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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- Detroit, Michigan, is often thought of as the automaker capital of the country, but increasingly, foreign auto plants are heading south, to a region known for more than its charm.
Toyota's plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, is as big as 156 football fields.
Almost every foreign auto factory that's opened since the '90s has sprouted below the Mason-Dixon Line. Two of the three auto plants under construction also are in the South.
Plants typically establish their roots in what is known as the auto corridor -- a roughly 200-mile-wide stretch that runs from Michigan to Alabama.
"The northern end is more heavily dominated by the traditional Detroit-base assemblers and their supplier base, and then the foreign automakers and their supplier base tend to pull a little further south," said Thomas Klier, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who specializes in the auto industry. Check out auto plants across the corridor »
So what's behind the South's charm? It has a lot to do with the people, experts say.
"If you don't have people, you don't have economic development," said Michael Randle, president and publisher of Southern Business & Development. "People drive economic development and that's why the South has gone from being dirt poor 50 years ago to leading this country's economy."
The South's population is growing much faster than the Midwest, which is home to the Big Three: Chrysler, Ford and GM. Between 2000 and 2030, the South's population is expected to increase by about 43 percent, while less than 10 percent growth is expected in the Midwest, according the U.S. Census Bureau. See how the United States is expected to grow »
But it's not just the quantity of the people that matters. The quality of the work force was a big factor in Toyota's recent decision to build a plant near Tupelo, Mississippi, according Dennis Cuneo, formerly Toyota's senior vice president and now an adviser to the company. Watch how Toyota hopefuls are already preparing for jobs »
Northern Mississippi has been hit hard by the closing of furniture factories, leaving highly skilled workers looking for jobs. Those workers have the mentality the automobile makers want, Randle said. If it's broken, they are going to fix it, he said.
The automotive industry provides a much-needed bridge, connecting a labor pool that wants to work with an economy in need of a boost, Randle said.
And the plants bring in far more than their initial investment. The Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, for example, announced it would double its production just three years after it opened. Honda had a $450 million expansion in Lincoln, Alabama, that added another 2,000 jobs. For each job created inside an auto plant, experts estimate as many as six to eight are created in businesses outside. Hear a worker describe how an auto plant changed his life »
Local leaders know how valuable the industry is -- worth enough to offer to foreign companies hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives -- including tax abatements, site preparation and employee training.
While companies remain mum on the topic, those local leaders have a big edge on the North: They are fighting to bring jobs to workers who aren't unionized, unlike much of the Big Three's workforce.
Unions increase overall costs at plants, Randle said, explaining that the foreign automakers are drawn to the South where unionization is not mandatory and where workers have resisted calls to join voluntarily. If a plant is unionized in the North, everyone must join.
No foreign assembly plants are unionized except for a few joint-ventures: the ones that started as projects between domestic and foreign companies.
"That's not a coincidence," Klier said. "That suggests pretty strongly that that does affect the location decision."
With all of these benefits playing in its favor, the South -- with its low operating costs -- has become the go-to place for this international industry | [
"which is the population growing much faster?",
"The South's population is growing much faster than where?",
"What area of the US is growing faster in terms of population than the Midwest?"
] | [
[
"South's"
],
[
"the Midwest,"
],
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"South's"
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] | Almost every foreign auto plant that's opened since the '90s is in the South .
South's population is growing much faster than the Midwest .
South provides manufacturing workforce .
No foreign auto assembly plants are unionized . |
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative. Russell Jackson started Kid One, which has ferried thousands of children to medical appointments. "We found that there were 80,000-plus children in Alabama living in a home with no car," Jackson says. "And in the rural areas, there are no cabs, there are no buses, there are no trains. ... Millions of children in our country every day have no access to medical care when they need to reach it." Jackson is so determined that in 1997 he gave up his career as an Alabama firefighter, moved in with friends and dug into his retirement account to start Kid One Transport, a nonprofit organization that provides rides for needy children in his home state. In 11 years, Kid One's fleet of vans has ferried more than 16,000 kids to and from scheduled medical-related appointments all over Alabama. Watch Jackson describe the need for medical transportation in rural Alabama » Jackson never anticipated he would leave the fire department to head up a nonprofit organization. After all, firefighting was the culmination of a lifelong dream. "What little boy doesn't want to be a firefighter?" Jackson says, laughing. But an emergency call to his department in March 1992 changed everything. Jackson was dispatched to help an unresponsive 2-year-old who had accidentally hanged himself in the family car while trying to retrieve a toy. "We did everything that we could to try to revive that young child," he says. The 2-year-old died despite their efforts. "I took it pretty tough," Jackson remembers. "It's not that I had not been exposed to tragedies before, but this one hit me differently." At the advice of a counselor, Jackson started volunteer work to help him process his grief. A friend suggested Jackson volunteer in the small rural town of Sayre, Alabama. Jackson was stunned by what he saw just 25 minutes from his home. "When I drove into the community, it was a world of its own. It was a lot of homes that were deplorable. And that's really the only way I can explain them," he says. Jackson says he was instantly ashamed by his own comfortable lifestyle. Watch Jackson describe the "turning point" that led to Kids One Transport » "All it took was the one visit," he recalls, "and I knew I really wanted to come out and work with these folks, hand in hand, and do whatever I could to help make life a little bit easier for them." When social workers told him about the neighborhood children who had no way to travel to and from appointments for chemotherapy, physical therapy and even for regular checkups, Jackson started driving them there himself. Before long this one-man operation grew into a 13-van team covering 30 counties. Though Jackson recently stepped down from a daily role in the organization he founded, he says the best part of his work has been meeting the families and witnessing firsthand so many medical transformations. There were some who learned to speak, another who learned to walk, and others who recovered from life-threatening illnesses -- even when doctors were less than hopeful. Watch a child who relies on Kid One to get to medical appointments » "I saw so many lives changed, so many determined children and parents who wanted to beat the odds that were against them," Jackson says. He says he believes that getting them to the care they needed made the difference. "We're that missing part of the puzzle that is preventing so many people from reaching what we'd consider as world-class medicine. ... To know that they beat it all because of a simple ride," he adds. "That has definitely been worth every bit of founding Kid One Transport." | [
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] | More than 80,000 children in Alabama reportedly live in homes without a car .
Fireman Russell Jackson quit his job to start a nonprofit to help fill that gap .
Kid One has ferried 16,000 children to and from medical-related appointments . |
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Erin Sheehan is one of the almost 28,000 students making the bittersweet return to the Virginia Tech campus for fall classes, a journey she was afforded only because of some quick thinking in April. Students return to the Virginia Tech campus Monday for the first day of fall classes. When Seung-Hui Cho stormed into Sheehan's German class that horrifying Monday morning -- firing off indiscriminate rounds of gunfire that killed the German teacher and four of Sheehan's classmates -- Sheehan hit the deck and played dead. "He went around the room shooting everyone," she said. Cho's April 16 rampage through Norris Hall left 29 students and faculty dead. The mentally disturbed Cho also killed two others and himself in the mass shooting, the worst in modern U.S. history. Though she is heading back to class, Sheehan is admittedly still shaken. Four months after the tragedy, Sheehan is haunted by memories of the massacre, and she still jumps when she hears a loud noise in her Virginia Tech dorm room. Regardless, she is prepared to move on. "When classes started again in the spring I didn't come back," Sheehan said. "It was just too hard to do then, but now I'm ready." The campus was buzzing over the weekend. Parents and students crowded the sidewalks, toting boxes and furniture into the dorms, including West Ambler Johnston, where the first two victims were killed. Norris Hall, meanwhile, has been refurbished and will no longer host classes. Virginia Tech has discreetly beefed up security since the tragedy. Locks that operate from the inside have been placed on classroom doors. Dormitory entrances are secured 24 hours a day. Students can sign up for emergency text messages from the university. Despite the precautions, not everything has gone as smoothly as planned. On the eve of the students' return to classes, 23 people fell ill from a carbon monoxide leak in an apartment building near campus. Five Virginia Tech students were hospitalized, police and hospital officials said. Blacksburg Police said a valve on a water heater that was malfunctioning is believed to be the cause of the incident. Police said the valve was stuck in the open position, causing a constant burn-off of fuel and creating carbon monoxide that was not ventilating. Kirsten Halik and Kristin Julia, both 19, were upgraded from critical to serious condition Monday and Elizabeth Burgin, Carolyn Dorman, and Nichole Howarth, all 19 -- are conscious and alert, according to hospital officials. Burgin, Dorman, and Howarth were upgraded from serious to good condition, hospital officials said, after they received treatment in a hyperbaric chamber on Sunday and Monday. The chamber pushes pressurized oxygen into the tissues and blood. Meanwhile, the university dedicated a permanent memorial to the victims and their families -- a semicircle of 32 engraved stones bearing each victim's name. One student said she wanted to attend the ceremony until she woke up at the Collegiate Suites apartment building feeling nauseous, The Washington Post reported. Spirits are high, however, said professor Nikki Giovanni, and students and faculty are ready to move past the tragedy. Watch Giovanni applaud the university's new security measures » "The Hokies' spirit is alive and well. I think that we're very excited that classes are starting -- that we're moving into a new year," she said. Perhaps indicative of that resilience is the size of the incoming freshman class. According to a university news release, the university accepted deposits from 5,215 freshmen this year. That is more than its enrollment target of 5,000 and about 30 more deposits than the university received from incoming freshmen last year, the news release said. "Virginia Tech took a big hit, but I think that we have embraced each other. We have been embraced on this planet," Giovanni said, explaining that the Virginia Tech community has received greetings "from every country on Earth and it's been a wonderful thing." Students concur they are ready for the new school year. Playing Frisbee with friends at a | [
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] | Student says she avoided being shot during massacre by playing dead .
No classes will be held in Norris Hall, where 29 of the victims were killed .
Professor: "I think that we're very excited that classes are starting"
Carbon monoxide leak leaves 23 sick but some students getting better . |
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Erin Sheehan was a freshman last year when Seung-Hui Cho peeked through the door of her German class. The next hour of her life would become a struggle for survival.
Erin Sheehan played dead while the Virginia Tech shooter went on a rampage. "I still have trouble sleeping."
"The gunman entered my room. He shot my German teacher and then proceeded to shoot the students in the classroom pretty thoroughly," she said.
Sheehan was only one of four students in the room not to get shot. She jumped on the floor and remained quiet while Cho went on his rampage. "I thought if I played dead then he hopefully would think I was already hit."
She listened as the killer left her Norris Hall classroom to attack another room. She and the other survivors barricaded the door to keep Cho from coming back. "I tried to use a podium at the front of the classroom to block the door, because the gunman was shoving at the door and started firing through the door. We didn't think we were going to be able to hold it," she said. Watch Sheehan remember a day of horror »
Sheehan is now a sophomore at Virginia Tech. Like so many on campus, April 16, 2007, marks the worst day of her life, when Cho killed 32 students and professors in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Sheehan recently accompanied CNN to what is known as the Virginia Tech April 16, 2007 Prevail Archive -- an office space on the edge of campus where mementoes sent from across the world are temporarily warehoused. The university is cataloging and documenting every item it can save in order to create a permanent collection as well as an online archive that the public can access. Take a tour of the archive »
Teddy bears, an American flag from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, painted eggs, the hood of a race car, condolence posters signed by Koreans and a letter from President Bush are housed there. Thousands of other letters are also kept in the archive.
"This is making me feel super bad. Because a lot of people died at Blacksburg. I love VT," wrote one young child.
Walking through the archive for the first time, Sheehan was overcome with emotion. She stopped and held a picture of all the victims, pointing out her slain German teacher and another classmate. "I believe this is Nicole White, she sat right next to me. And I think I would credit her with taking bullets for me," she said in a muted tone. Watch letters to Virginia Tech »
Of the entire archive, she added, "I don't ever remember seeing it all together like this before. I think it is really remarkable that so many people cared to reach out to us like this."
Tamara Kennelly is the archivist at Virginia Tech. She's responsible for documenting how everyone beyond the campus dealt with the tragedy, when the world was joined by four words: "We are all Hokies."
"People at other places have really identified with us and felt all of this with us," she said. "I think it's very heartening, it's very moving to me." Watch a Tech student describe surviving four shots »
They've received just about anything, from condolences books from funeral homes to messages from prisons to letters from elementary students.
"There are always people who really have their own story to tell or a powerful way of putting it. And when you find those letters, they stay with you -- all day, all week," said Amy Vilelle, the manuscript archivist. "There are a few that I will not ever forget reading."
Some are very personal, like a pair of goggles from a lab partner. "Mike may you rest in peace. You will forever be remembered as my favorite lab partner. We'll be missing you," it says on the goggles.
Fighting back tears, Kennelly said, "This job is very | [
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"What did the Archivist say?",
"Where are the items housed at?",
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"Teddy bears, an American flag from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, painted eggs, the hood of a race car, condolence posters signed by Koreans and a letter from President Bush are housed there."
]
] | Thousands of items sent from around globe are housed on Tech campus .
Items range from letters from kids to an American flag from Afghanistan .
"It is really remarkable that so many people cared to reach out to us," survivor says .
Archivist: "There are a few that I will not ever forget reading" |
BOCA RATON, Florida (CNN) -- Edgar and Nina Otto say they had no idea how their four-legged clone would react to them. But last week, after waiting several months, the yellow Labrador puppy bounded off an airplane at Miami International Airport, right into their arms. Lancelot Encore is his name, or Lancy for short.
Nina and Edgar Otto say their cloned puppy crosses his paws like the original dog did.
The puppy Lancy looks and acts just like Lancelot, their first Lab, who died a year ago, say the Ottos. That's not surprising, because Lancy is Lancelot's clone.
"We just got him because we wanted to have Lancelot more than just the 11½ years," Nina Otto said.
The Ottos submitted the winning bid of $155,000 at an auction with a San Francisco biotech company that had Lancelot cloned in South Korea. Watch Lancy at home with the Ottos »
"Did I ever think that I was going to spend $150K on a dog? No," Edgar Otto said, adding, "This is a really sweet dog, and ... we're very happy that we did it."
Edgar Otto is the son of Edward Otto, a co-founder of NASCAR. So money was really not an issue for this family.
They got the idea five years ago and had a sample of Lancelot's DNA extracted and banked when they heard that cloning was possible.
So far, the Ottos say Lancy is eerily similar to Lancelot. They say Lancy walks just like Lancelot and crosses his paws like him, too.
"I only was hoping to get the essence of Lancelot back," Nina said. "I know I've gotten that. Anything else is icing on the cake."
But is it the same dog?
"It's as close as you can get," Edgar said.
The Ottos have nine other dogs, as well as cats, birds and sheep, all living on a spectacular 12-acre spread in Boca Raton, Florida.
"This dog was immediately accepted by the nine dogs," Edgar Otto said. "There was no baring of teeth, not ever a single growl. So, the pack accepted him."
Four customers who also placed winning bids in an auction by BioArts International will have their dogs cloned, and those pets will be delivered in the coming months.
BioArts is collaborating with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to produce the dog clones. Cloning dogs is considered difficult because of their complicated reproductive physiology, but the procedure has been perfected in South Korea, according to industry experts.
In Lancy's case, his DNA was placed inside an egg from a South Korean dog and implanted in an Irish setter in South Korea. About two months later, 1.3-pound Lancy was born in a single litter birth.
BioArts says it's an expensive process and the company is still analyzing whether pet cloning can be a viable, profitable business.
"I would love to see more families be able to have this experience," said Lou Hawthorne, the BioArts CEO.
"But due to the complexity and cost of the process, availability is going to be limited for the foreseeable future," he said.
Lancy is a robust 17-pounder today, and quite healthy according to the Ottos. He romps around their yard like any puppy would. But, the Ottos say, he's taken a particular fondness to a bush planted at the spot where his original, Lancelot, died last year.
"This is the only guy that's gone to that bush, and he started burrowing in the bush," Edgar Otto said.
"I don't know what to make of that, but we have nine dogs and let them play everyday out here, and this guy just hung out there," he said.
But this story is not without its critics. The Ottos can do whatever they want with their money, but "a shelter dog just lost out on a great chance of having a home," said Cherie Wachter of | [
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"What other animal do the couple own?",
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"how much did it cost?",
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] | [
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] | Edgar and Nina Otto paid $150,000 to clone their late dog using stored DNA .
Californian and South Korean companies collaborate on the cloning .
Cloned puppy eerily walks like original and crosses paws like him .
Couple owns nine other dogs as well as cats, birds, and sheep . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe enjoys one of the highest popularity ratings of any leader in South America, so much that his supporters are pushing for a third presidential term for him.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has not said whether he would be willing to run for a third term.
But the constitution would have to be changed to allow that, and recent global issues have even some supporters questioning whether Uribe should be allowed to seek that extra time in office.
"When the president was first re-elected in 2006, the economy was thriving, and the president benefited from its success," said Carlos Lemoine, a political consultant. "Now, the economy is in a very different situation."
Five million Colombians might disagree.
They have signed petitions asking for a constitutional referendum that would grant Uribe the chance to run again. That could happen in 2010 or, if he sat out a term, in 2014.
The nation's Congress is debating the referendum, and not all lawmakers are convinced it's a good idea.
"Another re-election is not good for Colombia, because it would concentrate the power of government on the president," said David Luna, a member of Colombia's Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of Congress.
Added representative German Olano, "In 2001, voters agreed Alvaro Uribe was the most qualified person for the job. But, like any other democracy, there are plenty of capable people for the job. And those people should get their chance."
The third-term argument in Colombia mirrors to a large degree the situation in rival Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez announced last month that he will press for a constitutional amendment to enable him to seek re-election in order to govern until 2021.
Observers say the efforts to expand presidential terms reflect a historical shift in South America.
"Historically, those countries did not have re-election. The president could serve one term, and that was it," said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent research and information organization.
"There would be military coups, with the military ousting one civilian ruler to put in another civilian ruler. Then in the 1970s, the coups changed. The military seized power and held it and didn't turn authority over to civilians. So one country after another revised their constitutions to allow standing for re-election," Birns said.
"We now have a situation where ruling parties want to stay in power, but for different reasons. In the case of Colombia and Uribe, it is law and order. For Chavez in Venezuela, it is extending his vision, getting more time to institutionalize that vision," Birns said.
In Colombia, there is also talk of "vision" among congressional supporters of a third term for Uribe.
"I believe President Uribe's success requires us to consider the [constitutional] referendum and grant it, so that we can continue his vision of long-term stability," Chamber of Representatives member Nicolas Uribe said.
But former Colombian President Andres Pastrana believes that it is time for a change, and changing the constitution to allow for a third term is not the change he means.
"I think that changing the constitution for someone's personal gain is against our democratic principles, and it would be a grave mistake for this country," he said.
That is a risk that supporters of the referendum are willing to take.
"It is not going to weaken our democracy," supporter Luis Guillermo Giraldo said.
"Just look at Margaret Thatcher, who governed for 11 years, or Tony Blair for 10," he said, referring to two former British prime ministers.
As the debate goes on in Colombia, Uribe is not saying whether he wants another term in office.
And opponents are arguing that it would not be worth spending an estimated $57 million on a referendum to find out whether he should even be allowed to be a candidate. | [
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] | 5 million Colombians signed petitions seeking constitutional referendum .
Some say others deserve chance to run for president .
Supporters speak of giving Alvaro Uribe a chance to continue "vision" |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian officials are blaming the FARC guerrilla group for a car bombing late Sunday at a police station in Cali that killed two people and wounded at least 14.
Residents check out a destroyed police building after a car bombing Sunday night in Cali, Colombia.
It was the second bombing in Colombia attributed to the Marxist guerrilla group in less than a week. An explosion at a Blockbuster video rental store in an upscale Bogota neighborhood Tuesday killed two and wounded more than 20.
The suspect in Sunday night's attack was killed in a shootout with police after the explosion, Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said Monday, hours after convening a special security meeting in the middle of the night.
"Although the explosive device only had moderate impact," Ospina said on the Cali government Web site, "we should not forget we are at war and the FARC has been committing terrorist acts in Bogota, Neiva, Cali and other cities in the country. That's why we cannot let our guard down, since they take advantage of Sundays and city centers, where control is more difficult."
The explosion came just hours after the rebel group released four hostages in what many interpreted as a gesture to reach a peace accord with the government. Two officials also are slated to be released this week.
FARC, which is the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the largest and oldest revolutionary group in the nation and has been at war with the government for more than 40 years.
According to Ospina, a blue and red Renault 12 Break pickup crashed into the police headquarters in Cali at 10:38 p.m. and then exploded. The driver tried to flee but was felled by two shots from uniformed police and died a few hours later at a hospital, the mayor said.
The explosion caused damage in a two-block area, the Cali news Web site Semana.com said.
Five of the 14 wounded were minors, Ospina said, citing emergency director Laureano Quintero. The injured are suffering from fractures and other wounds not considered life-threatening, he said.
Cali's health minister, Alejandro Varela, said earlier 32 were wounded, including a pregnant woman who was in good condition. Others complained of hearing problems.
The mayor's office said the previous higher tally could be a result of people not wounded in the bombing but seeking medical attention to receive government help.
Three police were wounded, including a major with a broken arm and an officer who had to have three fingers amputated on his left hand, said the police chief, Gustavo Adolfo Ricaurte Tapia.
The bombing caused a temporary power outage, which made security more difficult for officials, said the news Web site Burladero.com.
It was the fourth bombing in Cali in less than 42 months, Semana.com said.
The latest bombing took place about five blocks from the Palace of Justice, which was blasted by a car bomb in August, killing four and wounding 26. Police buildings were bombed in April 2007 and August 2006. The earlier blast killed five and wounded 17, Semana.com said.
Security analysts say FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party.
The guerrillas operate mostly in Colombia but have carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, according to the Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program.
Authorities said Sunday night's bomb contained 90 kilograms (198 pounds) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel, a commonly used explosive, Semana.com said.
By comparison, the bomb that Timothy McVeigh used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, contained more than 2,800 kilos (6,200 pounds) of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel. | [
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] | [
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] | Car bombing at police station in Cali, Colombia, kills two people, wounds at least 14 .
FARC rebels also blamed for last week's bombing at video rental store in Bogota .
Suspect in Cali attack dies in shootout with police after blast, mayor says .
Cali explosion comes hours after FARC releases four hostages . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police foiled a plot by Marxist guerrillas to assassinate the nation's defense minister, according to President Alvaro Uribe. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says authorities foiled an assassination plot against the country's defense chief. Ten guerrillas dressed as police planned to infiltrate the family farm of Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos over Easter week and kill the official and his family, Uribe said Thursday on national television. The guerrillas, who belong to the FARC, the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, were captured, Uribe said. Uribe thanked and congratulated federal authorities, saying, "This investigation had been proceeding for several months, and fortunately the National Police has dealt this well-placed blow." Police Director Oscar Naranjo said eight of the guerrillas were captured at a property near Santos' farm in the municipality of Anapoima, 54 miles (87 kilometers) from Bogota, the capital. Officials did not reveal where the other two guerillas were captured. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts have said the FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, analysts said. The guerrilla group is known to pull off audacious operations, sometimes dressed as police, soldiers or other government officials. On April 11, 2002, a 20-member commando group dressed in police and military uniforms faked a bomb alert at the parliament building in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. They tricked 12 congressmen into getting on a bus by telling them the military provided it for their safety. They then drove off, taking the congressmen into captivity. Eleven of those congressmen died in June 2007 during a shootout between military and the FARC. The sole surviving congressman, who was released in February, said the FARC shot the hostages when the soldiers approached. | [
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] | Plot was against Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, president says .
Ten guerrillas planned to kill Santos' family, President Alvaro Uribe says .
Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were captured, Uribe says . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Daniel Rendon Herrera, Colombia's most-wanted drug kingpin suspect, was arrested early Wednesday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced at a news conference.
Police escort suspected drug kingpin Daniel Rendon Herrera, left, on Wednesday in Bogota, Colombia.
The government had offered $2.1 million, or 5 billion pesos, for information that would lead to the arrest of Rendon, also known as Don Mario. Officials said Wednesday that they will determine how that reward will be paid.
Rendon, who was captured in the Uraba region of northwestern Colombia, was transferred to the capital, Bogota, on Wednesday afternoon.
A live TV broadcast of his arrival at the Military Airport of Catam, on the outskirts of Bogota, showed a somber-looking Rendon being led off an airplane to a police van.
Rendon was wearing a two-toned, gray and blue shirt and gray pants, and his hands were bound in front of him with white plastic cuffs. The arrival was broadcast on CNN affiliate Caracol TV.
Uribe, whose news conference also was televised, said he learned of the arrest while meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Colombian president called Rendon "one of the most feared narcotraffickers and criminals in the world."
The president's Web site also carried news of the arrest.
The United States had issued an extradition order for Rendon, whom 300 members of an elite police unit captured.
Thirty members of Rendon's gang were arrested with him, El Tiempo newspaper said on its Web site.
Authorities had been concentrating on Rendon's capture for the past nine months and moved undercover operatives into the area where he was hiding on April 6, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
Authorities nearly captured Rendon twice in the past few months, but he escaped, Santos said at the military airport.
The suspect was found in the jungle, where he had been hiding for two days.
"He was virtually like a dog," Santos said.
Telephone intercepts, human intelligence and cooperation from the United States were crucial in Rendon's capture, El Tiempo newspaper said.
Santos also issued a message Wednesday to a cartel suspect he identified only as "El Cuchillo," the Knife.
"My message is that he give up, because he is next," Santos said. "We are getting close."
Rendon is the brother of the imprisoned Freddy Rendon Herrera, known as "El Aleman" (the German) for the efficiency with which he ran his drug operation. | [
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] | [
[
"two days."
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[
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[
"two days."
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[
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[
"Thirty members of Rendon's gang"
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[
"Thirty"
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[
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] | NEW: Suspect had been hiding in jungle for two days, defense chief says .
Daniel Rendon Herrera is Colombia's most-wanted drug kingpin suspect .
Rendon "one of the most feared narcotraffickers" in world, Colombian leader says .
Thirty members of gang also arrested, report says . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Former hostage Sigifredo Lopez landed in the Colombian city of Palmira to a hero's welcome Thursday afternoon, free after nearly seven years of captivity by Marxist rebels in the jungle.
A Brazilian helicopter takes off Thursday from an airport in Palmira, Colombia, to pick up Sigifredo Lopez.
Lopez was met at the helicopter that ferried him to freedom by his wife and two sons, who cried openly and deeply as they hugged him. One son held his father's head in his hands and spoke to him fervently as he kissed his forehead.
Lopez's mother also hugged him before the freed hostage was swallowed by a mob of family members of other hostages who had died in captivity.
After hugging well-wishers for more than 20 minutes, Lopez climbed into a white Red Cross sport utility vehicle and drove off in a four-vehicle convoy.
The former regional legislator was abducted April 11, 2002, by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC.
Lopez's release was the sixth unilateral one by the rebels in a week, but few of the kidnappings were as dramatic as the one in which Lopez and 11 other lawmakers were taken.
He is the only one of that group who remains alive.
A video taken by the FARC that day in April 2002 and released in late 2006 shows the first minutes of the bold kidnapping that led to his captivity.
The rebels had been training for months. At a FARC camp, they practiced in Colombian army and police uniforms and made mock-ups of the regional parliament in Cali with plastic tarps and sticks.
A rebel camera was rolling as the 20-strong commando group drove a bus to Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. Salsa music was blaring. Watch the FARC footage of the dramatic abduction of Lopez and other lawmakers »
They were posing as government soldiers. Motorcycle outriders cleared the way.
Once they reached the parliament building, they faked a bomb alert.
The bus pulled out in front of the building, and the video shows people running from the perceived threat.
On the video, an unseen rebel is heard to say, "For the deputies, we have a special vehicle."
Twelve congressmen took their seats, believing the military was shepherding them to safety. Minutes passed, and one politician asked where they are headed.
A few minutes later, the muffled reply can be heard: "Ladies and gentlemen. We are the FARC."
Back in the mountains, the hostages were herded aboard a truck. Guerrillas waved and hugged as they celebrated their audacious mission.
In 2003, Lopez and some of the other hostages appeared in a proof-of-life video. One of his colleagues simply wrote, "Until when?" on his hand and held it up to camera.
Another, Jairo Hoyos, sent a prophetic plea to the president: "Mister President. Those who are about to die salute you."
Eleven of the congressmen were killed in captivity in June 2007. The FARC said they died in cross-fire during a military rescue mission. The Colombian army rejects that assertion.
When the bodies were recovered three months later, autopsies showed most had been shot multiple times in the back.
Lopez was the sole survivor. On Thursday night, he may be able to tell the rest of the world what happened that day.
FARC has released five other hostages in the past week. On Tuesday, Alan Jara, the former governor of Colombia's Meta state, arrived at the airport in Villavicencio, southeast of Bogota.
Four hostages -- three police officers and a soldier -- were released over the weekend.
Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba has brokered the releases with the help of the the International Committee of the Red Cross and a group called Colombians for Peace. Brazil also has helped, providing the aircraft used in the releases.
The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, announced the releases December 21 and designated Cordoba as the coordinator. Some analysts see these releases as a first | [
"Who is the only survivor of 12 lawmakers abducted in April?",
"who kidnapped these people",
"Who did the family greet?",
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] | [
[
"Lopez"
],
[
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,"
],
[
"Sigifredo Lopez"
],
[
"Eleven of the congressmen"
],
[
"Sigifredo Lopez"
],
[
"kidnapping"
]
] | NEW: Family greets Sigifredo Lopez, the sixth hostage to be freed by FARC this week .
Lopez is only survivor of 12 lawmakers who were abducted in April 2002 .
FARC filmed video of audacious mission to kidnap congressmen .
Eleven of congressmen were killed in captivity in June 2007 . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- "Easy money, fast and effective." Investors protest outside the headquarters of DMG, one of many companies accused of defrauding the public. That was the name of one of the businesses in which millions of Colombians deposited their life savings after being promised short-term returns of as much as 150 percent. But government officials say the businesses were pyramid schemes that raked in at least $200 million from 3 million people. The government has said it knows who most of those responsible are, but they have escaped. The government is tracking them down. Sergio Munoz is among those who lost their savings. "That was for my children," he said. "Now, it comes to light that they have robbed us. It was with complicity of the authorities who permit this -- knowing that it is illegal for it to be permitted." The government says the businesses defrauded the public by offering false promises of a sure investment. Wilson Rodriguez handed over the equivalent of $80,000 to a money man who offered him what he thought were assets in hotels and property in exchange. Now, he doesn't know whom to approach. "I don't even have enough to care for my family," he said. "I lent money and what I make from my salary goes to pay off debts. I have nothing. I lost everything." Infuriated investors have demonstrated outside the headquarters of several companies in question across the nation. Worried that the situation has already led to physical altercations and riots, President Alvaro Uribe asked that authorities act immediately to bring those responsible to justice. "We are asking the public prosecutor to speed up the resolution of the cases," he said. "The national police has handed to the prosecution the power to intervene in pyramids." Treasury Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga said the government is not to blame. "The government had advertised all this time about the illegality of this operation, warning Colombians not to let themselves be defrauded, not to take their money to these illegal activities," he said. Meanwhile, some observers complain that, though the investors may shoulder some blame, the government could have mitigated their losses by moving more quickly. And, they note, some of the alleged pyramid schemes continue to stay in business. | [
"What did the treasury minister say?",
"What did pyramid schemes do?",
"Who is Oscar Ivan Zuluaga?",
"What robbed Colombians of at least $200 million?",
"What was the returning percent promised by businesses?",
"Who is the Treasury Minister?",
"What was promised?",
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] | [
[
"the government is not to blame."
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[
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[
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[
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[
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[
"short-term returns of as much as 150 percent."
],
[
"DMG,"
]
] | Pyramid schemes robbed 3 million Colombians of at least $200 million, officials say .
Many businesses promised returns as high as 150 percent .
Treasury Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga says government warned against schemes .
Authorities tracking down people behind businesses, many of whom have escaped . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A former Colombian congressman who was held hostage in the jungle for more than eight years has escaped -- with the help of a former captor. Oscar Tulio Lizcano was kidnapped on August 4, 2000 near the Colombian town of Riosucio. Oscar Tulio Lizcano, his hair disheveled, appeared too weak to stand for long when he met the news media Sunday, hours after stumbling onto a military patrol -- and freedom. Lizcano suffered from hunger and disease in captivity and endured isolation in the company of leftist rebels who often would not let him talk, he and Colombian authorities said. "Maybe my incoherence is for a lack of speaking," Lizcano told reporters. "I was unable to talk with the guerillas who guarded me." Lizcano said he had little to read in the jungle except "The Odyssey" by Homer. He suffered from malaria and other illnesses and once ate nothing but hearts of palm for six or seven days, said Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defense minister. "This is big news for the whole family," said Lizcano's sister, Amparo Lizcano. "We were waiting for the guerrillas to give our brother back alive before he died." The former congressman fled about three days ago with the assistance of one of his captors, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a leftist rebel force that has been fighting the government for more than 40 years in a war that also has involved right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. Watch release of FARC hostage » President Alvaro Uribe appeared on television Sunday with the ex-FARC rebel -- known by the alias "Isaza" -- and said the man will receive compensation and permission to resettle in France with his family. He said that's in keeping with a Colombian government policy that rewards rebels who desert and help hostages gain their freedom. Police officers and soldiers pinpointed the location of the FARC unit holding Lizcano several months ago, Santos said. They monitored the location for about five months and took steps to seal off possible escape routes, he said, as they planned a rescue operation using information gleaned help from a rebel who deserted October 2. Troops started that rescue operation Saturday -- only to discover that "Isaza" and Lizcano had decided on their own to escape. The two men wandered through the jungle for three days and nights before encountering a Colombian army patrol Sunday, said Santos, the defense minister. Lizcano was kidnapped on August 4, 2000 near the Colombian town of Riosucio. He and his former captor stumbled Sunday onto a patrol near the border of the states of Risaralda and Choco, in central Colombia, authorities said. The FARC holds an estimated 750 hostages in Colombia. Its members have justified hostage taking as a legitimate military tactic. The rebels have been battered this year by government raids that killed several top commanders, the death by apparent heart attack of their founder and a wave of desertions. Government commandoes tricked the FARC in July and freed their most prized hostage, the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in an elaborate ruse that also liberated three U.S. defense contractors and 11 other hostages. On Sunday, Lizcano offered words of encouragement to those hundreds who remain trapped in the jungle, captives of the FARC. "Hold on. Hold on," he said. "One day you will enjoy your freedom, too." -- CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report | [
"How many hostages did the Farc hold?",
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"What does FARC stand for?",
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"In what country are the estimated 750 hostages being held?",
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"How many hostages does the FARC hold?",
"Lizcano fled how long ago?",
"Who was kidnapped on August 4, 2000?"
] | [
[
"750"
],
[
"Oscar Tulio Lizcano"
],
[
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,"
],
[
"leftist rebels"
],
[
"Colombia."
],
[
"August 4, 2000"
],
[
"750"
],
[
"about three days"
],
[
"Oscar Tulio Lizcano"
]
] | Oscar Tulio Lizcano was kidnapped August 4, 2000 by Colombian leftist rebels .
The ex-congressman fled about three days ago with help from one of his captors .
The FARC holds an estimated 750 hostages in Colombia . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A key rebel commander and fugitive from a U.S. drug trafficking indictment was killed over the weekend in an air attack on a guerrilla encampment, the Colombian military said Monday.
Alleged cocaine trafficker and FARC rebel Tomas Medina Caracas in an Interpol photo.
Tomas Medina Caracas, known popularly as "El Negro Acacio," was a member of the high command of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia and, according to Colombian and U.S. officials, helped manage the group's extensive cocaine trafficking network.
He had been in the cross-hairs of the U.S. Justice Department since 2002. He was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and manufacturing and distributing cocaine within Colombia to fund the FARC's 42-year insurgency against the government.
U.S. officials alleged Medina Caracas managed the rebel group's sales of cocaine to international drug traffickers, who in turn smuggled it into the United States.
He was also indicted in the United States along with two other FARC commanders in November 2002 on charges of conspiring to kidnap two U.S. oil workers from neighboring Venezuela in 1997 and holding one of them for nine months until a $1 million ransom was paid.
Officials said the army's Rapid Response Force, backed by elements of the Colombian Air Force, tracked Medina Caracas down at a FARC camp in the jungle in the south of the country.
"After a bombardment, the troops occupied the camp, and they've found 14 dead rebels so far, along with rifles, pistols, communications equipment and ... four GPS systems," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said at a news conference. "The death of 'El Negro Acacio' was confirmed by various sources, including members of FARC itself."
Medina Caracas commanded FARC's 16th Front in the southern departments of Vichada and Guainia.
Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. E-mail to a friend
Journalist Fernando Ramos contributed to this report. | [
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"Who was Tomas Medina Caracas?",
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[
"Alleged cocaine trafficker and FARC rebel"
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[
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[
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[
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],
[
"Tomas Medina Caracas,"
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[
"\"El Negro Acacio,\""
],
[
"drug trafficking indictment"
],
[
"November 2002"
]
] | Tomas Medina Caracas was a fugitive from a U.S. drug trafficking indictment .
