other "stylistic criteria" to determine the music was "almost certainly unknown compositions by" the young Mozart. The compositions were found in a book, compiled by Mozart's father, that was used for practice and the musical education of both Mozart and his sister, according to the statement. Leisinger's analyses "support the claim that they were actually composed by the young Mozart, who was not yet versed in musical notation, and transcribed by his father as the boy played the works at the keyboard," the statement said. Jeffrey Kimpton, president of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, called the works "a remarkable historical find." He said Leopold Mozart transcribed his son's early works as a way of preserving them. "When parents go to a piano recital of an early student, a young student, who's playing for the first time, they get a video tape, they get a DVD, that's a way of recording it," Kimpton said. "I think what's exciting is that Mozart's father wanted to preserve this incredible genius. The young boy at this time didn't know how to write music, but he sure could play it. It's like a family photo or video album." Finding such historical treasures is like detective work, Kimpton said. "You're kind of putting together a DNA picture," he said. "This particular museum has hundreds of manuscripts. Over time as you learn more and more by various scholars working on this, you might turn the page and you may have looked at it a hundred times before but suddenly begin to see some things or understand some things that make some sense." Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and started composing when he was 5 years old. By the time of his death in 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces of music. | [
"Which is compiled by Mozart's father?",
"who transcribed mozart's music?",
"Who compiled the book?",
"Who transcribed the music?",
"Which was composed by Mozart?",
"how many pieces was made by mozart?",
"Who probably transcribed the music?",
"where were this pieces?",
"How many pieces were composed before he could write music?",
"What did researcher say?",
"Who probably transcribed the music?",
"Whos father transcribed the music?",
"what did Mozart's father probably do?",
"Where were the pieces found?",
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] | [
[
"a book,"
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[
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[
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[
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[
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[
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[
"in the files at the International Mozarteum Foundation"
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[
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[
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],
[
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[
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],
[
"transcribed his son's early works"
],
[
"the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria,"
],
[
"Mozart"
]
] | Researcher: Two pieces likely composed by Mozart before he could write music .
Mozart's father probably transcribed the music, researcher says .
Compositions have long been known but as anonymous works .
Pieces were in book compiled by Mozart's father . |
(CNN) -- The music of Woodstock was a draw that attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the festival. Similarly, the name of Ang Lee is a draw that attracted a number of actors to his new film, "Taking Woodstock." From left, "Taking Woodstock's" Emile Hirsch, director Ang Lee and Demetri Martin at the movie's premiere. "Taking Woodstock," which is out August 28, features performers who were either not born or very young when the monumental festival occurred in 1969, but many were enticed to join the movie because of Lee's involvement. "I'd read the Sunday paper for Ang Lee. I'd do anything. He's a filmmaker I've always admired and [was] sort of eager to work with," said Liev Schreiber, who plays a transvestite. "So when he approached me, you know: Dress, shmess, I'll do whatever you want." Lee's work, which includes the renowned films "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain," has garnered him three Oscar nominations. The lighthearted "Taking Woodstock" is a mild departure for a man whose films tend toward serious drama. The film's plot concerns Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), son of the owners of a fading Catskills hotel, who helped attract the Woodstock festival to the area. It's based on Tiber's memoir. The film also stars Emile Hirsch, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy. The 36-year-old Martin, who is best known for his standup, his contributions to "The Daily Show" and hosting "Important Things with Demetri Martin," might have benefited the most from working with Lee. "Taking Woodstock" is his first film as star, and he's made only a handful of others. "Ang is not really going to hold your hand and reassure you through the whole thing. He's going to be more like a sensei, kind of a tough-love thing," Martin said. "He's like, 'Punch this wall,' and you'll be like, 'Why?' and he's like, 'Punch the wall, and do it.' "And then it's like, 'Oh, good performance, great. I'm glad I punched the wall,' and you don't understand, but it's really a lesson in trust," he added. Jonathan Groff also came to "Taking Woodstock" with limited big-screen experience and was excited to work with Lee. "He's your fearless leader. He's everything that you want to be when you grow up," Groff said. Woodstock may have been 40 years ago, but it's recent enough that a number of the principals are still alive. Groff had the opportunity to meet Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang, whom he plays in the movie. Lang opened his memories to Groff and also visited the set. "He came to the first day on set, and that was a little nerve-wracking, but it then became comforting because as we would be between takes he would, you know, be giving you a little thumbs-up," Groff recalled. "I'm sure it must have been a little out-of-body. I mean, I can't imagine watching someone playing me in a movie, from 40 years earlier." The 24-year-old Groff thinks Woodstock resonates today. "Coming from my generation and looking back and seeing such innocence and seeing such passion and seeing such faith in each other, and the ability to come together and actually make something huge happen, is really inspiring," he said. Although there haven't been similar watershed events since, Schreiber and Groff said that the most similar event could be the 2008 election campaign, during which many young people rallied behind Barack Obama. "Well, I gotta say that there is an air of optimism and potential in the election of Barack Obama," Schreiber said. "I certainly feel a return to that sense of | [
"what is the movie about?",
"what does it tell the story of",
"Who are the stars in the Taking Woodstock?"
] | [
[
"Elliot Tiber"
],
[
"Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), son of the owners of a fading Catskills hotel, who helped attract the Woodstock festival to the area."
],
[
"Emile Hirsch, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy."
]
] | "Taking Woodstock" stars Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber and Eugene Levy .
The film tells the story of how Woodstock festival came to fruition .
The actors said election of Barack Obama shares similiarities with Woodstock .
"Taking Woodstock" is due out August 28 . |
(CNN) -- The mysterious deaths of 21 prized polo horses Sunday at a club in Florida provides a peek inside the private world of a sport that generally is off limits to all but the very wealthy. The Lechuza Caracas polo team may not recover from the loss of 21 ponies for years, a polo executive says. The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville and the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando are conducting necropsies on the animals. Initial tests failed to reveal a cause, said Liz Compton, a representative of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Tissues, organ samples and blood are now being screened for toxic agents, she said. Scientists have ruled out any contagious disease because the animals died so quickly, said state Agriculture Department spokesman Mark Fagan. Authorities initially requested necropsies for only the eight horses that were insured, according to Sarah Carey, a representative of the veterinary school, which got the bodies of 15 horses. Later, the order was expanded to all 15 horses, she said. The U.S. Polo Association is among the parties cooperating in the investigation. "In the meantime, we all mourn the loss of these horses," U.S. Polo Association Executive Director Peter Rizzo said in a news release. "There are no words to describe the grief and sadness shared by everyone -- particularly the devastated owners of those magnificent horses." Watch what investigators are studying » Players form strong emotional bonds with the horses they ride, said John Wash, operations president of the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, where the horses fell ill. "I've heard a couple of polo players who were affected with this loss the other day, a couple of them I don't think have left their house since Sunday night," Wash said. "There were a lot of tears there -- these big, tough guys just on their hands and knees, crying over what happened." The U.S. Open Polo Championship that was interrupted by the tragedy will resume Wednesday with semifinal matches, Wash said. Lechuza Caracas, the team whose horses died, was offered spare mounts from other competitors so they could remain in the competition, but the devastated team chose to withdraw, Wash said. The Wellington tournament is one of the sport's three major championships, on a par with the U.S. Open in tennis or golf. Authorities say they believe that the competition facility is safe for the other horses and that whatever killed the 21 horses entered their bodies away from the site. Fifteen of the animals fell ill shortly before they were to compete Sunday; some died immediately and others lingered for almost an hour. Six others died overnight Sunday to Monday as they were kept in the same trailer in Wellington. Animals are not kept overnight at the competition site, so no special precautions are in place regarding food, water or bedding, Wash said. Organizers are planning a short memorial and laying of wreaths in honor of the horses, he said. Grief counselors are on hand at the facility to help employees deal with the trauma, Wash said. "The scene can be described as almost like an airplane crash that involved not human life, but horses," he said. "It was horrific." Polo ponies in the United States are not drug-tested, but the U.S. Polo Association has been considering taking up the practice for several years, Wash said. "People are calling for reform, and maybe that needs to happen, but until toxicology reports come back, and autopsy reports, we don't even know if [Sunday's incident is] anything related to that." The Humane Society of the United States has no record of abuse of polo ponies, but that may be a function of the sport's exclusive nature, society spokeswoman Holly Hazard said. "We are learning about this, as is everyone else," she said. "It may be that perhaps because it's not televised or not as popular as other sports, it's not something that either our constituents or our program is | [
"Where were the tissue samples sent for analysis?",
"What were killed in Floriday?",
"How many polo ponies were killed?",
"What was ruled out?",
"what ruled out?"
] | [
[
"University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville"
],
[
"21 prized polo horses"
],
[
"21"
],
[
"any contagious disease"
],
[
"contagious disease"
]
] | Investigators try to determine what killed 21 polo ponies in Florida .
Contagious disease ruled out; tissue samples sent for further study .
Players form close bonds with horses, club executive says .
Humane Society of the United States sends official to watch investigation . |
(CNN) -- The mysterious visitor stands in a patch of scrubland in Somalia, surrounded by Islamic militants wielding AK-47s. His face is covered by a white-and-red headscarf; he is slim and seems young. But there is something puzzling about him: His skin is fair, and when he speaks in an audio recording, his English is near perfect and spoken with a North American accent.
The militants -- belonging to Al-Shabaab -- say his name is Abu Abdulla Almuhajir (the foreigner). And they say he is an envoy from the al Qaeda leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, thousands of miles away in Pakistan.
Almuhajir has turned up in the desolate scrubland, they say, to offer al Qaeda's help with famine relief. Photographs show him at what appears to be an aid camp that Al-Shabaab claims it has set up for victims of the famine. The recording says he is delivering aid that al Qaeda had purportedly collected, including food, clothing and $12,000 converted into Somali currency.
A video showing the images and audio recording was posted to Islamist websites last week. U.S. counter-terrorism agencies are still trying to ascertain Almuhajir's identity and whether he really was an al Qaeda envoy -- about which there is some doubt.
The event, at which a large group of Somalis were shown sitting crossed-legged on the ground, was clearly a propaganda ploy by Al-Shabaab to boost its popularity -- and that of the al Qaeda brand. International aid agencies have sharply criticized the group for banning or obstructing aid in areas in central and southern Somalia worst hit by the famine. The group's brutal imposition of Taliban-like practices in territory under its control has also alienated many Somalis.
If authentic, the event suggests a strengthening of the relationship between hard-line factions of Al-Shabaab and al Qaeda. Though factions of the group have long been allied with al Qaeda and share its vision of global jihad, the video of the meeting would be a rare demonstration of such ties.
The so-called emissary told his Somali audience that al Qaeda felt their pain and urged Muslims to support Al-Shabaab, which is fighting Somalia's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law. He also recalled Osama bin Laden's long interest in Somalia, saying he "played a major role in repelling invading forces of the Muslim land in Somalia."
And Almuhajir promised that al Qaeda's new leader, Zawahiri, would continue that support.
"In a recent release, Sheikh Ayman brought the drought in Somalia to the attention of the Muslim Ummah (or global Muslim community) and encouraged them to support their brothers in Somalia," he said.
Western counter-terrorism analysts have been puzzling over the identity of "the foreigner." Several Americans and Canadians are believed to have joined al Qaeda in Pakistan in recent years and risen through the group's hierarchy. The most prominent has been Oregon-born Adam Gadahn, 33, al Qaeda's English-language spokesman who joined forces with the group around a decade ago. But counter-terrorism analysts say that Gadahn's voice (and waistline) is very different from that of the mysterious al Qaeda envoy pictured in the Al-Shabaab video.
Another candidate is Adnan Shukrijumah, 36, an American citizen born in Saudi Arabia who spent much of his youth in New York and South Florida, who joined al Qaeda around the time of 9/11 and rose up the ranks to become a planner for the group's external operations. But the envoy appears to have fairer skin than Shukrijumah. And then there is Jude Kenan Mohammed, 22, from Raleigh, North Carolina. He is believed to be still at large in Pakistan after leaving the United States in October 2008 to allegedly wage jihad. Just after he arrived, he was arrested by Pakistani officials, charged with weapons possession and released on bail. The following year, he failed to show up to his court hearing, suggesting he may have slipped into tribal areas.
It may be that the whole event was manufactured in an effort to bolster Al-Shabaab | [
"What does the event suggest?",
"what did the militants say",
"what did the event suggest",
"What is the name of the leader?",
"Where does the Al-Shabaab militants say he's from?",
"The event suggests a strengthening of ties between whom?",
"what was the recording about",
"Which websites are the recordings and images on?"
] | [
[
"a strengthening of the relationship between hard-line factions of Al-Shabaab and al Qaeda."
],
[
"he is an envoy from the al Qaeda leader,"
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[
"a strengthening of the relationship between hard-line factions of Al-Shabaab and al Qaeda."
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[
"Ayman al Zawahiri,"
],
[
"Pakistan."
],
[
"al Qaeda."
],
[
"delivering aid that al Qaeda had purportedly collected,"
],
[
"Islamist"
]
] | Recording, images on Islamist websites purport to show fair-skinned man fluent in English .
Al-Shabaab militants say he's from al Qaeda leader al Zawahiri, in Somalia to dispense aid .
Event suggests a strengthening of ties between Al-Shabaab and al Qaeda hard-liners .
But the identitiy of the man hasn't been determined, and the event may be a ploy . |
(CNN) -- The name "Vampire Weekend" describes the band perfectly: distinctive and eccentric. Vampire Weekend has earned a following for its upbeat, surf-laden songs. Made up of four guys who attended Columbia University, the band's sound is distinguishable from other bands competing for attention in the indie pop arena with its percussive use of drums, shakers and guitars, as well as upbeat, surf-inflected melodies. The group -- Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio -- earned generally favorable reviews for its first, self-titled CD release in 2008, which landed on many year-end best-of lists. Among its songs: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "A-Punk." The band is working on a new album, scheduled out early 2010. And what about that name? It comes from a film Koenig was making in his backyard, which was in turn inspired by the 1987 film "The Lost Boys." In Koenig's version, a character had to go to Cape Cod and fight vampires on the way there. Watch Koenig talk about the source of "Vampire Weekend" » The band was originally going to be called simply "Weekend," but opted for the slightly longer version. "It feels right," Koenig said. So does their sound, though it's not likely to earn them any No. 1 singles in the current musical environment. "Ultimately we wanted to make music we listen to, and like most people we listen to a lot of music outside of rock and roll," Koenig said. The members talked to CNN about the band's origins, the forthcoming album and maintaining Facebook accounts. | [
"Where did the band's name come from?",
"what is the name of the band?",
"When was Vampire Weekend's first CD?",
"Who is working on their second album?",
"Vampire weekend is working on what?",
"on what year did the band created splash with first CD?",
"where does the name come from?"
] | [
[
"film Koenig was making in"
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[
"\"Vampire Weekend\""
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[
"2008,"
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[
"Vampire"
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[
"new album,"
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[
"2008,"
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[
"inspired by the 1987 film \"The Lost Boys.\""
]
] | Vampire Weekend working on second album .
Band created splash with first CD in 2008 .
And that name? It comes from a film one member was making . |
(CNN) -- The name is already taken, but "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" might be a fitting title for a new interactive view of the Milky Way unveiled this week by the European Southern Observatory. Hundreds of photos taken with a regular digital camera, along with computer crunching, formed this panorama. The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy, complete with points of interests such as the 12-billion-year-old, star-packed globular cluster Omega Centauri and the beautiful, reddish Rosette Nebula. Want to stay closer to home? The panorama also points out familiar landmarks such as Jupiter, noting it's the third-brightest object in our night sky after the moon and Venus. For a bit of a head-rush, you can choose to zoom in and click on "Tour Destinations," which will take you on a trip from one end of the galaxy to another, stopping at your selected point of interest. Users can explore the image in magnificent detail, uncovering millions of individual stars forming a dustlike haze, or superimpose a map of the different constellations in the sky. The beautiful panorama is the first to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project, which seeks to "link the sky we can all see with the deep, 'hidden' cosmos that astronomers study on a daily basis," according to ESO. The image is composed of almost 1,200 photos, which were taken by French astrophotographer Serge Brunier with a regular digital camera from ESO observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and from one of the Canary Islands. "I wanted to show a sky that everyone can relate to, with its constellations, its thousands of stars, with names familiar since childhood," Brunier said. The images were then crunched into the single panorama using special software, an effort that took about 340 computing hours to finish, according to the ESO. You can chart your own trip across the Milky Way at GigaGalaxyZoom.org. The next GigaGalaxy Zoom image will be released Monday. | [
"How many pixels is the panorama?",
"What can users do?",
"What is the Omega Centauri?",
"How many pixels are there in the panorama?",
"What does the panorama show?",
"What is the project called?"
] | [
[
"800-million-pixel"
],
[
"explore the image in magnificent detail,"
],
[
"12-billion-year-old, star-packed globular cluster"
],
[
"800-million-pixel"
],
[
"an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy,"
],
[
"GigaGalaxy Zoom"
]
] | The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy .
Users can zoom in and tour destinations such as globular cluster Omega Centauri .
The image can be explored in magnificent detail, showing millions of individual stars .
The image is the first of three to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project . |
(CNN) -- The name of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie surfaced once again in the national news this week, floated by some as a possible new entrant in the ever-widening, fickle field of Republican presidential contenders.
But Christie got even more attention on his own by heading straight to the "Jersey Shore" -- the TV show.
On Monday, Christie vetoed a $420,000 tax break previously granted to MTV's most popular program -- the highly viewed and just as highly derided reality series featuring Snooki, The Situation and other often inebriated free-range narcissists. In denying the show's producers the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's 20% tax credit on TV shows filmed or produced in the state, Christie said it was unjustifiable "for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the state and its citizens."
Like a rain-slicked Atlantic City boardwalk as it snakes its way to the shore, that's some slippery ground on which Christie is treading.
It's difficult, maybe even impossible, to disagree with him on the position of being anti-"Jersey Shore": Anything that slows the spread of that video virus is, almost by definition, a good thing. But what if the same logic and political tactics had been used on, say, HBO's "The Sopranos"? Even if that sort of concern amounts to fiscal responsibility, it also amounts to artistic irresponsibility.
Politicians have attacked TV before, but the attention they draw rarely has them getting the last word, or being awarded the final victory. Dan Quayle vs. "Murphy Brown"? The CBS sitcom won that one, handily; the single mother about whom Quayle was so upset was, after all, a fictional TV character.
George H.W. Bush, in 1992, campaigned by promising to make American families "a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons." Bart, one of the animated characters on "The Simpsons," retaliated almost instantly in a quickly dubbed opening credits sequence, replying, "We're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."
Christie, by pulling the state purse strings tighter and refusing to hand over rebate tax credit money to TV productions that make New Jersey look bad, is wielding a heavy club. Where else, after all, could "Jersey Shore" film its reality-show escapades? Italy? (Actually, yes. They've done just that. But MTV and "Jersey Shore" haven't yet gone to the original Jersey shore, nestled in the English Channel and part of the United Kingdom. Maybe next year.)
Or maybe, if CW's "H8R" lasts another season (which is doubtful), Christie could come on as a Snooki "hater," as a nonfan did to confront the "Jersey Shore" standout star in this month's season premiere, and take away her show's tax credits on camera.
But really, the biggest media storm he could generate here, and the one that would score him even stronger political points, would be to make the tax credits, or the denial of them, qualitative as well as quantitative, and thus support the arts in the most measurable way possible.
Bear with me here: Christie could make it a policy to give tax rebates for the quality shows, and levy fines -- tackiness taxes, if you will -- for those that besmirch New Jersey in particular and the lively arts in general.
Make good TV and movies, you get money back. Make bad TV and movies, you pay a surcharge.
Under such a system, the better the TV show or movie, the higher the tax incentives. (This works for the other arts as well: Bruce Springsteen could do whatever he wants in Jersey, which is kind of the way things are now anyway.) Conversely, the lower a visiting TV or film production sets the crassness bar, the higher the state should set the additional taxes for filming in Jersey.
That way, when something as outstanding and artistic as "The Sopranos" shoots on | [
"Christie denied show tax credit because",
"what did Christie denied show tax credit ?"
] | [
[
"it was unjustifiable"
],
[
"20% tax credit"
]
] | David Bianculli notes Gov. Chris Christie is in news for "Jersey Shore" decision .
Christie denied show tax credit because it fed "misperceptions"about state .
Bianculli says pols have weighed in before, but why "Shore" and not "Sopranos"?
Bianculli: Maybe new policy should be tax credits for quality shows, fines for tacky ones . |
(CNN) -- The nation's foreclosure crisis threatened a high-profile victim this week: TV legend Ed McMahon, best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick on "The Tonight Show." Ed McMahon and his wife, Pam, talk to CNN's Larry King about their mortgage problems. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pam, appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday night to talk about their financial woes and other topics. Some highlights: Larry King: What did happen, Ed? Ed McMahon: It's a combination, it's like a perfect storm. Economy problems. Selling the house right now is a tremendous operation .... We've had this house on the market for two years. We've shown it, I don't know how many, 50 organizations or people. Nobody has made an offer. I mean, it's just a lovely home. I hate to leave it. I want to keep the home. I want this all to work out. Watch McMahon tell King what went wrong » King: And the payments, you can't make -- what's the problem? Ed McMahon: Well, if you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that. And, you know, things happen. You want everything to be perfect, but that combination of the economy, I have a little injury, I have a situation. And it all came together. King: Did you break your neck? Ed McMahon: I broke my neck. I had a fall. ... King: Has that stopped you from working? Ed McMahon: Oh, sure. You know, you can't work with this [brace] around your neck. And I have to wear this. King: But, Pam, the assumption is that the McMahons are multimillionaires and multimillionaires -- how much behind are you, $644,000, right? That's what's reported? ... If you're a millionaire, shouldn't you be able to pay $644,000? Pam McMahon: I think over the years, you know, it's just a kind of a combination of maybe Ed working so hard and not kind of looking at proper management, which happens a lot. ... Because you're a celebrity, people think you have a lot more than you have. And you always want to take great care of all of your friends and your family and everybody, and you do. And you don't, and I think, you know, we didn't keep our eye on the ball. We made mistakes. King: And are they foreclosing? Pam McMahon: Yes, they are. ... King: So you will lose this home? Ed McMahon: It's possible, yes. But now, I'll tell you what's happened, oddly enough. Today, all kinds of wonderful things have happened. New things have happened. And new interest in this house. Where the house had no interest, now there's all kinds of, tons of interest. So who knows what's going to happen. I'm optimistic. ... King: Ed, why have you gone public? Ed McMahon: Well, I figured I wanted to, in a sense, speak for the million people you mentioned [facing foreclosure]. I heard that figure today and I just couldn't believe it. Anyway, the million people that now have foreclosure signs on their house, or nearby. And I just want to give them hope, give them optimism, give them some kind of guidance. Get the best corrective people you need around you. Keep working on it. Don't stop. There's a lot of people that are hard workers, did everything right, didn't do anything wrong | [
"What does McMahon tell Larry King?",
"What is Ed McMahon in danger of?",
"Who does the TV legend say he wants to speak for?",
"is a TV legend a celebrity?",
"What does McMahon blame?",
"How long has Ed McMahon's home been on the market?",
"What did McMahon tell to Larry King?"
] | [
[
"about their mortgage problems."
],
[
"foreclosure"
],
[
"the million people"
],
[
"Ed McMahon,"
],
[
"Economy problems."
],
[
"two years."
],
[
"about their mortgage problems."
]
] | Ed McMahon in danger of foreclosure on his multimillion dollar home .
Home has been on market for two years with no offers, McMahon tells Larry King .
McMahon blames bad economy, broken neck for difficulty making payments .
TV legend says he wants to speak for all who are in danger of losing homes . |
(CNN) -- The nation's new "first dog" has heightened interest in its breed -- Portuguese water dog -- but not necessarily a thorough understanding of the dogs' needs, a pair of owners and breeders told CNN. Bo the Portuguese water dog meets the camera. Bo was a gift to the Obama girls from Sen. Ted Kennedy. The dog, Bo, has triggered "the most publicity the breed has ever had since its introduction into the U.S. in the late 1960s," the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America said in a news release. President Obama and his family welcomed Bo into the White House this week. Shortly afterward, the club's Web site was receiving a million hits an hour, said Susan Teasley, a club member. Jane Harding, a fellow member of the club, said she has "received about a 10 percent increase in calls" since Tuesday, and some of the other breeders she knows also have reported more calls. "Thankfully, people want to know more about the breed," Teasley said. "But water dogs are not for everybody, and it would be sad to see people getting the dog without doing the proper research." Portuguese water dogs are "active athletes," far from couch potatoes, she explained. In fact, they are more likely to rip a couch into pieces than lounge on it, Harding said, recalling a friend who had lost a sofa that way. Watch more water dog fun » Portuguese water dogs can be miserable and destructive when alone, Teasley said. And don't think you can close the door and keep them out. "They want to be with you at all times -- even if it's in the bathroom or your bed," she said. Teasley and her husband breed Portuguese water dogs and often allow them to run free on the two and a half acres of land they own. They are "not apartment dogs," she said. Harding agreed. "They aren't for people who want a tie-out dog or an apartment dog. For people like that," she joked, "we recommend a stuffed dog." Portuguese water dogs love the outdoors, particularly if they have a garden to eat from, Teasley said as she wrestled to keep 7-month-old Misty Morning from eating the family's flowers. Harding said she believes the first family will be successful with their new dog because "they have access to the best trainers, and they want to make this work." For other Americans thinking about following suit, she cautioned, "Buyers beware. Do your homework and first read the information on the breed." Teasley wants people to understand the breed to help avoid what she called the "Dalmatian syndrome." After the movie "101 Dalmatians" came out in 1996, "thousands of people rushed to get the dog, and thousands of dogs ended up in rescue kennels," Teasley said. What those who followed the Dalmatian trend may not have known is that Dalmatians shed profusely and they develop hearing problems, making it hard to train and call them, she said. Both Teasley and Harding advised owners to get a mentor, as they expect Sen. Ted Kennedy to be to the Obama family. Kennedy owns Portuguese water dogs himself and recommended the breed to the Obamas. Watch Obamas introduce dog » "For the first six to seven months of the puppy's life, they need training," Harding said. She has diligently trained 8-year-old champion Bessie, who she said "produces phenomenal litters ... and has multiple titles" from the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America. Such organizations provide guidance to first-time dog owners. But it takes time to get a membership, Teasley said. Prospective members must apply for a one-year associate membership before they can receive a permanent one, she explained. That provides a cushion while they decide whether the dog is the right fit. "It sounds like I'm trying to discourage people from getting (a Portuguese water dog)," | [
"What dog breed is described as \"active athletes\"?",
"What are Portugese water dogs like?",
"Who is more likely to rip up the couch, than lounge on it?",
"What issue is the breeders concerned about?",
"Who is Bo the dog?"
] | [
[
"Portuguese water"
],
[
"are \"active athletes,\" far from couch potatoes,"
],
[
"Portuguese water dogs"
],
[
"a thorough understanding of the dogs' needs,"
],
[
"gift to the Obama girls from Sen. Ted Kennedy."
]
] | Breeders fear too many people will try to get dog like the Obamas' Bo .
Breeder: Portuguese water dogs are "active athletes," not couch potatoes .
They are more likely to rip up couch than to lounge on it .
Dogs bond quickly with family and want to be with them all the time . |
(CNN) -- The new coach of Penn State's embattled football program acknowledged criticism from alumni over his hiring, vowing to work to earn their trust and saluting the team's iconic former head coach Joe Paterno.
