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(CNN) -- An American woman died aboard a cruise ship that docked at Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, the same ship on which 86 passengers previously fell ill, according to the state-run Brazilian news agency, Agencia Brasil. The American tourist died aboard the MS Veendam, owned by cruise operator Holland America. Federal Police told Agencia Brasil that forensic doctors were investigating her death. The ship's doctors told police that the woman was elderly and suffered from diabetes and hypertension, according the agency. The other passengers came down with diarrhea prior to her death during an earlier part of the trip, the ship's doctors said. The Veendam left New York 36 days ago for a South America tour.

The elderly woman suffered from diabetes and hypertension, ship's doctors say . Previously, 86 passengers had fallen ill on the ship, Agencia Brasil says .

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(CNN) -- The Army sergeant who admitted to gunning down 16 civilians in a 2012 rampage through two villages near his outpost in southern Afghanistan is expected to take the stand at his sentencing hearing and will apologize. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty in June to more than 30 criminal charges, including 16 premeditated murder counts. The plea spares the 39-year-old Bales the prospect of a death sentence in the killings. He now faces life in prison, but a jury of four officers and two enlisted personnel will decide whether he will have a chance at parole. "Yes, Bob will take (the) stand ... Yes, Bob will apologize," Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne said in an e-mail to CNN. Bales admitted to slipping away from his outpost in southern Afghanistan and going on a house-to-house killing spree in two nearby villages in March 2012, a massacre that further strained ties between American troops and their Afghan allies. Afghanistan shootings Fast Facts . But he has not offered an explanation for his actions. "I've asked that question a million times since then. There's not a good reason in the world for the horrible things I did," Bales said when he pleaded guilty, according to Drew Mikkelson of CNN affilliate KING, who was tweeting from the courtroom. Mikkelson also tweeted from the sentencing hearing, which began this week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington. So far, a number of Afghan civilians have taken the stand for the prosecution to talk about what they saw and survived. Haji Mohammed Wazir lost 11 relatives -- his wife, mother, two brothers, a 13-year-old nephew and six of his seven children -- according to KING. "My life has never been the same," Wazir told the jury. It's been more than a year since the massacre, but Wazir said: "I feel like it's happening right now," the affiliate reported. KING's Mikkelson tweeted that a 12-year-old boy who survived the rampage testified about seeing his father and sister get shot. Another witness broke down on the stand and cried out: "For God's sake, don't ask me any more questions," Mikkelson wrote. In addition to the murder counts, Bales pleaded guilty to six counts of attempted murder, seven of assault and the use of illicit steroids and alcohol. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice. Bales is a member of the Army's 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, an element of the 2nd Infantry Division. His attorneys have said the service made a mistake in assigning Bales to another combat tour despite evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury suffered during a combat tour in Iraq. CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales admitted to gunning down 16 civilians . The plea spares the 39-year-old Bales the prospect of a death sentence . A jury will decide whether he will have a chance at parole . Afghan civilians have been called to testify about what they saw, survived .

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(CNN) -- Could search crews be just a few hundred feet from solving a mystery that has riveted millions for 76 years? That's the question raised by tantalizing evidence published this week by teams trying to find out what happened to famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished along with navigator Fred Noonan during a doomed attempt to fly around the world in 1937. Yet that evidence has been met with skepticism in some quarters. Debate about the mystery gained new currency this week after researchers publicized images recorded by search teams scanning the ocean floor nearly a year ago near Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery raised the prospect of a big break in the case by publishing an image online. It showed something -- hard for the layman to size up -- on the ocean floor. The group said, "It's the right size, it's the right shape and it's in the right place." Could it really be a piece of Earhart's Lockheed Electra plane? Louise Foudray, caretaker and historian of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas, chose her words carefully on Friday afternoon. "We don't want to shrug off the hard work anyone is doing. We do like the idea that people are still interested," she said. "But we're skeptical." Opinion: Will mystery of Earhart be solved? She said there have been other theories that have emerged. One is that Earhart's plane was forced down by the Japanese around the Marshall Islands. Another is that Earhart secretly returned to the United States and the government gave her a new identity. There are people out there who buy those theories. But in reality, Foudray said, "no one has yet to come up with anything conclusive." It wasn't until March that one analyst made a possible connection to Earhart in an online forum for the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. The group said experts have offered various interpretations. Some think the sonar image could be a man-made object, and others say it could be a geologic feature. Earhart: The evidence we almost lost . "So did (last summer's) expedition actually succeed in locating the wreckage of the world's most famous missing airplane? Or is this sonar target just a coral rock or ridge?" the organization says on its website. "Of course we're not going to know until we can get back out there, but until then the anomaly is worth close study." Richard Fredricks, executive director of the American Salvage Association, a trade group, said that "almost anything is possible" these days with advanced technology. And that includes locating a lost airplane. He cited technology such as side-scan sonar and magnetometers but said finding a lost plane such as the Earhart craft is "more a function of funding than technology." Money is needed to invest in expeditions, he said. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery on its website is asking for contributions to continue its work. Foudray said she's heard all of the evidence and nothing solid has risen to the surface. And that includes the latest foray into the South Pacific deep. "We don't expect anything," she said. Photo may be key to finding what happened to aviator .

A grainy sonar image has been spotted, an aircraft recovery group says . Historian at Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum skeptical of anything conclusive showing up . Technology today is advanced enough to locate a plane, a trade association official says .

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(CNN) -- Alexandre Vinokourov claimed Kazakhstan's first medal at the London Olympics with gold in Saturday's men's cycling road race. Much fancied home favorite Mark Cavendish finished a disappointing 29th as the British team struggled to meet pre-race expectations. Colombia's Rigoberto Uran took the silver, while bronze went to Alexander Kristoff from Norway. The 38-year-old Vinokourov, who served a two-year ban for blood doping between 2007 and 2009, announced after the race that he may retire from the sport after Wednesday's cycling time trial. "I will still race in the time trial on Wednesday but I have the gold medal I wanted and after that I will consider retiring," said the Kazakh cyclist. World champion Cavendish had been strongly tipped to finally claim the Olympic medal that had eluded him at the 2008 Games in Beijing, where he was the only member of Britain's track cycling team to return from the games without a medal. Despite the British team having control of the peloton throughout the race, they struggled to close the gap on the lead group and Cavendish was nowhere in sight as Vinokourov out sprinted Uran to the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace. "There was a group of 22 who got away and we couldn't pull them back," said Cavendish. "I can be proud of how the lads rode. They have got nothing left in the tank. Cavendish's hopes appeared to have been boosted when rival Swiss sprinter Fabian Cancellara crashed, but the peloton could not close on the leading group. With just under 10km to the finish line -- and a handy time advantage of 50 seconds -- the leading pack looked to be preparing for a sprint finish, but Uran made a break for it, and surprisingly Vinokourov was the only rider to respond. As the two riders rounded the final corner, the Kazakh made the most of his rival slowing to look back to check for pursuers and launched a sprint to the line. It was quickly clear that the Colombian had no answer to the Kazakh's attack and Vinokourov had a big enough lead to ride across the line with his arms aloft.

Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov wins gold . Colombian Rigoberto Uran claimed silver, Norway's Alexander Kirstoff bronze . World champion Mark Cavendish finishes a disappointing 29th .

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(CNN) -- A rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 321 civilians and abducted 250 others -- including at least 80 children -- in a previously unreported rampage late last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Saturday. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) carried out the brutal campaign in northeastern Congo over four days in December, the report said. LRA forces attacked at least 10 villages from December 14 to 17, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians -- including women and children, according to Human Rights Watch. LRA combatants tied up villagers in the nation's remote Makombo area and hacked them to death with machetes or crushed their skulls with axes and heavy wooden sticks, the report said. Most of those killed were adult men, but at least 13 women and 23 children were among the dead -- including a 3-year-old girl who was burned to death, according to Human Rights Watch. The LRA also killed those they abducted who walked too slowly or tried to escape, Human Rights Watch said. According to those who managed to escape, children captured by the LRA were forced to kill other children who had disobeyed the LRA's rules, the report said. In numerous cases, children were ordered to surround the victim in a circle and take turns beating the child on the head with a large wooden stick until the child died, the report said. "The Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history, yet it has gone unreported for months," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The four-day rampage demonstrates that the LRA remains a serious threat to civilians and is not a spent force, as the Ugandan and Congolese governments claim." CNN could not independently confirm the massacre. Human Rights Watch said that the roughly 1,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops in LRA-affected parts of northeastern Congo are insufficient to protect civilians. The peacekeeping force is considering removing some troops from the area under pressure from the Congolese government, a move Human Rights Watch warned against on Saturday. The U.N. Security Council is planning to visit Congo in mid-April to discuss the peacekeeping force's plans for withdrawal and the protection of civilians, Human Rights Watch said. The Congolese government denies that the LRA is still a serious threat in the country, which may have contributed to the absence of reports about the December massacre, Human Rights Watch said. "We have been forgotten," an 80-year-old Congolese man whose son was killed during the massacre told Human Rights Watch. "It's as if we don't exist." "The government says the LRA are no longer a problem, but I know that's not true," he said. "I beg of you, please talk to others about what has happened to us." The LRA is led by self-declared mystic and prophet Joseph Kony, who claims his insurgency -- which began in 1986 -- is aimed at replacing Uganda's government, led by President Yoweri Museveni, with a democracy based on the Bible's Ten Commandments. After being pushed out of Uganda in 2005, the LRA now operates in the remote border area between southern Sudan, Congo, and Central African Republic. In 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for senior LRA leaders for crimes they committed in northern Uganda, but those indicted remain at large. The two commanders who perpetrated the December massacre report to one of those indicted leaders, according to Human Rights Watch. The Makombo massacre is the deadliest documented attack by the LRA since killing sprees around Christmas 2008 left scores of Congolese dead, but dozens of other attacks against civilians have been carried out in other areas in recent months, Human Rights Watch said.

A rebel group in Congo killed at least 321 civilians, Human Rights Watch said . The Lord's Resistance Army abducted 250 others including 80 children, the report said . LRA forces attacked at least 10 villages from December 14 to 17, the report claimed . CNN could not independently confirm reports of the massacre .

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(CNN) -- World number one Caroline Wozniacki suffered another morale-sapping defeat at the French Open as she was dumped out by 28th seed Daniela Hantuchova. The Dane, who is yet to win a Grand Slam tournament, was beaten 6-1 6-3 in just 73 minutes to extend her miserable run at Roland Garros. Her best performance in Paris was reaching the quarterfinals in 2009 and she struggled against Hantuchova, from Slovakia, who was competing in her 41st major. Hantuchova reeled off nine straight games to seal the opening set and take a commanding lead in the second but Woznaicki offered herself hope when she secured her first break to reduce the deficit to 4-2. But Hantuchova held serve twice to seal one of the biggest victories of her career and set up a meeting with 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last 16, after she beat Canadian Rebecca Marino 6-0 6-4. "She played very well today, better than me for sure," Wozniacki told a press conference. "She knew what she wanted to do and I need to get back on the court and practice and come back stronger. "Kim had a tough loss yesterday and I had a tough loss today and that's what can happen. Since we are number one and two we must be doing something right. "I am young and I get experience every time and you learn more from your losses than from your wins." After Wozniacki's exit, and Kim Clijsters defeat on Thursday, the trend for upsets continued as Australian 8th seed Samantha Stosur was beaten by unseeded Gisela Dulko. The Argentine set the tone by taking the first four games of the match, and though she dropped the second set, Stosur's 35 unforced errors counted as Dulko wrapped up the match. Afterwards, she told a press conference she was dedicating her victory to her brother's twins, Myla and Teo, who were born overnight. "Yesterday night I was awake really late," she said. "You know, it was very emotional, because I would have loved to be there, but I'm here. The key to the match was to start well, to be aggressive from the start," Stosur added: "She seemed to be out ahead a little bit better and really kind of be the one dictating the points, which, for me, I'm usually the one able to do that." Elsewhere, defending champion and fifth seed, Francesca Schiavone, from Italy, had no such trouble making the fourth round after her Chinese opponent Shuai Peng retired hurt with the score at 6-3 1-2. Russian third seed Vera Zvonareva beat Anastasia Rodionova, from Austria, 6-2 6-3 and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 14th seed, triumphed over Nuria Llagostera Vives, from Spain, 3-6 6-3 6-3. Serb Jelena Jankovic, the 10th seed, beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands, from the United States, 6-2 6-2, while 11th seed Marion Bartoli, from France, beat Julia Goerges, from Germany, 3-6 6-2 6-4.

Caroline Wozniacki beaten at the French Open by Daniela Hantuchova . World number one loses 6-1 6-3 in just 73 minutes at Roland Garros . Australian 8th seed Samantha Stosur dumped out by Gisela Dulko . Defending champion Francesca Schiavone through as Shuai Peng retires hurt .

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(CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has survived another attempt to oust her from the job after no challengers emerged to vie for the leadership of the governing party and the country. In a short statement after the vote, Gillard said she accepted the support of her colleagues "with a sense of deep humility and a sense of resolve." She said that leadership uncertainty that had been blighting the party in recent months was settled "in the most conclusive fashion possible." One hundred Labor caucus members had been due to vote, but in the end, no votes were cast because there were no candidates beyond Gillard for prime minister, and Wayne Swan as her deputy. "There was no vote because there were no opposing candidates," said ALP returning officer Chris Hayes. "It puts beyond doubt the question of leadership in the Australian Labor Party," he added. Minutes before the meeting of Australian Labor Party (ALP) caucus members, former leader Kevin Rudd made it clear that he would not be pitting himself against his former rival. "I'm not prepared to dishonor my word," he told reporters. He was referring to comments he made last February after mounting an unsuccessful bid to depose Gillard. At the time he said he wouldn't try again. Rudd lost that poll 31 to Gillard's 71, but the decisive vote failed to end speculation about a leadership challenge amid a poor performance by the prime minister in public polls. Gillard called the vote for 4:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) after being pushed by long-time Labor minister Simon Crean. Crean called a press conference and dramatically challenged Rudd to stand up and bring an end to bitter infighting. "I don't want any more games, I'm sick to death of it, it's about time he stood up and instead of having his camp leak things, actually have the courage of his conviction and his beliefs," Crean said. Before the vote, Crean said he wouldn't be nominating himself as leader, but would take the job of deputy. Until Thursday, he was Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, and Minister for the Arts. An uneasy tension has existed between Rudd and Gillard since his former deputy staged a successful bid to replace him in June 2010. Soon after, she assigned him to the post of foreign minister. Gillard reinforced her claim to power by winning a general election in August 2010. However the vote produced the first hung parliament in Australia since 1940. The Welsh-born politician secured enough support from the Australian Greens Party, and independents, to form a minority government. However last month, the Greens pulled their support, with leader Christine Milne accusing the Gillard government of ''walking away from its agreement with the Greens and into the arms of the big miners.'' The parties clashed over a number of issues, not least a controversial mining tax and a move by the government to reject World Heritage Listing for the Tarkine wilderness in north west Tasmania. In January, Gillard surprised the country by calling an election for September 14, the longest lead time for an Australian election in history. At the time, experts warned the tactic could backfire.

NEW: Gillard says leadership issue settled conclusively . No challenges emerged to contest Australian leadership . Kevin Rudd said he wouldn't stand against Julia Gillard . Prime Minister Gillard called leadership vote for Thursday .

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(CNN) -- Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a reality TV contestant suspected in his wife's slaying, was found hanging from a coat rack in a motel room in an apparent suicide, according to Canadian officials. Police were hunting for Ryan Alexander Jenkins after the death of Jasmine Fiore. Staff at a motel in Hope, British Columbia, found Jenkins dead, officials said. "It was a man hanging by a belt from a coat rack," Kevin Walker, the manager of the budget Thunderbird Motel, told CNN affiliate CTV on Sunday. Walker said a woman, about 20 to 25 years old, dropped off Jenkins at the motel on Friday in a silver Chrysler PT Cruiser with Alberta tags. Police have not been able to identify the woman. Watch how suspect found in hotel » . Earlier Sunday, Canadian authorities said they had credible information that Jenkins was in Canada and called on him to turn himself in. He was believed to be armed and dangerous. Watch what led police to hotel room » . The nude body of Jenkins' wife, former swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore, was found last weekend in Orange County, California. CNN has not confirmed reports that the marriage was annulled. Fiore's body was found last Saturday in a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim, California. Her teeth had been extracted and fingers removed in what police said was an apparent attempt to conceal her identity. Law enforcement sources have told CNN that Fiore was identified through the serial numbers on her breast implants. Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive in San Diego at a poker game with Jenkins, the night before the body was found. Jenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said. The body was identified Monday as Fiore. While the cause of death had not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicated she was strangled. According to court records in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jenkins was charged in June with battery for allegedly striking Fiore in the arm with his fist. And in 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to assault in a separate case. He was sentenced to 15 months probation, ordered to undergo counseling for domestic violence and sex addiction and to stay away from the person involved, according to court records. Jenkins, who appeared on the VH1 show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," is from Calgary. 51Minds, which produced "Megan Wants a Millionaire," said Thursday in a written statement that it "was not aware of Ryan Jenkins' record when it cast him. "The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows," it said. "Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case. 51 Minds is investigating what went wrong and taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never occurs again." CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.

Body of Ryan Jenkins found hanged in British Columbia hotel, police say . Authorities say preliminary evidence points to suicide . Body of Jasmine Fiore, 28, found stuffed into a suitcase inside a dumpster . Her teeth were extracted, fingers removed, making it harder to identify body .

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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- In the decade since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, local movie-makers have faced daunting changes in the industry. A trend of fewer films being produced each year in Hong Kong at the time of the handover has continued into the 21st century. Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" is one of Hong Kong's all-time top-grossing films. People in Hong Kong's industry point to several causes for the comparatively leaner times: a lack of opportunities for new acting talent, inadequate training and schooling for people who produce movies and changing tastes within the Hong Kong public. At the same time, local film-makers have had to refocus their cameras for a new audience: mainland China. "The Hong Kong film industry came to a rude awakening [in the late 1990s] that the world was changing faster than it was in the age of new delivery systems for home entertainment and the Internet," says Bede Cheng, a local film archivist and curator. "Unfortunately, it seemed to be blinded by the 'golden age' of the '80s, where any film could easily rack in over $1.3 million." The box office numbers are sobering. In the early 1990s, Hong Kong released around 200 local features a year. By 1997, that number dropped to 85 films grossing $69 million, according to the Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Motion Picture Industry Association (MPIA). By 2006, those figures slumped to 51 films grossing $37 million. Ten years ago, the top 10 grossing films accounted for 47 percent of the total box-office return; today, the portion is 58 percent. "1997, unfortunately, coincides with the beginning of the collapse of the local film industry -- a well-documented fact," says screenwriter Jimmy Ngai. "On the other hand, it also commenced the opening up of the mainland market. "The result is that the industry has grown more and more accustomed to looking north for both investment and box return -- nothing political, but more of a survival instinct. What needs not to be spelt out for film-makers venturing north is that one plays according to what goes with the territory." The new Chinese market has translated into an emphasis in contrasts of Hong Kong-made films, says film archivist Cheng. "Today production is down, with many majors like Chinastar and Golden Harvest scaling back," he says. "Most films are high-end productions with big stars, or low-end made with a shoestring budget for an easier return. "The number of screens is also down, with the consolidation of more multiplexes, usually owned or partly owned by distributors, which already have a steady supply of foreign films to fill the screens. Some once video distributors like Mei Ah and Universe have gone into production as a way to keep the pipeline flowing." In 2006, Hong Kong closed five small cinemas and re-opened one multiplex. Gary Mak, director of Broadway Cinematheque -- Hong Kong's last-remaining alternative-screening venue -- remains optimistic about more adventurous programming and distribution. But Mak points to a shortage of creativity in the local industry. "No talents, no formal training, in most areas such as script-writing, directing, acting, etc," he says. "Even the independent scene still needs more real talents -- or at least, real producers to pull together a really good project." Tim Youngs, Hong Kong consultant for Italy's Far East Film Festival, says changing tastes among Hong Kong movie-goers has also affected the industry. "Audiences have become increasingly dismissive of local movies, often referring to them as poor quality, and there are much fewer paying cinemagoers these days. "So the hometown audience shows less support for local movies, whether by not seeing local films or opting for piracy, while the declining number of films means less opportunities for film-makers, fewer chances to try out new things, and damage to confidence." Elizabeth Kerr, film critic and curator formerly based in Seoul, South Korea, agrees with Youngs' assessment. "For all the risk-taking businessmen out there [in Hong Kong], no one is willing to put their money where their mouth is and throw in some support. "The industry for the most part suffers from the cleave between that fluff -- which makes money -- and the more adult film-making of the smaller studios, distributors and indies." How is South Korea's film industry different from its Hong Kong counterpart? "The drive to attain world adoration," Kerr says. "Koreans truly believe they're making great art all the time. South Korea launched an active campaign on all levels -- corporate, government, education -- to train and cultivate a modern film industry." Still, Kerr sees reason for optimism. Films that best retain a Hong Kong style, Kerr maintains, likely carry "Category III" (under 18 not allowed) ratings: Movies that are "grown up and smart," she says. "Even if the films don't work, someone tried." In the end, it may be culture that poses one of the greatest challenges for Hong Kong's movie industry. "Around 1997, like lots of Hong Kong people, I kind of lost myself," says independent film-maker Chan Wing-chiu. "The film industry was already almost dead in the '90s. Why work for a sunset industry?" Chan's own first feature in 2005, "A Side, B Side, Sea Side," includes a scene with a gaggle of girls on Hong Kong's Cheung Chau island who are unable to communicate in Chinese with an Australian man speaking fluent Mandarin. The two parties end up conversing in English. "That's me," says Chan, referring to the girls. "I speak English better than Putonghua [China's official common language, also known as Mandarin]. Many Chinese say that now that Hong Kong is part of China, Hong Kong people must learn Putonghua. I disagree. In Hong Kong we all speak Cantonese. Hong Kong already has a bad reputation for Putonghua, but I don't feel ashamed. I'm proud to have grown up during the transition between 1997 and SAR. "Why do we have so many problems with China? Because our language, our culture, our values, our way of thinking are different. So we are not good at speaking Putonghua. Even in the cinema, we see Western movies, Japanese movies, Korean movies... but not many Chinese movies." Adds independent director Yan-yan Mak: "We are monsters. China says: 'You are not Chinese.' Gweilos [Hong Kong slang for Caucasians] say: 'You are Chinese.' After 1997, we lost the confidence to be Hong Kong people." E-mail to a friend .

Hong Kong film production has dropped almost 75 percent since early 1990s . Mainland investment and market influences quality of Hong Kong films . Problems include few opportunities for new talents and little audience support .

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Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Bomb blasts in Pakistan rocked three police buildings near Lahore, police told CNN on Wednesday. Police chief Ghulam Mehmood Dogar said the three bombs were planted on Tuesday night at a police station, an office of a senior police official and a police barracks. They were detonated by remote control this morning in the city of Gujranwala, 70 kilometers northwest of Lahore, Dogar said. Three police officers were injured and parts of the buildings were damaged. The first two explosions happened within 30 minutes of one another, and the third bomb was detonated about three hours later. Gujranwala has been largely free of the militant violence plaguing parts of Pakistan. Police said there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. On Monday, two people were injured when in back to back explosions at police stations in the southern port city of Karachi. Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report .

Gujranwala has been largely free of the militant violence . Three police officers were injured . The explosives were detonated by remote control .

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(CNN)Manchester City and Ivory Coast football star Yaya Toure has called on the media to be more respectful in its attitude towards religion after the Charlie Hebdo attack. Twelve people were killed by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi at the French satirical magazine's offices last week, with the gunmen reportedly yelling, "We have avenged the Prophet" while carrying out the attack. While Toure -- a Muslim himself -- advocates freedom of speech, he feels news outlets also have responsibilities. "As a Muslim I always believe in the way people can say what they want to say," he told CNN's Amanda Davies. "But for me, the most important thing is that we know something that sometimes the newspaper is doing a lot -- and they're trying to do too much, and sometimes they do it not with respect." "Everybody has his point of view -- everybody has something to say about that," Toure added. "Of course it's a newspaper trying to say something. But sometimes it hurts people." Depicting Mohammed is offensive to many Muslims and the magazine's past cartoons of the prophet apparently motivated the attackers in last week's slaughter. The City midfielder says he was disappointed to hear of the attack on Charlie Hebdo -- and he now fears for the safety of his Muslim friends in the French capital. Currently on international duty with Ivory Coast ahead of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations which begins this week, Toure spent a season playing in the French Ligue 1 with Monaco in 2006-07. "When you hear something like that it's a bit disappointing," he said, referring to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. "I feel very sorry for the families -- they lost their friend, father, or their husband, you know. "Of course I have a friend in Paris, I have people who I work with. You get a bit confused, a bit afraid, because, as a Muslim, I have a friend and they are Muslim as well and I'm afraid of what is going to happen." The latest Charlie Hebdo issue has also been highly controversial, largely because on its cover is an illustration of a tearful Prophet Mohammed, holding up an "I am Charlie" sign accompanied by the words "All is forgiven." The new cover was met with mixed emotions -- with some calling it a bold example of free speech and others criticizing it as needlessly offensive to Muslims.

Yaya Toure believes newspapers must depict religion in a more respectful way . Toure fears for the safety of his Muslim friends in Paris . The Manchester City midfielder is currently with Ivory Coast ahead of the Africa Nations Cup .

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(CNN) -- The phenomenal success of "Modern Family" has been a game changer for its entire cast, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The show's high ratings, three consecutive Emmy wins for outstanding comedy series and broad fan base have given all its stars a massive platform. Ferguson is using his for a cause that's both political and personal: the fight to legalize same-sex marriage. The 37-year-old Montana native doesn't just play Mitch, a gay man in a loving, committed relationship on TV; in a way, he is Mitch. After dating for more than two years, Ferguson and his boyfriend, Justin Mikita, decided to take the next step. During a recent trip to Mexico, Ferguson "popped the big Q." Mikita said yes. After much consideration and debate, the newly engaged couple decided to go public with their private news, not because they don't enjoy their privacy -- they certainly do -- but because in doing so they knew they could shine a light on a cause dear to their hearts. Ferguson and Mitka started the Tie the Knot foundation. Its mission is simple: sell bow ties to raise money for marriage equality. The "Modern Family" actor recently spoke with CNN about his organization. CNN: When you go to www.tietheknot.org, the first thing you see is a hilarious video of you and Justin announcing your engagement. Jesse Tyler Fergusson: I feel like when you tackle any subject with comedy, humor and wits, you're going to get a lot further than if you just give the dry facts of the cause. CNN: It definitely gets your attention. It couldn't have been an easy decision to put your private life out there like that. Ferguson: We kind of felt like the only way to legitimize why we wanted to do this was to announce that we were actually engaged. It made me very nervous; I didn't want to exploit something that was very personal and private between Justin and me. But, in the context of our foundation, it felt like (it was) the right time to tell people. CNN: My favorite part was your struggle with labeling your relationship. Ferguson: I hate "lover"! I think it sounds so pretentious and like that "Saturday Night Live" skit with Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch in the hot tub eating turkey. I've always found the term fiance in gay or straight relationships to be completely strange. It doesn't sound English or American at all. I love calling Justin "the lover I've taken on," but he doesn't care for that. So I just say "boyfriend." I think there's something really sweet and innocent about it. CNN: A lot of boyfriends, and girlfriends in Maine, Maryland and Washington got some good news on Election Day when same-sex marriage was legalized in those states by popular vote. Ferguson: I have such mixed feelings about it. Obviously, I'm so happy these states won marriage equality. It's also very tough for me. I went through it with Proposition 8 (in California), seeing the majority vote on the minority's rights. It's incredibly hard to swallow. I just feel like it shouldn't be up to the majority to vote on a minority's civil rights. I'm thrilled that we are slowly making progress, and we have to make progress however we can. But I do look forward to the day we stop putting it in the hands of the states and make it a national thing. This is America and (marriage equality) should be part of the "United" part of our country. CNN: What do you see as the biggest challenge between where things are now and the protection of same-sex marriage under federal law? Ferguson: We're in a great place. There's a forward movement on this issue, and for many young Americans it's a nonissue. But one stumbling block is the lack of education about marriage equality. I feel like there's a fear that the definition of marriage will be changed. Nobody's looking to change the meaning of what it means to be married. We just want to add to who has the right. It's the same thing as women wanting the right to vote. They weren't going to change the meaning of going to the polls and putting the card in the ballot; they just wanted the right to vote. CNN: And whether you're voting or getting married, who doesn't like to wear a nice bow tie, right? Why did you pick this accessory as the cornerstone of your foundation? Ferguson: I selfishly wanted to get involved in the fashion world anyway, but in a way that didn't feel like a huge undertaking. So I thought about what I like to wear and also what is literally the smallest piece of clothing I could possibly design. So we came up with the bow-tie line. It was Justin's idea to incorporate it into the foundation. We thought -- why don't we kill two birds with one stone? We'll start a bow-tie line and funnel the proceeds into a foundation for marriage equality. Then Justin came up with the idea of Tie the Knot, which just perfectly marries those two ideas. CNN: I think people will appreciate the symbolism. Also, it matches your character in "Modern Family." I imagine your cast mates have been supportive. The chemistry there really seems to go beyond the set. Is that the case? Ferguson: I mean it really is. People are always trying to test us and break us and find out the darkness, but there's really nothing to tell. We're kind of on this roller coaster together, and it's a very bonding experience. We're watching our families grow. I've gotten engaged since meeting these people. Ty (Burell) has had two kids. Julie (Bowen) had twins. Sofia (Vergara) got engaged. We'll go to a birthday party or get together at someone's house and bring our husbands, wives, fiances, boyfriends and girlfriends, and it feels like a huge extended family. CNN: I bet when one of your family members finds themselves at the center of a crazy headline or serious crisis you all react. Do you turn into Papa Bear? Ferguson: There's obviously some sense of protection because we know being (in) the media's eye how vulnerable that can be when you're going through something. So we all rally around one another and protect one another. We're always checking in with one another, and some walls definitely go up to protect some people. It's exactly what you would expect from people who have your back. CNN: I can only imagine what a "Modern Family" gay wedding will be like. I bet you and Justin get asked a lot when the big day is. Ferguson: About once a day! We're in the process of planning it. It could be as early as this spring, and it could be the following spring. We're kind of waiting for some pieces to fall into place and to see what my work schedule is like next summer. I'm also really excited to be married. I don't want to have a three-year engagement. I proposed to Justin because I wanted to be married. I don't want to be a professional engaged person. CNN: Are you planning something more traditional or, dare I say, modern? Ferguson: Well, we're not going to be redefining the marriage ceremony. I grew up Catholic but don't practice any longer. I haven't been to the Catholic Church in years so I would feel really weird to try and bring in those traditions -- it's just not us. It's going to be a very nontraditional, very organic, very simple ceremony. We're not going to have a wedding party or try to find someone amazing to officiate. I think it will be a very short, very sweet and simple and hopefully beautiful ceremony. I don't even have any gay friends who have gotten married, but several of my straight friends had very untraditional weddings, and those have always been my favorite. CNN: Have you decided about starting a family? Ferguson: It's something we've talked about. It's one of those early date questions. "Do you want kids?" And we both do. But I'm just excited to get married and sit in the marriage place for a little while. I don't want to jump into kids right away. But, yeah, we both really want kids very much.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita launched Tie the Knot foundation . Proceeds from the organization go toward the fight to legalize same-sex marriage . Ferguson said he is protective of their relationship .