"El Negro Acacio" allegedly helped manage extensive cocaine network .
U.S. Justice Department indicted him in 2002 .
Colombian military: He was killed in an attack on a guerrilla encampment . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- All that glitters may not be gold, but for Colombia's narco-molls the most important thing is that it glitters. Yovanna Guzman was 19 when she met drug boss Wilber Varela, and she says he showered her with luxuries. Beauty queens, fashion models, actresses or regular girls made good are lovers of drug capos and above all lovers of the finest luxuries that cocaine money can buy. Few are prepared to speak publicly and even less to appear on camera. Those who date mob bosses don't want to blow their cover. It could expose their boyfriends to arrest and themselves to retaliation. In addition, it could bring anti-drug police sniffing, ready to seize ill-gotten gains. One exception is Yovanna Guzman, a former beauty queen and model, with a mane of blond hair and a pneumatic figure -- a sure passport into the narco underworld where cup size is more important than IQ. For eight years, she was the lover of one of Colombia's most ruthless cocaine traffickers, Wilber Varela. He was head of the North Valle Cartel. "He had two faces. I saw him so tender with the ones he loved, then you see the cartel killings. He always said he was the best of friends and the worst of enemies," Guzman said during an interview in Bogota. Watch Guzman describe Varela and how she met him » The Colombian government accused Varela of running tons of cocaine to the United States via Central America in go-fast speedboats and to Europe in small jets. Should drugs be legalized? Sound off below Authorities put a $5 million bounty on his head. He gained a reputation for brutality during a yearslong dispute with a splinter faction of the same cartel, led by Diego Montoya, who until his capture in 2007 was listed alongside Osama bin Laden on the FBI's list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives. Guzman was 19 when she met Varela. He told her he was a cattle rancher. She didn't ask questions and said she only found out the truth when she saw a Wanted poster with her boyfriend's mug shot. He wooed her with expensive gifts and sponsored her through Chica Med, a second-rate beauty pageant organizers concede was viewed as a cattle market by gangsters looking for new girls. Some mob bosses bought the beauty title as a gift for their molls, though it's not clear whether Varela paid for Guzman's title. "There were the vacations, the cars and the luxury SUVs and, of course, jewelry. There was always jewelry. But there were small details too like flowers," she said. "Of course, the luxuries don't make you fall in love, but they do dazzle you. When you get dazzled, you get carried away, but then you ask yourself where is the love and my principles?" Guzman said Varela's first gift to her was a Rolex watch, followed by a Cartier watch, diamonds, jewelry, top-of-the-range sport utility vehicles and luxury apartments. She said she now realizes she was being bought and admits she sold herself. "I feel all of us have a price up to a point. Sometimes you feel luxuries like the designer clothes, shoes and handbags are important. But afterward you realize you're empty inside," she said. Very quickly her drug lord boyfriend locked Guzman in a golden cage. He forbade her to do photo shoots or party with male friends, even though he had a stable of other top model girlfriends. "He was very jealous, and what's his is his and belongs to nobody else and nobody can touch it, look at it or mess with it," she said. As Colombia's law enforcers stepped up the hunt for Varela, Guzman's time with him became less frequent. But she said he always seemed to know where she was or to whom she had talked. At one point, she said, a jealous Varela sent one of his lieutenants to shoot her in the leg | [
"What did Guzman buy her?",
"Who did Yovanna date?",
"What was Wilber Vaerla?",
"Who is the former girlfriend of Colombian drug lord?",
"Who has admitted being bought by luxuries?",
"Who was Wilber Varela?",
"Who is the head cartel?"
] | [
[
"expensive gifts"
],
[
"Wilber Varela,"
],
[
"boss"
],
[
"Yovanna Guzman"
],
[
"Yovanna Guzman"
],
[
"head of the North Valle Cartel."
],
[
"North Valle"
]
] | Former girlfriend of Colombian drug lord admits being bought by luxuries .
Yovanna Guzman dated cartel head Wilber Varela for eight years .
Guzman says he bought her cars, vacations, jewels but also ordered her shot in leg .
She says she felt her "golden cage" had opened when he was killed last year . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombia will freeze prices for gasoline and other petrofuels through March, the government has announced. Hernan Martinez Torres, in a photo from September, says gas prices will be frozen in Colombia through March. The freeze takes effect Thursday and sets prices at December levels, the minister of mines and energy said Monday. The measure will be funded through a $170 million Fund for the Stabilization of Prices for Combustibles, which goes into effect January 1, a release on the Colombian president's Web site says. "All this is being done to give consumers a clear signal of stability," Minister of Mines and Energy Hernan Martinez Torres is quoted as saying in El Pais newspaper. Gas prices also will not decrease, although there has been a significant drop in crude oil prices in the past few months, Martinez said. The price freeze pertains to gasoline, biogasoline (oxygenated gasoline), a product called ACPM (combustible oil for motors), and the mix of ACPM and biodiesel. For the time being, El Pais said, only propane will see a decrease in price, with the price going down 25 percent. It's the second price drop for propane, which decreased 10 percent in November. | [
"What can't gas prices do under a freeze?",
"When does the price freeze take effect?",
"Who says gas prices can't rise or fall under the freeze?",
"How much is propane's price set to drop?",
"What doesn't the price freeze affect?",
"What is the point of the gas freeze?",
"What doesn't get affected by the price freeze?",
"What did the energy minister say the freeze gives consumers?",
"The price of what is being froen?",
"Who is Hernan Martinez Torres?"
] | [
[
"will not decrease,"
],
[
"Thursday"
],
[
"Hernan Martinez Torres,"
],
[
"25 percent."
],
[
"propane"
],
[
"to give consumers a clear signal of stability,\""
],
[
"propane"
],
[
"a clear signal of stability,\""
],
[
"gasoline and other petrofuels"
],
[
"Minister of Mines and Energy"
]
] | Price freeze on gas, other fuels takes effect Thursday, runs through March .
Freeze is to give consumers "a signal of stability," energy minister tells newspaper .
Gas prices can't rise or fall under the freeze, Hernan Martinez Torres says .
Price freeze doesn't affect propane; its price is set to drop 25 percent, paper reports . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe admitted Wednesday that the symbol of the neutral Red Cross organization was used in a hostage rescue mission that freed 15 people from leftist rebels two weeks ago. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. Uribe made the admission after CNN reported on unpublished photographs and videos that clearly showed a man wearing a Red Cross bib. Wrongly using the Red Cross logo is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. The man was a member of the Colombian military intelligence team involved in the daring rescue, Uribe said in an address carried on national TV and radio. The president said that as the constitutional head of the armed forces, he takes full political responsibility for what he described as a slip-up. "This officer, upon confessing his mistake to his superiors, said when the [rescue] helicopter was about to land ... he saw so many guerrillas that he went into a state of angst," Uribe said. "He feared for his life and put on the Red Cross bib over his jacket." However, the confidential military source who showed CNN the photographs that included the man wearing the bib said they were taken moments before the mission took off. Uribe said he was sorry for the mistake and has apologized to ICRC officials. There will be no official sanction against the man wearing the bib, he indicated. Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute a "war crime" under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law and could endanger humanitarian workers in the future, according to international legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association. The ICRC mission in Bogota said in a written statement that it "noted" Uribe's announcement. The ICRC mission in Bogota said in a written statement: "As guardian of international humanitarian law, the ICRC reminds that the use of the Red Cross emblem is specifically regulated by the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols. "The Red Cross emblem has to be respected in all circumstances and cannot be used in an abusive manner. "The ICRC as neutral and impartial must have the confidence of all the sides in the conflict in order to carry out its humanitarian work." Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group for transport to another rebel area. Ellis said the conventions were "very strict" regarding use of the symbol because of what it represented: impartiality, neutrality. Watch possible misuse of emblem » "If you use the emblem in a deceitful way, generally the conventions say it would be a breach. [Based on the information as explained to me,] the way that the images show the Red Cross emblem being used could be distinguished as a war crime, " Ellis added. The unpublished video and photos of the mission, hailed internationally as a daring success, were shown to CNN by a military source looking to sell the material. CNN declined to buy the material at the price being asked; it was therefore unable to verify the authenticity of the images. Uribe and his top generals had categorically denied that international humanitarian symbols were used in the July 2 rescue mission that freed the prized hostages. The hostages had endured years of harsh captivity and deprivation in jungle camps since being captured or kidnapped. Some were held for as long as 10 years. The rescue ruse also included bogus communications, sent electronically and by human couriers, to convince FARC rebels that superiors were ordering them to hand over hostages to the group posing as aid workers | [
"What country is Uribe president of?",
"What was the military source?",
"What symbol was used in hostage resuce?",
"Who used the Red Cross symbol?",
"Photos came from what source?"
] | [
[
"Colombia"
],
[
"confidential"
],
[
"Red Cross"
],
[
"Colombian military intelligence"
],
[
"confidential military"
]
] | NEW: .
President Alvaro Uribe says one Red Cross symbol was used in hostage rescue .
Photos from military source show man wearing bib with Red Cross logo .
Such misuse of symbol could be violation of Geneva Conventions . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian officials are blaming the FARC guerrilla group for an explosion in an upscale Bogota neighborhood Tuesday night that killed two people and wounded 20. Police inspect one of two dead bodies after an explosion Tuesday night in Bogota, Colombia. President Alvaro Uribe, who is in France, issued a statement expressing sorrow for "the new terrorist attempt against Bogota" and accusing FARC of hypocrisy for talking about human rights while setting off lethal bombs. FARC, the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the largest and oldest revolutionary group in Colombia. "Let us always remember that Bogota cries but will never give up," Uribe's statement said. The blast occurred around 9 p.m. at a Blockbuster video rental store in an exclusive neighborhood in northern Bogota, causing major damage to the building, most notably the parking lot. Debris was scattered for more than a block, and nearby buildings and cars also were damaged. Senior presidential aide Fabio Valencia Cossio said 11 pounds of explosives were used, El Espactador newspaper reported. A female passer-by and the store's parking lot attendant were killed in the blast, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told the newspaper. Another newspaper, El Tiempo, said the woman was about 25 years old and was carrying notebooks and books, so authorities believe she was a university student. Police said they were looking into a tip that the bombing might have been part of a FARC extortion attempt, said Radio Caracol, citing presidential aide Valencia. Blockbuster has been complaining to authorities for months that criminals who said they were associated with FARC had been demanding money, news reports said. In his statement from France, Uribe referred to FARC "combining extortion with terror." There was an explosion at another Blockbuster store in the Colombian capital a year ago. Authorities are offering the equivalent of $50,000 for information that would lead to an arrest. The explosion occurred in an neighborhood known for posh restaurants and nightclubs. Ricardo Serrano described to El Tiempo how he felt a loud explosion and the immediate confusion that ensued. "People were running from one place to another," he told the newspaper. "There were a lot of sirens and police." Angel Alberto Arias, a doorman at a nearby building, told El Tiempo, "I felt like the whole building was going to come down on top of me." FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas, according to security analysts. The guerrilla group was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. The guerrillas operate mostly in Colombia but have carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, according to the Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program. Fernando Ramos and Toby Muse contributed to this report for CNN. | [
"Who is the colombian president",
"How many were wounded",
"How many people died in the explosion in Bogota?",
"How much explosives were used?"
] | [
[
"Alvaro Uribe,"
],
[
"20."
],
[
"two"
],
[
"11 pounds"
]
] | Explosion in upscale Bogota neighborhood kills two people and wounds 20 .
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe condemns FARC rebel group for blast .
Eleven pounds of explosives reportedly used in front of Blockbuster video store . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police have killed a drug trafficker who the government says is one of the most sought-after fugitive outside the country's rebel leaders. Victor Manuel Mejia Munera was a drug lord with ties to paramilitary groups, the Colombian government says. Victor Manuel Mejia Munera and two bodyguards were killed Tuesday when police tracked them down on a farm in the northwestern province of Antioquia, according to a statement on the Colombian presidency Web site. Three people also were arrested, according to the statement. Mejia Munera was wearing an American-style, desert-camouflage uniform when he was killed, said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. Mejia Munera also had short- and long-range weapons with ammunition, the presidential statement said. "This is a great strike of the Public Force against the criminal structures of the country," Santos said, warning that drug traffickers who do not turn themselves over to the government will "end up in the jail or in a tomb." In terms of the country's most-wanted list, Mejia Munera was one of Colombia's most sought-after criminals and ranked just below the leaders of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the statement said. The leftist guerilla group, which goes by its Spanish acronym FARC, holds about 750 hostages in the jungles of Colombia and has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running civil war involving government forces, drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries. Mejia Munera is not alleged to have ties to FARC, but he had been involved with a right-wing paramilitary group known as United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, according to the U.S. State Department. Mejia Munera and his brother, Miguel Angel Mejia Munera, known as "Los Mellizos," or "the Twins," have been accused of running major drug rings in Colombia. The brothers also have faced narcotics-trafficking charges in the United States. Santos initially told reporters that police had killed Miguel Angel Mejia Munera. The Colombian presidency later said the slain drug lord was actually Victor Manuel Mejia Munera. Fingerprints confirmed that the dead man was Victor Mejia Munera, Colombian-based Caracol Radio reported. The brothers sometimes exchanged identities, the radio station said, and identity documents belonging to Miguel Mejia Munera were found near Victor Mejia Munera. In 2004, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicted the twins on narcotics-trafficking charges. The U.S. Justice Department at one point offered a $5 million reward for "true and effective information" on the whereabouts of a dozen suspects it wanted extradited to the United States. One of the 12 men wanted was Miguel Mejia Munera. The State Department said Wednesday there was no reward for Victor Mejia Munera. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that the brothers have been involved in narcotics trafficking since the early 1990s, when they were guarding ships carrying cocaine from western Colombia to Mexico. "Over time," OFAC said in a news release last year, the brothers "rose through the ranks to lead their own narcotics trafficking organization." "Recent reports indicate that Los Mellizos may be funding their own illegal armed groups to facilitate their narcotics trafficking activities," the release said. The Colombian prosecutor general's office had indicted Victor Mejia Munera for his role in a 2004 paramilitary massacre of 11 farmers in Tame in the eastern Colombian province of Arauca, according to the State Department. E-mail to a friend | [
"who is victor?",
"Who did the defense minister issue a warning to ?",
"What was found with a dead drug lord ?",
"Where was Manuel Munera on the wanted list ?",
"What did the government find?"
] | [
[
"Manuel Mejia Munera was a drug lord with ties to paramilitary groups,"
],
[
"drug traffickers"
],
[
"short- and long-range weapons"
],
[
"Colombia's"
],
[
"identity documents"
]
] | NEW: Weapons, ammunition found with dead drug lord, Colombian government says .
NEW: Defense minister warns drug dealers will "end up in the jail or in a tomb"
Victor Manuel Mejia Munera linked to paramilitaries, also wanted in the U.S.
The slain man was originally thought to be brother Miguel Angel Mejia . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Guerrillas in Colombia tortured and killed 17 Indians who they believed were helping the government, a governor and two human rights organizations said Wednesday. Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, swept into a village in southwest Colombia last week and abducted an undetermined number of Awa Indians, Human Rights Watch said. The guerrillas tortured and killed 17 Awas, including at least two minors, the human rights group said. Another human rights group, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, or ONIC, also reported the allegations. Navarro Wolff, the governor of Narino province, where the Awas live, decried the reported killings. "The guerrillas took several families, recriminating them for their supposed collaboration with the army," Wolff told El Pais newspaper. "A young man was able to escape and told how he had been tied. Later, they tortured him, they beat him and they killed eight with with a knife." Nine other villagers also were executed, unconfirmed reports said. The allegations are based partly on the information provided by the young man who said he escaped. Human Rights Watch also said it received reports from "reliable sources," whom the organization did not name. "These cruel killings violate the most basic principles of human decency and dignity," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "There is no possible excuse or justification for these horrific actions." The remote village is a 12-hour trip away from the nearest large town, and no independent verification has been obtained. Besides the unforgiving terrain, the presence of land mines and the existence of numerous armed groups virtually prevent outsiders from visiting the area. Monsignor Ruben Salazar Gomez, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, joined the chorus of criticism, alleging a "crime the whole country should condemn." Another religious leader said the Awa need protection. "We are very worried about the Awa community," said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. "It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups." The prelate said that although there were indications that the FARC was behind the killings, "we are not certain of that," El Pais said. The Awas, he said, "are pacifist, want respect of their organization and want to regain their traditions. We have been accompanying them in this process, and that's why this hurts so much." New York-based Human Rights Watch said group members have made numerous visits to Narino, which is one of Colombia's 32 departments, or states. Narino is in southwest Colombia, on the Pacific Ocean and the border with Ecuador. The area has a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces, and has among the worst human rights conditions in Colombia, the human rights group said. The Awa territories have been particularly affected. The Colombian government has issued a "risk report," warning authorities that civilians in the region are at risk. The FARC is said to have "confined" some villages, cutting them off from the outside world and not allowing anyone to enter or leave. In another report Wednesday, ONIC, the indigenous human rights group in Colombia, said the FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February 4. ONIC said the FARC kidnapped 20 Awa men, women and children February 4 from the Barbacoas area in Narino. The rebels returned the next day and grabbed children who had remained behind, ONIC said, according to Caracol Radio. ONIC also reported that a number of Awa had been knifed to death. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts say the FARC has 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings, bombings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and | [
"Who is accused of torture?",
"How many Awas have been abducted?",
"How many Awas have been abducted since February?",
"Who killed the Indians?",
"What are the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia accused of?",
"Who was accused of torture?"
] | [
[
"Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC,"
],
[
"an undetermined number"
],
[
"120"
],
[
"Guerrillas in Colombia"
],
[
"The guerrillas tortured and killed 17 Awas, including at least two minors,"
],
[
"Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,"
]
] | Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia accused of torture, slayings .
FARC guerillas killed the Indians for helping the Army, governor reportedly said .
Allegations are based in part on information from man who said he escaped .
Human rights group in Colombia says FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Marxist guerrillas admit they recently killed eight Indians whom the rebels accused of collaborating with the Colombian government, media outlets reported Tuesday.
In Bogota, Colombia, last week, Luis Evelis Andrade denounces the killings of Indians by FARC rebels.
Human rights organizations and a state governor last week had accused the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, of killing at least 27 Awa Indians in southwest Colombia in the past two weeks.
The FARC issued a statement dated February 11 saying the guerrillas detained and "executed" eight people on February 6 in the town of Rio Bravo because the Indians were gathering information about the rebels to give to the Colombian military. The FARC statement was posted Tuesday by the New Colombia News Agency and Caracol Radio's Web site.
The statement said the guerrillas were not targeting indigenous populations but took the action "against people who independent of their race, religion, ethnicity, social condition etc. accepted money and put themselves at the service of the army in an area that is the object of military operations."
The FARC communication also urged the Indians not to be manipulated by government officials who say the guerrillas are out to harm indigenous populations.
"They know of our respect for the civil community," the statement said, adding that a government that "never has looked out for these indigenous communities and has plunged them into war can't be their defenders. They are their executioners!"
Last week, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called the FARC "executioners" for killing Indians.
"Let the world know: The Democratic Security [forces] protect the indigenous because it is for all Colombians," Uribe said. "And the FARC deceive the country, they assassinate the indigenous."
The governor of Narino state, Navarro Wolff, said last week the FARC had killed 10 Awa in one incident a few days earlier and 17 others the previous week.
Luis Evelis Andrade of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym ONIC, said the FARC had targeted the Awa because the Indians don't want to get involved in the armed struggle and refuse to reveal information on government troop actions.
Speaking on Caracol TV, ONIC said the FARC has abducted 120 Awa since February 4 and 44 Awa have been killed this year.
Others also shared their concern.
"We are very worried about the Awa community," said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. "It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups."
The Awa, he said, "are pacifist, want respect of their organization and want to regain their traditions. We have been accompanying them in this process, and that's why this hurts so much."
Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordonez Maldonado ordered the nation's human rights commissioner to launch an investigation and take steps to help the Awa.
The Human Rights Watch organization said Wednesday that the guerrillas tortured some of the Awa before killing them with knives.
"These cruel killings violate the most basic principles of human decency and dignity," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "There is no possible excuse or justification for these horrific actions."
Monsignor Ruben Salazar Gomez, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, joined last week's chorus of criticism, calling the killings a "very grave ... crime the whole country should condemn."
New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a release that group members have made numerous visits to Narino, which is one of Colombia's 32 departments, or states. Narino is in southwest Colombia, on the Pacific Ocean and the border with Ecuador.
The area has a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces and has among the worst human rights conditions in Colombia, the human rights group said. The Awa territories have been particularly affected.
The Colombian government has issued a "risk report" warning that civilians in the region are in danger.
The FARC | [
"What was the reason for FARC to target the specific group that they did?",
"Who said that rebels tortured some Indians before killing them?",
"Who took responsibility for the slayings?",
"What does FARC stand for?",
"Number of Indians that FARC slayed?",
"How many people did FARC kill?",
"Why were the victims executed?",
"Who was tortured?",
"What did FARC cite as the cause for executions?"
] | [
[
"collaborating with the Colombian government,"
],
[
"The Human Rights Watch organization"
],
[
"Marxist guerrillas"
],
[
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,"
],
[
"at least 27"
],
[
"at least 27"
],
[
"collaborating with the Colombian government,"
],
[
"some of the Awa"
],
[
"because the Indians were gathering information about the rebels to give to the Colombian military."
]
] | Statement from rebel group FARC takes responsibility for slayings of 8 Indians .
FARC says the victims were "executed" for helping Colombian government .
Indians say FARC targets them because they want to stay out of armed struggle .
Human Rights Watch says rebels tortured some Indians before killing them . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Preliminary DNA tests indicate a 3-year-old foster child is the son of a woman being held captive by leftist rebels, Colombian officials announced Friday.
Clara Rojas appears in a video released by the kidnappers in July 2002.
"There is a very high probability that Juan David belongs to the family of Clara Gonzalez de Rojas," Mario Iguaran Arana, the country's chief federal prosecutor, said at a news conference.
The boy, known as "Emmanuel," has been at the center of a hostage drama that raised hopes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would liberate some of their hostages. The rebel group, known as FARC for its Spanish acronym, had agreed to release three hostages as part of a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
FARC said it would release Emmanuel along with his mother, Clara Rojas, and another woman, Consuelo Gonzalez, but the mission to free the captives fell apart December 31, when the rebel group said it could not release the hostages because of Colombian military operations in the area, according to a FARC statement Chavez read on Venezuelan television.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied the group's assertion, saying there were no combat operations in the area near the rebels, and he said the rebels could not release the three hostages because they did not have Emmanuel in custody.
He raised the possibility that Emmanuel, who was born in captivity to Rojas, was living in a foster home in the Colombian capital of Bogota.
Authorities in Colombia suspect the FARC duped child-welfare authorities by presenting the boy as a child in need of foster care in 2005, he said.
On Friday, Iguaran Arana said initial DNA results will be checked against tests being done in European labs to verify the child's identity.
There was no immediate response from Venezuela after the announcement concerning Emmanuel's DNA.
However, a statement on the Venezuelan government's Web site from earlier Friday said the Colombian government had not allowed Venezuela to participate in the DNA testing.
Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. The United States, the European Union and Colombia classify it as a terrorist group.
FARC has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitary units, government forces and drug traffickers. Fighting has waned, but not stopped, in recent years.
Among the group's hostages are three American contractors who were captured when their plane went down in 2003 during a drug-eradication flight, and Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian independent presidential candidate who was kidnapped in 2002. Rojas was kidnapped in 2002 while she managed Betancourt's campaign.
Betancourt is perhaps the best-known captive in Colombia, a country plagued by kidnapping. E-mail to a friend | [
"Who had promised to released the boy, his mother, and another woman?",
"What country is being discussed?",
"How old was the child in this article?",
"Where was the three year old likely born?",
"What is the age of the toddler who was in the foster home?",
"What rebel group is being mentioned?",
"Who was at the center of the drama?",
"Who was likely born in captivity?",
"Who was at the center o hostage release drama?",
"What incident was the child at the center of?"
] | [
[
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia"
],
[
"Colombia"
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[
"3-year-old"
],
[
"Bogota."
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[
"3-year-old"
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[
"FARC"
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[
"boy, known as \"Emmanuel,\""
],
[
"Emmanuel,"
],
[
"The boy, known as \"Emmanuel,\""
],
[
"hostage drama"
]
] | Colombian government: 3-year-old in foster home was likely born in captivity .
Child was at center of hostage release drama .
Rebel group had promised to release the boy, his mother, and another woman . |
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's Force 47 told reporters in Bogota Monday -- a day after surrendering -- that "the solution is not through war. There must be dialogue." Nelly Avila Moreno, center, alias Karina, is escorted by soldiers after surrendering. Nelly Avila Moreno, 45, whose nom de guerre was Karina, said she and her longtime male companion made the decision jointly to abandon the FARC group, based in the jungle, at 5 a.m. Sunday. She said pressure from Colombian soldiers had been key to their decision, and she called on her fellow rebels to follow her example. "I invite them to change the sensibility that is among the guerrillas," she said, seated by her companion, who said nothing during the news conference. She also had a message for the Colombian people: "It is important to do something for peace in Colombia, and that need to do something is precisely one of my motivations." After 24 years with the FARC, Karina said she wants to reintegrate with society. "At this moment, what I am thinking about is reuniting with my family and with all of society," she said. Karina said she had had no contact with the group's leaders for the past two years. During that time, she said, "I was trying to stay alive." She said she knows nothing about the group's leaders, because "everything in the FARC is very compartmentalized." Still, she did hear through the news media about the killing by another member of FARC of Ivan Rios, a member of the group's central high command. "We suffered a very strong blow," she said. She acknowledged that news led her to worry about the possibility that one of her fellow guerrillas might consider doing the same thing to her. "A person has a lot of combatants alongside, but you don't know what each one is thinking," she said. Asked about news reports of guerrilla operations she may have participated in, Karina admitted to nothing. "They accuse me of a lot of things I wasn't part of," she said. But Miguel Antonio Paez told CNN en Espanol that he remembers well the woman who, with a band of guerrillas, stopped the bus he was on in 2004 in northwest Colombia, ordered him and the other passengers off and the bus be burned. "The commander of that guerrilla group -- a dark-haired woman, tall, with one eye missing -- called herself Karina," he said. "She ordered me tied up. Here, I have the marks from the wires, and there, while I was tied up, she lopped off my penis and testicles and I remained castrated for all my life." Asked specifically about the killing of the father of President Alvaro Uribe in 1983, she said she did not know who carried out the act, and added, "I don't have my hands stained in that deed." She said that with her surrender have come new fears about possible retribution from FARC loyalists, who consider her a traitor. Wearing a red sweatshirt and what appeared to be a diamond earring in her left ear, she said she once believed the FARC would rule Colombia. "I once dreamed of that," she said. Gen. Mario Montoya, chief of the army, said two Colombian air force helicopters were sent Sunday to pick up Karina and her companion, who had given authorities their general location. "With this, we have given a confounding strike to the FARC structure," particularly to Front 47, which at this point is practically dismantled," he said. Since the killing of Rios, 45 members of the group have laid down their arms and accepted a government plan for reinstallation into society, he said. "We want to send a message to all members of FARC who persist in the mountains," he said. "To tell them, what Karina has done is the road all the members | [
"What rebel and her male companion surrender?",
"What does she fear?",
"What is the rebel's name?",
"What was Karina a commander of?",
"From whom does Karina fear possible retribution?",
"Who surrendered?",
"who surrender?",
"What kind of retribution does Karina fear?"
] | [
[
"Nelly Avila Moreno,"
],
[
"possible retribution from FARC loyalists,"
],
[
"Nelly Avila Moreno,"
],
[
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's Force 47"
],
[
"FARC loyalists,"
],
[
"Nelly Avila Moreno,"
],
[
"Nelly Avila Moreno,"
],
[
"from FARC loyalists,"
]
] | Rebel "Karina" and her male companion surrender .
Karina was a commander of Colombian rebels .
She says, "The solution is not through war. There must be dialogue"
She says she fears possible retribution from FARC loyalists . |
BOISE, Idaho (CNN) -- Firefighter Jonathan Frohreich had never heard of The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, much less its founder, until recovering from severe work-related injuries last month. Vicki Minor's Wildland Firefighter Foundation has granted more than $1.5 million in aid to more than 500 families. As he lay in his hospital bed in Sacramento, California, Vicki Minor put her hand on his shoulder. "She introduced herself and told me that she was there to help," recalls Frohreich, who had been in a helicopter crash that killed nine of his colleagues. "She just said, 'Anything.' She was there to do anything for me." Since 1999, Minor has dedicated herself to providing emergency assistance and ongoing support to injured and fallen wildfire fighters and their families nationwide through her Wildland Firefighter Foundation. Wildland firefighters are called into action when the United States' vast natural resources are threatened by fire. For Frohreich, Minor's foundation supplied lodging and food for family and friends who visited his bedside. It also provided emergency funds for medical and other expenses, arranged for Frohreich to meet with firefighters who carried him to safety, and brought his fallen comrades' family members to a bereavement ceremony. "She means everything," Frohreich said. "She's one of the best things to ever happen." Minor first became involved with the wildland firefighter community 21 years ago after witnessing a wildfire for the first time. "I had never seen anything like it," Minor recalls of the blaze in the mountains of Idaho. "All those firefighter units mobilized in camps that cropped up. It was like an invasion, and I was mesmerized." Minor started a fire camp commissary, providing dry goods, clothing and necessities to the firefighters. But it wasn't until tragedy struck in 1994 at Storm King Mountain, Colorado, where 14 firefighters perished in a single day, that Minor was overcome with a need to assist the families. The Storm King fire was a turning point. "Fighting fire is much like fighting a war. There's no time to tend to the injured, or tend to the dead. The fire doesn't stop raging," Minor said. "I looked up at the heavens and I said to those kids, 'Help me help your families.' " Grieving wildland families, like those of fallen soldiers, tend to be young and scattered throughout the country, often enduring their sudden loss in isolation from their firefighting community. Taking cues from a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Minor spearheaded fundraising efforts for the erection of the Wildland Firefighters Monument in Boise, Idaho, which contains markers "for almost every wildland firefighter that has fallen," Minor said. "I had seen and felt the healing of those combat veterans that would touch a name of their friend," Minor said. "Our wildland firefighters had nothing like that to process their grief. I wanted to create a place where our families could congregate, reach out in solidarity and comfort to honor their fallen and injured." Watch Minor describe the sculptures in the firefighter monument » Since 1999, the foundation has continued to grow, assisting more than 500 wildland firefighters and their families with more than $1.5 million in emergency funds and services, including communication support; travel and lodging for the injured and fallen; and emotional and benefit counseling and advocacy. Watch Minor describe how her foundation takes action to aid wildfire fighters » "There is a need for these families to be taken care of, and a long-term need," Minor said. "But most of it is to maintain that home until benefits come in." When survivors suddenly lose their income and don't know how to apply for the compensation they're entitled to, Minor's foundation steps in to guide them, often fighting for them when benefits are delayed or denied. Watch Minor explain why her foundation fights for firefighters and their families » Minor says she hopes the wildland firefighters know "we have their back." "I hope that | [
"Who led fundraising efforts?",
"Where would the monument be located?",
"Who has the Wildland Firefighter Foundation assisted?",
"Who does Vicki Minor's foundation help?"
] | [
[
"Minor"
],
[
"Boise, Idaho,"
],
[
"more than 500 families."
],
[
"injured and fallen wildfire fighters and their families"
]
] | Vicki Minor's foundation helps injured and fallen wildfire fighters and their families .
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation has assisted more than 500 families since 1999 .
Minor led fundraising efforts to build a monument for fallen wildfire firefighters . |
BOLINGBROOK, Illinois (CNN) -- The disappearance of a suburban Chicago police sergeant's wife is now being treated as a potential homicide, and her husband is a suspect, authorities said Friday.
Stacy Peterson, 23, has been missing from her suburban Chicago home since October 28.
In another development, a judge signed an order to exhume the body of Drew Peterson's third wife, who was found drowned in a bathtub in 2004, said Will County State Attorney James Glasgow.
Peterson, 53, said he last spoke to 23-year-old Stacy Peterson -- his fourth wife -- the night of October 28.
Drew Peterson initially told the media he believed his wife ran off with another man, but he hasn't repeated that accusation. CNN has been unable to contact Drew Peterson for comment.
The couple have been married four years and have two children, who have been interviewed for the investigation, Glasgow said. Drew Peterson also has older children from a previous marriage.
Investigators have twice searched the couple's home and vehicles, and removed several items, including computers, said Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich.
Drew Peterson allowed a limited search on the night his wife was reported missing, but investigators were not allowed to look throughout the entire house and were given access to only one of the vehicles at that time, Dobrich said.
"Early on, we looked at this as a missing persons case, but also believed strongly ... it was strongly starting to look at Drew Peterson as being a person of interest," Dobrich said.
"I would say that right now, Drew Peterson has gone from being a person of interest to being a suspect."
New information turned up during the investigation also raised questions about the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, which was ruled an accident by a coroner's jury, Glasgow said.
"There are strong indications that it was a homicide," he said. "That's why we are doing the exhumation, because there are tests that need to be done that weren't done during the first autopsy." Watch why authorities want to exhume the body »
Glasgow cited abrasions on Savio's body and a gash on her head that could not be readily explained.
"Our main thrust is to determine whether or not it was a homicide, and as we do that, we will see if there is any evidence that implicates anyone," he said.
Glasgow, who was not state attorney at the time of Savio's death, said he reviewed the case file before deciding to reopen the case.
"With 29 years of experience, there was no doubt in my mind it wasn't an accident," he said. "That was clear."
In 2002, Savio was charged once with battery and once with domestic battery against her husband, but was found not guilty at trial, Glasgow said.
Another time, she tried to bring domestic battery charges against Peterson, but no charges were ever filed.
Savio's sister, Sue Doman, said Savio expressed fear of Drew Peterson.
"She told me all the time, 'He's gonna kill me. It's gonna look like an accident,' " Doman said.
Doman said she didn't believe her sister could have died in the way the investigation concluded.
"I don't understand accidental drowning. You just don't drown in the bathtub, especially a small whirlpool. You just don't do that," she said.
Meanwhile, friends and family of Stacy Peterson said she expressed concerns about her husband.
A friend, Steve Cesare, has told CNN he received e-mail from her describing her relationship as abusive.
The woman's aunt, Candace Aikin, of El Monte, California, said Stacy Peterson confided in her that there were problems during a visit to the Peterson home in suburban Chicago last month.
"She said that she was afraid because he was following her around 24/7, even inside the house," Aikin said.
"He was very obsessed | [
"What wife did judge sign order to exume that was married to Drew Peterson?",
"What does Peterson think happened to his fourth wife?",
"what did peterson claim about 3rd wife?",
"who signed the order to exhume",
"what peterson belive?",
"What wife left Peterson for another man?",
"Whose third wife is being exhumed?",
"what have friends and family stated?",
"Who expressed concerns about her husband?",
"Whose body is to be exhumed?"
] | [
[
"third"
],
[
"ran off with another man,"
],
[
"accidental drowning."
],
[
"a judge"
],
[
"his wife ran off with another man,"
],
[
"Stacy"
],
[
"Drew Peterson's"
],
[
"\"She told me all the time, 'He's gonna kill me. It's gonna look like an accident,'"
],
[
"Stacy Peterson"
],
[
"Kathleen Savio,"
]
] | NEW: Judge signs order to exhume the body of Drew Peterson's third wife .
Peterson has said he believed his fourth wife left him for another man .
Police: Case shifts from a missing persons search to a potential homicide .
Friends and family: Stacy Peterson expressed concerns about her husband . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Timothy Connick was in agony for six years. In bed at night, it felt as if a pair of scissors was sticking out of his foot. "I turn over, and it's just like they're getting jammed in more." Timothy Connick got relief from chronic pain through a peripheral nerve stimulator implanted above his hip. Connick, 52 from Lynn, Massachusetts, injured his foot falling from a loading dock at work 11 years ago. "I fell about seven feet onto the concrete and smashed my heel. It started hurting that moment and kept hurting for six years after that." Connick is among millions. As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain, according to the American Chronic Pain Association. The organization defines chronic pain as "pain that continues a month or more beyond the usual recovery period for an injury or illness or that goes on for months or years because of a chronic condition." It's usually not constant, the group says, but can disrupt the sufferer's life. Over the years, Connick consulted multiple doctors and tried two dozen medications for pain management, but nothing eased the pain and the resulting depression. "It was pretty much a no-win situation as long as that pain was going to be there," he recalls. He was eventually referred to neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander, director of the nerve injury unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "Pain is the No. 1 reason why patients seek medical care, but until recently it hasn't been part of the medical school curriculum," she says. "Many physicians and nurses feel uncomfortable and unqualified to treat these patients." Oaklander sees many patients whom she describes as "bouncing around the health care system" for years with no firm diagnosis. She divides chronic pain sufferers into two groups. "One is the group that has an ongoing cause of their pain," she says. "The classic example of that is patients with arthritis. They have pain in their joints every day." Much more difficult, she says, is the second group: "Patients who have chronic pain without an obvious cause of tissue injury." Connick falls in the second category, Oaklander says, noting that X-rays show broken bones, but not nerve damage. "It was only many years later when he was examined by a neurologist that his underlying nerve injury was identified and able to be treated," she said. Health Minute: The struggle of managing chronic pain » Oaklander says pain medications can help most patients, but there are other options. For instance, she says, if the pain is related to an orthopedic problem, physical therapy may be the best choice. In Connick's case, relief came through surgery to implant a peripheral nerve stimulator above his hip. Based on pacemaker technology, the stimulator is placed under the skin and works by giving off benign pulses that override pain signals to the brain, Oaklander explains. She cautions that minor surgery is involved, and the device works in only about half the patients who get it. For Connick, it made all the difference. "The day they put it in and I turned it on, I was up seven flights of stairs before they stopped me. Everything that I hadn't been able to do and everything that made me happy was back available to me again and I knew it right away." These days, Connick is back at work loading trucks. He's on his feet all day and doesn't complain about any pain. Oaklander concludes: "If you have chronic pain, don't take no for an answer....I think it's important for chronic pain patients to keep a sense of purpose, optimism and hope despite the indignities that many are subjected to." E-mail to a friend Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News. Linda Ciampa of Accent Health contributed to this report. | [
"What is the top reason patients seek medical care?",
"What does constitute chronic pain?",
"What continues a month or more beyond usual recovery period?",
"What kind of pain?",
"How many American adults suffer from chronic pain?"