Bill O'Brien's selection as the Nittany Lions' next coach has stirred the ire of some former Penn State football players, angry that he didn't attend the university and had never before been a head coach.
He becomes the 15th head football coach in the program's 125-year history after replacing interim coach Tom Bradley, a former player and longtime coach at Penn State. Bradley himself stepped in after school trustees fired Paterno in November after he didn't go far enough in reporting an alleged child sex abuse scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
O'Brien, most recently the offensive coordinator for the NFL's New England Patriots, said Saturday he is aware of the "controversy," though he predicted that "in time, we will find that we have more common interests and goals than not."
"We admire one's loyalties to Penn State, Penn State football, its grand tradition, coach Paterno and all his football staffs," O'Brien said. "We respectfully request the opportunity to earn your trust through communication and ... through our (shared) abilities, ethics, beliefs, work ethics and commitment to Penn State."
A riot erupted on the Pennsylvania school's campus after Paterno was dismissed, days after Sandusky was arrested and accused of sexually abusing young boys. Paterno, 84, who his family has said is being treated for lung cancer, left the program as the all-time winningest football coach in Division I history.
O'Brien said Saturday that "there will never be enough words to say what he did for this program -- as far as wins, as far as off-the-field (by) graduating student-athletes every single year." The new coach said he hadn't met yet with predecessor, but he looked "forward to that as soon as I can."
SI: Many Penn State alumni angry over choice
Paterno himself issued a statement Saturday, after news broke about O'Brien's selection. He referenced the fact that both men attended and played football at Brown University.
"I understand Bill O'Brien has been named head coach and I want to congratulate him on his appointment," Paterno said. "I don't know Bill, but I respect his coaching record, and I am particularly pleased we share a connection to my alma mater, Brown."
Paterno defended the program under his watch, against criticisms that it made winning and control of the program the top priorities over developing student-athletes.
"Despite recent commentary to the contrary, Penn State football has always been about more than winning," he said. 'I came to Penn State with the simple but unshakeable view that this great institution could and should have a football program that is both fiercely competitive and deeply committed to education and community service.
"The proof of our success is the hundreds of former players who have graduated and gone on to become great husbands, fathers, businessmen and community leaders. I am hopeful this tradition will continue."
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick lauded O'Brien in a statement Saturday, calling him an "inspirational leader" for the team.
"Bill O'Brien has met every personal and professional challenge head on with great passion and competitiveness," Belichick said. "This is a great match between a storied program and a old-school football coach. Bill will be up to the task."
Penn State's quarterback, Matt McGloin said earlier this week that he and other players are "excited" for a "fresh start." McGloin told CNN affiliate WBRE that he hopes the selection of O'Brien will help "erase some of the things that have happened in the past year."
"It should be exciting for everyone," said McGloin, acknowledging that some Penn State alumni have voiced dissatisfaction with the move since O'Brien didn't attend the State College school. "The most important thing is that the players are happy." | [
"Who is the Patriots coach?",
"whos trust is he vowing to earn?",
"who coached penn state?",
"Paterno respects what?",
"What does O'Brien acknowledge?",
"What does Paterno say?"
] | [
[
"Bill Belichick"
],
[
"alumni"
],
[
"Joe Paterno."
],
[
"his coaching record,"
],
[
"over his hiring,"
],
[
"\"I understand Bill O'Brien has been named head coach and I want to congratulate him on his appointment,\""
]
] | NEW: Bill O'Brien acknowledges criticism of his hiring and vows to earn alumni's trust .
NEW: He praises iconic, and recently fired, Penn State coach Joe Paterno .
Paterno himself says that he respects O'Brien's coaching record .
Patriots coach Bill Belichick lauds O'Brien, saying he and Penn State are a "great match" |
(CNN) -- The new district attorney of Boulder County, Colorado, said he plans to take a fresh look at the investigation into the 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey.
The DA's office assumed responsibility for the investigation in 2002. But District Attorney Stan Garnett told CNN that he wants to decide during his first 30 days in office whether the case should be returned to Boulder police.
"I'm trying to determine whether it's efficient to have the ongoing investigation handled by my office or somebody else," said Garnett, who was sworn in as district attorney January 13.
The DA's office is relatively small, he said, with 27 lawyers and six investigators handling between 2,000 and 2,500 felony cases a year.
Although the Ramsey case has not generated news since last year, tips and information regularly come in to authorities. Whoever is handling the investigation is charged with checking them out and deciding whether they are worth pursuing, Garnett said.
He said reports that he is considering reopening the case are inaccurate. "It's not closed. It hasn't been solved, and it's been open the whole time."
The case is one of the nation's most famous unsolved murders.
On December 26, 1996, John Ramsey discovered the body of his 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet, in the basement of the family's Boulder home. The girl had been strangled and beaten. A ransom note was found on the stairs of the home, demanding $118,000.
Early in the case, Boulder police said JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were under "an umbrella of suspicion" in her death. But they were never formally named as suspects, and a grand jury refused to indict them. Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer.
In July, Garnett's predecessor, Mary Lacy, issued a public apology for the suspicion surrounding the Ramsey family after a DNA test performed using new technology showed that DNA found on JonBenet's underwear and under her fingernails belonged to an unidentified man. The test results, Lacy said, were "powerful evidence" that allows investigators to think the Ramsey family were victims, not suspects.
That same third-party DNA exonerated John Mark Karr, a one-time teacher, after he was arrested in Thailand and brought to Colorado. Authorities said Karr told a University of Colorado professor in e-mails that he was involved in JonBenet's death. He told reporters after his arrest that he was with the child when she died, although he called her death an accident and said he loved her.
Lacy was widely criticized, including by then-Gov. Bill Owens, for the handling of Karr's arrest.
Boulder police also have long faced criticism over their handling of the investigation.
But, Garnett said Friday, "I've been very impressed by the Boulder P.D. They are a fine department now and have handled a number of cases very well. ... They've done a very nice job."
The department has 24 investigators, four times as many as the DA's staff, he said.
Garnett was elected DA in November to replace Lacy, who could not run again because of term limits. Before he was elected, he served as a trial lawyer for 22 years, according to the DA's Web site. | [
"when was the case taken",
"when did the prosecutors exonerate JonBenet's mother, father and brother",
"Where was the Ramsey case ?",
"Who is Stan Garnett?",
"Who were exonerated?"
] | [
[
"2002."
],
[
"July,"
],
[
"Boulder County, Colorado,"
],
[
"District Attorney"
],
[
"Ramsey family"
]
] | Stan Garnett says he'll take fresh look at JonBenet Ramsey case .
Garnett says he hopes to decide who should follow up on tips .
Case was taken from Boulder police in 2002 .
Last year, prosecutors exonerated JonBenet's mother, father and brother . |
(CNN) -- The news editor of the Zambian newspaper The Post has gone on trial for allegedly circulating obscene material to politicians, the newspaper states on its Web site. Zambia President Rupiah Banda has branded the childbirth photos pornographic. In early June, Chansa Kabwela wrote to the country's vice president, health minister and several non-governmental organizations to highlight problems in the country's health-care system -- especially the problems pregnant women faced during a strike by health-care workers. In her letter, Kabwela included several photos of a woman giving birth in a parking lot outside a hospital from which she had been turned away, according to Reporters Without Borders. The country's president, Rupiah Banda, branded the photos pornographic and called for Kabwela's arrest and prosecution, according to the press freedom organization. "Kabwela's arrest is shocking and the grounds are ridiculous," the organization said in a statement on its Web site after the arrest. Now the trial into the alleged obscene photos has begun in the Lusaka magistrate's court, the newspaper Web site says. One of the first witnesses, Kenneth Ngosa, a senior private secretary to the vice president, told the court he was immediately disturbed by the pictures he found inside the letter, according to the paper. The Post described the courtroom as "packed to capacity" and said "people from all works of life including musicians and opposition political party members" had come to support Kabwela. Defense lawyer George Chisanga has asked the court to look into whether the president's order to arrest and prosecute Kabwela could influence the course of justice. A joint statement from several Zambian media organizations, published on The Post's Web site, calls for the government to amend the law on obscenity to clarify what constitutes obscenity and material that can corrupt morals. The statement concedes that the pictures were in bad taste, but notes that they were sent on behalf of a good cause: to end the strike. CNN efforts to obtain comment from both The Post and the Zambian government have been unsuccessful. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, in 2004 the mortality rate of children under 5 years old in Zambia was 182 per 1,000 live births. In the United States, under-5 mortality rate was 8 per 1,000 live births in 2006. Skilled health personnel attended only 43 percent of childbirths in Zambia in 2002, according to the health organization. | [
"What did president banda do?",
"Where is President Banda president of?",
"Who is Chansa Kabwela?",
"Where is Chansa Kabwela from?",
"What did she send pictures of?",
"Which Zambian newspaper?",
"Who is on trial?",
"What she said for the reason she did that?",
"what is the newspaper",
"What type of material did the Zambian news edtor circulate?",
"who sent pictures",
"what was circulating"
] | [
[
"branded the childbirth photos pornographic."
],
[
"Zambia"
],
[
"news editor of the Zambian newspaper The Post"
],
[
"Zambia"
],
[
"childbirth photos"
],
[
"The Post"
],
[
"news editor of the Zambian newspaper"
],
[
"highlight problems in the country's health-care system"
],
[
"The Post"
],
[
"obscene"
],
[
"Kabwela"
],
[
"obscene material"
]
] | News editor of Zambian newspaper on trial for circulating obscene material .
Chansa Kabwela sent pictures of a woman giving birth in a parking lot to President .
She says she wanted to highlight problems in country's healthcare system .
President Banda branded the images pornographic and had Kabwela arrested . |
(CNN) -- The news that one of America's TV icons is suffering from cancer brought sadness. Learning the type of cancer she had made some squeamish. Farrah Fawcett, shown here in 2004, learned she had cancer in 2006. Former "Charlie's Angels" actress Farrah Fawcett, 62, was hospitalized this week. She received a diagnosis of anal cancer in 2006. This type of cancer is less common than rectal and colon cancer, and the location of the tumor and risk factors make people squeamish about discussing it openly, doctors said. Colon cancer at one time also was not openly talked about, because of the body part and functions affected, but with the public awareness campaigns and celebrities advocating for screenings, it has been largely destigmatized. Anal cancer is less familiar. Fawcett has not publicly confirmed the specifics of her illness, but is working on a documentary, titled "A Wing and a Prayer," about her health battle. Anal cancer affects more women and the illness is usually found in people who are in their early 60's. The American Cancer Society estimates that 5,000 new cases of anal cancer are diagnosed each year and about 680 people die from it annually. Meanwhile, colorectal cancer has 148,000 new cases and about 50,000 deaths each year. The numbers of anal cancer cases are rising, although experts haven't been able to pinpoint why. Cultural squeamishness about certain body areas could prevent early diagnosis and treatment of anal cancer, said Dr. Petr F. Hausner, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. "Patients in the United States hate to be examined in these areas," said Hausner, who trained in Czechoslovakia. "They like to keep their private parts more private than in Europe. In the U.S., the patients hate those exams and physicians hate to do them. The examination is incomplete." The cultural discomfort might be a minor factor, though. "The bigger role is the virus," he said referring to the human papilloma virus, a key risk factor for anal cancer that also can cause cervical cancer. Getting vaccinated against HPV is a step in prevention, Hausner said. More than half of anal cancer patients experience bleeding as a symptom. Others have no symptoms or report common conditions, such as hemorrhoids, fissures, or warts. Symptoms also include itching or pain in that area, changes in the diameter of stool, abnormal discharge, swollen lymph nodes in the anal or groin areas, according to the American Cancer Society. "The most common thing is people think it's a hemorrhoid," said Dr. Cathy Eng, associate professor in the department of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Patients should consult with their physicians, she said. Anal pap smears are routine only for HIV-positive patients, who are at higher risk for this cancer. There are no anal cancer screening recommendations for non-HIV individuals, because it remains a rare disease, Hausner said. People whose immune system are suppressed, from HIV or drugs taken after organ transplants are at risk for anal cancer. Other risk factors include a sexual history with many partners, a medical history of human papilloma virus (HPV), sexually transmitted diseases or gynecological cancers. People tend to view anal cancer negatively, because they associate the cancer with a few of its risk factors -- such as sexually transmitted diseases or anal sex, Eng said. "It's one of the risk factors, not the only risk factor," Eng said. "It's fair to say people are stigmatized, she said, primarily because of the disease's association with that type of sex. When anal cancer is caught early, chemotherapy and radiation are highly effective. But if the cancer doesn't respond to treatment and spreads to other areas of the body, the five-year survival rate plummets to 20 percent, Eng said. "Anal cancer is unique," she said. "The majority of time you can cure the patient, but if you have recurrent or residual | [
"What are risk factors for anal cancer?",
"What becomes more difficult to treat if tumor spreads?",
"What was the risk factor?",
"What's the number of new cases every year?",
"What cancer is treatable?",
"What was the number of death per year?"
] | [
[
"People whose immune system are suppressed, from HIV or drugs taken after organ transplants are at"
],
[
"anal cancer,"
],
[
"location of the tumor"
],
[
"5,000"
],
[
"anal"
],
[
"50,000"
]
] | Risk factors for anal cancer include suppressed immune system, HPV, STDs .
New cases of anal cancer number about 5,000 a year, with 680 deaths per year .
Anal cancer it treatable, but becomes more difficult to treat if tumor spreads . |
(CNN) -- The news was devastating, the aftermath surreal. Diena Thompson clutched a tissue in her right hand, frequently wiping her eyes as she told reporters that she couldn't believe it was her daughter whose body was found in a Georgia landfill. Her visage revealed the weight of grief and a yearning for justice. Standing outside her home in Orange Park, Florida, Thompson looked into the camera and, with her voice cracking, sent out a stern warning to her daughter's killer. "I want you to know that I will not sleep until this person is found. I hope they get you, and I hope they make you pay for a long, long time. You don't take from somebody. You didn't just take her from me. You took her from my family; you took her from all these people. And you don't do this to a little baby and put my baby in the trash like she's nothing. That's not OK, this is not OK." The body of her daughter, 7-year-old Somer Thompson, was found in a South Georgia landfill, Clay County, Florida, Sheriff Rick Beseler said Thursday. On Monday, Somer became separated from her siblings and schoolmates on her way home from school in Orange Park. She was seen in a fight at school before disappearing, according to a police report Thursday. Her 10-year-old sister told police that Somer had gotten into a fight with another girl at school earlier in the day. The sister said she brought up the fight while she and her brother walked Somer home from school, and that Somer ran off from them, apparently upset. The sister said she lost sight of Somer in a group of other kids leaving the school, according to the police report. A medical examiner in Savannah, Georgia, used dental records to identify the body positively as Somer's, said Clay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Mary Justino. The sheriff told the girl's mother Wednesday night that her daughter had been identified. Thompson was devastated, he said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that," Beseler said at a Thursday news conference. Authorities are turning their full attention to finding the child's killer. The landfill where her body was found is near Folkston, Georgia, 55 miles north of where the girl became separated from her schoolmates. Authorities will work to pinpoint where the garbage load that contained the girl's body came from, Beseler said. The garbage brought into that part of the landfill was collected in the Orange Park area, he has said, noting that authorities routinely search garbage when a missing person case has been initiated. The investigation has turned into a murder probe. "There is a child killer on the loose," the sheriff said. "I fear for our community until we bring this person in." Investigators in Georgia are combing through a "tremendous mountain" of garbage at the landfill, searching for clues, said Justino, the sheriff's office spokeswoman, on Friday. Some possible evidence has been removed from the landfill, but authorities won't describe what they found, Justino said. Police have no suspects, she said. She said other law enforcement teams are focusing on the locale where the child apparently was last seen. Justino said witnesses, including some children, saw her on the sidewalk in front of a vacant house under renovation after a fire. "Since Monday, we have been trying to figure out who frequents that area," including anyone working on the home, she said. Rewards totaling $30,000 have been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible. Justino said of the 810 leads called in to a tip line, 231 were being actively pursued by a group of 50 detectives. Overnight, detectives finished interviewing 90 registered sex offenders or predators within a five-mile radius of the Thompson home, the spokeswoman said. Somer's | [
"Who was the body identified as",
"Whose body was found in a landfill using dental records?",
"What did the grieving mother say to the killer?",
"What did the mother say",
"How many suspects do the police have?",
"What age was somer",
"What age was Somer on the day of the disappearance?",
"Whose body was found in a landfill?",
"What was Somer in on the day of her disappearance?"
] | [
[
"her daughter, 7-year-old Somer Thompson,"
],
[
"Somer Thompson,"
],
[
"know that I will not sleep until this person is found. I hope they get you, and I hope they make you pay for a long, long time. You don't take from somebody. You didn't just take her from me. You took her from my family; you took her from all these people. And you don't do this"
],
[
"\"I want you to know that I will not sleep until this person is found. I hope they get you, and I hope they make you pay for a long, long time. You don't take from somebody. You didn't just take her from me. You took her from my family; you took her from all these people. And you don't do this to a little baby and put my baby in the trash like she's nothing. That's not OK, this is not OK.\""
],
[
"no"
],
[
"7-year-old"
],
[
"7-year-old"
],
[
"Somer Thompson,"
],
[
"a fight with another girl"
]
] | Body found in landfill identified as Somer Thompson, using dental records .
Somer, 7, was in school fight on day of disappearance, police report says .
Grieving mother's message to killer: "I hope they get you"
Police have no suspects in killing of Florida girl, official says . |
(CNN) -- The nomination of Elena Kagan to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has caused quite a stir on the political left and right, as operatives on both sides try to ascertain exactly where she stands.
But it has also opened another fissure in the complex relationship that exists between black organizational leaders and President Obama, the nation's first African-American president.
Over the past year we have seen criticisms leveled by grass-roots activists, civil rights groups and the Congressional Black Caucus.
But instead of taking on the president, the beefs are largely aimed at "those around the president." In previous administrations, these same individuals wouldn't have hesitated to call out Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.
Why the hesitance? Because they also understand that a direct attack on President Obama could hurt them in two ways: They could find themselves cut off from the administration or they could anger their base by making the president's job more difficult when he is facing daily attacks from Republicans.
Even among African-American commentators, columnists and radio and TV show hosts, if you are too harsh on President Obama, the backlash has been swift and vicious.
The organizations know this, and trust me, the White House knows this, and has used it to its advantage.
That's why I call it the Obama-Black-Two-Step.
I've been told countless times by folks on both sides that Obama can't be seen as favoring African-Americans over others, and his White House has been especially scared of touching anything dealing with race.
As a result, black civil rights leaders and prominent Democrats have largely bitten their tongues, unwilling to publicly take on the president and some of his decisions. Instead, they quietly fume, mumbling under their breath and offering their critiques in measured tones.
Yet I have gotten the sense that black civil rights and political leaders may stop the racial solidarity and stand up on the principles they have long fought for. I've been expressly told that some have no interest in working hard or raising money in the fall on behalf of Democrats to hold on to the House and Senate.
The nomination of Kagan has become a flash point in this uneasy relationship, because this is the second time in a year that President Obama has made a Supreme Court appointment and his administration didn't seriously consider an African-American woman for the job.
The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor certainly was historic in that she became the first Hispanic to sit on the high court, and it was embraced by civil rights groups. Yet this time, for highly qualified African-American female judges, such as Leah Ward Sears, the retired chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, to never make the cut for a face-to-face interview with the president has ticked off a number of leaders I've talked with over the last several days.
What's the big deal about including a black woman? A Democratic pollster told me that black women have a higher voter turnout than any other ethnic-gender demographic -- 65 percent -- and it's vital for Obama to appeal to them. When Obama was behind Sen. Hillary Clinton in the polls, it was because black women hadn't embraced him yet. When they did, the race changed.
The uneasiness with Kagan's appointment among civil rights groups has focused on the hiring record of minorities during her tenure at Harvard Law School, which was followed by the White House pushing back to insulate her from criticism by saying the Harvard faculty makes the recommendations about hiring for tenured positions.
They were quick to blast out blogs, columns and articles written by African-Americans at Harvard to make clear Kagan is a major advocate of diversity.
When a meeting with civil rights leaders and administration officials was held at the White House on Tuesday with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, I was told "more listening than talking" was done by the administration.
Civil rights leaders made clear that they felt they were being taken for granted in the process, and were | [
"who is not considered an African-American woman for high court?",
"what are they ticked off ab out",
"What has ticked off a number of leaders?",
"what woman has he considered"
] | [
[
"Elena Kagan"
],
[
"nomination of Elena Kagan to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul"
],
[
"nomination of Elena Kagan to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul"
],
[
"Elena Kagan"
]
] | Martin: Twice Obama hasn't seriously considered an African-American woman for high court .
This has ticked off a number of leaders Martin has talked with .
Martin: Distance growing between Obama and many of his presumed natural allies .
Some leaders may not help Democratic House, Senate candidates, says Martin . |
(CNN) -- The notoriously private Janet Jackson opened up about her brother's death on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Friday, admitting that the family knew he had a problem.
"People think we were in denial but we weren't. We tried intervention several times. He was very much in denial -- he didn't think he had a problem."
When the news first broke that Michael was ill, Jackson said she first heard about it from an assistant while she was home in New York. The last time she saw her brother was about a month before, she said, at a party she had thrown for their parents. "He was thin then, and we knew that he had a problem; we all did," she said.
His death, she told Winfrey, is "hard to believe still to this day. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it -- that all of us in the family don't think about it -- every single day."
Her brother's passing happened right as Janet Jackson had started production on Tyler Perry's new film, "Why Did I Get Married Too?" and the emotional turmoil she was in comes through in the film, Winfrey said.
"It was very therapeutic," Jackson said of her role.
Tyler Perry, she added, was by her side the entire time, asking her how she wanted to be treated on set, making sure no one had access to images of Jackson crying in character (lest a tabloid run them as evidence of what Jackson was going through at the time), and even changing the ending of the movie, which opens nationwide Friday, for her.
"I changed the ending because at first she was going to speak at the funeral, and the things that she was going to say, it was too eerie," Perry, who also was on the show, told Winfrey. "She didn't want to change it, but I did."
Veering from the topic of his movie, Perry told Winfrey he felt the need to reiterate how hard the Jackson family worked to try to save their brother.
"I'm sorry, but I want people to know this," Perry said. "I want people to know how much they tried. They really, really tried -- the entire family. I want the whole world to know how much they tried."
The family was worried, Jackson said, and did several interventions. At one of them, Jackson said she became so overwhelmed, "seeing him and knowing that there was an issue that he was in denial about," she had to leave the room. "A lot of the relationships I've been in, they've had issues with addiction. It's difficult when you see it. [I] recognize it so quickly because I've dealt with it in past relationships."
For Jackson, it's difficult to even look at pictures of Michael as an adult or listen to his music; the only images she can stand to view are those of the pair as children.
"When we were kids, we had so much fun together," she said. "We used to spend every day, all day, together. I have a beautiful picture in my home of he and I when we were just babies. It takes me to that place, even when he was still here, that I missed, that we would talk about. That [picture] I can look at."
The emotional turmoil Jackson was dealing with, both in her role in Perry's movie as well as personally, began to affect her physically as well: Jackson said she's definitely an emotional eater.
"When I'm feeling down, I do turn to food," she told Winfrey. Her struggle with her weight has even led Jackson to write a book about it, to answer those persistent questions everyone always has about her weight.
"Instead of writing about nutrition, I decided to go into my childhood, where I've | [
"What did Jackson say was therapeutic?",
"What does Janet Jackson open up about?",
"Who's death does Jackson think about every day?"
] | [
[
"her role."
],
[
"her brother's death"
],
[
"her brother's"
]
] | Janet Jackson opens up about her new movie and life after her brother's death .
Jackson said her role in Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too?" was very therapeutic .
Jackson said she thinks about Michael's death every day .
She added that the family knew he had a problem, and tried to intervene . |
(CNN) -- The number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus has jumped nearly 30 percent with 331 people being infected so far, the World Health Organization said Friday.
A young couple in Mexico City wear surgical masks in an attempt to avoid contamination from the virus.
The WHO added that the virus had spread to 11 countries, but the hardest hit areas were in the western hemisphere.
"We have not seen sustained human to human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region," said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham.
Two more countries, Denmark and China, reported cases of the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu" virus on Friday, but they were still to be confirmed by the WHO.
The largest outbreak was in Mexico which had 156 confirmed cases, while there were 141 cases confirmed and one death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The WHO said Mexico had 9 deaths attributed to the virus. But Mexican officials said the death toll had risen to 12.
However, more than 150 deaths in Mexico are suspected to have been caused by the virus and are being investigated, officials there said.
The higher totals do not necessarily mean that incidence of the disease is increasing, but rather that health investigators are going through their backlog of specimens, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO.
In addition to Mexico and the United States, the following countries have so far confirmed non-lethal cases:
Austria: 1 Canada: 34 China: 1 Denmark: 1 Germany: 3 Israel: 2 Netherlands: 1 New Zealand: 3 Spain: 13 Switzerland: 1 United Kingdom: 9
An additional 642 cases are being investigated in the United Kingdom, and Spain has 84 suspected cases.
Australia, which has had no confirmed cases, was investigating 114. | [
"how many countrys affect the virus?",
"How many counties encountered the virus?",
"Where was the largest outbreak?",
"in what country was largest outbreak?"
] | [
[
"11"
],
[
"11 countries,"
],
[
"Mexico"
],
[
"Mexico"
]
] | Largest outbreak was in Mexico which had 156 confirmed cases .
The virus had spread to 11 countries, with western hemisphere hardest hit .
Mexico suspects 150 deaths have been caused by H1N1 virus .
U.S. and Mexico the only countries showing human-to-human spread so far . |
(CNN) -- The number of deaths linked to cantaloupes contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria has risen to 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Wednesday.
At least 116 cases of listeria have been reported in 25 states, the agency said. The two latest fatalities came in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals confirmed this week that an 87-year-old Baton Rouge woman died earlier this month. Last week the department also indentified a Shreveport-area woman, 81, who died from the same strain.
Health officials have said the number of cases could continue to grow, citing reporting lags and the fact the disease can develop slowly in some people, taking up to two months.
The listeria outbreak is the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in the United States since 1998.
Five people each have died in New Mexico and Colorado from consuming the tainted fruit, along with two people each in Kansas, Texas and now Louisiana. One has died in Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma and Wyoming, the CDC said. In addition, one woman who was pregnant at the time of the illness had a miscarriage.
Cases have also been reported in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Groups at high risk for listeria include older adults, people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women, officials have said.
The grower, Jensen Farms of Granada, Colorado, issued a voluntary recall of its Rocky Ford brand cantaloupes on September 14. The tainted cantaloupes should be off store shelves, the CDC said.
Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms should be disposed of immediately, even if some of them have been eaten, the CDC said. If consumers are uncertain about the source of a cantaloupe, they are urged to ask their supermarket. If the source remains unknown, the fruit should be thrown out, officials have said.
Refrigerating a cantaloupe will not kill the bacteria, which can grow at low temperatures, authorities have said, and consumers should not try to wash off the bacteria. | [
"The two latest victims are from which state?",
"How many cases have been reported?",
"Where are the two elderly woman from?",
"What were recalled last month?",
"How many states have reported cases?",
"What is the report's subject?",
"In what state were the latest victims found?"
] | [
[
"Louisiana."