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(CNN) -- An ex-convict, a mobster, a serial killer -- after more than two decades in the movie business, Ray Liotta is still perhaps best known for these "bad guy" roles in such films as "Something Wild" and "GoodFellas." Ray Liotta (right) co-stars with Seth Rogen in "Observe and Report," which opened Friday. But in his most recent film, "Observe and Report" -- a dark comedy co-starring Seth Rogen as a bipolar mall security guard and Anna Faris as the vapid make-up counter clerk he's in love with -- Liotta inches away from his edgy persona to play a detective investigating a flashing incident at the mall. "A flasher keeps flashing people at the mall, so they call in the 'real police,' which is me," Liotta told the Columbus Dispatch. "The last thing I want to do is investigate." The film, which opened in theaters Friday and has earned rave reviews by critics, is not Liotta's first comedic undertaking. The 54-year-old actor also starred in 2007's "Wild Hogs," a comedy co-starring Tim Allen and John Travolta about a group of middle-aged suburban men who decide to become bikers. The film was one of that year's surprise hits, taking in more than $150 million at the domestic box office. See some of the highlights of Liotta's career » . Liotta first made his mark on the film industry by playing a psychotic ex-husband determined to win back his ex-wife in "Something Wild." The role propelled Liotta to fame and earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. From there, Liotta starred as mobster Henry Hill in the Martin Scorsese classic "Goodfellas" (1990), working alongside renowned actors Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. "Edgy guys stand out in people's minds," Liotta said of his famous "bad guy" roles, according to the Dispatch. But, to avoid being typecast as the "bad guy" forever, Liotta decided to break from the mold in his next role as a caring father in the heartwarming film "Corrina, Corrina" (1994), co-starring Whoopi Goldberg. Liotta soon proved that acting was not his only forte. He formed his own production company in 2002 and made his debut as a producer on the film "Narc," in which he also starred as a corrupt cop. He's also earned plaudits for his television work. In 2004, Liotta starred in an episode of the hit NBC drama, "ER," winning an Emmy for his guest appearance. The actor got his start on daytime TV, playing the character Joey Perrini on the soap "Another World." With several films currently in production, Liotta shows no signs of stopping. The actor told the Dispatch that he hopes to try his hand at romance in the future, joking that he'd like to "kiss the girl without having to choke her first." CNN's David Daniel contributed to this story.

Ray Liotta known for bad-guy roles such as gangsters, serial killers . Liotta tries something a little different with comedy "Observe and Report" "Edgy guys stand out in people's minds," Liotta has said .

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Ten years ago I was one of a small number of UK lawyers who opposed the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it was illegal and unauthorised by the United Nations. We were all strong advocates of the notion that the rule of law was the bedrock of any civilised and democratic society. Without it our lives would be subject to a free for all in which might becomes right. The embodiment of the rule of law internationally has been the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- direct results of the devastation inflicted by the Nazi regime in Germany during the Second World War. No one wanted a repeat of such flagrant aggression, so the Charter was drawn up to replace gunboat diplomacy with peaceful measures overseen by the U.N. Security Council. This was not a new vision. In 1945 the U.N. Charter was ratified by the U.S., the UK, and the majority of the 50 states who had originally agreed to this framework. Thrashed out by experts and with massive support behind it, the document was no maverick, outlandish or oddball agreement. The Charter is not gobbledygook -- it is full of common sense, and it should be obligatory reading in every school. OPINION: Why Iraq War was fought for oil . Article 1 makes clear that the main purpose of the U.N. is to "maintain international peace and security and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace" and to act in accordance with justice and the principles of international law. It is for the U.N. to determine what collective measures should be taken -- not for individual states to take unilateral or bilateral action. This is not rocket science, but the simple application of restraint and respect for the rules that Britain and America agreed to when they signed the Charter. But this is not what happened 10 years ago at the behest of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Their agenda was quite different -- to remove a dictator, Saddam Hussein, whose regime was abhorrent. But regime change, however desirable, is not permitted by the Charter. If it were, the powerful nations could go round the world picking off the weak -- or more particularly the states thought to be hostile to their own ambitions. In case some politicians found it difficult to understand all this, Article 2(4) spelled it out in unequivocal terms: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state". Everyone recognised there might have to be exceptions to this rule, but the Charter specifically does not authorize preemptive nor preventative action(i.e. getting in first) on the basis of a perceived future threat. INTERACTIVE: How has the war changed you? The only way around this predicament was for the Bush-Blair axis to fabricate a case of threat. This they did by the knowing manipulation of flawed intelligence about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (which were never found), and the bogus claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy such WMD within a 45-minute window. This argument, which was false, became the main basis for invasion because the only other route to war had been closed off by international law. The U.N. has the power to authorise military intervention once all other options have been exhausted and the peace and stability of a region is in jeopardy. At the time it became a debate about whether Iraq satisfied these criteria by its failure to abide by U.N. resolutions concerning disarmament. The principal Security Council resolution 1441, adopted in November 2002, called on Iraq to disarm its WMD and cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. The Council made clear they continued to be in charge but had not authorised the use of force in Iraq. EXCLUSIVE: Hans Blix on 'terrible mistake' in Iraq . Tony Blair insisted to the British public that he would only support a war if a second Security Council resolution authorising the action was passed, but the resolution never came. Bush and Blair realised they would never get one, and so they prepared to go it alone with a cobbled together coalition. Troops had already been committed on the ground. There was no going back. This was why Bush and Blair were not prepared to allow the weapons inspectors, who were in Iraq, any more time. Inspectors had found no evidence of WMD in the lead-up to the war and never did, but were ordered to go home. I am not alone in these views. There is a substantial consensus of international legal opinion which recognises the illegality of the invasion. Kofi Annan, then the U.N. Secretary General, told the BBC in 2004 that the Charter had been breached and that the invasion was not sanctioned by the Security Council. FULL COVERAGE: The Iraq War, 10 years on . In the UK we are still waiting for the results of a public inquiry into the circumstances in which the decision to go to war was taken. Blair never wanted this inquiry but was forced by the power of the victims' families and public opinion to accede. So far two years have gone by while the government has obstructed disclosure and publication. It is intolerable and inexcusable. I believe George W. Bush and Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes as defined by international law. In 1998 the International Criminal Court was established to deal with individuals who commit international crimes. Four transgressions were agreed -- war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. Unfortunately only the first three have been brought into effect. The UK, to their credit, signed up to the court. But the U.S. did not, lest its leaders end up accused of crimes before the court. ARWA DAMON: Iraq suffocates in cloak of sorrow . Whilst the act of aggression cannot be prosecuted, war crimes committed thereafter can be. So for example to launch an attack, like the invasion of Iraq, with the knowledge that its effect is likely to cause incidental death or injury to civilians or the natural environment (Article 8) will render the perpetrator liable to prosecution. The use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium in Iraq by coalition forces (euphemistically called collateral damage) upon vulnerable civilians falls within this definition. As a result, a legal consortium of which I was a part, and other groups in Europe, petitioned the ICC for action against UK politicians over their involvement in the war. Nothing has happened. Getting U.S leaders hauled before the court is even more problematic -- the Security Council could refer Americans to the court, but the U.S. is a permanent Council member and can veto any potential referral. Alternatively individual member states could incorporate these crimes of universal jurisdiction into their own domestic law. Then if a U.S. perpetrator of war crimes travelled into that country's jurisdiction, they could be arrested. The UK has such a provision, but when put to the test by UK citizens seeking arrest warrants in relation to the planned visits of Israeli political and military leaders -- who were potentially responsible for war crimes in Gaza -- the UK government reprehensibly placed impediments in the way of its future use. So George W. Bush can safely plan a visit for tea with Tony Blair in London without fear of prosecution in the UK. The whole episode regarding the Iraq War is a tawdry tale that has subverted the rule of law and tarnished the reputation of international law. Without accountability for Western states, how can we expect the rest of world to respect these principles? It is time for Bush and Blair to be thoroughly, independently and judicially investigated for the crimes I suggest have been committed and it is time for the crime of aggression to come into force. Until this is redressed, la lotta continua!

Mansfield: Bush, Blair should be tried for war crimes over invasion of Iraq . Mansfied: Regime change is not permitted by the U.N. Charter . Mansfield: Charter does not authorize preemptive action based on perceived threat .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- London commuters crammed onto buses, scrambled for taxis, cycled or simply walked on Wednesday as a strike by Tube workers shut down most of the subway network. Commuters queue for packed buses in London on Wednesday morning. The strike began Tuesday at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) but the first full effects were felt during Wednesday's morning commute. The strike was set to last for 48 hours with a normal service resuming Friday morning, according to Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city's transportation network. The RMT trade union called the strike after talks with management over pay, job cuts, and disciplinary issues broke down. "RMT doesn't resort to industrial action lightly," General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement. "The fact is that Tube workers have been driven into walking out today." Transport Commissioner Peter Hardy said the talks had been making progress on all issues and he urged the RMT to return to the table. "The RMT leadership says we were close to a deal," Hardy said in a statement. "If that is the case, then they should call off the strike, return to talks ... and resolve this issue without any more disruption to Londoners." TfL was running extra buses and free shuttle services across the River Thames during the strike. Electronic travel cards used for the TfL network were temporarily being allowed on all train lines in greater London, it said. While most services on the Tube were shut because of the strike, one line -- the Northern line -- was running normally and five others were running on a reduced schedule, TfL said. "It's been really good," a girl on Oxford Street told CNN about her commute. "The Northern line is running perfectly." Still, some bus services were packed with commuters who normally ride the underground trains or who failed to find a taxi. "I think we'd all like to strike for more money, but unfortunately we can't," said one woman at Oxford Circus, where the Tube is closed. Others hit the pavement and walked. "It's OK -- quite refreshing," said a man on Regent Street. He said he had just walked from Liverpool Street Station, a train station as well as a Tube stop that is more than 2.5 miles away. The RMT represents about half of the 20,000 employees on the Tube, a TfL spokeswoman said. Other unions including Unite and TSSA represent the rest, she said, and were not on strike.

London transport system crippled as Tube workers go on strike . Normal service not due to resume until Friday morning . Buses crammed with commuters; many chose to cycle, walk to work . RMT trade union called strike in dispute over pay, job cuts, disciplinary issues .

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(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in neighboring South Sudan on Monday for talks on unrest in the latter nation that has left hundreds dead. He flew into the airport in the capital of Juba before heading to the presidential palace to meet his South Sudan counterpart, President Salva Kiir. The two later held a joint news conference with al-Bashir stressing readiness to support South Sudan, according to the official Sudan News Agency. Al-Bashir's visit comes as rival parties in the South Sudan power struggle work to find a solution to the violence. Meanwhile, talks between South Sudan's government and rebels began Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Those negotiations were delayed last week. "The two delegations appreciated the gravity of the situation and the need and urgency of resolving the crisis in South Sudan. They reminded themselves of the long-drawn liberation struggle that culminated in the independence of their country. They regretted the unfortunate situation which the current conflict has brought," read a statement from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an East African trade bloc helping to mediate between the parties. Talks are expected to pick up again on Tuesday. The negotiations "come not a moment too soon," African Union Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement. "Not a single day can be lost in the search for peace in South Sudan. Stopping the fighting in South Sudan is not only a humanitarian imperative but also a strategic necessity, in order to halt the rapid descent of Africa's newest nation into collapse." South Sudan erupted in violence on December 15 when rebels loyal to ousted Vice President Riek Machar tried to stage a coup. Since then, militia members loyal to the ousted leader have battled government forces. Violence quickly spread with reports of mass killings emerging nationwide. As teams from both sides are negotiating, fighting rages. Three weeks of fighting have left more than 1,000 people dead and forced 200,000 from their homes, officials say. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war, making it the world's youngest nation. Despite the split, al-Bashir has a stake in the talks. Though South Sudan and Sudan divorced, they still have unresolved oil issues. Prolonged fighting has cut South Sudan's oil output, affecting both economies. Heed the warnings: Genocide and Rwanda's lessons for South Sudan . CNN's Samira Said and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.

NEW: The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan meet in Juba . Talks between South Sudan's government and rebels begin in Ethiopia . South Sudan erupted into violence in a December attempted coup . Violence has raged since; both sides are now holding talks to seek a resolution .

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(CNN) -- Environmentalists in Vietnam were ebullient this week after remote cameras in a forest reserve snapped pictures of a live saola, one of the rarest large mammals on Earth. At most a few hundred -- and as few as a couple dozen -- of the animals are thought to exist. Because of that rarity and its elusiveness, the saola is dubbed the "Asian unicorn." That moniker comes despite the fact it has two closely spaced parallel horns. "These are the most important wild animal photographs taken in Asia, and perhaps the world, in at least the past decade," said William Robichaud, coordinator of the Saola Working Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission, in a World Wildlife Fund press release. Scientists discover new species in Australian rainforest . "This is an historic moment in Vietnam's efforts to protect our extraordinary biodiversity," Dang Dinh Nguyen, deputy head of the country's Quang Nam Forest Protection Department, said in the release. The picture of the animal was taken in September in a reserve in the Central Annamite Mountains and announced by the WWF on Tuesday. 441 species discovered in Amazon since 2010 . Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF-Vietnam's country director, called the picture "a breath-taking discovery." "When our team first looked at the photos we couldn't believe our eyes. Saola are the holy grail for Southeast Asian conservationists," Van said in a press release. The saola, which is a relative of cattle but looks like an antelope, was first discovered in 1992 in forests along the Vietnam-Laos border. A WWF survey team found a skull of the animal in a hunter's home. In Vietnam, a saola was last seen in the wild in 1998. In Laos, a remote camera snapped a picture of one in the wild in 1999. And in 2010, Laotian villagers captured a saola that died before word got to researchers. Olinguito: The newest rare mammal species . There are no saola in captivity. Environmentalists said Wednesday the pictures show that efforts to save the saola are working. "Saola are caught in wire snares set by hunters to catch other animals, such as deer and civets, which are largely destined for the lucrative illegal wildlife trade," Van said in the WWF release. "Since 2011, forest guard patrols ... have removed more than 30,000 snares from this critical saola habitat and destroyed more than 600 illegal hunters' camps." New legless lizards found in California . 'Chewbacca bat,' other bizarre species found in national park .

Saola caught on forest camera in Vietnam . At most, only a few hundred saola thought to exist . Species was first discovered in 1992 .

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Gaza City (CNN) -- With the latest failed cease-fire quickly becoming a distant memory, the two sides in the Israel-Gaza conflict traded rockets and airstrikes Saturday -- as well as blame for not stopping the bloodshed. Israeli airstrikes killed at least five more people in Gaza on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The area around central Gaza's Qassam mosque, in particular, was a frenzy of activity as medical workers sifted through rubble there. WAFA claimed that Israeli fighter jets struck that mosque and another, killing at least three people. Less than a mile away from the Qassam mosque, a strike killed two men riding on a motorbike, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf el-Qedra said. Israel's military confirmed the strike, saying the two men were militants. El-Qedra added Saturday night that a 13-year-old girl died in an airstrike on her family home in Rafah. That was in addition to a 10-year-old boy who died while playing with friends, the Palestinian health ministry said. Then again, Israel is on the defensive as well. The Israel Defense Forces said that, since the end of the cease-fire early Friday, about 100 rockets were fired toward Israel from Gaza. That figure includes at least 30 launched Saturday, of which 24 hit Israel, the military said. The IDF responded by targeting "some 120 terror sites and nine terror operatives." All this back-and-forth, of course, is nothing new. The Israelis and Palestinians -- particularly Hamas, the Islamic militant group and political party that controls Gaza -- have been at it for weeks, with the former fending off persistent rocket attacks and the latter dealing with relentless Israeli strikes. There have been efforts to halt the bloodshed as well as to broach some of the thorny issues related to it. And there have been some breakthroughs, including a few cease-fires. Yet none of those peacemaking attempts, so far, has stuck. Death toll's rise slows . The death toll's climb has slowed since IDF announced overnight into Saturday an end of its ground incursion in Gaza -- even as it continued to strike from the air. Israeli forces say troops redeployed after completed their mission of destroying Hamas' tunnels. Still, while there weren't scores of dead Saturday as has been true many other days over the past few weeks, the total carnage remains significant. According to el-Qedra, at least 1,911 in Gaza have died since the conflict began, in addition to just under 10,000 injured. It's unclear how many casualties were militants: The United Nations estimates that about 70% of the dead were civilians, or about 1,340. IDF, meanwhile says about 900 militants have been killed, which would put the civilian death toll at around 1,000. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said that that number was a preliminary estimate based on field reports from troops returning from battle. Israeli officials say 64 Israeli soldiers have died, and three civilians were killed in Israel. The Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted many of the rockets Gazan militants have fired at populated areas of the country. Blame game continues . Besides the violence, another thing that hasn't stopped is the blame game. One point of contention: who broke the most recent cease-fire hours before it was supposed to run out? Hamas denied firing rockets into Israel on Friday. Yet militants from Islamic Jihad and the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades admitted to doing just that -- blaming Israel for refusing to accept their demands during negotiations. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said it was Hamas' fault regardless, telling CNN the group runs Gaza and "can't outsource terrorism to the other groups. When they want to enforce a cease-fire, they do it very well." Hamas has been in charge of the Palestinian government in Gaza for years, while the Palestinian faction Fatah runs the government in the West Bank. The two groups have been at odds but also made repeated efforts at a unity government, including one earlier this year. One sad irony of all this bloodshed is that -- according to the Egyptian foreign ministry, which brokered recent talks -- the parties have reached an agreement on most issues. Those not agreed upon were few and limited, the ministry said in a statement. Still, there's too much history to show that agreement on some issues will not necessarily lead to a grander breakthrough. The Palestinians have asked for Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza and to re-open the air and seaports, a Palestinian negotiation who spoke on condition of anonymity said. Israeli authorities fear Hamas could import weapons by sea and maintains a ship blockade off Gaza's shores. Palestinians also wanted Israel to extend Gaza's fishing zone in the Mediterranean from three miles off the coast to 20. Fishing is a keystone of Gazan livelihoods. But Israel was willing to extend fishing rights to only six miles off the coast, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Yet Israel is resisting in-depth talks as long as rockets continue to head toward its territory. After Gazan rocket fire on Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said the country "will not conduct negotiations while under fire." CNN exclusive: Inside the mind of Hamas' political leader . Nobel laureate Wiesel: Hamas must stop using children as human shields . Gaza conflict: Can economic isolation ever be reversed? Life in Gaza: Misery heightened by war . CNN's John Vause reported from Gaza, Matthew Chance reported from Jerusalem; Ben Brumfield and Greg Botelho wrote and reported from Atlanta. CNN's Jethro Mullen, Ali Younes, Tal Heinrich, Jake Tapper and Samira Said also contributed to this report.

NEW: Palestinian official: 13-year-old girl killed by Israeli airstrike . NEW: Israeli military: About 100 rockets from Gaza since cease-fire's end . Israel and Hamas criticize one another for not doing more to halt violence .

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(CNN)At least 10 people and two attackers were killed in Tuesday's attack against the luxurious Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, a spokesman for a security division of the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli said. Five foreigners -- one American, one French citizen, and three people from Tajikistan -- were killed in the attack, Essam al-Naas said. Five Libyans were killed. The Libyan branch of ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, and released photos of the two gunmen, it said had carried out the attacks as Abu Ibraheem Al-Tunsi and Abu Sulaiman Al-Sudani. Their naming convention indicates that the men were of Tunisian and Sudanese origin, respectively. Al-Naas said it appears the attackers were Libyans. American contractor David Berry was among the people killed in a terrorist attack at the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, on Tuesday, according to Cliff Taylor, chief executive officer of Crucible, a security firm where Berry was working. The FBI is expected to open an investigation into the incident, two U.S. officials told CNN. A State Department official confirmed the death of a U.S. citizen, but would provide no further information. A French citizen was among those killed, according to the French Foreign Ministry. Al-Naas earlier said at least two Libyan security personnel had been killed in the attack and that three gunmen were holed up in the hotel. An online group that supports ISIS said the attack was carried out in the name of Abu Anas al-Libi. Al-Libi was an alleged al Qaeda operative accused of involvement in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa. He was captured by U.S. special forces in Libya. He died in a U.S. hospital this month. A spokesman for the Corinthia Group in Malta told CNN there had not been a hostage situation in the hotel, as some reports suggested. "We are trying to take possession of the hotel back to assess the damage," he said, but Libyan security forces were not yet allowing that. The attack began when militants detonated a car bomb in the parking lot of the hotel. The gunmen then shot their way into the hotel. Guests were evacuated to safety, however. The five-star hotel is popular among government officials, some of whom reside there. A witness to the events told CNN that all roads leading to the Corinthia Hotel had been sealed by security forces. People were warned to stay away, the witness said, adding that there had been exchanges of gunfire. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.

Libyan branch of ISIS claims responsibility; names attackers . Libyan spokesman says death toll is at least 10 people at hotel and two attackers . Siege is over and the gunmen are dead, hotel company spokesman says . An American security contractor is among the dead, his company says .

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Washington (CNN) -- The sister of presidential assailant John Hinckley Jr. testified Tuesday that she has seen no sign that her brother represents a danger to himself or others. Diane Sims, who said she loves her brother, said she supports a proposal that would expand his visits to their mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia, and might eventually allow him to live there as a full-time outpatient. But she said she does not think it would be a good option for him to move to the Dallas area, where she lives. "President Bush lives not 10 minutes from me and I think it would be a concern," said Sims, apparently referring to concerns the Secret Service might have. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, moved to Dallas after they left the White House. Sims said she has no worries that Hinckley would be a risk to others in Dallas. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman asked if it is accurate she is worried about her brother's personal safety in Dallas, since that is the city where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. "That's a concern to me," Sims said quietly. She also said she thinks a move to Dallas would place Hinckley too far away from the medical experts who have cared for him for many years. Hinckley's sister testified on the fourth day of a multiple-day hearing to discuss his future. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shootings of President Ronald Reagan, press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and police officer Thomas Delahanty. All of those men survived, though Brady was shot in the head and left permanently disabled. Hinckley was staying at the home of his sister and her husband in Dallas on October 13, 1980, when, according to testimony in his 1982 trial, he went to a pawn shop to buy two .22-caliber revolvers, one of which he used to shoot Reagan and the others five months later. Only days before the purchase, three guns had been confiscated from Hinckley's luggage while he was trying to board a plane in Nashville. Hinckley posted bond, was released and flew to New York City, then spent the night in New Haven, Connecticut, where actress Jodie Foster was a college freshman student. He flew to Dallas to stay that weekend at his sister's home while she and her husband were away at a football game. On that Monday, Hinckley told her he was going out to look for a job, but, unknown to her, he bought the guns instead. The gun purchase was not mentioned in court Tuesday, and the government has not said it would be more dangerous for Hinckley to live in Dallas than anywhere else. Since his conviction, Hinckley has been living in St. Elizabeths, a government mental hospital in Washington. But in recent years he's been allowed to visit his mother's home with increasing frequency. Currently, he spends 10 days a month in Williamsburg. Under the proposal made by St. Elizabeths he would be granted two visits of 17 days each followed by six visits of 24 days. The hospital's recommendation for Hinckley's eventual release on convalescent leave asks the judge to allow Hinckley to live full time in Williamsburg "at the discretion of the hospital" once the eight longer visits have been completed successfully. The report was filed with the court under seal on July 29 and was not made public until Tuesday. The doctors signing the report said such leave would be permitted only upon an assessment, at the end of the new visits, that "Mr. Hinckley is experiencing a good mental status and that he does not present as [sic] a danger to himself or others." If so, the recommendation said, Hinckley would be "conditionally released to reside permanently on convalescent leave." He would be required to meet at least once a month with a psychiatrist who is already counseling him in Williamsburg and to continue his weekly visits to a therapist there. He would also be expected to continue his volunteer activities at Eastern State Hospital. However, the filing said, should Hinckley violate the terms of his convalescent leave, "the hospital will return him to total inpatient care with due notification of the court." If the judge were to grant convalescent leave at the hospital's discretion at the end of the eight longer visits now requested, it would be unlikely to happen until at least the fall of 2012, since as the filing requires a minimum two-week interval between each of the new visits. Hinckley would be expected at the outset to live with his widowed mother, who is turning 86 this week and is in good health. However, the hospital said should his "mother not be available" after Hinckley's release, his brother and sister had expressed interest "in the housing options of independent apartments as well as Assisted Living Facilities... in the Williamsburg area." Sims often spends time in Williamsburg when Hinckley is there and drives him back to St. Elizabeths. She was asked many questions about how the 56-year-old fits into the Virginia community. She said he feels comfortable there and has indicated he wants to stay there even when his elderly mother is no longer there. According to Sims, Hinckley likes working part time in the library of Eastern State Hospital and is comfortable with the psychiatrist and case manager/therapist he sees while in Williamsburg. Under questioning, Sims acknowledged the family does not permit a woman identified in court only as CB to visit the Hinckley home. Hinckley at one time told some of his caregivers at St. Elizabeths that he was engaged to CB, who had been a patient there. Hinckley later ended the engagement, doctors have said. Prosecutors described CB as being psychologically unstable and asked if it was accurate Hinckley's mother does not allow her to visit for fear she would have a mental breakdown at the home. Sims said that is the case. Sims said her brother never told the family he was engaged and -- quite to the contrary -- has said he's not engaged and has no plans to marry the woman. She said she is aware her brother still sees CB sometimes when the woman visits St. Elizabeths. Previously the court heard testimony that Sims had taken her brother to a singles group meeting in Williamsburg a number of years ago, and he was asked to leave. Sims said she wanted to set the record straight about what happened. She and her brother believed members of the group knew they were coming, but that was not the case, she said. The group was surprised to see Hinckley there, she said. But she said all the members were in their mid-70s and her brother would not have fit in. Sims said that when her brother goes out in the community he usually has no problems with people who recognize him. "He's not bothered by people, he's not pointed out," she told the court. She said, "He doesn't bother anybody" either. She said Hinckley and his family members find they are able to go to certain restaurants where people know who they are but are welcoming. "In general, the people in town have been very tolerant," she said. Last week, prosecutors said Hinckley had not told the truth about deviating from his approved itinerary to go to a movie while on his few hours of permitted unaccompanied time. According to a report by Secret Service agents who were watching Hinckley without his knowledge, on one outing last July, Hinckley did not attend a movie and instead went to a bookstore where he passed by an aisle of books that included an account of the day Reagan was shot. The judge noted the report did not indicate that Hinckley read that book or any similar books. "The subject was not observed picking up and looking at specific books," the report says. "One item of note is the subject stopped for a time and looked at the shelves in the American History area that contain several books about President Reagan and his attempted assassination." Hinckley's sister said she had accompanied him to bookstores and never saw him look at any books like that. She said he gravitated to books on music and art. But in response to questioning by a prosecutor, she said she wasn't aware Hinckley had failed to go to the movies as planned on two occasions, in July and in September. Sims was asked if she ever noticed Secret Service agents keeping an eye on Hinckley. She replied the only time she has noticed surveillance is when she drives Hinckley out of her mother's gated community and back to St. Elizabeths. She said agents are always waiting in a vehicle and follow along. But at the end of a March 2011 visit, the Secret Service was not waiting, she said. According to Sims, about midway through the trip to Washington, Hinckley's brother, Scott, got a call on his cell phone from an agent who said he had been late. Sims said the agent asked the Hinckley family's location and requested that they wait for him to catch up. Sims replied the family did and was happy to cooperate with the Secret Service. CNN's James Polk contributed to this report.