] | [
[
"\"Pain"
],
[
"\"pain that continues a month or more beyond the usual recovery period for an injury or illness or that goes on for months or years because of a"
],
[
"chronic pain"
],
[
"chronic"
],
[
"one in three"
]
] | As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain .
Chronic pain continues a month or more beyond usual recovery period .
Expert: Pain is the top reason patients seek medical care . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 22-year-old medical student suspected of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad was arraigned Tuesday and will be held without bail. Medical student Philip Markoff, 22, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Philip Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, listened intently but did not speak during the hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Dressed in a blue-striped shirt and slacks, Markoff was handcuffed and wearing leg irons. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is "not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything." A woman identifying herself as Markoff's fiancee also maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. Megan McAllister said Markoff "is the wrong man" and "was set up." "Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public," McAllister wrote. "All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!" She accused Boston police of "trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??" Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters, "This was a brutal, vicious crime -- savage. And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them." A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. Markoff is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman "put up a fight," prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She sustained blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of those bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the robbery four days earlier of a woman at a Westin Hotel. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items, and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, Hickman said in court Tuesday. Police said earlier the Westin victim was 29. She was not identified. Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters, and she was killed during a struggle. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Watch police say assailant has perused Craigslist ads » Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who sought public assistance identifying the man. Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account opened the day before her death, Conley said. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence in Quincy, Massachusetts, he said. Authorities put the home under surveillance, Conley said, and "the case just begins to build from there." "This poor woman, Julissa Brisman, no matter what choices she made or decisions she made in life, she is a human being who's entitled to dignity and respect," Conley said. There may be more victims that authorities are unaware of, he said, adding that the prosecutor's | [
"What was found in students home?",
"What did Phillip Markoff plead?",
"Who sent an email saying police have wrong man?",
"Did markoff enter a plea"
] | [
[
"restraints"
],
[
"A procedural not-guilty plea"
],
[
"Markoff's fiancee"
],
[
"\"not guilty"
]
] | Not-guilty plea entered in Philip Markoff's behalf in woman's slaying in Boston .
Prosecutors say semiautomatic firearm found in search of student's home .
CEO says Craigslist looking for ways to make site safer in wake of killing .
E-mail from suspect's fiancee says police have "wrong man" |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 23-year-old medical student pleaded not guilty Monday to an indictment alleging first-degree murder charge in a killing tied to Craigslist. Philip Markoff is charged with killing a woman and robbing another in Boston hotels in April. Philip Markoff is accused in the the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery another in Boston hotels earlier this year. A Massachusetts grand jury late last week indicted him on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Markoff is charged with the April 14 fatal shooting and attempted robbery of Julissa Brisman, 25, and the armed robbery of a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman on April 10. Investigators have linked both crimes to ads on the popular Web site Craigslist. He is also charged with "the armed and forcible confinement" of the two women, as well as two counts of unlawful firearm possession, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said. Watch Markoff in court » The grand jury returned the indictment late Thursday, and it moves the case from Boston Municipal Court to Suffolk Superior Court, where Markoff entered his not guilty plea on Monday. He previously had pleaded not guilty in the city court and is being held without bail. Markoff's attorney, John Salzberg, had no comment on the new indictment. Prosecutors said Brisman, a model from New York who advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma at the Marriott Copley Place hotel. The Las Vegas woman was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards at the Westin Copley Place hotel, police reports said. Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University's School of Medicine, also has been charged in a nonfatal hotel assault in Rhode Island. He has been charged with assault with the intent to rob, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a handgun and use of a firearm while committing a crime of violence, stemming from an April 16 robbery attempt at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island. | [
"What was he guilty of?",
"Who pleads not guilty to slaying woman?",
"What was Philip Markoff charged with?",
"Who was killed?",
"What were the charges?",
"when did this happen",
"What were both April incidents linked to?"
] | [
[
"first-degree murder"
],
[
"Philip Markoff"
],
[
"killing a woman and robbing another"
],
[
"Julissa Brisman,"
],
[
"first-degree murder"
],
[
"Monday"
],
[
"ads on the popular Web site Craigslist."
]
] | NEW: Suspect pleads not guilty to slaying of woman, robbery of another .
Philip Markoff charged in seven-count indictment .
Police: Both April incidents linked to ads on Craigslist.com .
Slain woman was masseuse who advertised on Craigslist, prosecutors say . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in an e-mail. Boston police Officer Justin Barrett apologized for his e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing," Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday. Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist. His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were misinterpreted. "The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey," attorney Peter Marano said. "They were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole." Marano said the city had effectively fired Barrett, though he is officially suspended with pay. He said it was fair to hold Barrett to a higher standard than the general public because he is a police officer, but that he was still entitled to express his opinions. "Being held to a higher standard shouldn't eradicate his right under the First Amendment for free speech. That is part and parcel of the lawsuit," the lawyer said. Gates was arrested at his house last month when a neighbor called police after she thought she saw a man trying to break into Gates' home. The man turned out to be Gates himself, who was attempting to free a jammed door. The incident sparked a national debate about race and policing, drawing in President Obama himself. Obama, who is a friend of Gates, said the officer who arrested the professor "acted stupidly," but then withdrew the comment, saying he did not know all the facts when he spoke. He hosted Gates and Sgt. James Crowley for a beer at the White House to calm the tensions. Barrett later sent a mass e-mail about the encounter to other officers and to the Boston Globe newspaper. Barrett was suspended from his military duties as captain in the Army National Guard and placed on administrative leave from the Boston Police Department pending the outcome of a termination hearing. Barrett said he was moved to write the note because he believed a Boston Globe column about Gates' arrest "seemed like it was biased." "It did not show the roles and duties of a police officer and how dangerous it already is without having a debate about people getting in a police officer's face, which should never happen at all." Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, "I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I have no idea." He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language before. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis denounced the e-mail. Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once to the Boston Globe column. He also declared that he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] toward people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers." According to a statement from Boston police, Davis took action immediately on learning of Barrett's remarks, stripping the officer of his gun and his badge. Barrett's arrests and investigations will be reviewed for indications of racial bias, Davis said. The department will also look closely at the officers who received or viewed the e-mail. | [
"What happened at Gates house?",
"what did the officer say about the black prof",
"What city is Barret suing?",
"what is barrett doing",
"What was the officer suspended for?",
"who did justin barrett write the email about",
"Where was the officer arrested?"
] | [
[
"was arrested"
],
[
"\"banana-eating jungle monkey\""
],
[
"Boston"
],
[
"suing the city"
],
[
"referring to a black Harvard professor as a \"banana-eating jungle monkey\" in an e-mail."
],
[
"Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr."
],
[
"at his house"
]
] | Officer suspended for referring to black prof as a "banana-eating jungle monkey"
Justin Barrett wrote e-mail talking about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates .
Barrett is suing city of Boston, saying suspension violates his civil rights .
Gates was arrested at his house after police thought he was breaking in . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A huge mural greets visitors to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. It's a memorial to the building's namesake, who died unexpectedly in 1993.
Hundreds of tiles are used to create the "magic" mural at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.
A young Reggie Lewis, wearing his No. 35 Boston Celtics jersey, dominates the middle of the 11-foot-by-14-foot artwork. At the bottom left is a picture of him and his wife. To his right, the face of legendary Celtic Larry Bird.
But as young men in sweats and sneakers make their way into the gym, something strange happens. The mural comes alive. The photo of a beaming Lewis in formal attire transforms into Lewis the basketball player, streaking down the court.
Larry Bird's picture morphs into that of another famous player, Robert Parrish.
With each step, the mural transforms, representing the many scenes in one man's life.
Artist Rufus B. Seder calls these "movies for a wall" Lifetiles. The Massachusetts artist invented the Lifetiles medium and is the only artist in the world using it. He has more than 30 Lifetiles installations around the globe. Watch a magic mural in action »
At the Taiwan Aquarium, dolphins swim on the wall alongside awestruck children. Bucking broncos line the halls of the the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Dancers spin and twirl along with passengers on luxury cruise ships in the south of France. And Seder calls the the South San Francisco, California, BART station his "own personal gallery," with more than 16 installations.
Lifetiles don't use electricity, moving parts or tricky lighting -- just an elaborate and painstaking process done out of Seder's Eye Think Inc. studio near Boston.
"What I'm after is trying to create an experience which totally takes you by surprise," he said.
Scanimation on the shelf
If the technology you see in Lifetiles looks familiar, you might have caught something similar at a local bookstore. The popular children's books "Gallop!" and "Swing!" were also written and illustrated by Seder. With a technique he calls scanimation, pictures in the books come alive as you flip the page.
It's a kids' favorite that quite a few parents enjoy, too, based on sales numbers. "Swing!" and "Gallop!" are currently on The New York Times bestseller list.
Seder originally used scanimation in greeting cards he sold at trade shows around the country. Then Workman Publishing came calling, asking Seder to develop a book based on the eye-catching technique.
That's when Seder caught lightning in a bottle. After several decades as a somewhat unknown artist, he found himself flying to China to teach the scanimation technique to book makers. Just a few years later, there are over 2 million copies of "Gallop!" in print in more than 13 languages.
Still awed by their popularity, Seder said, "I would've been satisfied if a limited edition sold well. It totally blew my mind what happened."
Although his books' success have gained Seder some newfound publicity, the Lifetiles are truly his life's work.
The relatively unknown and seemingly modern form of art isn't new at all. Seder's been working on Lifetiles for more than 20 years, inspired by toys from the 1850s called zoetropes and an active imagination as a youngster.
"I started making movies when I was 12 years old," he said, "so I was always into motion pictures and especially into optical tricks and techniques that trick the eye."
How does it work?
As a viewer, you don't have to learn how to see a Lifetile. It's intuitive, and one immediately understands the concept. As you walk past the mural, it begins to move along with you.
But the question that immediately comes to mind -- and the one Seder gets the most -- is, "How does it work?"
"The | [
"What are lifetiles?",
"Who is the inventor of Lifetiles?",
"Who is Rufus Seder?",
"who its Rufus Seder?"
] | [
[
"\"movies"
],
[
"Rufus B. Seder"
],
[
"Massachusetts artist invented the Lifetiles medium and is the only artist in the world using it."
],
[
"Artist"
]
] | Lifetiles are murals, created without electricity or moving parts, that appear to move .
Rufus Seder is the inventor of Lifetiles and the only artist in the world using them .
His eye-catching Lifetiles installations can take over a year to make .
Seder also is the author of two bestselling books using similar technology . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Before Amy Harned goes outside to work in her garden, she coats her face and neck with sunscreen, then puts on a hat, jacket and work gloves.
Amy Harned, 48, takes a lot of vitamins and maintains a healthy diet to manage her lupus.
The 48-year-old is doing more than protecting herself from dangerous ultraviolet rays. She's trying to keep the sunlight from triggering a flareup of her lupus.
Harned, who lives in Webster, Massachusetts, is among the 1.5 million Americans who suffer from the autoimmune disorder. Lupus causes the body's immune system to attack its own tissues, causing inflammation and damage. When Harned's lupus was first diagnosed, she said she "was really terrified, but gradually I got more information." She realized with proper treatment she could lead a somewhat normal life.
No two cases are alike, experts say. In fact, there are four types of the illness, ranging from mild to severe. Before effective therapies were developed, the disease was fatal more often, usually from overwhelming infection and kidney failure. Health Minute: Watch more on living with lupus »
The Lupus Foundation of America estimated that more than 16,000 new cases develop every year.
More than 90 percent of people with lupus are women, the group says. Experts aren't sure why.
"It clearly has to do with estrogen and estrogen receptors," said Lisa Fitzgerald, a Boston, Massachusetts-based rheumatologist.
Genetics can play a role as well. Not only does lupus run in families, but, Fitzgerald said, a person may be more susceptible if a relative has other autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Environmental factors also may increase risk of the disease. Researchers believe that taking certain prescription medications, and even exposure to sunlight, can trigger the illness.
Age is another risk factor. The Lupus Foundation says the condition is most often diagnosed when women are in their childbearing years between 15 and 45.
Harned's symptoms developed 15 years ago, when she was 33.
"My first symptoms with lupus were [that] my hands were swollen," Harned recalled. "They were very stiff, to the point that brushing my teeth was hard just holding the toothbrush."
The stiffness and achy joint pain are caused by inflammation brought on by lupus, Fitzgerald said.
In addition to swollen joints, she said the other symptoms include fatigue, facial rash, fever, chest pain, swollen glands and sores in the mouth and nose.
With such varied symptoms, diagnosis can be tricky. The American College of Rheumatology recommends doctors confirm four of 11 criteria for a proper diagnosis.
A blood test and urinalysis are two of the ways doctors determine whether a patient has lupus.
Researchers have come a long way in the last 50 years when it comes to understanding the condition, Fitzgerald said.
"The prognosis for lupus today is very good," she said. "The survival rate is really over 90 percent in five to 10 years of having the disease. In the 1950s it was probably 50 percent."
Part of the reason for the improved success has to do with better treatment in managing the condition. Over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen offer relief to some patients.
Other lupus sufferers might be prescribed an antimalarial drug called hydroxychloroquine.
"It's a quinine derivative. It's quite safe," Fitzgerald said. "It can make a big difference for patients who have mild disease."
Fitzgerald added she also prescribes corticosteroids "to squelch flareups." While they work well, she cautioned they do have side effects.
After 15 years of living with the condition, Harned has her own tricks for coping with lupus.
In addition to taking daily prescription drugs, Harned controls the symptoms by eating a healthy diet and exercising, getting enough rest and taking what she called "a ton of vitamins."
Some experts have touted fish oil and flaxseed as promising complements that may help ease inflammation. | [
"What sex are most people with lupus?",
"For what reason is diagnosis tricky?",
"How many types of lupus are there?",
"What will ease inflammation?",
"what can be tricky",
"What makes diagnosis tricky?",
"what does some expert say",
"how many types of lupus there are"
] | [
[
"women,"
],
[
"varied symptoms,"
],
[
"four"
],
[
"fish oil and flaxseed"
],
[
"diagnosis"
],
[
"varied symptoms,"
],
[
"No two cases are alike,"
],
[
"four"
]
] | There are four types of lupus, ranging from mild to severe .
Diagnosis can be tricky because symptoms are varied .
Some experts say fish oil and flaxseed ease inflammation .
Most people with lupus are women, said the Lupus Foundation of America . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Everyone knows Boston is a city steeped in history, but on a steamy hot summer day, one of the best places to experience the city is from the ocean or the harbor. Codzilla boats zip passengers around Boston's inner harbor. A new high-speed thrill ride called Codzilla -- a 70-foot turbocharged boat that makes 180-degree turns at close to 40 knots (43 mph) -- takes passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic. White-knuckled riders are tied down with seat belts but still hold on to the railings with one hand and cling to their belongings with the other so they don't fly overboard. Teenage boys like Ben Whatley from Michigan think Codzilla is "pretty cool." Younger brother Jeremy agrees while huddling with his grandmother. If you want both history and a boat ride, take one of Boston's famous Duck Tours. Operated on amphibious vehicles from World War II, the tours take you through downtown historic Boston. Then the bus becomes a sea-going vessel, settling into the harbor for a short cruise. It's a great way to see both sides of the city. When you get back on land, the New England Aquarium awaits with a "Sharks and Rays" exhibit that wraps up September 1. It includes a large touch tank where visitors can pet stingrays and small sharks. Megan Moore, a visitor program specialist at the aquarium, is excited to teach people that most sharks are not scary. Out of the 900 different species of sharks and rays, Moore says, only 10 to 15 have ever been known to attack a human, mostly because they confuse people with food. Sea dragons, jellyfish and harbor seals are among the other sea creatures on display at the aquarium. If you'd rather see animals in their own habitat, you can board a whale watch tour at the harbor just outside the aquarium. Tours take about three hours on a high-speed catamaran to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. It's been a protected area since 1992 and is a rich feeding ground for all kinds of marine life. Tour operators guarantee whale sightings on every excursion. Visitors this year are seeing large numbers of humpback, fin and even endangered right whales. There are also lots of dolphins, seals and sea birds. Finally, to experience Boston in a historic way, head to the Public Garden and take a peaceful 20-minute glide in a Swan Boat. The boats have been an important part of the garden every spring and summer since 1877. Operator and owner Lyn Paget's great-grandfather got the idea for the first boat from the opera Lohengrin, in which a prince rescues his princess in a boat drawn by a swan. Paget calls the experience "magical" because the world speeds ahead but the Swan Boats never change. "We have generations of people that have passed through here. When you come down with a friend, or child or a grandchild, their experience is going to be the same that it was for you, and there aren't too many places where you can do that anymore," Paget said. Fran Fifis is a senior producer who has worked in CNN's Boston bureau since it opened in 1998. | [
"Where do the Codzilla turbo boat rides take passengers?",
"Where are boat ride passengers taken?",
"What have been operating in Boston Public Garden since 1877?",
"Since what year have Swan Boats been operating there?",
"Boston's harbor and ocean attractions bring in tourists in which season in particular?"
] | [
[
"out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic."
],
[
"around Boston's inner harbor."
],
[
"Swan Boat."
],
[
"1877."
],
[
"summer"
]
] | Boston's harbor and ocean attractions are great choices for summer visitors .
Codzilla turbo boat rides take passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic .
Swan Boats have been operating in Boston Public Garden since 1877 . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Friends and acquaintances of Philip Markoff, a medical student accused of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad, described the 23-year-old as a model student. Medical student Philip Markoff, 23, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. "My girlfriend actually rode the elevator with him a lot alone; it's kind of freaking her out now," said Patrick Sullivan, who lived in the same apartment building as Markoff in Quincy, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. "She thought he was kind of the all-American, good-looking guy," Sullivan said. "When she saw him on TV yesterday, she even remarked, 'I can't believe it's him. I always thought he had such a great smile, and he was so nice to me.'" James Kehoe, a friend of Markoff's from the State University of New York at Albany, where both attended college, said Markoff was "one of the best students I've probably ever encountered." "He would never put anything in front of his work," he said. "He had great aspirations to be a doctor." Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Watch acquaintances describe a smart, good-looking guy » Markoff was arraigned Tuesday and is being held without bail. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is "not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything." A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. "This was a brutal, vicious crime. Savage," Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters. "And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them." A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman "put up a fight," prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police have said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She suffered blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of the bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the April 10 robbery of a woman at a Westin Hotel in Boston. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, the prosecutor said in court Tuesday. The victim was not identified. Megan McAllister, who identified herself as Markoff's fiancee, maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. McAllister said Markoff "is the wrong man" and "was set up." "Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public," she wrote. "All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!" She accused Boston police of "trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??" Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was killed showed a tall, | [
"Who has been suspended?",
"What does evidence suggest?",
"when did the robbery take place?",
"what is the name of the suspect?",
"What plea was entered?"
] | [
[
"Philip Markoff,"
],
[
"Brisman \"put up a fight,\""
],
[
"April 10"
],
[
"Markoff,"
],
[
"A procedural not-guilty"
]
] | Procedural not-guilty plea entered in Craigslist slaying case .
Suspect Philip Markoff has been suspended from Boston University med school .
Evidence suggests that victim Julissa Brisman "put up a fight," prosecutor says .
Markoff also charged in connection with an April 10 robbery . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Hurricane Bill spun northward toward the New England coast Saturday with wind and rain as officials warned beach lovers to head indoors for the night. Signs at Lighthouse Beach at Chatham, Massachusetts, warn beach-goers Saturday of rough waters. At 11 p.m., the center of the Category 1 storm was about 195 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters said the island can expect 1 to 2 inches of rain, and Outer Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard may receive only an inch. Swells as high as 19 feet are expected Monday night, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jordan Berryman told CNN in Chatham, Massachusetts. "It's been generally calm but tonight we recommend that everybody stay off the beach," he said. The storm continued its northerly pace of nearly 25 mph. A gradual change to the north-northeast is predicted for Sunday. Bill's sustained winds remained at 100 mph, with higher gusts. "The surf is definitely big," Emily Chibaro of Nantucket told CNN Radio Saturday. "The south shore part of the island is closed off to all people on the island." iReport.com: Are you bracing for Hurricane Bill? A gradual weakening is expected Saturday night and Sunday as the hurricane moves north of the Gulf Stream, a swift, warm Atlantic Ocean current. The core of the storm should pass New England offshore Saturday night, and approach Nova Scotia on Sunday. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said tropical-force winds from the outer bands of the storm were forecast to hit his state at 9 p.m. ET, earlier than expected. The speed of tropical-force winds range from 39 mph to 73 mph. Watch the waves crash on Massachusetts beach » A tropical storm warning was issued for the coast of Massachusetts from Woods Hole to Sagamore Beach, including the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The hurricane itself is predicted to stay offshore, the hurricane center said. The most intense period of the storm should be between midnight and the predawn hours of Sunday, the governor told reporters in a conference call. Patrick cautioned boaters to expect high seas and to avoid the area around Cape Cod. Forecasters have warned of dangerous riptides, or undertows, along the New England coast and points north. "Waters will be unsafe even for strong swimmers," the governor warned. Rip currents, or riptides, are strong seaward flows of water that occur where there's a break in the shoreline. They are difficult to detect. Watch CNN's Bonnie Schneider talk about rip currents » Patrick said advisories will be posted, and beaches on the cape were closed. He urged residents to stay home. President Obama and his family are scheduled to arrive Sunday for a vacation at Martha's Vineyard. "We look forward to welcoming him to Massachusetts as soon as he can safely get here," Patrick said. Hurricane Bill skirted Bermuda, leaving rain in its wake. The tropical storm warning for Bermuda was discontinued. Canada's weather service, Environment Canada, issued a tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches for parts of Nova Scotia. Watch how Nova Scotians are preparing for Bill » A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 24 hours. A watch means conditions are expected to change within 36 hours. Total rain accumulations of 3 to 5 inches with isolated amounts of 7 inches are expected near the track of Bill across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. CNN's Susan Candiotti and CNN Radio's Brendan Gage contributed to this report. | [
"Where do forcasters warn of dangerous riptides?",
"What does the Coast Guard in Massachusetts recommend?",
"When is Obama and family scheduled to arrive?",
"Where are President Obama and family scheduled to arrive on Sunday?",
"What did the Coast Guard recommend in Massachussetts?",
"What is expected according to the Massachusetts governor?",
"What kind of weather is expected until Sunday morning?",
"When is Obama and family scheduled to arrive at Martha's Vineyard?",
"What does the Coast Guard recommend?"
] | [
[
"along the New England coast and points north."
],
[
"that everybody stay off the beach,\""
],
[
"Sunday"
],
[
"Martha's Vineyard."
],
[
"that everybody stay off the beach,\""
],
[
"tropical-force winds from the outer bands of the storm were forecast"
],
[
"wind and rain"
],
[
"Sunday"
],
[
"that everybody stay off the beach,\""
]
] | NEW: In Massachusetts, Coast Guard recommends "everybody stay off the beach"
President Obama and family scheduled to arrive Sunday at Martha's Vineyard .
Massachusetts governor: Intense weather expected overnight to Sunday morn .
Forecasters warn of dangerous riptides along New England coast and north . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- In his first public appearance since the "Beer Summit" at the White House, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates joked about his controversial arrest last month in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and said he likes police Sgt. James Crowley. Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit for beers with the president and vice president Thursday. "I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me anymore," Gates said. Gates was speaking Sunday at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival where he signed copies of his book, "In Search of our Roots." The professor said he plans on meeting with Crowley again. "I offered for the two of us to have lunch together, one-on-one, or go to a Red Sox game, or a Celtics games, or maybe the families can get together for dinner. Why not?" Gates had a face-to-face meeting and a beer with Crowley at the White House last week, a move orchestrated by President Obama in an attempt to defuse racial tensions that had erupted following Gates' arrest. Gates called the president's gesture "brilliant." Crowley arrested Gates on July 16 when the officer responded to a call of a possible home break-in at the Cambridge residence. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly yelling at the officer and protesting his actions. But Gates, who is black, claimed he never raised his voice and accused Crowley of racial profiling. Charges against the professor were later dropped. The tone at the book fair turned more serious when someone asked Gates how the arrest has affected him. "I'm still trying to figure that out and processing it. It was stressful. I was worried about my daughters." Fortunately, he said, the press was not camped out at his family home like they were at the Cambridge residence, which is owned by the university. He admitted to receiving bomb threats and deaths threats and said the university is encouraging him to move. "I haven't been back to the Cambridge house since I got arrested so I have to make that decision." He also said he has had to change his phone numbers and close his public e-mail account. "I received thousands of fan letters but some of the e-mails were from crazy wacko people who wrote 'You should die,' 'You're a racist,'" Still, Gates said he doesn't want to exaggerate the trauma of the arrest. "A lot of people go through far worse. I was in jail for four hours, not four years or four months or four days," he said. "The night before I went to the White House, I had a dream that I got arrested in the White House," he said. Then he joked, "But it's cool; I was OK." | [
"What was the professor 's name?",
"Who was arrested?",
"Where the officer met?",
"what the professor said to the officer who arrested him?",
"where did the pair meet",
"What college employs the gentleman",
"What school was the professor from?"
] | [
[
"Henry Louis Gates"
],
[
"Henry Louis Gates"
],
[
"White House,"
],
[
"get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me anymore,\""
],
[
"the White House"
],
[
"Harvard University"
],
[
"Harvard University"
]
] | Professor on officer who arrested him: We could lunch or go to a Sox game .
The lighthearted comments came after Gates and officer met at White House .
Arrest of Harvard professor sparked discussion on race . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- It all started with the flush of an automatic toilet. The terrifying sound marked the beginning of a two-year nightmare for Sarah Teres as she desperately tried to potty train her daughter Molly. Molly graduated from Potty School four days before her brother, Archer, was born. "It was awful" Teres said. "We tried everything including bribery and threats." Teres, the mother of three from Andover, Massachusetts, hoped her middle child would be toilet trained by the time she was 2½. Two years later, the girl was still in diapers, refusing to use the bathroom. "I was going crazy," Teres admitted. "She wouldn't poop. She would hold it for days." At wits end, Teres enrolled Molly in the Toilet Training School at Children's Hospital Boston. "By the time the children come in with their families, it has become a power struggle," explained Dr. Alison Schonwald, a pediatrician who supervises the "poop school," as it's affectionately called by staffers. "The kids kind of dig in their heels and put a line in the sand." Health Minute: Watch more on the perils of potty training » The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that most children show signs they're ready to potty train between 18 and 24 months. Doctors suggest a child may be ready to start trying if he's staying dry for at least two hours at a time during the day, walking to and from the bathroom, asking for a diaper change and asking to use the potty. For some kids, the toilet training process can take more than a year, or longer. The six-week program at Children's Hospital is one of a handful around the country. Kimberly Dunn, a pediatric nurse practitioner, has worked with some of the 450 young graduates over the years. She said most of the kids admit they are afraid to use a toilet. "Oftentimes, the parents come in and they want to know why they're afraid," Dunn said. "You could ask the kids until they're blue in the face and you hardly ever find out why." Dunn meets with a half-dozen children once a week. She uses books, music and art to help the students overcome their fear of using the toilet. She helps them set small, realistic goals. For instance, she said, week one involved just sitting on the toilet for five minutes. She encourages positive reinforcement and simple rewards such as extra playtime with Mom or Dad. While Dunn works on the kids, psychologist Elaine Leclair, an instructor at the Harvard School of Medicine, offers frank advice to the parents in a separate room. "I just say, 'Step back.' They hate to hear me say this, but I say whatever you're doing now is not working. You really need to try something different," Leclair said. She said many parents come to the sessions angry and anxious. "They come in feeling extremely discouraged, very isolated thinking they are the only ones in the world who have this problem." Teres acknowledged that's how she felt. "Imagine my surprise to find out there were thousands of kids who had this problem." After years of hiding her daughter's toilet training troubles from family and friends, the group parenting sessions allowed Teres to open up about her frustrations. "It was like going to Betty Ford," joked Teres, who felt she had exhausted all her other options. A majority of the children who attend the Children's Hospital class are dealing with constipation issues often caused by delayed toilet training. Teres learned that her daughter had a medical condition called encopresis. Experts call it a symptom of chronic constipation and say it occurs when a child resists having a bowel movement. Youngsters like Molly are sometimes given laxatives or other medications to help encourage them to go. Schonwald, the author of "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Potty Training," doesn't want parents to be discouraged during the process | [
"What is the best age to potty train a child?",
"Where is the program being held?",
"When are children ready to potty train?",
"What is the program?",
"What is the length of time potty training takes",
"What is the reason that some kids learn the potty faster than others?",
"Is there help for parents struggling with potty training",
"At what age are children ready for potty training?",
"Six-week program uses creative methods to get kids comfortable with a toilet"
] | [
[
"between 18 and 24 months."
],
[
"Children's Hospital"
],
[
"between 18 and 24 months."
],
[
"Potty School"
],
[
"more than a year, or longer."
],
[
"afraid to use a toilet."
],
[
"School at Children's Hospital Boston."
],
[
"between 18 and 24 months."
],
[
"at Children's Hospital"
]
] | Most children show they're ready to potty train between 18 and 24 months .
Mom resorted to hospital's potty school when daughter was in diapers at 4½ .
Six-week program uses creative methods to get kids comfortable with a toilet .
Toilet training process can take more than a year, or longer for some kids . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Services for Sen. Edward Kennedy will be Saturday morning at a Boston church before his burial in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, his office announced Wednesday. Sen. Ted Kennedy's funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Mission Church. President Obama, who called Kennedy an "extraordinary leader," will deliver a eulogy at the funeral, according to several sources. Kennedy died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after being ill for 15 months with brain cancer. He was 77. Obama, on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, said Wednesday that Americans knew Kennedy's death was coming for some time, but have been "awaiting it with no small amount of dread." "The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we've all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives," Obama said. "His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education's promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including myself." The "extraordinary good that he did lives on," Obama said. Before the funeral, Kennedy's body will lie in repose Thursday afternoon and Friday in the Smith Center at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, said the source, who once worked closely with Kennedy's office. A memorial service will be held Friday evening at the Smith Center, the source said. Learn about Kennedy's funeral arrangements » The funeral will be held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston's Mission Hill section. The church is commonly known as the Mission Church. It is a short distance away from the Kennedy library. Watch bloggers talk about Kennedy's life » The burial will take place at 5 p.m. at Arlington, the senator's office said. Kennedy is eligible for burial at Arlington because of his congressional service and his tenure in the Army from 1951 to 1953. Army officials and members of Kennedy's staff met at the cemetery a few weeks ago to discuss a plan for the burial, an official said. The plan was then given to the family by staff members. The proposed grave site is 95 feet south of the grave of Sen. Robert Kennedy, the official said. Robert Kennedy's grave is, in turn, just steps away from the grave of their brother, President John F. Kennedy. The plot of land is currently covered with grass. At this point, U.S. military ceremonial units have not received orders for participating in a funeral, but military sources said a typical congressional funeral would include military personnel at the internment, a military team to carry the casket, a firing party for a gun salute and a bugler. Any arrangements will depend on the family's wishes. CNN's Barbara Starr, John King and Alec Miran contributed to this report. | [
"What is Sen. Ted Kennedy's full name?",
"Where is the funeral being held",
"What will precede the burial in Arlington National Cemetery",
"On what date will the funeral be held for Sen. Ted Kennedy?",
"What does President Obama call Sen Ted Kennedy"
] | [
[
"Edward"
],
[
"in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Mission Church."
],
[
"Services"
],
[
"Saturday morning"
],
[
"\"extraordinary leader,\""
]
] | President Obama calls Sen. Ted Kennedy an "extraordinary leader"
Massachusetts service Saturday will precede burial in Arlington National Cemetery .
Funeral will be at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston's Mission Hill section .
Body will lie in repose Thursday and Friday at JFK presidential library . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- They were crimes born of the Internet age -- romantic solicitations on popular Web site Craigslist that police say led to the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery of another in Boston hotels this past spring. Internet forensic expert Mark Rasch used high-tech sleuthing to help police in Boston's Craigslist crimes. And it was high-tech, 21st-century sleuthing, along with some old-fashioned gumshoe detective work, that put police on the trail toward a suspect and eventually an arrest. On CNN's "AC 360" Randi Kaye recently took a behind-the-scenes look at how technology was used to lead police to 23-year-old medical student Philip Markoff, who has been indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Julissa Brisman, a model from New York who advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma at the Marriott Copley Place hotel on April 14. And a 29-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, woman was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards at the Westin Copley Place hotel, police reports said. Read the AC360 blog post Investigators knew they had crimes born of the Internet on their hands, but how were they able to use that same technology to help them find a suspect who went to great lengths to hide his tracks? "The figures involved communicated with each other [via] text and e-mail, and they only met at the very last minute," said special correspondent Maureen Orth, who investigated the story for Vanity Fair magazine. "And then the way the police were able to solve the crime was going back, using the clicks and the Internet addresses." In Brisman's case, police knew she had communicated on Craigslist with a person calling himself "Andy." Mark Rasch once headed the computer crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. Now an Internet forensic expert, he helped Boston police track the alleged killer. "The first thing you start with was the e-mail address. In this case, it's an e-mail address from Live.com, which is Microsoft," Rasch explained to CNN's Kaye. Watch Randi Kaye's full report » Rasch showed Kaye the tracer program he used to help follow the e-mails from "Andy." "Trace Back does what it says -- traces the route that the e-mail took on its way from its origin to the destination," Rasch said. Rasch says police got the Internet protocol address for the e-mailer's computer. From there, investigators tracked down the company providing Internet service to the suspect, which told them that the subscriber lived in a Quincy apartment building, outside Boston. Even though police had what they believed was the killer's real name and home address, that still was not enough, Kaye reports. "They have to validate and actually get this guy's fingers on the keyboard," Rasch said. "So in the end, they reverted to the old gumshoe thing of a stakeout." Police zeroed in on Markoff. They'd seen a tall, blond male they believed was the killer on the hotel surveillance cameras. And they did what many people do on a daily basis -- they Googled him. Police learned their prime suspect was a medical student at Boston University. He was engaged to be married. Again, the Internet helped. They got a better look at him through pictures with his fiancee online. It's a piece of a digital trail criminals rarely think about, Kaye reported. "As one of the law enforcement people told me, if you can see it, they can see it," Orth said. Markoff's cyber footprint was growing more clear to authorities every day. On April 20, six days after Brisman's slaying, detectives arrested him. They said he was carrying on him a New York driver's license with a photo of someone named Andrew or Andy Miller. Police say Markoff | [
"who used a tracer program",
"How long did it take them to track down the suspect?",
"What did Mark Rasch say?",
"who was a medical student",
"What did Boston investigators use?",
"What did internet expert say?"
] | [
[
"Rasch"
],
[
"six days"
],
[
"\"The first thing you start with was the e-mail address. In this case, it's an e-mail address from Live.com, which is Microsoft,\""
],
[
"Philip Markoff,"
],
[
"high-tech sleuthing"
],
[
"\"The first thing you start with was the e-mail address. In this case, it's an e-mail address from Live.com, which is Microsoft,\""
]
] | Internet expert: Craigslist slaying suspect left a trail of clues behind in cyberspace .
Mark Rasch says he used a tracer program on e-mail sent to slaying victim .
Boston investigators even used a Google search to help track down suspect .