],
[
"At least 116"
],
[
"Baton Rouge"
],
[
"Rocky Ford brand cantaloupes"
],
[
"25"
],
[
"cantaloupes contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria"
],
[
"Louisiana."
]
] | At least 116 cases have been reported in 25 states .
The tainted cantaloupes were recalled last month .
Two elderly woman from Louisiana are the latest victims . |
(CNN) -- The number of deaths linked to cantaloupes contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria has risen to 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
A total of 133 people in 26 states have been infected, according to the CDC. Additionally, a woman who was pregnant at the time of her illness had a miscarriage.
Although health officials have said it is too early to declare the outbreak over, the number of new cases is falling.
"The peak in illnesses appears to have occurred from late August until the middle of September," Dr. Barbara Mahon of the CDC said last week, adding that additional monitoring will be needed for at least another two weeks.
The grower, Jensen Farms of Granada, Colorado, issued a voluntary recall of its Rocky Ford brand cantaloupes on September 14. The tainted cantaloupes should be off store shelves, the CDC has said.
Unsanitary conditions at the Colorado cantaloupe farm's packing facility are a possible contributing cause of one of the nation's worst outbreaks of listeria contamination in food, health officials have said.
The listeria outbreak is the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in the United States since 1998.
Groups at high risk for listeria include older adults, people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women.
Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms should be disposed of immediately, even if some of them have been partially eaten, the agency recommended. If consumers are uncertain about the source of a cantaloupe, they are urged to ask their supermarket. If the source remains unknown, the fruit should be thrown out.
Refrigerating a cantaloupe will not kill the bacteria, which can grow at low temperatures, and consumers should not try to wash off the bacteria. | [
"How many cases have been reported in 26 states",
"The outbreak has been deadliest since when",
"What was recalled?",
"In how many states were the cases reported?",
"What is not over",
"How many cases have been reported?"
] | [
[
"133"
],
[
"1998."
],
[
"Rocky Ford brand cantaloupes"
],
[
"26"
],
[
"the outbreak"
],
[
"133 people"
]
] | At least 133 cases have been reported in 26 states .
The outbreak is not over, but new cases are on the decline .
The tainted cantaloupes were recalled last month .
The outbreak is the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in the United States since 1998 . |
(CNN) -- The number of girls being raped has increased sharply since fighting intensified in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a humanitarian group said Tuesday.
A survey of children at refugee camps finds rapes of girls under age 17 are increasing.
Also, the recent fighting between rebels and the Congo government has heightened the threat of children being recruited as soldiers, said World Vision.
"A silent war has been waged against women and children," said Sue Mbaya, the humanitarian group's Africa advocacy director. "Women and girls in the hundreds have been targets of opportunistic and brutal rape, while children are also being targeted for recruitment or re-recruitment as child soldiers."
World Vision said they surveyed children at six refugee camps in the country, finding that 120 girls under the age of 17 reported being raped in October. That's compared to five reported cases in April and June.
Mbaya was scheduled to address the issue Tuesday during a report to the United Nations Security Council.
The fighting, which began in August, prompted the U.N. Security Council to approve sending more than 3,000 troops in coming weeks to bolster the 17,000-strong peacekeeping force already there. A U.N. envoy has also been sent to Congo to conduct peace talks between the government and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
The spiraling violence in eastern Congo has displaced an estimated 250,000 people -- many of whom have fled to refugee camps.
The fighting is spurred by lingering tensions over the 1994 slaughter of ethnic Tutsis by majority Hutus in neighboring Rwanda. Nkunda has said his forces are fighting to defend Congolese Tutsis from Hutu militants who escaped to Congo. | [
"what does the Aid group says about Rape reports?",
"What group surveys girls under 17?",
"what was the age of the girls at the refugee camps?",
"What says aid group?",
"How many people has displaced at violence?",
"how many people estimated?"
] | [
[
"number of girls being raped has increased sharply since fighting intensified in the Democratic"
],
[
"a humanitarian"
],
[
"17"
],
[
"number of girls being raped has increased sharply since fighting intensified in the Democratic"
],
[
"250,000"
],
[
"250,000"
]
] | Aid group says rape reports increase as fighting intensified .
Group surveys girls under 17 at various refugee camps .
Violence in eastern Congo has displaced an estimated 250,000 people . |
(CNN) -- The number of minors treated in hospital emergency rooms for drinking on New Year's Day 2009 was nearly four times the average daily figure, according to a federal study.
The study, published this week in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, was based on data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which estimated that 1,980 emergency room visits on New Year's Day 2009 involved underage drinking, versus 546 such visits on an average day.
"This stunning increase in underage drinking-related emergency room visits on New Year's Day should be a wake-up call to parents, community leaders and all caring adults about the potential risks our young people face for alcohol-related accidents, injuries and death during this time of year," Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration chief Pamela S. Hyde said in a statement about the agency's study.
"Parents, clergy, coaches, teachers and other role models must do everything they can to positively influence young people -- including talking with them early and often about the many health dangers underage drinking poses to their physical and emotional health and well being."
The findings translate into an increase in sobering statistics, said Kenneth R. Warren, acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"For example, during Christmas and New Year's, two to three times more people die in alcohol-related crashes than during comparable periods the rest of the year," he said. "And 40% of traffic fatalities during these holidays involve a driver who is alcohol-impaired, compared to 28% for the rest of December."
The New Year's Day levels outstripped those of other holidays. For example, Memorial Day emergency room visits for drinking by minors were 676; the Fourth of July level was 942.
"Whereas all underage alcohol consumption is of concern, consumption that leads to ER visits on New Year's Day should be of particular concern to parents and young people because such consumption may increase other risky behaviors," it said.
"Greater access to alcohol, less parental oversight and mixed messages from parents may fuel surges in underage drinking, which can result in visits to hospital emergency departments because of overconsumption or alcohol-involved accidents or injuries. The New Year's holiday may be particularly risky because underage individuals may drink more than during most other times of the year, including other holidays." | [
"how many on an average day",
"what is the number of visits on an average day",
"who was urged to pay attention",
"When did they occur",
"How many emergency room's visit has occurred?",
"who many emergency room visits occurred on new years day",
"Who urged to pay attention?",
"How many visits on an average day?"
] | [
[
"546"
],
[
"546"
],
[
"\"Parents, clergy, coaches, teachers and other role models"
],
[
"New Year's Day 2009"
],
[
"1,980"
],
[
"1,980"
],
[
"parents, community leaders and all caring adults"
],
[
"546"
]
] | Study estimates 1,980 emergency room visits occurred on New Year's Day 2009 .
That compares with 546 such visits on an average day .
Parents, community leaders urged to pay attention . |
(CNN) -- The number of people killed by a typhoon that slammed into Taiwan and China earlier this month continues to rise, Taiwan announced Thursday. Tsai Sung Yu holds photos of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece who were all killed in the mudslides. At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, the country's Central Emergency Operation Center said Thursday. At least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured. Emergency services also reported that 60 human limbs had been found, separately from the number of dead and wounded. Kaohsiung county was the worst hit, with 472 dead, 72 missing and 13 hurt, one seriously, the emergency center said. Morakot dropped 102 inches of rain on Taiwan August 8 before it roared on to mainland China the next day. More than 1.4 million people in China were forced to relocate because of the storm and more than 6,000 homes were destroyed. At least six people were killed there, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said after the storm passed. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologized last week for the slow response to the typhoon. He said he plans sweeping changes to the country's rescue agencies and may punish some government officials. "We will try our best to do a better job in the rescue work that has been criticized for being too slow," said Ma. "There are things that we have to correct and we also will be responsible for whatever mistakes or neglect that government officials have made." Rescuers have struggled to locate many who were missing in remote mountainous areas of southern Taiwan. Ma also apologized a week earlier for failings of the rescue effort as he traveled around the typhoon-battered island. He said heavy rain grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief efforts. Ma said the storm destroyed buildings, homes, roads and farms, causing about NT$100 billion (U.S. $3 billion) in damage. CNN's Eileen Hsieh contributed to this report. | [
"Who is Taiwan's president?",
"What did the Taiwan president apologize for?",
"How many people died from the Typhoon?",
"What was the name of the typhoon",
"How many people are missing?",
"How many people are still missing?",
"What number of people are missing?",
"What is the name of the President of Taiwan?",
"How many people died when typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan?"
] | [
[
"Ma Ying-jeou"
],
[
"the slow response to the typhoon."
],
[
"At least 543"
],
[
"Morakot"
],
[
"least 117"
],
[
"are"
],
[
"At least 117"
],
[
"Ma Ying-jeou"
],
[
"543"
]
] | At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan .
At least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured .
Emergency services have also found 60 human limbs .
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologizes for the slow response to the typhoon . |
(CNN) -- The number of people worldwide without access to a toilet -- no public restroom, no outhouse, no latrine, no smallest room -- is a whopping 2.6 billion. That's four out of ten people.
The bucket toilet is the only thing on offer for millions of black South Africans.
According to the World Toilet Organization, 2.2 million people, predominantly children, die every year from diarrhea -- more than from malaria, from AIDS, from TB. That number dwarfs any casualties related to violent conflict.
These figures are intrinsically related. The underestimation of fecal contamination is staggering, sobering -- and unfortunately, silencing.
Singaporean social-entrepreneur Jack Sim founded the non-profit World Toilet Organization ("the other WTO") in 2001, as a support network for all existing organizations.
It now includes 151 members from 53 countries, which meet once a year to network, discuss sanitation issues and work together toward "eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation."
Goal number one: Making sanitation speakable. "What we don't discuss, we can't improve," insists Sim.
This year, the World Toilet Summit & Expo 2008 was held from November 4-6 in Macau under the theme "Driving Sustainable Sanitation through Market-Based Initiatives."
Indeed, not only is sanitation a good idea, it's a good investment.
Biosolids can be composted into fertilizer, sewage can be processed into methane biogas, and even simple latrines in India are producing compost and fertilizer.
"Globally, if universal sanitation were achieved by 2015, it would cost $95 billion, but it would save $660 billion," writes Rose George in her newly released book "The Big Necessity."
Real-world examples follow: "When Peru had a cholera outbreak in 1991, it cost $1 billion to contain but could have been prevented with $100 million of better sanitation measures."
Or even more alarming: "Pakistan, for example, spends 47 times more on its military budget than on water and sanitation, though it loses 120,000 people to diarrhea a year."
So while 2.6 billion people have no toilet, how many millions of us simply "flush and forget"?
Eco-sanitation, or the problem of dealing efficiently and ecologically with sewer systems, wastewater, treatment and purification, is no less a serious one.
In the UK alone, the sewage system emits some 28.8 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
As sewers become overloaded with urban development, drought strikes various regions of the earth, and potable water becomes increasingly scarce, even the flush toilet is now put into question.
Today, those who care are looking at innovative toilet and waste-disposal solutions from India, China and other parts of the developing world, where attitudes and habits are still evolving and open to change.
Don't forget, World Toilet Day is November 19. | [
"How many die annually?",
"How many die annually fro diarrhea?",
"How much would universal sanitation cost?",
"how many people die annually from diarrhea?",
"How many countries are included?",
"How many members does World Toilet Organization have?",
"How many countries are the members from?",
"How many people have no access to a toilet?"
] | [
[
"2.2 million"
],
[
"2.2 million"
],
[
"$95 billion,"
],
[
"2.2 million"
],
[
"53"
],
[
"151"
],
[
"53"
],
[
"2.6 billion."
]
] | 2.6 billion people have no access to toilet; 2.2 die annually from diarrhea .
World Toilet Organization includes 151 members from 53 countries .
Rose George: Universal sanitation by 2015 would cost $95bn, save $660bn .
Flush toilet, sewer systems also pose problem to ecological sanitation . |
(CNN) -- The number of uprooted people across the world dropped slightly last year, but new displacement this year in conflict zones like Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka so far "has already more than offset the decline," the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Pakistani displaced battle severe winds and dust at Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar. "Today, we are seeing a relentless series of internal conflicts that are generating millions of uprooted people," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a news release. This is one of the main points in Global Trends, an annual report by the U.N. agency on developments regarding refugees, internally displaced people, asylum seekers and stateless people. The number of "uprooted people worldwide" in 2008 was 42 million, a drop of about 700,000 from 2007, according to the report. "In 2009, we have already seen substantial new displacements, namely in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia," Guterres said. "While some displacements may be short-lived, others can take years and even decades to resolve. We continue to face several longer-term internal displacement situations in places like Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each of these conflicts has also generated refugees who flee beyond their borders." The number of refugees and internally displaced people who returned home in 2008 was around 2 million, a decline from 2007, the report said. Refugee repatriation, which was 604,000, was down 17 percent. Displaced people's returns were down by 34 percent at 1.4 million people. "Traditionally the largest durable solution for refugees, it was the second-lowest repatriation total in 15 years," the report said. "The decline in part reflects deteriorating security conditions, namely in Afghanistan and Sudan." The report listed other statistics and trends in 2008: | [
"largest number of refugees in the world at 1.8 million",
"What shows slight decline in global refugee numbers to 42 million in 2008?",
"To what did the global refugee numbers decline?"
] | [
[
"who returned home in 2008 was around 2"
],
[
"\"uprooted people worldwide\""
],
[
"2 million,"
]
] | U.N. reports shows slight decline in global refugee numbers to 42 million in 2008 .
But numbers set to rise in 2009 because of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia conflicts .
Pakistan hosted the largest number of refugees in the world at 1.8 million .
Around 2 million refugees returned home in 2009 . |
(CNN) -- The ocean water around Chatham, Massachusetts, is playing host to some unwelcome guests this holiday weekend: sharks. Only 41 unprovoked shark attacks have been reported in the U.S. since 2008. At least one large shark sighting was confirmed Friday by Greg Skomal, shark expert for the state's Division of Marine Fisheries. That sighting occurred off the eastern shore of Monomoy Island, a National Wildlife Refuge off the southern elbow of Cape Cod, according to Lisa Capone, Massachusetts Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs press secretary. The species, though not confirmed, was "most likely" a great white shark, she said. The sighting came a day after Skomal reported as many as five large sharks were seen near the island, about a mile or more away from Chatham's Lighthouse Beach, a public swimming area. Capone said Skomal was searching the area of the island Friday afternoon, though weather conditions were "not ideal," with fog and wind. Meanwhile, officials were advising residents and visitors to be cautious while visiting the beaches this weekend. "It is the eve of the last holiday weekend of summer, and we want to make sure folks on the Cape are aware," Capone said. Chatham's Harbor Master's office issued a public notice after the sightings Thursday, saying the waters surrounding Chatham are "now a year-round home to a few thousand seals." Seals are a main source of food for large sharks, and as recently as August 28, a large shark was seen feeding on the body of a seal near Chatham's waters, the notice said. It advised people to avoid swimming near seals. A statement issued Friday by Chatham town officials said "beaches will be closed immediately" if a shark is sighted. Paul Zuest, general manager of the Chatham Bars Inn, said he and his staff also have been instructing their guests to be cautious. The hotel, about two miles away from where the sharks were spotted, has posted signs providing information on the sightings. George H. Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File, said that on average, sharks have killed four people annually worldwide for the past several years. "The chances of us as individuals entering the sea and not coming back as a result of a shark attack are slim to none when you consider the millions upon millions of people that go into the sea each year," he said. The museum's shark attack file lists 41 unprovoked shark attacks in U.S. waters in 2008, with one fatality, in California. Most of the attacks, 32, occurred in Florida. Massachussetts has recorded only four shark attacks since 1670, two of which have been fatal. The last fatal shark attack in Massachussetts occurred in 1936. | [
"what was the species?",
"have sharks been sighted",
"what number of people do sharks kill every year",
"how many sharks were spotted on friday?",
"how many people are killed per year?",
"Which type of shark do experts believe was seen"
] | [
[
"\"most likely\" a great white shark,"
],
[
"one large shark sighting was confirmed"
],
[
"four"
],
[
"At least one"
],
[
"four"
],
[
"great white"
]
] | Shark expert confirms at least one large shark sighting Friday .
Species unconfirmed, but "most likely" was a great white, expert says .
As many as five large sharks were seen on Thursday near Monomoy Island .
Expert: On average, sharks kill about four people per year, worldwide . |
(CNN) -- The oldest-known hominid skeleton was a 4-foot-tall female who walked upright more than 4 million years ago and offers new clues to how humans may have evolved, scientists say. This sketch shows what a 4 million-year-old hominid, nicknamed Ardi, may have looked like. Scientists believe that the fossilized remains, which were discovered in 1994 in Ethiopia and studied for years by an international team of researchers, support beliefs that humans and chimpanzees evolved separately from a common ancestor. "This is not an ordinary fossil. It's not a chimp. It's not a human. It shows us what we used to be," said project co-director Tim White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi," is a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Aramis, Ethiopia. That makes Ardi more than a million years older than the celebrated Lucy, the partial ape-human skeleton found in Africa in 1974. Ardi's 125-piece skeleton includes the skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet bones. Scientists say the data collected from Ardi's bone fragments over the past 17 years push back the story of human evolution further than previously believed. "In fact, what Ardipithecus tells us is that we as humans have been evolving to what we are today for at least 6 million years," C. Owen Lovejoy, an evolutionary biologist at Kent State University and project anatomist, said Thursday. Analysis of Ardi's skeleton reveals that she weighed about 110 pounds, had very long arms and fingers, and possessed an opposable big toe that would have helped her grasp branches while moving through trees. Ardi's brain was believed to be the size of a chimp's, but she also had many human-like features, such as the ability to walk upright on two legs. Her "all-purpose type" teeth indicate that she probably ate a combination of plants, fruits and small mammals, scientists say. "The anatomy behind this behavioral combination is very unexpected and is certain to cause considerable rethinking of not only our evolutionary past, but also that of our living relatives: the great apes," said Alan Walker, professor of biological anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Many scientists hypothesize that humans took a different evolutionary trajectory from those of chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Ardi's findings help challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from chimpanzees, their closest genetic relatives, scientists say. Researchers are still trying to pinpoint when the two lineages -- chimps and humans -- split from their common ancestor. Digging up the past has not been easy. Scientists stumbled upon the Ardipithecus fossil in 1994 when a graduate student found a single upper molar tooth. The rest of Ardi's fossilized bones, sandwiched between layers of volcanic rock, took three years to be recovered and many more to be analyzed. "In many ways, the discovery of Ardipithecus has been like a marathon," White said. "Ardipithecus ramidus and its prevailing anatomy revolutionize the way most of us understood the earlier part of our evolutionary history," said team member Yohannes Haile-Selassie, paleontologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The Ardi findings are the work of 47 paleontologists and geologists representing 10 countries. The results will be published Friday in 11 articles in a special edition of the journal Science. Until now, Australopithecus, nicknamed "Lucy," was the oldest fossil studied by scientists seeking to explain human evolution. Lucy is believed to have lived about 3.2 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. Many scientists credit Ethiopia with taking the lead in helping the world better understand the origins of humans. "This finding points to a deeper sense of our [humans'] interconnectedness," Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian ambassador to the United States, said Thursday. "We are all Ethiopians at heart." Ardi's skeleton resides in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. | [
"what its the name of fossil?",
"What has been unveiled?",
"What has the fossil been nicknamed?",
"What did humans and chimps evolve from?",
"who replaces lucy?",
"Whar is the fossil's nickname?"
] | [
[
"Ardi,"
],
[
"Ardipithecus ramidus,"
],
[
"Ardi,"
],
[
"common ancestor."
],
[
"Ardi"
],
[
"Ardi,"
]
] | Researchers have unveiled a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton of a hominid female .
The fossil, nicknamed Ardi, may be the oldest hominid skeleton ever found .
It replaces Lucy, a much-publicized skeleton that dates back about 3 million years .
Scientists: Ardi suggests humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor . |
(CNN) -- The operation on Ronaldo's injured left knee "went well" but the Brazilian striker faces a lengthy rehabilitation as he bids to save his football career.
Ronaldo leaves the field in agony after suffering his latest injury blow against Livorno.
Ronaldo had surgery in Paris on Thursday, the two-hour operation perfomed by Dr. Eric Rolland with Dr. Gerard Saillant, who carried out a similar repair to his right knee in 2000, in attendance.
"The operation went well," said Saillant. "The intervention was of the same type as the one in 2000. The healing period should last nine months," he said in sports paper L'Equipe.
Ronaldo was injured playing for AC Milan in a 1-1 draw with Liverno on Wednesday night and teammate Clarence Seedorf gave CNN a graphic description of the incident.
"It was like a film I already saw," said the Dutch star who was on the pitch when Ronaldo suffered his previous serious injury.
"I saw his reaction, I was frozen by the reality, a bad, bad thing. My heart went out to him because it was his second injury. I hope he has the will to come back," added Seedorf.
Ater the two-hour operation at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year is likely to need about 10 days of physical therapy, L'Equipe said.
Ronaldo, 31, has battled serious injuries throughout his career, and has played sparingly since joining Milan from Real Madrid in January 2007.
Wednesday's match was only his fifth in Serie A this season after injuring his thigh during preseason training on July 31. He returned in November, but has been in and out of the team due to a series of recurring problems. E-mail to a friend | [
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"What team was Ronaldo playing for at the time of his injury?",
"What was Ronaldo's surgery for?",
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"Ronaldo's"
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[
"Paris"
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[
"two-hour operation"
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[
"left knee"
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[
"injured left knee"
]
] | Ronaldo recovers in Paris following surgery on his ruptured left knee tendons .
The surgeon who performed the two-hour operation said it went "very well"
Ronaldo sustained injury playing for AC Milan against Livorno on Wednesday . |
(CNN) -- The orgy of violence that has greeted Kenya's disputed election result has led to hundreds of deaths and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. But away from the tragic human cost, the unrest has also provoked concerns about the stability of the east African country's economy, until now seen as a model for the region. Businesses have been destroyed and looted and supply routes disrupted after the opposition accused incumbent president Mwai Kibaki of election fraud after he was declared winner Sunday. Investors are watching events closely in the country, fearful of how it could affect one of Africa's few economic success stories. And the early signs have been worrying. The equity market on the Nairobi Stock Exchange lost 40 billion Kenyan Shillings ($591 million) in value on its first day of New Year trading Wednesday, the Kenyan financial newspaper Business Daily Africa reported. And business leaders said that the government was losing around 2 billion Shillings ($29.5 million) a day in lost revenue as a result of the political violence, the paper reported. "We do seem to be in a new place, there's a lot of uncertainty about where we go from here. And a lot depends crucially on how long-lasting this is," said Razia Kahn, an analyst specializing in Africa at Standard Chartered bank. Kenya has attracted a large number of multi-nationals and is home to one of the world's fastest growing stock exchanges. Its relative economic success has been helped in part by its thriving tourist sector, with visitors attracted by its abundant wildlife and pristine beaches. Provisional figures for 2006 from the Kenya's tourist board said the country had received 1.5 million visitors for the year, a growth of 5.2 per cent. However, fears that the tourist industry could take a heavy hit from the unrest grew with the British Federation of Tour Operators announcing Thursday it was suspending all holidays to the country departing up to and including this Saturday. Watch an aid worker describe fears that crisis may resemble Rwanda's » British tourists already in the country have been advised by the British Foreign Office to stay indoors and to stay away from the major cities. There are also worries about the knock-on effect for the region, since around 40 percent of Kenya's exports go to other African nations, Kahn said. Of even greater concern is the effect on Kenya's lucrative agriculture industry. Exports of tea, coffee, vegetables and flowers are big earners for the country, with agriculture making up about a fifth of the total economy. There have been media reports of tea and coffee auctions being halted by the violence as well as widespread disruption to transport routes as rioters blockade major roads across the country. Arun Shah, who runs a coffee import business based in London, told CNN his livelihood depended on a stable Kenya. "We have had absolutely reliable supply," he said. "We have had reliable quality and the quantities that we need for our trade." E-mail to a friend CNN's Jim Boulden in London contributed to this report | [
"What industry is hit in the failing stock market?",
"On the first day of 2008, what did the Nairobi Stock Exchange lose?",
"What did the British tour operators do in response to the economy?",
"What is the loss on the Nairobi stock market?",
"What caused Kenya's destabling economy?",
"What is happening to Kenya's economy?",
"When did the equity market lose $591 million?",
"What are British tour operators doing?",
"What lost on first day of 2008?",
"What did business leaders say the government is losing?",
"What country is faltering?",
"What is the reason for Kenya's economy faltering?",
"Who calls off flights?",
"What amount is lost each day by the government?",
"What amount was lost on he first day of the stock exchange?",
"What did the business leaders say?"
] | [
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"tourist"
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[
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[
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[
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[
"($29.5 million) a"
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[
"40 billion Kenyan Shillings ($591 million)"
],
[
"government was losing around 2 billion"
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] | Kenya's once-stable economy faltering due to violence following disputed election .
Equity market on Nairobi Stock Exchange lost $591 million on first day of 2008 .
Business leaders say the government losing $29.5 million a day in revenues .
Thriving tourist industry also hit, with British tour operators calling off flights . |
(CNN) -- The outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness has spread to more passengers on a U.S. cruise ship, with nearly 450 falling sick while at sea, the cruise company said Tuesday.
The Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury departed Charleston, South Carolina, February 15 and headed for the eastern Caribbean, according to a Celebrity Cruises statement. On the way, 419 of the 1,838 passengers fell ill, along with 27 of the 849 crew members, the cruise line said. The number of affected passengers increased from the 353 reported the day before.
Their symptoms included upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea, Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said. Guests who were in isolation while ill will receive compensation, she said.
The sickened passengers and crew have been administered over-the-counter medicine and are responding well, Celebrity Cruises said.
But it is still unclear how they became sick, Martinez said.
Medical samples will be sent to a lab for testing Tuesday, she added.
The ship's medical facility first started treating guests Sunday, Martinez said, and by Monday, hundreds of others were sick, too, Celebrity Cruises reported.
A doctor and two nurses joined the cruise medical staff Monday to help with the overload of patients when the ship stopped in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, according to the statement. The ship does not return to Charleston until Friday and will be at sea until then, Martinez said.
To control the outbreak, the crew has stepped up cleaning of the ship, which is advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness occurs.
Norovirus commonly causes viral gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships, the CDC says. It can spread from contact with contaminated food or drink, by touching objects infected by people who are already sickened, or through close contact with people who are infected, according to the CDC.
So far this year, three gastrointestinal illness outbreaks have occurred on cruise ships that docked at a U.S. port, according to the CDC. Norovirus was the cause of two outbreaks on the Mercury in 2009, the CDC reported. The outbreaks reported and investigated by the CDC infected at least 3 percent of the people onboard the cruises carrying at least 100 passengers for anytime between three days to three weeks. | [
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] | Celebrity Cruises ship departed South Carolina on February 15 and headed for the Caribbean .
Passengers and crew aboard come down with gastrointestinal illness .
They have been given over-the-counter medicine and are responding well, cruise line says . |
(CNN) -- The owner of a North Carolina beach house where seven college students died in a weekend fire said Monday that his family's "lives were just changed forever" by the tragedy.
Chip Auman said his 18-year-old daughter survived the fire but was hospitalized and in stable condition because of complications from smoke inhalation.
"The thought of losing a child is unimaginable to me, and as a father my heart goes out to the families that lost a loved one in this situation," he said.
Auman said the situation was "hard to fathom."
"There's just no words to describe what we've been going through," he said, asking for prayers for survivors and the families of those who died. "We're numb, we're confused, we're heartbroken."
Two college campuses mourned Monday.