NEW: Hospital staff makes release recommendations . John Hinckley's sister says she supports letting him eventually live in Williamsburg . She says he feels comfortable there and is accepted by many community members . Hinckley has been hospitalized since he shot President Reagan in 1981 .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Tuesday announced a troop deployment shift for America's two wars, a move that reflects a more stable Iraq and an increasingly volatile Afghanistan. President Bush said Tuesday that he soon will start bringing some U.S. troops home from Iraq. Through early next year, about 8,000 American troops will leave Iraq and not be replaced. Some 4,500 other U.S. service members will go to Afghanistan. Bush also emphasized the U.S. intention to help Pakistan defeat insurgents who are using the country's tribal areas to stage attacks in Afghanistan. "Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan pose unique challenges for our country," Bush said Tuesday in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. "Yet they are all theaters in the same overall struggle." Bush said he is making the Iraqi troop withdrawal decision based on a recommendation from top military officers, including Gen. David Petraeus, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq. Watch Bush announce the troop reduction in Iraq » . "He and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have recommended that we move forward with additional force reductions," the president said, citing military and political strides in stabilizing the country and dramatically bringing down violence. Bush adopted the entire recommendation from Petraeus, a senior military official in Iraq told CNN. The source said five people saw the plan before it went to the president. Debate the Iraq issue! Join The Forum . In explaining progress in the war effort, Bush cited the "surge" offensive, winning the hearts and minds of Sunni tribes, Iraqi political reconciliation efforts, economic improvements, an improved Iraqi army leading the fight against Shiite and Sunni insurgents, and a return of hundreds of doctors who fled the fighting. "Over the next several months, we will bring home about 3,400 combat support forces -- including aviation personnel, explosive ordnance teams, combat and construction engineers, military police and logistical support forces," he said. "By November, we will bring home a Marine battalion that is now serving in Anbar province. And in February of 2009, another Army combat brigade will come home. "This amounts to about 8,000 additional American troops returning home without replacement. And if the progress in Iraq continues to hold, Gen. Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009." At present, there are about 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki welcomed Bush's decision. "We look at this step as a positive step that there is stability in Iraq, there is a real improvement in the security situation in Iraq and there is a real improvement in the capability of the Iraqi security forces in protecting and keeping the security in Iraq," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, al-Maliki's political adviser. Democrats were less than enthusiastic about Bush's announcement. The plan "may seem to signal movement in the right direction," but it "defers troop reductions until the next administration," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "More significant troop reductions in Iraq are needed so that we can start to rebuild U.S. military readiness and provide the additional forces needed to finish the fight in Afghanistan." Skelton said Iraq "cannot continue to overshadow other critical U.S. security needs." "The effort in Afghanistan must move to the forefront and once again become our top priority," he said. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama praised Bush for announcing additional troops for Afghanistan and "moving in the direction of the policy that I have advocated for years." However, "we will continue to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a $79 billion surplus," Obama said. "In the absence of a timetable to remove our combat brigades, we will continue to give Iraq's leaders a blank check instead of pressing them to reconcile their differences," he said. Obama criticized the timing and scope of Bush's move. "His plan comes up short -- it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency," the senator from Illinois said of Bush's call for more troops in Afghanistan. In his speech, Bush praised other members of the U.S.-led coalition, saying many of those nations will be able to end their deployments to Iraq this year. He said Australia has "withdrawn its battle group" and Polish troops are "set to redeploy shortly." The president said Iraq and the United States will work "toward the conclusion of a strategic framework agreement and a status of forces agreement," pacts that will spell out the terms of their relationship. "These agreements will serve as the foundation for America's continued security support to Iraq once the United Nations resolution authorizing the multinational forces there expires on December 31." Bush focused his remarks just as strongly on Afghanistan, where al Qaeda and Taliban militants have been making a comeback. "For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," he said. "As we learned in Iraq, the best way to restore the confidence of the people is to restore basic security -- and that requires more troops." He said that a Marine battalion of around 1,000 will deploy to Afghanistan in November instead of Iraq and that an Army combat brigade of around 3,500 will go in January. Bush said the U.S. would make additional forces available in 2009 and called on allies to increase their force levels. Bush said stepped-up insurgent efforts in Afghanistan have necessitated the increase of U.S. troops from "less than 21,000 two years ago to nearly 31,000 today." He said these troop increases and those by allies, including Britain, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic, have resulted in what he calls a "quiet surge" in Afghanistan. Bush described challenges in Afghanistan that don't exist in Iraq. "This is a vast country," he said. "Unlike Iraq, it has few natural resources and has an underdeveloped infrastructure. Its democratic institutions are fragile. And its enemies are some of the most hardened terrorists and extremists in the world." He said Americans will help develop Afghan security forces and are improving efforts on the civilian side, adding more personnel to deal with issues of diplomacy, development, the rural economy and the fight against the drug trade.

NEW: Sen. Barack Obama, House Armed Services chairman criticize scope, timing . NEW: Iraq views decision as "positive move," aide to Iraqi leader says . Iraq force to be trimmed by 8,000; Afghanistan force to rise by 4,500 . President Bush cites increased stability in Iraq, stronger insurgency in Afghanistan .

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Hong Kong (CNN) -- Six simple words have sent Hello Kitty lovers into a spin. "Hello Kitty is not a cat." The apparently shocking revelation was made in an LA Times article published Wednesday about a retrospective of Kitty paraphernalia opening next month at the Japanese American National Museum. The story started innocently enough before the bombshell was dropped by Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist at the University of Hawaii, who has delved more deeply than most into the Hello Kitty phenomenon. "That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show," Yano told the LA Times. "Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty." Whoa. The news reached far and wide, including backstage after the Linkin Park gig at the Minnesota State Fair. "I just got off stage to find out that Hello Kitty is not a cat. This is worse than finding out Pluto is not a planet," tweeted clearly shocked rapper Mike Shinoda. For those who don't know, Hello Kitty is an international superstar who was introduced to the world in 1974 by Japanese company Sanrio. In the last 40 years her button nose has appeared on a dazzling array of merchandise, generating billions of dollars for the company. Until now, her pointy ears and whiskers gave her legion of fans the distinct impression she was feline. Wrong. Summing up the disbelief, @jkltoraay tweeted: "You cannot say hello kitty is not a cat after 40 years no human has whiskers and pointed ears and a little yellow nose." For some, the news raised more questions than it answered. "Been tossing and turning for the last few hours trying to figure out how Hello Kitty isn't a cat. How is it possible? What does it mean?" @NotKennyRogers tweeted. "Since Hello Kitty isn't a cat, wtf is My Melody?" tweeted @mrsunlawyer. Users raced to update Kitty's Wikipedia entry, which now reads: "She bears the appearance of a white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow although she is actually a little girl." Singer Katy Perry stepped in to try to calm the masses: "IT'S OKAY HELLO KITTY FANS, KITTY PURRY IS A CAT." At last count it was retweeted more than 13,000 times. As the Sanrio website clearly states, Hello Kitty is a "cheerful and happy little girl ... who lives in London with her mama (Mary White), papa (George White), and her twin sister Mimmy." Yes, she's also British. For the record, Kitty's birthday is November 1, she likes baking and making pancakes, origami and eating apple pie. Her favorite saying is "You can never have too many friends." She may have lost a few today. Meow.

Hello Kitty is not a cat, anthropologist reveals ahead of retrospective . Interview in LA Times ricocheted around Internet among shocked fans . Cat-like character is a British girl who has a twin sister and a pet cat .

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(CNN) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was told to take a month off work after doctors diagnosed her with a subdural hematoma. The diagnosis and the doctor's recommendation mean Fernandez will be out of commission during the critical campaign season for congressional elections on October 27. Spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro said Saturday the president will suspend all her activities. A subdural hematoma is a blood clot on the brain's surface beneath its outer covering, called the dura. Often, in people over 60, a brain trauma can cause the blood vessels in the brain to tear, and blood to clot. In August, Fernandez, 60, suffered a cranial trauma, for which doctors conducted a brain scan and found normal results with no symptoms at the time, Scoccimarro said. Doctors at a Buenos Aires hospital discovered the hematoma on Saturday after a neurological evaluation, he said. According to Argentina's constitution, the vice president would assume the presidency temporarily in the president's absence, but officials have not said if that will occur in this situation. Fernandez's health made headlines when she underwent surgery in January 2012 to remove her thyroid, after doctors said they detected cancer in the gland. A few days later, a spokesman for Fernandez said she did not actually have cancer and that doctors had discarded their original diagnosis.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has a blood clot on the surface of her brain . A month of rest is recommended . Spokesman: The president suffered cranial trauma in August .

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(CNN) -- It's a perennial problem. How do you persuade young, apathetic voters to go to the polls? Enter "Voteman" -- Denmark's rather ill-judged and short-lived cartoon solution. The cartoon opens with two apparently politically disaffected young men. The scene switches to Voteman, a muscle-bound, stubble-chinned superhero, answering a call asking him to persuade voters to have their say in the upcoming European Parliament elections. Naked, he leaps up from a bed surrounded by women apparently performing sex acts on him and -- having donned a leather waistcoat and trousers -- sets off from a Bond villain-esque island hideout on his mission, riding a pair of harnessed dolphins as waterskis. An orgy of cartoon violence follows -- one of the original men is decapitated, while other would-be non-voters are punched, slapped and tossed through the windows of a polling station to vote. The cartoon is the unlikely creation of the Danish Parliament's EU information center, originally posted to its official YouTube page. Less surprisingly perhaps, it has now been pulled and an apology made for its graphic sexual and violent content. Mogens Lykketoft, speaker of the Danish Parliament, said in a statement on his Facebook page that many people had perceived the cartoon as "more serious and offensive than it was intended, and see it as talking down to the youth. "Reaction in social media is sharply divided between those who see this as unacceptably vulgar, and those who think it is tough but acceptable humor which brings attention to the vote on May 25. "The latter was the intention. But I acknowledge that Parliament, as an institution, in future has to show more caution in what we put our name to." The cartoon tells the story of how Voteman, as a young man, once forgot to vote in European Parliament elections. This, the narration says, taught him a painful lesson: "No influence on climate regulations, agricultural subsidies, chemicals in toys -- and the amount of cinnamon allowed in his cinnamon buns. "Horrified by this, he decided he would dedicate his life to making everybody vote. So if you're not going to vote, don't try to run, don't try to hide, because he will find you. And he will make you vote." The European Parliament elections, in which voters in each of the European Union's member states elect representatives to the body, are taking place across Europe next week. May 25 is the day on which Danish voters will go to the polls. Denmark's turnout for the last European elections in 2009 was close to 60%, well above the European average of 43%. CNN's Kim Norgaard contributed to this report.

Cartoon uses muscle-bound character called Voteman to persuade people to vote . Voteman is depicted in a series of sexually suggestive and violent scenes . Parliament speaker apologizes, says cartoon was "more serious and offensive" than intended . Danish Parliament's EU information center created cartoon ahead of European elections .

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Los Angeles (CNN) -- Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling asked a Los Angeles probate court Wednesday to uphold her negotiated sale of the team for $2 billion despite her husband's objections, her attorney said. The probate court agreed to hold a four-day trial on the issue, beginning July 7. Sterling's legal maneuver comes as three physicians say her estranged husband, Donald, 80, is mentally incapacitated, said her attorney, Pierce O'Donnell. Court papers say her husband shows early Alzheimer's or other brain disease. Donald Sterling, the team's other co-owner, doesn't want to sell the team as the National Basketball Association demands; this week he called the league "despicable monsters" and "a band of hypocrites and bullies." O'Donnell said his client sought an expedited hearing "given the fact this is a very important transaction," he said. "It's unfortunate. Mrs. Sterling regrets having to go to court and publicly air this problem. But Mr. Sterling's conduct in reneging on the sale requires her to do so," O'Donnell said. Joining Sterling and O'Donnell at the courthouse Wednesday was the attorney for former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, with whom Shelly Sterling has reached an agreement to sell the franchise for a record $2 billion. Donald Sterling opposes a sale of the team and says he gave his wife a purported letter only to negotiate with a buyer, not to formally sell the team, his attorney said Wednesday. "Bottom line, Donald Sterling does not want to sell the team," attorney Bobby Samini said. Technically, a family trust owns the Clippers. But O'Donnell said that three physicians have certified that Donald Sterling lacks the mental capacity to function as a trustee of the complex trust. "The trust agreement provides that if two qualified physicians certify that he's mentally incapacitated, he's removed. We also have a third distinguished doctor who's an expert in this field, mental capacity, who has reviewed the evidence, and supports the other doctors and agrees on that conclusion. So there's three doctors. We only need two," O'Donnell said. "This is a complex business. You have a $2 billion basketball team. You have massive amount of 150 real estate holdings, and it requires a person to run the business who is competent, and the doctor -- three doctors -- have said that he lacks the mental capacity," O'Donnell said. Doctors' findings . Donald Sterling recently underwent a CT scan and a PET scan of his brain, according to Shelly Sterling's court filings. Dr. Meril S. Platzer, a California neurologist, examined Donald Sterling on May 19 and found he "is suffering from cognitive impairment secondary to primary dementia Alzheimer's disease," court papers said. The PET scan on May 16 providing findings "consistent with a neurodementia of the Alzheimer's type," Platzer said in his certification of Donald Sterling's incapacity. Donald Sterling was unable to spell "world" backward, was unaware of the season of the year and initially had difficulty drawing a clock, Platzer said in court papers. Dr. James Edward Spar, a specialist in geriatric psychiatry who examined Donald Sterling on May 22, said Sterling suffers "mild global cognitive impairment" and "the overall picture is consistent with early Alzheimer's disease, but could reflect other forms of brain disease," court papers said. Platzer said in a May 29 certification that Donald Sterling has "an impairment of his level of attention, information processing, short term memory impairment and ability to modulate mood, emotional liability, and is at risk of making potentially serious errors of judgment," court papers said. Spar said in May 27 letter that Donald Sterling "is substantially unable to manage his finances and resist fraud and undue influence, and is no longer competent to act as trustee of his trust," court documents said. Another specialist in geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Stephen L. Read, "confirmed the methodology and conclusions of Drs. Platzer and Spar," court papers said. "I agree that the history and the findings are highly suspect as representing the slow emergence of progressive dementia, and specifically Alzheimer's disease," Read said in documents filed in court. "In addition, the findings described are fully consistent with the general loss of brain tissue and, more specifically, with the pattern of impaired brain functions demonstrated by the PET scan of May 16, 2014." Under the trust agreement, if Donald Sterling became mentally incapacitated, he would be removed as a trustee, O'Donnell said. Donald Sterling is mentally sound, one of his lawyers, Maxwell Blecher, told CNN on Tuesday. "It strikes me as totally incredible to argue that this man -- I talk to him every day -- is incapable of making decisions and is mentally incompetent," Blecher said on Tuesday afternoon. "And I don't believe any court is going to make a finding to the contrary." Adam Streisand, the attorney for Ballmer, said his client was hoping for a speedy court date. "Mr. Ballmer has insisted, as a provision of this deal, Shelly Sterling get approval from the court that she has the authority as the sole trustee based upon the removal of Mr. Sterling as a trustee. So we are here because Mr. Ballmer is insisting that the court bless the transaction," Streisand said. "If it does not go forward, the consequences are dire," Streisand said. "Mr. Ballmer is not going to stick around for years, for this to wind through the courts. And the NBA has made it very clear that it will take over the team, and that is a consequence that is not going to benefit the Sterling family." September deadline . Donald Sterling initially vowed to fight the sale and filed a lawsuit against the NBA, then said he was going along with the sale -- until Monday, when he again pulled his support. "From the onset, I did not want to sell the Los Angeles Clippers. I have worked for 33 years to build the team," Donald Sterling said. In Shelly Sterling's court filings, NBA general counsel Richard W. Buchanan said if the Sterlings don't sell the team by September 15, the league may sell the team or renew termination proceedings against the Clippers or both. In one document, Shelly Sterling said her husband "has gone back and forth between opposing the sale and supporting the sale" of the team since May 29. "To date, I have not received Donald's written consent to the sale of the Clippers to (Ballmer) for $2 billion," Shelly Sterling said in court papers. Sterling has been embroiled in controversy since a recording of a conversation with his friend V. Stiviano surfaced. The recording included a series of racist comments. Sterling's comments, first posted on TMZ, sparked outrage among NBA players, executives and fans. The commissioner fined Sterling $2.5 million and banned him for life from the NBA. In a statement Tuesday, Sterling said he has apologized for the remarks and his apology is sincere. He also made inflammatory comments to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" about African-Americans, which the NBA had planned to use as part of its evidence against him in an owners' meeting where a vote would be taken on whether to terminate his ownership rights. The meeting was canceled. Sterling's lawsuit makes clear that he believes the NBA has no right to force such a sale, and the league was wrong in banning him for life and fining him. In addition to damages, the lawsuit seeks a restraining order. Sterling says NBA officials are 'bullies,' 'hypocrites,' 'monsters' NBA commissioner: Sterling saga not over yet .

Donald Sterling shows 'neurodementia of the Alzheimer's type,' a doctor says . He's unaware of the season and can't spell 'world' backward, doctor adds . He shows 'early Alzheimer's disease' or other brain disease, second doctor says . Findings are consistent with 'the general loss of brain tissue,' third doctor says .

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(RollingStone.com) -- Rage Against the Machine's 1992 debut is a grenade that keeps exploding. Among '90s albums, only "Nevermind" and "The Chronic" rival it for cultural impact. Rage made hip-hop-tinged funk metal the new rebel music, taking over the alienation beat from grunge slackers and making Marxist sloganeering seem badass. Like any good revolutionary sect, the band members weren't without their contradictions and tensions. Zack de la Rocha's blocky, academically aspirational rhymes preached leftist revolution, and guitarist and sonic architect Tom Morello practiced an almost authoritarian control and extreme technical precision as he mimicked sampling, sent down thunderous power chords and, occasionally, indulged in almost New Age-y solos. (See the liquid note-bending on "Township Rebellion.") RollingStone.com: Rage Against the Machine box set marks 20th anniversary of first LP . Remastered to museum-clean standards, the reissued album comes with DVDs of live shows and music videos, plus demos that prove just how down and detailed the group had every song (even if Morello still couldn't resist changing solos). The rap appropriation has lost the force of novelty, of course, but blaming Rage Against the Machine for Fred Durst is like blaming Abraham Lincoln for John Boehner. RollingStone.com: 500 greatest albums of all time . De la Rocha's throat-scraping eruptions about suicide (the fate of an outcast in "Settle for Nothing") and bullets in the head feel as primal as any lefty rock -- and maybe more so, heard from inside Morello's palace of sound. Rage was machine-like, yes, but built to change worlds. See the full story at RollingStone.com . Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone.

Rage Against the Machine has reissued its 1992 album . Review: Only "Nevermind" and "The Chronic" rival it for '90s cultural impact . The reissued album comes with DVDs of live shows and music videos .

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(CNN) -- Ah, fandom, it's a curious and wonderful thing. When it was announced last year that we would be getting a Green Day version of "Rock Band," fans of the band (myself included) were pretty excited. The band that helped turn the '90s punk-rock revival into a more mainstream, pop-radio movement would be getting some major attention in the digital world. When the game was released on Tuesday, I couldn't wait to get home and see if I could play like Tre Cool or sing like Billie Joe Armstrong. But with so many other versions of "Rock Band" out there, why would you want to spend money on this game? Well, for starters, any fanboy or fangirl will love the loading screens with Green Day specific graphics and sounds. You also get to view cool memorabilia, like still photos and rare video footage of the band, for completing songs in career mode. Playing songs like "When I Come Around" and "Pulling Teeth" brings back memories of college days, and yes, I will admit I wish they had put "All By Myself" in the game, because it's the only hidden track that Green Day has ever included on an album. Maybe an Easter egg is hiding in the shadows for us to discover? There are also unique drum lessons written specifically for this version of the game. From what I've seen, even veteran Rock Band players will need them. Most of the songs included in the game are ones that fans of Green Day can listen to again and again. Now we can also tell our friends, "yeah, I five-starred 'Brain Stew/Jaded!' " Hardcore "Rock Band" fans have posted videos on YouTube of themselves playing in expert mode and achieving five gold stars, which is something that not even the members of Green Day were able to do, according to a recent interview with MTV. The graphics are really well done in this game and the motion-capture technique used to animate the Green Day doppelganger is pretty impressive. When the piano opening to "Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)" starts playing, Billie Joe encourages the audience to clap and fakes surprise when the piano stops before the song kicks into high gear. It's almost like being at a concert -- I nearly forgot I was supposed to start singing. Also notable is that the band's clothing choices match the theme and era of each album. "21st Century Breakdown" has an almost steampunk feel to it. In the Oakland venue the band is decked out in waistcoats, trousers and pin-striped shirts to match the vibe of the album. As with most of the "Rock Band" games, when you earn four stars or more on a song, you get a reward. In this case, you get "cred" instead of "fans" and with that the ability to open up more sets with tougher songs like "Peacemaker" from "21st Century Breakdown" -- a fun, fast-paced song about death and destruction. All the members of Green Day play an instrument and sing at the same time, which is no small feat given the technical difficulty of the bass lines and Tre Cool's blazing fast drumming speed. My other "band mate" was busy clacking away on his guitar and wouldn't have been able to sing if he tried, nor would I when behind my electronic drum kit. Sore arms and scratchy voice aside, "Green Day: Rock Band" is a lot of fun. Fans both new and old will enjoy playing along with their favorite songs. We may not all be able to unlock achievements like "It's All Fun Until Someone Gets Hurt" or "Louder Than Bombs or Eternity," but we'll have fun trying.

The video game's career mode offers rare video footage of the band playing . Want to drum like Tre Cool? You might need the "Green Day: Rock Band"-specific drum lessons . Details make this game exciting for fans -- even wardrobe is varied and historically correct .

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Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A perilous face-off intensified Saturday when Russia state news complained that Ukraine had mobilized 15,000 troops in the suburbs of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine "in order to wipe out the city and its residents." Quoting a Russian Defense Ministry source, RIA Novosti said satellite photos showed the force forming around the city that has become a friction point between the Ukraine military and pro-Russian militants. The Defense Ministry source said the number of Ukraine troops put the pro-Russian militants at a disadvantage because the latter are "armed only with small amount of pistols and shotguns." Many eastern Ukraine residents have Russian roots and sympathize with Moscow. The source said the photos showed about 160 tanks, 230 infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, mine throwers and multiple-launch rocket systems. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly criticized Kiev's use of force against Ukrainian civilians. Developments in Ukraine have come at a rapid pace in recent days: . -- Russia, which already had 40,000 troops on its side of the border, started new military drills a few days ago after Ukrainian forces said they killed five pro-Russian militants. Ukraine launched the second stage of an "anti-terrorist operation" against militants in Slavyansk. -- On Friday, a team of European and Ukrainian military observers were seized Friday by pro-Russian separatists in Slavyansk. -- Russian military aircraft "crossed and violated" Ukrainian airspace seven times overnight, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters in Rome on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation, according to the state news agency Itar-Tass. -- Yatsenyuk met with Pope Francis while in Rome on Saturday. The meeting has been seen as a sign of support from the Vatican for his government. -- G7 leaders said they would impose new sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis. The Ukrainian Prime Minister urged Russia to pull back its security forces and not to support pro-Russian militants in eastern and southern Ukraine. "We urge Russia to leave us alone," he said in televised remarks. Ukraine's government has promised constitutional reforms and protections for Russian speakers in a bid to ease the tensions in its eastern regions. Inspectors seized in Slavyansk . On Saturday, the fate of the military inspectors preoccupied world leaders. The inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were detained Friday as they entered Slavyansk, along with five Ukrainian military representatives and the driver of their bus, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said. Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, said the group is being kept under "inhumane conditions" in the basement of a building held by the militants. The self-declared mayor of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, told reporters that one of the "prisoners" has diabetes, but he has the medicine he needs and will be given his own quarters overnight. Separatist leader Denis Pushilin, self-declared chairman of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic," told CNN he doesn't believe they are from the OSCE, but that some are NATO spies. The German Foreign Office said it had set up an emergency task force to find out what has happened to the team members, four of whom are German. The others are from Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, Russian state media said. The OSCE mission in Ukraine is tasked with helping to implement an international agreement signed nine days ago in Switzerland, which called for illegal militia groups to disarm and leave occupied buildings, among other provisions. In a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked the United States to use its influence to secure the release of pro-Russian leaders being held in Ukraine. Kerry urged Russia to support efforts of the OSCE and the government of Ukraine to liberate the inspectors and their Ukrainian guides, according to a senior State Department official. Targeted sanctions . Against the backdrop of increasing volatility in Ukraine, leaders of the G7 industrialized nations on Friday announced they would "move swiftly to impose additional sanctions on Russia" over its actions in Ukraine. The statement from the group -- which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States -- came hours after U.S. President Barack Obama threatened Russia with new sanctions. CNN's Gul Tuysuz reported from Kiev and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. CNN's Andrew Carey and Nick Paton Walsh in Slavyansk and journalist Victoria Butenko in Kiev contributed to this report. CNN's Alex Felton, Bharati Naik, Ben Brumfield and Boriana Milanova also contributed.

Russian state news says 15,000 Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine . Self-declared mayor of Slavyansk says diabetic hostage has the medicine he needs . Ukraine's Security Service says OSCE team is being held in "inhumane conditions" U.S. official says planned U.S. sanctions "can have a significant impact" on Russia .

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The Late-1980s pop culture relic "21 Jump Street" was a primo specimen of a TV police procedural with a catchy hook: A team of fresh-faced cops work undercover as high school kids, reporting back to their tough/earnest boss at the address listed above. The hit series ran for four years, and was notably progressive in its willingness to incorporate newsmaking social issues, including AIDS, homophobia, and child abuse. But 25 years later, "21 Jump Street" the TV show is remembered primarily as the career kickstarter of Johnny Depp as a young actor with an obvious something. As it turns out, dim memories and a new generation of pop culture consumers work to the great advantage of "21 Jump Street" the movie: What this fast, cheeky, and very funny interpretation of the original premise sacrifices in teachable moments, it makes up for in intelligent giddiness. Shaped by the precocious comedic smarts of talent-on-a-roll Jonah Hill (who not only costars but also developed the story with Michael Bacall and is one of the executive producers), the movie morphs into an action comedy with a tonal complexity that marks it as a very contemporary creative project. It's part homage and part wink at the past. It jokes about high school but is also a sensitive sociological study of those crucial years. It bridges slapstick and action. It's quick-witted with its pop references. Oh, have you heard? Depp makes a delightful cameo appearance! On the surface, "21 Jump Street" follows the crime-fighting antics of odd-couple cop partners Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum). Their wonky dynamic is established in a perfectly placed opening flashback to 2005, when the two were real high school students -- Schmidt the klutzy, anxious nerd with a brain; Jenko the athletic, academically challenged coolio. Seven years later, when both police rookies are coincidentally assigned to an undercover--high schooler program, the duo are prepared to play out those same life scripts, until a mix-up alters fate. Schmidt is assigned a class schedule befitting a popular non-Einstein; Jenko is shuffled into advanced-placement chemistry. (''Ap-chemistry,'' he calls it, laboriously reading his course list.) Given a do-over, the two get to reexperience those less than wonder years. They get to work issues out. And by the way they get to bust a drug ring fronted by a smart and popular guy played with oddball charisma by Dave Franco. (The curiosity isn't that he's the brother of James Franco; it's that he's so interestingly weird. Okay, like his brother.) But that, as I say, is on the surface. Underneath, "21 Jump Street" is a riot of risks that pay off, the biggest of which might be handing Tatum funny business. And now for the revelation: The guy's got bust-out talents as a really funny, self-aware comic actor. With all appropriate salutes to the busy fellow's famous abs, and with full forgiveness for his participation in "The Vow," I am feeling the Channing charm for the first time. And wow, those scenes where the smart actor, playing a ''dumb'' character who realizes he's not as dumb as he has always believed he is, fakes playing a dumb guy to mess with his smart partner's head are kind of perfect. Also, Tatum can sustain a great, I mean great, Dumb Face. Under the limber direction of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"), and working from a screenplay by Bacall -- a script jammed, by the way, with so many oinky references to male reproductive equipment that I choose to believe the producers were rising to a dare -- Hill and Tatum play their Mutt-and-Jeff act against a supporting cast equally fast on their feet. A refresher viewing of any old "Jump Street" episode may sharpen your appreciation for the kind of earnest '80s-TV police captain that Ice Cube is tweaking in his funky turn as Schmidt and Jenko's boss, but the joke is equally welcome without the historical background. Explaining why he's assigning Schmidt and Jenko to shutting down the school drug ring after the death of one student, the captain tells it true: ''This kid is white, so people actually give a s---.'' There's room for laughs and truth at this newly reopened address. A- . See the full article at EW.com .

"21 Jump Street" morphs into an action comedy with a tonal complexity . What this interpretation sacrifices in teachable moments, it makes up for in intelligent giddiness . Channing Tatum has got bust-out talents as a really funny, self-aware comic actor .

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(CNN) -- After years spent fighting in some of the world's worst wars, former U.S. Navy SEAL Kristin Beck says she knows what she wants. "I want to have my life," she told CNN's "AC360." "I fought for 20 years for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I want some happiness." Beck recently came out as transgender. She wrote about the experience in a book, "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender." Trapped in a man's body . It chronicles her life as a young boy and man, known then as Chris Beck. Beck deployed 13 times, serving in places such as Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. She earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart along the way. Though she's felt trapped in the wrong body since grade school, Beck didn't come out until after she left the military in 2011. Doing so earlier would have been too big a risk. Transgender men and women are banned from service. "That's a chance that if I took it, I might be dead today," she said. "There's a lot of prejudice out there. There's been a lot of transgender people who are killed for prejudice, for hatred. When the book came out -- some amazing support and some amazing praises -- but also some pretty amazing bigotry and hatred." Beck says she doesn't need people to love, or even like, her. "But I don't want you to beat me up and kill me. You don't have to like me, I don't care. But please don't kill me." 'No one ever met the real me' Beck explains her years of hiding as living like an onion. Deep down, under various layers, or skins, she hid her female persona. "It is a constant, but as you suppress and as you bottle it up, it's not like on that surface," she said. "You would never notice it because I can push it so deep, but then it does kinda, like, it gnaws at you. So it's always there." Looking back, Beck believes she might have wanted to become a SEAL because they are "the toughest of the tough." She thought: "I could totally make it go away if I could be at that top level. ... Maybe I could cure myself." But the feeling of being born in the wrong body never went away. And for her entire career, Beck kept her mouth shut. She says virtually no one, out of the thousands of people she worked with, knew her secret -- it was so well hidden. "No one ever met the real me," she said. Though her identity was hidden, the rest of what Beck offered was true. "I gave true brotherhood. I did my best, 150% all the time, and I gave strength and honor and my full brotherhood to every military person I ever worked with." Watch Anderson Cooper . 360° weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

Kristin Beck served as a Navy SEAL for more than 20 years . Known then as Chris Beck, the war veteran deployed 13 times . Beck retired in 2011 and has since come out as transgender . "No one ever met the real me," she says .