Philip Markoff, a medical student, pleaded not guilty in death of Julissa Brisman . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN/IN Session) -- A German man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and passed himself off for years as a member of the moneyed clan was sentenced Friday to four to five years in prison for kidnapping his daughter. The man who said he was Clark Rockefeller actually is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Earlier in the day, a jury of eight women and four men found Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter, 48, guilty of the kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Judge Frank M. Gaziano noted that Gerhartsreiter showed little regard for the impact his actions had on his former wife and daughter. He said he also considered the defendant's long history of deceptive and manipulative behavior, including the use of multiple aliases. Gerhartsreiter already has spent a year in jail, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could spend just another year or two in prison. Gerhartstreiter, who was born in Germany and is in the U.S. illegally, faces removal by immigration authorities when he completes his sentence. In addition, his lawyer said, authorities in Los Angeles, California, have convened a grand jury to investigate his possible role in the 1985 deaths of a couple who rented a carriage house to him. The defendant stared straight ahead as the judge announced the sentence. He was equally impassive when the jury returned its verdicts. Watch the verdict » The jury rejected Gerhartsreiter's insanity defense, but found him not guilty of two lesser charges after deliberating for 26½ hours over five days. He faces up to 15 years in prison. A sentencing hearing was set to begin at 2 p.m. ET. "Today the victims in this case have some sense of justice, I hope," said Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley "We are very happy with today's verdict. We're very happy with the jury." After announcing the verdict, all 12 jurors returned to the courtroom and delivered a prepared statement. "This was a complicated case, and not as clear-cut as it might have seemed to those who followed it in the media," the jurors' statement said "We are confident that our verdict is fair and just, and based only on the information we were legally allowed to consider," it continued. "Our verdict is a unanimous one, as the law requires, and all of us stand by the verdict completely. " The jurors said the terse statement was their final word on the case. They did not take questions. The case has attracted international attention because of the defendant's bogus claim to be related to the Rockefellers, one of America's wealthiest families. He fooled even his wife of 12 years, who said on the witness stand that she had "a blind spot" for a man who charmed her, then controlled her and bullied her. Prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter came to the United States from Germany in 1978 as a student. They said he is a con man who has been telling fanciful tales and misrepresenting himself ever since. The defense said he has long suffered from mental illness that boiled over into insanity when he abducted his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last summer. The jury heard closing arguments and legal instructions before retiring for deliberation Monday. "This is not a man playing with a full deck," said Jeffrey Denner, one of two lawyers who gave closing arguments for the defense. According to testimony from defense experts, Gerhartsreiter believed his daughter was in danger. He also believed they could communicate telepathically and shared a secret language. "You see him descending into madness," Denner said. "You see completely irrational action that other people are buying because of the name Rockefeller and the appearance, the veneer, of respectability with a powerful wife." The defense called two experts who, he said, spent 28 hours with the defendant before diagnosing him as having a narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions. Prosecutor David Deakin called the insanity diagnosis "preposterous." He argued, "This is not a case about madness. It's a case about manipulation." He described | [
"What number of hours did the jury deliberate?",
"How long does the man face in prison?",
"What number of women rejected the insanity defense?",
"how long did the jury deliberate for",
"How long did the jury deliberate?",
"what prison sentence does he face",
"How many women reject the insanity defense?"
] | [
[
"26½"
],
[
"four to five years"
],
[
"eight"
],
[
"26½ hours over five days."
],
[
"26½ hours over five days."
],
[
"four to five years in"
],
[
"eight"
]
] | Jury deliberated for 26½ hours over five days returning guilty verdicts .
Eight women, four men on jury reject insanity defense .
Man who said he was a Rockefeller faces 15 years in prison .
Ex-wife, Sandra Boss, testified for the prosecution . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN/In Session) -- She earned $1 million a year as a high-powered financial executive, yet she told a jury she woke up hungry in a cold house because her husband controlled everything. Sandra Boss testifies about the 12 years she spent with a man she thought was one of the Rockefellers. She said it took years to leave the man who told her he was a member of the moneyed Rockefeller clan because she didn't know the online passwords to their bank accounts. Being the breadwinner offered her no status in her marriage, Sandra Lynn Boss, 42, testified Tuesday at her former husband's kidnapping trial. "You mistakenly confuse money and power. Money and power are not the same thing in a relationship," she explained under cross-examination by her former husband's defense attorney, Jeffrey Denner, who at times seemed stunned by her answers. The lawyer asked Boss why she didn't assert herself given that she was a "dynamic, intelligent woman" who financially supported the family. She responded, "I did assert myself but the abuse was pretty rough. There was a lot of anger and yelling." Watch how she felt powerless to leave » She said she believed the fanciful stories her husband wove around his image as Clark Rockefeller and never saw any sign of mental illness. Denner asked how a successful businesswoman who was educated at Stanford and Harvard universities could fall for an impostor who called himself Clark Rockefeller. "There's a big difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence," Boss explained. "I'm not saying I made a very good choice of a husband. It's obvious I had a pretty big blind spot." Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, is accused of kidnapping their daughter, Reigh, for six days in July and taking the child to Baltimore, Maryland, where he'd bought a townhouse near the harbor. His trial began last week in Boston, Massachusetts. In her second day on the stand, Boss described the decline of a 12-year marriage that began with a whirlwind summer romance before her second year at Harvard business school. By the time her marriage ended, she said, "My personal life was scary." She repeatedly referred to her 48-year-old ex-husband as "the defendant." Defense attorney Denner referred to his client as "Clark" during questioning. Boss, who now lives in London, England, with Reigh, 8, publicly told her story for the first time on the witness stand. She has been excoriated in the media. One New York writer called her a "ding-bat doormat" who married a "Crockefeller." It's more complicated than that, Boss explained under cross-examination. "He told compelling stories. It seems stupid in hindsight, and it really was, but that is how it was. ... I lived with a person who told me a set of internally consistent things." And so, she never questioned why he never seemed to make any money, possess a driver's license, or bring any family around. She had no doubt he had a billion-dollar art collection, even if she was annoyed he would refuse to sell off a piece or two when money got tight. She was questioned at length about one particularly bizarre story he told. He said a fall down some stairs left him mute as a child -- until he saw a dog and spontaneously uttered "woofness" at age 10. She did acknowledge on the stand that she considered "woofness" to be a "stupid word." And, she said she didn't question him when he told her that asking people to pay him for work he did was beneath the dignity of a Rockefeller. She initiated divorce proceedings after hiring a private investigator in 2006, who determined that her husband definitely was not who he said he was. He agreed to part, surrendering custody of their daughter for $800,000, two cars, her engagement ring and a dress he had given her. On July | [
"What is imposter accused of?",
"What accusations were brought against her former husband?",
"Who had trouble leaving Rockefeller impostor?",
"What is the impostor accused of?",
"What is the name of the woman highlighted in this story?",
"What did Sandra Boss say he was?"
] | [
[
"kidnapping"
],
[
"kidnapping their daughter, Reigh,"
],
[
"Sandra Boss"
],
[
"of kidnapping their daughter, Reigh,"
],
[
"Sandra Boss"
],
[
"one of the Rockefellers."
]
] | Ex-wife says she had trouble leaving Rockefeller impostor .
Sandra Boss says he was controlling, abusive .
She says she didn't consider him mentally ill .
Impostor is accused of kidnapping his daughter in July . |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN/In Session) -- The former wife of a man accused of kidnapping their daughter told a jury Monday about the unraveling of her 12-year marriage to a man she thought was a member of the moneyed Rockefeller family. Sandra Boss testifies about the 12 years she spent with a man she thought was one of the Rockefellers. Financial consultant Sandra Lynn Boss, 42, was stone-faced and repeatedly referred to her former husband as "the defendant" as she took the witness stand Monday at his kidnapping trial. She now lives in London, England, with the girl, Reigh, who just turned 8. Her former husband, German-born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 48, is accused of kidnapping their daughter in July, and taking the child to Baltimore, Maryland, where he'd bought a townhouse near the harbor. His trial began last week in Boston, Massachusetts. Gerhartsreiter is charged with the kidnapping of a minor by a relative, assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon and furnishing a false name to a law enforcement officer. His defense attorneys told jurors they will present evidence that Gerhartsreiter was mentally ill. As she began the narrative of their whirlwind romance and 12-year marriage, Boss described how she was charmed by a handsome stranger she knew as Clark Rockefeller, who was host of a party based on the mystery game Clue. Boss testified that she came to the party dressed as the character "Miss Scarlet" and fell for him immediately during the summer of 1993, when she was a student at Harvard's business school. "I thought he was very attractive," she testified. "He was very well dressed, very fit. I thought he was very polite and could talk about anything, and also very charming." She told jurors that the man she married in 1995 told her he grew up in a townhouse on Manhattan's prestigious Sutton Place, that he had suffered amnesia and couldn't speak after falling down a flight of stairs as a child, and that his parents had been killed in an accident when he was in college. He also said he attended Yale University under an early admissions program when he was 14 and helped foreign governments renegotiate their debt. She believed it, she said, because "he was one of the most intelligent people" she'd met. Boss said he proposed to her during the spring of 1994, during a trip to Maine. They were married in a Quaker ceremony on Nantucket soon after she graduated from business school. Only eight people attended -- and not a single Rockefeller. Her new husband explained that he'd had a falling out with his family. The newlyweds set up housekeeping in New York. During the early days of their marriage, she said, her husband was very supportive, but his demeanor soon changed. He became possessive and controlling, she said. Later, he "began to show temper," she said. "He wanted to walk me to and from work every day. He began to be less supportive of my seeing my friends," she said. His criticism of her friends left her confused and in tears, she said. By early 1996, she said, "It became a very stressful relationship from my point of view." The couple moved to Nantucket, then to Woodstock, Vermont, then back to Nantucket before buying a house in Cornish, New Hampshire. The marriage did not improve. By the summer of 2000, Boss said she was considering a separation. She spent more time in New York away from her husband, but he wooed her back. In September, Boss learned she was pregnant and vowed to work at the marriage for the sake of their child. Their daughter, Reigh, was born in May 2001. After hiring two nannies, Gerhartsreiter said he could do a better job and became the primary caretaker. In September 2004, Boss transferred to her company's Boston office to cut her commute time so she could spend more time with Reigh. The marriage ultimately fell apart and the couple separated in January 2007. | [
"When was the kidnap took place?",
"Who was the impostor accused of kidnapping?",
"Who did the impostor impersonate?",
"Who accused of kidnapping?",
"Who was accused?"
] | [
[
"in July,"
],
[
"Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter,"
],
[
"member of the moneyed Rockefeller family."
],
[
"Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter,"
],
[
"Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter,"
]
] | Ex-wife testifies at kidnapping trial of Rockefeller impostor .
Sandra Boss says she was romanced by handsome stranger .
Later, she says, he became controlling and short-tempered .
Impostor is accused of kidnapping his daughter in July . |
BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- Blake Jones' business plan for his company, Namaste Solar Electric, was so unusual, he confounded a lot of business experts. Typical home solar systems cost about $12,000 up front, but supporters say they pay off in the long run. "We did have a lot of skeptical, raised eyebrows at the beginning," Jones said of his company, which installs solar power systems in Colorado. "We even have had business schools bring teams of MBA students to come to do a case study," he said. Outsiders were baffled by some of these company plans: • Environmental concerns would be a driving force in every aspect of the company. • Six weeks of paid time off. • A concept called FOH -- frank, open and honest -- to help eliminate gossip and grudges. • Employees, no matter what their job description, have the same pay scale. • One percent of yearly revenues goes to solar systems donated to community groups. • All major decisions would be made by consensus of all company employees. Jones had done a serious turnabout in his own career that inspired some of the unusual principles of Namaste. Namaste is a Sanskrit greeting meaning "to bow to you." The civil engineer spent five years working in the Middle East for Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, in the oil and gas industry. "But something in me realized there is something more. I didn't like the overdependence that we have on oil and gas. I think oil and gas, even coal are always going to be a very big part of our lives. But I think what we need to do, is we need a more balanced portfolio. I had a gradual awakening to wanting passionately to work with renewable energy because I thought there was a better way," Jones said. He moved from the Middle East to Nepal, where he spent three years installing solar and hydroelectric systems in remote areas. Although the clients and the mission are very different in Colorado, solar power is becoming a more popular long-term investment in the state. Jones picked a place where residents are open to doing things a different way. Boulder is tree-hugger heaven by anyone's standards. The city has lots of incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy. "There is more interest in solar in Boulder then anywhere else in Colorado. That's one example of how environmentally focused our community is," said Sarah Vanpelt, environmental sustainability coordinator for the city. In 2004, Colorado voters approved state incentives for the use of alternative energy. "And Boulder provides a rebate on a portion of the sales and use tax that property owners pay to purchase and install a system, and we use those funds to provide grants to nonprofits to install solar on affordable housing, low-income housing, and on nonprofit facilities," Vanpelt said. "So I think we will continue to see growth in the green industry and in renewable energy, both solar and wind," she said. Namaste is in the process of remodeling a 15,000-square-foot warehouse for its offices. Watch more about the unique project » And it is doing it to the highest of green building standards, the LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. That involves everything from the use of natural light to the recycling of building materials to the access to the building by public transportation. And yes, all the building's electricity will be provided by a solar system Namaste installs. Most of the panels will be on the roof, but there will also be a solar awning. Construction manager Marc Smerekanicz did some of his own head-scratching with some of the requests to meet LEED standards. "Thinking in a different way than what I was brought up to think of as the construction process, that's the way of the future," Smerekanicz said. For some customers, it is rising energy prices as much as concern for the environment that is prompting them to consider solar power for their | [
"What is the name of Blake Jones' business?",
"What is the cost of a home solar system?",
"What is Blake Jones developing?",
"What city offers rebates?",
"where are grants for home solar power systems offered?",
"What does the residential solar system cost?",
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] | [
[
"Namaste Solar Electric,"
],
[
"about $12,000"
],
[
"home solar systems"
],
[
"BOULDER, Colorado"
],
[
"Colorado."
],
[
"$12,000"
],
[
"Blake Jones'"
]
] | Businessman Blake Jones seeks to develop renewable energy sources .
Jones' passion for solar sparked a radical career shift during time in Mideast .
Home solar system costs $12,000, but Jones says it pays off in long run .
Boulder, Colorado, offers rebates, grants for home solar power systems . |
BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- What happens when business and government turn their collective back on a town and just walk away? Braddock, Pennsylvania, is what happens.
Braddock, Pennsylvania, has suffered since the steel mills went out of business in the 1970s and 1980s.
When steel was king, the population of Braddock surged to more than 20,000 people. With its proximity to Pittsburgh and its location on the Monongahela River, it was an ideal location for a steel town.
When steel mills began closing in the 1970s and 1980s, Braddock was not immune. In 1982, Braddock's main mill, the Carrie Furnace, closed its doors, putting thousands of people out of work.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, residents left the town seeking work in other parts of Pennsylvania. The 2000 census put the population of Braddock at 2,900, but it has dropped further, according to residents.
Home prices have plummeted and real estate is as inexpensive as $6,000 for a single-family house. Historic pictures show a polished downtown and a bustling community. Now, most businesses have closed their doors, leaving only a handful to serve the community.
A drive down Braddock Avenue, the main street, indicates the town has seen the bottom. The avenue is lined with crumbling offices and stores, boarded windows and empty lots where buildings once stood.
But there is hope in the town. In 2005, Braddock elected John Fetterman by one vote as its mayor. He is originally from York, Pennsylvania, and has lived in the area of Braddock for eight years. He has an MBA from Harvard and started a program that helped dislocated youth from the area receive their high school equivalency degrees.
At 6 feet 8 inches and 325 pounds, he is an imposing figure. He chooses to dress in Dr Martens boots, baggy jeans and Dickies short-sleeved shirts because he feels he is able to connect with the people better dressed that way. He shaves his head and has a goatee.
Possibly the most intimidating aspects of Fetterman's appearance are his tattoos, clearly visible on his forearms, including the numbers 15104, the town's ZIP code. Watch as the mayor talks about his revitalization plan »
When asked if he thinks the town is at rock bottom, Fetterman replies, "I don't believe that it's the bottom in the sense that this is a bad place. This is what can happen when you turn your back on a community."
Since he was elected, Fetterman has made it his mission to give Braddock a prosperous future. He has given incentives to businesses to relocate to his town. The main incentive is large manufacturing space at a fraction of the cost in a normal market.
A company that converts diesel engines into vegetable-oil burning engines, Fossil Free Fuel, relocated to Braddock from Allen, Pennsylvania.
"The initial building was about 14,000 square feet and supposedly the asking price was $25,000. And we were like how do you get so much space for so little money?" said David Rosenstraus, one of the owners of Fossil Free Fuel. "I think for a very small business like us, not having very much capital to work with building a shop, and investments going into tools and things inside the shop, [we] would be spread thin if we had to pay a lot for the actual building."
On the site where the Carrie Furnace steel mill building still stands, the county plans to convert the contaminated land into commercial and residential space.
Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato is driving this plan, "We don't look at this like a liability. We see some potential here. We can take back 147 acres, take back the riverfront and make this a viable spot again. But you have to invest public money into the infrastructure to make that happen. It won't happen on its own. For example, this place closed 25 years ago, it's still here. The public sector has to come in and invest."
Braddock still has many obstacles to overcome, but Fetterman believes that it's | [
"What incentives are being offered for return to Braddock?",
"Thousands of people did what after the mill shut down?",
"Which town in Pennsylvania thrived in the steel industry?"
] | [
[
"large manufacturing space at a fraction of the cost in a normal market."
],
[
"residents left the town seeking work"
],
[
"Braddock,"
]
] | Braddock, Pennsylvania, thrived as a steel town .
Thousands of people left after mills shut down .
Mayor trying to use incentives to bring business back to area .
Real estate prices are incredibly low, enticing some to move to town . |
BRASILIA, Brazil (CNN) -- A doctor excommunicated by the Catholic Church for performing an abortion on a 9-year-old rape victim received a standing ovation during a national convention on women's health, according to a local media report. Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho excommunicated the doctors who performed the child's abortion. The response came during the opening ceremony of an event hosted by Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Gomes Temporao. The newspaper O Povo reported that Temporao called on the audience to acknowledge the "brilliant" work done by a medical team in the abortion, performed in Brazil's northeastern city of Recife. The girl was pregnant with twins after being raped, allegedly by her stepfather, police were quoted in media reports as saying. The abuse had gone on since the girl was 6, authorities said. The abortion was performed March 4 during the fourth month of pregnancy, according to media reports Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife excommunicated the doctor, the child's mother and the medical team involved in the procedure. However, the stepfather was not excommunicated, with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, "A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life." The child was not excommunicated, Sobrinho said, because Catholic Church law says minors are exempt from excommunication. "The church is benevolent when it comes to minors," he told Globo TV. "As for the adults, especially those who approved it, performed this abortion, the excommunication is applicable." "God's law is above human laws," Sobrinho said. The case has outraged the Brazilian public and fueled a controversy reaching the highest levels of church and state in a nation whose law bans abortion except in cases of rape. Temporao recently said doctors must put law before religion. "The question posed is very simple. There is a Brazilian law which states that a pregnancy can be interrupted in case of rape," Temporao said. "It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but these dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole," he added. Earlier, a verbal spat ensued between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the archbishop over the church's decision. "As a Christian and a Catholic, I find it deeply lamentable that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude," Lula said on Globo TV. "In this case, the medical profession was more right than the church," he said. Meanwhile, a Vatican cleric told Italy's La Stampa newspaper that he supports the Brazilian archbishop's decision to excommunicate all involved in the abortion except for the child. Dr. Olimpio Moraes, one of the doctors involved in the procedure, said he thanked the archbishop for his excommunication because the controversy sheds light on Brazil's restrictive abortion laws. He said women in Brazil's countryside are victimized by Brazil's ban on abortion. Some of the doctors vowed to continue attending church services, despite being expelled. "The fact that I was excommunicated will not keep me from going to Mass, praying, conversing with God, and asking him to illuminate me and my colleagues in our medical team to help us take care of people in similar cases," one doctor said. TV Globo reported that the child, who is from a town outside Recife, has stayed in the city to recover and to escape media coverage. Her current condition is not known. A new report by Brazil's IPAS, a non-governmental organization that works with the health ministry, indicates that more than 1 million women undergo illegal abortions in Brazil each year. About 250,000 are treated by doctors for traumas due to botched abortions, said Beatriz Jalli, an IPAS official. Studies at a Brazilian hospital dedicated to treating female victims of violence, the Perola Byington in Sao Paulo, indicated that more than 40 percent of the cases involved children. "This is why the Recife case is so important for women in Brazil," Jalli said. Jalli said the liberated "Girl from Ipanema" image | [
"Who did the Catholic Church excommunicate?",
"What was the response of the Catholic Church?",
"What does the Brazilian law ban?",
"What is the law on abortion in Brazil?",
"What doctor performed an abortion on a young rape victim?",
"Who did the doctor perform an abortion on?",
"What does Brazilian law say about abortion?",
"Who excommunicated the doctor?",
"Who was praised at the event?"
] | [
[
"doctor"
],
[
"excommunicated the doctors who performed the child's abortion."
],
[
"abortion except in cases of rape."
],
[
"except in cases of rape."
],
[
"Dr. Olimpio Moraes,"
],
[
"a 9-year-old rape victim"
],
[
"except in cases of rape."
],
[
"Catholic Church"
],
[
"A doctor excommunicated by the Catholic Church"
]
] | Report: Doctor who performed abortion on child rape victim praised at event .
Brazilian law bans abortion except in cases of rape .
Catholic Church excommunicated doctor, along with child's mother, medical team .
Archbishop says child was not excommunicated . |
BREMEN, Germany -- Carlos Alberto, who scored in FC Porto's Champions League final victory against Monaco in 2004, has joined Bundesliga club Werder Bremen for a club record fee of 7.8 million euros ($10.7 million).
Carlos Alberto enjoyed success at FC Porto under Jose Mourinho.
"I'm here to win titles with Werder," the 22-year-old said after his first training session with his new club. "I like Bremen and would only have wanted to come here."
Carlos Alberto started his career with Fluminense, and helped them to lift the Campeonato Carioca in 2002.
In January 2004 he moved on to FC Porto, who were coached by José Mourinho, and the club won the Portuguese title as well as the Champions League.
Early in 2005, he moved to Corinthians, where he impressed as they won the Brasileirão,but in 2006 Corinthians had a poor season and Carlos Alberto found himself at odds with manager, Emerson Leão.
Their poor relationship came to a climax at a Copa Sul-Americana game against Club Atlético Lanús, and Carlos Alberto declared that he would not play for Corinthians again while Leão remained as manager.
Since January this year he has been on loan with his first club Fluminense.
Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart said on Sunday that they would sign a loan agreement with Real Zaragoza on Monday for Ewerthon, the third top Brazilian player to join the German league in three days.
A VfB spokesman said Ewerthon, who played in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund from 2001 to 2005, was expected to join the club for their pre-season training in Austria on Monday.
On Friday, Ailton returned to Germany where he was the league's top scorer in 2004, signing a one-year deal with Duisburg on a transfer from Red Star Belgrade. E-mail to a friend | [
"What club bought Carlos Alberto?",
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] | [
[
"Werder Bremen"
],
[
"to win titles"
],
[
"Bundesliga club Werder Bremen"
],
[
"FC Porto"
],
[
"2004,"
],
[
"7.8 million euros"
],
[
"Borussia Dortmund"
],
[
"7.8 million euros ($10.7 million)."
],
[
"Werder Bremen"
],
[
"Fluminense."
],
[
"Portuguese title as well as the Champions League."
],
[
"Werder Bremen"
],
[
"Werder Bremen"
],
[
"January this year"
],
[
"Bundesliga club Werder Bremen"
],
[
"FC Porto"
],
[
"Carlos Alberto,"
],
[
"Carlos Alberto,"
],
[
"the Portuguese title as well as the Champions League."
],
[
"in 2004,"
],
[
"7.8 million euros"
],
[
"on loan with his first club Fluminense."
]
] | Werder Bremen pay a club record $10.7 million for Carlos Alberto .
The Brazilian midfielder won the Champions League with FC Porto in 2004 .
Since January he has been on loan with his first club, Fluminense . |
BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Seth Barrett really enjoys his work. "I love the variety of projects," he says. "I love a new puzzle every day." Seth Barrett is surrounded by scores of projects in his shop, "Village Green Renewal." He's at his workbench, chisel in hand, shaving bits of wood from one of several chairs brought into his repair shop by a customer. "She asked me to give them some attention and get them to stay together," Barrett says. His shop, "Village Green Renewal," will fix almost anything that can fit in the front door, as long as it doesn't require any kind of special licensing or permits. Barrett hopes that by getting people to repair items instead of replacing them with new ones, it will mean less trash heading for the landfill. "The aim of the business is really about bringing back a traditional approach to conservation," says Barrett, "because, clearly, the single best way to be green is to re-use the things that we already have." Watch Barrett in his shop » His small shop is tucked into a corner of a building in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston. Old glass doorknobs, brass curtain rings and even a 1930s stove are some of the many functional and non-functional items that decorate the walls, cases and every corner. From his workbench, Barrett has a clear view of the pedestrians who pass by. "Everybody who walks past the window smiles, without fail," he says, and customers seem to be responding to this unique and somewhat old-fashioned business. "I think people are really excited too about the prospect of being able to repair these things that have been sitting in their basement forever that were once really special to them, and are, now, almost a sore spot, because it's just getting dusty and getting no attention." A customer enters. "I found another chair for you," says Beth Harris, hoisting a black and white chair into the shop. She has an old house and if she's not bringing in a set of chairs that need mending, she might be in looking for an unusual hardware item that Barrett probably has. "It's great to have a resource that's right in the neighborhood," Harris says. Toasters, chairs and lamps are some of the things Barrett commonly fixes. But, occasionally, an odd item like a fancy purse or an old typewriter comes in. "The more interesting the item is, the more time I'll spend on it off the clock," Barrett says. If he's really intrigued by the repair, he says, "I sit and keep playing with this thing because it's cool." What would be the most unusual request? "The pigs win it, hands down," Barrett says, referring to a pair of leather pigs that needed some serious stitching up. He worked on them for many more hours than he actually billed because he enjoyed figuring out how to do it. Besides, as Barrett points out, "How often do you see two giant leather pigs?" For years, Barrett worked in large construction projects, renovating houses and building additions, but there was something about it that bothered him. "I've always been made upset by all the bits of construction that go in the trash, and all the interesting stuff is overlooked because it takes time," he says. "Large-scale construction is fraught with tremendous waste and no time to attention and beauty." That's what draws him to these small, simple projects -- not only is he providing a service, but he also is an integral part of the community he grew up in, his home being about 700 feet away from the shop. Barrett feels a bond with many of his customers, because every item that comes in has a story that comes with it, and he's more than happy to hear that story. He enjoys | [
"What is Village Green Renewal's goal?",
"What example of an odd item is given?",
"What kind of odd items are brought in?",
"What will repairing items result in less of?",
"What does the shop owner say?",
"What does Village Green Renewal do to items that are brought in?"
] | [
[
"fix almost anything that can fit in the front door,"
],
[
"old typewriter"
],
[
"chairs"
],
[
"trash heading for the landfill."
],
[
"\"I love the variety of projects,\""
],
[
"will fix almost anything"
]
] | "Village Green Renewal" aims to fix most anything that is brought in .
Shop owner says repairing items will result in less junk for landfills .
Every once in a while, odd items -- like leather pigs -- are brought in .
Items that arrive at the shop are often accompanied by a story . |
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minnesota (CNN) -- Thousands of Liberians living in the United States face deportation March 31 when a federal immigration status created for humanitarian purposes expires.
Corvah Akoiwala is worried about what will happen to his children, born in the U.S., when he is sent to Liberia.
In the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation, killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to a U.N. report. The United States extended "temporary protection status" to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took advantage of that humanitarian offer.
Temporary protection status is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster.
For years, the temporary protection status for Liberians was extended as the situation there worsened under dictator Charles Taylor. But Taylor was ousted in 2003 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected Liberia's first female president in 2006. In 2007, citing the progress in Liberia, President George W. Bush signed an order of "delayed enforced departure" for Liberians who had been under temporary protection status, giving them 18 months to return to Liberia. Watch more on the uncertainty of Liberians living in U.S. »
Corvah Akoiwala, a Liberian national who was fresh out of college when civil war broke out, remembers how it used to be there. "They dragged us from our homes, they were shooting all around us. They said they were going to have us killed," he said
"On Tupero Road they had a killing field. Like every day they took someone to this field and they would just shoot them in front of everybody. It was just terrible," he said. He came to the United States in 1992 and settled in Rhode Island. A civil engineer by education, Akoiwala married and had three children, all of whom are American citizens.
For the past 17 years he's worked, paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He and his wife were granted temporary protection status but now both face deportation. On March 31 they will go from being legal residents to illegal aliens.
"My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?" he said. "Who am I going to leave them with? I want to stay here and see them grow up to be responsible citizens and then I can go back."
The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said approximately 3,600 Liberian nationals are facing delayed enforced departure, but Liberian community leaders think the number may be twice that because, they said, many Liberians went underground and did not reregister with immigration services, knowing the delayed enforced departure status meant leaving the country.
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, about an hour north of Minneapolis, has a thriving Liberian community. Many now worry about losing their jobs, homes and businesses.
Seyondi Roberts, a hairdresser, said 65 percent of her customers are Liberians facing delayed enforced departure.
"We're praying that they don't send them back. But if they do, it will have a serious effect on the business. I do mainly African hair, so it's going to have a real big, big impact on the business," she said.
Aba Hamilton Dolo also lives in the Brooklyn Center area and is slated for departure. She said she has nightmares and panic attacks at the prospect of being separated from her two young American-born children. "Please consider what would happen to our families if we were sent home," she begs. Dolo: 'I have nightmares' »
"Many of these Liberians have become important parts of the communities where they live in the United States," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island. There is a large Liberian community in his home state.
"They have children who are citizens of the U.S.," he noted. "How do you leave children behind who are eligible to stay? They've worked very hard, they've played by | [
"What is their fear?",
"When do Liberians have to return home?",
"How many are affected?",
"how many liberias took advantage of U.S?"
] | [
[
"who am I going to leave my kids with?\""
],
[
"March 31"
],
[
"Thousands"
],
[
"14,000"
]
] | 14,000 Liberians took advantage of U.S. temporary status during civil war .
Liberians have to return home when status exemption expires March 31 .
Corvah Akoiwala: "My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?"
Sen. Jack Reed pushing for extension to allow Liberians to stay . |
BROOKLYN, New York (CNN) -- Every Friday evening, the Nunez family sits down to a traditional religious dinner. Moshe Nunez and his family moved to Crown Heights, a New York neighborhood with thousands of Hasidic Jews. Like most families in their Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, their Jewish Sabbath meal includes blessings over the wine and bread, the company of family and friends and excellent food. But for the Nunez family, the Sabbath table would not be complete without salsa picada and jalapeno dip. Moshe Nunez, an information technology consultant and motivational speaker, was born to a Mexican father and American mother and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. His wife, ChanaLeah, grew up in Panama, the daughter of a Salvadoran mother and American-born father. "Our home is a Latin American home," Nunez says. "We bring into our home a mixture of the American and Latin culture, and that's reflected in the way we eat. We also enjoy hosting guests, so it's a very Hispanic thing, and a Jewish thing." The couple and their two children moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights area about five years ago so their son, Michael, 17, and daughter, Simcha, 18, could have "the best Jewish education available," Nunez says. Crown Heights is the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism that is itself a form of Orthodox Judaism. Among the thousands of Hasidic families in the neighborhood, a significant number are also Latinos, Nunez says. "There are a lot of Latin American Jews here," Nunez says. "Some of them have moved from countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, where there's political unrest. We make a life here, settle down and become part of the fabric of American society, but we still don't lose our roots." Join the conversation: How has America changed Latinos? Many non-Jewish Latinos are surprised to see Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn who speak Spanish, carry on their Hispanic traditions and even keep up with soccer scores from their home countries, Nunez says. Although Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez were raised in Christian homes, they believe that Moshe's family name is proof that his ancestors are Marranos -- Jews who were forced to denounce or abandon their faith centuries ago in Europe. Moshe Nunez began studying his family genealogy about 13 years ago, while the family was living in Atlanta, Georgia. He met Lorraine Nunez, a woman raised as a Christian who believed she was a direct descendant of Samuel Nunez, a Portuguese physician who fled Europe in the early 1700s to help start one of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the United States, Congregation Mikve Israel in Savannah, Georgia. Like other Marranos living in Europe, Samuel Nunez pretended to be Catholic and practiced Judaism in secret, according to Chabad.org, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Web site. Meeting Lorraine Nunez inspired Moshe Nunez -- who was still going by his Christian name, Marco -- to further explore his own genealogy. ChanaLeah -- who was going by her Christian name, Jacqueline -- had already known that her grandfather, a well-known army colonel in El Salvador, was Jewish. Like many Jews of his time, he hid his Judaism and married a non-Jewish woman. Marco and Jacqueline believed that their descendants were also Marranos from Spain and Portugal who had to hide their Judaism for fear of persecution. "The Nunez family started as a Jewish name," Moshe Nunez says. "During the Inquisition they were forced to convert or practice their faith in secret. Most of the Nunez family... like mine assimilated and lost their Judaism." Watch Nunez talk about his life in Crown Heights » While researching his genealogy, Moshe Nunez also began to study the Bible more closely, including the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. "When I began studying the Torah, I saw that the Sabbath was on Saturday and not Sunday," he says. "That opened [a] Pandora's Box," | [
"What religion did Nunez and his wife convert to?",
"Once the Nunez couple converted to Judaism, where in New York did they move to?",
"What cultures do the couple and their children blend in their lives?",
"Which two cultures does the family blend in their lives?",
"In what sort of homes were Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez raised?",
"What two cultures do the Nunez family blend into their lives?",
"What type of Jews are Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez?",
"Where did Nunez and his wife move after converting?"
] | [
[
"Hasidic Jews."
],
[
"Brooklyn's Crown Heights"
],
[
"American"
],
[
"American and Latin"
],
[
"Crown Heights,"
],
[
"American and Latin"
],
[
"Hasidic"
],
[
"Crown Heights,"
]
] | Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez are Latino Jews who were raised in Christian homes .
Nunez believes he is a decendant of Jews who left oppression in medieval Europe .
He and his wife converted to Judaism and moved to a Hasidic New York area .
The couple and their children blend Latino and Jewish culture in their lives . |
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- Hurricane Dolly weakened to a tropical storm Wednesday night after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, leaving a trail of battered buildings and flooding. Police patrol the streets of South Padre Island, Texas, on Wednesday as Hurricane Dolly approaches. By 9 p.m. CT, Dolly's sustained winds had dipped to about 70 mph with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. A Category 1 hurricane has winds of at least 75 mph. A tropical storm warning remained in effect from Brownsville to Port Aransas, Texas. Tropical storm warnings for other areas were lifted. The eye of the storm made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on South Padre Island, Texas, about 1 p.m. CT, tearing roofs off homes, flooding streets and sending residents scrambling for safety from wind gusts reaching 120 mph. By 2 p.m., the hurricane was downgraded to Category 1, but in many areas along the southwest coastal region, the damage was already done. Watch CNN's Gary Tuchman brace against Dolly's high winds » At least one person was injured as sustained winds up to 100 mph downed power lines and tore observation decks off homes and condos, CNN affiliate KPRC reported. A 17-year-old fell from a seventh-story balcony, sustaining head injuries, a broken leg and a broken hip. He is alert and receiving treatment on the island while authorities wait for the first opportunity to get him to the mainland, KPRC reported. "When we heard the first bang, I thought it was one of the air conditioners flying," said Jacqueline Bell, who lives on South Padre Island. "Then we went outside, and we saw the debris, and we saw the neighbors leaving." CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said persistent rainfall could cause flooding upstream in the Rio Grande as long as the storm stalled over the mountains of Mexico. Watch Myers explain the threat of flooding upriver » Myers said it could take two days for the rainwater to flow upstream and challenge the natural levees, which were holding for now. "The levees are holding up just fine," said Johnny Cavazos, emergency coordinator for Cameron County, The Associated Press reported. "There is no indication right now that they are going to crest." Even before Dolly made landfall, driving rain and wind gusts from its outer rings flooded streets and threatened to pour into homes while wind gusts shattered windows on the island popular with tourists. The 2,400 residents began bracing for the storm Tuesday night, when strong winds forced the closure of South Padre Island's causeway to the mainland. Officials said the causeway is closed any time winds reach 39 mph. Some chose to remain on the island and wait out the storm. Steven Murphy took shelter with his girlfriend in his 65-foot double-decker fishing boat, Murphy's Law, and hoped for the best. Read about why Murphy decided to wait out the storm Murphy, who owns a charter fishing company with his brother on the island, lived through a more powerful hurricane, where he saw boats bigger than his tossed onto land. "I had nightmares about that last night," he said from his boat Wednesday. He said the wind outside sounded like a tornado and added that he'd seen several items blow past the windows of his vessel. "It's starting to tear it up real good," Murphy said. See images and videos from affected areas » On the mainland, people in the path of the storm stacked sandbags around their homes, nailed plywood over windows and prepared generators to keep power going in the event of a blackout. iReport.com: Are you in Dolly's path? Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said that the storm downed trees and dumped 6 to 8 inches of rain but that emergency workers were ready to respond once the wind and rain died down. Ahumada said reports that the city's levees are in danger of breaching were exaggerated. Watch Mayor Ahumada explain the situation on the ground » He said it would take 20 inches of rain to top nearly all | [
"What persists as dolly weakens?",
"What is the storm called?",
"Where did the eye of the hurricane reach?",
"What time did the winds decrease?",
"What were the winds like by 2 p.m.?",
"what has the eye reached?",
"what tore the roofs?"