Six University of South Carolina students and a Clemson University student died in the fire early Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.
Six other South Carolina students were able to get out of the house in time. The six were treated and released from nearby Brunswick Community Hospital, but Auman's daughter was hospitalized again in Hartsville, South Carolina.
Authorities from the state Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire.
Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith said the house was "engulfed" in flames when the fire department arrived on the scene, about five minutes after being notified. The flames shot into the sky and ultimately left little more than portions of the framing.
Fire officials do not believe foul play was involved. Watch a neighbor's video, fears of fast-burning fire »
Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs for the University of South Carolina, said investigators have said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before the identities of the victims are confirmed publicly.
It could be as much as a month until investigators know the cause of the fire, Pruitt said.
The university did not cancel classes on Monday, but Pruitt said arrangements had been made for those who need to go home or stay out of class at the 28,000-student campus.
Pruitt said meetings had been held Sunday with members of Delta Delta Delta sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The South Carolina students were affiliated with those houses, he said, although he stressed that the weekend was not an official Greek function.
He also said counselors and ministers were available to help students deal with the loss of their classmates.
The university president, Dr. Andrew Sorenson, contacted the families of those who died in the fire to express the condolences and support of the university community.
Jay Laura, student president of the USC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said the campus would pull together after the tragedy.
"If any place can come together to help in the healing process and the aftermath of an event like this, it is South Carolina," Laura said at a Monday afternoon press conference.
Fire survivor Tripp Wylie, a 20-year-old South Carolina sophomore, said he jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape the flames and was unable to get back in to help his friends.
"I could see a buddy of mine off to the left who had gotten out. He was just yelling at me to jump and stuff," Wylie told CNN affiliate WYFF.
"The smoke was pouring out, couldn't really breathe, so I had to make a quick decision. [I] just kind of leaned out the window and luckily I jumped far enough to make it into the canal."
Neighbors flocked to see the fire as firefighters battled and ultimately got the blaze under control. See the scenes of devastation »
George Smith, who lives across the street from the house, said he heard sirens between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and went outside to see "the whole sky lit up."
"The whole house was completely engulfed in flames, up to about 20 feet," he said. | [
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"Which floor did the survivor jump out of?",
"Whose daughter was among survivors ?",
"Which University mourns deaths of six students?",
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"What university mourns deaths?",
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"From which university were the six dead students?",
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"Who mourns deaths of six students?"
] | [
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[
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] | "Heartbroken" house owner's daughter among six survivors hospitalized .
One survivor jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape .
University of South Carolina mourns deaths of six students . |
(CNN) -- The owner of a Philadelphia art store was arrested Tuesday and charged with smuggling and conspiracy for illegally importing and selling African elephant ivory, according to the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Federal agents seized approximately 1 ton of ivory from Victor Gordon's African art store -- one of the largest government seizures of ivory on record.
Gordon, 68, is also allegedly in violation of the Lacey Act, which aims to fight against the trafficking of wildlife, fish and plants that have been obtained illegally, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Gordon allegedly paid a co-conspirator to travel to Africa to buy raw elephant ivory, according to the 10-count felony indictment against him. He provided his co-conspirators with pictures of ivory carvings and asked that the ivory be designed by African carvers according to his designs, court documents said. Gordon also asked that the ivory be dyed to give it an antique, older look.
He illegally imported the ivory through John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, a statement from the U.S. attorney said.
Ivory usually comes from the tusks of elephants. A high demand for ivory led to a staggering decline in the African elephant population in the 1970s and 1980s, but the killing of elephants for their tusks remains a serious problem, even after laws and international treaties were put in place to prohibit the practice. The U.S. Endangered Species Act names the African elephant as a threatened species.
"The amount of the elephant ivory allegedly plundered in this case is staggering and highlights the seriousness of the charged crimes," said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. "We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of our own future generations."
Poaching and illegally selling ivory is serious issue in West and Central Africa, where the ivory in the Gordon case came from, the U.S. attorney's statement said.
If he is convicted of the charges against him, Gordon could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. | [
"where was the ivory seized",
"how many years of prison might he get",
"who faces 20 years in prison if convicted?",
"Demand for what remains high?",
"How much time does Gordon face?",
"How much ivory was seized?",
"how much of ivory was seized from the African art store ?",
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] | [
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[
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[
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[
"1 ton"
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[
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[
"African elephant ivory,"
]
] | Despite laws against the sale of ivory, demand remains high .
One ton of ivory was seized from the African art store in Philadelphia .
Gordon faces 20 years in prison if convicted . |
(CNN) -- The parents of a 15-year-old Massachusetts high school student who committed suicide after being bullied by her classmates received a nearly quarter-million-dollar settlement, according to documents made public after a months-long attempt to uncover details of the agreement.
The settlement was reached with the town of South Hadley in November of 2010, but it was only made public Tuesday after a reporter successfully sued to gain access to the records.
The reporter, Emily Bazelon from Slate Magazine, filed the public records lawsuit on December 2 with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, after first requesting the documents in May.
Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup on Friday ordered the settlement be made public, adding that Bazelon "demonstrated that she, in her role as a news reporter, and the public have a First Amendment right to access the information contained in these settlement documents."
The agreement centers around the case of Phoebe Prince, whose body was found last year hanging in the stairway leading to her family's second-floor apartment.
On the day she died, Prince had endured a torrent of verbal abuse that began at the school library and continued as she walked home from school in tears, according to prosecutors.
Her parents, Anne O'Brien and Jeremy Prince, received the $225,000 settlement sum after filing a complaint with the state's Commission Against Discrimination in 2010, arguing that South Hadley Public Schools failed to address hazing that preceded their daughter's death.
The settlement prohibits Prince's parents from again suing the town over Prince's suicide, but it also binds them to a confidentiality agreement that prevents publicizing details of the agreement.
In a letter written to the Slate reporter on May 9, town officials pointed to a confidentiality clause in the agreement as reason for keeping the record sealed.
"I did not want to violate the trust of the people who entered into it with that confidentiality clause in it," town counsel Edward J. Ryan Jr. told CNN.
Civil rights advocacy groups have since hailed Friday's decision.
"A public document does not become private because the government inserts a confidentiality clause or a nondisclosure clause," said Newman.
According to the court order, public records are defined as "all books, papers, maps, photographs, recorded tapes, financial statements" and other items "made or received by any officer or employee of any agency." | [
"Who paid the settlement?",
"Who was responsible for making the details public?",
"Who were the bullies?",
"What was the settlement amount?",
"When did Prince carry out her suicide?",
"Who tried to keep this under wraps?",
"Who was the reporter who sued the town?"
] | [
[
"town of South Hadley"
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[
"her classmates"
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[
"$225,000"
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[
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[
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[
"Emily Bazelon"
]
] | Phoebe Prince's parents receive $225,000 settlement after daughter's 2010 suicide .
15-year-old Prince hanged herself in January 2010 after being bullied by classmates .
Details of settlement made public after reporter sues Massachusetts town for access . |
(CNN) -- The parents of a 15-year-old girl who was gang-raped on a California high school campus urged the community Saturday to channel its anger over the event "through positive action," according to a pastor.
At a Saturday community event at the campus where the attack took place, the Rev. Jim Wheeler, who said he was the family's pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, read a statement from the teenager's parents.
"Stop the violence," Wheeler read. "Please do not respond to this tragic event by promoting hatred or by causing more pain. We've had enough violence already in this place."
Police say as many as 10 people were involved in the rape on October 24 in a dimly lit back alley outside Richmond High School, where a homecoming dance was taking place.
Another 10 people watched the attack without calling 911, police say.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack.
A sixth person who was arrested is expected to be freed because of insufficient evidence, CNN affiliate KGO reported.
Authorities say the attack lasted for more than two hours. The victim, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition, was released Wednesday.
The parents' statement urged the community to work to ensure that such an attack never happens again.
"If you need to express your outrage, please channel your anger through positive action," they said, according to Wheeler.
"Volunteer at a school. Go help a neighbor. Be courageous in speaking the truth and in holding people accountable. Work toward changing the atmosphere in our schools and in this community so that this kind of thing never happens again.
"Please do not let this happen again." | [
"Don't respond with what?",
"How many people were involved?",
"What precautions are recomended to prevent being attacked?",
"What did the victim's parents say?",
"Who delivered the statement?"
] | [
[
"promoting hatred or by causing more pain."
],
[
"10"
],
[
"\"Volunteer at a school. Go help a neighbor. Be courageous in speaking the truth and in holding people accountable. Work toward changing the atmosphere in our schools and in this community"
],
[
"\"Stop the violence,\""
],
[
"Rev. Jim Wheeler,"
]
] | "Please do not respond to this tragic event by promoting hatred," victim's parents say .
Family's statement read during community event at campus where attack took place .
Police say 10 people may have been involved in rape outside Richmond High School .
Five arrested in connection with attack, which occurred during homecoming dance . |
(CNN) -- The parents of a Tennessee preacher shot to death by his wife convinced a judge to keep the convicted killer at home, but they couldn't keep her off the air. Mary Winkler describes her troubled marriage during a taped segrment of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Seven months in custody wasn't a long enough sentence for what she did, Mary Winkler said Wednesday in an exclusive, pre-recorded interview with Oprah Winfrey. "There's no amount of time I think you can put on something like this. I was just ready for them to lock the door and throw away the key," she told Winfrey. Winkler had sought permission to travel to Chicago, Illinois, to appear live on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," but the judge who presided over her trial would not give her permission to travel. Her in-laws, who are suing Winkler for wrongful death and are seeking to revoke her parental rights, also fought the television appearance. Watch Winkler's interview with Oprah » Winkler was convicted earlier this year of the shotgun slaying of her husband, Matthew, at the time the minister of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee. She told Winfrey that she killed her husband following years of abuse, including physical violence and being forced to dress "slutty" for undesirable sex acts. All she remembers, she said, is the "boom" as the shotgun went off. Winkler's account on the show was virtually identical to her testimony during her trial earlier this year. A jury of 10 women and one man found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors had been pushing for a first-degree murder conviction. She was released last month from a Tennessee mental heath facility. Winfrey said on the show that Matthew Winkler's parents did not respond to requests for an interview. Dan and Diane Winkler, who have filed a $2 million wrongful-death suit against Mary Winkler, are pitched in a bitter custody battle over the couple's three daughters. The grandparents are trying to terminate her parental rights and adopt the three girls. Mary Winkler's attorney, Steve Farese, said a hearing in the case is scheduled for next week . During the trial, Diane Winkler chastised Mary for never apologizing to them or his children. Mary Winkler told Winfrey she is sorry she killed her husband and she would like a chance to sit down with her in-laws, whom she loves, misses and prays for every day. Asked by Winfrey what she would say to them, Winkler said she couldn't hone it down to two or three sentences. "Just when that time comes, my heart will tell me what to say," she said. In her interview with Winfrey -- for a show titled "The wife who killed her minister husband" -- Winkler said tensions began when her husband tried to put their crying 1-year-old daughter, Brianna, back to sleep by "covering her mouth and nose." "I don't think he had intentions of killing; he just tried to get her to pass out," Winkler said, recounting the events just prior to her husband's March 2006 death at the church parsonage in Selmer, Tennessee. Winkler, then 31 and a mother of three, said she was used to his temper, saying, he often "would just get irate with the baby monitor and Brianna crying." "That's just something that would set him off," she told Winfrey. After putting Brianna to bed, she returned to the bedroom where Matthew was "and I just wanted to talk to Matthew. And there's just that awful -- awful sound," she said, referring to the shotgun blast. Asked what she wanted to say to her husband when she went back to the bedroom, Winkler said, "Just to stop. Be happy. He had to be miserable the way he acted and to just stop being so mean and just relax and enjoy life." She said she doesn't remember retrieving the shotgun from the closet, but | [
"What restrictions did the judge put on the woman?",
"Who said the sentence was too short?",
"What is Mary Winkler convicted of?",
"What won't the judge allow the woman to do?",
"What wouldn't the judge allow?",
"Judge wouldn't allow what?",
"Who was convicted of shotgun slaying?",
"Who is she battling?",
"Who was convicted of manslaughter in shotgun slaying?"
] | [
[
"would not give her permission to travel."
],
[
"Mary Winkler"
],
[
"shotgun slaying of her husband,"
],
[
"travel."
],
[
"would not give her permission to travel."
],
[
"permission to travel."
],
[
"Mary Winkler"
],
[
"Dan and Diane Winkler,"
],
[
"Mary Winkler"
]
] | NEW: Wife says sentence for shooting preacher was too short .
Judge wouldn't allow woman to travel for show; taped segment airs .
Mary Winkler convicted of manslaughter in shotgun slaying .
She is battling her in-laws for custody of her three daughters . |
(CNN) -- The parents of a missing 10-month-old Missouri girl issued an impassioned plea for her return Wednesday, as police said they have found little to go on in investigating her disappearance.
"We just want our baby back," Deborah Irwin, clutching a teddy bear and crying, said of her daughter Lisa. "Please bring her home. Our two other boys are waiting for her. Please, just drop her off anywhere, we don't care. Just somewhere safe where she can come home, please."
Her husband, Jeremy, urged anyone with information to call police. "Anything, even the smallest information, could help lead to her return," he said.
Lisa Irwin was last seen at about 10:30 p.m. Monday, asleep in her crib, Kansas City, Missouri, police said. Police were called to the home at about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
"It appears the suspect entered/exited through a bedroom window," authorities said in a statement. "Evidence at the scene leads police to believe the child has been abducted."
Jeremy Irwin discovered the child missing when he arrived home from work, CNN affiliate KSHB reported.
Police have said the Irwins are not considered suspects in Lisa's disappearance. Police Capt. Steve Young on Wednesday told reporters the family has been cooperative from the beginning of the investigation, but "everything is still on the table. We haven't ruled anything out."
He said investigators "really haven't developed any good, hard information that we can go forward with." Nearly 50 tips have been received through a tip hotline, he said, but not all of them have been pursued, as some of them have been vague -- a person calling to report a child seat seen in a car, for instance.
"I know everybody's hearts are in the right place, but that's not anything we can do anything with," Young said.
Police have conducted more than 300 "knock-and-talks" and searches of residences in the area, and more than 300 officers were searching for Lisa. There have been three searches of a wooded area near the family's home, he said.
"I promise you, if there's anything we think we can be doing, we've probably done it two or three times already," Young said.
An Amber Alert was issued for Lisa early Tuesday but has been canceled. "Although the investigation and search for Lisa Irwin continue, an active Amber Alert is no longer necessary in this case," police said. However, Lisa is still considered missing and endangered, according to authorities.
Lisa is described as 30 inches tall with blue eyes and blond hair, police said. She weighs between 26 and 30 pounds. She was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it. She has two bottom teeth, a small bug bite under her left ear and a "beauty mark" on her right outer thigh. She currently has a cold with a cough, police said.
CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report. | [
"When was she last seen?",
"When Lisa Irwin was last seen?",
"What police say about Lisa Irwin case?",
"What way did someone come in?",
"What is Lisa's parents plea?",
"Whose parents ask to drop her off in a safe place?"
] | [
[
"about 10:30 p.m. Monday,"
],
[
"about 10:30 p.m. Monday,"
],
[
"to believe the child has been abducted.\""
],
[
"through a bedroom window,\""
],
[
"for her return"
],
[
"Lisa Irwin"
]
] | Lisa Irwin was last seen asleep at her home at 10:30 p.m. Monday .
Police say it appears someone came in through a window .
Lisa's parents: Please drop her off in a safe place . |
(CNN) -- The parents of a missing 10-month-old Missouri girl late Thursday indicated they are cooperating with detectives, counter to what police said earlier in the evening, a relative said.
A woman who identified herself as Ashley Irwin, sister of Jeremy Irwin, read a statement on behalf of her brother and Deborah Bradley, parents of missing infant Lisa Irwin.
"We have never stopped cooperating with the police. We've been cooperative from day one and we continue to assist the police with the investigation," the statement said. "The main goal has always been to find Lisa and bring her home. That remains the sole focus of the parents."
Ashley Irwin said the parents, who will release another statement Friday, wanted to thank police and the community for their efforts and prayers.
Kansas City, Missouri, police Capt. Steve Young had said earlier that the pair had stopped assisting police in the investigation.
"I don't have to illustrate how that affects the investigation," Young said of the development. "It speaks for itself."
Young, who said "our door is always open" to the parents, told reporters that there are no suspects in the case.
Earlier Thursday, the parents told reporters about how they discovered Lisa to be missing.
"She's everything," Bradley said of Lisa. "She's our little girl. She's completed our family, and she means everything to my boys. We need her home. I can't be without her."
Irwin urged anyone with information to call police. "Anything, even the smallest information, could help lead to her return," he said.
Lisa Irwin was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Monday, asleep in her crib, police said. They were called to the home at about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
"It appears the suspect entered/exited through a bedroom window," authorities said in a statement. "Evidence at the scene leads police to believe the child has been abducted."
Jeremy Irwin told reporters that he found Lisa missing when he got home from work. "The front door was unlocked," he said Thursday. "Most of the lights were on in the house, and the window in front was open -- all very unusual."
The couple claimed three cell phones were missing at their home, Young said, but the information has not turned up anything.
Police have said the parents are not considered suspects in Lisa's disappearance. Young on Wednesday told reporters the family had been cooperative, but "everything is still on the table. We haven't ruled anything out."
He said then that investigators "really haven't developed any good, hard information that we can go forward with." Nearly 50 tips have been received through a hotline, he said, but not all of them have been pursued, as some of them have been vague -- a person calling to report a child seat seen in a car, for instance.
"I know everybody's hearts are in the right place, but that's not anything we can do anything with," Young said.
Police have conducted more than 300 "knock-and-talks" and searches of residences in the area, and more than 300 officers were searching for Lisa. There have been three searches of a wooded area near the family's home, he said.
"I promise you, if there's anything we think we can be doing, we've probably done it two or three times already," Young said.
An Amber Alert was issued for Lisa early Tuesday but has been canceled. "Although the investigation and search for Lisa Irwin continue, an active Amber Alert is no longer necessary in this case," police said.
However, Lisa is still considered missing and endangered, according to authorities.
Lisa is described as 30 inches tall with blue eyes and blond hair, police said. She weighs between 26 and 30 pounds. She was last seen wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it. She has | [
"What does Lisa's mother say the girl is?",
"Do police say her parents are suspects?",
"Where was Lisa last seen?",
"What did police say?",
"Parents say they are doing what with police?",
"Who said parents aren't suspects?",
"What are parents doing?"
] | [
[
"\"She's everything,\""
],
[
"no"
],
[
"asleep in her crib,"
],
[
"Lisa Irwin was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Monday, asleep in her crib,"
],
[
"cooperating"
],
[
"Police"
],
[
"with detectives,"
]
] | NEW: Parents say they are cooperating with police, relative says .
Lisa Irwin's mother says the girl is "everything"
Lisa was last seen asleep in her crib at 10:30 p.m. Monday .
Police say her parents are not suspects in her disappearance . |
(CNN) -- The pastor of a non-denominational church in Argyle, Texas, passed around the collection plate to his congregants earlier this year -- and asked them to take money from it. Donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church had slumped because of the economic downturn. Pastor Toby Slough thought that his congregants had to be hurting, too. His gesture, instead, was met with an unexpected response: The church had its highest offering ever. It was a eureka moment for Slough: Give away money to those who need it, knowing his church members will help fill the need. "In these economic times, we can't be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people," Slough told CNN television affiliate KDAF in Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas. In the past two months, the 9-year-old church has done just that: handed out a half-million dollars to members and non-members who are struggling. Watch pastor on rip off concerns » "We've taken $200,000 and spread it out to organizations -- four local, two missions that are feeding and clothing people in these tough times," Slough said. "We've paid utility bills for members of our church that are unemployed or under-employed." His favorite giveaway came three weeks ago. The church gave 1,400 families $50 each and told them to hand it out to someone else. One of the recipients was Katie Lewis. "I've been alone so long. Just to be thought of and to be remembered, to be welcomed -- it's amazing," she said, crying. Church members are pleasantly surprised. "You don't hear about a church giving money away," Amy Sullivan said. Slough said he is not concerned if people try to take advantage of the church's generosity. "I told my church a couple weeks ago, if I'm not being taken advantage of, I'm not being like Jesus," he said. The church has now formed a group to look into the best ways to give out money. And, Slough said, it plans on doing so as long as there is a need in the community. | [
"What led to the church getting fewer donations?",
"What was highest amount of donations ?",
"who gave away money?",
"what did it result in?",
"what is the church called?",
"Who decided to give away money?",
"Which church is getting fewer donations?",
"Who decides to give away money?",
"What led to diminished donations?"
] | [
[
"economic downturn."
],
[
"a half-million dollars"
],
[
"Timbers Community Church"
],
[
"highest offering ever."
],
[
"Cross Timbers Community"
],
[
"Pastor Toby Slough"
],
[
"Cross Timbers Community"
],
[
"Pastor Toby Slough"
],
[
"economic downturn."
]
] | Economy led to diminished donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church .
Pastor decides to give away money to those who need it .
Result was highest amount of donations ever for the church . |
(CNN) -- The path that brought U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley to the point of pleading guilty to involvement in two international terrorism plots is complicated and twisted. His life, in many ways, is far from the average American experience, but he's also very much a product of a typical American upbringing. He's an unusual fusion, a product of two worlds, a rare blending of East and West. And because of his unusual background, Headley, experts say, is one of the most unusual and important American-born terrorists. Even his eyes -- one blue and one brown -- reflect the double life he has lived almost since the day he was born. Headley pleaded guilty Thursday to all 12 charges against him in connection with the four-day siege on India's financial capital in 2008 that left more than 160 people dead and a planned attack in Denmark. Headley, the son of an American mother and Pakistani father, was accused of extensive involvement in planning the devastating attacks on hotels in Mumbai, which the Indian government says were carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. At least six Americans were among the dead. Headley, 49, was indicted last October and charged by the U.S. government for conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he has changed his plea as part of a deal with the government to cooperate with investigators and possibly to avoid the death penalty he might have received if convicted on some of the charges. In the federal courtroom in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday, Headley told the judge that he did not dispute any of the 12 charges. By pleading guilty, he also gave up his right to appeal in the case. He faced six counts of conspiracy to bomb locations in India and to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India. The indictment against him charged that Headley scouted targets in Mumbai for more than two years to set up the November 2008 attacks. He was also accused of planning a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper, which was never carried out. The newspaper became the target of Muslim fury in 2005 after it published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a manner offensive to Muslims. Even family asks: Who is David Coleman Headley? Now that he's admitted to conspiracy to murder and maim in the Mumbai attack, even members of his own family are wondering who David Headley really is. "I was really shocked. And just didn't expect something like that. And I mean such a hands-on accusation," said William Headley, his uncle, reflecting on when he first learned of the government's accusations against his nephew. "It was like you had poured cold water inside my chest." David Coleman Headley was born in 1960 in Washington, D.C., but with a different name: at birth, he was given the Urdu name Daood Gilani. He was the son of an eccentric, flamboyant and rebellious high society mother from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Serrill Headley; and a strict, formal Pakistani diplomat father, Sayed Salim Gilani. The couple met at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington but moved to Lahore, Pakistan, when their son was very young. "He was the first baby I had anything to do with," his uncle William Headley said. "He was the first baby I ever touched or held or anything like that. And somewhere I have a photograph of me in my pajamas holding little Daood. ... He was a nice-looking little baby." Fractious union of East and West After only a few years, Daood's parents split up, an early sign of the fractious union of East and West. The separation left Daood straddled between his traditional Muslim father and his very Western, very American mother. For a time, his mother remained in Pakistan, but she eventually returned to Philadelphia, where she opened a popular bar called the Khyber | [
"What did he do wrong",
"who is product of 2 worlds",
"who is david coleman",
"what is lashkar - e - tayyiba"
] | [
[
"involvement in two international terrorism plots"
],
[
"David Coleman Headley"
],
[
"U.S. citizen"
],
[
"Pakistan-based terrorist group"
]
] | David Coleman Headley is a product of two worlds, a rare blending of East and West .
His mother was a fun-loving Philly socialite; his father was a strict, formal Pakistani .
His arrest in a heroin sting was a turning point in his life, an uncle says .
He's been tied to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba; India says group carried out Mumbai attacks . |
(CNN) -- The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak, Peanut Corp. of America, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in court Friday in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Peanut Corp. of America plants in Georgia and Texas came under scrutiny after the salmonella outbreak.
The documents were filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Virginia.
The bankruptcy papers were signed by Stewart Parnell, the president of Peanut Corp., who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions this week in a congressional hearing.
Bacteria found in the company's Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant have been blamed for more than 600 cases of salmonella, including nine deaths. Watch how bankruptcy could affect case »
The Texas Health Department on Thursday ordered products from the company's plant in Plainview, Texas, to be recalled after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. Watch what health inspectors found »
A call to the company's telephone number, which was working earlier this week, elicited a recording that said it was no longer in service.
"The long and the short of it is that we kicked the tires on reorganizing the company, and, frankly, they're just in a position now where they can't even conduct business," said Andrew S. Goldstein, a lawyer for the company. "They can't operate at all, and this just seemed like the inevitable course."
In a written statement, Consumers Union said Friday's declaration shows that Congress needs to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration and hike the penalties it can impose.
"It is unacceptable for corporations to put consumers' health at risk and then simply declare bankruptcy and go out of business when they get caught," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.
"PCA's declaration of bankruptcy will, among other things, shield it from liability suits filed by consumers who became sick or whose loved ones died as a result of eating PCA's peanut products," she said. | [
"Where was the company plant where dead rodents were found?",
"What did the Consumers Union say?",
"What cases were linked to a Georgia plant?",
"What org says that filing shows need for stronger FDA?",
"The plants affected by the outbreak are from what state?",
"What was found in a Texas plant?",
"What is to blame for hundreds of cases of illnesses?",
"What was blamed on cases of salmonella?",
"Where was the plant that was blamed for hundreds of salmonella cases?",
"What company will be shielded from liability suits?",
"What will the move do?"
] | [
[
"Plainview, Texas,"
],
[
"said Friday's declaration shows that Congress needs to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration and hike the penalties it can impose."
],
[
"salmonella"
],
[
"Consumers Union"
],
[
"Georgia and Texas"
],
[
"Bacteria"
],
[
"a national salmonella outbreak,"
],
[
"Bacteria found in the company's Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant"
],
[
"Blakely, Georgia,"
],
[
"Peanut Corp. of America"
],
[
"shield it from liability suits filed by consumers"
]
] | NEW: Consumers Union says filing shows need for stronger FDA .
NEW: Move will shield company from liability lawsuits, group says .
Bacteria in company plant in Georgia blamed for hundreds of salmonella cases .