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(CNN Student News) -- January 31, 2014 . This Friday, CNN Student News is all about journeys: the nationwide one that millions of Chinese are taking for the Lunar New Year, the harrowing one that led thousands of Atlantans to abandon their cars, and the first one that a baby polar bear took in the snow. We'll also discuss a new legal development in the case of an accused terrorist, and we'll examine Super Bowl security. On this page you will find today's show Transcript, the Daily Curriculum, and a place for you to leave feedback. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. DAILY CURRICULUM . Click here for a printable version of the Daily Curriculum (PDF). Media Literacy Question of the Day: . If you were reporting on a cultural tradition, what elements and perspectives would you include, and why? Weekly Newsquiz: The following questions relate to events that were covered this week on CNN Student News. Write your answers in the space provided. 1. What major U.S. city suffered historic transportation gridlock on its roads resulting from a snow and ice storm? 2. What country experienced a revolution on January 25, 2011 that was marked with protests and celebrations this week in Tahrir Square? 3. What term refers to markets of smaller countries that are starting to grow? 4. What word, from an Old French term meaning "undertake," is a term for someone who organizes and manages a business? 5. What is the title of the annual speech given by the U.S. president before Congress? 6. What animal is associated with the Chinese New Year that begins today? 7. What organization oversees most college sports in the U.S.? 8. What war-torn country's largest city is Aleppo? 9. The Rangers are a special operations unit associated with what branch of the U.S. military? 10. What number is represented by the Roman numerals XLVIII? CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists and educators who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show and curriculum. We hope you use our free daily materials along with the program, and we welcome your feedback on them. FEEDBACK . We're looking for your feedback about CNN Student News. Please use this page to leave us comments about today's program, including what you think about our stories and our resources. Also, feel free to tell us how you use them in your classroom. The educators on our staff will monitor this page and may respond to your comments as well. Thank you for using CNN Student News! Click here to submit your Roll Call request.

This page includes the show Transcript and the Daily Curriculum . Use the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary . The Daily Curriculum's Newsquiz tests students' knowledge of events in the news . At the bottom of the page, please share your feedback about our show and curriculum .

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(CNN) -- Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who embodied a vanishing breed of liberal Republicanism before switching to the Democratic Party at the twilight of his political career, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his family announced. Specter died of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at his home in Philadelphia, his family said. He was 82. The veteran Pennsylvania politician had overcome numerous serious illnesses over the past two decades, including a brain tumor. He had been in the public eye since serving as a member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Specter was elected to the Senate in 1980 and represented Pennsylvania for 30 years, longer than anyone in the state's history. His politically moderate image fit hand-in-glove in the politically blue Northeast, both with its Democratic centrists and its liberal Republicans. He was also one of America's most prominent Jewish politicians, a rare Republican in a category dominated by Democrats over the decades. And his name is synonymous with Pennsylvania, an idiosyncratic state that pushes and pulls between the two parties, and his home, the staunchly Democratic city of Philadelphia. In 2006, Philadelphia magazine called him "one of the few true wild cards of Washington politics ... reviled by those on both the right and the left." "Charming and churlish, brilliant and pedantic, he can be fiercely independent, entertainingly eccentric and simply maddening," the profile read. Former Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, called Specter "a mentor, colleague and a political institution" who "did more for the people of Pennsylvania over his more than 30-year career with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin." And Pat Toomey, the Republican who now holds Specter's old Senate seat, praised him as "a man of sharp intelligence and dogged determination." And at the White House, President Barack Obama said Specter "was always a fighter." "From his days stamping out corruption as a prosecutor in Philadelphia to his three decades of service in the Senate, Arlen was fiercely independent -- never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to serve," Obama said in a written statement on Specter's death. And Vice President Joe Biden lamented the loss of "my friend," "who never walked away from his principles and was at his best when they were challenged." Biden will travel to Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday for Specter's funeral, according to the White House. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll and professor of pubic affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, said Frank Sinatra's song "My Way" could apply to Specter. "There isn't any doubt in many respects he was an unusual politician," Madonna said. "He didn't look at polls. He didn't track how his comments were playing out in the press. ... "He was fundamentally a pragmatist who could bend with the times," Madonna said, and he believed greatly that government could help people. "The Republicanism in his day, it was a different kind of Republican. He was a Philadelphian, and not into that staunchly conservative Republicanism that we see" today. Readers wished the best for Specter . Madonna called Specter an "indefatigable" public figure, highly demanding of both himself and those who worked for him over the years. He had a few election losses but he was undeterred by defeat, the prospects of losing and the challenges he faced. "The last thing you would have thought about Arlen Specter was that he was born in Kansas," Madonna said. "He always came across as kind of urbane. He had a kind of caustic sense of humor." But Specter in fact was born in Wichita, the youngest child of Lillie Shanin and Harry Specter, an immigrant from Ukraine. He grew up in Russell, Kansas, also the hometown of another Republican icon, a one-time presidential nominee and senator, Bob Dole. After graduating from Russell High School in 1947, Specter first went to the University of Oklahoma. But he eventually went east for his higher education. He earned a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1951 from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He was in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, serving as a second lieutenant in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He returned to his studies and graduated from Yale Law School in 1956. After Yale, he started practicing law and became an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. He served on the Warren Commission at the recommendation of Rep. Gerald Ford, later president. Specter is credited with co-authoring the "single bullet theory," which suggested that some of the wounds to Kennedy and then-Texas Gov. John Connally were caused by the same bullet. Even though he was a registered Democrat, Specter ran successfully for Philadelphia district attorney on the Republican ticket in 1965 and eventually registered as a Republican. He lost an election for Philadelphia mayor in 1967. He served as district attorney until 1974 and prosecuted corruption cases against Philadelphia magistrates and Teamsters. Specter ran for the U.S. Senate in 1976, but he was defeated in the Republican primary by John Heinz. He ran for governor but was defeated by Dick Thornburgh in the primary. But he won his bid for Senate in 1980 and distinguished himself, serving until 2011. "During his tenure in the Senate, Specter championed Pennsylvania's economy and took an active interest in foreign affairs, meeting with dozens of world leaders as well as supporting appropriations to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and backing free trade agreements between the U.S. and under-developed countries," according to a bio from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served on the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman from 2005 to 2007. He served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1995 to 1997. And he was a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Specter brought more financial resources to Pennsylvania than anyone in the state, working with mayors and other local leaders to help them get grants and aid, Madonna said. And he's remembered across the state's 67 counties for his efforts. "He didn't shy away from pork," Madonna said. He participated in the confirmation hearings of 14 U.S. Supreme Court nominees, the Penn bio says. He is remembered for leading the charge against conservative nominee Robert Bork and going after Anita Hill, who accused nominee Clarence Thomas of harassment. "No member of Congress shaped the Supreme Court more than he did," Madonna said. "He had a prosecutorial mindset. He could be incredibly persuasive as an interrogator." Specter straddled right and left. He criticized Republicans for President Bill Clinton's impeachment and voted in favor of the Iraq war. He supported embryonic stem cell research. During the 1990s, he briefly announced a run for president but eventually dropped the effort and endorsed Bob Dole. Despite his longtime membership in the Republican Party, Specter became more alienated from the party as it grew more conservative. Like many of his moderate compatriots, he came to be viewed by the new conservatives as a RINO -- a Republican in Name Only. Decades after he switched to the Republican Party, he changed his stripes again. He became a Democrat in 2009, saying Republicans had moved too far to the right and embraced social conservatism. The move gave Democrats a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But in 2010, when he ran for re-election, Specter lost the Democratic primary to Rep. Joe Sestak. Sestak, who went on to lose the race to Toomey, praised Specter via Twitter as "a warrior of inestimable public service." After the loss, Specter moved from the halls of Congress to those of academia, taking on a new role at the University of Pennsylvania Law School as an adjunct professor. "Arlen's knowledge of the inner workings of the government and lawmaking is second to none," said Michael Fitts, the law school's dean. "The insight he brings from his career in public service, particularly as a leader on judicial issues, will be invaluable to our students as they prepare for their own careers in the law." The senator practiced law when he wasn't in office and authored books throughout his career, including: . -- "Passion for Truth: From Finding JFK's Single Bullet to Questioning Anita Hill to Impeaching Clinton" -- "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate" -- "Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It" "For the past quarter-century, he's also been a Zelig-like national figure," the Philadelphia magazine article said, referring to the Woody Allen character from the film of the same name who changed his persona as his surroundings and circumstances changed. "From his role in sinking Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination to his cross-examination of Anita Hill, from stem-cell research to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Specter's greatest talent may be his unique ability to put himself -- somehow, some way -- in the center of the nation's most important debates," the article said. Obituaries 2012: The lives they've lived . CNN's Sarah Hoye in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

NEW: Vice President Joe Biden praises "my friend," plans to attend funeral Tuesday . Specter died of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma . He represented Pennsylvania in the Senate longer than anyone else . He was long one of the most prominent Jewish-American politicians .

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Yaounde, Cameroon (CNN) -- Heavily armed poachers recently killed nearly 40 endangered forest elephants for their ivory in two national parks, officials in Cameroon said Tuesday, the latest in a string of slaughters of the animals in Central Africa. "The carcasses are still fresh, indicating the killings took place probably only this month," ecologist Theophile Mbarga told CNN on Tuesday. Very young -- even newborn -- elephants were among the carcasses found in Nki and Lobeke national parks. The toll could reach 50 after a thorough search is made, Mbarga added. The dead elephants were found closely clustered -- less than 35 feet apart -- indicating the poachers used powerful, modern weapons, conservation group WWF project manager Zacharie Nzooh told journalists Tuesday. Evidence indicates that a horseback-riding band of about 300 poachers from Sudan was behind the slaughter, officials said. The same poachers were believed to be responsible for hundreds of elephant deaths over the past year. Forest elephants are distinguished from the more familiar savanna elephants by their smaller size and straighter tusks. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of their ivory sells for hundreds of dollars on the underground market in places such as China and Thailand. Political analysts say the proceeds fund rebel groups in Sudan and the Central African Republic. A recent peer-reviewed study published at PLOS One documented a "catastrophic" 62 percent decline in Central Africa's forest elephant population over nine years. Officials estimated that 1,700 forest elephants remain in the two Cameroonian parks. It is feared they will be completely wiped out within seven years. Savanna elephant populations in the Central African Republic are believed to have plummeted from around 80,000 just 30 years ago to a few hundred today, according to WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund. The governments of three Central African nations -- Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Chad -- announced Saturday they would muster as many as 1,000 soldiers for joint military operations to protect the region's last remaining savanna elephants, as the Sudanese poachers are still active in the region. "We recommend the mobilization of all defense and security forces in the affected countries" to stop the poachers, members of the Economic Community of Central African States said in a joint statement. The communique was issued at the end of a three-day emergency anti-poaching ministerial conference held in Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé. The operation is estimated to cost about $2.3 million. The announcement called on other nations to contribute additional funds to sustain the effort. On the night of March 14 to 15, poachers slaughtered killed at least 89 elephants in southern Chad, WWF said. They are also believed to be behind the killing of at least 30 elephants in the Central African Republic since January 1. The poachers on horseback are also suspected of killing 300 elephants in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida National Park in early 2012. The carnage prompted Cameroon to mobilize 600 elite troops to try to keep the poachers from crossing the border again, WWF reported. In the statement, the ECCAS states congratulated Thailand for its March 3 decision to ban its legal domestic ivory trade and urged its vigorous enforcement. Ivory consumers "need to be sensitized to the consequences" of the ivory trade, the statement said, adding that "destination countries (should) adopt measures to reduce ivory demand." Robert Jackson, the U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, said he was pleased with the meeting. "The plan is a good one. But execution is now critical." he said. "I am, however, concerned that there is no mention of corruption in the statement, because it contributes directly to the poaching and trafficking problem," he said. CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.

Nearly 40 endangered forest elephants were killed in 2 parks . 300 Sudanese poachers on horseback are believed to be responsible . Forest and savanna elephant populations have declined drastically . Central African nations agree to mobilize 1,000 soldiers to fight poaching .

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(CNN) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could open the Morganza Spillway as early as Saturday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday. The Mississippi River Commission has directed the Corps to operate the crucial spillway once river flows reach a certain trigger: 1.5 million cubic feet per second. Projections indicate the tipping point could be hit as early as Saturday evening, Jindal has said. Opening the spillway would lower anticipated cresting levels along the lower Mississippi River and divert water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans but would flood much of low-lying south-central Louisiana. Seven parishes are expected to be affected by the opening, according to the Corps. The Mississippi River Commission has advised a "slow opening," and the flood would spread gradually over several days, the Corps said. The Morganza Spillway has not been opened since 1973. Louisiana state and local officials braced for the possibility of major flooding in the Atchafalaya River Basin if, or when, federal authorities open the spillway north of Baton Rouge. They advised residents to expect road closings. Residents gawk at Mississippi's rise . The National Guard worked around the clock to construct a flood barrier in Morgan City, Louisiana, where the Atchafalaya River was already 3.15 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The strategy in Morgan City, officials say, is to reinforce the levees around the city. That's where efforts were being focused Friday, rather than on handing out sandbags to individual residents. "Really, we're just waiting," said Evie Bertaut, who has lived in Morgan City for 50 years. Officials believe that the levees will protect the city from flooding, but some are taking preliminary precautions, she said. At Sacred Heart Church, where Bertaut works, people spent the day moving important documents such a baptismal, marriage and financial records to the second floor. "Most people are getting their photographs together, things that you can't replace in case you have to go," she said. A collective gasp as Louisiana town braces for flood . Meanwhile, in the Arkansas town of Helena, the river crested at 56.5 feet -- 12.5 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The river's slow pace has given emergency responders more time to prepare, forecasters said. But while the slow-moving water gives residents extra time to get ready, it also means that land could remain under water for some time. Jindal urged southeastern Louisiana residents to evacuate. "Now is the time to take action," he said. The U.S. Coast Guard said floodwaters could close the Mississippi River to ships at the New Orleans port as early as Monday morning. To help New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that it will open 52 more bays at the Bonnet Carre Spillway just north of the city, diverting water into Lake Pontchartrain. That will mean a total of 264 bays will be open in the 350-bay spillway. Stars talk about the flooding and response . The National Weather Service said that as of Friday morning, the river was at 16.8 feet in New Orleans, just a fraction below flood stage. It is expected to crest May 23 at more than 19 feet. The New Orleans levees are built to withstand 20 feet, according to the weather service. Upriver in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Police Chief Walter Armstrong said 600 residents had been evacuated as of Thursday night. The river was expected to crest at 57.5 feet. Flood stage at Vicksburg, the level at which the river may begin flowing over its banks, is 43 feet. Armstrong said he expected higher water Friday, with more homes affected. More than two dozen roads were closed and about 45 businesses will be closed by Friday. Homes that were built between the levee and the Mississippi River were the first affected. "We estimate that every home built on the river side of the levee from Memphis all the way to the Louisiana line is flooded," said Mike Womack, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Residents near Vicksburg counted on a levee for protection. In addition to the mainline levee along the river, starting near Vicksburg and extending northeast for more than 20 miles, a so-called backwater levee offers shelter. The backwater levee is designed to keep water from backing into the Yazoo River delta and is designed lower than the mainline levee so that water can flow over it. That level is expected to be reached Monday, said Charlie Tindall, attorney for the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners. The backwater levee was being "armored" by a heavy plastic coating to prevent it from washing out, he said. Nonetheless, 1.4 million acres in Mississippi, including 602,000 acres where crops are growing, could flood, said Rickey Grey of the state's Department of Agriculture. Across the South and lower Midwest, floodwaters have covered about 3 million acres of farmland, eroding for many farmers what could have been a profitable year for corn, wheat, rice and cotton, officials said. In Arkansas, the Farm Bureau estimated that damage to the state's agriculture could top more than $500 million as more than 1 million acres of cropland are under water. Womack talks about flood costs . "It's in about 10 feet of water," Dyersburg, Tennessee, farmer Jimmy Moody said of his 440 acres of winter wheat, which was to be harvested in the coming month. Other farmers in Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas rushed to salvage what wheat they could ahead of the rising water. As for corn, farmers who were able to get into the fields during a soggy planting season in late March and April are seeing their crops in some cases under several feet of water. Some officials said Thursday that spillover effects resulting from the flood could threaten other industries. That includes the possibility that the Waterford 3 nuclear power plant in Taft, Louisiana, could be closed, according to CNN affiliate WGNO. The Mississippi River is expected to crest at 26.6 feet in Taft on May 23. If it reaches 27 feet, officials told WGNO, the plant's water intake system could shut down. NBA's Grizzlies inspired by fans in flooded Memphis . Carl Rhode of Entergy, the plant's operator, told WGNO that the threat to the intake system is not a matter of nuclear safety. However, Scott Welchel, a St. Charles Parish Emergency Operations Center official, said shutting down the plant would have a "domino effect" on local industries. "It would impact every industry along the river," Welchel said. "That's just something that isn't easy for people to deal with, especially on a moment's notice." For residents in communities along the river, the damage has been far more devastating than can be measured in dollars and cents. Danny Moore of Millington, Tennessee, told CNN affiliate WPTY that the recent disaster marked the second time in one year that flooding took away nearly everything he had. Moore said that after a flood destroyed all of his furniture last year, he decided to move everything he owned into rented storage space. However, those belongings were destroyed when his storage unit was flooded several days ago. "They say bad luck comes in threes. I hope this is the end of it," Moore told WPTY. The Millington resident said he lost a house to a fire in 2009. Moore said he is too preoccupied with taking care of his girlfriend, who is suffering from an infection that is damaging her liver, to look for new furniture. "We'll do what we've got to do and keep praying," Moore said, holding back tears. CNN's Mariano Castillo, Mia Aquino and Erica Henry contributed to this report.

NEW: Army Corps of Engineers is expected to open the spillway once river flows hit a trigger . NEW: Projections indicate the tipping point could come as early as Saturday, Jindal says . NEW: The Morganza Spillway has not been opened since 1973 . Opening the Morganza Spillway would flood the Atchafalaya River Basin .

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Actor Russell Johnson, best known as Professor in the 1960s TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island," died Thursday, his agent said. Johnson was 89. Johnson played the iconic role of Professor Roy Hinkley, whose scientific schemes to get the castaways rescued were always foiled by Gilligan's bumbling. He died at his home in Washington, where he lived with his wife, Connie. She and their daughter, Kimberly, were at his side, said agent Mike Eisenstadt. Johnson is also survived by a stepson, Court, and a grandson, he said. Johnson worked up until his death, signing autographs over the holidays, said Eisenstadt. He called Johnson's death "unexpected." The chief deputy coroner in Kitsap County, Washington, told CNN that Johnson died from natural causes. Johnson was "just a positive and nice guy" who always treated people with respect, his agent said. His acting career began in the early 1950s with many jobs as a character actor on television. He played Marshal Gib Scott in two seasons of "Black Saddle," a Western that ran in 1959 and 1960. Johnson acted in dozens of television shows after the four seasons on "Gilligan's Island," but his career seemed stranded on its own island because of the popular sitcom role. A noteworthy big screen role was as a nuclear physicist in the 1955 science fiction film "This Island Earth." Share your memories . Johnson was in Ray Bradbury's 1953 sci-fi classic "It Came From Outer Space." Before becoming an actor, Johnson served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He was on a B-24 Liberator when it was shot down during a bombing raid over the Philippines in 1945, according to his official biography, and used his G.I. Bill benefits to pay for acting school after the war. Johnson, in a 2004 interview for the Archive of American Television said the success of "Gilligan's Island, which he never expected to last more than the initial order of 13 episodes, was the result of the "great chemistry" of the cast. Tina Louise, who played the glamorous Hollywood starlet Ginger on "Gilligan's Island said she was " very saddened to hear of the passing of Russell Johnson." "My prayers and condolences go out to his wife Constance and his family," Louise said. "He will always be in our hearts and remembered from Gilligan's island as part of American pop culture history. He will truly be missed." Advice to young actors . Johnson's advice to young actors was to "prepare yourself." "Most of us have to really learn how to do what we do, and that takes some studying and being part of an acting group," he said. "Preparation is everything, and that means studying." Another important ingredient to acting success is perseverance, he said. "You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't persevere, if you don't stick to it, it doesn't mean anything."

Johnson played the iconic role of Professor Roy Hinkley on "Gilligan's Island" Johnson worked up until his death, signing autographs over holidays . He was "just a positive and nice guy," his agent says . Johnson, 89, was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II .

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(CNN) -- After nearly 40 years of recorded increases, the number of immigrants living in the United States remained flat between 2007 and 2008, recent statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau show. The number of naturalized citizens in the U.S. increased, partly attributed to voter drives for the 2008 election. According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the U.S. foreign-born population represented about 12.5 percent of the population in 2008, down from 12.6 percent in 2007. Taking into account the margin of error, it was possible that the immigrant population remained even. "Between '07 and '08 there really wasn't that much of a change," said Elizabeth Grieco, chief of immigration statistics staff at the Census Bureau. But given the steep upward trend in the foreign-born population since 1970, no change is big news. The American Community Survey collects data from about 3 million addresses each year, and provides one of the most complete pictures of the population, according to the bureau. The survey doesn't give a reason for the leveling off, but experts pointed to the economic downturn and the resulting high unemployment as factors behind the shift. "The recession has had a significant effect on immigrants' decisions on whether to come to the U.S.," said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. Would-be unauthorized immigrants and legal temporary workers are mostly the ones who have decided to stay put in their home countries for now, Mittelstadt said. The largest declines in the foreign-born population were in states that were hardest hit by the recession, including California, Florida and Arizona. Mittelstadt noted, however, that those immigrants already in the United States appear to be staying. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center concluded that emigration from Mexico, the largest source of immigrants to the United States, slowed at least 40 percent between mid-decade and 2008, based on national population surveys in the United States and Mexico, as well as Border Patrol apprehension figures. The Mexican-born population in the United States dropped by about 300,000 between 2007 and 2008, according to census data. The new Census statistics show that for the first time since the American Community Survey was fully implemented in 2005, the number of noncitizens decreased, Grieco said. There were about 21.6 million noncitizens in 2008, down from 21.9 million in 2007. The label noncitizens includes both legal residents and illegal immigrants. Along with the decline in the noncitizen population, however, there was a notable increase in the number of naturalized citizens, Grieco said. The number of individuals who are naturalized citizens increased to 43 percent of the foreign-born population in 2008 from 42.5 percent in 2007. The Census survey matches reports from the Department of Homeland Security on the rise of naturalization applications. "Naturalizations grew at a record pace between 2006 and 2008, with a total of 2.4 million immigrants becoming new citizens in the United States," according to a DHS statement. A significant fee increase imposed in 2007 for naturalization applications and an awareness of citizenship brought on during voter registration drives for the 2008 election help explain the increase, Mittelstadt said.

Bureau official: "Between '07 and '08 there really wasn't" much immigration change . Notable increase in naturalized citizens, Census Bureau's Elizabeth Grieco says . Mexican-born population in U.S. dropped by about 300,000 between 2007 and 2008 .

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(CNN) -- The hostage crisis in eastern Algeria is over, but the questions remain. Among them, exactly how many people are unaccounted for at a remote natural gas facility after three days of chaos that ended Saturday, leaving at least 23 hostages and dozens of Islamist militants dead. Some 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed, the Algerian Interior Ministry said. Britain's BP said Sunday four of its workers remain unaccounted for. And Norway's Statoil said five of its employees were missing, while 12 others are now home in Norway, Algeria and Canada. "Search efforts are ongoing at the gas installation, looking for more possible victims. I fear the numbers will be updated with more victims later today when the search operation is expected to end," said Mohammed Said, Algeria's communication minister. The attackers came from six countries -- only three were Algerian -- and included Arabs and Africans, Said told state-run Radio Algeria. Algeria's military found numerous "foreign military uniforms" in its sweep of the In Amenas facility, its Interior Ministry said. Mauritania's Sahara Media news agency said Sunday it had a video from Moktar Belmoktar, who leads the Al-Mulathameen Brigade associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that regional media have reported was behind the attack. In it, Belmoktar said, "We at al Qaeda are claiming responsibility of this blessed guerrilla operation." Belmoktar has communicated with this and other news sites before, said Andrew Lebovich, a Senegal-based security analyst. But the news agency did not post the video, and CNN has not independently confirmed its authenticity. Eleven former hostages -- among them British citizens -- have gotten medical treatment and psychological counseling from the U.S. military at a U.S. naval base in Sigonella, Italy, a U.S. official said Sunday. The hostages were brought from Algeria to the base Friday, the official said, and are being flown to their home countries as their conditions warrant. The remains of one American hostage were also brought to the base, the official said. In a statement Saturday night, the White House said it was in close contact with Algeria's government to "gain a fuller understanding of what took place." British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoed those remarks, adding his government is "working hard to get definitive information" about each individual. Japan has 10 citizens -- likely affiliated with JGC Corp., an engineering firm that was involved in gas production in In Amenas -- who are yet to be confirmed safe, in addition to a number of dead. Opinion: Algeria crisis is a wakeup call for America . Such Islamist militant activity is not new to Africa, including recent violence in Mali and Somalia. Algeria's status as Africa's largest natural gas producer and a major supplier of the product to Europe heightens its importance to those who want to invest there. Yet that interest is coupled with pressure to make sure foreign nationals, and their business ventures, are safe. Youcef Yousfi, Algeria's energy and mining minister, insisted Sunday his country can keep its gas facilities secure and ruled out foreign forces coming in to help. "We are going to strengthen security, and we rely first on our means and resources," Yousfi said, according to the official Algerian Press Service. Raids turn deadly . Militants in pickup trucks struck the sprawling gas complex about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Libyan border at dawn Wednesday, gathered the Westerners who worked there into a group and tied them up. The In Amenas plant is run by Algeria's state oil company, in cooperation with foreign firms such as Statoil and BP, and because of that employed workers from several countries. The kidnappers wielded AK-47 rifles and put explosive-laden vests on some hostages, according to a U.S. State Department official. Algeria said the attack was in retaliation for allowing France to use Algerian airspace for an offensive against Islamist militants in neighboring Mali. And Sahara News' report Sunday claimed Belmoktar said "40 immigrant Jihadists and supporters of Muslim countries" led the siege in retaliation for the Mali offensive. Read more: Mali takes key town as nations ready more troops . But regional analysts believe it was too sophisticated to have been planned in just days. On Thursday, Algerian special forces moved in because the government said the militants wanted to flee to Mali. The Islamic extremists also planned to blow up the gas installation and rigged it with mines throughout, the U.S. official said. Thursday's military incursion succeeded in freeing some hostages -- but not all. Some survivors described their harrowing escapes by rigging up disguises and sneaking to safety with locals, with at least one survivor running for his life with plastic explosives strapped around his neck. Several hostages died. And the Algerian military came under criticism from some quarters for unnecessarily endangering hostages' lives. Undeterred, the government followed with a second push Saturday. That assault killed the remaining hostage-takers but resulted in more hostage deaths. The army intervened "to avoid a bloody turning point of events in this extremely dangerous situation," the Algerian Interior Ministry said Saturday. "It was clear that the terrorists were determined to escape the country with the captives and to bomb the gas installations." On Sunday, an American lawmaker said the Algerian government turned down U.S. offers to help during the crisis. "They decided they were going to handle it their way," said Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who is chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. "They did not want us or the other hostage nations involved in the decision-making." British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond called the loss of life "appalling and unacceptable," while laying blame solely on the terrorists. Countries mourn dead, try to track down missing . While the military part of the operation is over, the searching and mourning is not for people in countries worldwide. In addition to combing the sprawling desert site, Algerian forces are searching hospitals and medical centers around the country, as well as towns and villages near the targeted site, according to a statement Sunday from Statoil. 'Mr. Marlboro': The veteran jihadist behind the attack in Algeria . Colombia . Colombia's president said a citizen was presumed dead. France . No known French hostages are unaccounted for, France's Defense Ministry said Saturday. One man -- identified as Yann Desjeux -- died after telling the French newspaper Sud Ouest on Thursday that he and 34 other hostages of nine different nationalities were treated well. Three others who had been held are safe. Japan . There are still 10 Japanese who have yet to be confirmed safe, JGC -- the engineering firm -- said Sunday. Malaysia . Three hostages were on their way back to Malaysia, the country's state-run news agency reported Sunday. But there is a "worrying possibility" that another is dead, while a fifth is unaccounted for, the agency said. Norway . Five Norwegians are missing, while eight are safe, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. "We know that there are many fatalities," Statoil CEO Helge Lund said Sunday. "A new day without answers has increased our concern." Romania . One Romanian lost his life, the country's Foreign Ministry said Saturday. Four other Romanians were freed. United Kingdom . Three British citizens were killed, the Foreign Office said Sunday. Three other British nationals and a UK resident are also "believed dead," he said. Twenty-two other Britons who were taken hostage have safely returned home. United States . At least one American, identified as Frederick Buttaccio, is among the dead, the State Department said. Six freed Americans left Algeria and one remained. Read more: Algeria attack may have link to Libya camps . CNN's Paul Cruickshank, Slma Shelbayah, Kevin Bohn, Barbara Starr and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.

NEW: An Algerian official says Algeria doesn't need help securing its energy facilities . NEW: Algerians are searching hospitals, villages and more for missing, Statoil reports . The number of those killed in the crisis will likely go up, an Algerian official says . A new video reportedly claims responsibility in the name of al Qaeda .