] | [
[
"rainfall"
],
[
"Hurricane Dolly"
],
[
"South Padre Island, Texas,"
],
[
"9 p.m."
],
[
"the hurricane was downgraded to Category 1,"
],
[
"South Padre Island, Texas,"
],
[
"Hurricane Dolly"
]
] | NEW: Rains persist as Dolly weakens to tropical storm .
Heavy rains and winds tore roofs off homes, flooded streets earlier in the day .
Eye of the hurricane reached South Padre Island, Texas, about 1 p.m. CT .
By 2 p.m., sustained winds had decreased from 100 mph to 95 mph . |
BRUNSWICK, Georgia (CNN) -- Guy Heinze Jr., the son of one of the victims of last week's killings of eight people in a southeast Georgia mobile home, has been arrested on eight counts of first degree murder, police said Friday. Guy Heinze Jr. faces eight first degree murder charges related to a shooting at a Georgia mobile home. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant Friday evening for Heinze, 22, just hours after he had been freed from jail on charges of tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer, Glynn County, Georgia, Police Chief Matt Doering said. "I can assure you that this person is responsible," Doering said at a news conference Friday evening. The bodies were discovered last Saturday at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Seven died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. Doering refused to reveal how the victims were killed or the suspected motive. A 3-year-old who was injured struggles on life support at a Savannah hospital, her grandmother said. Heinze, who is unemployed, told police he was not home when the killings occurred. Watch sheriff describe attack as "the most heinous crime we've ever had in the community" » According to the earlier arrest warrant, Heinze provided "investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members." The arrest warrant also said he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. A man identified as Heinze reported the slayings. He told an emergency dispatcher when he called Saturday, "I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death." Listen to the 911 call » Seven of the eight victims will be buried Saturday, as a 3-year-old who was injured struggles to survive at a Savannah hospital. The toddler's grieving grandmother, Diane Isenhower, who lost four of her children in the rampage, said the child is on life support. Police said seven of the victims died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. The funeral for Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. For the other seven, viewing was scheduled for Friday night, and a funeral is to be held Saturday afternoon at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia. West was the boyfriend of Chrissy Toler, 22, who died along with her father, Russell D. Toler Sr., 44, and three siblings: Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; and Russell D. Toler Jr., 20. Michael Toler had Down syndrome. Russell Toler Sr. and Isenhower were divorced. Also killed were Guy Heinze Sr., 45 and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, police said. Clint Rowe, whose wife is Isenhower's sister, said the family was having trouble coping with the losses and noted that police, too, were affected. "They're the ones who walked in on that, so you know it wears on the police as well," he said. Referring to Isenhower, he added, "It has been a long week for her. She's lost all of her family, so naturally it would be." "They're just as nice as they could be," Rowe said of the victims. "Friendly folks. Down-to-earth folks." Watch Rowe talk about the killings » Russell Toler Sr., who worked at a nearby factory, was a generous man who allowed relatives facing financial and health problems to live with him. There were 10 people in the mobile home, and their combined salaries were low, Rowe said. Among them was Toler's sister, Falagan, who was in a wheelchair. Police have not said how the victims died, although autopsies were completed Monday. | [
"What is the number of counts that Warren lists against Heinze Jr.?",
"What is the age of Heinze?",
"When will the funeral for seven victims be held?",
"What did Heinze tell police?",
"What killings occured?"
] | [
[
"eight"
],
[
"22,"
],
[
"Saturday,"
],
[
"he was not home when the killings occurred."
],
[
"eight people in a southeast Georgia"
]
] | NEW: Warrant lists eight counts of first degree murder for Guy Heinze Jr.
Heinze told police he was not home when the killings occurred .
3-year-old injured in last week's attack at Georgia mobile home is on life support .
Funeral for seven victims will be held about Saturday . |
BRUNSWICK, Georgia (CNN) -- Seven of eight people killed last week in a southeast Georgia mobile home were laid to rest Saturday. The caskets were laid side by side for graveside ceremonies Saturday in Eulonia, Georgia. The funerals at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia, were held for Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Guy Heinze Sr., 45; and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. Police have arrested Guy Heinze Jr., the son of Guy Heinze Sr., on eight counts of first-degree murder. Seven caskets for the seven victims stood side by side for the burial under sunny skies at a nearby cemetery. More than 200 mourners attended the funeral, including William Heinze, father of one of the victims and grandfather of the man accused of the killings. "I've never seen so much love and support at a funeral," William Heinze told CNN affiliate WJXT. William Heinze also said he doubted that his grandson, Guy Heinze Jr., was responsible for the killings. "We want to know what really happened," he said. "The police may think they know what happened, but we want to really know the truth." Investigators obtained an arrest warrant Friday evening for Guy Heinze Jr., 22, just hours after he had been freed from jail on charges of tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer, Police Chief Matt Doering of Glynn County, Georgia said Friday. "I can assure you that this person is responsible," Doering said at a news conference Friday evening. The bodies were discovered a week ago at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Seven died in the mobile home, and the eighth died a day later at a hospital. The chief refused to reveal how the victims were killed or the suspected motive. A 3-year-old who was injured was on life support at a Savannah hospital, her grandmother said. A man identified as Guy Heinze Jr. reported the slayings. He told an emergency dispatcher when he called last Saturday, "I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death." Watch report on funerals and arrest from CNN's Sean Callebs » According to the first arrest warrant, Heinz provided "investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members." The arrest warrant also said he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. The killings have made people in the southeastern Georgia city of more than 16,000 uneasy, a waitress at a restaurant said. "There's still a lot of concern that that many deaths at one time can not have been done by one person," Lucinda Bennett, a waitress at the 4th of May Cafe, said. "There is still a little bit of nervousness in the area over whether they have got everyone that was involved with it." Linda Davis, who works at a barbershop in the city, said everyone is puzzled over the slayings. "You don't go in and kill eight people and nobody hears screams or shots or anything like that with trailers that close together," she said. CNN's Sean Callebs and Lee Garen contributed to this report. | [
"Is the injured three year old still alive?",
"Whats the name of the person charged with murder?",
"How many victims died?",
"How many people live in the city?",
"Who has been charged with murder?",
"Whats the poopulation of the city?",
"Who will be charged with murder?",
"How many people were killed?",
"How many if the victims were laid to rest?"
] | [
[
"life support"
],
[
"Guy Heinze Jr.,"
],
[
"eight people killed"
],
[
"more than 16,000"
],
[
"Guy Heinze Jr.,"
],
[
"16,000"
],
[
"Guy Heinze Jr.,"
],
[
"eight"
],
[
"Seven of eight"
]
] | 7 of 8 people killed last week in a mobile home were laid to rest Saturday .
Other victim will be buried mid-month, and an injured 3-year-old is on life support .
Guy Heinze Jr., the son of one of the victims, is charged with murder .
Killings have left people in the city of 16,000 uneasy and incredulous . |
BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European leaders agreed Friday to send an 1,800-strong security force to maintain stability in Kosovo, although they stopped short of backing independence for the province. French soldiers at the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo last month. Kosovo is expected to declare independence from Serbia early in the new year. Serbia, however, insists the region should remain autonomous within its borders. Speaking at the end of a one-day summit of European heads in Brussels, Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister currently holding the European Union presidency, said that sending the security mission was a "political decision." The police and security force is expected to be deployed to the Balkan state ahead of an announcement of independence. "This is the clearest signal that the EU could possibly give that it intends to lead on the whole issue of Kosovo's future, its status and its role in the region," Socrates said. According to CNN's Robin Oakley in Brussels, European leaders are trying to balance an obvious readiness to back Kosovan independence with incentives to Serbia, which is seeking membership of the EU. EU leaders are deeply conscious of their failure in the early 1990s to move early enough to prevent the bloodletting in the Balkans over the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, he said. Although most EU leaders support Serbia becoming a member state to boost stability in the Balkans, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said that Serbia's membership is dependent on it recognizing Kosovo's independence and handing over war criminals. Socrates confirmed to CNN that any fast-tracking of Serbia into the EU could only be considered if it agreed to hand over Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general wanted at the The Hague for suspected war crimes. Two years of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo ended in failure earlier this week, when talks mediated by Europe, the United States and Russia ended without an agreement. The disputed province is dear to the Serbs, Orthodox Christians who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Muslims who have a 90 percent majority. Since 1999 the United Nations has been running the province with NATO peacekeepers, who still number 16,000. Oakley said the EU mission to Kosovo would help to ease the handover from the U.N. to local authorities. E-mail to a friend | [
"Where was the security force going?",
"what did serbia insist on",
"What number of troops are to be sent to Kosovo by European leaders?",
"What is Serbia insisting?",
"Who is expected to declare independence from Serbia in the new year?",
"What size security force did the leaders agree to send?",
"Who insists that the region should remain autonomous?",
"Who insists region should remain autonomous?",
"what did the leaders agree upon",
"when did kosovo expect to declare independence?",
"Where will Kosova declare indpendence from?",
"From whom is Kosovo expected to declare independence?"
] | [
[
"Kosovo,"
],
[
"the region should remain autonomous within its borders."
],
[
"1,800-strong"
],
[
"the region should remain autonomous within its borders."
],
[
"Kosovo"
],
[
"1,800-strong"
],
[
"Serbia,"
],
[
"Serbia,"
],
[
"to send an 1,800-strong security force to"
],
[
"early in the new year."
],
[
"Serbia"
],
[
"Serbia"
]
] | European leaders agree to send 1,800-strong security force to Kosovo .
Kosovo expected to declare independence from Serbia in new year .
Serbia insists region should remain autonomous within its borders . |
BRYCEVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Michael Ratley was known as a hero. Michael Ratley will spend the rest of his life in jail, without parole, for killing his wife with a hammer. In December 2006, Ratley carried his 2-week-old son, Aiden, and his wife, Effie Ratley, 29, from the flames as fire engulfed their Bryceville, Florida, trailer. Days after the fire, a teary-eyed Ratley told local media that love drove him to save their lives. "I might have lost everything physical, but I've still got my two most precious things," Michael Ratley told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV at the time. A month later, Effie Ratley was dead, bludgeoned with a hammer in a bedroom of her in-laws' home, not far from the trailer's ashes on a dirt road marked only with a black arrow on a wooden sign. The man who was hailed as a hero for saving his wife was convicted in July of murdering her. On Tuesday, a Nassau County Court jury in Yulee, Florida, said he should spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime. Circuit Judge Robert Foster sentenced the 25-year-old to life without possibility of parole. What changed a heroic husband into a hammer-wielding wife killer? Hero gets life for murder » During the trial, no motive was offered. On January 27, 2007, with his parents downstairs watching TV with the door shut and his infant son in the other room, prosecutors said, Ratley put on a pair of thick black gloves, grabbed a heavy-duty hammer and went into the bedroom where his wife was lying down after taking some medication. He lifted the hammer and "savagely and brutally beat her on the head over and over" -- at least seven times, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda. During the trial, Ratley said he had nothing to do with the slaying. His defense lawyers argued that an intruder, who Ratley alleged attacked him in the barn the night before, was the culprit. But prosecutors said that was part of Ratley's plan, setting up for a scenario in which an intruder killed his wife by cutting the wire on their window. Testifying on Tuesday, his friends and family spoke of him as a church-going, gentle man who always went out of his way to help others -- the elderly at a nursing home, a neighbor whose husband was slain and sick family members. "He has always been a caring, nonviolent person," said his mother, Cindy Ratley. "He'd give you the shirt off his back." Cindy Ratley said it had been her dream to have her close-knit family living together on her secluded 20 acres. Witnesses for Ratley tried in court to give a picture of the son, grandson, and friend they said he had always been, with the defense calling the murder a "single, horrible snapshot" in Ratley's overwhelmingly positive life. They urged the jury to give Ratley's son a chance to know his father, one who cares and loves deeply for him, they said. As his mother and others left the witness stand in the packed and divided courtroom, they each told Ratley they stood behind him and loved him. As they walked back to sit down, many mouthed, "I love you." The prosecutors argued Ratley's character couldn't be clearer, based on his actions. "Unfortunately, the best example we have of his character is in what he did. This shows his best character," de la Rionda said, showing the jurors gruesome photos of Effie Ratley's injuries. De la Rionda disputed the description of Ratley as a wonderful father. "This loving father had no problem whatsoever -- a short distance from his son -- exterminating the life of his son's mother," he said. Michael Ratley met Effie Williams when she was having car trouble. He offered to buy a new tire for her and change it. Effie Ratley, who enjoyed listening to '50s | [
"Who was sentenced to life without parole for murdering his wife?",
"What age is Michael Ratley?",
"Who did Ratley rescue from fire?",
"What happened four weeks before the murder?",
"What was Michael Ratley's sentence?",
"What weapon did Ratley use?",
"Who did Ratley murder?",
"What did the man beat his wife with?",
"What crime did Michael Ratley commit?"
] | [
[
"Michael Ratley"
],
[
"29,"
],
[
"2-week-old son, Aiden, and his wife, Effie"
],
[
"fire engulfed their Bryceville, Florida, trailer."
],
[
"of his life in jail, without parole, for killing his wife with a hammer."
],
[
"hammer."
],
[
"his wife"
],
[
"a hammer."
],
[
"killing his wife with a hammer."
]
] | Michael Ratley, 25, sentenced to life without parole for murdering wife .
Prosecutors: Ratley beat wife with hammer four weeks after rescuing her from fire .
Family says Ratley was gentle man; attorneys call murder "single, horrible snapshot"
Effie Ratley's family recall her spirit, love for newborn son . |
BUCHAREST, Romania (CNN) -- France has agreed to send a battalion of troops to eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman has said. Canadian NATO-led soldiers walk patrol near Kandahar, Afghanistan. James Appathurai told reporters at a briefing that the move will help NATO meet Canada's requirement that it send more troops to the volatile southern province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based. Canada agreed this month to extend its commitment of about 2,500 troops until 2011 so long as NATO contributes more troops to Kandahar. There is a "clear unity in the alliance" that the mission in Afghanistan must succeed, Appathurai said. Though 25 NATO allies and 13 other countries have contributed forces, the bulk of the recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops. Appathurai also said Thursday that he did not expect NATO applicants Georgia and Ukraine to be put on a membership action plan this summit but, he said, the general sense in terms of membership for the two countries is not "whether, but when." Further discussions regarding those two countries is to resume Thursday, he said. U.S. President George W. Bush has pushed for the admission of Ukraine and Georgia to the military alliance. However, Russia -- which is not a NATO member -- has expressed concerns about the former Soviet republics joining NATO, which has already made members of other former Soviet countries Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Appathurai also said a general consensus could not be reached on Macedonia's bid, because of Greece's objections. Greece has threatened to veto Macedonia's bid if its northern neighbor does not agree to change its name. Athens has long argued that the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its northern province of the same name -- the birthplace, also, of Greece's most revered ancient warrior, Alexander the Great. The name issue must be resolved by the two countries, Appathurai said. E-mail to a friend | [
"Who has the bulk of recent fighting been done by?",
"what will french move help?",
"Who will French move help?",
"What did Canada agree to?",
"what Canada agreed to extend?",
"what the bulk of recent fighting has been done by?",
"Who has been doing the bulk of the recent fighting?",
"What was the commitment",
"Did any one else send support",
"what is the french move?",
"what fighting is being done?",
"Who agreed to extend commitment?",
"what help is needed?",
"Who's commitment will the French move help NATO meet?"
] | [
[
"U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops."
],
[
"NATO meet Canada's requirement"
],
[
"NATO meet Canada's requirement"
],
[
"extend its commitment of about 2,500 troops until 2011"
],
[
"commitment of about 2,500 troops"
],
[
"U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops."
],
[
"U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops."
],
[
"of about 2,500 troops until 2011 so long as NATO contributes more troops to Kandahar."
],
[
"France"
],
[
"send a battalion of troops to eastern Afghanistan,"
],
[
"U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops."
],
[
"Canada"
],
[
"NATO meet Canada's requirement"
],
[
"Canada's"
]
] | French move will help NATO meet Canada's Kandahar commitment .
Canada agreed to extend commitment as long as other NATO members helped .
The bulk of recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, UK and Dutch troops . |
BUCHENWALD, Germany (CNN) -- President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity's duty to fight the spread of evil. President Obama visits Buchenwald with Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and survivor and activist Elie Wiesel. The visit had personal significance for the president, whose great-uncle helped liberate prisoners from the camp during World War II. "I will not forget what I've seen here today," Obama said after touring the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and survivor Bertrand Herz. "These sites have not lose their horror with the passage of time," Obama said. "This place teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our times. ... We have to guard against cruelty in ourselves ...." Watch Obama honor Holocaust victims » Wiesel, whose father died at Buchenwald, was imprisoned at the camp during the final months of the war in 1945. "Every war is absurd and meaningless," Wiesel said. "The world hasn't learned. ... Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia." Like Obama, Wiesel stressed that the lessons of Buchenwald are that humanity must unite to keep such atrocities from happening again and work toward making the 21st century "filled with promise and infinite hope." "Memory must bring people together, rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity with all those who need us," Wiesel said. Obama told reporters earlier in the day that his great-uncle, Charles Payne, had a "very difficult time re-adjusting to civilian life" after helping his Army division liberate the Ohrdruf forced labor camp, a subdivision of Buchenwald "And it is now up to us, the living, in our work, wherever we are, to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take and ensure that those who were lost here did not go in vain." Later Friday, the president traveled in Germany to Ramstein Air Base and visited with wounded American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. He then moved on to Paris, France, ahead of D-Day commemoration services on Saturday. Obama began his tour of the Middle East and Europe in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, before moving on to Egypt, where on Thursday he delivered a key speech on American and Muslim relations. In the 55-minute address -- billed as a fence-mending effort between the United States and Islam -- the president urged those in the Cairo audience and the people across the globe viewing the speech on television to enter a new, productive and peaceful chapter of relations. CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report. | [
"Who did Obama meet with on Friday?",
"Obama met with whom?",
"What was the speech about?",
"What was Obama's great-uncle's role in liberation of Buchenwald?",
"When did Obama meet with Angela Merkel?"
] | [
[
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and survivor Bertrand Herz."
],
[
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel"
],
[
"American and Muslim relations."
],
[
"helped liberate prisoners from the camp during World War II."
],
[
"Friday,"
]
] | Obama recalls great-uncle's role in liberation of Buchenwald as reason for tour .
Holocaust survivor, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel speaks of father dying at Buchenwald .
Obama met Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel .
Germany visit comes day after key speech in Egypt on U.S. relations with Islam . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Farmers in Argentina blocked highways and rural routes throughout the country to protest anew the lack in progress in negotiations with the government over export taxes on farm goods. Farmers stage a "tractorazo" in Esperanza, Argentina, on March 12 in protest against taxes on exports of soybeans. Argentine television news channel Todo Noticias showed images of trucks and cars stopped along rural routes in the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Rios on Thursday. In the town of Armstrong, 250 miles northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires, protesters stopped traffic on Route 9, burned car tires and waved Argentine flags. The roadblocks were the latest in a year-long conflict between the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Argentina's large farming sector over export taxes on soybeans. Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter. The country has been hard hit by recent drops in global commodities prices, as well as a severe drought. Last year, demonstrations by farmers caused food shortages and blocked farm products from leaving the country. On Thursday farmers once again mounted roadblocks after lawmakers failed to reach quorum in Congress to debate a bill that would reduce the 35 percent soybean export tax. As farmers gathered Thursday afternoon on the nation's highways, Fernandez was announcing new money-sharing measures. "Soy revenues will go to a fund that will be shared with the provinces and municipalities," Fernandez told lawmakers at the presidential residence in Olivos. "Seventy percent of the fund will be controlled by the federal government and 30 percent by governors and local officials." "It's never been our intention to take anything away from anyone," she said, alluding to complaints from farmers that the export taxes on soybeans were unfair. The president said $1.776 billion from the fund would be used for social infrastructure needs -- "schools, houses, drinking water, sewers." Fernandez cited "the moment of international crisis" as the reason for her decision to create "a federal solidarity fund." But farm leaders criticized the announcement as a political move during an election year. Fernandez has sent a bill to Congress that would move mid-term congressional elections up four months, from October to June. "The government again will lose again with ideas like these; this is an attitude that will only serve to provoke farmers," Eduardo Buzzi of the Argentine Agrarian Federation told Todo Noticias. "The people are still being strangled by these taxes." | [
"what announces Fernandez?",
"The group is the brainchild of \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell The operatic quartet's new album, \"The Promise,\" debuted atop the UK charts Il Divo (Italian for \"divine male performer\") is made up of singers from four countries Q1:"
] | [
[
"new money-sharing measures."
],
[
"Farmers stage a \"tractorazo\" in Esperanza, Argentina, on March 12 in protest against taxes on exports of soybeans."
]
] | Roadblocks are the latest in a year-long conflict over export taxes on soybeans .
Lawmakers failed to reach quorum in Congress to debate a bill to cut the tax .
Fernandez announces fund from soy revenues for provinces, municipalities .
Farm leaders criticize announcement as election ploy . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner resigned as leader of the ruling political party Monday following a poor showing in Sunday's elections, the official news agency Telam reported. Former Argentine Nestor Kirchner accepts defeat Sunday in legislative elections in Buenos Aires. The ruling Justicialist Party, or PJ by its Spanish acronym, lost its majority in the Chamber of Deputies after being defeated in 18 of 60 races, the newspaper Clarin reported in its Monday editions. The party also lost four Senate contests. The new composition of Congress could shift power away from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Kirchner's wife. Nestor Kirchner also lost a race for a congressional seat in Buenos Aires province. He lost his bid to Francisco de Narvaez, who leads a rival Peronist party, Union PRO, by a tally of 34.6 percent to 32.1 percent. The Kirchners' party also lost in some of the most important urban centers, including Santa Fe, Cordoba, Mendoza and Entre Rios. Argentina's ability to withstand the global economic slowdown was a key election issue. Economic indicators from Argentina look good, but there is broad agreement among analysts that indicators such as inflation are underreported by as much as half. An effort by Cristina Kirchner, who succeeded her husband, to tax agricultural exports led to a standoff with angry farmers who ultimately forced the government to backpedal. "The Kirchners have been weakened by this latest economic crisis," said Robert Pastor, who was a Latin America national security adviser for former President Carter. The election could signal that the limelight on the country's most powerful political couple could be evaporating. "They'll probably begin to fade from the scene," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. "It's going to be very hard for them to govern unless they do something they haven't been willing to do -- compromise and reach consensus." CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report. | [
"what does the analyst say?",
"Who has \"been weakened by this latest economic crisis\"?",
"who stepped down?",
"What party lost majority in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies?",
"Who steped down as leader of Argentine's ruling party?",
"where is this taking place",
"who lost the majority?",
"who have been weakened by the economic crisis"
] | [
[
"that indicators such as inflation are underreported by as much as half."
],
[
"\"The Kirchners"
],
[
"Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner"
],
[
"Justicialist"
],
[
"President Nestor Kirchner"
],
[
"Buenos Aires."
],
[
"The ruling Justicialist Party, or PJ by its Spanish acronym,"
],
[
"\"The Kirchners"
]
] | Ex-Argentine President Nestor Kirchner steps down as leader of ruling party .
Ruling Justicialist Party loses majority in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies .
New composition of Congress could shift power away from president .
Analyst: "The Kirchners have been weakened by this latest economic crisis" |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentina's economy is in a perpetual state of uncertainty. As a result, Argentines have learned to live with what they've got -- and make things last. Lukas Desimone of Baumm cuts out a new bag from an old billboard advertisement. This resilience and resourcefulness has resulted in a wonderfully creative culture, where innovation and ingenuity are ever-present. In the wake of the country's 2001-2002 economic crash, many Argentines couldn't afford to travel abroad to forge new business relationships and absorb foreign ideas, so they did what they've always done -- they looked within for inspiration. In particular, Argentine fashion and designs have come to the forefront in recent years and gained worldwide accolades. These days, whenever I walk down the streets of Buenos Aires, especially in the trendy bohemian neighborhoods of Palermo and San Telmo, I see scores of boutique shops selling cool furnishings and hip clothing. Watch Brian Byrnes' report from Argentina » These are the places that always seem to attract the most attention from tourists; I don't think they expect to find such cutting-edge goods here, and are pleasantly surprised when they do. I've lived in Argentina since 2001, and witnessed the country struggle through the bad times and enjoy the subsequent recovery; in some sectors of society you could even call it a renaissance. So it comes as no surprise to me that Argentine designers are now meshing technology and fashion in totally new, and in many cases, eco-friendly ways. Living a "green" lifestyle is a relatively new concept in Argentina, and the country is definitely behind in regards to education and implementation of environmentally-friendly policies, but that has started to change in recent years, and as they are prone to do, many Argentines have embraced the idea with their typical gusto. I wanted to find out more about some of these new designers, so I visited two businesses in Buenos Aires that are creating items that are both innovative and unique, especially for this region of the world. We'll be featuring these two companies on CNN International's special weeklong programming called "Going Green" this week. The first place I went is Indarra DTX , housed in an enormous warehouse that also serves as a storage area for a supermarket. When I knocked on the non-descript gray metal door and passed through a loading dock area, I was thinking that I may have come to the wrong place. But cameraman Eduardo Aragona and I were soon greeted by a cheerful receptionist, Agustina, who led us into the spacious workspace and then to a corner area reserved for fashion fittings and meetings. There we met Julieta Gayoso, the 37-year-old owner of Indarra DTX. She told me that Indarra is a Basque word that means "energy" and she named the company such because her objective is to mesh technology and fashion in a way that advances the functionality of clothing. "We are with our clothes 24 hours a day, so I think they need to provide us with other services, and these new benefits have to do with technology," says Gayoso. Indarra makes sleek jackets from eco-friendly textiles, like bamboo fibers and Lyocell. One of their most intriguing products is the FV Module Jacket, which comes with a small solar panel attached to the back. The panel absorbs sunlight and in turn can power your Ipod or charge your cell phone. I tried one on, and it was comfortable, practical -- and stylish. Although I must say, I would be a bit concerned about garnering glances on the street because of the solar square. It's not that noticeable, though, and it's worth the funny looks to save a little energy. Every bit counts, right? Next, we headed across town to the workshop and studio of Baumm, a self-proclaimed "Recycle and Design Company" housed on the second floor of a refurbished old home in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Lukas Desimone, 29, and Rodrigo Chapero, 27, are the co-owners of the company, | [
"What inspired new creativity?",
"Who is installing solar panels in jackets?",
"What country is on trend for eco-friendly fashion?",
"Who created hi-tech clothing with solar panels in jackets?"
] | [
[
"2001-2002 economic crash,"
],
[
"Indarra"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"Julieta Gayoso,"
]
] | CNN's Brian Byrnes reports from Argentina on trend for eco-friendly fashion .
Economic crash inspired a new creativity that's all about recycling, reusing .
Indarra DTX is creating hi-tech clothing, installing solar panels in jackets .
Baumm uses vinyl from discarded billboard advertisements to make bags . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentine farmers are planning their next move after the country's president announced plans to fund a public works program with revenues from a controversial agrarian export tax. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has rejected demands for the repeal of an export tax. Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, said the organization's directory board will meet Friday to discuss what steps it plans to take in response to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's announcement. "We call on farmers across the country to stay calm but to stay on the alert," the organization said on its Web site Tuesday. The 44 percent export tax, which applies to soybeans, wheat, corn and sunflower seeds, has caused a three-month-old standoff between the government and farmers. Argentina is the world's second-largest corn exporter and third-largest soybean exporter. On Monday, farmers suspended roadblocks that had snarled traffic across the country, though reports indicated that groups in some rural areas were still blocking roads Tuesday. Kirchner has argued that the tax, which was implemented March 11, pays for increases in seniors' pensions and financial assistance for the poor. She has rejected the farmers' demands for a repeal of the export tax as "extortion." Monday marked the first time Kirchner revealed details of how the government plans to use profits from the tax, which has generated about U.S. $1.5 billion, to lift people out of poverty. "It is impossible to attack the problem of the poor without distribution of revenue and without touching extraordinary profits," she said in a televised address. Kirchner said the Social Redistribution Program will include the construction of 30 hospitals and more than 300 health-care centers, as well as investments in the country's rural roads and in housing. In an apparent criticism of the farmers, she lamented "the reaction of some who refuse to contribute in the redistribution" to "those who have least." She apologized, however, at the close of her speech for offending anyone. Analysts suggested that the tax was a "strong attack" on on the farmers and their arguments against it. Claudio Loser, a visiting senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue policy analysis center, said it could result in Argentine society being "less sympathetic to the farmers," noting that it was "surprising" that the government didn't come up with the plan until the tax was three months old. Loser, who is from Argentina, also predicted that a continuation of the tax would provoke farmers into not investing. Externally, the standoff has had a two-pronged effect on Argentina, he said. "The conflict has resulted in a loss of market for Argentina," he said, as other countries have gone elsewhere for products. Loser also said foreign investors may be more reluctant to invest in Argentina now. CNN's Carolina Cayazzo and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report. | [
"What is the percent tax?",
"what the 44 percent tax has caused?",
"what argentine president says?",
"What kind of program will export tax fund?",
"what farm leaders urge?"
] | [
[
"44"
],
[
"a three-month-old standoff between the government and farmers."
],
[
"\"It is impossible to attack the problem of the poor without distribution of revenue and without touching extraordinary profits,\""
],
[
"public works"
],
[
"repeal of an export tax."
]
] | Argentine president says export tax will fund massive public works program .
Farm leaders urge calm as they plan response to president's announcement .
The 44 percent tax has caused a 3-month standoff between farmers, government .
Analyst suggests president's plan could turn public tide against farmers . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Federal officials said Monday they are probing allegations by a former investigator into the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history that he was kidnapped and tortured by men who said they were national intelligence agents. Claudio Lifschitz shows off the scars he says kidnappers carved on his back. Claudio Lifschitz, 43, said three hooded men threw him into the back of a truck on Friday night and put a plastic bag over his head. They then questioned him on details of the probe into the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, he said. Eighty-five people died and more than 200 were injured in one of the bloodiest anti-Semitic attacks in the world since World War II. "The police are investigating [the alleged kidnapping] as we speak," said Miguel Ambrosio, legal secretary in the office of federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral. "Once the judge heard the details of the alleged incident, he ordered an investigation to the police via telephone." Lifschitz said his abductors tortured him while asking about the AMIA investigation. "I heard the noise of a blowtorch, and that's when the worst started, and I started to feel a burn on my left arm, and I could smell my hair on my arm burning," Lifschitz told CNN. "Then I felt them slicing my back with a knife." Images of Lifschitz taken after the alleged kidnapping showed bloody marks on his back where the letters 'AMIA' had been scratched. The assailants also carved numbers into his arm; the significance of the digits is unclear. Lifschitz said he was released a few hours after being abducted. He was treated for injuries in a hospital. "They told me that I wouldn't die unless they wanted me to," he said Sunday. Lifschitz, who has also worked as a lawyer for Argentine Federal Police, is the former legal secretary for Judge Juan Jose Galeano, who headed the investigation into local connections to the AMIA bombing until he was removed from the case. Lifschitz has testified that Galeano mishandled the investigation, including allegedly making a $400,000 bribe to a key witness. Galeano was taken off the AMIA investigation in 2003 and was removed from his position as a judge in 2005. The investigation in the AMIA bombing has dragged on for nearly 15 years, with no indictments and a series of accusations of cover-ups and corruption. Argentina, Israel and the United States have blamed the Mideast-based Hezbollah terrorist organization for the attack. In March 2007, Interpol issued arrest warrants for five Iranian officials and a Lebanese national in connection with the bombing. Tehran has repeatedly denied any involvement. Former Argentine President Carlos Menem also has been investigated to see whether he was involved in a cover-up. Menem appeared in federal court Monday on an issue related to the AMIA attack investigation but declined to testify. He did submit a written statement denying that he had any involvement in a cover-up. Lifschitz said his alleged abductors were interested in the possible Iranian connection. "They started to ask about information about the SIDE (State Intelligence Secretariat) related to the AMIA attack," Lifschitz told CNN. "And then they asked me about cassettes of conversations between the Iranians. That shows that the SIDE doesn't deny that they had intercepted some phone lines with the help of some judges. "They were afraid that I had copies of these tapes and I would present them to a judge, but I told them that I don't have any copies of the tapes." Lifschitz, who said he is a non-practicing Jew, also told CNN the men were interested in his religion. "I always wear a rosary around my neck, and they grabbed me by the neck and said, 'Why are you wearing this if you're a Jew?'" In addition to the AMIA attack, a similar deadly anti-Semitic terrorist attack took place on March 17, 1992, when 29 people died and more | [
"What the police investigating?",
"Who does he say tortured him?",
"What is the name of the lawyer?",
"The bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires took place in which year?",
"What day was he abducted?"
] | [
[
"investigator into the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history that he was kidnapped and tortured by men who said they were national intelligence agents."
],
[
"said they were national intelligence agents."
],
[
"Lifschitz,"
],
[
"1994,"
],
[
"Friday"
]
] | Lawyer says he was tortured by men claiming to be Argentine Intelligence agents .
Claudio Lifschitz says he was abducted Friday and men scarred his arm and back .
He says they asked about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires .
Police are investigating the allegations, a judge's official says . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- It is the most popular photograph in history: Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara stares pensively at the horizon, his steely eyes shielded behind a thick beard and his trademark beret. The shot -- taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in Havana on March 5, 1960 -- turned the charismatic and controversial leader into a cultural icon. Che's image, here advertising soda, is still seen around the world. Now, nearly a half-century later, the photograph is used by communists and capitalists, Marxists and marketers to sell ideas. In his new book, "Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image" (Vintage Books), journalist Michael Casey examines how this photograph came to take on a life of its own and become the most reproduced photograph in the world. "The Korda photograph can be seen on t-shirts, beach towels and condoms, even," he said. "And it is in all corners of the world. You can find it in East Timor, parts of Africa, Israel, as well as Lebanon. You can see it in the United States and here in Latin America. And what this book is trying to do is discover why. What made this thing so big? So universal?" The life of Che, the Argentine-born doctor turned revolutionary, has been well documented since his death in a Bolivian jungle in 1967. Countless books have been written about his role in leading Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution and translated into dozens of languages. Hollywood has given Che the treatment twice: in 2004's "Motorcycle Diaries" and last year in a two-part biopic starring Benicio Del Toro. Last month, "Che: The Musical" premiered at the Konex Cultural Center in Buenos Aires. What Casey -- the Buenos Aires bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires -- discovered during three years of investigation throughout Latin America for the book, was that Korda's image became so popular because it was promoted by people from all walks of life, including Castro, pop-artist Andy Warhol and countless students from Paris, Berkeley and beyond, who embraced the image as a symbol of rebellion during an era when the world was aching for change. "Whether or not people believe in Che's hard-line version of Marxism, they want hope," Casey said. "They want hope and beauty -- and somehow both of those things are encapsulated in this image. And so you get people investing their dreams in it. I think that is at the heart of it, with all these other forces: political, artistic, marketing, economic, all coming together in a way that really makes it a ubiquitous brand." Watch author Michael Casey discuss the Che Guevara image » The brand, Casey writes, is the "quintessential post-modern icon" but may be surpassed by a newer image: artist Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster, which Obama used during his run to the White House. "I think that Obama is extremely cognizant of the power of images," Casey said. "[The 'Hope'] poster is very much caught up in some of these forces that moved Che forward. They are very different people, obviously, but that's only part of the point. "Part of the point is that the U.S. is engaged in a battle of brands, always has been. 'Uncle Sam vs. Che' if you really want to boil it down to what Latin America and its ugly history in part has been," he said. "So, part of the United States' battle to improve relations with the region is improving its image. And in some respects you now have an alternative brand with Obama. The previous brand did not sell very well in Latin America. The new brand is getting off to a much better start." So while U.S. relations with Latin America, and much of the world, look to be changing, it's safe to say that the Che image -- and its ability to mean all things to all people -- | [
"What is most reproduced image in history?",
"where is it seen",
"when was it taken",
"Who was the photographer?",
"When was the photo taken?",
"what is the most reproduced image in history",
"What is the most reproduced image?",
"Who is examining the photo?",
"When was the picture taken?"
] | [
[
"\"The Korda photograph"
],
[
"around the world."
],
[
"March 5, 1960"
],
[
"Alberto Korda"
],
[
"March 5, 1960"
],
[
"Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara stares pensively at the horizon, his steely eyes shielded behind a thick beard and his trademark beret."
],
[
"\"Che\" Guevara"
],
[
"Michael Casey"
],
[
"March 5, 1960"
]
] | Photo of revolutionary Che Guevara is the most reproduced image in history .
Michael Casey examines how photo became "quintessential post-modern icon"
The picture was taken on March 5, 1960 by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda .
The image is now seen around the world, on everything from t-shirts to condoms . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- More than 10,000 charred bone fragments were found buried at the site of a former Argentine government detention center, the first find of its kind at one of the secret centers, Argentine officials said.
Bones were unearthed during a seven-month search at an ex-detention post in La Plata, Argentina, officials said.
Searchers said they also found a wall with more than 200 bullet holes and an "important quantity" of spent ammunition shells on the ground nearby. In some cases, bullets were still lodged in the wall.
The announcement was made Tuesday at a news conference by government officials and representatives of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, better known as EAAF, the initials of its name in Spanish.
A team of six professional anthropologists and support crew said it believed the remains were human, but it was unable to determine how many bodies the fragments represented.
"I ask the forgiveness of family members, because I can imagine what the mothers and all who are gathered here will feel, but what we are about to show is not to detail the genocide but so that we have proof for the trials that are to come," said Sara Derotier de Cobacho, secretary of human rights for Buenos Aires province.
"But let us not forget," she said in a statement, "that behind every clandestine center there were the names of the repressors. ... So it is very important for all citizens to know those names."
The detention center was among those used in Argentina during the country's "Dirty War," which started in 1976 when a group of generals staged a coup and started a vicious crackdown against anyone considered a subversive.
By the time civilian control of the government resumed in 1983, up to 30,000 Argentines had been abducted and taken to the secret government detention centers, where they were tortured and killed. They are widely called "los desaparecidos," or "the disappeared."
Thousands more people were abducted and killed by right-wing dictatorships in other South American countries during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Chile and Uruguay.
The bone fragments in Argentina were unearthed during a seven-month search at the former detention post in the city of La Plata, near Buenos Aires.
In 25 years of searching, this was the first time that human remains were found at a former detention center, said Luis Fondebrider, president of the EAAF.
"We've worked throughout the country and have always found remains in cemeteries, never outside," Fondebrider said in the release.
The conference was called, he said, because of the extraordinary nature of the find.
"We usually don't hold press conferences about our work or what we find," Fondebrider said. "But we understand that the magnitude of what we have found where the Clandestine Center of Arana was located merits that sometimes we show partial results."
The searchers determined that bodies had been burned inside graves along with tires, combustibles and other material, Fondebrider said.
"The possibilities of identifying some of these remains is low because of the state they are in," Fondebrider said.
The searchers will start analyzing the remains next year and are working with two prominent forensic genetic laboratories that specialize in working with remains that are in poor condition, he said.
Lending an official air to Tuesday's proceedings, Carlos Stornelli, minister of security for the province of Buenos Aires, and Pablo Buruera, mayor of La Plata, also attended the news conference.
"We are looking for the truth so we can attain justice and construct, from there, the memory of our 30,000 'desaparecidos,' " Derotier said. | [
"Number of people said to be abducted or killed during Dirty War?",
"When was the Dirty War?",
"What were the remains?",
"What are the remains believed to be?",
"How many were abducted or killed?",
"What are remains believed to be?",
"What years did Argentina's dirty war take place?",
"What officials were being quoted?",
"What did the officials say?",
"How many were abducted?",
"What were these remains of?",
"What year did this war end?",
"How many people were abducted and killed during the \"Dirty War\"?",
"How many people were abducted and killed in this conflict?",
"What did officials say?",
"When was the \"Dirty War\"?",
"How many were abducted or killed during the Dirty War?",
"What were the remains believed to be?",
"What was used in Argentina's \"Dirty War\"?",
"Country tht the dirty war took place?",
"What are the remains believed to be?",
"Number of people said to have been abducted during dirty war?"
] | [
[
"up"
],
[
"1976"
],
[
"human,"
],
[
"were human,"
],
[
"30,000"
],
[
"human,"
],
[
"started in 1976"
],
[
"Argentine"
],
[
"More than 10,000 charred bone fragments were found buried at the site"
],
[
"30,000 Argentines"
],
[
"human,"
],
[
"1983,"
],
[
"up to 30,000 Argentines"
],
[
"up to 30,000"
],
[
"More than 10,000 charred bone fragments were found buried at the site"
],
[
"1976"
],
[
"up to 30,000"
],
[
"human,"
],
[
"detention center"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"human,"
],
[
"30,000"
]
] | Remains believed to be human; number of bodies unknown, officials say .
Detention center among those used in Argentina's 1976-1983 "Dirty War"
Tens of thousands said to have been abducted, killed during "Dirty War" |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday defended an increase in export taxes on grains that has riled many farmers, and she called on them to respect the law in protesting her policies. President Cristina Fernandez: Calls on rally Wednesday to support her policies. "All my life I have soldiered in this party, which always believed in social justice, in the redistribution of income, which caused us to win and lose elections," she said in a nationally televised address from the presidential palace. "But we were always respectful of the popular will." Fernandez, of the center-left Peronist movement, made her plea for comity a day after massive demonstrations in various cities blocked traffic and paralyzed much of the country. In a concession to her critics, Fernandez said the increase in taxes on exports of grains that she instituted in March by decree will be debated by Congress. But there is little likelihood that the Congress will order major changes, since her party controls both houses. But Hilda Duhalde, an opponent of Fernandez, was not persuaded. "It's true that they have a majority in both houses, but we have to put white on black and watch out for the small- and medium-sized producers, who are the ones suffering," she said. Argentina raised export taxes in March by more than 10 percent. Fernandez has said growers have benefited from rising world prices and the profits should be spread to help the poor. Farmers have countered that they need to reinvest the profits and that the higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living. Fernandez said she was open to dialogue, but a dialogue that does not countenance the blocking of roads or other disruptions to the lives of Argentines. "Democracy for the people, not the corporations," she said. She called on Argentines to take to the Plaza de Mayo Wednesday in a show of support for her policies. "It doesn't matter what party, place or sector you're from," she said. "What is important is not where you're from, but where you are going -- what kind of country do we want?" To those who do not agree with her policies, she had other advice. "If they want to change the economic model, what they should do is organize a political party, participate in elections and win them," she said. CNN's Carolina Cayazzo contributed to this report. | [
"Who complains about the high taxes?",
"Where is the profit to be spread?",
"What is Cristina Fernandez position?",
"Who is Cristina Fernandez?",
"What do farmers say?",
"Where should profits from higher food prices go?",
"Who appealed for dialogue and respect?",
"What do farmers say higher taxes do?"
] | [
[
"Farmers"
],
[
"help the poor."
],
[
"President"
],
[
"President"
],
[
"countered that they need to reinvest the profits and that the higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living."
],
[
"spread to help the poor."
],
[
"President Cristina Fernandez"
],
[
"make it difficult for them to make a living."
]
] | President Cristina Fernandez appeals for dialogue, respect in national address .
Fernandez says profits from higher food prices should be spread among poor .
Farmers say higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Smoke blanketed the Argentine capital Friday as brush fires apparently set deliberately consumed thousands of acres in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos. A haze surrounds the Palermo neighborhood of the Argentine capital early Thursday. The smoke, from about 300 fires, is blamed for at least two fatal traffic accidents this week that left eight people dead. Sections of major highways and the Buenos Aires port, among the busiest in the world, have been closed. Incoming flights to the city's domestic airport, Jorge Newbery Airpark, have been diverted. The Argentine government has blamed farmers looking to clear their land for crops and grazing for the fires, which are estimated to cover 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares). "This is the largest fire of this kind that we've ever seen," Argentine Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said Thursday. Randazzo called the situation a "disaster." As of Friday morning, little progress had been made extinguishing the blazes. No rain is predicted for the next few days, but the National Meteorological Service predicts that the winds will change direction soon, dispersing the smoke. On Friday morning, the National Roads Administration closed sections of the heavily traveled Panamericana Highway, which leads in and out of Buenos Aires. Spokesman Ernesto Arriaga said "visibility is 5 meters" (about 16 feet) in some sections of the highway. "Covering highways with smoke just to clear a field of weeds is unforgivable," Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez told Radio Diez. "It's incredibly irresponsible." Hospitals have reported an increase in visitors complaining of breathing problems, sore throats and burning eyes in the past three days. Citing a high level of carbon monoxide in the air, officials have encouraged people not to exercise outside. Schools in Pilar, a city in the province of Buenos Aires, were closed Friday because of the gray, thick air. The smoke has obscured views of some of the capital's landmarks, such the Obelisco monument and the government house, Casa Rosada, and people were seen walking on the city streets covering their faces with clothes. This month, Argentina's farmers suspended a three-week strike over a new government export tax on commodities. The bitter lockout left grocery shelves empty and caused major friction between President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government and Argentina's large agricultural sector. E-mail to a friend Journalist Brian Byrnes contributed to this report. | [
"Who blames farmers for the blaze?",
"For what reason was the port at Buenos Aires close",
"Which port was closed by the heavy smoke?",
"How many acres covered the fire?",
"Who was blamed for starting the fire by the government",
"Which area was hit by the wildfire?",
"How many acres does the wildfires cover?"
] | [
[
"The Argentine government"
],
[
"Smoke"
],
[
"Buenos Aires"
],
[
"173,000"
],
[
"farmers"
],
[
"provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos."
],
[
"173,000"
]
] | Parts of highways, Buenos Aires port closed by heavy smoke from fires .
Wildfires cover 173,000 acres around Buenos Aires .
Argentine government blames farmers for setting the blazes .
Shifting winds may help clear Buenos Aires . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- The lower house of Argentina's Congress has approved a controversial media law that spells out media ownership rules and calls for the creation of a regulatory agency. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has blamed Grupo Clarin for her low approval ratings. The measure passed Thursday by a vote of 147 to 4, but the wide margin does not reflect the heated debate over it. Lawmakers opposed to the measure protested by walking out of the chamber and not voting. Some even threatened to turn to the courts to challenge the legitimacy of the vote. The goal of the so-called Audio-Visual Communication law is to regulate television and radio broadcasters and increase competition in the media industry, according to a draft of the bill. Opponents say it targets media critical of the current government and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, especially the media giant Grupo Clarin. This bill is "for everyone who wants to live in a more democratic and more pluralistic Argentina," Fernandez de Kirchner said in a speech last month. The newspaper Clarin has been highly critical of her leadership and that of her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner. Although the proposed legislation would not affect newspapers, Grupo Clarin's other business interests in cable, television and radio would be forced to be sold off or restructured. "[Cristina] Kirchner saw [Clarin] as a limit to her power, and this was the origin of the conflict," Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga said. Argentina's case is just one of a number of fights between the presidency and the media in Latin America. "At this moment, in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, the presidents have conflicts with the private media and seek to dominate them, although each country is a different case," Fraga said. Among the changes proposed in the bill, a company that owns a cable business would not be allowed to own any over-the-air broadcast channels. Also, the owner of a cable company would be allowed to have only one channel on that system. In its current form, Grupo Clarin would be in violation of both limits, among others. "It hits other media groups, but Clarin is the one it hurts," said Daniel Kerner, an analyst at Eurasia Group. The reform would also redistribute broadcast frequencies into thirds: one-third for private media, one-third for the government and one-third for nongovernmental organizations and other civil groups. "More control of the media by the government, this is the main motivation," Kerner said. Journalism advocacy groups have raised concerns, focusing on a proposed requirement that broadcasters renew licenses every two years. "We are extremely concerned at the opportunity created under the current draft legislation for political pressure on broadcasters," International Press Institute Director David Dadge said in a statement. "We urge Argentinean legislators not to pass this bill in its current form." If anyone is applying unfair pressure, it is monopolistic media companies, Fernandez de Kirchner said. "Freedom of expression cannot turn into freedom of extortion," she said during an August 27 speech. "The right to information means the right to all information, not to the concealment of part of the information and the distortion and manipulation of the other part." Grupo Clarin has about two-thirds of the cable market in Argentina, but its other products don't come close to monopolistic figures, Fraga said. Both Kirchners have blamed Clarin's critical reports for their low approval ratings. The ruling party was dealt a strong defeat during recent midterm elections. In response, Fernandez de Kirchner has come out swinging at the Clarin newspaper and its parent company, observers said. Last month, the government pushed the nation's soccer association to rescind a contract it had with Clarin to broadcast games. The government reached into its coffers and offered the association double what Clarin was paying for rights to broadcast the games. This month, 200 tax agents made a surprise raid on the newspaper's offices, ostensibly to | [
"who do opponents say the bill targets",
"By what count did the measure pass?",
"what was the count for the measure vote",
"What do opponents say the bill targets?",
"Wh protest by walking out of chamber?",
"What did some opponents do to protest the bill?"
] | [
[
"media critical of the current government and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,"
],
[
"147 to 4,"
],
[
"147 to 4,"
],
[
"media critical of the current government"
],
[
"Lawmakers opposed to the measure"
],
[
"protested by walking out of the chamber and not voting."
]
] | Measure passes 147 to 4, but wide margin belies heated debate .
Opponents protest by walking out of chamber, not voting; some threaten challenge .
Opponents say bill targets media critical of the government -- especially Grupo Clarin .
Latin America has seen many fights between media, presidents . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- When Susana Trimarco's daughter Marita Veron was 23, she vanished from their hometown in Argentina, a suspected victim of a human trafficking and prostitution ring with links throughout Latin America and Europe. Marita Veron, who is missing, hugs her daughter Micaela. Police believe Marita was forced into sexual slavery. Trimarco, 54, has spent the past 6½ years searching for her daughter, often putting herself at risk. While chasing down leads on Marita's whereabouts, she's entered dark and dangerous brothels and confronted pimps and politicians who, she says, are complicit in her daughter's disappearance. She has won accolades throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States for her work. But Marita is nowhere to be found. "Marita is a wonderful and caring girl. My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe," Trimarco said. On April 3, 2002, Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman early for a doctor's appointment. She was wearing a turquoise shirt, blue jeans and old white sneakers. As she left the house, she told her mother, "Don't worry. I'll be back soon." Those were the last words the two exchanged. The investigation that has followed has led police and Trimarco to believe that she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution, either in rural Argentina or Spain. So far, a series of random clues has failed to provide any concrete information on Marita's whereabouts. Now, art is imitating life on Argentina's airwaves. Trimarco's story has become the basis of one of Argentina's most popular nighttime soap operas, "Vidas Robadas," or "Stolen Lives." Watch art imitate activism » The program premiered in March on Telefe, one of Argentina's largest television networks, to a lukewarm response. But as the storyline and characters evolved and word started to spread, the audience grew, and it became water-cooler television. "Stolen Lives" attracts more than 2 million viewers nightly, a considerable feat considering Argentina's population is only 40 million. The show's plot centers on widowed anthropologist Bautista Amaya (played by Facundo Arana) and Rosario Soler (Soledad Silveyra) -- the mother of a young kidnapped girl, based on Trimarco -- who team up to unravel an underground prostitution ring. "With every performance, I try to display the inner feelings of this woman who is suffering, to transmit her grief," Silveyra said. "As an actress, I feel an enormous responsibility." The usual telenovela themes of love, passion and revenge are ever present in "Stolen Lives," but the show strives to expose an issue that has remained in the dark in Argentina until recently. Human rights groups in Argentina estimate that 800 women have gone missing at the hands of human traffickers since 2007. Worldwide, about 800,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, according to the U.S. State Department. "I am delighted that the show has been able to bring this topic to light, because no one ever talked about human trafficking in Argentina before," Trimarco said. "Stolen Lives" is the latest in a series of recent Argentine telenovelas that dissect important social issues while also aiming to entertain. One of the most important was the 2006 hit "Montecristo," which examined crimes against humanity committed by Argentina's military during the 1970s and 1980s. Local versions of "Montecristo" are produced in nine countries around the globe, including Turkey, Portugal, Mexico and Russia. "With these types of telenovelas, we are able to bring something entirely new to the public debate. And because we take a fictional and not a journalistic approach, we are able to attract and keep more viewers," Telefe programming director Claudio Villarruel said. "Montecristo" helped reunite children of Argentina's Dirty War who "disappeared" with lost family members. The Dirty War happened from 1976-83, when the government carried out a secret campaign to purge the country of those it considered to be dissidents. | [
"Whta is the soap opera based on?",
"what slavery problem does argentina face",
"When did the woman vanish?",
"Who vanished in 2002?",
"what happened in 2002"
] | [
[
"Trimarco's story"
],
[
"sexual"
],
[
"April 3, 2002,"
],
[
"Marita Veron"
],
[
"Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of"
]
] | Argentine woman vanished in 2002; it's believed she was forced into prostitution ring .
Argentine soap opera, based on Marita's mother's search, probes human trafficking .
Mom: "My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe"
Mother Susana Trimarco's foundation tries to save women, children from sex slavery . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- When Susana Trimarco's daughter Marita Veron was 23, she vanished from their hometown in Argentina, a suspected victim of a human trafficking and prostitution ring with links throughout Latin America and Europe. Marita Veron, who is missing, hugs her daughter Micaela. Police believe Marita was forced into sexual slavery. Trimarco, 54, has spent the past 6½ years searching for her daughter, often putting herself at risk. While chasing down leads on Marita's whereabouts, she's entered dark and dangerous brothels and confronted pimps and politicians who, she says, are complicit in her daughter's disappearance. She has won accolades throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States for her work. But Marita is nowhere to be found. "Marita is a wonderful and caring girl. My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe," Trimarco said. On April 3, 2002, Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman early for a doctor's appointment. She was wearing a turquoise shirt, blue jeans and old white sneakers. As she left the house, she told her mother, "Don't worry. I'll be back soon." Those were the last words the two exchanged. The investigation that has followed has led police and Trimarco to believe that she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution, either in rural Argentina or Spain. So far, a series of random clues has failed to provide any concrete information on Marita's whereabouts. Now, art is imitating life on Argentina's airwaves. Trimarco's story has become the basis of one of Argentina's most popular nighttime soap operas, "Vidas Robadas," or "Stolen Lives." Watch art imitate activism » The program premiered in March on Telefe, one of Argentina's largest television networks, to a lukewarm response. But as the storyline and characters evolved and word started to spread, the audience grew, and it became water-cooler television. "Stolen Lives" attracts more than 2 million viewers nightly, a considerable feat considering Argentina's population is only 40 million. The show's plot centers on widowed anthropologist Bautista Amaya (played by Facundo Arana) and Rosario Soler (Soledad Silveyra) -- the mother of a young kidnapped girl, based on Trimarco -- who team up to unravel an underground prostitution ring. "With every performance, I try to display the inner feelings of this woman who is suffering, to transmit her grief," Silveyra said. "As an actress, I feel an enormous responsibility." The usual telenovela themes of love, passion and revenge are ever present in "Stolen Lives," but the show strives to expose an issue that has remained in the dark in Argentina until recently. Human rights groups in Argentina estimate that 800 women have gone missing at the hands of human traffickers since 2007. Worldwide, about 800,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, according to the U.S. State Department. "I am delighted that the show has been able to bring this topic to light, because no one ever talked about human trafficking in Argentina before," Trimarco said. "Stolen Lives" is the latest in a series of recent Argentine telenovelas that dissect important social issues while also aiming to entertain. One of the most important was the 2006 hit "Montecristo," which examined crimes against humanity committed by Argentina's military during the 1970s and 1980s. Local versions of "Montecristo" are produced in nine countries around the globe, including Turkey, Portugal, Mexico and Russia. "With these types of telenovelas, we are able to bring something entirely new to the public debate. And because we take a take a fictional and not a journalistic approach, we are able to attract and keep more viewers," Telefe programming director Claudio Villarruel said. "Montecristo" helped reunite children of Argentina's Dirty War who "disappeared" with lost family members. The Dirty War happened from 1976-83, when the government carried out a secret campaign to purge the country of those it considered to be dissidents | [
"what happened 2002",
"When did the Argentine woman vanish?",
"who is maritas mother",
"What is the soap opera based on?",
"what happened to argentine woman"
] | [
[
"Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of"
],
[
"April 3, 2002,"
],
[
"Susana Trimarco's"
],
[
"Trimarco's story"
],
[
"vanished"
]
] | Argentine woman vanished in 2002; it's believed she was forced into prostitution ring .
Argentine soap opera, based on Marita's mother's search, probes human trafficking .
Mom: "My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe"
Mother Susana Trimarco's foundation tries to save women, children from sex slavery . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday. Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province. "The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station. "The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said. Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off. E-mail to a friend | [
"What didn't work?",
"What light did the surgeons use?",
"What machine malfunctioned at the hospital?",
"What light did surgeons use to complete emergency operation?",
"What stopped working?",
"What kind of surgery was completed?",
"What did doctors use to complete an emergency procedure?",
"Where is the hospital located?",
"What light did they use?",
"Where was the hospital with the power outage?",
"Where did the power go out?",
"Was the hospital's generator working correctly?"
] | [
[
"\"The generator,"
],
[
"from the cell phone screens"
],
[
"generator,"
],
[
"from the cell phone screens"
],
[
"\"The generator,"
],
[
"emergency appendix operation"
],
[
"cell phone screens"
],
[
"Villa Mercedes,"
],
[
"The light from the cell phone screens"
],
[
"the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province."
],
[
"Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes,"
],
[
"didn't work,\""
]
] | Surgeons complete emergency appendix operation with light from cell phones .
The power went out in the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, central Argentina .
The hospital's generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Juan Roman Riquelme scored twice as Argentina beat Bolivia 3-0 to notch a third successive victory in the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup on Saturday.
Juan Roman Riquelme celebrates after scoring his first goal in Argentina's win against Bolivia.
The midfielder followed up his brace of spectacular free-kicks in the opening 2-0 victory against Chile to help put his country five points clear of second-placed Brazil, who play Peru in Lima on Sunday.
Riquelme again shrugged off his lack of club action with Villarreal, where he has fallen out with the Spanish side's management, to net twice in the second spell after Sergio Aguero gave the home side a first-half lead.
The 19-year-old scored his first goal at international level five minutes before the interval after starting in a three-man attack with Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi.
He headed home after Martin Demichelis nodded a cross from Manchester United striker Tevez back across goal.
Riquelme added the second 11 minutes after the break with a dipping free-kick which beat Carlos Arias from 25 yards, having been superbly denied by the keeper's one-handed effort shortly beforehand.
And he finished off the scoring in the 73rd minute with a cool sidefoot finish after being set up by Messi to cap off a match in which captain Javier Zanetti made a record-breaking 116th appearance for Argentina.
Argentina next travel to Colombia on Tuesday, when winless Bolivia have an away clash with Venezuela.
In other South American qualifiers, Colombia beat Venezuela 1-0, and Paraguay routed Ecuador 5-1.
Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez, a Colombian, quit after his team's loss saying: "I have taken the irrevocable decision to resign." E-mail to a friend | [
"Who nets twice as Argentina win third successive match?",
"Which team beat Paraguay?",
"Which coach quit?",
"What did Juan Roman Riquelme do?",
"Who beat Bolivia?",
"What was the score for the Argentina VS Bolivia qualifier in the 2010 World Cup?",
"Who won the match?",
"Who netted twice?",
"Juan Riquelme scored how many goals for Argentina?",
"The coach for Ecuador quit his job after losing to what team?",
"Who beat Bolivia 3-0 in South American qualifier for 2010 World Cup?",
"Which coach quit after a loss against Paraguay?",
"Who is the Ecuador coach?",
"Who is Ecuador's coach?",
"Who quits after 5-1 loss against Paraguay?",
"Riquelme netted how many times?",
"Who did Argentina beat?",
"When did Luis Fernando Suarez quit coaching Ecuador?"
] | [
[
"Juan Roman Riquelme"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"Luis Fernando Suarez,"
],
[
"scored twice"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"3-0"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"Juan Roman Riquelme"
],
[
"twice"
],
[
"Paraguay"
],
[
"Argentina"
],
[
"Luis Fernando Suarez,"
],
[
"Luis Fernando Suarez,"
],
[
"Luis Fernando Suarez,"
],
[
"Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez,"
],
[
"twice"
],
[
"Bolivia"
],
[
"after his team's loss"
]
] | Argentina beat Bolivia 3-0 in South American qualifier for 2010 World Cup .
Juan Roman Riquelme nets twice as Argentina win third successive match .
Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez quits after 5-1 loss against Paraguay . |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- They line up early every Saturday morning at the decrepit gymnasium that houses the La Matanza Barter Club. Nelly Vasquez and her 6-month-old daughter, Antonella trades wool for food. Club members shuffle in carrying sacks stuffed with everything from homemade clothing to homegrown vegetables, set up their stands and begin a day of bartering. The La Matanza Barter Club in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Isidro Casanova is one of more than 100 that now function throughout Argentina. They provide a vital service for people who are short on cash by helping them make ends meet. Each item brought to the club is given a value by its owner, who then trades it with other members for whatever goods they are offering. "What we do here is a fair and honest trading. I look at this like a job, and I work hard at it, and it helps me live better," says Deolindo Farias, 66, who brings fresh bananas and mandarins every week and trades them for household items like flour and sugar. Barters Clubs boomed in Argentina following the country's 2001 economic meltdown when jobs, security and cash were scarce. Club officials say during 2002 more than 2 million people participated in the clubs on a regular basis. In recent years, as Argentina's economy bounced back, fewer people showed up, but ever since the global financial crisis hit last year, they say the barter clubs are more popular than ever. Watch how the clubs are helping poor Argentines » "It's a reality now. In these past few months there has been a big increase. For example, we now have 400 people every Saturday. It used to only be 300. People are traveling here from other neighborhoods so they can barter too," says Juan Maccarone, president of the La Matanza Barter Club. Nelly Vasquez, 29, goes to the club because she has no other options. She lost her job at a clothing factory last year, and has been going to the barter club every week since January -- often with her six-month-old daughter, Antonella, in tow. "I come here because I don't have a job, and this is the only way for me to survive and get the things that I need," says Vasquez, who trades wool and women's shoes for pasta and rice. For others, the barter clubs offer something that every consumer on a budget seeks: a bargain. "If you go to the supermarket, they charge 10 or 15 pesos for a bottle of cooking oil. Here, I can get it with 50 or 80 club credits. That's only 4 or 5 pesos -- that's a big difference," says Maria Rosa Araya, 37. By all accounts, Argentina was the first Latin American country to have the barter clubs. The idea has now spread to other countries, like Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela. There's even a burgeoning barter club circuit across the Atlantic Ocean in Spain. Organizers say barter clubs are evidence that in tough times, economies can thrive -- or survive -- on their own, when it's the people calling the shots. "The golden rule at barter clubs is to offer an honest product for an honest price," says Ruben Ravera, co-founder of Argentina's Red Global de Trueque (Global Barter Network). "It's a concept that could help solve the world's economic problems. Think about it," he says. | [
"In what countries can you find barter clubs?",
"What type of people generally join barter clubs?",
"What do the members trade at the barter clubs?"
] | [
[
"Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela."
],
[
"who are short on cash"
],
[
"wool for food."
]
] | Barter clubs opening around Argentina show extent of country's economic crisis .
Members -- often poor and unemployed -- trade food, clothes .
The clubs first opened during Argentina's 2001 economic meltdown . |
BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- One person credits bad weather and the other a long line. An investigator works the scene of the plane crash Friday outside Buffalo, New York. Those are the reasons two would-be passengers did not fly on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground. "It could have been me," David Becony said from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. "My wife would have been with all those families" who had loved ones on the plane. Becony missed the flight from Newark-Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport because bad weather had delayed his earlier flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Newark. Unable to get another flight and unable to find a hotel room near the airport, the supervisor for a demolition company decided to camp out on a seat in the terminal. Watch how airlines have reacted to crash » When he found out the plane he was to have taken had crashed, he called his wife, Marti, at their home outside Buffalo. "He broke down, and I broke down," she said. "We just couldn't believe it." Becony spent a sleepless night in Newark and then returned Friday morning to Buffalo -- on another Continental Connection flight. It wasn't a smooth ride, Becony said of his Friday flight. "It was weird, shaky, knowing it was the same type of aircraft." That type of aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Connection's regional service. "I'm still in shock, really," said 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. "God was looking over me." Becony is keeping his unused ticket for Flight 3407 as a reminder of how close he came. His wife said friends and family called all morning to check on his safety. "It is wow," she said. "It's been unbelievable. We're happy. We're sad for everybody else." Asked how her husband's close call would affect the family, which includes two children and two grandchildren, she said, "I think we'll probably appreciate each other a lot more." Susan Reinhardt, 49, a marketer for Verizon, had a confirmed seat on a 4:30 p.m. flight from Newark to Buffalo, but it was delayed for four hours because of bad weather, and she was looking for alternatives. Using her Blackberry to search Continental's Web site, she noted that the 7 p.m. flight was delayed by only about 20 minutes, so she asked the gate agent whether she could get on the standby list for that flight. "He said, 'It's pretty open ... easy eight standby seats. You won't have a problem getting on it,' she said . "I said, 'Can you put me on standby?' He said, 'No, you've got to go on the customer service line.' " But that line "was a gazillion deep because of all the delays," enough to dissuade her from making the switch. "I said, ehhh." When she heard about the crash, Reinhardt was happy for her good fortune but shaken nevertheless. "The heart-wrenching piece for me was, I was at the gate talking to this gate agent, and a young woman came up and she wanted to know: Should she stay on the 7 o'clock flight because of all the delays? Did the gate agent think the 4:30 was going to get out before the 7? "He said, 'No, you will still get in before the 4:30,' and she said, 'OK, I'm going to stay on the 7 o'clock; I'm calling my boyfriend.' And she did." For a while, the two women stood together at the gate, both of them using their Blackberries to study the flight information. Then, they | [
"What is his job",
"Who misses flight due to bad weather that delayed previous flight?",
"Where was this",
"What was \"a gazillion deep\"?",
"Who misses their flight?"
] | [
[
"supervisor for a demolition company"
],
[
"David Becony"
],
[
"outside Buffalo, New"
],
[
"customer service line.'"
],
[
"two would-be passengers"
]
] | David Becony misses flight due to bad weather that delayed previous flight .
Susan Reinhardt says line to switch flights was "a gazillion deep"
Close call has made both of them more reflective, they say . |
BUNNELL, Florida (CNN) -- Faith Coleman had no health insurance when she learned she had cancer, but she describes her battle with the illness as "one of the absolute greatest blessings" of her life. Faith Coleman's ordeal as an uninsured cancer patient drove her to help others without health insurance. "Having kidney cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me ... because I can truly empathize with patients," said Coleman, 54. That compassion inspired Coleman to open a free clinic in her Florida community to help other uninsured people in need of medical care. In July 2003, Coleman, a nurse practitioner, learned she had a malignant tumor growing on her right kidney. But as a contract worker for several doctors, she did not receive health insurance. Coleman's treatment totaled about $35,000, and she was forced to take out a mortgage on her house to help pay for it. "I [fell] through the crack ... and I [had] a great job and a good education," said Coleman, a mother of six. Realizing that her financial and health woes were not unique, Coleman -- now in remission -- became determined to help those in similar situations access medical treatment. "I have been given another chance, and I felt that it was important for me to make a difference and to help other people," she said. So after her recovery in 2004, Coleman approached Dr. John Canakaris. The local physician with 60 years of experience had been treating the indigent population for years. Canakaris was eager to reach more patients in need. The two worked together to establish the Flagler County Free Clinic in Bunnell, Florida, which provides medical care for the uninsured. It has treated more than 6,700 patients. The clinic opened its doors in February 2005, with eight volunteers treating eight patients. Since then, it has expanded to 120 volunteers who see about 80 patients every other weekend. Coleman said she's seen an increase in the number of patients at the clinic, which serves people who meet federal poverty guidelines. "If you see 100 cars in the parking lot, that's us!" Coleman said, describing how she tells people the way to find the clinic. "We have what I call 'controlled chaos.' It's just busy, busy, busy, go, go, go." Watch the "controlled chaos" at the clinic » Health insurance: 'Nebulous, fairy-like thing' Flagler County has a 15.5 percent unemployment rate -- the highest in Florida -- according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Living without medical insurance often is the only way for some local struggling families to make ends meet, Coleman said. "When your health insurance [premium] is the same or more than your mortgage payment on your home, which one do you think they're going to choose?" Coleman asked. "They have to live. They have to eat. Insurance becomes the nebulous fairy-like thing that's flying around out here. It would be nice to have because it's silver and shiny and pretty, but it's too expensive to hold on to. So it has to go," she said. The clinic, which operates out of a building donated by Canakaris and other doctors for use on the weekends, is not affiliated with any hospitals, Coleman said. The local Rotary Club, churches and private contributions help fund the operation. In addition, physicians volunteer to see patients recommended by the clinic, and an imaging center donates two X-rays and two CAT scans per month. Coleman says she and her team generally treat common illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases, but adds "we've also found a lot of cancers." Many diagnoses have led to life-saving treatments. Watch Coleman interact with patients at her clinic » "I had this lump growing in my throat on the right side and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I didn't have any insurance," said Franklin | [
"What did Coleman co-found in Florida?",
"What illness does Faith Coleman have?",
"Which organ was affected by cancer in Faith Coleman",
"What was uninsured?"
] | [
[
"free clinic"
],
[
"kidney cancer"
],
[
"kidney"
],
[
"Faith Coleman"
]
] | Faith Coleman was uninsured when she found out she had kidney cancer .
Her experience inspired her to help others with similar financial, health issues .
She co-founded a free clinic in Florida to help the uninsured access health care . |
BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno ended his 17-year reign as the host of "The Tonight Show" Friday with the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure, according to audience members who attended the taping. Jay Leno stands with the children of people who met and started families while working on the show. "Jay said that's what he wanted his legacy to be," said Kevin Anthony of Miami, Florida. "His staff members, from stage managers to runners, who met, got married and had kids joined Jay on the stage and he took a picture with the 70 kids of those parents." "Jay also thanked his wife," said Kathy Young of Los Angeles, "Jay said, when these kids are asked what was the 'Tonight Show' about, I want them to say, my parents met while working on the show and they had me. And that's what the 'Tonight Show' was all about." Others in the audience said the show was about celebration. "It was amazing," said Justin Herring from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "It was a celebration more than emotional," he said. "It didn't feel like a last show, more like a transition." Rosa Moore from Denver, Colorado, said Leno became teary-eyed when James Taylor sang "Sweet Baby James." "When James Taylor sang the line, 'I'm 10 miles from Boston with a thousand miles more to go,' Jay wiped his eye," said Moore. "Jay explained that when he left Boston for Los Angeles, he was just outside of Boston when he heard that line and it gave him the courage to keep going," she said. "It's like the song is Jay's personal soundtrack." Leno will be back in the fall with a new prime time show, and he's taking most of his staff with him. The new show will have some of the same elements as "The Tonight Show" but with some new features. Conan O'Brien, Leno's first guest Friday night, will be taking over "The Tonight Show" hosting duties beginning Monday. | [
"Will Leno move to prime time?",
"Who will take over the show on Monday?"
] | [
[
"be back in the fall with a new"
],
[
"Conan O'Brien,"
]
] | Leno brings out kids of those who met, married while working on his show .
Audience members say show also includes song by James Taylor .
Conan O'Brien, Leno's first guest, takes over show Monday .
Leno moves to prime time in the fall . |
BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Laura Ling on Wednesday expressed the shock she and Euna Lee felt when former President Clinton showed up in Pyongyang, North Korea, to help secure the two journalists' release. The families of Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling greet them Wednesday in California. "We feared at any moment that we could be sent to a hard labor camp, and then suddenly we were told we were going to a meeting," a tearful and emotional Ling said at a news conference Wednesday morning in California shortly after arriving by plane with Lee and Clinton. She spoke minutes after the two women were reunited with their families at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank outside Los Angeles. They had been detained in North Korea since March. North Korea pardoned Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, after Clinton's brief trip Tuesday to Pyongyang. "We were taken to a location, and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton," Ling said, with Lee standing beside her. Watch the emotional return at the airport » "We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end." She expressed her and Lee's "deepest gratitude" to Clinton and his "wonderful, amazing" team. Watch as Ling says, "We could feel your love" » "The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching time of our lives," Ling said. "We are very grateful that we were granted amnesty by the government of North Korea, and we are so happy to be home." She said that she and Lee are looking forward to spending "some quiet, private time" with their families. iReport.com: Share reaction to the freed journalists Former Vice President Al Gore also spoke to the throngs of journalists at the news conference. He expressed his gratitude to Clinton and President Obama and his administration who "have been deeply involved in this humanitarian effort." Watch Gore pay tribute to the people involved in the effort » Lee and Ling are employed by Gore's California-based media company, Current TV. The women were arrested in March while reporting from the border between North Korea and China. In June, they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign. On Wednesday morning, Lee bowed as she walked down the steps of the plane into a private hangar, and Ling raised her fists into the air. The women hugged their families, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Lee's 4-year-old daughter, Hana, clung tightly to her tearful mother. Watch as the women reunite with their families » Clinton walked off the plane minutes later but did not address the crowd. "I am very happy that after this long ordeal, Laura Ling and Euna Lee are now home and reunited with their loved ones," Clinton said in a statement. "When their families, Vice President Gore and the White House asked that I undertake this humanitarian mission, I agreed. I share a deep sense of relief with Laura and Euna and their families that they are safely home." Journalist Lisa Ling said she never gave up hope that she would see her sister again. "We always maintained our hope and knew in our hearts that we would see Laura again; we just didn't know when," Lisa Ling said outside her home in Los Angeles, California. "We are just thrilled beyond words that the day has finally arrived." She said her sister was looking forward to eating fresh fruit and food for the first time in four months, after many meals of rice that often contained rocks. "I can tell she has gone through a lot," Ling said. "My sister has an amazing, amazing spirit, and she's a little bit weak right now, so I think it's going take a little time for her to gather up her wits and be | [
"What is Laura Ling greatful for?",
"What is the freed journalist is looking forward to?",
"What did Clinton do?",
"What is the freed journalist looking forward to?",
"When were 2 journalists arrested?",
"What is the name of the journalist?",
"how many journalists was arrested"
] | [
[
"that we were granted amnesty by the government of North Korea,"
],
[
"\"some quiet, private time\""
],
[
"showed up in Pyongyang, North Korea, to help secure the two journalists' release."