Products from company plant in Texas recalled after dead rodents found . |
(CNN) -- The people who died Thursday at a spiritual resort in Arizona had spent time in a "sweatbox" similar to what Native Americans and other cultures have used for prayer and purification rituals throughout history. Two people died and were 19 injured after spending up to two hours inside this "sweatbox" at an Arizona resort. And those who use them say they can be dangerous if care is not taken. From Scandinavia to South America to Africa, people have come together in the sauna-like structures -- typically heated by pouring water on hot lava rocks -- for a variety of reasons, said Joseph Bruchac, writer and author of The Native American Sweat Lodge. He's part Abenaki, a tribe concentrated in the northeast United Staes, and part European. "Each tribal nation has its own traditions, so one group might do it differently from another so you cannot generalize too much," said Bruchac, who runs an outdoor education center in Greenfield Center, New York. In North America, most Native American tribes use the term "sweat lodge" to refer to a dome-shaped structure where the intimate ritual of the sweat takes place, said Bruchac, who has his own sweat lodge on his property in the foothills of the Adirondacks. "Sweat lodges are typically used for a ritual preparation, like before a hunt, or nowadays, people might do it before a wedding or dance or some kind of community event as a way of putting yourself in balance," he said. Bruchac noted that incidents like the one in Arizona tend to raise discussion in Native American communities over whether non-Natives should be allowed to adapt traditional ceremonies. "It's a very meaningful ceremony. I can understand why people find it attractive," Bruchac said. "But I consider it sacrilegious and foolish to do someone else's rituals without proper guidance or practice, especially in sweat lodges where you're raising people's body temperatures. With that many people, oxygen is going to be depleted, and if you have heart problems or breathing problems, you could faint or die." No information about the sweatbox at the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona could be found on the Web site Saturday. The two people who died and the 19 others who fell ill there were attending a program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, authorities said Saturday. Authorities said between 50 and 60 people were in the structure for nearly two hours -- far exceeding the number who ordinarily would participate in a traditional sweat, according to Bruchac. In a typical ritual, the leader of the sweat gathers four to 12 friends, family members or guests inside the structure, usually made of willow and covered with blankets or canvas, he said. "The person running the sweat has to be very aware of the people in the lodge because he takes control of them mentally, physically and spiritually," said Bruchac. "The leader is responsible for them, so he has to be aware of their physical conditions and their motivations, their reasons for being there." After everyone is inside, a firekeeper heats stones, usually lava rocks, and brings them into the lodge, placing them in a hole in the ground and carefully pouring water over the stones to release steam. The technique of releasing the heat is done with great care so that no one is injured by the steam, which can burn skin or lungs if someone inhales it, said Father Raymond Bucko, Director of Native Studies at Creighton University. "Nobody will make it so hot that no one can stand it," said Bucko. "Religious leaders are very careful about people's health in the sweat. If they're not healthy, people can sit outside the sweat and pray and others can go in for them." A ritual of speaking or prayer may follow, depending on the group's intention for gathering. "People talk and often there's lot of humor, but at any time if it's too hot, some one can say so and they will immediately open the door and people are encouraged to go | [
"Who heats stones, places them in hole in lodge and pours water over them?",
"What has been used in prayer across the globe?",
"Deaths raise concerns over what?",
"what are used in prayer"
] | [
[
"a firekeeper"
],
[
"\"sweatbox\""
],
[
"\"sweatbox\""
],
[
"\"sweatbox\""
]
] | Sweat lodges are used in prayer and purification rituals across globe .
Deaths raise concerns over non-Natives trying to adapt traditional ceremonies .
Typical Native American sweat lodge used in ritual of prayer and purification .
Firekeeper heats stones, places them in hole in lodge, pours water over them . |
(CNN) -- The photographer who took images of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto moments before her assassination Thursday told CNN he was "surprised" to see her rise through the sunroof of her vehicle to wave to supporters after delivering her speech.
Getty Images photographer John Moore captured Benazir Bhutto waving, moments before he heard gunshots.
"I ran up, got as close as I got, made a few pictures of her waving to the crowd," Getty Images senior staff photographer John Moore told CNN's online streaming news service, CNN.com Live, in a phone interview Thursday from Islamabad, Pakistan.
"And then suddenly, there were a few gunshots that rang out, and she went down, she went down through the sunroof," he said. "And just at that moment I raised my camera up and the blast happened. ... And then, of course, there was chaos." Watch Moore describe Bhutto's final moments »
Moore said he was about 20 yards away from Bhutto's vehicle when he took his photographs. Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Moore said he had been following Bhutto's story since her return to Pakistan in October. He was present October 19 when a terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people. In the aftermath of that attack, "the rallies had been very small," because of high security, Moore said.
However, the Rawalpindi rally was announced beforehand, he observed.
"Whoever planned this attack -- they had time on their hands to plan everything properly, and you saw the results today," he said.
Between 5,000 and 8,000 were at the Rawalpindi rally, which was held at a parkground, he said. "We [the news media] all expected it to be filled ... but there were less people there than most of us expected to see," he said. "When I talked with a number of people, they said that people were just afraid to come out, for the simple reason that they all remembered what happened in Karachi."
Moore said he himself expected there could be another attack following the Karachi massacre. He said he stayed away from gates at the Rawalpindi parkground, where police were searching people, because he suspected that's where a bomb would go off.
Moore said it was obvious that Bhutto enjoyed being with her supporters. "She was clearly in her element," he said. "She just wanted to get close to the people, and obviously whoever was after her -- they saw that coming." E-mail to a friend | [
"John Moore took images of who?",
"Moore \"surprised\" to see Bhutto do what?",
"What happened at Karachi rally?"
] | [
[
"former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto"
],
[
"rise through the sunroof of her vehicle to wave to supporters"
],
[
"terror attack"
]
] | John Moore took images of Benazir Bhutto moments before death .
Moore "surprised" to see Bhutto rise through sunroof to wave to crowd .
Moore was also at Karachi rally where Bhutto was attacked in October . |
(CNN) -- The pilot and co-pilot aboard a FedEx cargo plane were killed when the plane burst into flames Monday while landing at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan, airport and hospital officials said. Smoke rises from a FedEx cargo plane that crash landed on the tarmac of the Narita International Airport, Tokyo. Both crew members were American men, an official at Narita Red Cross Hospital told CNN. Video from the landing showed the plane bouncing at least twice on the runway and veering left as it turned on its side before bursting into flames. The fire destroyed the aircraft, which was identified by FedEx as a McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Japan's Ministry of Transport said it was the first fatal crash at Narita, which opened in 1978. Strong winds may have played a role in the crash, said Masaru Fujisaki, an airport official. FedEx Express Flight 80 took off from Guangzhou, China, and crashed at Narita about 7 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. Sunday ET), said FedEx spokesman Matt Ceniceros. Watch more about the cargo plane accident » According to observations at the airport, wind gusts were reported to be between 30 to 50 mph around the time if the crash. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Narita firefighters had worked through the flaming wreckage to try to rescue two people believed to be the crew. The news agency said the cargo plane was landing on Runway A, the longer of the two runways at Narita, a major international airport. The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said Sunday night it was sending a team to Japan to assist in the investigation of the crash. CNN's Kyung Lah in Tokyo contributed to this report. | [
"Where was the crashed airplane coming from?",
"What might have contributed to the plane crash?",
"What nationality were the pilot and co-pilot?",
"Where did the FedEx plane crash?",
"A FedEx Cargo plane crashed at what Tokyo Airport?",
"What played a role in the crash?",
"What is the name of the airport?",
"What Nationality were the pilot and co-pilot of the crashed plane?"
] | [
[
"Guangzhou, China,"
],
[
"Strong winds"
],
[
"American"
],
[
"Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan,"
],
[
"Narita"
],
[
"Strong winds"
],
[
"Tokyo's Narita"
],
[
"American"
]
] | FedEx cargo plane crashes and bursts into flames at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan .
Pilot and co-pilot, both Americans, aboard plane from Guangzhou, China, are killed .
Strong winds may have played a role in the crash, says airport official .
Video shows plane bouncing on the runway and veering left as it turns on its side . |
(CNN) -- The pilot and co-pilot of a small cargo jet were killed when their aircraft crashed short of the runway while landing at an airport in suburban Chicago, Illinois, local authorities said. The Learjet 35A was on its final approach into Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, Illinois, when it went down about 1:30 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration reported. The plane crashed into a forest preserve about a mile south of the runway and ended up in a river, said Jay Reardon, the head of a multi-agency firefighting task force that responded to the crash. The two-man crew was found dead at the scene, Reardon said. No emergency was declared before the crash. "To our knowledge, everything appeared normal up until the aircraft was reported down by the tower at Chicago Executive Airport," Reardon said. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation of the crash. There was no immediate indication of the cause, NTSB senior investigator Pam Sullivan said. "It's way too early to even start narrowing down what could or could not happen," she said. The flight was operated by Royal Air Cargo, a Waterford, Michigan-based carrier that operates a fleet of small jets to deliver "time-sensitive" freight, airport spokesman Michael Standard said. Reardon said the jet appeared to be empty when it went down. The downed plane was en route to Atlanta, Georgia, from Pontiac, Michigan, with a stop in Chicago, according to private Web sites that track air travel. There was no immediate comment from the company. | [
"Who was killed in the plane crash?",
"where was the plane headed",
"Who operated the flight?",
"what happened?",
"who was killed",
"What is the name of the airport?"
] | [
[
"pilot and co-pilot"
],
[
"Atlanta, Georgia,"
],
[
"Royal Air Cargo,"
],
[
"pilot and co-pilot of a small cargo jet were killed"
],
[
"pilot and co-pilot of a small cargo jet"
],
[
"Chicago Executive"
]
] | Pilot, co-pilot killed as plane crashes short of runway .
Learjet was on its final approach into Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, Illinois .
The flight was operated by Royal Air Cargo; no other people onboard . |
(CNN) -- The pilot of a Boeing 737 was in the cockpit, preparing to take off with 101 passengers, when police arrested him for flying with a fake pilot's license, investigators said. The 41-year-old Swedish man was poised to fly on Tuesday night from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, to Ankara, Turkey, when investigators "caught the pilot red-handed during his flight preparation," according to a statement from the Dutch National Police Services Agency. Authorities charged him with forgery and flying without a valid license, the statement said. It's apparently not the first time the man, whose identity was not divulged, has tried to fly without a license. Investigators in Sweden charged the man several years ago with flying with a fake license, but they did not pursue the case because they couldn't find him, said Anders Lundblad, a spokesman for the Swedish Transport Agency. The Swedes got a tip recently that the man was flying for a Turkish company and that he would soon be in the Netherlands, Lundblad said. They passed that information to Dutch police, which led to the pilot's arrest at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. The man said he had flown for 13 years for companies in Belgium, Great Britain and Italy, the Dutch police said, though it was unclear whether he had a license for all or part of that time. He recently had a valid license to fly small commercial airplanes, but that license had expired and would not have allowed him to fly passenger aircraft, the Dutch statement said. Lundblad also said the man once had a valid pilot's license. "Why he never renewed it I guess only he knows," he said. CNN's Per Nyberg and Claudia Rebazza contributed to this report. | [
"Where was the Swedish man poised to fly from?",
"What had he been charged with several years ago by Swedish investigators?",
"What did investigators charge him with several years ago?",
"What did authorties charge the man with?",
"What is he charged with?",
"Where is the man flying?",
"What reasons do a man traveling with false documents?",
"Who hired this man?"
] | [
[
"Amsterdam,"
],
[
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],
[
"flying"
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[
"forgery and flying without a valid license,"
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[
"forgery and flying without a valid license,"
],
[
"from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, to Ankara, Turkey,"
],
[
"never renewed"
],
[
"a Turkish company"
]
] | 41-year-old Swedish man poised to fly from Amsterdam to Ankara .
Authorities charged him with forgery and flying without a valid license .
Swedish investigators charged man several years ago with flying with a fake license . |
(CNN) -- The pilot of a tanker that crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a major oil spill, was under the influence of multiple prescription medications that impaired his judgment, federal officials said in a report Wednesday.
The November 2007 crash left a gash in the tanker's side and led to an oil spill that killed more than 2,000 birds.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of the Hong Kong-registered Cosco Busan, was "medically unfit" on November 7, 2007. That, and a master pilot's poor oversight of his performance, were major factors in the crash that dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay, the NTSB said.
"How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge is very troubling," said acting NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker.
The pilot, John Cota, was charged with criminal negligence in federal court last year. He faces two misdemeanor charges that could result in up to 18 months in prison and $115,000 in fines.
The 901-foot ship left Oakland, California, en route to South Korea when Cota gave orders that steered the ship directly toward a support tower on the bridge. While the ship avoided a direct hit, it hit a support system at the tower's base, cutting a 212-foot gash in the ship's side, the NTSB said.
The board ruled that Cota and Chinese master pilot Mao Cai Sun never thoroughly discussed a plan before they took off on a foggy night when visibility was less than a quarter-mile.
The oil spill killed about 2,500 birds of 50 different species, according to the report. The crash caused more than $70 million in environmental cleanup costs, $2 million in damage to the ship and $1.5 million in damage to the bridge.
The report also blamed the ship's operator, Fleet Management Ltd., for not properly training crew members and the U.S. Coast Guard for not providing adequate medical oversight of the pilot.
It said the Coast Guard should have revoked the pilot's license, the pilot should have given a meaningful pre-departure briefing about plans for the voyage and the master pilot should have taken a more active role in ensuring the ship's safety.
"There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable," Rosenker said. | [
"What state did this incident take place in?",
"What did the tanker strike?",
"How many birds died in this oil spill?",
"Who is the pilot of the tanker?",
"Who called the pilot medically unfit?",
"How many medicines was this pilot on?",
"What year did the crash occur?",
"What did the tanker hit?",
"What else was cited as a factor?",
"What did the NTSB say about the pilot of tanker?",
"How many birds died in 2007"
] | [
[
"California,"
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"John Cota,"
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[
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[
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[
"more than 2,000"
]
] | Pilot of tanker that struck San Francisco Bay Bridge "medically unfit," NTSB says .
Man was taking "a half-dozen impairing prescription medications," report says .
Crash in 2007 caused oil spill that killed about 2,500 birds, NTSB says .
Supervisor's poor oversight also cited as factor in NTSB report . |
(CNN) -- The pilot of a tanker that crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a major oil spill, was under the influence of multiple prescription medications that impaired his judgment, federal officials said in a report Wednesday.
The November 2007 crash left a gash in the tanker's side and led to an oil spill that killed more than 2,000 birds.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of the Hong Kong-registered Cosco Busan, was "medically unfit" on November 7, 2007. That, and a master pilot's poor oversight of his performance, were major factors in the crash that dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay, the NTSB said.
"How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge is very troubling," said acting NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker.
The pilot, John Cota, was charged with criminal negligence in federal court last year. He faces two misdemeanor charges that could result in up to 18 months in prison and $115,000 in fines.
The 901-foot ship left Oakland, California, en route to South Korea when Cota gave orders that steered the ship directly toward a support tower on the bridge. While the ship avoided a direct hit, it hit a support system at the tower's base, cutting a 212-foot gash in the ship's side, the NTSB said.
The board ruled that Cota and Chinese master pilot Mao Cai Sun never thoroughly discussed a plan before they took off on a foggy night when visibility was less than a quarter-mile.
The oil spill killed about 2,500 birds of 50 different species, according to the report. The crash caused more than $70 million in environmental cleanup costs, $2 million in damage to the ship and $1.5 million in damage to the bridge.
The report also blamed the ship's operator, Fleet Management Ltd., for not properly training crew members and the U.S. Coast Guard for not providing adequate medical oversight of the pilot.
It said the Coast Guard should have revoked the pilot's license, the pilot should have given a meaningful pre-departure briefing about plans for the voyage and the master pilot should have taken a more active role in ensuring the ship's safety.
"There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable," Rosenker said. | [
"How many birds died?",
"What was the man taking?",
"When was the crash?",
"What bridge was struck?"
] | [
[
"2,000"
],
[
"multiple prescription medications"
],
[
"2007,"
],
[
"San Francisco Bay"
]
] | Pilot of tanker that struck San Francisco Bay Bridge "medically unfit," NTSB says .
Man was taking "a half-dozen impairing prescription medications," report says .
Crash in 2007 caused oil spill that killed about 2,500 birds, NTSB says .
Supervisor's poor oversight also cited as factor in NTSB report . |
(CNN) -- The pilot who made a treacherous crash-landing on New York's Hudson River look like a routine maneuver got a hero's welcome Saturday in his California hometown. Chesley B. Sullenberger was honored Saturday with a celebration in his hometown of Danville, California. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger put his US Airways jetliner down on the Hudson minutes after both engines failed, then walked the length of the drifting Airbus A320 twice to make certain that all 155 people on board got off safely. He was greeted by several thousand cheering people gathered around the town square in Danville, California, for a celebration in his honor. Mayor Newell Arnerich presented Sullenberger with a ceremonial key to the city, an upscale suburb near San Francisco. Sullenberger, who has avoided public comment since the January 15 incident, made very brief remarks. He thanked the crowd for an "incredible outpouring of support." "Circumstance determined that it was this experienced crew that was scheduled to fly on that particular flight on that particular day," Sullenberger said. "But I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do. Thank you." Watch Sullenberger address the crowd » Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, fought back tears as she spoke of her husband. "I have always known him to be an exemplary pilot. I knew what the outcome would be that day, because I knew my husband," she said. "Mostly for me, he's the man that makes my cup of tea every morning." Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board continue to piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina. The jet's left engine, which apparently tore away from the plane on landing impact, was raised from the bottom of the Hudson on Friday. Sullenberger reported to air controllers that his plane had hit birds shortly before both engines shut down. On Saturday, the NTSB said a preliminary examination of the left engine found evidence of "soft body impact damage," the same kind of damage reported on the right engine. An NTSB spokesman said that there was no evidence of organic material such as a dead bird in the left engine but that was not surprising because the engine had been under water for a week. Although the NTSB has not officially confirmed reports of a bird strike, the agency's findings and statements have not done anything to discount the bird-strike reports. Both engines will be shipped to the manufacturer in Ohio, where NTSB investigators will tear them down completely for examination. | [
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"what Thousands greet US Airways pilot in Danville?",
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"what did evidence show?"
] | [
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"\"soft body impact damage,\""
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[
"Danville, California."
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[
"cheering people"
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[
"piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off"
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[
"ceremonial key to the city,"
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[
"by several thousand cheering people"
],
[
"left engine found evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\""
],
[
"town square in Danville, California,"
],
[
"details from the double engine failure"
],
[
"piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane"
],
[
"left engine"
],
[
"Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board"
],
[
"Danville, California."
],
[
"\"soft body impact damage,\""
]
] | NEW: Left engine shows evidence of "soft body impact damage," NTSB says .
Thousands greet US Airways pilot in Danville, California .
"We were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do," he says .
Investigators continue to piece together what happened . |
(CNN) -- The pilots' union of Lufthansa began a strike Monday after a last-ditch effort at negotiations over pay and job security failed, a spokeswoman for the airline told CNN.
The four-day work stoppage by the pilots' union of one of the world's largest airlines threatened to disrupt travel on more than two dozen partner airlines later on Monday.
Lufthansa and the pilot's union, Vereinigung Cockpit, met over the weekend as a last-ditch effort to avoid the strike. More than 4,000 pilots walked off the job at midnight Monday (6 p.m. Sunday ET) through Thursday over protracted contract negotiations centering around pay and job security.
The action by Lufthansa pilots signaled growing labor unrest across Europe. The industrial action by the pilots started the same day that British Airways cabin staff were expected to announce the outcome of its strike vote. On Wednesday in Greece, a mass public and private sector strike is being planned to protest the government's austerity plan.
Lufthansa had already canceled two-thirds of its scheduled flights Monday to Thursday ahead of the strike.
The bulk of the disruptions are expected to begin later Monday since most German airports prohibit flights overnight. Still, passengers at Frankfurt Airport on Sunday were already feeling inconvenienced.
"It makes me angry because for me, normally I would (leave) on Monday morning," said one passenger. "Now I have to go Sunday evening and my family's at home and I have to (return) tomorrow night with the train. So it's uncomfortable." "It's inconvenient and it's not justified at all," another passenger said.
Company officials admitted it would have a "heavy influence" on its international operations, which includes flights to 80 countries worldwide.
Send your views and experiences to CNN iReport
In 2008, Lufthansa was the number two international carrier by passengers with 42.2 million, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The threatened walkout came as the airline industry is digging out of the worst one-year drop-off in flights, according to IATA.
In 2009, revenues dropped nearly 15 percent worldwide after generating a record $535 billion the previous year. Passenger travel fell a record 3.5 percent and freight fell more than 10 percent, according to IATA figures.
Lufthansa officials said at a news conference last Thursday it would cost the airline about $33 million a day.
Many of Lufthansa's pilots have been working without a contract since March and more than 90 percent of the union's members voted to strike, said Jorg Handwerg, a pilot and representative for the union.
The union sought a 6.4 percent pay increase. The union is also concerned with the airline's recent buying spree of small regional carriers, such as BMI and Austrian Airlines which, it says, is cannibalizing flights away from union-flown routes.
"We fly less hours and have less potential for (performance-related bonuses)," Handwerg said. "We want to have the opportunity to grow, but instead it shrinks."
In a statement, Lufthansa said: "In addition to demands on job security, however, the union also insisted on a greater say on fundamental entrepreneurial issues, equating to intervention in business management at the airline. That demand cannot be accepted."
The airline is allowing passengers to rebook flights for tickets purchased before February 18 and plans to give German domestic passengers rail vouchers.
But one Lufthansa passenger said she is having trouble reaching a compromise with the airline.
"I spent several hours on the phone with Lufthansa to try and figure out what I can do, but now I've been told that I can't even get a refund," said Ruth Winblad, who is supposed to fly Monday from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Rome, Italy.
Lufthansa is one of the largest carriers on Star Alliance, a network of 26 airlines that share ticketing and routes for international travel. Travelers on Star Alliance flights are advised to check their tickets for Lufthansa flights and contact their carrier about any potential changes, said Markus Ruediger, Star Alliance spokesman. | [
"What is the name of the airline?",
"What does the strike focus on?",
"What are they striking for?",
"How many pilots striked?"
] | [
[
"Lufthansa"
],
[
"over protracted contract negotiations centering around pay and job security."
],
[
"pay and job security"
],
[
"More than 4,000"
]
] | NEW: Estimated 4,000 pilots at German airline Lufthansa begin four-day strike .
The pilots union says strike focuses on pay and conditions issues .
The company says the union is trying to interfere in management decisions .
Lufthansa flies to 80 countries with its main hub being Frankfurt, Germany . |
(CNN) -- The possibility of engine fires has prompted General Motors to recall nearly 1.5 million passenger sedans manufactured between 1997 and 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Monday.
The recall involves certain GM vehicles in which oil apparently can leak and ignite.
The recall covers certain mid- and full-size passenger sedans under GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands.
The affected vehicles have naturally aspirated 3.8 liter V6 engines -- that is, engines that use atmospheric pressure rather than a mechanical blower to bring in air for combustion -- according to documents that GM filed with federal regulators last week.
On Friday, the federal government acknowledged the filing and agreed to the plan.
The problem involves a potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold during hard braking. When a car operates under normal conditions, the manifold can get very hot.
Oil that runs below the manifold's heat shield could ignite and spread to plastic channels that hold spark plug wires.
As a solution, the company recommends a change in the bracket that holds spark plug wires, which will be done free of charge.
Owners and dealers affected by the recall will be notified by letter next month with details.
The vehicles involved are: • 1997-2003 Buick Regals. • 1998-2003 Chevrolet Luminas, Monte Carlos and Impalas. • 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigues. • 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix.
GM issued a recall on a similar engine in 2008, according to the company's filing with the government. That problem was traced to a faulty gasket on the engine rocker cover. | [
"what were the problems",
"What was recalled",
"Who will send details to the owners?",
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"who will send the details",
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] | [
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],
[
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]
] | Recall involves certain Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac sedans .
Problem involves potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold, then igniting .
General Motors to send details to owners next month . |
(CNN) -- The possibility of engine fires has prompted General Motors to recall nearly 1.5 million passenger sedans manufactured between 1997 and 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Monday.
The recall involves certain GM vehicles in which oil apparently can leak and ignite.
The recall covers certain mid- and full-size passenger sedans under GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands.
The affected vehicles have naturally aspirated 3.8 liter V6 engines -- that is, engines that use atmospheric pressure rather than a mechanical blower to bring in air for combustion -- according to documents that GM filed with federal regulators last week.
On Friday, the federal government acknowledged the filing and agreed to the plan.
The problem involves a potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold during hard braking. When a car operates under normal conditions, the manifold can get very hot.
Oil that runs below the manifold's heat shield could ignite and spread to plastic channels that hold spark plug wires.
As a solution, the company recommends a change in the bracket that holds spark plug wires, which will be done free of charge.
Owners and dealers affected by the recall will be notified by letter next month with details.
The vehicles involved are: • 1997-2003 Buick Regals. • 1998-2003 Chevrolet Luminas, Monte Carlos and Impalas. • 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigues. • 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix.
GM issued a recall on a similar engine in 2008, according to the company's filing with the government. That problem was traced to a faulty gasket on the engine rocker cover. | [
"When will General Motors send details to the owners/",
"What kind of cars has been recalled?",
"Which company owns these brands?",
"What does the problem involve?",
"What problem does the recall invovle?",
"Which companies does the recall involve?",
"What was the main problem with these cars?"
] | [
[
"next month"
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[
"certain mid- and full-size passenger sedans under GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands."
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[
"certain GM vehicles in which oil apparently can leak and ignite."
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[
"General Motors"
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[
"involves a potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold during hard braking."
]
] | Recall involves certain Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac sedans .
Problem involves potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold, then igniting .
General Motors to send details to owners next month . |
(CNN) -- The power of the Mexican military was on full display Tuesday in Ciudad Juarez, where police reported the third consecutive day without a drug slaying. A federal police officer guards a checkpoint earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Ten drug-related killings in a single day were common before 9,500 army troops poured into the blood-soaked border town in the past few weeks, said Mauricio Mauricio, a spokesman for the Juarez municipal police. "It's a much more secure city at this moment," he said. "We haven't had murders with the same regularity and frequency as before." But as President Obama's administration announced plans Tuesday to beef up U.S. security along its border with Mexico, there are questions about whether increased military and police efforts in both nations can yield long-term results. Mexico has been spiraling into a deepening pit of violence, with 6,500 people killed in 2008 and the body count continuing apace this year. Most of that violence is occurring along the border, which worries Washington. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others have said recently that the United States must share responsibility because the demand for drugs and most of the weapons used by drug cartels comes from north of the border. The drug war and security will be a major topic when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday. Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, called Obama's pledge on Tuesday to give $700 million in aid to Mexico and assign an additional 360 staff along the border a "substantive commitment" that shows the United States is serious about attacking the problem. "It's an attempt to really put some substance behind the idea of shared responsibility," Selee said. "They finally committed some of the resources they said they would to this." Success will depend on the follow-through, he said. "Now is the hard part," he said. "It's not easy to follow the money trail or stop the weapons or the criminal networks." Others say the Obama plan falls short. Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, calls it a "militarized strategy" that isn't oriented toward finding solutions based on economic development or social justice programs. "This is a feel-good strategy that is meant to produce the illusion of concrete developments taking place when it's actually just really more of the same," Birns said. "You're talking about a 2,000-mile border, so the odd 16 [agents] here or 12 there is not going to do the trick." On the other hand, Mexico's major military commitment is certainly showing short-term benefits. Before the army arrived in Ciudad Juarez, there had been more than 400 drug killings this year, police spokesman Mauricio said. Since the army arrived, slayings have dropped 95 percent, he said. Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, says Mexico's use of the army in Juarez -- and its evident success -- "shows that Mexico is definitely not a failed state. Nobody is going to challenge the government for control of a certain area." Selee sees it as "increased determination from the Mexican government to establish order." But there are limitations to using the military in Mexico, Birns and Hakim said. "There's bad blood that exists between local communities and the military," said Birns. "The Mexican military has not fought a war for years. It's enemy has always been the local population." Hakim noted the cost in money, and to the daily fabric of life. "That's not a cheap way of keeping law and order," he said. "It does a great deal of harm to civilian institutions. The military is not trained to respect human liberties and individual rights." It's an ambivalence that many Mexicans feel: security versus liberties. Polls consistently show that security is the top concern among a vast majority of | [
"What is the top concern among most Mexicans?",
"What did the police report?",
"What are the questions that remain?",
"What has been consistently shown to be a top concern?",
"What entity do Mexicans distrust?",
"For how many days was there no drug slaying?",
"What is a top concern for Mexicans?",
"What did the police report was third straight day of?"
