In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

[Q]: The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv underwent emergency surgery after being shot in the back, city officials and police said Monday, amid continuing unrest in the region. The attack on Mayor Gennady Kernes happened around noon local time, the Kharkiv city office official website said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the shooting. After a two-hour operation, Kernes was out of surgery but in critical condition, the city office said. "The surgery was successful. His life-threatening condition is expected to go on for several days," a statement said. "He was unconscious when brought to the hospital." The online statement also said a bullet casing was found at the scene. Police said an investigation unit was trying to determine the circumstances of the shooting. In a major challenge to Kiev's new leaders, armed rebels have captured towns and government buildings across eastern Ukraine and are holding a team of European monitors hostage. Western nations accuse Moscow of supporting the separatist gunmen who are occupying official buildings in cities across the region. Sanctions . The United States on Monday imposed sanctions against seven Russian government officials and 17 companies linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin in its latest action to punish Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. The White House said the seven Russians, including two from Putin's inner circle, are now subject to a freeze on any assets they hold in the United States and a ban on U.S. travel. In addition, the United States will deny export license applications for any high-technology items that could contribute to Russian military capabilities. The Commerce and State departments will revoke any existing export licenses that meet these conditions, the White House said in a statement. "The sanctions build on the ones that were already in place. We're moving forward with an expanded list of individuals," U.S. President Barack Obama earlier told reporters in Manila, Philippines. The move, Obama said, was to spur Putin to "walk the walk, not just talk the talk" in resolving the crisis in Ukraine. If the latest round of sanctions does not work, the next phase could target economic sectors like banking, Obama said. The European Union also announced Monday that it was imposing sanctions on 15 people who are "responsible for actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine." A list of the people targeted by the latest sanctions will be published Tuesday and will go into effect at the same time, the Council of the European Union said. The sanctions will include asset freezes and travel bans. U.S. and Russian defense secretaries speak . U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke on the phone with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday. According to a Pentagon description of their conversation, Shoigu "reiterated his assurance that Russian forces would not invade Ukraine." Hagel, the Pengaton said, called for an end to what he described as "Russia's destabilizing influence inside Ukraine" and "warned that continued aggression would further isolate Russia and result in more diplomatic and economic pressure." The Russian government's description of the call said Shoigu "definitively denied the groundless allegations of the presence of Russian sabotage and military intelligence groups on Ukrainian territory" and criticized what he called "anti-Russian hysteria recently unleashed in the Western press." He also criticized what he said was an "unprecedented" increase in activity of U.S. and NATO troops in Eastern Europe near the Russian border, according to the Russian government's description of the call. Ukrainian soldier killed . A homemade bomb exploded near Ukrainian soldiers who were in the eastern Donetsk region Monday, killing one and injuring another, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said. The death came days after Ukrainian forces said they killed five pro-Russian militants in an operation to clear roadblocks near the city of Slavyansk last week. Police are investigating Monday's blast, the Defense Ministry said. A CNN team covering a pro-Ukraine rally in Donetsk watched violence unfold Monday as pro-Russian separatists wielding batons beat demonstrators who said they wanted to see a united Ukraine. Observer freed . Pro-Russian separatists holding a European military observer team in eastern Ukraine released one of the observers for medical reasons Sunday, shortly after parading them before cameras. At least seven of the inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe appeared at a news conference staged by Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the self-declared mayor of Slavyansk, who referred to them as "prisoners of war." The freed observer was from Sweden and had been suffering from diabetes, Ponomarev spokeswoman Stella Khorosheva told CNN. Michael Bociurkiw, an OSCE spokesman in Kiev, called it "a welcome development." The monitors were seized Friday outside Slavyansk, one of the flashpoints in the standoff between Ukraine's interim government and pro-Russian factions challenging its authority in the east. They said that although they have diplomatic status, they went along with Sunday's news conference because the mayor asked them to. Germany strongly criticized the group's appearance before the media. The "parading of OSCE observers and Ukrainian security forces as prisoners is abhorrent and a flagrant violation of their human dignity," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement. He added that Russia had a duty to "influence" the separatists so that the other members of the mission could be freed as soon as possible. Putin has repeatedly criticized what he says is Kiev's use of force against Ukrainian civilians.