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(CNN) -- The Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-ki once told me that painting expresses the thoughts we struggle to put into words. Faced with this challenge, "It's easier to learn English!" he joked, his wit shining through, even though Alzheimer's disease had already begun its slow, relentless onslaught on his mind. Zao, widely regarded as one of the foremost Chinese contemporary painters of the 20th century, passed away at his home in Switzerland on Tuesday at the age of 93. Born in Beijing in 1920, he formed part of the second generation of Chinese artists to turn westward in their search for inspiration. Encouraged by the French-educated Chinese artist Lin Fengmian, his teacher at the prestigious Hangzhou National College of Art (today the China Academy of Art), he relocated to Paris in 1948. Although he did not know it at the time, the move would be permanent, due in part to the rapidly changing political situation in China. Apart from brief trips abroad, Zao would remain in France until the year before his death, one of the few Chinese artists from his generation to emigrate to Europe. Embraced by France, he was elected to the prestigious Academie des Beaux Arts society in 2002 and received the Legion of Honor in 2006 from then-president Jacques Chirac. For Zao and his contemporaries, Paris represented the source of modern art. Living there meant direct access to the paintings that he had until then only encountered as black-and-white reproductions in art magazines. An oil painter by vocation, he immersed himself in the riches that surrounded him -- heading directly to the Louvre on the very day he arrived in the city. Meanwhile, with the assistance of his friend and mentor, noted poet and painter Henri Michaux, and blessed with the warm charm and wit that would impress me decades later, Zao cultivated an extensive circle of fellow artists and cultural figures. In just a few years, he established himself as an integral member of the postwar French art world. Zao worked hard to find his artistic voice. At first he made a determined effort to distance himself from ink painting -- the medium most closely associated with the Chinese painting tradition-- and subject matter that might be construed as overtly Chinese. He wished to be appreciated on his own merits and not to fall victim to stereotype. His breakthrough, however, came with his 1954 masterpiece "Wind," a painting that was both his first purely abstract work and a return to his origins: the inky black forms rising in two wavering columns are abstractions of oracle bone characters -- the most ancient of Chinese scripts. In the decades that followed, Zao committed himself fully to abstract painting, rarely using even figurative titles after 1959. Instead, he titled his works with their date of completion, marking their entry into the world. The lyrical qualities that defined him as an artist appeared early on, first in his oil paintings and later in his ink paintings, after his reengagement with the medium in the early 1970s: oscillating planes of color, light, and shade met, collided, and diverged, skidding across the surface of his works. The apparent disorder of his paintings concealed an underlying structure, sometimes described as Daoist in nature, which bore striking parallels to a similar balance between order and chaos found in Chinese traditional painting. In Zao's case, this phenomenon is perhaps best understood as a self-statement: the artist's insistence on his personal and aesthetic identity in the face of the vagaries of borders and time. Zao's given name, "Wou-ki" (or "Wuji" in the standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization used in China), means "no boundaries." No single phrase better encapsulates the union in his person and art of the two often disparate cultures and aesthetic visions of France and China. "French thought and Chinese thought are not the same," he told me. "It's hard to translate between them. Sometimes you must wear yourself out trying to understand. Painting must express these feelings." An artist friend once asked about my research. Hearing that I studied Zao Wou-ki, he grew suddenly pensive. "Zao Wou-ki," he mused, "his work isn't representative of either Chinese or French art." "Yes," I answered. "He represents himself, and that is enough."

Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-ki died Tuesday at age 93 . Zao was regarded as one of foremost Chinese contemporary painters of the 20th century . Zao was uniquely able to combine cultures, aesthetic visions of France and China in his work .

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Kenyan counterterrorism sources are looking at a Norwegian citizen of Somali descent as a possible suspect in the Westgate mall attack last month, the sources told CNN on Friday. The Norwegian citizen is believed to have ties to Mohamed Abdikadir Mohamed, known as Ikrima, who is regarded as one of the most dangerous commanders in the Somali terror group Al-Shabaab. Norwegian intelligence services are in Kenya investigating Ikrima and the Norwegian citizen, the Kenyan sources said, and have also spoken to the latter's sister in Norway. Norwegian authorities have not yet released the Norwegian citizen's name. Kenyan authorities suspect Ikrima of involvement with the Westgate mall attack. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bloody four-day siege at the upscale mall in Nairobi, where at least 67 people died. U.S. officials said Ikrima was the target of a raid earlier this month by U.S. Navy SEALs on an Al-Shabaab compound near the town of Baraawe in Somalia. It's believed that he escaped after the U.S. troops came under heavy fire. A Kenyan intelligence dossier seen by CNN alleges Ikrima's involvement with Briton Samantha Lewthwaite, a terror suspect known as the "White Widow," in a foiled Mombasa attack in 2011 with Jermaine Grant, a fellow British citizen currently held in Mombasa on terror charges. Kenyan intelligence sources say that Ikrima, who speaks six languages and grew up in Kenya, is the main "point person" between al Qaeda in Somalia and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and that he has helped pinpoint Kenyan targets. Recruiting operatives in the West? Morten Storm, a former informant who has worked for several Western intelligence agencies, has told CNN that he developed a close relationship with an Al-Shabaab figure called Ikrima between 2008 and 2012. He said he is confident that it's the same person who was targeted by U.S. forces. Inside story on an Al-Shabaab commander . Storm, who is Danish, described Ikrima as a Somali-Kenyan Al-Shabaab operative who had spent time in Norway. He said that Ikrima made clear to him via e-mail that he was ready to send recruits from the West back home from Somalia to launch attacks. Norwegian journalist Bent Skjaerstad told CNN his sources have confirmed that Ikrima had indeed spent time in Norway and had tried to recruit for Al-Shabaab in Europe. Skjaerstad, who reports on security and terrorism for TV2, said Ikrima had lived there between 2004 and 2008. He had failed to gain asylum status but had been given Norwegian travel papers. Skjaerstad told CNN that according to his sources, Ikrima had traveled to Somalia while living in Norway and had used about a dozen aliases. Friends of Ikrima who knew him from his time growing up on the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh told CNN he traveled to Norway in 2003 and grew increasingly radicalized there. The sources, who had kept up with him over the years, said Ikrima traveled in 2007 to London, where they lost contact with him. In 2008 they heard that he was in Somalia, where he has been based since. Arabic is among the six languages spoken by Ikrima, and he studied French for two years at the Alliance Francais in Nairobi, his friends say. Al-Shabaab in Norway . The possible involvement of the Norwegian citizen in the Westgate mall attack has highlighted concerns about the widening reach of the Al-Shabaab group outside Somali borders. Stig Hansen, a security expert based in Norway and author of the book "Al-Shabaab in Somalia," told CNN that if the Norwegian suspect is who he believes him to be, he lived in a small town in Norway but had connections with a wider group, not all of Somali origin. He came to Norway at age 8 or 9 and stayed for a couple of years, during which time he gained Norwegian citizenship, Hansen said. He later returned to Somalia. Al-Shabaab became quite popular among some Somali community groups in Norway from 2007 to 2009, Hansen said, "because they were wrongly seen as some kind of national resistance group." Observers noticed contradictions between what the group said in its English- and Arabic-language messaging, he said, which contributed to ignorance within the diaspora about its real nature. "But the terrorist attacks inside of Somalia made it easier for the wider ethnic Somali community to see that this was really a terrorist organization, and it distanced itself," he said, making it less popular now. However, this development brought its own problems, Hansen said, and not just in Norway. "What you have to look out for, also in the United States and the United Kingdom and all these other Scandinavian countries, are these small, small networks that are in one sense detached also from the Somali community leaders -- radicalized groups of youths and radical preachers, sheikhs, that go traveling around the various countries to try to incite," he said. "That's what we have to watch these days."

A Norwegian citizen of Somali descent is investigated in the Kenya mall attack . Kenyan antiterror sources say he may have ties to a suspected Al-Shabaab commander . Norwegian intelligence services are in Kenya investigating both men . Norwegian authorities have not yet released the Norwegian citizen's name .

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(CNN) -- At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in shootings and explosions across the country on Tuesday, officials with Iraq's interior ministry told CNN. Officials said 29 people were killed and 107 wounded in 11 car bomb explosions in nine different parts of Baghdad. Most of killed and wounded were civilians, officials said. In Falluja, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Baghdad, five people were killed and 12 others were wounded when gunmen attacked al-Tahadi police station in southern Falluja. In northern Mosul, about 400 kilometers (249 miles) north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded in the convoy of army Gen. Mohammed Khamas, killing him instantly. Khamas was the deputy head of army intelligence department in Mosul. Iraq has seen a sharp increase in friction between its Shiite and Sunni populations since April, when Iraqi security forces raided a site used by Sunni protesters to demonstrate against the Shiite-led government. Sunnis have felt politically marginalized under Shiite President Nuri al-Maliki, whose government fears it is being targeted by Sunni Islamists involved in fighting in neighboring Syria. More than 800 Iraqis were killed and 2,030 wounded in violence and acts of terrorism in August, the United Nations said.

11 car bomb explosions kill 29, injure 107 in Baghdad, officials tell CNN . Five killed when gunmen attack a police station in Falluja . Army general dies when bomb explodes in his convoy in northern Mosul .

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(CNN) -- Low visibility caused by mist and sand created poor flying conditions for the pilot of an Afriqiyah Airways flight that crashed just before landing in Tripoli, Libyan sources with knowledge of the investigation said Saturday. The plane, an Airbus A330-200, originated in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was at the end of its nearly nine-hour flight when it crashed Wednesday. All but one of the 104 passengers on board were killed. The sources said that as the pilot approached Tripoli International Airport, he took the plane off auto-pilot hoping to manually land the aircraft. He realized he was in trouble and tried to pull the plane up and turn the auto-pilot back on to give it another try, the sources said. But the effort was too late and the plane slammed violently into the ground, explaining the condition of the wreckage and damage to the plane's tail at the crash site, the sources said. An investigation into the crash is under way, and authorities are reviewing the aircraft's flight data recorder. Meanwhile Ruben van Assouw, the 9-year-old sole survivor of the plane crash, has returned home to the Netherlands. He suffered multiple fractures to his legs and underwent surgery at Al Khadra Hospital, said a doctor at the hospital who declined to give her name. Both of Ruben's parents and a brother were killed in the crash, a Dutch foreign ministry representative said. Ruben's family issued a statement Friday expressing gratitude to people who have helped them, such as Libyan hospital professionals and Dutch envoys, as well as the outpourings of sympathy from citizens in both countries. The family also thanked "the vast majority of the Dutch media for respecting our privacy." The family, which will raise Ruben, said the boy knows that his parents and brother were killed. "Considering the circumstances, Ruben is doing fine. He is sleeping a lot; now and then he wakes up and is then lucid," the family said in the statement. "He has drunk a little, and has seen the flowers and cuddly toys." Ruben's family said it has to deal with "two kinds of grief" -- the sorrow the boy is enduring and the sadness over the loss of the other family members. "The coming period will be very difficult for us," the family said. "We hope that all the media will respect our privacy." More than two-thirds of the passengers killed in the plane crash were Dutch, the ministry said. Passengers from Libya, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, Germany, France, Zimbabwe and Britain were also among the victims, the airline said on its Web site. The Dutch foreign ministry said Friday it is sending more experts to Tripoli to help Libyan authorities and Dutch colleagues identify the victims.

Sources: Mist and sand created poor flying conditions for the pilot of crashed plane . Family says 9-year-old sole survivor knows his immediate family were killed in plane crash . Dutch foreign ministry sending experts to Tripoli to help authorities identify victims .

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(CNN) -- First there was friendship. Then there was romance. After that there was marriage. And now, at what would have been a few weeks from her senior year in college, Christian Minard finds herself expelled from school -- because the person she married is another woman. In a letter from earlier this month that Minard shared with CNN, an administrator at Southwestern Christian University noted that he'd been told of Minard's same-sex marriage and saw pictures of it posted to Facebook. Such a union is in apparent conflict with the "lifestyle covenant" of the university "that all students must agree and sign," he added. "As an American and a Christian, I do respect your choice," the administrator wrote. "(But) I have to uphold the Lifestyle Covenant at SCU and confront you with our position. "Due to this recent event, you will not be able to attend SCU in the future." When asked to confirm that the school -- which describes itself as part of the "International Pentecostal Holiness" denomination -- sent the letter and to elaborate on the decision, the school's provost, Connie Sjoberg, said only that federal law "prohibits us from confirming if an individual is or has been a student at our institution." Sjoberg added, "We therefore cannot comment on your specific request." Did Minard sign the school's morality covenant? Yes, she concedes. But she still thinks her expulsion is unfair. Plenty of other students violate the contract in one way or another without being expelled, she says. Minard thinks she is singled out because she's a lesbian. In addition to the emotional sting, the 22-year-old says she is now stuck personally -- not knowing what to do, or where to go next. "I'm trying to figure out how and where I can graduate," she told CNN, noting that she'll have to start paying off her loans at the end of next year unless things change. "... It's going to be hard to get into classes that may be full, because they gave me very little notice before the fall semester starts." What you need to know about same-sex marriage . Believes 'gay lifestyle' compatible with 'faith in God' Located in the metropolitan Oklahoma City community of Bethany, Southwestern Christian University's website states the school's three core values are scholarship, service and spirit. The latter value includes "building a Christ-centered community," "honoring our Pentecostal Holiness heritage" and "respecting diversity and various Christian backgrounds." Minard came to the school on scholarship for basketball, though her playing career was cut short after doctors told her -- after she'd suffered multiple concussions -- that she should avoid sports with physical contact. "I stayed on without a scholarship," Minard said, "because I was so invested in the university and knew that some credits wouldn't transfer to other schools." Meanwhile, her life was changing in other ways as well. About 3½ years ago, she met her future spouse, Kadyn Park. They started out as friends, and romance blossomed over time. "We eventually fell in love and decided to get married," Minard said. The couple wed March 17 in Albuquerque, New Mexico -- a state where same-sex marriage is legal. She had planned to become a strength and conditioning coach. "Once I graduated," Minard said, "I was willing to go wherever life took me." Her educational and professional path, though, is now far from clear. Yet Minard feels that she's in the right place in her own spiritual journey. Having grown up in the Lutheran Church, Minard notes that she "at first ... struggled" with the idea that her faith was at odds with her sexuality. "I had questions, but I worked through those questions," she said. "And now I have a strong faith in God. And I believe you can still have faith in God and live a gay lifestyle." Love wins in gay couple's 40-year immigration fight . Utah same-sex marriages already done are valid, appeals court rules .

Woman went to Southwestern Christian University on a sports scholarship . Letter: An official says Minard's marriage to another woman violates school policy . Minard admits signing a morality pact, but thinks she's singled out for being lesbian . She says you can "have faith in God and live a gay lifestyle"

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(CNN) -- With Sharon Osbourne gone, "America's Got Talent" has tapped Spice Girl Mel B. to fill the empty seat. Entertainment Weekly reports that the singer and TV personality, whose full name is Melanie Brown, will join fellow judges Howard Stern and Howie Mandel on the NBC reality competition when it returns this summer. Osbourne announced she was leaving "AGT" last year following claims that NBC discriminated against her son, Jack. Brown, aka Scary Spice, is a veteran of reality competitions. She competed on "Dancing With the Stars" in the United States, served as a judge on the Australian version of "The X Factor" and was a guest judge on the UK's "X Factor" and "Britain's Next Top Model." "I've known Melanie since she did 'Dancing with the Stars,' and I've known her as a performer in The Spice Girls before that," Paul Telegdy, NBC's president of alternative and late night programming, said in a statement to EW. "To know her is to know a very frank, strong, enduring entertainer. Someone who has a very strong point of view. We needed somebody who was qualified for the job. She's an amazing singer, dancer and a huge personality. The contestants will get a lot of constructive feedback from her and I can't wait to see her chemistry with Howard and Howie." Mel B. might not be the only new face on the series this summer -- EW adds that the show is considering hiring a fourth judge as well.

Report: Spice Girl Mel B. is joining "America's Got Talent" as a judge . The singer/TV personality is experienced with reality shows . "AGT" is said to be considering hiring a fourth judge .

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Editor's note: Ben Chavis is the co-author with Carey Blakely of "Crazy Like A Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City." Chavis received his doctorate in education and philosophy from the University of Arizona and served as principal of American Indian Public Charter School for seven years. Chavis has also worked as a real estate investor. Currently, he is replicating the model he established at American Indian Public Charter School in various schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. Educator Ben Chavis says money isn't enough to improve schools run by incompetent administrators. (CNN) -- Teachers unions and politicians are constantly claiming that K-12 public schools need more money in order to produce good academic results. But does the data support the argument that our schools need more money to succeed? The Oakland Unified School District had a budget of $602 million for the 2008-2009 school year, according to Katy Murphy, an education reporter with the Oakland Tribune. That budget, which includes $77 million spent on consultants, means that the district spends an average of $16,270 per student! What have we, the public taxpayers, received for our exceptionally generous financial support of the Oakland public schools? According to the California Department of Education, the district's reported 2008 California Standardized Test scores show: . 1. Of 707 eighth- and ninth-graders who took the California Standard test for general math: 1 percent tested advanced, 5 percent tested proficient and 94 percent failed by testing below grade level. See details about K-12 schools, teachers » . 2. Of 2,506 ninth- and 10th-grade students who took the California Standards test in algebra: 0 percent tested advanced, 3 percent tested proficient and 97 percent failed the test. How is it possible for a public school system to so liberally spend more than half a billion dollars and still fail to educate 94 percent or more students of all racial backgrounds? Does anyone believe providing more money to these public school systems will enhance these students' academic performance in mathematics? During my principalship at American Indian Public Charter School, we spent less than $8,000 per student, proving that schools did not need more money. We served a student population that is on average 98 percent minority, with 97 percent receiving free or reduced-price lunch and many who are non-English speakers and from single-parent families. AIPCS students spend three to four hours a day working on mathematics and English-language arts. In 2009, they excelled in academics, physical fitness and any standardized test that they were given. The hard work of these students and staff has paid off with virtually all of our eighth-graders testing advanced in algebra, including 100 percent of our eighth-grade black students, Mexican-American students and American Indian students. Before I became its principal, people called American Indian Public Charter School the zoo. The neighbors hated it. They couldn't stand the behavior of the students, who, with little supervision or control, wreaked havoc in the area. Unfortunately, the students who decided to attend the school did not receive the academics and structure they so direly needed. The school was in many ways a failure, a joke, a sham. When I took over as principal in 2000, it was the worst middle school in Oakland. I told the board I would take the job only if they let me go my own way and do what I thought was best. I implemented a golden rule at American Indian Public Charter School for staff, students and families: If you act like a winner, you'll be treated like a winner. If you act like a fool, you'll be treated like a fool. The charter school is now one of the top-scoring schools in the state and is nationally recognized. The United States spends more money on public education than any other country in the world. Yet, we still have a secondary public education system that ranks with Third World countries in preparing our children in English-language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. Washington, D.C.; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Kansas City, Missouri; and numerous other cities throughout the United States are producing the same poor academic results at an extraordinary cost to the taxpayer and a tremendous academic loss to our students and country. I believe all the money in the world would not be enough to improve schools run by incompetent public school administrators. We need proven leaders who can prepare our children to be competitive members in a free-market society. The American public has been conned into believing that public schools need more money. Have you ever met a public school administrator who said they have enough money? President Obama is moving in the "right" direction by reforming public schools to be held responsible to the American public in return for more money. It's very clear that most Americans want to ensure that accountability be attached to the stimulus money that is being awarded to all institutions, including public schools. Next time you hear school officials or politicians begging for more money, ask them how large the district's budget is and how many students are enrolled in their district. Then you do the math. After all, it's your money they want to take. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ben Chavis.

Chavis: "All the money in the world" isn't enough to help poorly run schools . Author: I turned "worst middle school in Oakland" into a top-scoring school . D.C., Detroit, L.A. produce poor results at extraordinary taxpayer cost, Chavis says . Obama is right to require accountability in return for reform money, Chavis says .

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(CNN) -- A top judge has issued a special plea to the four suspects named in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri killing to come before the court. Judge Antonio Cassese, the president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, said in an open letter to the four men accused in the 2005 attack that they will be treated fairly if they appear before the court or even participate in the trial proceedings without being present. Cassese issued the statement after Lebanese authorities told him they have been unable so far to serve warrants on and arrest the accused. "We will conduct trials based on a firm presumption of innocence of the accused. The Tribunal shall never convict anybody unless guilt is established beyond any reasonable doubt," he said. Arrest warrants were issued for Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra. A highly placed source in the Lebanese army, who had correctly given CNN the names of the suspects previously, has said that all four belong to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group. Hariri, a wealthy entrepreneur turned politician, died when his motorcade was hit by a bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Supporters say he was killed because of his opposition to Syrian influence in Lebanon. His death prompted mass protests that led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, who had been in the country for nearly 30 years. Cassese defended the tribunal, saying its personnel "are doing their job with full independence and impartiality." "We are only acting in the interest of Lebanon; our only motivation is the pursuit of justice. Our exclusive aim is to find the truth about the assassination of 14 February 2005 and other possibly connected criminal cases, while upholding the highest international standards of criminal law." The judge said that if the accused don't wish to come before the tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands, they can participate by video link. Cassese said the tribunal "will appoint the best professionals to represent them in court" in their absence. But he urged them to appoint legal counsel and pass along instructions to them, even if they choose not to appear before the court. "If you believe this Tribunal is illegal or illegitimate, argue this point through legal counsel chosen by you -- you will thus have your voice heard on this issue. Use your counsel to make your case and zealously protect your rights." If they can't afford lawyers, tribunal funds are available for hiring legal counsel. "The march to justice is inexorable, and one way or another we will end up with a trial. I therefore strongly appeal to the accused to take advantage of the broad legal possibilities offered by our Rules of Procedure and Evidence, thereby contributing to the establishment of truth and the conduct of fair proceedings," he said. As for Lebanese authorities, the judge said he's hopeful they will "persist in their search for the accused."

The four suspects are said to be members of Hezbollah . Rafik Hariri was assassinated February 14, 2005, in Beirut . Lebanese authorities say they can't get their hands on the suspects .

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(CNN) -- It's a moment familiar to any regular air traveler. A passenger's photo shows oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling on Monday's Continental Flight 128. The plane bucks up and down, lurches forward and back, or both. Sometimes overhead bins fly open. The squeamish gasp. Babies cry. Then, usually, it's all over. In-flight turbulence is often a mere inconvenience. But it's also the leading cause of airline passenger injuries that are not associated with a fatal crash, experts say. And, on rare occasions, it can be deadly. In the case of Monday's Continental Flight 128, an unexpected blast of air led to much more than jangled nerves, bumps and bruises. Turbulence struck the flight, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Houston, Texas, unexpectedly, injuring seven passengers badly enough to require hospitalization after the pilot diverted the flight to Miami, Florida. Police said 26 passengers were injured, four seriously. Learn more about airline turbulence » . Turbulence, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, is caused by a quick change in air movement. Jet streams, air shooting off of mountains, cold or warm weather fronts and thunderstorms can all cause changes in speed or direction. The rapid shift in gravity force -- or G-force -- can cause a sensation not unlike being whipped around on a roller coaster. Most of the time, discomfort is the worst byproduct. "Normally, it's an inconvenience," said Kevin Garrison, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot living in Lexington, Kentucky. "Very rarely does it hurt passengers, which is odd because a lot of them don't keep their seat belts on." And wearing seat belts, aviation officials say, is the best way to stay safe. "In the event that something happens," said Les Dorr, a spokesman for the FAA, "that's the best advice that we or anyone else can give passengers." Since 1980, three people have been killed in turbulence-related accidents, according to the administration. At least two of those deaths involved passengers who reportedly were not wearing seat belts while the seat-belt sign was on. There have been 234 turbulence-related accidents since 1980, and 114 passengers were seriously injured in those accidents, the FAA reported. Flight attendants have been hurt at a much higher rate. During that same time period, 184 attendants were seriously injured, despite their numbers being far smaller than the number of passengers. "The majority of injuries actually happen to flight attendants," Dorr said. "They have to be up performing their tasks, even when the seat-belt light is on." And while pilots are almost always strapped in with seat belts, even they aren't exempt. "I've had a few bloodied heads -- when I hit my head on the overhead when the seat belt was a little loose," said Garrison, who flew for Delta for 27 years. In Monday's accident, passengers reported they were slammed into the Boeing 767's ceiling -- some said two or more times -- when the plane dropped rapidly. "I saw people being thrown to the roof as if they were dolls," Fabio Ottolini, who was returning to Houston with his wife and daughter after visiting family in Brazil, told CNN affiliate KTRK-TV. Passengers said most of those injured were not wearing seat belts. Initial reports are that the Monday flight was hit by what's called clear-air turbulence, or air pockets that hit without warning. While pilots are always on the lookout for regular turbulence spots -- like mountain ranges and places where weather fronts are converging -- clear-air turbulence can happen anywhere. "You can't see it; you can't sense it with radar," Dorr said. "The best way to determine if there's a possibility of clear-air turbulence is to have somebody in front of you that's already flown through it." Dorr said passenger injury numbers have dropped over the past few years, during an industry-wide effort to increase safety. No passengers were reported seriously injured in turbulence incidents in 2008, and five flight attendants -- down from a high of 19 in 2003 -- received serious injuries, according to the FAA. The Commercial Aviation Safety Team has focused on seat-belt awareness and pushed for better communication systems for reporting turbulence, Dorr said. All licensed pilots also receive "upset training," which teaches how to deal with extreme turbulence, he said.

Three turbulence-related deaths since 1980, FAA says . At least two of the three were people not wearing seat belts . Turbulence is caused by quick changes in air movement . Air pockets from "clear-air" turbulence are hard to detect .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Russian military aircraft flew just 500 feet over two U.S. Navy ships this week as the ships participated in a joint military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, according to U.S. military officials. Two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew only 500 feet above a U.S. aircraft carrier. On Monday, two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft, known as "Mays," overflew the U.S. aircraft carrier Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan. The Russian aircraft flew about 500 feet over the ship, lower than other flights the Russians have made over U.S. ships in the past year. The USS Stennis was about 80 miles east of Pohang, South Korea, participating in the joint military exercise when the flyover occurred. On Tuesday, the USS Blue Ridge, a lead command and control ship, and the Stennis were overflown by two Russian "Bear" long-range bombers multiple times, according to U.S. military officials. The Bears overflew the ships at about 2,000 feet, officials said. U.S. military officials said that in both cases, U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters met up with the Russian aircraft about 70 nautical miles from the U.S. ships and flew alongside them until they left the area. On both days, U.S. aircraft tried contacting the Russian planes on international air frequency radio channels, but the Russian pilots did not respond, officials said. The last time Russian planes flew over a U.S. Navy ship was February 2008, when two Bears flew 2,000 feet over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz south of Japan. Russian long-range flights skirting U.S. or other nations' boundaries have also been common over the last year. Although the Pentagon does not often talk about the overflights, there is nothing illegal about the actions, and they are generally seen by the United States as nothing more than muscle-flexing by the Russian military.

Two Russian planes flew within 500 feet of U.S. Navy aircraft carrier . That flyover is lower than others Russians have made over U.S. ships this year . U.S. aircraft tried contacting Russian planes, but pilots didn't respond . U.S. fighter jets met up with Russian planes, flew with them until they left .

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(CNN) -- For decades, skyscrapers have served as iconic symbols of national pride or flashy trophies of corporate wealth, reshaping the skyline of the world's major urban centers. Perhaps in the future, the high-rise superstructures could also help revolutionize the way we travel. That, at least, is the fanciful concept behind the Vertical Hyper-Speed Train Hub, a futuristic proposal of two UK-based architects envisaging trains roaring up and down the side of specially-designed skyscrapers nearly as high as the Empire State Building. Towering above the crowded streets of future metropolises, these giant buildings are designed to minimize the large slices of real estate that major railway terminals occupy by flipping them on their side. The goal, designers Christopher Christophi and Lucas Mazarrasa say, is to free up valuable space in the densely-packed cities of tomorrow, which will be significantly challenged by overcrowding and a sharp drop in public space availability. "In 60 years' time, it will be very difficult for governments to find attractive pieces of available land for public use in the heart of megacities," says Christophi, 27. "Governments will be able to take advantage of such spaces in order to re-adapt the cities' structure to society needs," he adds. How it works . The designer's vertical station concept calls for a tall cylindrical skyscraper whose small footprint would allow the transformation of the surrounding area into an urban park. Passengers arriving at the tower would use a lift to make their way up into the platform and from there into their carriage, which could accommodate 10 people sat in two rows opposite each other. But, you might wonder by now, how could commuters stay on their feet whilst the train slides in hyper speeds along the huge tower's façade? The main idea is that instead of traveling on normal rails beneath, the carriages would be supported by magnetic tracks running up the skyscraper's exterior. Each carriage proportion is designed as a cubical shape to enable it to function both vertically, when docked, and horizontally, while traveling After the train's departure, the wagons would pivot like a "Ferris wheel," allowing commuters to remain in an upright position and enjoy breathtaking views of the city. Connecting cities . The radical proposal won the designers an Honorable Mention at this year's eVolo Skyscraper competition, which encouraged people from around the world to propose new ideas for vertical structures of the future. The designers say the towers, which would be capped off by a rooftop green plaza, are envisioned as individual pieces of infrastructure that could be replicated in cities around the world. The hope is to connect a new hyper-speed network of underground tunnels and overground routes where superfast trains would cover distances of 300 miles in 30 minutes. This, they claim, would not only save commuting time and simplify the way public transport is being used, but would also help to cut down CO2 emissions by replacing ways of transport powered by fossil fuels. "Our conceptual design is based upon utilizing existing and viable technologies that can currently be seen in hyper speed rail networks, for example in China," says Mazarrasa, 29, adding that is a matter of time before we're able to reach the rail speeds their concept requires. "The Maglev trains currently travel at 360 miles per hour -- this technology by the 2075 will in no doubt move leaps and bounds from what it already is today, making the hyper-speed trains probably the fastest and safest way of transporting goods and people." Of course, there are a number of limitations to the project -- the proposal deals only with stations designed to accommodate city by city travel, not to mention efficiency issues around loading trains in high volume terminals and connecting train routes. Yet, like in most futuristic transport proposals, practical details are best to take a back seat for now to allow us to enjoy the thrilling ride -- that is, unless you're afraid of heights.