] | [
[
"security"
],
[
"the third consecutive day without a drug slaying."
],
[
"whether increased military and police efforts in both nations can yield long-term results."
],
[
"security is the"
],
[
"military,\""
],
[
"third consecutive"
],
[
"security"
],
[
"without a drug slaying."
]
] | Police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, reported third straight day without a drug slaying .
Questions remain about whether increased security efforts can work long term .
Polls consistently show security is top concern among vast majority of Mexicans .
Distrust of military has long been part of social fabric of Mexican life . |
(CNN) -- The powerful Service Employees International Union has decided that, because of the $700 billion financial-system bailout, it wants to organize bank workers. Banks that get taxpayer money need to "ensure their workers have a voice," a union spokeswoman says. In an e-mail dated November 12 and obtained exclusively by CNN, a member of SEIU's Private Equity Project outlined initial discussions to organize bank workers "since the banking industry is now being infused with billions of taxpayer dollars." The e-mail was written by SEIU's Inga Skippings to the director of the Washington office of the Association of Community Organizing for Reform Now (ACORN), a longtime ally and partner of the union. "We need to get a handle on who these workers are, working conditions, etc.," Skippings wrote. "Do you have ACORN members who work for banks or Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae? Is there anyway [sic] you could check? The banks we're most concerned about are: -- Fannie Mae -- Freddie Mac -- Chevy Chase/B.F.Saul -- BB&T -- SunTrust -- Bank of America/Countrywide -- Wachovia/Wells Fargo -- PNC Bank/National City -- Citigroup "Please let me know and if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them." Skippings referred questions to a union spokeswoman, who confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail and that the union is considering targeting the banks for unionizing. "We believe there is special responsibility for companies who receive taxpayer dollars to ensure their workers have a voice on the job," SEIU's Lynda Tran said. "And those workers should have a seat at the table at the companies where decisions that impact the future of their families and the companies that employ them" are made. "We are talking to workers really broadly in banking," she said. SEIU is the fastest-growing trade union in North America, according to its own Web site, with a membership of more than 2 million, including health-care industry workers and state and local government employees. It also represents guards and janitors who work in commercial and residential properties. And its clout continues to grow. SEIU's $85 million in political donations made it the single-largest contributor to either party in the recent elections. The union worked vigorously for the election of Barack Obama, who has named a former union official as his White House political director, a post once held in the Bush administration by Karl Rove. The official, Patrick Gaspard, formerly was executive vice president of politics and legislation for Local 1199, the SEIU's United Healthcare Workers East. SEIU, which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005, is known for its successful but sometimes controversial tactics: It often targets private equity groups' leaders, as well as banks and companies, with loud and demonstrative rallies. The union's hierarchy has made no secret it hopes to grow under the incoming Democratic administration. "I would say that we've been very vocal about the optimism about the new administration," SEIU's Tran said. "There are a number of newly elected members of Congress who agree with us on matters relating to working families." One labor professor said SEIU's timing in trying to unionize bank workers may be on target "because financial institutions are at a moment of weakness." "Low-wage earners are the growing sector of the work force," said Gregory DeFreitas, an economics professor at Hofstra University and director of its labor studies program. "This is a very shrewd political move to tie this to the bailouts." DeFreitas said unions tend not to do well in attracting workers during economic recessions because jobs are scarce then. But he said recent surveys indicate a majority of workers would consider organizing, so the public's appetite for unions may be on the upswing. "Bank teller jobs are one of the few jobs that are actually growing," DeFreitas said. "And they are low-wage earners, so it | [
"The e-mail cites how much financial-system bailout as reason for move?",
"Who pays for the bailout?",
"What is union considering?",
"Bailed-out banks have responsibility to ensure workers have what?",
"E-mails cites how much money for bailout?",
"What would they be concerned about?",
"The union says it is considering targeting banks for what?",
"Who should ensure workers have a voice?"
] | [
[
"$700 billion"
],
[
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[
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[
"a voice,\""
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[
"$700 billion"
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[
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[
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] | Union says it is considering targeting banks for unionizing .
E-mail from union lists the banks it's "most concerned" about .
E-mail cites $700 billion financial-system bailout as reason for move .
Spokeswoman: Bailed-out banks have responsibility to ensure workers have voice . |
(CNN) -- The practice of moving research involving human subjects from wealthy countries to less wealthy countries has grown in recent years, raising a number of ethical and scientific issues that need to be addressed, researchers said in a journal article Wednesday.
More and more clinical trials are being moved to less wealthy nations, a medical journal article reports.
"The question is proportionality," said Dr. Kevin Schulman, director of the Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and one of the study authors. "We should test products where we are going to market them. The populations who take risks to participate in clinical research should be the ones that we anticipate will get the benefits of the research."
He and his co-authors reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that in November 2007, about one-third of clinical trials (157 of 509) were being carried out entirely outside the United States, many of them in developing countries. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of countries where such trials were being carried out more than doubled, while the number in the United States and Western Europe decreased, the researchers at Duke University said.
The shift appears to have been driven at least in part by economics -- a top medical center in India charges about a tenth what a second-tier U.S. medical center would charge per case report, the authors said.
Another incentive to move such work abroad: other countries' regulatory environments can be less burdensome. The authors reported one study that found only 56 percent of 670 researchers surveyed in developing countries said their work had been reviewed by a local institutional review board or a health ministry.
Another study reported that 18 percent of published trials carried out in China in 2004 adequately discussed informed consent for subjects considering participating in research.
In addition, recruitment of study subjects can be easier in developing countries, where a trial subject may get more than a year's pay to participate or participation could be his or her sole means of being able to get treatment, the authors said.
Transparency is yet another issue.
"We know little about the conduct and quality of research in countries that have relatively little clinical research experience," they wrote.
Schulman put it more bluntly.
"We've seen problems with people cheating on clinical trials," he said.
He acknowledged that similar problems have arisen in the United States, but said such misdeeds were less likely to be found out when they happened abroad.
Of critical importance is the fact that some populations' genetic makeup may affect their response to medication, the authors said. For example, they said, some 40 percent of people of East Asian origin have a genetic trait that impairs ethanol metabolism and limits response to nitroglycerin treatment.
"This finding may affect the relevance of trials involving cardiac, circulatory and neurologic disorders that are treated with nitroglycerin or nitric oxide-dependent therapies," they said.
The authors called for regulations governing trials to be reduced while ensuring ethical conduct, for greater use of centralized oversight boards and for research contracts to be written using standardized terms.
"Key strategies for clinical trials should be outlined in formal clinical-development plans, publicly vetted, and submitted to regulatory agencies," they said.
Alan Goldhammer, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the industry will study the suggestions and weigh whether to incorporate them.
"We're constantly taking a fresh look at all our documents and revising them as appropriate," he said. "The last thing any company wants to have happen is for a trial site to be called into question and that data then not used for review by the regulatory agency, which could put its approval status in limbo."
The matter has gained in importance with the announcement by the Obama administration that the government will carry out tests to determine which drugs work best.
A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, who said she could not be identified because she had not sought permission to talk to the news media | [
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"What affects response to medication?",
"Where was the report written?",
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] | [
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],
[
"Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics at Duke University Medical"
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[
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] | In November 2007, one-third of clinical trials were done outside of United States .
Trials in India, for instance, carry only about one-tenth the costs .
Authors say genetic makeup in countries may affect response to medication .
Report written in the New England Journal of Medicine . |
(CNN) -- The president of Toyota said he takes full responsibility for safety issues in the company's cars and vowed to regain the trust of customers in his first interview after appearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
"It is I, the chief executive officer, the one on the very top, should be responsible for this," Akio Toyoda told CNN's "Larry King Live." "I would like to really listen to the customers' voices, and together with the dealership, distributor, suppliers, we need to work together, and we would like to work together and to strive for regaining the trust once again from our customers."
Toyoda appeared earlier before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a hearing aimed at discovering, among other things, why the automaker was slow to respond to safety issues related to sudden acceleration.
He admitted to King that the day had been difficult, "and I am not confident to what degree our sincerity was conveyed."
Asked what his grandfather, the company founder, would say, Toyoda responded, "He is telling me to regain the trust of those customers who are driving our vehicles."
He vowed to respond more quickly to any future problems.
But he was adamant that the company's products are roadworthy.
"I'd like to say that Toyota vehicles are safe," he said.
Company engineers were not able to reproduce the throttle-control problems, he said, "so, at this point in time, I would say our vehicles are safe."
Toyoda told King he is dedicated to getting back to the basics of the company in providing reliable, high-quality cars to its customers.
"Since I became a president last year in July, I have been sending the messages to all our employees to make better vehicles so that our customers would be very happy to ride our vehicles.
"And we would like to maintain this," he said. | [
"What was conveyed?",
"What did the president of Toyota say he takes full responsibility for?",
"What did the president of Toyota say?",
"Who should be held responsible?",
"Who should be responsible?",
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"What are the safety issues?"
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[
"related to sudden acceleration."
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] | The president of Toyota said he takes full responsibility for safety issues .
Toyoda: 'I ... the one on the very top, should be responsible for this'
On hearing: 'Not confident to what degree our sincerity was conveyed' |
(CNN) -- The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement late Thursday, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities between the two African nations. Chad President Idriss Deby, right, and Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, left, shake hands after signing the pact. The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m. "The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country," said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq. Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times. The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February. As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border. Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime. The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region. Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad. They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there. The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said. Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up. E-mail to a friend | [
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] | Sudan, Chad presidents sign agreement aiming to halt cross-border hostilities .
Signing came after nearly two days of talks between presidents of Sudan and Chad .
Each accuses other of supporting rebels that attempt to destabilize the government .
Just hours before agreement, Chad claimed rebels from Sudan had crossed border . |
(CNN) -- The price of big screen televisions has been coming down, but this was ridiculous. Best Buy's Web site offered a 52-inch TV for less than $10, but the deal was too good to be true. Early Wednesday morning, BestBuy.com listed a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $9.99 -- a savings of more than $1600. As customers jumped on the Web site trying to take advantage of the offer, Best Buy announced it was a "pricing error" and was no longer available. A recorded message on Best Buy's customer service line told customers "we will not be placing any more orders for this unit," and messages were sent on Twitter apologizing "for any disappointment." Customers who placed orders early Wednesday were left wondering if they got away with the bargain. Eric VanBergen of Grand Rapids, Michigan, told CNN he snapped one up for $84.79 -- including $70 shipping and taxes -- at 5:30 a.m. Then, he ordered a second. Dozens of customers were posting to Twitter and Bestbuy.com, saying they also placed often multiple orders. It appears they are out of luck. In a statement, Best Buy apologized for the mistake but said it would "not be honoring the incorrect price." Company representatives posted online messages telling customers "All current and previous orders made for the TV at this price on BestBuy.com will be cancelled, and customers will be refunded in full for the purchase." The company's Web site states Best Buy reserves the right to "revoke offers or correct errors" even if a credit card has already been charged. The price mix-up gave way to customer frustration as people lost out on the deal of the year. ".bestbuy dang you!!!!" was how VanBergen reacted on Twitter after learning that his two confirmation e-mails from Best Buy were meaningless. But it appears there is little else they can do. A spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission that investigates consumer complaints told CNN "The FTC act bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices." Those would be cases of phony offers or sweepstakes, rather than a mistake, she said. | [
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] | Best Buy's Web site offers 52-inch HDTV on Web site for less than $10 .
Customers get on Web site to take advantage of bargain .
Best Buy officials admit "pricing error", says it will not honor TV purchases . |
(CNN) -- The question is starting to feel a little old: Whom will Barack Obama pick as his vice president? Sen. Barack Obama has a big event scheduled Saturday. Will his No. 2 man (or woman) be by his side? With the clock ticking (the Democratic VP candidate delivers a big speech next Wednesday) the announcement is at most days and at least a few hours away. Everyday seems to be "the day," the day the guessing game will finally end. In a poke at all of the VP buzz, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to reporters Wednesday with the subject line "Vice presidential ..." The first line of the e-mail: "Just kidding." The e-mail contained details about Obama's schedule with no mention of any of the potential vice presidential candidates. But if the top contenders have any inside information, they're doing a good job of keeping quiet. Sen. Joe Biden told reporters camped outside his Delaware home Tuesday that it's not him. "You got better things to do, guys; I'm not the guy," he said. Asked where he would be Saturday -- when Obama is reportedly scheduled to hold a campaign event in Springfield, Illinois, that may feature his new running mate -- Biden replied, "here," pointing to his driveway. He softened up a little later that night, telling reporters, "I promise you, I don't know anything." Along with Biden, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine are considered to be among the top tier of VP contenders. Watch the latest on Obama's VP selection » Bayh has managed to stay out of the spotlight this week. Does that mean he's dodging the question? He hit the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend and tried out the attack dog role, criticizing Republican John McCain for his stance on Georgia, Iraq and national security. When asked about the veepstakes, the former governor said he had "nothing to report today." Kaine, on the other hand, seems to have no qualms about taking the main stage this week. A relative newcomer to national politics, Kaine is scheduled to appear alongside Obama on Thursday as the presumptive Democratic nominee campaigns in central Virginia. Could he be introduced as Obama's No. 2 man? The pair will host an invitation-only town hall meeting Thursday in Chesterfield County, a suburb of Richmond. Kaine's sturdy performance in the traditionally conservative Richmond suburbs helped vault him to the governorship in 2005. Obama has stops scheduled in Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday before returning home to Illinois for the Springfield event, which takes place where he first kicked off his presidential run. The event marks the beginning of a tour of battleground states leading into next week's convention in Denver, Colorado. The Obama campaign has kept the details on both the timing and selection of the running mate under wraps. They would neither confirm or deny whether Obama would appear with his VP candidate this weekend. iReport.com: Whom do you think Obama should pick? Although the focus in recent days has been on Bayh, Biden and Kaine, there are quite a few other serious contenders, and a curveball pick could always be in the works. Other big names thought to be in the running include retired Gen. Wesley Clark, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Obama's campaign says that when he makes up his mind, he'll send a text message and e-mail to his supporters to let them know who his sidekick will be. | [
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] | [
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] | Democratic VP candidate gives big speech next Wednesday at convention .
Barack Obama's campaign sends e-mail with subject: "Vice presidential ..."
Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine considered top tier contenders .
Obama has big campaign event Saturday; VP pick could join him . |
(CNN) -- The reaction to Kanye West's hijacking of the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards came quickly and unequivocally. Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift during her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Celebrities and fans alike expressed their disapproval of West interrupting Swift's win for Best Female Video to tout his appreciation of nominee Beyonce. "Taylor, I'm really happy for you," West said after grabbing the microphone from a clearly stunned Swift. "I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!" Elliott Wilson, founder and chief executive officer of Rap Radar, sat in front of members of West's entourage at the live Sunday night awards show and said the mood quickly turned from one of surprised amusement to anger. Watch West grab the microphone from Swift » "At first, people weren't sure if it was kind of like a gag," Wilson said. "You could feel everybody being nervous and not knowing if it was a prank or something. Then people started booing him really loud." Wilson said he believes that West -- who he said bounded on stage from his seat in the front row near Beyonce -- intended to have his say before allowing Swift to continue but said the rapper became angered by the crowd response in a moment that wasn't captured by the MTV cameras. "The reaction to his tantrum was so strong ... and what happened was, he gave everybody the finger," Wilson said. Stars taking to Twitter returned the sentiment with some harsh words for the sometimes mercurial rap star. Singer Pink tweeted, "Kanye West is the biggest piece of [expletive] on earth. Quote me," and Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte tweeted, "All i'm saying is Taylor Swift is a young chic and you just walk up and grab the mic." Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said via Twitter that "Taylor Swift deserved that award, damnit. It is what THE PEOPLE voted! My heart broke for her, she looked so sad at the end of that moment." Singer Katy Perry weighed in with "F--- u Kanye. It's like you stepped on a kitten." VMA nominee Kelly Clarkson took to her blog to publish an open letter to West. "What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough??" she asked. On Monday, "Taylor Swift," "VMAs," "Kanye's" and "Beyonce" were top trending topics on Twitter. Watch Swift respond to what happened » Wilson, a noted hip-hop journalist, said there was a great deal of tension inside the event Sunday night before West and his girlfriend, model Amber Rose, left the show. "It was almost like wrestling, when the good guy turns bad and the crowd turns on him," Wilson said. "Every time his name was mentioned, people booed." Wilson said he believes that alcohol may have played a part in West's actions, given that the rapper appeared both on the red carpet and inside the arena with a bottle of cognac. Wilson added that West is well known for such behavior. He appeared uninvited onstage at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, walked out of the 2004 American Music Awards after losing in the Best New Artist category and reportedly threw a backstage tantrum at the 2007 VMAs because he did not perform on the main stage. "I think Kanye came in to be the bad boy, but he obviously had an emotional spaz moment because he is cool" with Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, Wilson said. "I think the alcohol blurred his judgment." Wilson said attendees at the awards show were allowed to have drinks at their seats. Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence.com, said West may have gone too far with his antics this time. "I think that it was not Kanye's place | [
"celebs take to where?",
"what speech was it",
"Whose speech did West interrupt?",
"who interrupted taylor",
"What did people do when West's name was mentioned?",
"Who interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech?",
"What did people do when West's name was mentioned?",
"What is Kayne West known for?",
"What star interrupted Taylor Swift's speech?"
] | [
[
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[
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[
"Taylor Swift"
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[
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[
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[
"Kanye West"
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[
"booed.\""
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[
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] | Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech .
Celebs take to Twitter and blogs to express outrage .
West is well-known for shocking behavior .
VMA attendee: "Every time his name was mentioned, people booed" |
(CNN) -- The reaction to Mackenzie Phillips' detailed account of her sexual relationship with her father, John Phillips, has been explosive, and some of the strongest statements have come from her family. Chynna Phillips said she doesn't think anyone could make up having a consensual incestuous relationship. But as the former actress and musician talked with Oprah Winfrey for the second time this week -- this time about the firestorm that erupted from her hour-long interview Wednesday -- she said she doesn't regret writing her memoir, "High on Arrival." "I understand this is a difficult thing for my family," Phillips told Winfrey via satellite Friday, "but nobody's talking about this, and if I've started a national dialogue, then I'm forever grateful." Phillips said she has gotten letters and Facebook messages from incest survivors, thanking her for coming forward. "It's been heartening and heartbreaking at the same time," she said. John Phillips died in 2001. Two of his former wives, however, have vehemently denied Mackenzie Phillips' accusations. In an statement to CNN, Michelle Phillips, an original Mamas & Papas bandmate who divorced John in 1970, called the situation "very hurtful." "Mackenzie's drug addiction for 35 years has been the result of many unpleasant experiences," Michelle Phillips said. "Whether her relationship with her father is delusional or not, it is an unfortunate circumstance and very hurtful for our entire family." She spoke more strongly to The Hollywood Reporter's Roger Friedman, telling him, "Mackenzie has a lot of mental illness. She's had a needle stuck up her arm for 35 years. ... She did 'Celebrity Rehab,' and now she writes a book. The whole thing is timed." Genevieve Waite, who married John Phillips in 1972, told Winfrey in a statement that "John was a good man who had a lot of problems, [but] he was incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, to have sexual relations with his own child." The fallout from Phillips' decision to reveal her family's secrets has been heartbreaking for her sister Bijou as well. Bijou Phillips supplied a statement to Winfrey stating that Mackenzie told her about the incestuous relationship with their father when Bijou was 13 but later denied it. "This news was confusing and also scary, because I'd lived alone with him since I was 3," she said. "[John Phillips] was Mr. Mom, loving and encouraging; the man who raised me would never be capable of such things." She also questioned why Mackenzie would leave her alone with their father if he'd molested the elder sister. Still, Bijou Phillips showed signs of measured support. "I understand Mackenzie's need to come clean, but it hurts because the man in question isn't here to defend himself," she said. "I hope she can come to terms with this and find peace." Mackenzie Phillips told Winfrey that her family's disbelief and anger saddened her, especially since she and Bijou Phillips have been very close. Phillips recalled the way Bijou immediately came to her aid when she was arrested last year for cocaine and heroin possession. "I love my baby sister, and I miss having contact with her," Mackenzie said. "By the time Bijou was living with my father, I felt she was safe. I did take her out of there if I felt like she wasn't being watched properly," she said in her defense. But she added that Michelle Phillips' statements weren't as surprising. "When Michelle found out I was writing this book, she vowed to do everything to discredit me," Mackenzie told Winfrey. "She's having a textbook reaction, trying to sweep it under the rug. It seems so unkind and ungenerous to lash out in this way; I don't have a history of mental illness. I have a history of drug addiction." Chynna Phillips, who also sat down with Winfrey on | [
"What is the name of MacKenzie's sister?",
"Who called the experience hurtful?",
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] | [
[
"Chynna Phillips"
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[
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[
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[
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],
[
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[
"\"This news was confusing and also scary, because I'd lived alone with him since I was 3,\""
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[
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[
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] | Mackenzie Phillips talks about family's reaction to her claims of incest .
Sister Bijou called experience hurtful but hopes Mackenzie finds peace .
John Phillips' ex-wives don't think Mackenzie's story is valid .
Chynna Phillips believes Mackenzie, hopes she uses her experience to help others . |
(CNN) -- The reality television show personality who accused football player Shawne Merriman of choking her over the weekend has denied that she was drunk during the incident, her Twitter page said Monday.
Shawne Merriman is accused of restraining reality TV star Tila Tequlia as she tried to leave his home, police say.
"I am allergic to alcohol," said the posting for Tila Nguyen, 27, who goes by Tila Tequila.
"It has been publicly known for years. That is how I got the name Tila 'Tequila' cuz the irony. I can't drink."
The incident began at 3:45 a.m. Sunday, when authorities responded to a disturbance call from Nguyen, the San Diego (California) County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
"Nguyen told deputies she had been choked and physically restrained by Merriman when she attempted to leave his residence," it said.
Merriman, 25, was taken into custody on suspicion of battery and false imprisonment, the statement said.
Deputies saw no physical injuries on Nguyen, who is described on her Twitter page as 4 feet, 11 inches tall and 93 pounds, but she asked to be taken to a hospital, said sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell. Watch Caldwell talk about the incident »
The San Diego Chargers linebacker released a statement Sunday noting that no charges had been filed and saying he had done nothing wrong.
"I was concerned about her welfare given the intoxicated state she appeared to be in and I encouraged her to stay until safe transportation could be provided," Merriman said. "I in no way caused any harm to Ms. Nguyen, however, paramedics were called and she was examined but no injuries were reported."
Merriman said he was looking forward to clearing his name of the "false accusations."
Merriman's lawyer, Todd Macaluso, said Sunday that more than a dozen other people were at the house at the time, and "witness after witness after witness will back up his story 100 percent."
In a statement posted on the Chargers' Web site Sunday, team General Manager A.J. Smith said, "It is disappointing to hear about the issue involving Shawne Merriman.
"We'll continue to monitor the situation and let the legal process run its course," Smith said.
The 6-foot, 4-inch 265-pounder is entering his fifth year with the Chargers. The team begins its 2009 NFL regular-season campaign September 14 in Oakland, California, for a game against the Raiders.
Merriman, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, recorded at least 10 sacks in each of his first three seasons, but he was limited to one game last season because of a knee injury that required surgery. | [
"What does Nguyen say on Twitter?",
"What does Nguyen allege about Merrimac?",
"What tweeted Nguyen?",
"Who says she was intoxicated?",
"Who says Shawne Merriman choked her?",
"What is Merrimac looking forward to doing?",
"Who is allergic to alcohol?"
] | [
[
"\"I am allergic to alcohol,\""
],
[
"she had been choked and physically restrained by Merriman"
],
[
"\"I am allergic to alcohol,\""
],
[
"Merriman"
],
[
"Tila Tequlia"
],
[
"clearing his name of the \"false accusations.\""
],
[
"Tila Nguyen,"
]
] | Tila "Tequila" Nguyen says NFL's Shawne Merriman choked her .
San Diego Chargers player says she was intoxicated .
"I'm allergic to alcohol. ... I can't drink," Nguyen says on Twitter .
Merriman says he looks forward to clearing his name . |
(CNN) -- The recent hacking of a Twitter employee's personal e-mail account is raising questions about the security of storing personal information and business data on the Internet. A Twitter co-founder says password toughness is important to online security. The Web has been buzzing since a hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account about a month ago and used that information to access the employee's Google Apps account. That account housed some of Twitter's private financial documents and notes, according to Twitter's official blog. Some of those documents circulated the blogosphere on Wednesday, and TechCrunch, a technology blog, published a Twitter financial forecast. The hacker sent 310 documents to the tech site, according to a post by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch's founder and co-editor. In what appears to be a separate incident, a hacker broke into Twitter chief executive Evan Williams' wife's e-mail account and then accessed Williams' PayPal and Amazon accounts, Twitter says. It's unclear what if any impact the incidents will have on the future of cloud computing, the idea that documents and computing power can be stored "in the cloud" of the Internet rather than on desktops or laptops. Many tech blogs are weighing in on the hacking's impact. Some see the incident as an indication of serious security flaws at Twitter. Others say it's a sign Twitter has gotten big, and any rising company makes a good target for a cyberattack. People outside the Silicon Valley micro-blogging company, such as Twitter account holders, reportedly were not affected in the incident. "This was not a hack on the Twitter service, it was a personal attack followed by the theft of private company documents," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone writes on the company's official blog. Google's suite of online applications, which allows users to share and store calendars, spreadsheets and text documents, is not to blame for the hacking, Stone said in the post, adding that Twitter continues to use Google Apps. "This isn't about any flaw in Web apps," Stone writes. "It speaks to the importance of following good personal security guidelines such as choosing strong passwords." Security experts say it's best for users to create new passwords for each of their online accounts. The passwords generally should be complicated, combining letters, numbers and symbols. And they should be changed often. CNET, a tech site that partners with CNN, says the hack highlights how interconnected information is online -- and how vulnerable that setup is to attack. "Although it seems that Twitter has been thrust into this situation a bit unfairly, a hack along these lines could have happened to the executives of more Web companies than anybody would like to admit," Josh Lowensohn and Caroline McCarthy write on the news site. "What it really highlights is the extreme interconnectedness of the social Web: with the likes of e-mail contact importing and data-portability services like Facebook Connect now commonplace, a savvy hacker can have access to multiple accounts simply by accessing one." Ken Colburn, a computer security expert, recently told CNN.com/Live that Google Docs are "as secure as anything you're going to do on the Internet. It's not any more or less secure than Microsoft Office." Writing for Mashable, a blog that covers online social media, Stan Schroeder says the latest Twitter breach proves the micro-blogging site needs to address nagging security flaws. "There have been so many problems [at Twitter] over the past couple of months that it's getting hard to keep track of them," he writes. "It's time to fix it once and for all, because these security issues are a dark shadow looming over the otherwise bright future of this company." Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief at Mashable, says the hacking is "another embarrassing moment in Twitter's torrid growth, but nothing that's likely to bring the house down." Peter Kafka, senior editor at AllThingsD.com, offers | [
"What did the hacker do with the information?",
"What did the hacker break into?",
"What account did the hacker break into?",
"What did the hacker steal?",
"What did twitter say?",
"Which account was hacked into?"