[A]: The European Union announces it's imposing sanctions on 15 people .
Defense ministers from the United States and Russia discuss Ukraine .
U.S. imposes sanctions against 7 Russians, 17 companies linked to Putin .
The mayor of Kharkiv is in critical condition after emergency surgery .


[Q]: (CNN) -- The historic measure to regulate and tax marijuana in Washington State deserves to be looked at closely as a model of how legalization ought to be designed and implemented elsewhere in America. We've turned a significant corner with the approval of Initiative 502, which purposefully offers a true public health alternative to the criminal prohibition of pot. For the first time in a very long time, the well-intended but failed criminal penalties to protect public health and safety will be set aside. Adults who choose to use marijuana and obtain it through legal outlets will no longer be faced with the threat of criminal sanctions. People of color will no longer face the egregious inequities in how marijuana criminal penalties are imposed. Parents, as they help prepare their children for the choices they face concerning marijuana, will no longer be hobbled by misinformation about the drug and the absence of effective supports to encourage abstinence. "The great experiment" of alcohol prohibition became the national law in 1920. Its intentions were good, but it failed in a number of vitally important ways. In 1923, the state of New York repealed its alcohol prohibition law. Ten other states soon followed, and in 1933 national Prohibition ended. I believe Washington state has just played that pivotal role with regard to marijuana. Moreover, by borrowing from public health model principles known to be effective, the state has offered the most compelling replacement to prohibition considered to date. What is a public health model? In brief, it's an approach that acknowledges use of marijuana can present harms to the user and to public safety, and includes provisions to prevent or ameliorate those harms. A public health model includes six key elements. Washington state's new law incorporates each of them. The first is accountable oversight by an agency of government. The Washington state legalization model assigns responsibility to a state agency for writing regulations concerning how the growing, producing and selling of marijuana will occur. Among those regulations are tight limitations on advertising and the prevention of access to marijuana by minors. Then, that agency will have the authority to issue licenses to growers, producers and sellers and to enforce adherence to the rules. The second element is a well-funded multifaceted marijuana education program that is based on science rather than ideology. Far too few Americans are sufficiently informed about marijuana's effects on health and behavior, both the positive and the negative. A key to good decision-making is possessing accurate information. The third element is well-funded prevention programs widely available to all the state's geographical and demographic communities. We've learned a great deal about what knowledge, skills and community supports actually work in helping young people navigate a world in which drugs such as marijuana are readily available. Sadly, far too little funding has been devoted to putting such programs to work in our communities. A fourth element is making treatment of marijuana dependence readily available. The new law dedicates funding to establish a statewide Marijuana Help Line. It also earmarks funding to state, county and local governments for the provision of services for those in need of help. Evaluation of the new law's impact is the fifth element. An independent state agency will receive funding to conduct periodic assessments of how the new system affects behaviors, attitudes and knowledge. Using the findings of these evaluative studies, the state agency overseeing the pricing and taxing of marijuana can adjust those costs to maximize undercutting of the black market and deterrence of youth access to marijuana. The sixth element is research. The new law earmarks funding to the state's two major research universities for the purpose of conducting marijuana-focused studies. As we gradually learn how to live more healthfully and safely with marijuana, the knowledge derived from those studies will inform education, prevention, treatment and refinements in the law. In more than 40 years of research -- primarily marijuana dependence counseling interventions for adults and adolescents -- it has seemed to me that prohibition has hindered more than it has helped good decision-making. Far too many teens think smoking pot is "no big deal," greatly underestimating the risk of being derailed from social, psychological and educational attainment. Far too many adults don't take seriously enough the risk of marijuana dependence that accompanies very frequent use. We can do better. By regulating and taxing marijuana based on a set of strong public health principles, I believe our cultural norms concerning marijuana will shift and the harms we've witnessed will greatly reduce. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roger A. Roffman.
[A]: On Tuesday, voters in Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana .
Roger Roffman: Washington state's historical measure deserve close attention .
He says the state has offered the most compelling replacement to prohibition to date .