A futuristic proposal flips the traditional designs of today's major train stations vertically . The Vertical Hyper-Speed Train Hub wants to cut the footprint of rail terminals by 2075 . The proposal won an Honorable Mention in 2014's eVolo Skyscraper competition .

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Los Angeles (CNN) -- Chris Brown sat alone in court for 35 minutes on Friday while his lawyer talked with the judge and prosecutor behind closed doors in his probation violation case. The judge emerged from his chambers to order Brown to come back on June 10 because lawyers need more time to look at "additional discovery" in his case. While not much happened in Friday's hearing before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin, ultimately it could be big trouble for the singer. In a court filing in February, prosecutors accused Brown of not completing the 180 days of community labor ordered when he pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge in the beating of his girlfriend Rihanna. Rihanna shows support in court for Chris Brown . The paperwork Brown submitted to show he had completed community labor is "at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting," District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. Brown wasn't in town on some of the dates reported, the motion said. Mark Geragos, Brown's attorney, said after the last hearing that the prosecutor's filing was so fraudulent that he would ask the judge to punish the deputy district attorneys involved and call for a contempt of court hearing for filing false documents with the court. "And I don't mean just false, it is fraudulent," Geragos said. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has "tortured" Brown during his probation more than any client he's ever had, Geragos said. Despite the serious allegations outlined in the court filing, the prosecutor is not asking for Brown's probation to be revoked and the singer sent to jail. She is asking the judge to order him to restart his 1,400 hours of community service under the supervision of a Los Angeles probation officer. Brown and his mother were in court for Friday's hearing, but Rihanna, who attended his last court date, was not there. When the pop star sat behind Brown in court at that hearing, it was Rihanna's second time in a courtroom with him. The first was the day in August 2009 when Brown was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to stay away from her. Then, she was a witness for the prosecution. At the probation court date, when Geragos was asked why Brown's assault victim was in court, he replied, "She thinks it's utterly ridiculous what they're doing to him." Rihanna and Chris Brown's relationship through the years .

Judge orders Brown to come back to court on June 10 . Prosecutors accuse Brown of not finishing 180 days of community labor . Brown pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge in the beating of Rihanna in 2009 . Brown's lawyer called the prosecutor's filing 'fraudulent'

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New York (CNN) -- In a recent piece by prominent Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani, we see one of his favorite characters -- a cantankerous grandfather who along with his two grandchildren is a solid supporter of the Green Movement against the regime in Iran -- having managed to tie up Larry King inside a closet and trying to disguise himself as the world renowned talk show host in order to get to interview Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sporting his thick moustache and holding a list of tough questions in hand, the grandfather is charging out of the closet yelling at a CNN producer, "Get out of my way! The language of this Mr. President only I understand," while the producer is baffled by the thick moustache that "Larry King" has suddenly grown. The point of the cartoon is a deep and pervasive sense of frustration that Iranians all over the world have with the inability of prominent American journalists and talk show hosts to handle the slippery Ahmadinejad. Christiane Amanpour, Charlie Rose, and Larry King in particular are being criticized for providing Ahmadinejad with a global forum to say whatever nonsense he wishes without enough of a serious challenge to his statements -- some of which are flat-out lies. Since the massively contested presidential election of June 2009, scores of peaceful demonstrators have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and murdered; prominent human and women's rights activists, reformists, and labor union leaders have been arrested and subjected to Stalinist show trials and given long and punishing prison terms; the leaders of the opposition Green Movement have been systematically harassed and intimidated; the universities have gone through yet another round of ideological purges; yet another cultural revolution to silence and suppress non-conformist ideas is well under way; an entire cadre of independent-minded journalists have been forced into the indignity of exile -- and yet few of these atrocities manages to gain much attention in the conversations that these prominent American journalists have with Ahmadinejad. That sense of frustration is not limited to Iranians. Jon Leyne, the distinguished senior BBC correspondent has written a wonderful essay discussing the difficulties of interviewing Ahmadinejad. Mr. Leyne points out how Ahmadinejad succeeds "in moving the agenda onto a ground of his own choosing, and few, if any, of the Western journalists who have interviewed him have scored many points off him." The former USA Today correspondent Barbara Slavin has also written an article, "How not to get played by Ahmadinejad," in which she too testifies that the "Iranian president has perfected the art of slipping and sliding around even the most seasoned interviewers." Perhaps the best example of how Ahmadinejad manages to slip away from hard questions is when Christiane Amanpour asked him about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman charged with murder and adultery and originally condemned to death by stoning. In response to Amanpour's question, Ahmadinejad point blank said that this report is false and Ashtiani has not been condemned to death by stoning -- which was a plain lie. In anticipation of Ahmadinejad's trip to New York, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran had in fact prepared a full preparatory list of atrocities perpetrated under the administration of Ahmadinejad's for American journalists -- with key facts and crucial issues that they might raise when interviewing him. To be sure, Amanpour did ask Ahmadinejad about executions increasing fourfold since he took office, as well as about the Iranian regime taking action against opposition leaders, including raiding their offices. And in Larry King's case, after interviewing Ahmadinejad he had a follow-up conversation with Fareed Zakaria, the host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," in which the evasive answers of Ahmadinejad were put in proper context with more detailed attention to the internal atrocities in Iran. But still the balance of the result tipped heavily in favor of Ahmadinejad's rhetorical one-upmanship. Slavin has suggested that "reporters need to be armed with in-depth knowledge of Iran's economy, politics and society -- and even then, they may have difficulty getting Ahmadinejad to admit the truth." But that is not the modus operandi of a journalistic culture that is conceptually geared towards geopolitics and "international" politics rather than domestic matters. Ahmadinejad always wins in these encounters because he points to other atrocities by redirecting the question at the questioner, and there are plenty of atrocities around the globe. The other factor is the language barrier between Ahmadinejad and his interviewers, which he strategically uses to his advantage. "Mr. Ahmadinejad's technique," Leyne points out "is aided by the fact that most of the foreign interviews are carried out in translation -- leaving the journalist less scope for jumping in, and less time to cross-examine." Leyne's young colleague, Bahman Kalbasi of BBC Persian has now become a Facebook phenomenon because he accosted Ahmadinejad in a hallway at the UN and shouted a succession of questions at him: "Mr. Ahmadinejad why don't you talk to Iranian journalists? Why do you just talk to foreign journalists? Why do you run away from Iranian journalists?" Ahmadinejad left his real surprise for after all his interviews, when during his official address to the General Assembly he effectively accused the United States government of direct involvement in the atrocities of 9/11. But in this case, President Obama had an opportunity during his subsequent interview with Kalbasi to respond to Ahmadinejad. "For him to make the statement here in Manhattan," President Obama said, "just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said. Still, too many of Ahmadinejad's statements went unchallenged last week --particularly those that had to do with the vast array of atrocities in his own country. These are not problems that can be solved by handing to journalists a list of questions to ask a head of state with just too many skeletons in his closet to count. These are problems that American journalism as an institution faces as it tries to cope with and cover a far more globalized planet than we've ever seen before. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presides over regime that commits atrocities, says Hamid Dabashi . He says American television interviewers aren't sufficiently challenging in their questions . Dabashi says Ahmadinejad lied in denying Iranian woman was sentenced to stoning .

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(CNN) -- Chelsea have completed the signing of England international defender Gary Cahill from Premier League rivals Bolton Wanderers for a fee of $10.7m. The 26-year-old finalized his protracted move on Monday after agreeing personal terms and passing a medical, making it the biggest English transfer so far during the January window. Cahill has signed a five-and-a-half year contract with the London club, despite doubts beginning to surface about the deal due to the length of time negotiations over his financial terms took. Who are football's top January transfer targets? He told the official Chelsea website: "Chelsea are a massive club. They look to win trophies season in season out and it is a big opportunity for me to be a part of that. "Opportunities like this, you just can't turn down," added Cahill, who has won seven England caps and will be battling with Brazilian David Luiz to partner England captain John Terry at the heart of the Chelsea defense. Speaking on Saturday about Cahill's impending arrival, Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas told reporters: "He has good technical abilities which is important in the way we want to play and to implement our philosophy. "Competition will be tight for him but we brought him in to become better as a team." Cahill joined Bolton from Aston Villa in January 2008 and developed into one of England's top defenders during his four years at the Reebok Stadium. However, he had already indicated he was not prepared to sign a new contract, meaning Wanderers were forced to sell him or lose him for free at the end of the season. Meanwhile, the Carlos Tevez transfer saga has taken a new twist after Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti confirmed the Italian club had made a $31.7 million bid for Manchester City's Argentine striker. Speaking to reporters after Inter's 1-0 victory over city rivals AC Milan, Moratti said: "Our offer is 25 million euros -- now it depends on them whether they accept it or not." Inter have emerged as favorites to sign Tevez, after Milan pulled out of the race last week when their plan to sell Alexandre Pato to Paris St Germain fell through following the Brazilian's decision to stay at the San Siro. Ironically big-spending PSG now seem the only realistic challengers for Tevez, who has fallen out of favor at City after refusing to come off the substitutes' bench during the 3-1 Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich earlier in the season. Elsewhere in the Premier League, Blackburn central defender Chris Samba has handed in a written transfer request, despite Rovers manager Steve Kean saying the player was not for sale. The Congolese international has already been the subject of a rejected bid from QPR, while title-chasing Tottenham and French big spenders PSG have also been linked with the player. Samba issued a statement saying: "In my five years at Blackburn I have always given 100% in every game I have played. I have had several opportunities to leave but I have always stayed. "I have decided now is the right time for me to pursue a new challenge and I have asked the club to respect my decision and allow me to leave." In other transfer news, Barcelona have announced that French defender Eric Abidal has signed a new deal with the club. The 32-year-old, who had been linked with a move away from the Nou Camp, is now contracted to the European champions until June 2013, with an option to extend the deal until 2015. Abidal has made 177 appearances in four years with Barca, winning the Champions League twice and the Spanish La Liga three times.

Chelsea have completed the signing of Bolton central defender Gary Cahill . The 26-year-old England international joins Chelsea for a fee of $10.7 million . Cahill's transfer is the biggest in England so far during the transfer window . Eric Abidal signs a new contract with Barcelona to end speculation about his future .

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PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (CNN) -- Trash litters its cities. Electricity is sporadic at best. There is no clean water. Medical and educational services are limited. Basic infrastructure is severely lacking. "Planet in Peril" met in a secret location with members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. These are not conditions that should plague one of the richest oil states in the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta's oil reserves and many people have gotten very rich. Conversely, the average Nigerian has suffered as a result of the country's oil prosperity. The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of the country lives on less than a dollar a day -- the population is among the 20 poorest in the world. Oil companies are only part of the equation. The other is the Nigerian government. Transparency International, a global organization intent on stamping out corruption, has consistently rated Nigeria's government one of the most corrupt in the world. Nigeria's federal government and oil companies split oil profits roughly 60-40. The money is then supposed to make its way down to the local governments to fund various projects. Somehow, little money actually reaches its intended destination. Nigeria's own corruption agency estimates between $300 billion to $400 billion has been stolen or wasted over the last 50 years. Lisa Ling travels to secret location to meet notorious Nigerian militant group » . Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, one of the largest oil producers of Nigeria's 36 states, acknowledges past problems with corruption, but thinks progress is being made. "There's a lot of improvement," Amaechi said. "The work being done by the corruption agency and the federal government has somehow been able to control the level of corruption in government." Over the last few years, a culture of militancy and violence has arisen in the absence of jobs and services. Kidnappings for ransom, robberies and even murder happen with regularity. The biggest and most powerful armed group is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND. They say they are at war against the Nigerian military and the oil companies operating there. MEND, formed in 2005, said it has more than 30 camps throughout Nigeria. Members are armed with high-tech weaponry they said was obtained from "foreign sources." Hundreds of people have been killed on both sides and countless oil workers have been kidnapped. Over the years, MEND's attacks on oil pipelines have halted oil production and, therefore, raised the price of oil around the world. They demand oil profits be distributed to average Nigerians of the Niger Delta and said they will not stop their attacks until their objectives have been fulfilled. See environmental battle lines for "Planet in Peril" » . The battle is over oil -- one of the world's most valuable resources. But to most Nigerians -- oil is a curse. It has provoked an environmental disaster of monstrous proportions. Since the 1970s, the United Nations estimates there have been more than 6,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta -- that is equal to more than 10 times the amount spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Yet, there is no international outcry and rarely are the spills reported, even to most Nigerians. They are still happening and the consequences are nothing short of devastating. Communities along the Niger Delta have lived off subsistence fishing and agriculture for decades. Collecting food becomes impossible when a spill happens, like one that occurred in August. The waterways and mangroves are blanketed in thick brown oil sludge that goes on for miles. Toxicity overpowers the air and a sense of lifelessness pervades the landscape. Many say it will take 10-15 years for the area to be free of contamination -- if the cleanup effort commences in a timely manner. The August spill was a result of a leak from an old pipeline that had corroded. It took the oil company three months to clamp the leak, but the company said it wasn't reported for a full month after it began. Once the leak was reported, the company said it was denied access to the site by the community. Leaders of the village deny that, and the finger-pointing between the two sides is nothing new -- there is no love lost here. Who is telling the truth? Who knows? Either way, the creeks are blackened. This is life in the Niger Delta.

Nigeria is one of world's richest oil states; people are among poorest in world . Nigerian agency: $300 billion to $400 billion in oil profits squandered, stolen . Militant group MEND attacks oil pipelines, demands profits given to Nigerian people . UN: Niger Delta has had more than 6,000 spills; 10 times more than Exxon Valdez .

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Washington (CNN) -- Republicans' chances of winning control of the Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections are now up to 95%, according to CNN's Pivit, an analysis that combines experts' projections with political watchers' predictions on key races. The jump was driven largely by a Des Moines Register poll over the weekend that put Republican Joni Ernst 7 percentage points ahead of Democrat Bruce Braley in a Senate race seen as a must-win for Democrats. In that race, Pivit puts Ernst's chances at 88%. Pivit also offers bad news for Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, whose chances are at just 6%, and Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, who's down to 2%. Pivit's analysis suggests Democrats are in better shape in North Carolina, where Sen. Kay Hagan has a 69% chance of holding off Republican challenger Thom Tillis, and in New Hampshire, where Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's chances of beating Scott Brown are up to 81%. Republicans, meanwhile, look to have put Kentucky's Senate race out of reach. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell's chances of surviving a challenge from Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes are up to 97%. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to capture a majority. Pick-ups in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia are all but assured, and Democratic incumbents are facing uphill battles in Alaska, Arkansas and Louisiana, as well. Republicans are also hoping for wins in states like Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina -- which would help solidify their chances of gaining a majority by providing insulation in case the GOP loses seats of its own in Georgia and Kansas.

After rosy polls, CNN's Pivit puts Republicans' chances of winning a Senate majority at 95% . Pivit gives the GOP strong odds of picking off Democratic seats in Iowa, Colorado and Arkansas . Democrats could hold seats in North Carolina and New Hampshire, the analysis suggests .

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(CNN) -- Attention white Anglo-Saxon Protestants: Your days of running things are over. You have jumped the shark. But there's no need to feel bad for WASPs. They've had an amazing run. Every single president in our nation's history, except for John F. Kennedy -- a Catholic -- and Barack Obama, has been a white Protestant. Except for a handful of exceptions, for over 200 years the presidential nominees of both major political parties have been WASPs. WASPs had almost as many victories in a row as The Harlem Globetrotters. But it's over. Look at this year's presidential tickets: A Mormon, an African-American, and two Catholics. Even some of the keynote speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions were not WASPs. The GOP featured Italian-Irish Catholic Chris Christie and the Democrats tapped Latino-American, Julian Castro. Times are so bleak for WASPs that there's not a single one on the Supreme Court. Likewise, in Congress, the percentage of Protestants fell from 74 percent in 1961 to a slim majority of 55 percent today. Neither the current Speaker of the House (John Boehner: Catholic) nor the Senate majority leader (Harry Reid: Mormon) is WASP. I'm sincerely not gloating. And my jibes are in jest. But what I'm happy about is that our two major political parties are increasingly reflecting the new face of America. The demographics of our nation are changing and, by 2042, minorities are expected to become the majority in the U.S. Objectively, the delegates at this year's Democratic convention were far more diverse. The Republican convention looked more like the early bird dinner crowd at The Cracker Barrel. Opinion: In Ohio, candidates are salesmen trying to close the deal . However, in the GOP's defense, a party that is 90% white, they have started to slowly showcase minorities, such as Sen. Marco Rubio and Govs. Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal. They are well aware that if they don't, the GOP will go the way of the Whigs. There's little doubt that we will see more diverse presidential candidates. And we will likely see in the not too distant future a president who is Latino, Asian, Jewish, Sikh or Muslim. (That screaming sound you might have heard was Michele Bachmann shrieking in horror at the idea of a Muslim-American president.) This is a testament to our nation. We are by our very nature progressive. It may take years, or even decades, to see change, but we always march forward, not back. So, how did we get to where we are today where the white Protestant establishment seems to be losing power? Well, it's kind of complicated (as these things tend to be). There are tons of reasons. But one important factor that has contributed to today's political landscape is changing voting rights laws. Back in the days when our nation was founded, only white men who owned land could vote. That means rich white men with money get to control the political system. (I know some of you are thinking: How is that different than today?) In our first presidential election in 1789, no women, no blacks, no poor white men, and in many states neither Catholics nor Jews, were permitted to vote. Over time, some states abandoned the requirement of land ownership so that poor white men could vote. And the religious restrictions were also lifted so that non-Protestants were able to vote. Opinion: Democrats and Republicans need a plan to keep American dream alive . However, it wasn't until after 1870, when the 15th Amendment was ratified, that black American citizens were finally guaranteed the right to vote. (Although poll taxes, literacy laws and other measures were still employed in some states to disenfranchise black voters.) And it took all the way to 1920 -- more than 100 years after our first president was elected -- that women were finally given the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution. Enfranchising voters of all backgrounds has led to the opening up of our democratic process. Minorities no longer just voted -- they became active in politics. And they didn't just show up at political meetings -- over time they sought elective offices. And some of them won. With each success, they inspire even more minorities of every race, ethnicity and religion to become active in our political system. So WASPs, you've had your great run. And there is no doubt that another white Protestant will rise up one day against the growing odds and win the White House. But until that day comes, you can console yourself knowing that a white Protestant male is one of the most exciting athletes in our nation today: Tim Tebow. (Of course, he is the back up to Mark Sanchez.) The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah.

Every president except for JFK and Barack Obama has been a white Protestant . Dean Obeidallah: WASPs have had an amazing run, but times have changed . He says political parties are increasingly reflecting the new face of America . Obeidallah: Changing voting rights laws have made our political system more democratic .

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(CNN) -- A Detroit man, who stabbed an officer outside a courtroom and escaped wearing the officer's uniform, has been captured, authorities said. The inmate, Abraham Pearson, was spotted walking in a Detroit neighborhood Monday night, said Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. Authorities said Pearson attacked a deputy with a sharpened comb in front of two other inmates inside a holding cell at the Frank Murphy Hall Monday morning. He then handcuffed Deputy Harrison Tolliver, and fled, also taking the officer's cell phone and radio, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said. The two inmates did not intervene or leave the cell, according to police. Pearson escaped from the rear of the building, carjacked a citizen and drove away in a Dodge minivan. The Dodge was recovered and the officer's uniform was found under a vehicle near Beaubien Street in Detroit. Pearson was facing sentencing on Monday on carjacking and armed robbery charges. According to the sheriff's office, the 25-year old has a lengthy criminal record and was on parole. The arrest could add at least 11 more charges to the crimes he was already facing, Napoleon said. Tolliver, 63, was taken to the Detroit Receiving Hospital and later released. Tolliver is a retired Detroit police officer who joined the Sheriff's Office in December. CNN's Dominique Dodley contributed to this report.

Abraham Pearson escaped from holding cell while awaiting sentencing . Police say he drove off in a carjacked minivan . Sheriff: The escape attempt will add the suspect 11 more chages .

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(CNN)The United Nations' top human rights official has called on Myanmar's leaders to "unequivocally condemn" an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk who labeled a visiting U.N. rapporteur a "whore" at a protest. Ashin Wirathu, the leader of the far-right, anti-Muslim 969 movement, made the remarks about Yanghee Lee, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, at a public rally on Friday. "Don't assume you are a respectable person, just because of your position," he said in the speech, footage of which was widely circulated on social media. "To us, you are just a whore." The comments drew a sharp response from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who described Wirathu's remarks as "sexist," "insulting" and "utterly unacceptable." "I call on religious and political leaders in Myanmar to unequivocally condemn all forms of incitement to hatred, including this abhorrent public personal attack," he said in a statement released from Geneva Wednesday. "It's intolerable for U.N. Special Rapporteurs to be treated in this way." Lee was on a 10-day visit reporting on the human rights situation in the predominantly Buddhist southeast Asian country, which is emerging from a half-century of military rule. She had spoken out about the crisis facing the country's 1.3 million-strong Rohingya Muslim minority, most of whom live under apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state, with limited access to adequate healthcare and education. Since an outbreak of communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012, more than 130,000 live in wretched displacement camps they are forbidden to leave. Lee also criticized proposed law changes backed by the monks, including a bill restricting interfaith marriage and religious conversions. She made reference to Wirathu's comments in a statement this week. "During my visit, I was personally subjected to the kind of sexist intimidation that female human rights defenders experience when advocating on controversial issues," she said. Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim violence, but released in an amnesty nine years later. Myanmar's Minister of Information and presidential spokesperson Ye Htut posted comments on his Facebook page indicating he would ask the Ministry of Religious Affairs to look into Wirathu's speech. READ MORE: 'Caught between a hammer and an anvil' READ MORE: Rohingya "not welcome" READ MORE: Curfew imposed after deadly violence . READ MORE: Aung San Suu Kyi's 'silence' on the Rohingya .

Wirathu, an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk in Myanmar, calls U.N. official a "whore" U.N. human rights chief responds sharply, calling on Myanmar's leaders to condemn him . Wirathu is the leader of the 969 movement, blamed for stoking anti-Muslim sentiment .

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(CNN) -- In January 2010, a hardcore "Transformers" fan going by "gaastra" on a message board for Shout! Factory (a DVD and CD company "for the discerning pop culture geek") asked the simple question, "What would it take to get the Takara shows a release in America?" Before long, Shout! Factory DVD producer Brian Ward was asking fans how much interest they would have in such a release and what they would like to see on it. 18 months later, the first of the "Takara shows," known as "Transformers: Headmasters," was officially released Tuesday for the first time in the United States. Such is the relationship that geek-friendly companies like Shout! have with fans that this release has seen the light of day. "I'm really excited about it," said Michael Albert of Bear, Delaware, moderator of Seibertron.com, a "Transformers" community site that boasts as many as 300,000 page views per day (mostly by fans whose interest in "Robots in Disguise" goes well beyond one of the biggest box office successes of the year, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," and its predecessors). "This is the first time we've gotten a legitimate release of this Japanese series. You would have to get recordings of them burned onto DVDs, or import them from Australia or Europe, or find a laser-disc player from the 1980s to watch this." Albert and others from Seibertron.com -- one of many fan sites like tfarchive.com, tformers.com and tfw2005.com -- said that these releases were one of the most sought-after items by fans over the years. The Transformers first became a pop cultural phenomenon in the U.S. in the mid-'80s, based on a pair of toy lines from Japan's Takara company, Microman and Diaclone. When interest in the characters faded after a very short-lived fourth season of the original "G1" animated series, it came full circle with the Japanese producing "Headmasters," the first in a series of anime which took the characters in a wild new direction, involving new characters who were able to detach their heads, which were entirely separate characters (the U.S. series only touched on this concept briefly before it ended). "It really is interesting to see just how the Japanese and their culture played into a series that for most of us we've only known as straightforward Autobots vs Decepticons," said Ward, a "Transformers" fan himself who has produced all of the Shout! Factory releases of other series, such as "G1" and the 1990s "Transformers: Beast Wars." "[The Takara anime series] really bends towards a lot of things that Japanese children want to see," said Albert. "After 'Headmasters' is over, the Transformers are not so much sentient robots but having human drivers. From what I understand, Japanese children prefer having human drivers." Ward pointed out other, more subtle culture differences. "Where the G1 characters would call Optimus Prime 'optimus' -- they were pretty casual with their leader -- the Japanese approach it very differently. Optimus Prime will be referred in more of a formal manner, he'll be 'Commander' or something among those lines." "The Autobots and Decepticons [in these series] are, no pun intended a well ordered machine," he said. "It's interesting to watch those characters change culturally." "Some major characters die early on," said Matt Brown of Canton, Michigan, a podcaster at Seibertron.com. "Later in the series, another major character bites the dust. They don't mess around." As with any anime import, there is the eternal debate of "subbed versus dubbed." There are some fans who simply do not want to watch subtitles. Kim Manning, head programmer for Adult Swim (which is owned by Time Warner, also owner of CNN), and one of the top people responsible for what anime series are seen in the United States, said that every effort is made to get dubbed versions. "I think they're more likely to reach a more mainstream audience, and we're always hoping to get a larger audience excited about anime," she said. "I think hearing it in your native language allows you to get more absorbed in the action, and to pay more attention to the animation, which is often just gorgeous." In the case of "Headmasters" however, the episodes are not dubbed, but have brand-new subtitles. "We saw the releases that had come out in the U.K. and Australia and saw that the subtitles there weren't entirely accurate, and in some cases didn't make sense," said Ward. "It was clear that the folks who had translated did not use English as their first language. We gave it to a really good captioning and subtitling house in L.A. and they did a brilliant job of accurately translating the dialogue and understanding what was being said. We got those scripts approved by Hasbro (owners of 'Transformers'), and we're really happy with the outcome. The translation is about as close as one can get to an accurate translation of what's being said in Japanese." Dubbed versions of the series are out there, however, including one for Malaysian and Singapore television. "When we heard them, it really got to a point where it was comical," Ward explaned. "The voices were awful. Names would change. Soundwave disappears and is simply replaced by 'New Soundwave.' It was almost the equivalent of watching a Saturday afternoon martial arts movie dub, and that's certainly not something we wanted to do with a property as beloved as 'Transformers,' so we opted out of original dubs and went for brand new subtitles." Early fan reaction to this was not entirely positive. "There was a small bit of disappointment that the project couldn't secure enough funding to do a brand-new English dub," said Seibertron.com podcaster Bob King of Ashley, Pennsylvania. "I kind of share that feeling, but I also know that this isn't going to be a very mainstream release, and for them to spend that much money would be kind of a gamble. I appreciate that they're staying cautious." "People who have not seen it before might be disappointed in the subtitles, but rest assured [that the existing dubs] are that horrible," said Seibertron.com founder Ryan Yzquierdo, from Chicago, Illinois. "You can't actually sit there and watch the dubs, unless you like drinking while watching 'Transformers.'" Albert said that the Takara series' legacy extends beyond a mere curiosity: "The themes are non-Western compared to what Hasbro does now but some of the design aesthetics do play into what we see today." The other Takara series will be released in the near future as "The Japanese Collection," though a production delay has postponed its release for several weeks. Despite those delays and some early hesitation from the subtitle-phobic, Yzquierdo said that most fans are just excited to check the shows out: "This is something that I never thought I would see released in the States." Indeed, this is just the latest example of fans communicating directly with companies to make a difference in what material is released to the public. Manning has communicated often with a "vibrant" community of fans on the Adult Swim message boards. "We definitely look at what people are talking about online, what people are watching and buying online, too. From that, we're always looking for shows that we think will appeal to our audience, and then we pass it around the office -- several of us are anime fans, as well, so we make our own focus group." As for the importance of the release of "Headmasters" specifically, Ward said, "It gives [fans] something definitive, something approved by Hasbro. Casual fans who just love Transformers will be really surprised by the quality of the show. These were things that were almost, for lack of a better word, lost to American audiences."

Japan's "Transformers: Headmasters" released in U.S. for the first time . It's the latest example of fans influencing what material is seen by the public . Japan took U.S. "Transformers" cartoon in wild new directions . The release reignited the anime "subbed vs. dubbed" debate in some circles .