] | [
[
"sent 310 documents to the tech site,"
],
[
"Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account"
],
[
"Twitter employee's personal e-mail"
],
[
"310 documents"
],
[
"password toughness is important to online security."
],
[
"Twitter employee's personal e-mail"
]
] | A hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account .
The hacker stole Twitter financial documents and leaked them to several blogs .
Web is abuzz with opinions on the hacking's impact and the ethics of posting the info .
Twitter says it is seeking legal counsel on the matter . |
(CNN) -- The recent incident involving Chelsea and England captain John Terry and Queens Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand has seen the issue of racism in football dominate the headlines.
The decision by London's Metropolitan Police to launch an investigation into what occurred during the October 23 match follows allegations made by Manchester United's Patrice Evra of racial abuse from Liverpool striker Luis Suarez during an English Premier League clash.
These two incidents are just the latest in a year which has seen the issue of race and football at the forefront of coverage of both club and international soccer. | [
"What are the police investigating?",
"What has been seen a lot in 2011?",
"Police are investigating the incident between what two people?",
"What was Luis Suarez accused of",
"What did Man Utd's Evra accuse Liverpool's Luis Suarez of doing?",
"What is Luis Suarez accused of?",
"What did Man Utd Evra accused of"
] | [
[
"occurred during the October 23 match"
],
[
"race and football"
],
[
"Anton Ferdinand"
],
[
"racial abuse"
],
[
"racial abuse"
],
[
"racial abuse"
],
[
"racial abuse"
]
] | London's Metropolitan Police are to investigate incident between Terry and Ferdinand .
Man Utd's Patrice Evra has also accused Liverpool's Luis Suarez a using a racial slur .
2011 has seen numerous incidents a racism in football . |
(CNN) -- The recent ruling of a federal appeals court requiring the family of fallen hero Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder to pay the legal expenses of Fred Phelps and his misguided followers at Westboro Baptist Church is unconscionable.
Like Matthew's father, Albert, I am all too familiar with the hardships associated with losing a son in combat, having lost my son Justin in 2004. It is a tragedy that the thanks given the Snyder family in return for the life of their son is a court order to repay the legal expenses of the hate group that protested at his funeral with signs such as "thank God for dead soldiers."
Beyond simply insulting though, this decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is a slap in the face for every Gold Star family that has lost a loved one in combat. It also represents an egregious misuse of the judicial system; one that sets a dangerous precedent for how the memory of our fallen heroes will be treated. The Supreme Court should immediately move forward with this case and stand up for those who have stood in the face of danger for all Americans.
The legal maneuvers that brought Albert Snyder and his family to this point are enough to make any American shake his or her head in disgust. After Snyder lost his life in 2006, Fred Phelps and his followers showed up at his funeral to spread their message of hate.
Mind you, they didn't know Matthew, and thus had no understanding of the enormous sense of loss his family was feeling; they simply decided that the Snyder family's vulnerability presented an easy platform for their own agenda.
To his credit, Albert Snyder sued the group and won an $11 million judgment against them. However, that award was reduced to $5 million on one appeal and overturned altogether this week by the appeals court.
In fact, not only did the court overturn the original ruling, but it decided to add to the pain and suffering of the Snyder family by imposing more than $16,000 of court fees. Perhaps the judges had forgotten that without the sacrifices of brave soldiers and their families, the American judicial system would have been a long-distant memory.
Beyond the inherent injustice of the court's decision is the message it sends to the thousands of families around the country that have received a tightly wrapped flag and heard the words, "On behalf of a grateful nation ..."
When the Snyder family sued to protect the common decency we should provide to all grieving families, their efforts were met with court orders to pay the legal bills of those who caused their family so much needless pain.
Surely, this is not the kind of thing that Lance Cpl. Snyder or my son, Justin, gave their lives to protect. Has our nation learned nothing from our treatment of returning Vietnam veterans? What would have been the reaction to Fred Phelps and his repugnant actions during World War II? Our veterans and the families of those who didn't return deserve better than this.
Looking ahead, as engagements in Afghanistan draw on and our soldiers answer the call to defend freedom around the world, this case could have a dangerous effect on morale and willingness to serve.
It is time for the Supreme Court to take up this case, not only for families like Albert Snyder but for the families who will bear the ultimate price of freedom in the future. The justices should strike down the ruling of the Virginia court that brushed aside the sacrifice of Lance Cpl. Snyder and restore common sense and basic decency to the way we honor our fallen heroes.
Snyder fought on behalf of all of us, and now his father fights on his behalf. I can only hope that the Supreme Court will restore some measure of justice and dignity to a family so richly deserving of the best the United State has to offer.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Ellsworth. | [
"What court tried the case?",
"whose son also died in the Marines?",
"What did John Ellsworth say about it?",
"Who was ordered to pay court costs?",
"What did the soldiers do?"
] | [
[
"4th Circuit"
],
[
"John Ellsworth."
],
[
"this case and stand up for those who have stood in the face of danger for all Americans."
],
[
"Matthew Snyder"
],
[
"answer the call to defend freedom"
]
] | Father of a dead Marine was ordered to pay court costs to protesters who picketed funeral .
John Ellsworth, whose son also died in the Marines, says ruling was unconscionable .
He says soldiers and families make great sacrifices to protect the nation .
Ellsworth urges the U.S. Supreme Court to restore justice and dignity to the family . |
(CNN) -- The recent snowstorm in China, which has stranded hundreds of thousands of people across the country and killed dozens, is related to the La Nina phenomenon, according to a Chinese weather expert Suzhou, China, is blanketed by the most snow the city has had in 25 years, according to I-Reporter Susan Arthur. La Nina is the opposite of El Nino, which follows El Nino and occurs every few years. During La Nina, sea temperatures over eastern equatorial Pacific are lower than normal. La Nina enhances Arctic weather systems and causes a cold winter in Asia, including in China. As warm and moisture air from the south meets cold air in the north under freezing temperatures, snow forms. "The warm air is very active this year," said Li Weijing, deputy director-general of the National Climate Center of China. As a result, persistent snowstorms occur in central and western China, paralyzing the transport and electricity systems. The current storm, which hit just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday -- China's busiest shopping season -- has shut much of the nation down. China's transportation system and power grid have been paralyzed this week. The storm also has cost the nation's economy $4.5 billion, according to figures released Wednesday by the Civil Affairs Ministry. Watch how Nanjing is coping with the unusual weather » The winter precipitation had caused at least 49 deaths due to collapsed roofs and treacherous travel conditions, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local officials said. More than 177 million Chinese were expected to travel by train, and 22 million more by plane, for the February 7 Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. China uses a color system for its snowstorm warning: The current once-in-50-years snowstorm calls for the red warning, the first time such a warning has been issued since the system launches. E-mail to a friend CNN's Clarence Fong contributed to this report. | [
"Was anyone killed?",
"what Li talked about?",
"What did Li say about the warm air this year?",
"what current snowstorm calls for?",
"what amount of people have been stranded?",
"What calls for the first-ever and most severe red warning?"
] | [
[
"dozens,"
],
[
"\"The warm air is very active this year,\""
],
[
"\"The"
],
[
"the red warning,"
],
[
"hundreds of thousands"
],
[
"once-in-50-years snowstorm"
]
] | "The warm air is very active this year", said Li.
Current snowstorm calls for the first-ever, most severe red warning .
Hundreds of thousands of people have been stranded, dozens killed . |
(CNN) -- The relationship between China and the United States is "the most important" bilateral relationship in the world, a former Chinese foreign ministry official said Monday. Victor Zhikai Gao, now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the United States should deal with Beijing "with respect" and not be "too abrasive." "That's the minimum thing we can ask for, I believe," he said on the eve of talks between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Gao pointed out that China is now the United States' largest creditor nation, holding foreign reserves of more than $2 trillion, about two-thirds of which are assets that are denominated in U.S. dollars. "China-U.S. relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world," Gao said. Obama appears keen to put past U.S.-Chinese disagreements behind him as he seeks Chinese cooperation on a host of issues from the global economy and climate change to nuclear proliferation. He's also looking to China for leadership on how to deal with repressive regimes such as Myanmar and Sudan, both of which are friends of Beijing and major energy suppliers to China. Critics of the U.S. president say he is downplaying what was once a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy, the promotion of human rights and democracy, in order to persuade China to help the United States achieve its foreign policy goals. But Obama insists America "will never waver in speaking up for the fundamental values that we hold dear." Gao acknowledged global concern about China's human rights record, admitting the situation is not perfect. "But if you look at today's human rights issues, and comparing that with what we had 30 years ago, 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, then China has made great improvements," he said. Gao said China and the Chinese people are great admirers of America. But he said, "China's foreign policy is underlined by the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs. If it is only up to the United States to discuss human rights issues in China, this is unbalanced." He also tried to reassure critics in the United States, some of whom have accused China of manipulating its currency to keep the cost of Chinese goods artificially low, about the impact of China's rapidly expanding economic power. By some estimates, China's economy will be the same size as the U.S. economy by 2025, though there will still be a huge gap in economic output per person. "Let me make the record straight. Over the past few months since the outbreak of the financial crisis, China has continued to purchase Treasury bonds issued by the U.S. government, rather than reducing them in any way," he said. "So I think the American people need to realize that China has applied a very steady hand and very responsible hand in dealing with issues involving the dollar." Gao said China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States. "Both China and the United States need to give each other due respect and need to incentivize each other. And then we can work together towards a better peace and better world." | [
"Who is now the director?",
"Gao says the United States should deal with what?"
] | [
[
"Victor Zhikai Gao,"
],
[
"Beijing \"with respect\" and not be \"too abrasive.\""
]
] | Victor Zhikai Gao is now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association .
Gao says the United States should deal with Beijing "with respect"
Gao says China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States . |
(CNN) -- The relatives of a woman who died on the floor of a New York hospital say they plan to file a $25 million lawsuit against the city and the facility where Esmin Green died. Esmin Green's daughter, Tecia Harrison, says disciplinary action against hospital workers is not enough for her. Green's family is also calling for criminal charges against hospital workers, who they say failed to help her and then attempted to cover up the circumstances of her death. "My sister was killed twice," said Brenda James, Green's sister. "First, by those who neglected to offer her the needed health care. Secondly, she was killed by those who tried to cover up this criminal action." The family has retained a lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, to file the suit. Green, a Jamaican immigrant, had been involuntarily admitted to the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 for what the hospital described as "agitation and psychosis." Surveillance camera footage captured the mother of six sliding off of a chair and onto the floor of waiting room of the hospital's psychiatric emergency department, where she lay convulsing for more than a hour before anyone helped her. The footage appears to capture several employees passing by her as she lay on the floor struggling. The New York Civil Liberties Union said last week that the hospital falsified medical records for the timeframe covering Green's visit, describing her as awake and going to the bathroom when she is seen on the video. Watch Green's family after seeing video » Seven workers, including doctors, nurses and security guards, have been fired or suspended since Green's death, the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation said. It's not clear whether any of the employees have appealed the disciplinary actions against them. The agency said it referred the matter to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation. "We failed Esmin Green and believe her family deserves fair and just compensation," it said in a statement. Autopsy results have not been released. Green's daughter, who reluctantly watched the footage for the first time this week, says disciplinary action doesn't make up for her family's loss. "Firing is not enough for me, for my brothers. They don't know this wonderful woman they took away from us," said Tecia Harrison, who traveled to New York from Jamaica to attend her mother's funeral Sunday. "We want them to pay for it," she said. CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report | [
"Who is suing the city?",
"Who failed to render help?",
"What was Green doing before she died?",
"What captured Green convulsing on floor?",
"What is the amount of money they are suing for?",
"Who says they will sue the city?"
] | [
[
"relatives of a woman"
],
[
"hospital workers,"
],
[
"lay convulsing for more than a hour"
],
[
"Surveillance camera footage"
],
[
"$25 million"
],
[
"relatives of a woman"
]
] | Family of Esmin Green says they will sue the city, hospital for $25 million .
Relatives says hospital employees failed to render help, attempted to falsify records .
Surveillance camera captured Green convulsing on floor for an hour before she died . |
(CNN) -- The remains of a woman who disappeared 22 years ago in northern California have been found after the son of the woman's purported killer guided police to the site where her body was dumped, investigators announced Thursday.
The alleged killer's son told authorities that he watched his father kill 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin in 1988 and that his dad forced him to help dispose of the body, the Humboldt County, California, Sheriff's Office announced.
Ernest Samuel Christie III, who was 16 at the time, told authorities that his now-dead father, Ernest Samuel Christie Jr., made him help dump Turpin's body in a ditch near their home in Fieldbrook, California, about 80 miles south of the Oregon border. Christie said his father forced him to help cover the body with tires, douse it in gasoline and set it on fire, Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philp said in a statement Thursday.
Christie's dad had held and abused Turpin at his house for several weeks before killing her, Christie told the sheriff's office. She had been reported missing to Humboldt County law enforcement on April 8, 1988.
After Christie supplied the sheriff's office with a map of where the body had been dumped, a team of detectives, evidence technicians, and sheriff's deputies found teeth, clothing and charred bones. A forensic odontologist positively identified the remains as Lysandra Turpin on Wednesday, according to Philp.
Ernest Samuel Christie Jr. died in 2006, according to the sheriff's office. His son, now 38 and living in North Carolina, contacted the sheriff's office in February. He is not facing criminal charges, Philp said.
Christie told authorities that his father had abused other women, once holding a woman prisoner in a hollowed-out redwood tree stump. The woman escaped and declined to report the incident to law enforcement, the sheriff's office said.
Using a description provided by Christie, sheriff's personnel located the stump and found a carpet, plastic jugs, a hypodermic syringe and clothing there, Philp said Thursday.
Christie related other instances of his father -- who he said frequently used methamphetamine -- terrorizing women, Philp said.
Christie told authorities that his dad once took a woman on his fishing boat, tied her up and told her he was going to kill her. The woman managed to escape, and detectives were recently able to find her and corroborate Christie's account, Philp said. | [
"The suspected killer died in what year?",
"When was Lysandra Marie Turpin killed?",
"What did man tell police?",
"What did the forensic odonotologist positively identify?",
"What did his father force him to do?",
"When did Christie Jr. die?",
"What did the man tell the police?",
"Who positively identify Turpin's remains?"
] | [
[
"2006,"
],
[
"1988"
],
[
"he watched his father kill 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin in 1988 and that his dad forced him to help dispose of the body,"
],
[
"identified the remains as Lysandra Turpin"
],
[
"help dispose of the body,"
],
[
"2006,"
],
[
"that he watched his father kill 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin in 1988 and that his dad forced him to help dispose of the body,"
],
[
"A forensic odontologist"
]
] | Man told police he watched his father kill 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin in 1988 .
He said his father forced him to dispose of the body in a ditch near their home .
Forensic odontologist positively identified Turpin's remains on Wednesday .
The suspected killer, Ernest Samuel Christie Jr., died in 2006 . |
(CNN) -- The remains of an Air Force major missing since the Vietnam War have been identified after years of searches, the Department of Defense said.
Air Force Maj. Curtis Daniel Miller of Palacios, Texas, was one of 14 men whose plane was shot down on March 29, 1972.
Miller and his crew were flying over southern Laos when a missile struck their plane, the Defense Department said Tuesday.
After the shoot-down, rescue teams had to call off the search after two days because of heavy fighting near the crash site in Savannakhet province.
In 1986, U.S. and Laotian search teams found the remains of nine of the men who were on the plane.
In 2005 and 2006, search teams found more remains. DNA tests have confirmed that they belong to Miller and the other missing crew members.
Miller will be buried with full military honors at the Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery on March 29. | [
"What year was the accident?",
"Over what country were Miller flying when he got shot down ?",
"What will happen to Miller's corpse ?",
"Will a full military honor be provided?",
"Whats the name of the major?",
"Who was shot down on March 1972 ?"
] | [
[
"1972."
],
[
"southern Laos"
],
[
"buried with full military honors at the Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery"
],
[
"Miller"
],
[
"Curtis Daniel Miller"
],
[
"Curtis Daniel Miller"
]
] | Maj. Curtis Daniel Miller of Palacios, Texas, was shot down on March 29, 1972 .
Miller and his crew were flying over southern Laos when a missile struck their plane .
Miller will be buried with full military honors at the Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery . |
(CNN) -- The remnants of Tropical Storm Erin turned central Oklahoma into a wash basin Sunday, with rescuers on helicopters plucking people from flood waters and rooftops and ferrying them to safety. A flood victim hangs precariously during a rescue flight Sunday. Two people died and at least two others were hurt, said Michelann Ooten, a spokesman for the state's emergency operations center in Oklahoma City. A middle-aged man who had stopped to help another person wound up drowning in his vehicle near Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and an elderly woman in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, who had sought protection in her storm cellar drowned there, Ooten said. The injuries occurred when either straight-line winds or a tornado destroyed a house in Watonga, she said. "I'm certain there are many more injured," she said. "This is all courtesy Erin, the new four-letter word," she said. Officials were searching for three other people who had been traveling together near Carnegie, Oklahoma, and were reported missing, she said. In Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the storm dropped five to 11 inches of rain in a short period of time, causing Kingfisher Creek to rise 25 feet and overflow its banks, said Capt. Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. "It's the highest it's ever been," West said. "There's about 200 to 300 people that are displaced out of their homes." By 6 p.m. floodwaters in Kingfisher had begun to subside, but the storm system had not yet exited the state, Ooten said. Flood warnings were issued until midnight for parts of eastern Oklahoma, she said. The helicopter rescue operation got under way Sunday morning, after authorities got a call alerting them that a pickup truck containing two passengers had been swept from a bridge over Kingfisher Creek, West said. First, a helicopter dropped life vests to the couple, whose pickup truck was nearly obscured by the water. Soon afterward, their truck was simply swept away, and the pair were left to fend for themselves in the water until the rescue helicopter approached. First, a rescuer grabbed the woman and pulled her toward the skid on which he was positioned. For a few seconds, she held on as the helicopter rose, but lost her grip and fell back into the water. The helicopter circled back for a second effort, which this time proved successful. The drama from the town of about 14,000 residents 35 miles northwest of Oklahoma City unfolded live on national television. "When the lady fell, I was kind of surprised, I hated to see that," said West, who watched the rescue on television. "We were able to get back around, get her picked up." Like his partner, the man also fell, was picked up again and taken to safety. The rescue work then focused on removing people stranded atop the roofs of vehicles and buildings. Time and again, the pilots positioned their helicopters inches above choppy water as rescuers helped men and women grab the skids. Residents of nearby Apache, Oklahoma, faced similar floods, which caught most people off guard, said Lt. Bobby Claborne of the Apache Fire Department. "We never thought we'd have a tropical storm in our area," he said. No evacuation plans were initiated until early Sunday, "but it was a little late" by then, he said. For several hours, thousands of people were without power in El Reno, which had been inundated by more than six inches of rain in just a few hours. And some vehicles were trapped on Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma, said Capt. Ken Brown, the state police operations commander in El Reno. "Two different semis were overcome by water and required fire rescue to get the drivers from their vehicles," he said. Boats and other watercraft were enlisted in the rescue effort. West said the flooded areas have sustained extensive damage -- "not only to homes and businesses and automobiles, but to these agricultural areas." "We have | [
"What is destroying homes?",
"What is destroying homes and stranding people in Oklahoma?",
"What rescued people?",
"What does Erin mean?",
"What is \"the new four-letter word\" in Oklahoma?",
"What is the new four letter word?",
"What destroyed homes in Oklahoma?"
] | [
[
"Tropical Storm Erin"
],
[
"Tropical Storm Erin"
],
[
"rescuers on helicopters"
],
[
"Tropical Storm"
],
[
"Erin,"
],
[
"Erin,"
],
[
"Tropical Storm Erin"
]
] | Rains destroying homes and stranding people in Oklahoma .
Dramatic helicopter rescues caught on tape .
Officials were searching for three other people who are missing .
Erin is "the new four-letter word" in Oklahoma, said emergency official . |
(CNN) -- The risk of being jolted by 1,500 volts of electricity hasn't scared them off. Neither have fears of falling off the speeding electric trains. Thousands of passengers ride on overloaded trains in Jakarta every day. So Indonesian railway officials on Monday will unleash a new weapon on commuters who squat on top of railway cars: spray them with colored dye, a local newspaper reported. The state transit agency told the English-language newspaper Jakarta Post that it hopes the "unique approach" will deter passengers riding illegally on rooftops. Trains are the cheapest and fastest form of transportation for office workers commuting between the capital city Jakarta and neighboring towns. Throngs of thousands cram the trains during the morning and evening rush hours, making it impossible for everyone to snag space inside packed cars. Under the new plan, security officials at each station will "mark" roof riders with dye as trains depart. When the passengers disembark at their destination, officials can then easily identify them. "We will confiscate their IDs and give them a ticket," Akhmand Sujadi, regional spokesman for the transit agency Kerata Api, told the newspaper. "We will send a copy of the ticket to their family, their local neighborhood unit head, their employer, or, if they're students, their headmasters." The offenders can reclaim their ID cards once they write a letter "regarding their behavior, to be signed by the person who received their ticket." More than 320,000 passengers rode trains to and from work every day last year, the newspaper reported. The crush of passengers meant revenues of 248 billion Rupiahs ($26.8 million) for the system. But many commuters prefer to ride on top of passenger cars -- either due to a lack of space inside or because they can't afford the ticket, which start at 1,000 Rupiahs ($0.11) At least 53 rooftop riders died in the last two years, the newspaper reported. E-mail to a friend | [
"What will deter passengers from riding illegally?",
"What are illegally riding commuters being targeted with in Indonesia?",
"What do they do after they indentify them?",
"What will identify the illegal passengers?",
"What kind of dye do they use?"
] | [
[
"\"unique approach\""
],
[
"colored dye,"
],
[
"spray"
],
[
"colored dye,"
],
[
"colored"
]
] | Commuters who squat on train roofs in Indonesia targeted with colored dye .
Officials hope "unique approach" will deter passengers riding illegally .
Security officials at stations will "mark" roof riders with dye as trains depart .
When passengers disembark at destination, officials can easily identify them . |
(CNN) -- The saga of Jack the cat, the lost pet that roamed New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for weeks before being found last month, has an unhappy ending.
The feline had to be euthanized Sunday evening, American Airlines announced on Facebook, where the cat's plight has attracted thousands of followers.
"We are deeply saddened that Jack the cat has passed away, and we offer profound sympathy to Jack's owner, Karen Pascoe, for her loss," the airline wrote.
"From all of us at American, our sincere apologies to Karen and Jack's family and friends."
It was less than two weeks ago the airline announced that Jack had turned up in Kennedy's customs room after being missing for two months. The carrier originally described him as "well," but a health check revealed a number of problems.
"Jack had extensive wounds on the back of his body, and the wounds were unable to heal because his skin had deteriorated due to the malnutrition that occurred while he was lost," said Pascoe's friends in a post on "Jack The Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK," the Facebook page devoted to the cat, which has more than 24,000 followers.
"Jack had been through so much, and the last thing anyone wanted was for him to suffer more."
The saga started August 25 when Pascoe was flying from New York to San Francisco with Jack and a second cat as part of a job relocation. But Jack escaped his kennel and was last seen at Kennedy's inbound baggage claim.
(A Department of Transportation Pet Incident Report released last month explains how it happened: A clerk placed one kennel on top of another on a baggage cart and the kennel on top fell. The impact "caused the kennel to separate," allowing the cat to escape.)
When a search failed to turn up Jack after a few days, Pascoe became frustrated with American and started the Facebook page "to help us put pressure on AA to step up their efforts." She also urged fliers to "do whatever they can do to keep their animals out of cargo."
The airline said it did everything it could to find Jack. While the cat was missing, workers placed food and water around the airport and set up humane traps. American even hired a pet detective and issued a pet Amber Alert in hopes of locating the feline.
When Jack was found, the airline promised to cover his veterinary bills.
The cat's owner hopes Jack's death will spur improvements in how airlines transport pets "so that no one else ever has to go through this again," her supporters wrote on Facebook. | [
"Jack, the lost cat who roamed what for two months?",
"Where was found the cat?",
"What was the name of the lost cat?",
"The feline was found at what part of John F. Kennedy International Airport?"
] | [
[
"New York's John F. Kennedy International"
],
[
"New York's John F. Kennedy International"
],
[
"Jack"
],
[
"customs room"
]
] | Jack, the lost cat who roamed an airport for two months, has been euthanized .
The feline was found at John F. Kennedy International Airport's customs room last month .
A health check revealed a number of problems after the cat was discovered . |
(CNN) -- The scrolling list of online student activities for Tuesday, April 20, lists a spring play rehearsal, a talk by "famous photographer, John Fielder" -- and "NO SCHOOL."
It's a tough day to be within those walls.
It was there, 11 years ago, that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold embarked on a massacre -- shooting 12 classmates and a teacher dead and injuring 23 others before turning the gun on themselves.
Columbine High School was forever etched into the psyche of America.
The top news story of 1999. An iconic shooting. An event prompted intense debate over gun control.
"A day that changed us forever," as former President Bill Clinton said at 10th anniversary observances last year. Clinton, who was in the White House at the time of the killings, said he was personally inspired by the courage of the Columbine community.
Tuesday marks anniversary number 11, an odd-year milestone that millions of Americans will let come and go without notice. But for the survivors, for the victims' families and friends, time's steady march is not enough to dull the pain. The memories are still raw in Littleton, Colorado.
Principal Frank DeAngelis attended a teary prom last weekend when Columbine crowned a king and queen with special needs. An act of goodwill and fraternity. An act exemplifying the human spirit.
"This," DeAngelis told CNN affiliate KMGH in Denver, is what Columbine is all about."
In far away Dallas, Texas, Jordan Niland, 17, said he is sure to pick up his telephone Tuesday. He will dial the number of Richard Castaldo.
Castaldo, a junior at Columbine in 1999, suffered five gunshot wounds to his chest, back, arm and colon that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Niland was a young boy then. But after seeing Michael Moore's documentary, "Bowling for Columbine," he struck up a MySpace conversation with Castaldo. The two have been friends since."
"The anniversary means so much to me," Niland said. "I have had the privilege to talk and get to know a survivor and to fully understand what really went on that day."
If people could personally hear Castaldo's story, Niland said, they would stop to reflect on this day. Because such a horror, he said, should not be forgotten.
And because life goes on.
A Columbine memorial dedicated in 2007, is sure to be visited Tuesday. But like the tragedy itself, the memorial, meant as a place of reflection, is incomplete, gaps running through it like the voids in people's lives.
The memorial park has posted a wish list to complete the peace it is intended to bestow.
Hackberry trees, lavender mist, spirea, purple asters. And 24 columbines. Any variety will do, the memorial's website says. As long as they are columbines. | [
"What posted a wish list of items?",
"Who commented on the anniversary?",
"Who said that 'the day changed us forever' last year",
"Which High School will be closed on the day of anniversary",
"What is it the the Memorial Park have posted",
"when is the anniversary"
] | [
[
"memorial park"
],
[
"President Bill Clinton"
],
[
"President Bill Clinton"
],
[
"Columbine"
],
[
"is intended to bestow."