Roffman: Prohibition has hindered more than it has helped good decision-making .


[Q]: New York (CNN) -- Like so many other people of my generation, John Lennon and the Beatles made an indelible stamp on my life. The very first piece of vinyl I actually owned -- and hadn't borrowed from my older brother -- was the album "Help!" To this day, I can remember at the age of 8 dropping the needle on the disc and hearing Lennon's voice roar through the 10-inch speaker on my record player. The Beatles had a profound influence on me. They're the reason why I picked up a guitar, formed a band at age 11 and dreamed of a life as a rock star. Fast-forward 16 years to December 8, 1980. At the time, I was a music journalist for City TV in Toronto, Canada, hosting "The New Music" program. Just a couple of weeks earlier, we had reported on Lennon's comeback with the album "Double Fantasy," which marked his re-emergence after five years out of the music business as a self-proclaimed "househusband." We were actively working with his record company, trying to set up an interview for a future edition of the program. I was not far from my 24th birthday when the telephone rang on that December day around 11:30 p.m. It was my executive producer, John Martin. "Lennon has been shot,"he said, "and we need to do a special." Tell us where you were when Lennon died . It was one of those moments where time seems to slow down and the mind considers a hundred questions before finally settling on the truth: . How could he have been shot? Are the reports mistaken? Who would do such a thing? How could we lose such a pop culture icon? Didn't he just turn 40? Didn't he have a young son? Didn't he have security? Will I wake up and this will all have been just a dream? We gathered that night in our offices to sift through the material that we had: old Beatles footage, a Lennon documentary that my producer shot years earlier, and the famous D.A. Pennebaker film. We collected the names of friends, collaborators and other acquaintances who could help us tell the Lennon story. A day or two later, City TV aired a live broadcast of a memorial to Lennon at Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto's City Hall. Canada had a rich history with Lennon: It was there that he made his post-Beatles debut with the Plastic Ono Band in 1969 and staged his famous North American bed-in in Montreal. Next Wednesday marks 30 years since Lennon's murder. His killer, Mark David Chapman, 55, is still serving his prison sentence of 20 years to life at the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He will stay there for at least another two years as he was just denied parole for the sixth time. This weekend, CNN will examine the events leading up to Lennon's killing. Chapman and his wife, Gloria Abe, describe the murder in rare audio recordings that will debut on CNN's "Losing Lennon: Countdown To Murder." Chapman's childhood friends reveal an obsessive idolization of Lennon that later turned to hatred. His wife talks about how she knew that her husband planned to kill Lennon and explains why she didn't warn anyone. The impact of Lennon's death still reverberates today. Several tribute concerts and ceremonies started in October, when Lennon would have turned 70, and have carried on since. This year, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, revived the Plastic Ono Band with current rock stars including Lady Gaga. Ono told Rolling Stone she believes this rekindling of interest in Lennon "has to do with the social climate, with wanting some of John's energy, power and conviction." Lennon's profound influence on music and musicians continues to this day. Marc Roberge, the lead singer of alt-rockers O.A.R., was not even 2 years old when Lennon was killed. Roberge penned the recent song "Dakota" after stopping by Lennon's old apartment building with his wife. He was so taken with the images that came to mind as he looked into the entranceway where Lennon was shot that he walked across Central Park West, sat down on a park bench and penned these lyrics: . Outside the archway lies a thief, awaiting Double Fantasy . He's something evil underneath . Outside Dakota died the symphony . "I watched and I tried to imagine this going down," Roberge told me. "And then I tried to imagine what if it never happened, and that's really the question of the song: 'If you just kept walking on your way.' I mean, would the world be different? And I think the world would be better." Like Roberge, I've often wondered what would have happened had Lennon not been murdered. Would the world have been a better place? There's certainly every possibility that his commitment to peace would have added something substantive to the global conversation. At the very least, we would have had years more of great music and performance from a man who was truly an artistic genius. Watch American Morning weekdays 6am to 9am ET. For the latest from American Morning click here.
[A]:
CNN's John Roberts is the anchor of "American Morning"
He recalls learning of Lennon's death as a music journalist in Canada .
This week marks the 30th anniversary of Lennon's slaying .