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(CNN) -- Manchester United's hopes of winning a treble this season ended on Saturday with a 1-0 defeat to arch-rivals Manchester City in the semifinals of the English FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. Alex Ferguson's team are on course for a record-breaking 19th English league title and have also reached the semifinals of the European Champions League, but Yaya Toure's second-half winner gave City the chance of winning a first trophy in 35 years. The Ivory Coast midfielder pounced after consecutive errors by veteran goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and midfielder Michael Carrick allowed him the chance to drill in a low shot seven minutes after halftime. United's bid to reach the final of the 140-year-old knockout competition for a record 19th time was then sabotaged by a moment of madness from 36-year-old midfielder Paul Scholes. The former England international, the only player of the two squads actually born in Manchester, was sent off with 18 minutes left for a reckless high lunge into the thigh of City's Argentine defender Pablo Zabaleta. Ferguson casts doubt over Hargreaves future . City last won the tournament in 1969, and most recently reached the final in 1981 -- one of the modern classics which was won in a replay by Tottenham. Roberto Mancini's team will face either Bolton or Stoke in the final on May 14, with the two Premier League teams meeting in Sunday's second semifinal also at England's national stadium. The Italian urged his team not to get carried away, with the club still battling to qualify for next season's Champions League. "We have everything in our hands. If we have the same spirit we had today, we have the fourth spot," he said, having molded City into contenders since taking charge December 2009 after being handed a lavish transfer kitty by billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. "Manchester City was a small team until three, four, five years ago. It's important to start to win the first trophies." United should have taken an early lead after dominating the first half-hour, with Dimitar Berbatov guilty of two bad misses in quick succession. The Bulgarian, starting in place of suspended England striker Wayne Rooney, was first denied by quick-thinking goalkeeper Joe Hart and then belied the form that has seen him become the Premier League's top scorer this season by inexplicably scooping the ball over the bar from close range after being found by Nani's inviting low cross. City, missing injured captain and top scorer Carlos Tevez, capitalized on some slack United defending after the interval as the 40-year-old Van der Sar -- who retires at the end of this season -- made a poor clearance and then Carrick gave the ball away to Toure. Hart did well to tip a 65th-minute freekick from Nani onto the crossbar before Scholes' red card forced a reshuffle with Berbatov replaced by midfielder Anderson. Man of the match Toure was denied by Van der Sar in the final minute and City survived five minutes of time added on to reach the club's second final since winning the English League Cup in 1976. The match ended in ugly scenes as United defender Rio Ferdinand had to be restrained after Anderson reacted to City striker Mario Balotelli's unwise celebrations in front of opposition fans. Ancelotti in troubled waters at the Bridge . In Saturday's Premier League action, third-placed defending champions Chelsea moved five points clear of City with a 3-1 victory at mid-table West Brom. The London club bounced back from the midweek Champions League exit at the hands of United as striker Didier Drogba leveled the scoring after this time being given the chance to start instead of $80 million signing Fernando Torres. West Brom had led through Nigeria striker peter Odemwingie, but Salomon Kalou put Chelsea ahead in the 26th minute and Frank Lampard sealed victory just before halftime. The result eased any fears that Chelsea will not qualify for next season's top European competition, moving Carlo Ancelotti's team eight points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham -- who host United's main title rivals Arsenal on Wednesday. Arsenal can reduce United's lead to four points by beating sixth-placed Liverpool on Sunday in a match that Kenny Dalglish's team also need to win in order to beat Tottenham to the sole Europa League spot. Everton consolidated seventh place with a 2-0 victory at home to Blackburn thanks to second-half goals by midfielder Leon Osman and defender Leighton Baines, the latter a penalty. Aston Villa moved up to ninth with a last-gasp 2-1 victory at second-bottom West Ham as substitute striker Gabriel Agbonlahor headed an injury-time winner after teammate Darren Bent canceled out Robbie Keane's early opener. Sunderland, European hopefuls earlier this season, slumped to an eighth defeat in nine games as the 2-0 loss at Birmingham left both clubs in a group of four teams on 38 points -- five clear of the relegation zone. Wigan moved out of the bottom three with a 3-1 win at Blackpool that dropped the promoted home team into the danger area for the first time this season.

Manchester City through to English FA Cup final for the first time since 1981 . Yaya Toure's 52nd-minute winner ends United's hopes of winning three trophies this season . Roberto Mancini's team will face either Stoke or Bolton in the final on May 14 . Third-placed Chelsea move five points clear of City with a 3-1 win at West Brom .

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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Long before U2 and Bono blazed their own paths, and decades before the Christian music industry became a half-billion-dollar annual business, a hippie musician with long blond locks paved the way. Larry Norman sang about drugs, politics, racism, sex and Jesus -- sometimes in the same song. Larry Norman was a Christian rock musician before the genre existed, combining faith with a backbeat and social consciousness. Think of him as rock music's street preacher, often referred to as "the father of Christian rock." "Between 1969 and 1979, Larry Norman was the Christian rock scene's answer to Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Mick Jagger," said Emmy-nominated director David Di Sabatino, who takes a critical look at Norman's career and life in his documentary "Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman." "He set the standard. He created the space for others to exist. ... The vision he created for where Christian rock music could go still resonates today." The documentary is scheduled to go into limited theatrical release in early 2010. Norman hit the U.S. music scene at a turbulent time for the nation. His first solo album, "Upon This Rock," came out in late 1969, after he left the band People! The San Francisco Bay area psychedelic group was fresh off the success of a Top 20 hit with a cover of the Zombies' "I Love You." It was a time when college campuses were erupting in anti-Vietnam War protests and the nation was still trying to digest what had just happened that summer at Woodstock. As many Americans looked for answers, Norman offered his faith, a bold decision for an unknown solo artist making his major-label debut. "It was a pretty gutsy move to sing about Jesus on his first record," younger brother Charles Norman said. "To take a chance on mentioning Jesus on a secular record was a pretty important step." " 'Upon This Rock' was written to stand outside the Christian culture," Larry Norman said in an interview with CCM magazine. "My songs weren't written for Christians. ... I was saying, 'I'm going to present the Gospel, and I'm not going to say it like you want. This album is not for you.' " No small surprise, given that rock music at the time was the soundtrack of the counterculture and was far from the mainstream. A national survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates in 1966 found that rock 'n' roll was by far the most unpopular music in the country. About 45 percent of adults said they disliked it, with only about 5 percent saying it was their favorite. Compare that with today, when nearly two-thirds of those asked in a recent Pew Resource Center poll said they listen to it. Being a rocker in the late 1960s wasn't just flying in the face of a conservative Christian music industry but mainstream America as well. Then there were the lyrics, especially on Norman's second solo effort, 1972's "Only Visiting This Planet." There were no happy songs about going to heaven; the tunes tackled the social issues of the day. Norman sang about drugs, politics, racism, sex, venereal disease and Jesus -- sometimes in the same song -- getting his music banned from Christian bookstores that might have sold it. "Stuff like that shocked uptight Christians," Charles Norman said in an NPR interview shortly after his brother's death in February 2008 at age 60. "One of his songs, it's called 'Why Don't You Look Into Jesus,' one of the lines is: 'You've got gonorrhea on Valentine's Day [VD] and you're still looking for the perfect lay. ... Why don't you look into Jesus? He's got the answer.'" The album also contained what became Larry Norman's signature song, "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music." Nearly two decades after its release, "Only Visiting This Planet," helmed by Beatles' producer George Martin, was recognized as a seminal recording for the genre, voted by CCM magazine in 1990 as the greatest Christian album ever recorded. A similar list released in 2001 by CCM, a Christian music and lifestyle magazine, put the album at No. 2 all time. U2's "The Joshua Tree" was sixth. Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame that same year, along with Elvis Presley. The accolades came much sooner in the mainstream media. In 1971, Billboard Magazine called Norman "the most important writer since Paul Simon," while Time magazine pegged him as "probably the top solo artist in the field." Norman's fans include U2, Guns N' Roses and Bob Dylan, according to his brother Charles. John Mellencamp said he's one, too. British pop star Cliff Richard made no secret of his admiration. "When I first became a Christian, I hunted around in vain to find Christian rock 'n' roll music I could relate to. It just all sounded horrible," Richard said on "Rockspell," a Gospel-music-themed BBC television show he hosted in 1986, and on which Norman appeared. Then he was introduced to Norman's music, "and I just was overjoyed and thrilled, because suddenly I could relate ... and there seemed to be a Christian who could do it as well, if not better, than the rest of us." Black Francis of the alternative rock group the Pixies said Norman has been a lifelong influence. "I listened to his records growing up, and saw him perform many times. In fact, I used to dress up like him; long blond hair with bangs, sort of a grown-out British invasion look, with black jacket, black shirt, black pants and two-tone black and white cheerleader shoes," Francis said. "While Larry is always referenced by his Christian beliefs, to me he was always an entertainer ... humorous, poignant and always rock 'n' roll. His respect for the arena of entertainment is what gave him his power as a performer." More than 300 versions of Norman's songs have been recorded by other artists, including non-Gospel acts as diverse as Richard and Francis, as well as Sammy Davis Jr., Petula Clark and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Christian music has come a long way in the 40 years since Norman pioneered Christian rock. "Before Larry Norman, there was not any Christian music industry," said Shawn McSpadden, manager for Switchfoot and the Grammy Award-winning band Third Day. But today is a different story, according to figures from the Gospel Music Association. It says 56 million units of Christian/Gospel music sold in 2008, totaling nearly $500 million. "The Christian music industry has been very business-savvy, probably without even realizing it, in that a lot of the artists and bands use their local church as their home base when they begin their careers," said Bruce Burch of the University of Georgia's Music Business School. "They immediately have fans that are passionate and devout not only about them as a band or artist, but to their message." Album sales for the genre, during 2008, outsold classical, jazz, new age and Latin, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Norman, a hippie musician who set out to sing about his faith, blazed the trail for Christian rock.

Larry Norman was Christian rock musician before genre existed . His first solo album, "Upon This Rock," came out in late 1969 . Norman's fans include U2, Guns N' Roses and Bob Dylan . More than 300 versions of Norman's songs have been recorded by other artists .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- With Manchester United continuing their top form from last season and aiming for what would be a remarkable clean sweep of trophies this year, it's only appropriate that we should profile a blog somehow linked to the Red Devils. Fan focus: The Republik of Mancunia blog is popular with Manchester United supporters. The Republik of Mancunia blog focuses on the Old Trafford club and is updated daily with a keen following among thousands of Manchester United fans. Authored by Manchester-born and raised 25-year-old Scott (who prefers to remain anonymous), the blog began in the 2005-2006 season. Scott, also known as "Scott the Red," told CNN that before starting the blog he had been published on several football sites, and then "fell into" creating the Republik of Mancunia web site. "I love talking about United and I'm an argumentative guy, so getting to write my opinions down about the latest goings on is something I really enjoy doing. "(In 2005-2006) I was also getting on soapbox about the fact we were not in decline, which the current media at the time seemed to think we were," he said. Scott said running a blog was a very difficult and time-consuming task, though he enjoyed the interaction with other fans. "I imagine if I wasn't in love with the club, I'd have given up on it long before now. It takes up a lot of time and you get people who support other teams having a go at you on a daily basis, sometimes United fans and all!" Scott said the readership of his blog, and also contributions to his Manchester United forum came from areas as widely spread as Europe, Africa and even as far as Asia and South America -- with a strong base at home in the United Kingdom. "I find it odd thinking of some lads thousands of miles away and hours apart sat at a computer and reading my latest rant. I like it though!"

CNN's Football Fanzone profiles a football blog every month . In March the profiled site is the Republik of Mancunia blog . The Republik of Mancunia is a dedicated blog for Manchester United fans .

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Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) -- Blood and body parts littered the ground outside Turkey's embassy in Somalia on Saturday afternoon, the grisly result of a blast that police said left six dead and nine wounded. A minivan packed with explosives went off around 5 p.m. in the heart of Mogadishu, just a few meters from the Turkish diplomatic post, said police Col. Ahmed Mohamud. When it was over, two Somali security guards, a university student and three attackers were dead, according to Mohamud. Turkish embassy sources said that two of its staff members were among the wounded. Somali police and Turkish embassy guards, meanwhile, converged on the scene. Mangled buses and cars ended up in a disfigured heap, while the windows of numerous nearby apartments were shattered. Al-Shabaab -- a militant Islamist group with connections to al Qaeda -- claimed responsibility for the attack. "We are behind the martyrdom explosion," the group claimed via Twitter. "The Turkish were our main target." The U.S. government reacted Saturday to "the terrorist attack" by pledging its solidarity with Turkey, "the people of Somalia ... and all members of the international community who are working for peace and stability in Somalia." "This cowardly act will not shake our commitment to continue working for the brighter, more democratic and prosperous future the people of Somalia deserve," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud similarly blasted what he called "an act of cowardly desperation by terrorists" against one of his nation's "most determined and dependable allies." He lauded Turks' "tireless efforts" over the past two years to help build new schools and hospitals, among other contributions. "I condemn this criminal act of terrorism and my government and security forces will do everything it can to catch those who planned and directed it," Hassan said. "We must continue to stand firm against those who seek to destroy this country and, with the brave support of our allies, we must double our efforts to deliver the peaceful future the Somali people so desperately want." Saturday's bombing was the second major attack in Mogadishu in a few days: On Wednesday, at least one person died in the capital after a bomb hidden in a lawmaker's car blew up. The targeted member of Parliament, Sheikh Adan Mader, and other lawmakers were out of the car when the blast occurred and were unharmed, police said. Designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2008, al-Shabaab has waged a war with Somali's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law in the country. Its forces were pushed out of Mogadishu in summer 2011 by Somali and other African forces, raising hopes of a return to relative security in a city after about 20 years of violence. But the militants have persisted by maintaining control of large rural areas of southern and central Somalia and staging guerrilla-style attacks. In one such attack that al-Shabaab took credit for, in June, at least 14 people died and 15 were wounded in an attack on U.N. headquarters in Mogadishu. In addition to its volatile security situation, Somalia has been plagued by famine. A May report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, found that 258,000 Somalis had died in the famine between October 2010 and April 2012. Half of the famine victims were children younger than 5. Journalist Omar Nor reported from Somalia, and CNN's Greg Botelho wrote this story from Atlanta.

NEW: Somali president decries what he calls an "act of cowardly desperation" A minivan full of explosives blows up outside Turkish embassy in Mogadishu . Two security guards, a student and three attackers die, Somali police say . Islamist militant group al-Shabaab claims responsibility .

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(Mental Floss) -- If you think comic book characters do amazing things in comic books, you won't believe what they can do off the page. For starters, Superman brought down the Ku Klux Klan, and Donald Duck raised ships from the ocean floor. 1. Superman defeats the Ku Klux Klan . In the 1940s, "The Adventures of Superman" was a radio sensation. Kids across the country huddled around their sets as the Man of Steel leapt off the page and over the airwaves. Although Superman had been fighting crime in print since 1938, the weekly audio episodes fleshed out his storyline even further. It was on the radio that Superman first faced kryptonite, met The Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen, and became associated with "truth, justice, and the American way." So, it's no wonder that when a young writer and activist named Stetson Kennedy decided to expose the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, he looked to a certain superhero for inspiration. In the post-World War II era, the Klan experienced a huge resurgence. Its membership was skyrocketing, and its political influence was increasing, so Kennedy went undercover to infiltrate the group. By regularly attending meetings, he became privy to the organization's secrets. But when he took the information to local authorities, they had little interest in using it. The Klan had become so powerful and intimidating that police were hesitant to build a case against them. Struggling to make use of his findings, Kennedy approached the writers of the Superman radio serial. It was perfect timing. With the war over and the Nazis no longer a threat, the producers were looking for a new villain for Superman to fight. The KKK was a great fit for the role. In a 16-episode series titled "Clan of the Fiery Cross," the writers pitted the Man of Steel against the men in white hoods. As the storyline progressed, the shows exposed many of the KKK's most guarded secrets. By revealing everything from code words to rituals, the program completely stripped the Klan of its mystique. Within two weeks of the broadcast, KKK recruitment was down. And by 1948, people were showing up to Klan rallies just to mock them. Mental Floss: 5 memorable moments in comic book censorship . 2. Donald Duck's scientific breakthrough . In 1966, Danish engineer Karl Krøyer developed a method for raising sunken ships off the ocean floor by injecting them with polystyrene foam balls. However, when Krøyer tried to license his invention with the Dutch patent office, he was denied. Donald Duck had beaten him to the punch by 22 years. Indeed, Krøyer's concept could be traced back to a Donald Duck comic conceived by Carl Barks. In addition to being the most celebrated artist of the Donald Duck comics, Barks was known for his scientific prowess. So in a 1944 story, when Donald got a bump on his head that turned him into a genius, the duck managed to mumble, "If I mix CH2 [a methylene compound] with NH4 [ammonium] and boil the atoms in osmotic fog, I should get speckled nitrogen!" Although it sounded like nonsense, it wasn't. In 1963, chemists P.P. Gaspar and G.S. Hammond wrote a technical article about methylene that included a reference to the Donald Duck story. The final paragraph read, "Among experiments which have not, to our knowledge, been carried out as yet is one of a most intriguing nature suggested in the literature of no less than 19 years ago." A footnote revealed that "literature" as the Donald Duck comic. It seems the web-footed children's hero had deduced the chemical intermediate long before it had been proven to exist. Mental Floss: Musicians performing on Sesame Street . But why were these top American chemists looking to comics for inspiration? Apparently, Dr. Gaspar had been a lifelong Donald Duck fan, and he'd rediscovered Donald's early reference to methylene while collecting old copies of the classic adventures. Gaspar never disclosed how much his work owed to Duckburg's most famous resident, but then again, how many scientists would confess that they used comic books to bolster their research? 3. A Spider-Man villain keeps folks out of jail . In a 1977 edition of Spider-Man, Peter Parker has the tables turned on him. The villain, Kingpin, tracks down Spidey using an electronic transmitter that he'd fastened to the superhero's wrist. Although Kingpin loses in the end (he always does), one New Mexico judge saw beauty in his plan. Inspired by the strip, Judge Jack Love turned to computer salesman Michael Goss and asked if he could create a similar device to keep track of crime suspects awaiting trial. In 1983, Goss produced his first batch of electronic monitors. Authorities in Albuquerque then tested the devices on five offenders, using the gadgets as an alternative to incarceration. Today, the transmitters are a common sight in courtrooms across the country, usually in the form of electronic ankle bracelets. Most famously, Martha Stewart donned one while she was under house arrest in 2004. Perhaps she would have felt better knowing that the gadget had once nabbed Spider-Man, too. Mental Floss: Truth about lie detectors (and Wonder Woman) 4. Captain Marvel Jr. saves the bad-hair day . Like most American kids in the 1940s, Elvis Presley fantasized about growing up to be like his favorite comic book superheroes. But it turns out that The King might have been more interested in their fashion statements than their special powers. During his early teen years, Elvis was obsessed with Captain Marvel Jr., known as "America's most famous boy hero." A younger version of Captain Marvel, the character sported an unusual hairstyle that featured a curly tuft of hair falling over the side of his forehead. Sound familiar? When Elvis set out to conquer America with his rock 'n' roll ways, he copied the 'do, thus making it one of the most famous hairstyles of the 20th century. But that wasn't all. Captain Marvel also gets credit for the short capes Elvis wore on the back of his jumpsuits, as well as The King's famous TCB logo, which bears a striking resemblance to Marvel's lightning bolt insignia. Of course, Elvis never tried to hide his love for the Captain. A copy of Captain Marvel Jr. No. 51 still sits in his preserved childhood bedroom in an apartment in Memphis, and his full comics collection remains intact in the attic at Graceland. Plus, the admiration was mutual. Captain Marvel Jr. paid tribute to The King in one issue, referring to the singer as "the greatest modern-day philosopher." For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

Several comic book heroes have affected people in real life . Superman battled the KKK in radio series "Clan of the Fiery Cross" Something created in Spider-Man comic inspires device that keeps people out of jail . And Donald Duck blocked a scientist from getting a patent .

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(CNN) -- On Tuesday, a federal advisory panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, recommended that university scientists who have submitted articles on how to modify a flu virus to two very prestigious journals delete critical information from them before publishing. The papers describe how to alter bird-flu virus to be more infectious and potentially nastier. Yes, this is same bird flu virus that, as it moved into pigs, was freaking us all out last year. If you had the detailed map of the viral changes needed, then either a terrorist or an amateur "garage" biologist operating without the right safeguards would have a very effective critter for killing you and me. If there is one thing that scientists hate, it is any policy that restricts research in any way. Scientists are taught that they need to be bold in asking questions and not let anything deter them from following their thinking wherever it leads, no matter how unpopular that might be. They are also taught the absolute necessity of making their claims public in reputable journals so that other scientists can subject them to the critical skepticism from which the truth ultimately emerges. Once in a long while, however, the price of the truth is simply too high to let scientists disclose their findings publicly. That is so when it comes to publishing detailed information about dangerous viruses and microbes. We don't have to hide the genetic map for a killer avian flu virus from all eyes. Access to some who have clearance to see it should be possible. If that is done, then the truth will still be known about whether those making claims of being able to engineer the virus can actually do so. To go further with potentially catastrophic data is to court trouble. There are those who will say that the only way to fight terror is to adhere to those values that have proven crucial to the advance of science over the decades. The more we know, the worse for the terrorists. Unfortunately, that is no longer the world we live in. The ethics of inquiry need to adapt. Handing the complete formula for making a nasty pandemic bug to any nut with access to the Internet or a subscription to a scientific journal makes no sense in a world that has seen the use of anthrax and sarin as weapons of terror. Freedom is key to good science. Freedom from terror is also key to good science. When they conflict, the latter is more important freedom than the former. Journals and those who write for them ought to do all they can to try and ensure that most important freedom. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Arthur Caplan.

For first time, a federal panel has advised that science journals censor flu study facts . The papers describe how to alter bird-flu virus to be more potent, says Arthur Caplan . Scientists generally hate policies that restrict research in any way, Caplan says . Caplan: Sometimes risk is too high to let scientists openly disclose their findings .

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(CNN) -- Andrew Sable wasn't in the market for new wheels, but he says the federal "cash for clunkers" program helped him get an offer he couldn't refuse. "I'd have been foolish not to take it," said Andrew Sable, who got $9,000 for his 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The gas-guzzling 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee his college-student son drives went bad last weekend. Ordinarily Sable would have fixed it, even though the vehicle was worth perhaps $2,000 at best. But, aware of the program that started this month, Sable took a $4,500 federal credit this week to trade in the Jeep and buy a new, more fuel-efficient Chrysler PT Cruiser. And Chrysler, eager to sell vehicles, threw in its own $4,500 incentive. The $9,000 in savings knocked the price to $8,900 before taxes and fees. "I'll never get $9,000 for this old vehicle [any other way]. I'd have been foolish not to take it," the 43-year-old Sable, an insurance underwriter living in North Bellmore, New York, told CNN after filing a report with iReport.com. He'll drive the PT Cruiser and let the son drive his Nissan. iReport.com: Read Sable's account of the purchase . Under the $1 billion program, people will be given credits of $3,500 to $4,500 to replace gas guzzlers -- generally vehicles with a combined city/highway fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon or less -- with new vehicles that are more fuel efficient. The old vehicles are crushed or shredded. Watch CNN's Gerri Willis explain the "cash for clunkers" program » . The exact credit offered through the program --- officially called the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, or CARS -- depends on how many more miles per gallon the new vehicle gets. Fuel economy thresholds for new vehicles vary according to type. New cars must have a combined city/highway fuel economy of at least 22 mpg. New SUVs and small or medium pickup trucks or vans must get at least 18 mpg. New large vans and pickups must get at least 15 mpg. The government put Sable's old Jeep at 15 mpg. His new PT Cruiser, which the program classifies as an SUV, gets a combined 21 mpg. Part of the program's intent is to get vehicles with low fuel efficiency off the road. Caroline Radtke, a 31-year-old who wrote about her purchase on iReport.com, was happy to oblige. Radtke and her husband this month got a $4,500 CARS credit for trading in their 2000 Isuzu Trooper (15 mpg) to buy a new Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, a diesel-powered car that the program lists as getting 33 mpg. After the credit, they paid just under $26,000. "What was going out of my [old] vehicle was bad for the planet, and you're putting so much financially into the stupid thing to fill it up because it runs out so fast," Radtke, a freelance graphic designer living in San Antonio, Texas, told CNN after filing her iReport. "After driving it for eight and a half years, I wanted something more productive financially and more friendly to the Earth." The couple would have bought a new car without CARS, but the credit probably allowed them to get a nicer car than they otherwise would have, Radtke said. If they had sold the Trooper themselves, they might have gotten $3,000 if they were lucky, she said. iReport.com: Radtke's purchase . The CARS program isn't for everyone. The credit won't go toward used-car purchases. Also, people looking to get rid of their under-18-mpg vehicle might find they can get about the same or more than a CARS credit by selling it. But the program worked just fine for iReporter Julie Callahan, a Salt Lake City, Utah, woman who was looking to replace her 1990 Chevy C1500 pickup truck, which had more than 350,000 miles and is rated at 15 mpg. She and her husband already had a newer vehicle, but she used the truck to go to work and for other in-town purposes. But lately it started having shifting problems, and it was occasionally slipping going uphill. Like Sable, Callahan, 39, got $4,500 this week to turn in the old vehicle and buy a new PT Cruiser. And, like Sable, she also received a separate $4,500 credit from Chrysler. She'll be paying about $10,000 for her new vehicle after taxes and fees. The $9,000 she saved with the credits from CARS and Chrysler isn't too shabby, considering she figures her old pickup was nearly worthless because it had so many miles. iReport.com: How Callahan got $9,000 for her truck . "Without the incentives, I probably wouldn't have purchased a brand new vehicle," Callahan, who runs a science outreach program at the University of Utah, told CNN after filing her iReport. Unless it is renewed, the program will end November 1 or when funds allotted by Congress run out, whichever happens first. Trade-ins must be less than 25 years old, and their titles must be free of any liens. Consumers can go to a Web site, cars.gov, to learn the program's rules. FuelEconomy.gov: See if your vehicle qualifies for CARS .

N.Y. man wasn't looking for new vehicle, but credits, circumstances changed plans . Program gives credits of $3,500 to $4,500 to people who trade in gas guzzlers . Recipients must buy new vehicles that are more fuel efficient . Texas woman glad program helped her buy more fuel-efficient vehicle .

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(CNN) -- The former Penn State assistant football coach currently awaiting trial on child sex assault charges can visit with some of his grandchildren, a judge ruled Monday. The decision by Judge John Cleland eases some conditions of Jerry Sandusky's house arrest, which had forbidden contact with his 11 grandchildren. Joe Amendola, Sandusky's attorney, said the former assistant coach and his family are happy about the ruling. "Jerry, Dottie, and their entire family are very relieved by and pleased with the court's decision," Amendola said in a written statement. Sandusky will be allowed to visit with eight of his grandchildren under parental supervision, Cleland ruled. But another judge in a custody case involving the other three grandchildren should decide whether Sandusky can visit with them, Cleland ruled. The mother of those children has strongly objected to them having contact with Sandusky. State Attorney General Linda Kelly had blasted Sandusky's request to see his grandchildren, saying in a motion earlier this month that Sandusky was fortunate to be granted house arrest when "he is alleged to have committed 52 sexual offenses." Kelly also argued that Sandusky should be required to stay indoors during his house arrest because of fears among neighbors and teachers at a nearby elementary school. Cleland denied that request Monday, ruling that prosecutors did not present any evidence showing that Sandusky had tried to contact children at the school. The state "failed to present any evidence whatsoever that (Sandusky) presents a clearly defined threat to any student at the adjoining elementary school simply by being on his deck," Monday's the ruling says. Cleland also ruled Monday that Sandusky would be allowed to have visits from adult friends and to leave his home for meetings with attorneys and private investigators aiding in his defense, provided that a probation coordinator approves. "Jerry is also happy he can now have visitation with long-time friends with the prior approval of the Probation Department and will be able to continue to use the deck to his home to exercise, care for and supervise his dog, Bo, when Bo is in the yard," Amendola said in his statement issued after Monday's ruling. Sandusky has been under house arrest since December, when he was charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Cleland has said he is aiming for a May 14 trial for Sandusky. On Monday, the judge denied a prosecution request that jurors be selected from outside the county where the former coach is being prosecuted. The allegations against Sandusky led to the firing of Penn State's heralded head football coach Joe Paterno only months before he died of complications from lung cancer. Tim Curley, Penn State's former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a former university vice president who oversaw campus police, have been charged with perjury and failing to report an alleged 2002 sexual assault of a child. Both of them have pleaded not guilty. On Monday an attorney requested that the perjury charge against Curley be dropped, arguing that Paterno's death means prosecutors no longer have a required second witness to support the charge. CNN's Jason Carroll and Mark Norman contributed to this report.

NEW: Sandusky's attorney says the family is happy about the ruling . A judge rules that Jerry Sandusky can see some of his grandchildren . The judge denies prosecutor's request to require the former coach to stay indoors . Tim Curley's legal team asks that a perjury charge against him be dropped .