],
[
"April 20,"
]
] | Columbine High School will be closed on day of anniversary .
"Day that changed us forever," former President Bill Clinton said last year .
Memorial park has posted a wish list of items sought to complete it . |
(CNN) -- The search for the data and voice recorders from the Air France plane that crashed more than a month ago off Brazil's coast is entering a new phase, according to France's accident investigation agency. Searchers have discovered hundreds of pieces of wreckage from Air France Flight 447. All 228 people aboard the plane were killed in the June 1 crash. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days. But investigators decided to continue listening for the "pings" for 10 days after that. Now, the two U.S. naval vessels and a French Navy submarine will halt their search for the recorders which investigators hope will shed light on exactly how the plane crashed. The second phase of the search will involve France's oceanographic ship "Pourquoi Pas?" which carries specialized exploration and intervention vehicles, according to the French air accident investigation agency known as the BEA. The French vessel will conduct new searches using diving equipment and towed sonar, the BEA said. Finding the recorders is of "capital importance," and "no effort must be spared in achieving this end," Air France has said. "We want to stress that for the sake of the families, we hope that the search for the black boxes will be successful," an Air France representative said. This month, investigators revealed that the plane bellyflopped intact into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigator Alain Bouillard said it was still not clear what caused the crash, the deadliest in Air France's 75-year history. The mountainous ocean floor in the search area ranges from 3,280 to 15,091 feet, BEA officials have said, making the search for the recorders -- and the rest of the plane's debris -- difficult. "It is as if it fell in the Andes," said Olivier Ferrante, chief of the BEA search mission. Flight 447 went down in stormy weather while flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Brazil called off the search for bodies June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died, according to the military. Investigators have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, Bouillard said. | [
"WHat date did a plane go down off Brazil?",
"what date did it crash",
"how many people died",
"Where did plane go down?",
"What ship will conduct new search?",
"How many people were killed in the crash?",
"which country will conduct searches",
"How long did the data recorders keep broadcasting?",
"What date did plane go down?"
] | [
[
"June 1"
],
[
"June 1"
],
[
"228"
],
[
"off Brazil's coast"
],
[
"\"Pourquoi Pas?\""
],
[
"228"
],
[
"France's"
],
[
"30 days."
],
[
"June 1"
]
] | Plane went down off Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 aboard .
Voice, data recorders stop broadcasting after 30 days .
Investigators planned to keep listening for 10 additional days .
French oceanographic ship will conduct new searches . |
(CNN) -- The search will continue until at least Friday night for 16 people missing since Thursday morning when a helicopter carrying them to an offshore oil platform ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canadian officials said.
A helicopter made an emergency crash landing off Newfoundland en route to Hibernia oil field on Thursday.
One survivor, identified as Robert Decker, was found and taken to a hospital, but efforts to find more survivors had proven fruitless, said Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The body of one person, who has not been identified publicly, also was pulled from the water. There were 18 people aboard the helicopter when it went down, about 30 nautical miles from St. John's.
"All we've got is the debris field," McGuire said. "There are no indications of any [more] survivors, but the search will continue."
The water is 400 feet deep at the site where the helicopter hit the water, he said.
Helicopters and ships were scouring the debris field Thursday evening, and search-and-rescue technicians were planning to use night-vision goggles and flares overnight.
The debris filled a six-mile area, said Jeri Grychowski of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax.
Officials became aware that the helicopter was having problems shortly after 9:10 a.m., when the pilot declared a mayday, McGuire said.
"They declared their mayday and then they hit the water or landed in the water approximately eight minutes later," he said.
About 25 minutes later, a helicopter arrived and discovered the survivor, the body, the overturned helicopter and two empty life rafts, he said.
Those aboard should have have been wearing survival suits that would have kept them dry and were equipped with lights and personal locator beacons, but the suits have not helped searchers.
"We have not received any signals whatsoever," McGuire said.
The suits theoretically would allow wearers to survive 24 hours in the freezing waters -- or until about 9 a.m. Friday -- but the search effort was to continue well beyond that.
"We will continue to search until there's absolutely no chance that any survivors will be located," he said. "Until last light [Friday]."
At that time, based on water temperature and the size of the search area, officials will decide whether to continue the effort, he said.
Early in the day, high winds and seas hampered the search, but by late afternoon, the weather had improved, though seas were still about 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) and winds were at about 40 knots (46 mph).
The survivor was taken to the Health Sciences Center in St. John's, Newfoundland.
The helicopter had been heading to the Hibernia offshore oil platform when it went down in what Grychowski called a controlled emergency crash landing.
The pilot reported some technical malfunctions before the crash and radioed that he was turning the chopper around, said Rick Burt of Cougar Helicopters -- the operator of the S-92 Sikorsky copter. | [
"How many are missing?",
"Until when will the search continue?",
"Who should be wearing survival suits?",
"How many were oil workers?"
] | [
[
"16"
],
[
"Friday night"
],
[
"Those aboard"
],
[
"16"
]
] | NEW: Search to continue "until there's absolutely no chance" of locating survivors .
NEW: People aboard chopper should be wearing survival suits, locator beacons .
One survivor in hospital, one man found dead, 16 still missing .
18 aboard were oil workers; copter ditched into waters off Newfoundland . |
(CNN) -- The search will continue until at least Friday night for 16 people missing since Thursday morning when a helicopter carrying them to an offshore oil platform ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canadian officials said. A helicopter made an emergency crash landing off Newfoundland en route to Hibernia oil field on Thursday. One survivor, identified as Robert Decker, was found and taken to a hospital, but efforts to find more survivors had proven fruitless, said Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The body of one person, who has not been identified publicly, also was pulled from the water. There were 18 people aboard the helicopter when it went down, about 30 nautical miles from St. John's. "All we've got is the debris field," McGuire said. "There are no indications of any [more] survivors, but the search will continue." The water is 400 feet deep at the site where the helicopter hit the water, he said. Helicopters and ships were scouring the debris field Thursday evening, and search-and-rescue technicians were planning to use night-vision goggles and flares overnight. The debris filled a six-mile area, said Jeri Grychowski of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax. Officials became aware that the helicopter was having problems shortly after 9:10 a.m., when the pilot declared a mayday, McGuire said. "They declared their mayday and then they hit the water or landed in the water approximately eight minutes later," he said. About 25 minutes later, a helicopter arrived and discovered the survivor, the body, the overturned helicopter and two empty life rafts, he said. Those aboard should have have been wearing survival suits that would have kept them dry and were equipped with lights and personal locator beacons, but the suits have not helped searchers. "We have not received any signals whatsoever," McGuire said. The suits theoretically would allow wearers to survive 24 hours in the freezing waters -- or until about 9 a.m. Friday -- but the search effort was to continue well beyond that. "We will continue to search until there's absolutely no chance that any survivors will be located," he said. "Until last light [Friday]." At that time, based on water temperature and the size of the search area, officials will decide whether to continue the effort, he said. Early in the day, high winds and seas hampered the search, but by late afternoon, the weather had improved, though seas were still about 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) and winds were at about 40 knots (46 mph). The survivor was taken to the Health Sciences Center in St. John's, Newfoundland. The helicopter had been heading to the Hibernia offshore oil platform when it went down in what Grychowski called a controlled emergency crash landing. The pilot reported some technical malfunctions before the crash and radioed that he was turning the chopper around, said Rick Burt of Cougar Helicopters -- the operator of the S-92 Sikorsky copter. | [
"What number of people are still missing?",
"How many are missing?",
"What province's waters did the incident occur at?",
"What should people aboard the chopper be wearing?",
"Who will be wearing survival suits?",
"Number of people still missing from the chopper accident?"
] | [
[
"16"
],
[
"16 people"
],
[
"Newfoundland,"
],
[
"survival suits"
],
[
"Those aboard"
],
[
"16"
]
] | NEW: Search to continue "until there's absolutely no chance" of locating survivors .
NEW: People aboard chopper should be wearing survival suits, locator beacons .
One survivor in hospital, one man found dead, 16 still missing .
18 aboard were oil workers; copter ditched into waters off Newfoundland . |
(CNN) -- The second cut in U.S. interest rates in as many weeks is putting further pressure on the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to reconsider their currencies' peg with the dollar; and none more so than Qatar. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad tells MME Qatar has not made any decisions regarding dropping the dollar-peg. The small emirate has the highest inflation rate in the region, and it threatens to spiral further northward as its government brings Qatari interest rates into line with the U.S. The Qatar Central Bank lopped half a percentage off its deposit rate after the Federal Reserve sought to stave off recession in the U.S. with an emergency cut of 75 percentage points on January 22. Eight days later, the Fed moved again, this time with a cut of half a percentage point to take U.S. interest rates to three percent. After the first cut, MME's John Defterios sat down for an exclusive television interview with Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, who is also the emirate's Foreign Minister, and controls Qatar's sovereign wealth fund through the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). John Defterios started by asking Sheikh Hamad whether the sharp decline in U.S. interest rates was putting too much pressure on Qatar's dollar-peg. (HA): Oil and gas are saleable in dollars, but most of our imports are not in dollars but in Euros or Asian currencies. All of these currencies went 40 percent to 50 percent above the level which we experienced two years ago. For us, there is a pressure. We know that a decision needs to be made by the Fed because of the situation on the stock market in the United States; it might be a wise decision. But for countries like the GCC and Qatar, especially Qatar, it puts us under pressure on how to deal with inflation and our currency, which is undervalued already by at least 35 percent. (JD): What is your instinct telling you, to go to a basket of currencies to buffer this fall of the dollar? (HA): We are studying all options at the moment, but what I can say is that at the GCC meetings in December the agreement was to hold onto the dollar and to see. Every country has to see its way out of this, but only after a consultation with the GCC. For us, our wish is that it's a policy to be taken by the whole GCC, to either basket or revalue our currency. I cannot see a decision. Even in Qatar, we have no decision up to now. (JD): At the December meeting there was a commitment to move forward with the single currency, realistically by 2010, or is that just a target? (HA): It's just a target. I don't think we will reach that target. (JD): What is a realistic timeline? (HA): Well, first we need all of us to agree. Most of the GCC countries agree about the currencies but we would like to do it together, and some would like to wait. We cannot put a target on when it will be done. (JD): President Bush, during his swing through the Gulf States, was asking the producers to put more oil on the market because of the U.S. recession that may be pending. Is it time for OPEC to put more crude oil onto the market? (HA): Is there is excess oil to be put on the market? I am not sure there is more oil. I think all countries at the moment are pumping their capacity, if we are talking in real terms. If we are just telling the market there is some excess if something happens, then that is another situation. In my opinion everyone is at full speed, enjoying high prices, but there is no excess capacity immediately. Maybe there is 200,000 to 300,000 extra with one of the producers, but no more than that. (JD): We have seen oil stabilize around $80 per barrel right now. | [
"Who spoke exclusively with Qatar PM Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani?",
"What does Sheikh Hamad say?",
"Who is MME speaking to?",
"What did Sheikh Hamad say?"
] | [
[
"John Defterios"
],
[
"Qatar has not made any decisions regarding dropping the dollar-peg."
],
[
"Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad"
],
[
"Qatar has not made any decisions regarding dropping the dollar-peg."
]
] | MME speaks exclusively with Qatar PM Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani .
Sheikh Hamad says Qatar hasn't made a decision regarding the dollar-peg .
Expresses surprise over talks suggesting greater controls on sovereign funds .
On oil capacity: "I am not sure there is more oil", prices of $70-$80/bbl likely . |
(CNN) -- The second installment in the "Twilight" saga, starring Robert Pattinson as vampire Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as his star-crossed love and Taylor Lautner as the wolfboy who loves her, has already ripped through a box office record. According to Hollywood trade magazine Variety, "New Moon" is the biggest midnight showing in history, grossing $26.3 million when it opened in 3,514 theaters at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The film even surpassed the supernatural cinema force that is "Harry Potter," collecting more than the $22.2 million that "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" earned during its midnight showing this summer. "New Moon" has also easily beaten its own predecessor, "Twilight," which earned $36 million on opening day last year. And while "Twilight's" opening weekend was $69.7 million, early reports are that "New Moon" will do even better. But along with the ticket sales bounty is backlash. The Vatican released an announcement Friday denouncing the film, which is based on Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster series. "This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern," warns the Vatican's culture council leader, Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, in a statement timed to the release of "New Moon," according to E! Online. "This theme of vampires in 'Twilight' combines a mixture of excesses," he continued, "that, as ever, is aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element." Yet the kids these days appear to dig the "excesses" of "Twilight." Still, only time will tell if "New Moon" will also outsell the current "best opening day" titleholder, "The Dark Knight," which grossed $67.2 million when it opened July 18, 2008. | [
"Who spoke out against the movie?",
"Can New Moon surpass Twilight's first day sales?",
"What did the Vatican say against the movie?",
"What amount does New Moon have to surpass to achieve best opening day?",
"Who has spoken out again New Moon?",
"What grossed $26.3 million?",
"Will it surpass \"Twilight\" in first day sales?",
"How much did the movie gross?"
] | [
[
"The Vatican"
],
[
"\"New Moon\" has also easily beaten its own predecessor, \"Twilight,\""
],
[
"\"This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern,\""
],
[
"$67.2 million"
],
[
"The Vatican"
],
[
"\"New Moon\" is the biggest midnight showing in history,"
],
[
"\"New Moon\" has also easily beaten"
],
[
"$26.3 million"
]
] | "New Moon" grossed $26.3 million from midnight showings alone .
The vampire romance is set to surpass "Twilight" for first-day sales .
But with sales comes backlash; the Vatican has spoken out against "New Moon"
Only time will tell if it will also surpass "The Dark Knight" for "best opening day" |
(CNN) -- The second-to-last time EJ Levy was at Disney World, she used a scooter to navigate the enormous park. Her legs were weak and she suffered from foot drop caused by multiple sclerosis. That was 4½ years ago. On her most recent trip, a few months ago, Levy walked the entire time, thanks in part to a drug approved by the FDA on Friday.
The FDA says the drug, Ampyra (generic name dalfampridine, formerly known as fampridine), is the first MS therapy that is taken orally and the first of its kind to receive FDA approval. It is designed help people with any type of MS improve their walking speed.
The prime of her life
In 2002, Levy was in her 30s and an active hiker and skier with a job on Wall Street and later in San Francisco, California. But her life took a turn when she started stumbling, falling down and dragging her right leg. Her doctor's diagnosis? Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, a less common form of MS and, as the name implies, one that usually plagues people with the disease after its initial course.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society defines MS as a "chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves." Symptoms of MS include extreme fatigue, difficulty walking, problems with memory and heat sensitivity.
The most common form of MS is relapsing-remitting, in which people have acute attacks followed by periods of remission. In secondary progressive, however, the disease worsens steadily and there are no acute flare-ups. People with relapsing-remitting may later develop secondary progressive MS.
Levy says she lived in the same building as her parents at one point because she needed them to help take care of her. She says she mostly stayed at home, and when she did venture out she usually walked only a block or two with a cane. She relied on a wheelchair for longer distances.
She says she realized she would eventually be unable to walk. "I was scared of being in a wheelchair. I was scared of getting worse and worse. I had traveled around the world before I got sick, I was super independent," Levy says.
Trying things out
After exhausting the usual MS treatments -- and developing intolerable side effects -- Levy also became frustrated that the treatments were primarily designed for people with the more common course of the disease, and not the secondary progressive course.
Levy's neurologist then discussed the possibility of trying 4-aminopyradine -- a version of the same drug the FDA approved Friday that was available only through compounding pharmacies. Just three days after taking the drug, Levy was able to walk unassisted.
"I never thought I could put my cane away for good," she said.
Now she hopes the same drug that helped her will be able to help other people. She addressed an FDA advisory panel late last year and recommended approval of it.
"It's about quality of life," Levy says.
How it works
Two phase III clinical trials of Ampyra showed 35 and 43 percent of patients experienced, on average, a consistent improvement in their walking speed, increasing it by about 25 percent.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, even a modest improvement in walking ability could mean that thousands of people could benefit from the drug.
Dr. John Richert, executive vice president of Research & Clinical Programs at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, says the drug can be used by most people with MS. However, the drug is not for people with a history of seizures or people who have moderate to severe kidney disease.
Richert says approval means patients can now skip the compounding pharmacy and get a consistent, exact dosage in a guaranteed time-released formula, which would lower the risk of getting a toxic dose instead of a therapeutic dose.
"It's likely that further study and clinical practice may help to determine the extent to which the drug may impact other functions, and may also provide hints as to which | [
"what helps with other neurological functions",
"What is the MS drug Ampyra said to improve",
"What is Ampyra for?",
"what does FDA approve",
"For waht types of MS is the new drug appropriate",
"what is ampyra appropiate for"
] | [
[
"Ampyra (generic name dalfampridine, formerly known as fampridine),"
],
[
"walking speed."
],
[
"improve their walking speed."
],
[
"Ampyra"
],
[
"any"
],
[
"MS therapy"
]
] | FDA approves Ampyra, the first MS drug of its kind to improve walking speed .
Ampyra is appropriate for all types of MS, although it may not help everyone .
Further studies are needed to see if Ampyra helps with other neurological functions . |
(CNN) -- The separatist group behind a series of bombings on a Spanish vacation island marks the 50 year anniversary of its struggle this year, a milestone that sees it no closer to achieving its goal. Police cordon off the route leading to the location of the latest blasts in Palma de Mallorca. ETA, which is fighting for the independence of Spain's northern Basque region, was said to be behind three bombs that detonated on the island of Mallorca on Sunday without hurting anyone. The latest incident appears to be part of a new wave of attacks, including another in Mallorca which killed two Civil Guard officers in July, which have left a 2006 cease-fire a distant memory. The violent resurgence also defies Spanish government claims that the group's operational capabilities have been broken by a series of high profile arrests in Spain and France. ETA, blamed for more than 800 deaths and listed as a terrorist group by Spain the European Union and the United States, began campaigning for Basque independence in 1959. The group, whose full name Euskadi Ta Askatasuna means "Basque Homeland and Freedom" in the Basque language, killed what some say was its first victim in 1968. Since then it waged a campaign of violence against the Spanish state, targeting politicians, policemen, judges and soldiers, often clocking up numerous civilian casualties with deadly car bombs. In 1980 alone ETA was blamed for 118 deaths, and in 1995 it nearly succeeded in assassinating Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the opposition and later Spain's prime minister. On September 16, 1998, the organization declared a "unilateral and indefinite" cease-fire, raising hopes that its campaign was at an end. ETA called off the cease-fire in November 1999, however, and 2000 saw a sharp escalation in violence. Another unilateral cease-fire was declared in March 2005, with ETA raising hopes for a lasting peace by declaring it "permanent." It was called off by ETA in June 2006 following numerous more ETA attacks. At the center of the struggle is a region know as Euskal Herria in Basque. The area straddles the western end of the Pyrenees, covering 20,664 square kilometers in northern Spain and southern France. See map of territory claimed by Basque separatists Spain officially recognizes three Basque provinces, Alava, Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. A fourth neighboring province, Navarra, is of Basque heritage. Separatists consider these four provinces plus three in France -- Basse Navarre, Labourd and Soule -- as the Basque country, with a population approaching 3 million. The area has always possessed a fiercely independent instinct. The Basque people are the oldest indigenous ethnic group in Europe and have lived uninterrupted in the same region since the beginning of recorded history. Their language, Euskera, which is spoken regularly by about 40 percent of Basque inhabitants, bears no relation to any other Indo-European tongue and dates back to before the Romans arrived in Spain. For many centuries the Basques of Spain enjoyed a strong degree of autonomy. The Basque region's hilly landscape helped keep its people isolated from outside influences. In the Spanish Civil War, two Basque provinces -- Guipuzcoa and Viscaya -- fought against Gen. Francisco Franco, while the provinces of Alava and Navarra fought for Franco. Under Franco's dictatorship (1939-75), most of the Basque region had its remaining autonomy rescinded. Its culture, people and language were suppressed. ETA and its demands for an independent Basque state arose in 1959 in the midst of this suppression. ETA has focused its activities on the Spanish side of the border. For many years France provided a safe haven for ETA members, a situation that began to change in the mid-1980s. The organization has financed its campaign through kidnapping, bank robbery and a so-called "revolutionary tax" on Basque businesses -- a payment widely regarded as plain extortion. According to the counter-terrorism office of the U.S. State Department, ETA members received training in Libya, Lebanon and Nicaragua, while the group also enjoyed close links with the Irish Republican Army. The Good Friday peace accord influenced ETA to call | [
"When did the most recent cease-fire collapse?",
"When did ETA begin campaigning violently?",
"How many deaths were the group blamed for?",
"What was the group blamed for?",
"When did the group begin violent campaign?",
"What group was formed in 1959?",
"How many deaths has ETA been blamed for?",
"In what year did the Basque separatist group ETA form?"
] | [
[
"2006"
],
[
"1968."
],
[
"800"
],
[
"more than 800 deaths"
],
[
"1968."
],
[
"Euskadi Ta Askatasuna"
],
[
"more than 800"
],
[
"1959."
]
] | Basque separatist group ETA formed in 1959 began violent campaign in 1968 .
Most recent cease-fire collapsed in 2007 despite pledges of permanence .
Group blamed for more than 800 deaths, including many civilians . |
(CNN) -- The sights and sounds of rocks rolling down mountainsides are common but still captivating phenomena for the residents of the Nile Valley in central Washington state. The landslide covered up to a half-mile of Washington state Route 410 with rock up to 30 feet deep. "Every morning I hear big rocks coming down," said longtime valley resident Frank Koch. But a landslide over the weekend was more than Koch and the other 1,500 people in the Nile Valley bargained for. "We just had the whole face of the mountain just pretty much come off," said Valerie Royster, manager of the Woodshed Restaurant, which sits just across the road from the edge of the landslide. The slide covered a quarter-mile to half-mile of State Route 410, which connects Yakima with Mount Rainier National Park, with rock up to 30 feet deep, said Washington state Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Westbay. Westbay said 25 homes had been affected by flooding and five by the landslide itself, including a mobile home that was demolished. See how slide blocked roads, moved homes » Damage was estimated at $20 million, but that would likely increase, said Jim Hall, director of emergency management for Yakima County. Watch aerial shots of landslide area » "My bet is it's probably going to be a lot more than that,' Hall said. Roads would needed to be rebuilt or rerouted, he said, and tons and tons of rock and debris moved. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, videos The mountain's movement attracted dozens of residents to the parking lot of the Woodshed, which Royster calls the hub of the community, on Sunday morning to take in the spectacle. "It was a slow slide," she told CNN by telephone Monday morning, which meant residents had enough warning to get out of their homes and to the Woodshed's parking lot to watch nature's majesty and fury. "It was very loud. You could watch trees coming down" as the slide pushed the rocks in the valley's riverbed 30 to 40 feet up the opposite bank, Royster said. Afterward, residents found river fish high and dry on the hillside, she said. Westbay said the slide was like nothing the state has seen before, in that it wasn't the result of a weather or seismic event. "We've had rockslides, mudslides, avalanches, but nothing like this," he said. Geologists were calling it a "natural land movement," he said. Westbay said the rocks had stabilized by Tuesday morning, and crews had begun work on a temporary gravel road to restore access to residents. Flooding was the biggest obstacle to that; the slide changed the course of the Naches River, he said. For all the spectacle of the weekend, local resident Koch was impressed by something else Tuesday morning -- the government response. "They're out there kicking bootie today," he said of the repair crews. "It's pretty amazing to see government moving that fast." | [
"What river did the slide change course of?",
"Where was twenty million dollars in damage caused?",
"how much deep was landslide?",
"how much damage cost?",
"Who said \"they're out there kicking bootie\"?",
"where landslide happened?"
] | [
[
"Naches"
],
[
"Nile Valley in central Washington"
],
[
"30 feet"
],
[
"was estimated at $20 million,"
],
[
"local resident Koch"
],
[
"the Nile Valley in central Washington state."
]
] | Landslide covers half-mile of highway up to 30 feet deep .
Damage estimated upwards of $20 million in Yakima County, Washington .
Slide changed course of Naches River .
"They're out there kicking bootie," resident says of government response . |
(CNN) -- The singer Gil Scott Heron once declared that "the revolution will not be televised." Em Hall, the "D.C. Goodwill Fashionista," transformed Goodwill's image with a witty blog. It is, however, going online. Social activism is being transformed by the Web. Some of the most creative forms of protest and philanthropy are taking place online. Activists are conducting demonstrations on YouTube, holding virtual fundraisers and using social network sites like Facebook to change the world -- one mouse-click at a time. These cyber-pioneers include a nonprofit group that uses animated 3-D characters to protest the global shortage of drinking water; a Web company that allows ordinary people to create their own personalized charity; and a Goodwill blogger who reshaped the thrift store's image so thoroughly she was invited to New York Fashion Week. Ted Hart, co-author of "People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities," says the Web has already become a crucial source for nonprofit fundraising. Americans donated $550 million online in 2001, but that number grew to $10.4 billion in 2007, he says. "It's a new world for a lot of nonprofit organizations," Hart says. "No longer is it good enough to say give us some money. The rules have changed." Yet some people warn that this new world offers people an excuse to engage in "drive-by activism," superficial forms of cyber-activism that require little commitment. "The Internet makes it very easy for people to jump in and out of social activism," says Matthew Hale, assistant professor at Seton Hall University's Center for Public Service. "If all the activism is online, it is easier to quit than going to meetings every week." Real change: online or in-person? Yet the Web makes it easier for a nonprofit group to reach more people than a meeting ever could, one nonprofit group says. WaterPartners International is a U.S.-based nonprofit group that created a global campaign to create safe drinking water. Another company may have flown a spokesperson to an impoverished village and hired a film crew to promote their campaign. But WaterPartners says it saved money and time by putting its campaign online -- through animated, virtual characters built from actual people, says Nicole Wickenhauser, a company spokesperson. Daily Web traffic doubled to WaterPartners' Web site during the campaign and the campaign attracted support from around the globe, Wickenhauser says. "Real change is most often accomplished by committed individuals working together for a cause they feel passionately about," Wickenhauser says. "Whether they work together virtually or in person is less important." Web-based activism not only enlarges the reach of social activists, it empowers ordinary people, its advocates say. In another time, a person had to find a charity to give their time and money to. Now they can create their own charity through Web sites like "YourCause.com." YourCause.com has been described as a MySpace for do-gooders. The new site allows a person to do everything a charity traditionally does -- raise money and awareness and recruit support -- all from a Web page designed especially for their needs. Matthew Combs, the site's co-founder, says his site designs Web pages and vets charities for people who don't have the time or expertise to do it themselves. "It's for people like the 73-year-old woman from New Jersey who created her own page to help out with a rare genetic defect she's suffering from," Combs says. "There's not a lot of 73-year-olds on MySpace. How do we make it easy as possible for them, but credible?" Social network sites like MySpace are also throwing their support behind Web activists. MySpace has an "Impact" page that connects users with political and charitable causes. YouTube recently launched a "Nonprofits and Activism" channel. 'The reaction was priceless' One of the most audacious forms of Web-based activism comes courtesy of Em Hall, also known | [
"What are activists doing?",
"What did Web unleash?"
] | [
[
"are conducting demonstrations on YouTube, holding virtual fundraisers and using social network sites like Facebook to change the world"
],
[
"Social activism is being"
]
] | The Web unleashes new wave of cyber-activism .
Activists changing the world one mouse-click at a time .
The Web "changes the rules" for nonprofit groups, expert says . |
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