],
[
"spending \"some quiet, private time\" with their families."
],
[
"March"
],
[
"Laura Ling"
],
[
"two"
]
] | NEW: Sister says freed journalist is looking forward to eating fresh food, resting .
Journalist Laura Ling expresses gratitude for her and Euna Lee's release .
Clinton helps secure two journalists' release from North Korea .
Two journalists arrested in March near North Korea-China border . |
BURSA, Turkey (CNN) -- Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian Wednesday became the first Armenian head of state to travel to Turkey to attend a soccer game between the two countries' national teams. Armenian President Serzh Sarkasian (right) pictured with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul during Gul's visit to Yerevan in 2008. Sarkisian and Turkish president Abdullah Gul arrived at the stadium in Bursa together in a car flying the national flags of both countries. In an exclusive interview with CNN before the game, Gul said the event opened a new chapter for relations between Armenia and Turkey. But when asked, he avoided saying whether the border between the two neighbors would be opened before 2010. At the match, Turkish supporters vastly outnumbered Armenian fans and gave the Armenian national anthem the standard treatment for most visiting foreign teams -- they booed. Small pockets of Armenian supporters waved the tri-color flag of Armenia. Turkey won the World Cup qualifying group game 2-0 but with both countries already unable to progress to the 2010 tournament in South Africa, the significance of the game was in its symbolism. This round of "football diplomacy," comes just days after the two governments signed a historic series of protocols to establish diplomatic relations between the two neighbors. "This is going to be the biggest change in the South Caucasus since 1994," said Gevorg Tel-Gabrielyan, the Armenia country director for the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. He was in Bursa on Wednesday, hosting a conference of Armenian and Turkish academics examining bilateral relations. "If this happens," he added, "its going to change geopolitics in the region." Armenia and Turkey have been separated by nearly a century of animosity and distrust. The protocols call for establishment of embassies in each others' capitals, and for re-opening the Turkish-Armenian border, which has been closed since 1993. The soccer game was also being held in Bursa, which centuries ago was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of police were deployed to maintain strict security. On Tuesday, Turkey's prime minister made a public appeal to Turkish football fans, to greet Sarkisian with hospitality and to avoid provocations. Despite strong support from the United States, the European Union and Russia, there is considerable opposition among nationalists in Turkey and Armenia to the peace process. Sarkisian has been met by angry protests both within Armenia and among the influential diaspora communities in the United States, France and Lebanon. Thousands of protesters in the Armenian capital marched to the country's genocide memorial chanting "no concessions to the Turks," last week. Armenia has long demanded that Turkey recognize the World War I-era massacre of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turkish soldiers as genocide. Modern-day Turkey vehemently denies a genocide took place and is calling for an international commission of historical experts to examine these tragic events. Meanwhile, opposition party leaders in Turkey have criticized the agreement, as has Turkey's close ally in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan fought and lost a war against Armenia in the early 1990s. On Sunday, Turkey's prime minister made a fresh call for Armenia to withdraw its troops from the disputed Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. For the new agreement to go into effect, the documents must first be put to a vote in the Turkish and Armenian parliaments. There is no guarantee lawmakers will ratify the agreement. The process of unraveling the complicated network of regional, domestic and historical grievances dividing Armenia and Turkey was jump-started in September of 2008, when Gul traveled to Yerevan to attend a football match between the two national teams. The diplomatic rapprochement has also gotten valuable support from powerful patrons, experts say. "This is one of the few places in the world where Russia and the United States are pulling in the same direction," says Hugh Pope, an expert on Turkey with the International Crisis Group. "Both want to see a more stable Caucasus." Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were both present at the signing ceremony for the Turkish-Armenian | [
"what country signed protocol with?",
"what president faced angry protests at home?",
"What is the President's name?",
"what event did sarkisian attend?",
"What country's are angry?"
] | [
[
"Armenia and Turkey."
],
[
"Sarkisian"
],
[
"Serzh Sarkisian"
],
[
"soccer game between the two countries' national teams."
],
[
"United States, France"
]
] | Armenian president's visit comes amid thaw in relations between neighbors .
Turkey, Armenia signed protocols at weekend to establish diplomatic ties .
President Sarkisian has faced angry protests at home over rapprochement .
Sarkisian attends soccer match; Gul attended match in Yerevan last year . |
BUZZARDS BAY, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A crew member aboard a freighter seized by pirates off east Africa said Wednesday that the crew had captured one of four pirates who hijacked their vessel, but they released him in a failed hostage trade.
Shane Murphy is one of the crew members on board the U.S. ship that was hijacked off Somalia's coast.
The crew of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama had hoped their release of the pirate would lead the pirates to release Capt. Richard Phillips, but it did not, crew member Ken Quinn told CNN in a satellite telephone call.
Instead, the four pirates -- who had scuttled their boat when they boarded the ship armed with AK-47s -- took Phillips with them aboard the ship's 28-foot lifeboat, Quinn said.
The crew had earlier overpowered the pirates and forced them off the ship, according to messages from first officer Shane Murphy.
Murphy relayed the information in quick phone calls to his wife and father in his home state of Massachusetts -- where his father, Joe Murphy, is a maritime instructor, and his son once lectured about dealing with hostage situations. Watch Shane Murphy's wife recall the conversation »
Joe Murphy, who teaches at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said the crew sent a distress signal to which the U.S. Navy responded immediately from almost 200 miles away.
The ship had eluded the pirates for more than three hours off the coast of Somalia before being boarded, Joe Murphy said his son reported.
After hiding from their attackers, then leading them to believe they were more in command of the situation than they really were, the crew jumped the pirates, capturing one of them, the elder Murphy said his son told him.
"It was by sheer force," he said. "They have no weapons -- it must have been, obviously, that they overpowered them."
He said three other pirates "had gone into the water."
Pentagon officials confirmed that four hijackers had boarded the Maersk Alabama Wednesday morning, and that one had been in custody.
Joe Murphy said his son was in contact with the pirates Wednesday evening, helping negotiate for the release of the captain.
He said he can only shake his head at the timing of the attack.
Two weeks ago, Shane Murphy visited his father's class to lecture the students on situations like the one he now faces.
"This is a classic example of Murphy's law," Joe Murphy said. "I teach the course, my son goes to sea and he gets captured."
He said that, despite his concerns, he has faith that his son's experience and knowledge will help wrap up the tense situation.
"Hopefully, it's all going to work out," he said. "I think this is going to end as a very positive story."
CNN's Jason Carroll and Tom Watkins contributed to this report. | [
"Where did the 4 hijackers board the Maersk Alabama?",
"What did the crew say?",
"Where was the Alabam located?",
"Who did Alabama elude?",
"What did Maersk Alabama elude for more than three hours?",
"Who did a crew member call with details?",
"Where did the hijackers board Maersk Alabama?",
"Who boarded the Alabama?"
] | [
[
"Africa"
],
[
"had captured one of four pirates who hijacked their vessel, but they released him in a failed hostage trade."
],
[
"off Somalia's coast."
],
[
"The ship had eluded the pirates for more than three hours off the coast of Somalia before being boarded,"
],
[
"eluded the pirates"
],
[
"CNN"
],
[
"off Somalia's coast."
],
[
"four pirates"
]
] | NEW: Maersk Alabama eluded pirates for more than three hours .
Crew says hijacker released in hopes of freeing captain, but hijackers reneged .
4 hijackers boarded Maersk Alabama off coast of Africa .
Crew member details story in quick phone calls to wife, father in U.S. |
Baghdad (CNN) -- A car bomber who penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone this week was targeting the Iraqi prime minister, authorities said Saturday.
The attack Monday left two people dead and seven others injured in the Green Zone, which houses the nation's government offices as well as U.S. and other embassies.
Police said the blast occurred at an outdoor parking lot that belongs to the Iraqi parliament.
No more details were available immediately on whether lawmakers were among the casualties.
Initial inquiries revealed an attempt to kill Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, according to Major Gen. Qassim Atta, the Baghdad security operations manager.
The black car was loaded with explosives and had three ways to detonate: manual, electric and by cell phone, he said.
"The intelligence information we have indicates that the vehicle was supposed to enter the building and park there until the arrival of the prime minister," Atta said.
Terrorists confessed that the car bomb was targeting the prime minister when he visits parliament in an upcoming session, according to Atta, who did not name the group behind the attacks.
The prime minister was not there at the time of the attack, he said.
The attacker was in a black Dodge with 20 kg (44 lb) of explosives, and was driving toward parliament when security forces stopped him because he did not have a proper badge.
The driver parked at the parliament compound, where the car exploded.
The attack comes amid a U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country.
All American troops are scheduled to be out by the end of the year. Iraqi security forces, including army and police officers, are to assume full responsibility after the withdrawal.
CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report | [
"who was the car bomb targeting",
"when did this occur",
"where did the blast occur"
] | [
[
"Iraqi prime minister,"
],
[
"Monday"
],
[
"at an outdoor parking lot"
]
] | Police: The blast occurs at the Iraqi parliament's parking lot .
Terrorists confess that the car bomb was targeting the prime minister, official says .
The attack Monday kills two people and injures seven others . |
Baghdad (CNN) -- Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq's Sunni vice president, disputes the government's charges that he organized a death squad targeting government and military officials, saying the false claims are politically motivated and he has never and will never be involved in violence.
"Today it is al-Hashimi, tomorrow it will be someone else," al-Hashimi told reporters Tuesday in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil, where he discussed a warrant issued for his arrest by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government.
Iraqiya, the Sunni-backed but cross-sectarian political bloc to which al-Hashimi belongs, has accused al-Maliki of consolidating power, saying the Shiite-backed political leader has refused to give up control of Iraq's Interior and Defense ministries.
"I have said there is a purpose behind this and there is political assassination and today there is a fabrication to embarrass this man after all he has done over the years and despite all the sacrifices made," al-Hashimi said, referring to himself and his efforts to bring about political consensus in the diverse country during the post-Saddam Hussein era. "After eight years I am rewarded with this."
The warrant issued for al-Hashimi's arrest is the latest in a series of events that have threatened to destroy Iraq's fragile power-sharing agreement between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, raising fears about the stability of the country even as the last of U.S. troops are withdrawn. The arrest warrant was issued just days after Iraqiya suspended its participation in Parliament amid claims it was being cut out of the political process.
The charges appear to be based on the purported confessions of three men, identified as security guards for al-Hashimi. Iraqi state-run TV aired video of the men's confessions. CNN cannot independently verify their identities.
An official in al-Hashimi's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the three men in the videotaped confessions were security guards for al-Hashimi. The official said the men did not look distressed, though they believe they were under some sort of threat to make such confessions.
Among the confessions was one by a man who detailed roadside bombings and shootings that targeted government and security officials in 2009.
The person speaking said orders at times came directly from al-Hashimi and at times through his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, who is also a senior member of his staff.
The man said the improvised explosive devices were produced and kept at an abandoned house belonging to al-Hashimi in the al-Yarmouk neighborhood.
He also alleged that the vice president personally thanked him after a number of attacks, and that he was rewarded $3,000 after the first IED attack against a senior Ministry of Health official.
The man in the video said al-Hashimi ordered him to map out security locations and checkpoints for the Baghdad Brigade, which protects the Green Zone. He said he was speaking out to "clear his conscience" and "expose this criminal."
Al-Hashimi said he had been warned to adopt certain political stances or the confessions would be aired. He said foreign political agendas and other countries moved this case against him but didn't elaborate. Iraqiya members and others have said al-Maliki is backed by Iran.
Addressing reporters in the country's Kurdish region, al-Hashimi indicated that the claims and the accusations that he engaged in these activities are absurd.
He said the case should be transferred to the semi-autonomous Kurdish territory because of its neutrality. He also called for Arab League observers and attorneys from the Arab Lawyers Union to guarantee the fairness of any proceeding. That's because at present, he said, the country's "judiciary has been politicized and lost its independence years ago and is controlled by the executive authority."
"I have big question marks over these confessions they made," al-Hashimi said.
"They can be easily disproved and refuted. But despite that, justice must take its course and everyone must resort to | [
"Who is the Iraqi vice president?",
"Who disputes the warrant's accusations?",
"What do the charges come amid of?",
"Who is the VP of Iraq?",
"What is the Iraqi vice president to confront allegations about?",
"Al-Hashimi disputes what exactly?",
"What does Al-Hashimi dispute?"
] | [
[
"Tariq al-Hashimi,"
],
[
"Tariq al-Hashimi,"
],
[
"claims it was being cut out of the political process."
],
[
"Tariq al-Hashimi,"
],
[
"he organized a death squad targeting government and military officials,"
],
[
"he organized a death squad targeting government and military officials,"
],
[
"the government's charges"
]
] | NEW: Al-Hashimi disputes the warrant's accusations .
The Iraqi vice president to confront allegations that he organized a death squad to target government officials .
The charges come amid a political crisis and sectarian tensions . |
Baghdad (CNN) -- The last U.S. troops to occupy Camp Victory, once one of the largest and most high-profile American military bases in Iraq, left Friday afternoon as the Iraqi government assumed control of the sprawling complex near Baghdad's main airport.
The United States signed over control of the base on Thursday and it became effective on Friday, Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. Army spokesman said. No high-profile ceremony marked the transition, he said.
The last group of service members stationed at Camp Victory began moving off-base around 12 p.m., he said. Within two hours, no U.S. troops remained, he said.
The base -- formally known as Victory Base Complex -- once housed as many as 40,000 service members. It includes lavish palaces built by Saddam Hussein, some of which were used as barracks or dining facilities.
Hussein, the country's leader until the U.S. invasion in 2003 deposed him, was among prisoners held in a maximum security prison on the base.
The transition leaves the United States with five military bases in Iraq as it continues to draw down its forces there in preparation for a complete withdrawal by the end of the year.
President Barack Obama ordered U.S. forces out of Iraq in October after the two countries were unable to reach an agreement on a continued presence of troops. | [
"What is the largest base?",
"Who have they handed control to?",
"What was the largest U.S. base in Iraq?",
"What was the camps size in the high of the war?",
"When the last U.S. troops be fully withdrawn from Iraq?",
"What is the name of the camp the US hands over to Iraq?",
"What is the goal of the US Troops?"
] | [
[
"Camp Victory,"
],
[
"Iraqi government"
],
[
"Camp Victory,"
],
[
"40,000"
],
[
"the end of the year."
],
[
"Victory,"
],
[
"complete withdrawal"
]
] | United States hands control of Camp Victory to Iraq .
The sprawling base was once one of the United States' largest in Iraq .
U.S. troops are preparing to fully withdraw from Iraq by year's end . |
Baghdad (CNN) -- Three security contractors, two of them American veterans and one from Fiji, have been freed in Iraq almost three weeks after they were detained by the Iraqi Army, U.S. Rep. Peter King said Wednesday.
The men, who were working for a security firm, were arrested by Iraqi Army forces in Mahmudiyah on December 9 but were not charged with any offense, said King, a New York Republican.
"I am pleased that these three men have been released after having been detained," King said. "With the unfortunate and clearly deteriorating security situation in Iraq and with al Qaeda in Iraq still very active, these men were in increasing danger with each passing day."
King said he got involved after being contacted by the wife of one of the men, Army veteran Alex Antiohos of Long Island, New York.
The other two contractors are Jonas March of Savannah, Georgia, and Kevin Fisher of Fiji, he said.
The congressman asked the U.S. State Department for help and wrote to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to appeal for their release, he said in a statement.
King said the three men were detained because the Iraqi military "did not like the 'mission request authorization' paperwork that had been issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior."
The United States is still negotiating with the Iraqi government about whether U.S. contractors will be granted any diplomatic protections under Iraqi law. The final U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq 10 days ago, after a war that lasted almost nine years.
CNN's Adam Levine contributed to this report. | [
"Where is the non U.S detainee from?",
"Who got involved?",
"When did he get involved?",
"When were the contractors detained?",
"Who was detained?",
"Where are they from?"
] | [
[
"Fiji,"
],
[
"King"
],
[
"after being contacted by the wife of one of the men,"
],
[
"December 9"
],
[
"Three security contractors,"
],
[
"American"
]
] | NEW: Rep. Peter King got involved after the wife of one of the men appealed for help .
The three contractors were detained in central Iraq on December 9 .
Two of them are U.S. citizens and military veterans, the third is from Fiji . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as Chemical Ali -- was executed Monday, an Iraqi government spokesman said.
He was hanged after having been convicted on 13 counts of killings and genocide, Ali al-Dabagh said.
Al-Majeed had been sentenced to death in four separate trials, including one that focused on his involvement in a poison gas attack against Iraqi Kurds that killed about 5,000 people.
His execution had been delayed for political rather than legal reasons. It is not clear what change, if any, led to the reported execution.
Al-Majeed had been held in United States custody since his capture in 2003. But he was handed over to the Iraqi authorities in the 24 hours before his execution, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill told CNN's Diana Magnay on Monday.
The 1988 poison gas attack on the village of Halabja, which earned al-Majeed his nickname, was part of the Anfal campaign, in which the Hussein regime killed at least 100,000 Iraqi Kurds. The campaign is believed to be worst poison gas attack on civilians ever.
Al-Majeed was sentenced to death separately for his role in putting down a Shiite uprising against Hussein in 1991, and for his part in putting down a Baghdad revolt in 1999.
Estimates of the Shiite death toll in the 1991 rebellion range from 20,000 to 100,000. Al-Majeed was convicted of playing a key part in the slaughter during the revolt in southern Iraq that followed the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
One of his co-defendants in the Anfal case, Sultan Hashem, is a prominent Sunni leader who is considered a key player in efforts to reconcile the country's once-dominant Sunni community with the Shiite majority that now wields political power.
Hashem was also sentenced to death, but Iraq's Sunni Arab Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi has long refused to sign his execution order. That delayed the execution of al-Majeed and another defendant as well.
Iraqi law requires all three members of the Iraqi presidency council -- the president and two vice-presidents -- to sign execution orders. It does not say what happens if they do not sign.
CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report. | [
"who had been sentenced to death in four separate trials?",
"on what grounds was the execution delayeed?",
"that happened to Al-Majeed?",
"Who was executed?",
"whose cousin was executed?",
"Who was handed over to Iraqi authorities?"
] | [
[
"Ali Hassan al-Majeed"
],
[
"for political rather than legal reasons."
],
[
"executed"
],
[
"Ali Hassan al-Majeed"
],
[
"Saddam Hussein's"
],
[
"Al-Majeed"
]
] | NEW: U.S. handed al-Majeed over to Iraqi authorities shortly before execution, official says .
Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed executed .
Al-Majeed had been sentenced to death in four separate trials .
Execution had been delayed by VP's refusal to OK another defendant's death sentence . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A Kurdish member of Iraq's parliament said Monday that the United States is pressuring the "highest levels of the Kurdish leadership" to accept a compromise that would dictate how national elections would be held in January. Mahmoud Othman said the United States urged the Kurdish majority in the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk to agree to a proposal that would settle issues about the law that spells out how the election will be carried out. Vice President Joe Biden broached the issue of elections in telephone calls Sunday with Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani and Speaker of the Parliament Ayad al-Samarrai'e, said Biden spokesman Jay Carney. "In both calls, the vice president echoed the president's position that timely elections are important and that we urge all parties to do their part to make them happen," he said. A secure environment and political stability during and after the polls will be key as the United States looks to withdraw combat troops by August, leaving 50,000 in advisory roles, and then withdraw all U.S. forces by the end of 2011. Some Kurds have complained that the U.S. proposals would favor the province's Arabs and Turkmen, though it was not clear on what they based that assertion. Kurds have long regarded Kirkuk as an integral part of Kurdistan, and many want to be part of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Arabs and Turkmen have their claims to the city, and all the groups want their voices and votes to be fairly represented in the political system. Provincial elections that were to have been held in January were postponed indefinitely because officials there could not agree on how to apportion seats among the ethnic groups. Last week, the Kurds threatened to boycott voting on the election law, thereby threatening to delay the election itself, which is scheduled to take place January 16. The constitution would allow for a delay, but not past January 31. Iraq's election commission has said it needs at least 90 days after passage of any election law to prepare to carry out elections, which U.S. and Iraqi government officials call a vital step in Iraqi efforts to solidify a democratic system in the post-Saddam Hussein era. The head of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, Judge Qassim Aboodi, said Monday that if the law is not passed within a few days, the elections could be threatened altogether. Othman described the U.S. efforts at pushing forward a compromise to the Kurds as being "counterproductive" and "making things worse." Though the proposal was submitted by the United Nations, Othman said, "the U.S. is behind this." He said the U.S.-backed plan was not fair and urged that U.S. officials remain neutral. Under Saddam's regime, Kurds were kicked out of Kirkuk, and many Arabs moved in, a policy called Arabization. But Kurds returned to the city in droves after the regime was toppled. Sharp disagreements exist over which voter registries should be used in the elections, with the Kurds wanting a current one and the Arabs and Turkmen wanting registries from several years ago. As for the lists, politicians disagree over the use of open lists that name candidates and closed lists that name parties. The law used in the 2005 election calls for a closed list. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. officials in Iraq, issued a statement Thursday urging lawmakers to decide that "rules, procedures, and decisions" for the election apply only to that vote. They argue that it should not set precedent "for future political settlements related to Article 140, demographic change, disputed boundaries, or other contested issues," a specific reference to the Kirkuk question. Article 140 is the section of the country's constitution referencing the issue. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this story from Baghdad, Iraq. | [
"Who has called for swift passage of election law?",
"What did Biden discuss?",
"What is the US pushing for?",
"Who is pushing for agreement?",
"What do the Kurds say?",
"What is Biden discussing?"
] | [
[
"United States"
],
[
"the issue of elections"
],
[
"Kurdish leadership\" to accept a compromise"
],
[
"United States"
],
[
"U.S. proposals would favor the province's Arabs and Turkmen,"
],
[
"\"highest levels of the Kurdish leadership\""
]
] | Member of parliament says U.S. pushing for agreement on election law .
Biden discussed January elections in calls with Kurdish political leaders .
Kurds have said U.S. proposals favor Arabs, Turkmen .
Iraqi election commission has called for swift passage of election law . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A motorcycle bomb killed 20 people and injured 117 others south of Baghdad on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. The bombing in the holy city of Karbala was one of four attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims as they headed toward the shrine of Imam Hussein on Wednesday morning, a ministry official said. Three people died and 23 were injured in the other attacks. In those explosions, a roadside bomb in western Baghdad killed one person, and a roadside bomb in the city of Hilla in Babil province, south of Baghdad, killed two people. A roadside bomb in southwestern Baghdad caused only injuries. Wednesday's attacks came two days after a suicide bomber killed 41 people and wounded 106 others in an assault on pilgrims in northeastern Baghdad. Iraqi authorities are trying to provide security to thousands of Shiite worshipers who are making their way to Karbala to mark the Arbaeen -- the end of the 40-day mourning period at the close of Ashura. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in battle in Karbala in 680 A.D. That event helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report. | [
"The attacks were carried out on which day?",
"Where did the bombings take place?",
"how many people was killed",
"where these attacks occurred",
"when was attack",
"Bombers target what type of pilgrims?",
"where is karbala"
] | [
[
"Wednesday,"
],
[
"the holy city of Karbala"
],
[
"20"
],
[
"holy city of Karbala"
],
[
"Wednesday morning,"
],
[
"Shiite"
],
[
"south of Baghdad"
]
] | Bombers target Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala .
Twenty people killed, more than 100 injured in a motorbike blast .
Attack was one of four carried out Wednesday .
Three people died and 23 were injured in the other attacks . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of bomb attacks disrupted voting as the polls opened in Iraq's national elections Thursday, leaving a total of 12 people dead and another 47 wounded.
There had been warnings of insurgent attacks around the vote, which is intended to install a 325-member parliament and select Iraq's next government.
Early voting began Thursday for those who will be unable to cast their ballots in Sunday's election, including thousands of army and security personnel.
In the first of three attacks, five civilians were killed and 22 injured when a bomb went off in the Hurriya neighborhood of northern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
The bomb had been placed about 500 meters (546 yards) away from a polling center that was going to be used Sunday, but was not open for Thursday's early voting, the official said. It was not clear whether the polling center was the target, as hundreds of them will be open Sunday, most within 500 meters of each other.
Are you voting in Iraq? Send us your story, images
In the al-Mansour district of western Baghdad, at least three people were killed and 25 wounded in a suicide bombing outside a polling center, an interior ministry official said. Most of the casualties were Iraqi army soldiers, the official said.
The suicide bomber struck the forces as they were assembling outside the polling center to vote, the official said.
The bomber was disguised as an Iraqi police officer and stopped before reaching the polling center, according to a U.S. military statement.
A second suicide attacker struck another Iraqi army gathering on its way to vote in the Bab Al-Muadham area of central Baghdad, the ministry said. Four soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in the attack.
Thousands of army and security personnel are among those taking part in Thursday's voting, which is for those who will unable to cast their ballots Sunday. Others voting Thursday include detainees, hospital staff and patients.
As many as 700,000 security forces are expected to vote, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq.
There was heavy security around polling centers Thursday, with Iraqi forces blocking streets around them and not allowing any vehicles in.
At one polling center, voters and personnel entering on foot had to go through a number of body searches. Iraqi Air Force helicopters have been active in the skies all day and snipers can be seen on rooftops near polling centers.
A public holiday began Thursday and will run until Monday because of the elections.
U.S. and Iraqi officials had warned of expected violence ahead of the vote.
On Wednesday, three suicide attacks in Baquba, northeast of the capital, killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens more.
It is Iraq's fifth nationwide vote since 2003, but only the second for a full four-year-term parliament with its 325 seats.
"The conduct and outcome of the election will be the most decisive moment for Iraqis' future since 2003," Ad Melkert, the head of the U.N. mission in Iraq, said Monday.
Authorities on Iraqi state television announced special measures for the days surrounding the vote. Since Monday, there has been a ban on motorcycles and bicycles in Baghdad until further notice, and a two-day ban on any vehicles in cities begins Sunday, they said.
Provincial borders will be sealed, preventing movements between provinces, from Saturday to Monday. And international borders and all airports will be shut from midnight Saturday.
A curfew will be in place in cities from midnight to 5 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, officials said. Civilians may not carry weapons on those days, they said.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Yousif Bassil contributed to this report. | [
"What was the cause of the deaths?",
"What will the vote install?",
"How many people are dead in the bomb attacks?",
"who will interrupt the votes",
"What is the number of dead?",
"What is the number of member of parliament?",
"What do attacks coincide with?"
] | [
[
"A series of bomb attacks"
],
[
"325-member parliament and select Iraq's next government."
],
[
"12"
],
[
"series of bomb attacks"
],
[
"12"
],
[
"325-member"
],
[
"elections"
]
] | NEW: 12 people dead and dozens wounded in series of bomb attacks .
Attacks coincide with early voting in Iraq's national election .
Security is tight after insurgent groups vowed to disrupt the vote .
Vote will install a 325-member parliament and select Iraq's next government . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 18 people have been killed and 80 injured in a car bomb blast in central Baghdad as deadly violence returned to the streets of the Iraqi capital for a second day. The blast was caused by a suicide bomber who drove through the checkpoint, toward a government forensic office, Iraq's ministry of information said. Tuesday's attack followed three vehicle bombings near hotels in the city on Monday which killed 36 people and wounded 71 others. The latest bombings come amid concerns over security and fears of a fresh wave of sectarian violence between the country's rival Shia and Sunni factions as the country prepares for crucial national elections on March 7. The buildup to that vote has been dominated by controversy over the legitimacy of hundreds of candidates banned from participating because of alleged links to former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. The 511-name "blacklist" issued by Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission, which is charged with purging former members of Hussein's Baath Party from public life, includes many prominent Sunni Arab politicians. Banning such candidates has raised fears of alienating the Sunnis -- an issue during the 2005 elections that analysts say was a contributing factor to the years of sectarian violence that followed. Monday's bombings also followed the execution earlier in the day of Hussein's cousin and notorious henchman Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as "Chemical Ali." In a statement issued Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad condemned the attacks on the hotels. "The terrorists who committed these senseless crimes aim to sow fear among the Iraqi people. We are confident, however, that the Iraqi people will stand fast and work together to build their common future in peace and security," the embassy said. CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report. | [
"What number were killed today?",
"How many people did the bomb kill?",
"How many vehicles were involved in the bombing the previous day?",
"who planted the bomb",
"Where did the bomb go off?",
"how many were injured",
"What number were killed yesterday?"
] | [
[
"At least 18"
],
[
"At least 18"
],
[
"three"
],
[
"a suicide bomber"
],
[
"central"
],
[
"80"
],
[
"18"
]
] | Car bomb detonated near a government forensic office in central Baghdad .
Attack comes a day after three vehicle bomb attacks killed 36, injured 71 .
At least 18 dead, 80 injured in latest attack . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 30 Iraqi children riding in a bus were among the 160 people killed in Sunday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday. At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, the deadliest in the capital in more than two years, the ministry said. One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said. The children were packed in a mini bus that was outside the Justice Ministry building, a ministry official said. The vehicle carrying the explosives that detonated outside the ministry building was a stolen white pick-up from Falluja, Baghdad Gov. Salah Abdul Razzaq told CNN during his inspection of the bomb site. Images from the time of the attack showed the truck, linked to the Department of Water, pull up to the side of the building and blow up, he said. Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged. Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded "Green Zone," which houses the embassy. The blasts sparked questions about Iraq's security and national elections planned for January. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited the scene shortly after the explosions, said holding the elections as scheduled would send a strong message to the attackers. "The cowardly attack ... should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party, and the terrorist al Qaeda organization,'" al-Maliki said in a written statement. U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support. In August, more than 100 people were killed in a series of bombings that led to tightened security in Baghdad. Blast walls were installed across the city and checkpoints were added. Two years earlier, three truck bombings killed hundreds in Qahtaniya, in northern Iraq. Sunday's attacks were the deadliest on Iraqi civilians since those blasts in August 2007. A day before Sunday's explosions, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited Iraq for the first time. During her trip, she made a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, one of six sites attacked in August. Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls January 16, but parliament has not passed key election legislation, putting the balloting in limbo. The president, prime minister and other top officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the elections law and security concerns. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Mohammed Jamjoom, and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. | [
"How many people were killed?",
"What did Obama do as a result?",
"What did the toll rise to?",
"Where did these bombs explode?",
"What has the USA said about this event?",
"Where did the bombs explode?",
"What is the death toll in the Baghdad double bombing?",
"Where did bombs explode in Baghdad?",
"Who pledged US support for the Iraq elections?",
"What has Obama pledged?",
"How many people were killed in the bombing?",
"What is the death toll?",
"What is the death toll in Baghdad?"
] | [
[
"160"
],
[
"pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections."
],
[
"540 people"
],
[
"exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry."
],
[
"U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections."
],
[
"Baghdad,"
],
[
"160 people killed"
],
[
"governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry."
],
[
"U.S. President Barack Obama"
],
[
"to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections."
],
[
"160"
],
[
"160 people killed"
],
[
"160"
]
] | Death toll in Baghdad double bombing rises to 160 .
Bombs exploded outside government buildings in Baghdad .
Obama condemns bombings, pledges U.S. support for Iraq election . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has won a non-binding vote that could influence the decision on who will be the country's next prime minister, an official in the office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday.
Tens of thousands took part in the vote last week in tents set up on the streets of Baghdad and some some southern provinces.
The vote was called by al-Sadr, who has refused to back the top vote-getters in the March 7 election and wanted his followers to designate a prime minister of their choosing.
Al-Jaafari won 24 percent of the votes in last week's balloting, the official in al-Sadr's office said. Current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won 10 percent, and former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won 9 percent, the official said.
Allawi aims to quickly form Iraqi government
The results play no official role in deciding who governs Iraq, but it means al-Jaafari will be the person that the al-Sadr bloc is committed to supporting as the next prime minister.
March's election produced extremely close election results and the final outcome is still uncertain.
Allawi's Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats, a razor-thin victory over al-Maliki's State of the Law coalition, which gained 89 seats, according to the provisional results.
At least 163 seats are needed to form a government. As a result of being at the top of the balloting, both Allawi and al-Maliki are working to form coalition governments and are reaching out to entities like al-Sadr's group.
Al-Sadr's party, which gained at least 39 seats in the voting, is a member of the Iraqi National Alliance, the Shiite bloc that received 70 seats.
CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report. | [
"Who was the unofficial vote called by?",
"What plays no official role in deciding who governs Iraq.",
"What kind of vote is being called by radicalShiite cleric?",
"who won 24 percent of the votes?",
"who called unofficial vote?",
"What per cent of the votes were won by Ibrahim al Jaafari in last weeks balloting?",
"What did he want his followers to do?"
] | [
[
"al-Sadr,"
],
[
"The results"
],
[
"non-binding"
],
[
"Al-Jaafari"
],
[
"al-Sadr,"
],
[
"24 percent"
],
[
"to designate a prime minister of their choosing."
]
] | Unofficial vote called by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr .
He wanted his followers to designate a prime minister of their choosing .
Ibrahim al-Jaafari won 24 percent of the votes in last week's balloting .
The results play no official role in deciding who governs Iraq . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq has appointed its first ambassador to Kuwait in two decades, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum was appointed to the post, the ministry said. While Iraq has had an embassy and a chargé d'affaires in Kuwait since the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fell in 2003, it has not had an ambassador there since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. That invasion resulted in the United States' launching Operation Desert Storm, its first Iraq war, in 1991. Kuwaiti's Kuna state news agency also reported the appointment, saying, "Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations have been developing since the fall of the Baath regime, with both nations expressing desires to develop bilateral relations." In February 2009, a Kuwaiti envoy made his country's highest-level visit to Iraq since the invasion. Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, Kuwait's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said at the time that Kuwait wanted to strengthen and develop ties between the two nations, and congratulated Iraq on its recent provincial elections. "This is Iraq which we have wagered on and we congratulate the Iraqis for this," al-Sabah said, according to Kuwait's official news agency. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who met with the delegation during the trip last year, said in a statement he told the Kuwaitis that the Hussein regime "harmed Arab relations." "Some Arabs still view Iraq the same way they did under Saddam, but we tell them Iraq today is built on a constitution and on democracy," al-Maliki said at the time. | [
"To what incursion led U.S. to launch Operation Desert Storm?",
"Who is the new ambassador?",
"Which incursion led U.S. to launch Operation Desert Storm?",
"When was the last time Iraq had an ambassador to Kuwait?",
"What is the name of the new ambassador?",
"Who is new ambassador to Kuwait?",
"How long has Iraq not had an ambassador to Kuwait?",
"What led the U.S. to launch Operation Desert Storm?"
] | [
[
"Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990."
],
[
"Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum"
],
[
"That invasion resulted in the United States' launching"
],
[
"1990."
],
[
"Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum"
],
[
"Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum"
],
[
"two decades,"
],
[
"Iraq invaded Kuwait"
]
] | Iraq has not had ambassador to Kuwait since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 .
That incursion led U.S. to launch Operation Desert Storm, its first Iraq war .
New ambassador is Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum, Iraq says . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq has ordered former employees of the private military contractor once known as Blackwater to leave the country, its interior minister announced Wednesday.
Contractors who once worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe, have seven days to leave Iraq, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the state television network al-Iraqiya. The move follows a January declaration by Iraq's government that former Blackwater employees were no longer welcome in the country.
Blackwater became the target of widespread Iraqi outrage after its contractors were involved in the September 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square that left 17 civilians dead. That outrage was renewed in December, when a U.S. judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five guards involved in the shootings on constitutional grounds.
The company's last contracts in Iraq have been transferred to other companies. But Iraqi authorities say about 250 former Blackwater employees remain behind, some working for other security firms.
"I don't think the Iraqi government is willing to have any Blackwater member, even if they are working in other companies," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN in January. "We don't like to see them here working in any company."
Blackwater had about 1,000 contractors working in Iraq at the height of its involvement, guarding diplomatic convoys and supply vehicles around the country after the U.S. invasion in 2003. At least 10 of its employees were killed, including four whose burned and mutilated bodies were dragged through the streets of Fallujah after an ambush in 2004.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Suzanne Simons contributed to this report. | [
"What length of time were they given to leave?",
"How long do they have to leave?",
"What is Blackwater now known as?",
"who must leave iraq?",
"How long do they have to leave Iraq?",
"Who is the Interior Minister?",
"Who did Iraqi officials say must leave their country?"
] | [
[
"seven days"
],
[
"seven days"
],
[
"Xe,"
],
[
"as Blackwater"
],
[
"seven days"
],
[
"Jawad al-Bolani"
],
[
"employees of the private military contractor"
]
] | Former Blackwater (now known as Xe) employees must leave Iraq, Iraqi officials say .
They have seven days to leave Iraq, says Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani .
Blackwater became target of Iraqi outrage after 2007 shooting left 17 civilians dead . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi parliament members adjourned on Saturday without reaching an accord on a controversial new elections law, and the lawmakers could make another try to forge and pass legislation tomorrow. Abdul Bari al-Zebari and Mahmoud Othman, Kurdish members of the Council of Representatives, told CNN that the session is adjourned until Sunday because lawmakers didn't forge an agreement. Passage of the law on Sunday is expected to ensure that national elections would be held on January 16. Al-Zebari said several Sunni Arab parliament members boycotted the Saturday session and doubts there will be a Sunday vote. Othman told CNN that lawmakers couldn't reach an accord over the issue of Kirkuk and said some Sunni Arab and Turkmen members left the session. But the biggest roadblock to a new election law is the question of how balloting should unfold in the ethnically diverse, oil-rich province of Kirkuk, where Kurds displaced during Saddam Hussein's rule have returned to claim their land. The power struggle among Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen has been a political hot potato. Kurds have long regarded Kirkuk -- the province and the city of the same name -- as an integral part of Kurdistan, and many want it to be part of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Arabs and Turkmen also lay claim to the city and province, and all the groups want their voices and votes to be adequately represented in the political system. Disgruntled Arab and Turkmen residents say many more Kurds have moved into Kirkuk than were displaced, and that allowing them to vote would create an unfair advantage. Arabs and Turkmen want special measures to adjust for the increased numbers because they believe many of the Kurdish immigrants are there illegally. The Kurds insist there should be no special voting procedures and reject a United Nations' proposal that singles out Kirkuk for special treatment. The disagreements among the groups spurred the postponement of provincial elections in Kirkuk last January because officials there could not agree on how to apportion seats among the ethnic groups. | [
"When will the national elections take place?",
"What will new election law ensure?",
"What is the biggest roadblock?",
"Who lays claim to Kirkuk?"
] | [
[
"January 16."
],
[
"how balloting should unfold"
],
[
"question of how balloting should unfold in the ethnically diverse, oil-rich province of Kirkuk,"
],
[
"Kurds"
]
] | New election law will ensure that national elections take place January 16 .
Biggest roadblock is how balloting should unfold in Kirkuk, where Kurds stake claim to land .
Kurds regard Kirkuk as part of Kurdistan; Arabs and Turkmen also lay claim to it . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly 130 people were killed and more than 400 wounded early Tuesday when a string of five suicide car bombings hit government buildings, a neighborhood and a commercial district in Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said. Iraq's Finance and Labor ministries and a courthouse were the targets of three of the terror attacks, which shattered a two-month period of relative calm in the capital. By evening, Interior Ministry officials put the toll at 127 dead and 448 wounded, the worst since twin car bombings killed and wounded hundreds of people in late October. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks were aimed at undermining Iraq's upcoming elections, now set for March after a lengthy impasse in the country's parliament. "The timing of these cowardly terrorist attacks in Baghdad today, after the success of Iraqi Parliament in overcoming the last obstacle in the election procedures, shows that the enemies of Iraq and its people are aiming to create chaos in the country and prevent any progress in the political process and to disrupt the procedures of the coming elections," he said. The first of the vehicles blew up in southern Baghdad's Dora district at about 10 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), followed by four more car bombs about half an hour later. Three of the explosions struck at the heart of the Iraqi capital, detonating a few minutes apart. One hit the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, while another hit the new site of the Ministry of Finance near al-Qashla Square. The ministry's former building was destroyed in a bombing in August. Another bomb exploded in the busy commercial district of Nahdha, and the fifth bomb blew up outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district. The sounds of sporadic gunfire and emergency sirens could be heard immediately following the attacks, and smoke from the blasts billowed into the morning sky. Suicide bombers carried out the five attacks, Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, told CNN. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and offered his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of those killed, according to a statement from his office. "The Secretary-General appeals to the people of Iraq to remain steadfast in the face of these attacks and to continue their determined efforts to achieve national reconciliation," the statement said. "The United Nations remains committed to supporting them." And the human rights group Amnesty International said there was "absolutely no justification" for the bombings, noting that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are war crimes under international law. Suicide bombers were also blamed for the two bombings October 25 in Baghdad, which killed 160 people and wounded 540. Those bombs detonated in quick succession at mid-morning on a Sunday, the first day of the workweek in Iraq, in the Salhiya district of central Baghdad. The location was close to the Foreign Ministry. Government officials, including Baghdad's governor, questioned how the bombers were able to penetrate the area's security, which was supposed to have been improved in the months leading up to the attacks. Authorities subsequently detained more than 60 people responsible for security in the district where the bombings took place. And Tuesday's attacks sparked debate among Iraqi lawmakers about the capability of the country's security forces. Noor Aldeen al-Haiali, a member of Iraq's parliament from the country's largest Sunni Arab party, said al-Maliki's government "failed in taking the measures to protect the targeted Iraqi citizens, who are shocked and getting slaughtered on a daily basis." Ali al-Adeeb, a senior member of the prime minister's Dawa party, said security has improved in recent years. But Kurdish lawmaker Mahmood Othman told CNN that more attacks could be possible "because the people against the political process, against the elections and against stability in Iraq" will try to disrupt the elections. And he said stepped-up security measures won't be enough to deter them. "There should be some political stability, political reform, reconciliation," he said. " | [
"Where was the fifth bomb detonated?",
"Where did the fifth bomb blow up?",
"How many car bombs exploded in central Baghdad?",
"when did this happen",
"How many were killed in Baghdad?",
"Where did the vehicles blow up?",
"Where was the first car bombed?"
] | [
[
"outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district."
],
[
"outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district."
],
[
"five"
],
[
"early Tuesday"
],
[
"Nearly 130"
],
[
"Baghdad,"
],
[
"southern Baghdad's Dora district"
]
] | Four car bombs explode in central Baghdad, killing nearly 130 and wounding hundreds .
First of the vehicles blew up in southern Baghdad's Dora district .
Three other car bombs struck at heart of Iraqi capital, detonating a few minutes apart .
Fifth bomb blows up outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Tariq Aziz, a top lieutenant of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, remained hospitalized at a U.S. military hospital Sunday after falling ill in prison, the U.S. command in Iraq reported.
He was taken to the hospital Thursday, though no details of his ailment were released. But 1st Lt. Elizabeth Feste, a U.S. military spokeswoman, told CNN his condition was improving and he was being closely monitored.
Aziz was one of the best-known faces of Hussein's government, serving as deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and as foreign minister for part of that time. In March 2009, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with the 1992 executions of 42 merchants.
He was captured by U.S. forces in April 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Hussein.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. | [
"Tariq A ziz was taken to the hospital when?",
"were there any details of ailments?",
"Aziz served as deputy PM during what years?",
"when was tariq aziz hospitalized?",
"how long was he sentenced to?",
"Did they treat his ailment",
"What was the sentence",
"Who remained hospitalized at a U.S. military hospital?"
] | [
[
"Thursday,"
],
[
"no"
],
[
"1981 to 2003"
],
[
"Thursday,"
],
[
"15 years"
],
[
"He was taken to the hospital"
],
[
"15 years in prison"
],
[
"Tariq Aziz,"
]
] | Tariq Aziz remained hospitalized at a U.S. military hospital Sunday after falling ill in prison .
He was taken to the hospital Thursday, though no details of his ailment were released .
Aziz served as deputy PM from 1981 to 2003 and as foreign minister for part of that time .
He was sentenced to 15 years in connection with the 1992 executions of 42 merchants . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi Olympic Committee said Saturday it stands by its decision to disband the country's soccer association -- a move that led to the association's suspension from international football. World governing body FIFA said Friday it had decided to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) because of the Iraqi Olympic Committee's move to disband it. FIFA described that as governmental interference. The suspension means Iraqi soccer clubs and teams may not play in international matches or receive financial assistance, though FIFA made an exception for Iraqi female players to play in a weeklong under-16 regional football festival in Jordan starting Sunday. FIFA said it learned Monday that the Iraqi Olympic Committee had disbanded the IFA and that governmental security forces had seized control of the IFA headquarters. FIFA officials gave the committee 72 hours to revoke the decision and hand the headquarters back to the IFA. "The deadline has expired without revocation of the decision by the Iraqi Olympic Committee and the IFA has not been restored to its headquarters," FIFA said in a statement Friday. "The FIFA Emergency Committee has therefore decided to immediately suspend the IFA until the decision of the Iraqi Olympic Committee is revoked and the IFA retakes possession of its offices." The Iraqi Olympic Committee's actions are in "total contradiction" to FIFA statutes, which require national teams to have full independence, FIFA said. Two top Iraqi officials said Saturday the decision to disband the IFA was based on financial and administrative irregularities and violations, and that they were not surprised by FIFA's decision and had expected it. Samir al-Moussawi, a senior member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, told CNN he was hopeful the issue could be resolved with FIFA in the coming days, and that the Olympic committee had international lawyers working on the issue. He denied, however, that government security forces had seized IFA headquarters, saying the men were protection services personnel guarding the building. Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman who has been delegated for months to deal with the International Olympic Committee, told CNN he will work on cooperating with FIFA's demands and holding transparent IFA elections. He said the suspension "will not have a major effect" on Iraqi football because the national team has no international matches scheduled over the next six months. It is the second time FIFA has suspended Iraqi football. The first time was in May last year, after the Iraqi government dissolved the national Olympic committee and all national sports federations. FIFA lifted the ban after the Iraqi government excluded the IFA from dissolution. Iraqi soccer has come a long way since the days of Saddam Hussein, when Hussein's son, Uday, was president of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and regularly threatened players with physical violence and torture if they played poorly. The national soccer team has continued playing, however, and has been viewed as something that has united Iraqis across sectarian lines. Although Iraq has not qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa, the national team was able to celebrate becoming the Asia champions in 2007. In July, Iraq played its first home game since 2002, beating its Palestinian opponents 4-0. Tens of thousands attended the match in the capital after FIFA lifted its ban on international games in Iraq. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report. | [
"What organization banned them?",
"What was disbanded?",
"who stands by decision to disband Iraqi football association?",
"who banned iran from international?",
"What year did Iraq win the Asian title?"
] | [
[
"FIFA"
],
[
"Iraqi Football Association"
],
[
"Olympic Committee"
],
[
"FIFA"
],
[
"2007."
]
] | Iraqi Olympic Committee stands by decision to disband Iraqi football association .
FIFA banned Iraq from international competition following move .
Iraq won Asian championship in 2007 but failed to reach next year's World Cup . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The Kurdish bloc in the Iraqi parliament intends to boycott the vote on a proposed election law if the oil-rich province of Kirkuk is banned from voting in next year's national elections, two Kurdish lawmakers said. A vote may be held Thursday on a proposal that would govern the elections, now set for January 16, legislators Mahmoud Othman and Abdul Bari al-Zebari said on Wednesday. Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, was excluded from provincial elections last January. Kurds displaced under Saddam Hussein's rule settled on land they say is rightfully theirs. However, Arab and Turkmen residents claim many more Kurds have moved into Kirkuk than were displaced, and that allowing them to vote would create an unfair advantage. Without the Kurdish lawmakers there will be no quorum, thereby blocking the vote, Sunni lawmaker Salim al-Jabouri, a member of the small Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, told CNN. Before conducting balloting next year, Iraq needs an election law that lays out basic rules. If one is not adopted, the government may have to either reschedule the election or rely on the law used in the 2005 national elections, officials say. Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on the issue a week ago. The other contentious election issue is that of open lists versus closed lists on ballots. Open lists would name candidates and their parties; closed lists would name only parties. Existing law, used in the 2005 election, mandates a closed list. President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other political leaders -- members of the Political Council for National Security -- reached a tentative agreement on the draft bill Tuesday evening. Talabani's office released no details on the content. The constitutional deadline for the elections is January 31. The election commission needs at least 90 days after passage of the law to carry out elections, which U.S. and Iraqi government officials call a vital step in Iraqi efforts to solidify a democratic system in the post-Saddam Hussein era. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report | [
"What is the issue on ballots?",
"Sunni lawmaker says what will lead to no quorum, blocking a vote?",
"where is kirkuk",
"What month was Kirkuk excluded from elections?",
"who is sunni lawmaker",
"Kirkuk was excluded from what?"
] | [
[
"Open lists would name candidates and their parties; closed lists would name only parties."
],
[
"Without the Kurdish"
],
[
"north of Baghdad,"
],
[
"last January."
],
[
"Salim al-Jabouri,"
],
[
"provincial elections"
]
] | A boycott would lead to no quorum, blocking a vote, Sunni lawmaker says .
Kirkuk was excluded from provincial elections last January .
The issue of open lists versus closed lists on ballots is also contentious . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The United States plans to appeal a federal judge's dismissal of charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 people in Baghdad in 2007, Vice President Joe Biden announced Saturday.
Speaking at a joint appearance with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad, Biden said he was "disappointed" with the ruling, and that the Justice Department would file the appeal next week.
"The United States is determined to hold accountable anyone who commits crimes against the Iraqi people," Biden told reporters.
The September 2007 shootout in Baghdad's Nusoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and two dozen wounded. The killings led Iraq's government to slap limits on security contractors hired by Blackwater, now known as Xe, and other firms.
An attorney representing one of the five defendants in the case said he was disappointed by Biden's announcement in Iraq, saying it was motivated by "political purposes" as opposed to legal reasoning.
"This is not how the Justice Department announces its intentions in any case," said David Schertler, attorney for Dustin Heard. "We had no idea that the vice president was going to announce a political decision."
Last month, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina found that the government's case was built largely on "statements compelled under a threat of job loss in a subsequent criminal prosecution," a violation of the Fifth Amendment rights of the five men charged.
"In their zeal to bring charges against the defendant in this case, the prosecutors and investigators aggressively sought out statements the defendants had been compelled to make to government investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and in the subsequent investigation," Urbina wrote in a 90-page decision.
Federal prosecutors "repeatedly disregarded the warnings of experienced, senior prosecutors assigned to the case" in doing so, he found.
Urbina also sharply criticized prosecutors and federal agents who developed the case, calling their explanations for using the guards' statements "all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility."
"In short, the government has utterly failed to prove that it made no impermissible use of the defendants' statements or that such use was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt," he wrote.
Schertler, Heard's attorney, said Urbina's "reasoning is sound and will hold up in appeal."
The men were guarding a State Department convoy moving through western Baghdad when the shooting began. The company said its contractors came under attack, but Iraqi authorities called the gunfire unprovoked and indiscriminate.
Each of the now-former guards -- Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Donald Ball and Nicholas Slatten -- faced 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
Prosecutors requested that charges against Slatten be dropped in November, but Thursday's ruling dismisses the counts against all five.
"We're obviously pleased at the decision dismissing the entire indictment and are very happy that these courageous young men can begin the new year without this unfair cloud hanging over them," Slough's lawyer, Mark Hulkower, said at the time of the dismissal.
A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty in 2008 to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
CNN's Dan Lothian and Samira Simone contributed to this report. | [
"Five Blackwater security guards are accused of what?",
"What did Joe Biden say?",
"What did Iraqis call the gunfire?",
"What were Blackwater security guards accused of?",
"How many people were killed?",
"What did the judge find?",
"What did the judge find the case was largely built on?"
] | [
[
"killing 17 people"
],
[
"he was \"disappointed\" with the ruling, and that the Justice Department would file the appeal next week."
],
[
"unprovoked and indiscriminate."
],
[
"killing 17 people in Baghdad in 2007,"
],
[
"17"
],
[
"dismissal of charges against"
],
[
"\"statements compelled under a threat of job loss in a subsequent criminal prosecution,\""
]
] | Five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 people in Baghdad in 2007 .
Company says contractors came under attack, Iraqis call gunfire unprovoked .
Judge found case was built largely on "statements compelled under a threat of job loss"
Joe Biden said he is"disappointed" with the ruling, Justice Department will appeal . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Three people were killed when a parked car rigged with explosives blew up Saturday in Najaf on the eve of parliamentary elections, the Interior Ministry said.
At least 54 others -- 17 Iraqis and 37 Iranians -- were injured in the attack near the Imam Ali Holy Shrine, which houses the tomb of Ali, cousin of the Prophet Mohammed.
Two of the dead were Iranians, the interior official said. Najaf, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, is frequented by Shiite pilgrims from Iran.
Iraqis will go to the polls Sunday to choose a 325-member parliament. The election has been marred by violence despite heavy security.
It is Iraq's fifth nationwide vote since 2003, but only the second for a full four-year-term parliament.
Three attacks happened Thursday during early voting for those who will be unable to cast ballots Sunday, such as military and security personnel, detainees, hospital staff, and patients.
A total of 12 people were killed and dozens were wounded. There have been warnings of further insurgent attacks around the vote.
These are Iraq's first national elections since 2005, when the Sunni Arab population boycotted the elections and the political process. A Shiite-led government emerged and the Sunnis, feeling disenfranchised, went on to form the main part of the insurgency.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq calls the elections an "important milestone in Iraq's democratic progress," serving to strengthen the country's sovereignty and independence as the United States draws down its military presence there.
Sunday's elections were supposed to happen in January but were delayed because of political disagreements and a delay in passing the election law that paved the way for this vote.
There are 18.9 million eligible voters, casting ballots for 325 seats in the Council of Representatives, as Iraq's parliament is called. The seats represent Iraq's 18 provinces. At least a quarter of the positions -- 82 -- are guaranteed to go to women, and eight more have been allocated for minorities. They include five set aside for Christians and one each for the Shabak, Sabaeans (Mandaeans), and Yazidis.
The number of seats is increasing from the previous 275. Seat allocation was based on 2005 population data from the Ministry of Trade and adjusted for a 2.8 percent annual growth across all governates.
Voting for Iraqis abroad also is happening in 16 countries starting Friday -- including the United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Iran, Canada and others in the Middle East and Europe. There are no exact figures for those eligible to cast ballots abroad. Estimates on turnout have ranged anywhere from 300,000 to 3 million.
Around 6,200 candidates from more than 80 political entities are vying for seats. It is the first parliamentary vote to use an open list, in which the voters vote for political entities and, if they want, also can vote for candidates within those entities, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission.
Although open lists complicates the training of election staff and the counting of votes, the system enhances the role of the voter in the election beyond casting a vote simply for a political party, the assistance mission says.
At least 25 percent of the candidates on the ballot list of each political entity must be women.
The assistance mission is providing technical assistance to the Independent High Electoral Commission, which is organizing the vote.
The commission has ordered that all political campaigning must end as of 7 a.m. Saturday.
A number of other special measures are being put in place for security reasons. Since Monday, there has been a ban on motorcycles and bicycles in Baghdad until further notice, and on Sunday a two-day ban on any vehicles in cities will begin, Iraqi authorities announced on state television.
Provincial borders will be sealed, preventing movements between provinces, from Saturday to Monday. And international borders and all airports will be shut from midnight Saturday.
A curfew will be in place in cities from midnight to 5 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, officials said. Civilians may not carry weapons on those days, they said.
More | [
"Where was the explosion near?",
"Where I was an explosion?",
"How many people are eligible to vote?",
"How many members are up for grab?",
"How many people died in the explosion?"
] | [
[
"Imam Ali Holy Shrine,"
],
[
"Najaf"
],
[
"18.9 million"
],
[
"325-member"
],
[
"Three"
]
] | Explosion near Imam Ali Holy Shrine kills 3 on day before parliamentary elections .
Seats in the 325-member parliament are up for grabs .
Elections were supposed to be in January but were delayed by political disagreements .
18.9 million people are eligible to vote, and will choose from about 6,200 candidates . |
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Violent attacks on election day didn't stop large numbers of Iraqis from successfully casting their votes in key parliamentary elections Sunday. "Yes, we were scared after we heard these bombings, but we just had to come," said a woman who identified herself only as Ghisoun. Her two children were at her side. "It's an opportunity we can't miss -- not for us, but for our children," she said. Polls in Iraq to elect a 325-member parliament closed Sunday evening, capping an electoral process in which militants intent on disrupting the vote carried out dozens of attacks that killed 38 people. Despite the risks, voter turnout could reach 55 percent, a senior U.S. official told CNN. Another voter, Ali Abdul Hassan, also risked the uncertainty of voting Sunday with his 2-month-old infant. "I want my baby to start voting early," he said. The general feeling expressed by voters on election day was a longing for change and for a government that will be able to provide basic things such as water, electricity, jobs and security. A woman in line to vote in Baghdad said her vote was a way of fighting back against acts of terrorism in Iraq. Preliminary results are expected by Wednesday, the United Nations said. Results will start emerging for each province as soon as votes are tallied from 30 percent of polling centers in that province. About 60 security incidents were reported throughout the country Sunday, the senior U.S. official said. These included fatal mortar and rocket attacks in various Baghdad neighborhoods. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said those reports of mortar attacks in Baghdad had not yet been confirmed. According to Gates, Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, "had expected a significant number of high-profile attacks, both suicide vests and truck and car bombs, but the security situation, the efforts of the Iraqi Security Forces are such that al Qaeda in Iraq was forced to change their tactics." Speaking at the White House, President Obama also downplayed Sunday's violence. Some violence was expected, Obama said, but "overall, the level of security, and the prevention of destabilizing attacks, speaks to the growing capability and professionalism of Iraqi security forces, which took the lead in providing protection at the polls." The success of the vote showed that "the future of Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq," Obama said. The United States does not support particular candidates in Iraq, but does support Iraqis' right to elect their representatives, he said. "We know there will be very difficult days ahead in Iraq," Obama said. "There will probably be more violence. But, like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq must be free to chart its own course." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Iraq's High Electoral Commission and security forces for running and securing the vote. "I congratulate all the people of Iraq who participated in national elections today and over the past three days," she said in a statement. "There is no better rebuke to the violent extremists who seek to derail Iraq's progress." Counting was taking place at the polling stations at the end of voting, under the gaze of observers. Ballots will be counted twice to ensure accuracy, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq. The number of ballots cast will be reconciled with the number of ballots issued to each polling station, and in case of a significant discrepancy, the station will be audited, the U.N. said. Authorities in Baghdad announced a curfew on the capital from 10 p.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Monday. In a statement Sunday, Obama said: "I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote today." Referring to the day's violence, he added: "We mourn the tragic loss of life today, and honor the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people who once again defied threats to advance their | [
"Who carried out attacks as Iraqis head to polls?",
"who congratulates iraqis",
"When are the results expected according the U.N?",
"who closed in iraq",
"Polls closed in which country?",
"what can't be missed?"
] | [
[
"militants"
],
[
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"
],
[
"by Wednesday,"
],
[
"Polls"
],
[
"Iraq"
],
[
"an opportunity"
]
] | NEW: Obama congratulates Iraqis, mourns loss of life, praises overall security level .
Polls close in Iraq; results expected by Wednesday, U.N. says .
"It's an opportunity we can't miss," one Iraqi voter says .
Militants carry out attacks as Iraqis head to polls; dozens killed . |
Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin. Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69. And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September. Marsha Dickey, who works in the Kern County coroner's office, was instrumental in making sure the men got the honors they deserved. "She worked very hard to see that they were veterans ... and without that ... we probably would not be here today to honor them," said Lynn Sprayberry, founder and chairwoman of Friends of Fallen Heroes, a local organization that makes sure veterans receive a respectful service at Bakersfield National Cemetery. The coroner's office also discovered that Barrett, a former staff sergeant, had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in Korea. Axtell was a former airman second class. "Without [Dickey's] persistence, these two individuals would be placed in a county-owned site," said Wesley Jones, director of the Bakersfield National Cemetery. "Nobody would have known. ... Nobody would have any concept of who these individuals were." Leon Thomas, who served in the U.S. Army in Korea in 1951 and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star medal for bravery, helped spread the word about the double funeral. "The folks at the coroner's office are patriotic Americans," Thomas said. "We got on the phone and on the Internet and invited our friends." News of the funeral even made the local paper. "I really didn't know there would be this many people to come out," Sprayberry said. And come they did, civilians and veterans. An awning built to shade mourners from the hot San Joaquin Valley sun was not big enough to cover everyone. A few brought umbrellas for shade. Many held American flags, some small and some very large and carried on poles. Some brought flowers; one vet held a few yellow roses; another left a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers with a simple message printed on a white ribbon: "Thank you." When the honor guard approached with Barrett's flag-draped casket, civilians put their hands over their hearts. The veterans -- some wearing motorcycle leather and bandanas, some sport shirts and slacks, others donning the suit jackets and pea caps favored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- stood at attention and snapped crisp salutes. They saluted again when the honor guard fired three volleys of seven shots and when the lone bugler played taps. As the guard tightly folded the flag that draped Barrett's casket, a woman in her 20s took cell phone video with one hand and wiped tears with the other. Barrett's ceremony was brief, not much longer than 10 minutes. Axtell's ceremony started shortly after, his ashes carried by the honor guard in a small wooden box. It lasted about as long as the first, with the same volley of shots, taps and salutes. The sergeant of the guard gave Barrett's folded flag to Sprayberry. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who also serves as the county coroner, received Axtell's flag. In the minutes between services, cemetery director Jones asked the crowd whether there were "any family representatives here for Mr. Axtell?" No one came forward. "There were 125, give or take, people here who had no idea who ... Barrett or Axtell were," Jones said. "They didn't know if they were African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian. They didn't even know they were in the Air Force. But they were here." "They're patriotic Americans, and they showed up," Thomas added. "I knew their names and their rank, and that's all I knew," Sprayberry said. "And yet, I was | [
"Who were the veterans who died?",
"Who helped make sure the men got military burials?",
"What would have happened if not fot he coroner's intervention?",
"Who came out to turn their respects?",
"How many air force veterans died?",
"What did the local coroner official make sure happen?",
"What did a small army of men and women do?",
"How many Air Force veterans died in California without next of kin?"
] | [
[
"Ronald Axtell"
],
[
"Lynn Sprayberry,"
],
[
"be placed in a county-owned site,\""
],
[
"a small army of men and women"
],
[
"two"
],
[
"veterans receive a respectful service"
],
[
"gathered to pay their respects"
],
[
"two"
]
] | Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin .
Local coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials .
Without her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility .
Small army of men and women turned out to pay their respects . |
Bali, Indonesia (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta praised China on more than one occasion Sunday during a series of meetings with fellow defense ministers from southeast Asia, but hinted if relations between the United States and China worsen, it could be a threat to "the security of the world."
He said he appreciates China's muted response to the United States announcing a deal last month to sell more arms to Taiwan, and he lauded China for working with its neighbors with regards to the contentious issues involving the South China Sea.
"I would commend them for the way that they've handled the news of that sale to Taiwan, compared to the past," Panetta told reporters after a meeting with Indonesia's defense minister Sunday in Bali.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province. Taiwan began as the remnant of the government that ruled over mainland China, until a Communist uprising proved victorious in 1949.
The $5.3 billion arms package, announced last month, includes upgrades to Taiwan's F-16 fighter fleet.
Last year, a similar deal prompted China to temporarily cut off military to military relations with Americans. This time, aside from some strong objections voiced by Beijing, Panetta said there has been no tangible action taken in response by China. "I've heard nothing that indicates that they're taking any steps in reaction to that," Panetta said.
Part of the reason might be the way the United States government handled the sales. "It was something that the United States had announced but we had given the Chinese a heads up as to what was going to take place," Panetta said. "I think in the end ... they handled it in a professional and diplomatic way and we appreciate that. "
The South China Sea, a body of water east of Vietnam, north of Malaysia and west of the Philippines, has been a source of regional tensions for decades. But because of recent discoveries of massive oil reserves as well as its importance to regional maritime and aviation navigation, tensions have increased recently. Many countries lay claims to the same parts of the sea.
After his meeting with the Indonesian defense minister, Panetta met with defense ministers from all eight member nations of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes all the nations that border the South China Sea, except China.
In remarks prepared for the start of the meeting, Panetta said, "I applaud the July accord between ASEAN and China on implementing guidelines to the 2002 declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea. I would encourage you to maintain this momentum, and continue working towards a binding code of conduct."
But Panetta said there are still some concerns regarding China's military that bear watching.
"Obviously there are some concerns about some of the things they are doing on modernization, there are concerns about some of the things they are doing with some of the more sophisticated weapons that have been developed."
He said China being open and letting the world know what its military is doing is key. "As long as they are transparent, as long as we can discuss these issues on a frank and direct basis then I think we can develop a strong working relationship."
He ended his discussion of China with the reporters on an ominous note about positive relations. "I think it would be in the interest, not only in the interest of both nations, but also in the interest of the security of the world." | [
"What are there concerns about?",
"What is in the interest of globabl security?",
"Which country did the U.S. sell arms to?",
"What is there concern about?",
"What are the concerns from?",
"What did China handle well?",
"What did Panetta say?",
"What is in the interest of global security?",
"What does Panera say about China?"
] | [
[
"China's military"
],
[
"positive relations."
],
[
"Taiwan,"
],
[
"China's military"
],
[
"about some of the things they are doing with some of the more sophisticated weapons that have been developed.\""
],
[
"the United States announcing a deal last month to sell more arms to Taiwan,"
],
[
"he appreciates China's muted response"
],
[
"relations between the United States and China"
],
[
"\"I would commend them for the way that they've handled the news of that sale to Taiwan, compared to the past,\""
]
] | China handled news of U.S. arms sale to Taiwan well, Panetta says .
Still, there are some concerns about China weapons program, he says .
A strong relationship with China is in the interest of global security . |
Bali, Indonesia (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama declared his nine-day Asia-Pacific trip a success on Saturday, returning to the trip's domestic impact after focusing for days on the United States' role in the region and its relationship with China.
In his weekly address, delivered from Bali, Indonesia,Obama said the trip helped cement trade deals that will support nearly 130,000 jobs. Agreements announced to export Boeing aircraft and G.E. engines to the region could increase U.S. exports by up to $39 billion, he said.
"These agreements will help us reach my goal of doubling American exports by 2014 -- a goal we're on pace to meet," he said.
Obama was flying back to the United States on Saturday. He was scheduled to be back in Washington early Sunday.
The administration advertised the trip, which began with a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii, primarily as an effort to shore up to United States' role in the economically important region as a means of helping boost the ailing U.S. economy.
Secondarily, White House officials characterized the trip as an effort to demonstrate its commitment to the region and its allies there as the United States winds down its military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan and China begins to exert its own rising influence.
During the trip, Obama announced an agreement to station U.S. Marines in Australia and held face-to-face meetings with Chinese officials and other leaders on economic and security issues, in addition to participating in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic summit and the East Asia Summit in Indonesia -- a first for a U.S. president, according to the White House.
During the summit, Obama and his counterparts discussed economic issues, disaster response and territorial disputes over the South China Sea, an area critical to maritime shipping and one rich in oil and fish.
China has claimed a significant portion of the South China Sea as its own territorial waters, putting it in conflict with other nations that have made claims on portions of the region.
Sixteen of 18 leaders present at the meeting spoke out strongly against China's stance in what was a productive, but not confrontational meeting, according to a senior administration official. Premier Wen Jiabao told the group that China wants to see the issue resolved peacefully, according to the official.
"I think it was constructive, and one has to believe that the Chinese premier will go back to Beijing with the sense that the center of gravity in the Asia Pacific area is around the adherence to the principle of the rule of law, peaceful resolution, and a constructive, rules-based approach to the resolution of territorial disputes," the official said.
Obama later met with the Chinese premier in a hastily-arranged meeting to continue their discussion on economic issues and the territorial dispute.
Those talks occurred against the backdrop of Chinese consternation over the United States' increasing assertiveness in the region.
An editorial published Friday by the state-controlled Xinhua news agency chided the United States for what it called a willingness to flaunt international rules, even as it insists other countries follow them. It highlighted the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"Today, when the world is still facing many difficult global challenges, the United States needs to first revisit its double standards on international rules and start observing them itself instead of lecturing China." Xinhua said in the editorial.
Obama's last appointment Saturday before leaving for Washington was a meeting with Thailand's first woman prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Obama congratulated Shinawatra on her "inspirational" election win, and offered condolences and assistance to those affected by the flooding in Thailand.
He also described Thailand as one of America's oldest allies and spoke of the two nations' great friendship. When Shinawatra expressed her regret at not having visited the United States, Obama responded by inviting her to Hawaii. | [
"Obama also meets with Chinese premier over what other topics?",
"What will the US benefit out of the deal?",
"When is Obama scheduled to return to Washington?",
"What will deals cemented on the trip support?",
"Obama says deals cemented on the trip will support what?",
"President Barack Obama declares Asia-Pacific trip what?"
] | [
[
"economic and security issues,"
],
[
"doubling American exports by 2014"
],
[
"early Sunday."
],
[
"nearly 130,000 jobs."
],
[
"nearly 130,000 jobs."
],
[
"a success"
]
] | NEW: President Barack Obama declares Asia-Pacific trip a success .
NEW: Obama says deals cemented on the trip will support U.S. jobs and exports .
NEW: Obama also meets with Chinese premier over maritime disputes, economic issues .
NEW: Obama is scheduled to return to Washington early Sunday . |
Baltimore, Maryland (CNN) -- President Obama and House GOP leaders promised greater efforts to step back from the partisan brink Friday, acknowledging that Washington's toxic political climate has made it increasingly tough to tackle major problems.
The pledge was immediately called into question, however, as the two parties repeatedly expressed sharply differing viewpoints during a rare meeting at a House Republican retreat in Baltimore.
Obama accepted an invitation from House GOP leaders to address their caucus. His speech Friday was followed by an often pointed question-and-answer session.
"House Republican leaders are grateful for [Obama's] willingness to come ... and have a frank and honest conversation," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana. "We welcome the dialogue with the president."
The president accused Republicans of frequently mischaracterizing his policy proposals, particularly in the health care debate.
Republicans, in turn, complained the White House and congressional Democrats had ignored their ideas, locked them out of the policy-making process and unfairly labeled them as obstructionists.
"Both sides can take some blame for a sour climate on Capitol Hill," Obama said, adding that Democrats and Republicans need to be careful in choosing their rhetoric. "A ton of civility instead of slash and burn would be helpful."
The president highlighted what he said was problematic GOP rhetoric on his health care proposals. Republicans, he said, had characterized the proposed program as some "kind of Bolshevik plot."
In fact, he said that much of his plan was similar to what Republicans had proposed during the failed Clinton-era push to overhaul health care.
Both sides need to "close the gap a little bit between rhetoric and reality," the president argued. Calling his health care plan "some wild-eyed plot to impose big government in every aspect of our lives" leaves little room for bipartisan negotiation, Obama said.
The president questioned how Republicans could negotiate in good faith after using such rhetoric without exposing themselves to conservative primary challengers.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he tried to be honest about differences over administration proposals.
"I truly believe a government takeover of health care ... is the essence of their bill," Boehner said.
Obama conceded there's been a failure on his part to "try to foster better communications even if there's disagreement."
He has promised regular meetings with GOP leaders in the future. Boehner welcomed the gesture but said it is equally important for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give Republicans a greater role in the legislative process.
Bipartisanship "isn't about taking one little Republican idea and throwing it in a 2,000-page bill," he said after Obama argued that Democratic leaders had taken GOP proposals into account in the health care debate.
"If you're really serious about building a bipartisan product ... you need to do it from the beginning."
Republicans criticized the president for failing to fulfill a promise to televise all the health care negotiations on C-SPAN. Obama called the criticism "legitimate" but noted the overwhelming majority of committee hearings on the legislation had been conducted in front of TV cameras.
After the bills had cleared the committees, however, it became a "messy process," he conceded.
"I take responsibility for not having structured it in a way where it was all taking place in one place that could be filmed," he said.
Obama and Republicans strongly criticized each other on a range of issues tied to taxes and spending.
GOP leaders said Obama's $862 billion stimulus plan had been ineffective and repeatedly urged the president to consider an across-the-board tax cut.
Obama said it would be wrong to slash taxes for the richest Americans or the banking sector in a weak economy. He also argued that the stimulus program had saved key jobs in GOP districts across the country.
"There is not a single person in here who, had it not been for what was in the stimulus package, wouldn't be going home to more teachers laid off, more firefighters laid off, more | [
"Who does Obama blame?",
"Who is to blame for sour climate on Capitol Hill?",
"What does President Obama say?",
"Who is the House Minority Leader?",
"Obama says what?"
] | [
[
"\"Both sides"
],
[
"Hill,\""
],
[
"\"Both sides can take some blame for a sour climate on Capitol Hill,\""
],
[
"John Boehner,"
],
[
"\"Both sides can take some blame for a sour climate on Capitol Hill,\""
]
] | NEW: House Minority Leader John Boehner says the day "went very well"
President Obama says stimulus plan saved jobs in GOP districts .
Obama says some Republicans acted as if health care plan was "some Bolshevik plot"
Obama says Democrats, Republicans both are to blame for "sour climate" on Capitol Hill . |
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