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Kurdish fighters defending the key Syrian border city of Kobani are dangerously outmatched as ISIS advances, a top United Nations official said Tuesday, calling for the international community to step in. "They have been defending themselves with great courage. But they are now very close to not being able to do so. They are fighting with normal weapons, whereas the ISIS has got tanks and mortars," Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, said in a statement. "The international community needs to defend them. The international community cannot sustain another city falling under ISIS." Were Kobani to fall, ISIS would control a complete swath of land between its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, and Turkey -- a stretch of more than 100 kilometers (62 miles). Outnumbered and outgunned by ISIS, local fighters trying to defend the Kurdish-dominated city have tried to flee into Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Kobani was about to fall to ISIS as protests raged in his country over how the group should be handled. And hours after U.S. airstrikes targeting ISIS struck near Kobani overnight, the city's future was far from certain. Stopping ISIS from taking over cities, towns and other territory in Syria isn't the focus of U.S. efforts, a senior administration official and a U.S. official told CNN. At a briefing, a State Department spokeswoman faced persistent questions over whether saving the city was a U.S. priority. The answer, CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott said, sounded like a resounding "no." "It's obviously horrific to watch what's going on the ground, but it's important for the United States, for us to also step back and remember our strategic objective as it relates to our efforts and our engagement in Syria," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. The U.S. goal, she said, is "a deliberate, well thought-out campaign in Syria" to disrupt ISIS command and control, destroy the group's infrastructure and attack sources of fuel and financing for ISIS. "Certainly no one wants to see Kobani fall, but our primary objective here is preventing (ISIS) from gaining a safe haven," she said. "And we're going after those specific structures that I mentioned," Psaki added. "But we would not have taken the range of military strikes we have taken, including overnight, if we did not want to support and -- and defend the area." Five airstrikes targeting groups of ISIS fighters struck near Kobani overnight, U.S. Central Command said. There were another four strikes elsewhere in Syria and four in Iraq. "Finally, they are hitting the right places," one local fighter against ISIS said after the airstrikes near Kobani, which is close to the Turkish border and key to ISIS' effort to extend its terrain. Airstrikes against the radical Islamist group in Kobani can be challenging because many targets are too close to the Turkish border or Kurdish forces to strike, a senior U.S. military official said. Violent protests in Turkey . Destroying ISIS will require ground operations, Erdogan said, according to the semi-official Anadolu news agency. Speaking to Syrian refugees, he said there has been "no achievement yet," despite months of efforts against ISIS. Erdogan called for a no-fly zone, and for the arming of opposition groups in Iraq and Syria. People upset over what they consider Turkey's failure to respond adequately to the ISIS threat launched protests in Turkey, some of which turned violent. Three people were killed and at least 36 injured in demonstrations throughout Turkey, police said, according to Anadolu. At least five Turkish police officers were among the injured, Anadolu said. There were clashes overnight in Istanbul, and a group of about 50 to 60 protesters blocked a road, CNN affiliate CNN Turk reported. Some demonstrators set fire to a bus and garbage truck and smashed windows and cars. One protester was killed in the middle of a demonstration after being hit in the head by a gas canister in the town of Varto, police said. And two protesters died during demonstrations in the southeastern province of Siirt, Anadolu reported. In Belgium, meanwhile, Kurdish protesters stormed the European Parliament building. CNN affiliate RTL Belgium said about 50 protesters stormed into the building. Police then cordoned it off. Some European nations have joined the fight against ISIS, but the Kurdish protesters want tougher action. Belgium participated in overnight airstrikes in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said. Dutch join in, Canada to follow suit . Dutch forces participated for the first time in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq as well, dropping three bombs on ISIS vehicles that were shooting at Kurdish Peshmerga forces, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. The vehicles were destroyed, and ISIS fighters may have been killed, the ministry said. Canada's Parliament approved an air combat mission against ISIS in Iraq, pledging up to six CF-18 fighter jets as part of a strike force, in addition to other aircraft for surveillance, reconnaissance and refueling. "To be absolutely clear, Canada's engagement in Iraq is not a ground combat mission. It includes a number of targeted measures, being taken with allies, to severely limit the ability of ISIL to engage in full scale military movements and to operate bases in the open," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "We do not take this step lightly. The threat posed by ISIL is real. If left unchecked this terrorist organization will grow and grow quickly." Near Kobani, airstrikes hit ISIS vehicles . In Syria, according to U.S. Central Command, the airstrikes against ISIS included: . -- One south of Kobani destroyed three ISIS armed vehicles and damaged another . -- One southeast of Kobani destroyed an ISIS armed vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery . -- Two southwest of Kobani damaged an ISIS tank . -- One south of Kobani destroyed an ISIS unit . Elsewhere in Syria, two strikes west of al-Hasakah hit multiple ISIS buildings, one near Deir Ezzor struck an ISIS staging area and IED production facility, and one southwest of Rabiyah struck a small group of ISIS fighters. The United States, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all participated in the strikes, Central Command said. Death toll in fight for Kobani . More than 400 people have been killed in the fight for Kobani since mid-September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The group said it has documented the deaths of 219 ISIS jihadists, 163 members of the Kurdish militia, and 20 civilians. A northern Iraqi hospital has received the bodies of at least 29 suspected ISIS militants, the head of the Tal Afar hospital said Tuesday. Danial Qassim said most were killed in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes overnight. Tal Afar is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Mosul -- Iraq's second-largest city. Mosul has also been overtaken by ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. How ISIS makes its millions . Why is ISIS so successful at luring Westerners? U.S. military airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria have cost more than $62 million so far, according to data provided by the U.S. Defense Department. The data, apparently sent out inadvertently to the Pentagon's press contacts on Monday, listed the total number of airstrikes by U.S. Central Command in Iraq and Syria. It also detailed locations of targets and specified the costs of munitions used.

Canada will send fighter jets to target ISIS in Iraq . U.N. envoy: "The international community cannot sustain another city falling" State Department: U.S. goal is preventing ISIS "from gaining a safe haven" Turkish President Erdogan warns Kobani is about to fall to ISIS .

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Unlike most harried men in many other countries around this time each year, Korean men don't have to worry about shopping for jewelry or flowers or writing nice cards to give to their significant other on February 14. Instead, for South Koreans Valentine's Day is when women shower men with chocolates. It's also just one romantic day in a whole series of calendar-dictated romantic days. Next up is March 14. Known as White Day, on this occasion men gift women with candy. Fact: Chupa Chups is the most sold candy. Next is Black Day on April 14, when downbeat singles who didn't receive any goodies head to local Chinese restaurants to commiserate over their loneliness while eating jjajyangmyeon, or "black noodles." Surprisingly, one of the most popular gift-giving days of the year is November 11, or Pepero Day, so named in honor of a favorite Korean stick-shaped snack. (Link in Korean only) Catering to women . Throughout the country, stores selling confectionery prepare for months leading up to February for one of their best-selling days of the year. As February 14 nears, visitors to the country will notice lines and lines of women at such stores. Naturally, retailers need to cater to the female shopper's eye. "Valentine's Day is one of our top five days of the year," Chul-hyun Yoo, the public relations representative for CU convenience stores, told CNN. With 7,900 stores throughout the country, CU is the number one convenience store chain in South Korea, recording almost ₩3 trillion (US$2.8 billion) in total sales last year. "You can tell what concerns women and men is different by comparing the sales of Valentine's Day and White Day," said Yoo. "Women tend to go for value for money, while men buy big, flashy baskets." One translation: women are comparatively stingy, while men like to show off. Some of the best-selling items on Valentine's Day are the Ferrero Rocher chocolates sold in packets of three or five. Fellas, don't eat all at once. Becoming unhealthy? At the more upscale Jubilee Chocolatier dessert cafe in Seoul, women line up on the days up to Valentine's Day to buy handmade chocolates that can be customized with their loved one's initials. "Our Valentine's Day sales make up 20 percent of our entire sales," said Gae-ra Lee, public relations representative for the cafe. Although the series of romantic days used to cater more towards couples, or those wanting to confess their secret loves using a romantic day as an excuse, in recent years, goodie-gifting on Valentine's Day and White Day has expanded to include family, co-workers and pretty much anyone you come into contact with on those days. "I'm buying chocolates for my father. I feel like Valentine's Day should about confessing romantic love," said Jin-hee Oh, 28, an office worker shopping at Lotte Department store. "Nowadays, you don't give chocolates on Valentine's Day because you really like that person," said Chun Kyung-woo, a culture reporter for a local newspaper. "The custom has evolved so that now you have to give small crappy candy that no one actually wants to all your friends and everyone at the office down to your security guard as a show of goodwill," said Chun. "It's unhealthy." So what did I do? Along with the other female members of the Seoul office, we each gave the Turner Korea boss some chocolate. Not that he needs it.

Women give men chocolates for Valentine's Day in Korea . Valentine's Day is just one of many romantic Korean holidays. Next up: White Day . Valentine's Day has evolved to incorporate more than just romantic interests .

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(CNN) -- Announcement of a Nintendo 2DS handheld console is causing a collective "eh" among fans of the pioneering gaming company. The new console hopes to entice the entry-level gamer (i.e. kids) with a large catalog of games designed for the Nintendo 3DS and DS while appealing to parents with a low price point ($129). Unlike its counterpart, the 2DS does not have 3-D visual effects, nor can it be folded shut like other DS handheld consoles. Instead, the 2DS remains flat and fixed, much like a tablet. The controls are similar to other Nintendo handheld consoles and screen sizes are the same as the 3DS unit. While critics are split over whether this is a good idea for the company in the long term, fans in forums and social media are shaking their heads. Some are asking why a 2DS model is needed when 3-D can be turned off on the current console, while others are calling for Nintendo executives' heads. Much of the confusion lies in the naming convention. While the Nintendo DS can only play DS games, the 2DS and 3DS can play games designed for the DS or the 3DS. The problem arises because the games are clearly labeled for the DS or the 3DS, but not for the 2DS, and could have parents wondering, "Where are the 2DS games?" It was a similar problem when the Wii U was announced and players couldn't play Wii U on Wii systems. The names weren't distinct enough to create separation for a casual audience. The move to a non3-D environment for the handheld console is a welcome one to some fans. "Oh I'm so happy they're creating a 2DS," said @omglazerkittens on Twitter. "That's the whole reason I haven't bought one yet." Nintendo, for its part, has said the new device is designed for young kids, despite having promotional videos with adults using it. Despite the nonplussed reaction from many older gamers, some fans understand the need for a device aimed at the young audience. The new console may appeal to "parents who want to buy their kids Pokémon and a 3DS at an affordable price," wrote Haziq, a member of popular online video-gaming forum NeoGAF. "Plus, the flat design kind of reminds me of a tablet. I wouldn't be surprised if this is Nintendo's way of directly competing with that market for small kids." The October 12 release for the Nintendo 2DS is the same day the company plans to launch the latest titles in the Pokemon universe, "Pokemon X" and "Pokemon Y." But other gamers aren't so quick to accept the need for the new console or Nintendo's explanation. "To those who say the 2DS is a kid-friendly option, where does the inability to protect the screen with folding fall into that?" wrote @JustinMcElroy on Twitter. Twitter user @kellyherron27 wonders whether Nintendo is not happy with the 3DS market anymore. "Feels like they're saying, 'OK, so our novelty really is a gimmick. Oops.' " But in explaining the need for the Nintendo 2DS, another NeoGAF member may have offered the most clear-eyed assessment. "Parents will be buying this for kids and that's the point, hence the price," wrote Alpha_eX. "They're aiming at kids wanting the new Pokémon game and if parents can get it cheap, it'll sell over a more expensive 3DS model." "This console isn't aimed at any of us (adults)."

Many gamers appear less than excited about Nintendo's forthcoming 2DS console . The handheld device does not have 3-D visual effects and is shaped like a small tablet . Console may be aimed at kids, not adults .

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(CNN) -- Mitchell Johnson was in danger of becoming the forgotten man of Australian cricket. Shunned by the selectors after an alarming loss of form, he spent a year out of the Test team as he struggled to overcome a foot injury. But the 31-year-old is back with a bang, having terrorized Sri Lanka's batsmen to help the home side clinch a 2-0 series win in Melbourne on Friday. The left-arm paceman was named man of the match after claiming six wickets and scoring 92 not out as the tourists crumbled to defeat by an innings and 201 runs -- Sri Lanka's third worst reverse in the five-day game. Johnson, only playing because of injuries to other bowlers, followed up his four-wicket haul from Sri Lanka's first-innings 156 with a fiery spell that earned two more scalps and ended the tour of key batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who had scored 27. Sangakkara, who on the opening day joined the elite club of players to have scored 10,000 Test runs, needs surgery on a broken finger after being hit on the gloves by Johnson -- who also gave wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene a hairline thumb fracture in the first innings. Neither Jayawardene nor bowler Chanaka Welegedara were able to bat due to injuries, and Sri Lanka collapsed to 103-7 all out in 24.2 overs. Two wickets fell in Johnson's opening over of the innings, one of them a run out. "The plan through this Test match was to get up their batters and unfortunately for them they got a few injuries out of it," said Johnson, who passed the milestone of 200 wickets in his 49th Test. "I think that intimidation factor definitely worked out there today. We found a bit of a weakness with them with the short ball ... They obviously didn't handle it as well as they would have liked." It marked a minor career resurrection for Johnson, who was Australia's main strike bowler until his form fell apart during the 2010-11 Ashes series against England. "In the time I've had off I've been able to reflect on a lot of things. I had probably got to the stage where I listened to a lot of outside influences -- that doesn't affect me anymore. I'm just happy with how I've come back, and making the most of the opportunities I get," he said. "It's not every day you get to play for your country, and I'm pretty proud of the fact I've played 49 Tests now. You've just got to look to the future and, if you get picked, go out there and make the most of it. That's what I'm doing ... and playing with a smile on my face. "I've always been happy playing for Australia, it just got to the point where I was feeling the pressure. It happens in professional sports, you can feel the pressure and start to believe in things that are said or outside influences, and it just got to that point for me. "I've moved past that. I'm 31, I've been around the game for a long time now and I think I've matured in that I have belief in myself and just go out there and play my game and do the best job I can." Despite his heroics, Johnson is not guaranteed of starting the third Test in Sydney from January 3-7. Mitchell Starc is expected to return after being rested, while debutant Jackson Bird made a strong impression as an opening bowler, taking two wickets in each innings. "His control with the new ball is an area that I think we've been looking for," captain Michael Clarke said. "The one thing I really like about Jackson is you know what you're going to get. "He bowled into the breeze the whole game and did a fantastic job for us. I think Birdy played a huge part in Mitch's success in the first innings, and it allows a bowler like Mitch to be able to attack." Australia will be without key all-rounder Shane Watson, who has a calf injury, meaning Glenn Maxwell has the chance to make his Test debut after previous appearances in limited-overs internationals. Meanwhile, India leveled the Twenty20 series against Pakistan with an 11-run victory in the second match at Ahmedabad on Friday. The home side put on 192-5 after batting first, with Yuvraj Singh smashing 72 off 36 balls, sending seven deliveries over the boundary ropes. Pakistan could not follow up Tuesday's five-wicket win in Bangalore, finishing on 181-7 after 20 overs. Ashok Dinda took 3-36 from his four overs. It is the first bilateral series between the neighboring countries in five years. The three-match one-day series will start on Sunday.

Mitchell Johnson inspires Australia to innings victory over Sri Lanka in Melbourne . Injury-hit tourists crash to series defeat ahead of third and final match in Sydney . Johnson named man of the match after taking six wickets and hitting 92 not out . India levels Twenty20 series against Pakistan with 11-run win in second match at Ahmedabad .

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Washington (CNN) -- New disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service targeted liberals as well as conservatives in assessing applications for tax-exempt status have reshaped perceptions of the scandal, shifting the focus away from Republican claims of political villainy. IRS targeting included liberal groups . Investigations by the FBI, congressional committees, the Treasury inspector general's office and the IRS continue, but Monday's revelations bolstered assertions by agency officials and Democrats that the problem was egregious mismanagement instead of intentional misconduct by the Obama administration. Shifting polls contradict key deposition . House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California told CNN on Tuesday that the priority now should be to ensure that laws and regulations prohibiting political groups from getting tax-exempt status are properly enforced, regardless of whether organizations are on left or right. "These groups are in some ways giving the appearance that their primary purpose is the common good, the common welfare ... when they are actively engaged in political activity, for which they shouldn't be getting a tax deduction," Pelosi said. However, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin argued too many questions remain unanswered to stop investigating whether politics played a role in the controversy. "What we still don't know is who ordered this kind of targeting, why did it take so long for them to clean it up?" Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, told CBS. Asked if the claim of political motivation now seemed less valid, he responded: "I don't know the answer to that, so we're going to let the facts take us where they take us." In particular, Ryan said he wanted more details on why conservative-oriented groups had their tax-exempt applications stalled and experienced harassing behavior by the IRS, such as having to answer inappropriate questions about the beliefs and activities of members. At the same time, he sounded like Pelosi in saying the bigger question involved the practice of targeting, rather than who specifically got targeted. CNN Poll: Did White House order IRS targeting? "We know that the IRS did target people based upon their political beliefs," Ryan said. "Who cares whether they're right or left? ... The fact that they're targeting people for harassment based upon their political beliefs should be cause enough alone for outrage." That's a big change from inferences by GOP leaders in recent weeks that the Obama administration was likely behind the targeting that started in 2010 in an effort to subdue political rivals. With no evidence to date of any such connection, it was unclear how hard congressional committees would continue pushing the issue. The GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing on Thursday on an initial review of the IRS targeting by the agency's temporary leader, Daniel Werfel. President Barack Obama appointed Werfel to clean up the IRS mess last month after an inspector general's audit uncovered targeting of applications that contained conservative-themed words such as "tea party." The audit by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George only cited the targeting of conservative groups, which it said ended in May 2012. Read IRS watchdog's report . In his first substantive report on the agency, Werfel said Monday that its tax-exempt unit used multiple lists of inappropriate criteria in assessing tax-exempt applications until earlier this month, more than a year later than previously revealed. The "Be on the Lookout" or BOLO lists included liberal-themed words such as "progressives" and other politically oriented terms such as "occupy" and "medical marijuana" in alerting IRS workers to check for unacceptable political activities, according to copies made available by Democratic Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan. Werfel said he has suspended the use of BOLO lists in considering tax-exempt applications for now. A statement by Levin questioned why George's audit focused only on BOLO lists that contained conservative labels. The inspector general's report "served as the basis and impetus for a wide range of congressional investigations, and this new information shows that the foundation of those investigations is flawed in a fundamental way," Levin's statement said. A spokesperson for George later responded that the report focused only on BOLO criteria used to refer cases for extra scrutiny of potential political activity that would make groups ineligible for tax-exempt status. Republicans have claimed the controversy amounted to political retribution against enemies of the administration, an accusation denied by the White House and the IRS. McConnell: Obama administration a 'culture of intimidation' In response to Levin's statement, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Michigan, said the inclusion of "progressives" on a BOLO list did not prove that liberal groups underwent the same extra scrutiny of conservative groups cited in the inspector general's report. The release of George's audit last month ignited a political firestorm in Washington while fueling conservative mistrust of Obama's administration as an example of big government gone wild. Werfel noted Monday that his internal investigation, while still incomplete, found no evidence so far of intentional wrongdoing by IRS personnel or involvement by anyone outside the IRS. He also said no evidence had emerged that in appropriate targeting extended into other areas of the agency. Five IRS managers have been replaced, from the previous acting commissioner whom Werfel succeeded to the head of the unit based in Cincinnati that handles tax-exempt applications. In addition, Werfel created an Accountability Review Board to recommend within 60 days "any additional personnel actions necessary to hold accountable those responsible" for the targeting disclosed by the inspector general's report. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama believes Werfel's report "is an important step in ensuring accountability for any staff that acted inappropriately, identifies the failures in their systems that allowed the misconduct to happen, and takes a forward-looking systemic view at the agency's management." In his audit that disclosed the misconduct, George said there was no evidence of a political motive. However, he is continuing to investigate the matter, along with the FBI and the congressional committees. As part of his review, Werfel said 80 groups awaiting IRS action on their applications for tax exempt status for more than 120 days could self-register with the agency as long as they certified under penalty of perjury that they would comply with applicable laws and regulations. At the heart of the matter is what kind of organization can qualify for tax-exempt status. Regulations limit such status to groups primarily involved in social welfare activities, while political groups are considered ineligible. Confusion over defining what constitutes political activity versus social welfare activity contributed to the targeting by the IRS, Werfel said. An IRS statement on Monday said the "safe-harbor" option for self-certification would apply to groups that "certify they devote 60% or more of both their spending and time on activities that promote social welfare." "At the same time, they must certify that political campaign intervention involves 40% or less of both their spending and time," the statement said. Applicants meeting those thresholds would get approval within two weeks of seeking self-certification, it said. Earlier: What's a 501(c)(4)? Werfel said the IRS would continue checking on tax-exempt groups to ensure they were following the law. Separately, the House Oversight Committee, which has been aggressively investigating the IRS matter, plans to meet on Friday to consider a resolution aimed at resolving questions about whether a key agency official must testify. Lois Lerner was the director of exempt organizations when the agency filtered applications for tax exempt status. She appeared before the committee in May and said she had broken no laws or regulations and then invoked her constitutional right not to answer questions. Lerner pleads the 5th . Several committee Republicans questioned whether she waived that right by making her opening statement, and Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa said she could be called back at a later date if that were the case. CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

Liberal and conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status got targeted . Pelosi: The priority is stopping political groups from getting tax breaks . Ryan: Unanswered questions require further questions . A House committee holds the next hearing on the issue Thursday .

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(CNN) -- Oprah Winfrey gave her support to those suffering in the Gulf states, saying President Obama is doing the best he can to handle the oil disaster. "What's going on in my heart is the same thing, everyone feels for what is happening to all of the fisherman and families who, this time of year, would be hosting people from all over the country and all over the world there," said Winfrey, who was in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday to speak at a middle school graduation. "We can only hope and pray that this will soon be resolved in a way that people can pick themselves up and move forward," Winfrey added. The talk show host said she has heard the criticism of Obama's handling of the oil crisis. Winfrey, an avid supporter of the president, said he is doing a good job. "I think the president is doing the best anybody can," said Winfrey, who campaigned for Obama when he ran for president. "I really don't understand what people want him to do? I think he's the president of the United States. "You're not supposed to be emotional, you're supposed to take action and get things done and make sure those things happen so I'm not sure what people want him to do," she said. The underwater gusher began after an April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The explosion and subsequent fire caused the rig to sink two days later, rupturing the pipes and sending oil spilling from the well. Winfrey said she has been saddened by television reports of those affected by the oil disaster. "What is happening not only to the people but to the animals is what breaks my heart," Winfrey said. CNN's Don Lemon contributed to this report.

Oprah Winfrey says she hopes the oil spill will be resolved soon . Winfrey says Obama is doing a good job handling crisis . She says she is saddened by television reports about those affected by spill .

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London (CNN) -- Whatever the literary merits of J.K. Rowling's new novel, the Harry Potter author is unlikely to earn many plaudits for the originality of her subject matter. Have you read it yet? Share your review? With a plot examining social tensions and class divisions between the rich and poor residents of an English village, "The Casual Vacancy" is a modern take on themes that have provided fertile inspiration for dramatists, novelists and satirists of English manners since at least the 17th century. Muggle moms await first adult J.K. Rowling book . "We're a phenomenally snobby society and it's such a rich seam," Rowling said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper by way of explanation, in words that might as well have been attributed to Jane Austen, George Eliot, Joanna Trollope or any number of other female British writers. "The middle class is so funny, it's the class I know best, and it's the class where you find the most pretension." Still, Rowling clearly has an authorial eye for the preoccupations of her middle-brow audience. Britain can sometimes feel like a country in the midst of a permanent, low-intensity class war in which all targets are fair game and all are left feeling routinely persecuted. While the wealthy and privileged are derided as snobs and "toffs," members of the working class are grotesquely parodied and vilified as illiterate "chavs" and the middle class is roundly mocked, often from within its own fragmented ranks, for its petit bourgeois obsessions with house prices, farmers' markets and amateur dramatics. Julian Fellowes, the script writer behind lavish Emmy-nominated period saga "Downton Abbey" complained last year that "poshism" was the "last acceptable form of prejudice", while Benedict Cumberbatch, the well-heeled star of "Sherlock" said last month he had contemplated relocating his career to the U.S. because "posh-bashing" in the UK had gone too far. At the opposite extreme, Owen Jones, the author of "Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class," argued that the widespread blaming of last year's riots in London and other cities on a supposed feral underclass was "classic demonization, reducing complex social problems to supposed individual failings and behavioral faults." Class, swearing and sex fill J.K. Rowling's first adult book . If Rowling needed any further evidence of the enduring power of issues of class and status to raise British heckles, it came last week in the blundering form of Andrew Mitchell, a senior member of Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet, whose job as chief whip is still in the balance over whether or not, during an altercation with a policeman, he called the officer a "pleb" and suggested that he ought to "learn his f****** place." For critics of Cameron's government, Mitchell's alleged insult and the fact that, like the Eton-educated prime minister and many of his colleagues, he attended one of the UK's elite fee-paying public schools appeared to offer further proof of a blue-blooded conspiracy to keep the proles firmly in their place. As Kevin Maguire wrote in the Mirror newspaper: "In Mitchell's angry flash of social superiority ... we glimpsed the naked prejudice of the posh boys sitting at the cabinet table. The mask slipped to reveal how voters, the great British public, are viewed as inferior creatures, drones expected to know their place and tug a forelock at Conservative rulers in their government castle." Yet there are good reasons, aside from unvarnished prejudice, why class remains such a potent political issue. For those worst affected by the present government's austerity program, portrayed by opponents as an ideologically motivated assault on the founding principles of Britain's welfare state, the "We're all in it together" mantra coined by British Finance Minister George Osborne -- the heir to a baronetcy and a multimillion dollar wallpaper fortune -- understandably rings hollow. Class remains the single most important factor in shaping the life prospects of every single person born in Britain; a fact most glaringly illustrated in terms of life expectancy itself, with men in the most deprived areas of the Scottish city of Glasgow typically dying at 71, while those in London's wealthy enclave of Kensington and Chelsea can expect to live beyond 85. Time: We read 'The Casual Vacancy,' here's what we think . At the heart of the British class structure still sits the English public school, the best known archetype of which is now probably Rowling's own Hogwarts -- a place of arcane rituals and Latin lessons, bunk-bedded boarding houses and Gothic grandeur. Real-life public schools may not offer lessons in magic and wizardry, but they do equip the offspring of those willing to cough up annual fees of tens of thousands of dollars with access to a world of privileged connections and a fast track via a well-oiled "old boys' network" into lucrative and successful careers in the upper echelons of politics, government, the military, the judiciary, banking and business. About 7% of English pupils attend fee-paying schools yet alumni of the top 100 public schools make up almost one third of annual admissions to Oxford and Cambridge -- universities whose own peculiar traditions owe more to their archaic ties to those institutions than to the rigors of a modern, egalitarian education system. Opinion: J.K. Rowling's daring leap . Former public schoolboys even punch above their weight on our screens, with two of Britain's leading actors -- Damian Lewis, an Emmy winner this week for his starring role in "Homeland", and Dominic West, celebrated for his portrayal of a rough-edged Irish-American detective in "The Wire" -- both also alumni of Eton. It remains to be seen whether Rowling has anything novel to add to the class debate, but one thing of which she is undoubtedly aware is that it is a subject that will shift copies from the shelves in droves. As "Downton Abbey" and the entire careers of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis have demonstrated there remains an insatiable appetite beyond British shores for the sort of cut-glass accents, excruciating social awkwardness and polite self-effacement that the country has turned into a thriving export industry. Rowling, famously canny businesswoman that she is, will surely already have negotiated movie rights to a story that will be lapped up as eagerly across the Atlantic. Social class, swearing and sex permeate Rowling's first adult book . The opinions in this piece are solely those of Simon Hooper.

J.K. Rowling's new novel, "The Casual Vacancy," is author's first book aimed at adults . Plot examines social tensions and class divisions in English village . Simon Hooper: Britain feels like country in midst of low-intensity class war . Rowling is aware class is subject that will shift copies in droves, he adds .

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(CNN)On Sunday, at almost the same moment that dozens of world leaders linked arms and led millions of people through the streets of Paris to commemorate the 17 victims of last week's terror attacks in France, explosives carried by two young girls ripped through a mobile phone market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum. The blasts, which killed three people besides the bombers and injured 46 more, came just a day after another bomb, strapped to a girl described by witnesses as about 10 years old, exploded in a busy market in the city of Maiduguri, killing at least 20 people. While coming in widely divergent settings, thousands of miles apart, the attacks in France and Nigeria were both motivated by an Islamist extremist ideology that rejects a modern world shaped by political, economic, and social liberalism -- and in the case of Boko Haram, whose name can be roughly translated as "(Western) education is forbidden," also abhors scientific progress. To achieve this end, no deed is too brutal or tactic too low, as is underscored both by the recent actions of Boko Haram and the posthumously posted video by the gunman who killed four hostages in a kosher grocery store near Paris. The difference has been that while there has been an outpouring of solidarity for the French victims and pledges of international solidarity for France's stand against violent extremism, nothing similar has been forthcoming for Nigeria's fight against the growing power of Boko Haram, at least not since the ephemeral and largely ineffectual global social media phenomenon of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign last year. This is despite the fact that over the course of recent months, Boko Haram has proven itself to be as much of a threat to international peace and security as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has received so much attention. In fact, as Jamestown Foundation terrorism analyst Jacob Zenn has pointed out, Boko Haram's videos show a troubling convergence between the Nigerian militants and their ISIS counterparts not only in terms of symbolism and ideology, but also insurgency doctrine. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, for example, first expressed "support" for the ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, this past summer. Meanwhile, Boko Haram has added the jihadist black banner to its logo and the ISIS anthem to the musical repertoire on its videos. In one recent video, Shekau even seemed to declare that he is establishing his own "Islamic Caliphate" and greeted his "brothers" in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, as well as "the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria." Even more worrisome than Boko Haram's extremist ideology and gruesome terrorist acts should be the increasing military sophistication demonstrated by the Nigerian militants. Alas, while it is largely ignored by American and European leaders and only sporadically covered by major media outlets, Boko Haram has been steadily gaining ground in its war against Nigeria. As I wrote several months ago, Boko Haram has, like ISIS, clearly moved beyond one-off asymmetric attacks to sophisticated military operations resulting in the assimilation of increasingly large chunks of territory, successfully overrunning and now effectively controlling large portions of three states in northeastern Nigeria -- by some estimates, a total area larger than the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg combined. Boko Haram's territorial base has been used by the group as a staging ground for what has become a steady campaign of terrorist attacks, like the past weekend's suicide bombings, which regularly hit more than half a dozen other Nigerian states as well as neighboring countries like Niger, many of which are already under significant pressure from militants linked to al Qaeda's North African affiliate. Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou has even gone so far as to declare to the newsmagazine Jeune Afrique that "the Islamic State is at our door." By some estimates, more than 10,000 people in Nigeria alone have died as a result of Boko Haram-related violence in 2014, while more than 1.5 million others have been displaced. Just last week, the militants stormed Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, one of the last towns in the region remaining in government hands, reportedly killing more than 2,000 civilians. Moreover, the militants are showing increasingly advanced conventional military capabilities, in contrast with the demoralized Nigerian military forces they square off against. In early September, for example, the group shot down a Nigerian attack jet that was operating against it and captured the pilot, whom it later apparently beheaded, according to a video obtained by The Associated Press. What makes the threat from Boko Haram all the more significant is the political and economic context of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and the largest economy on the continent. The West African country is in the midst of a hotly contested general election, including a rematch presidential race between incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, with votes to be cast just a month from now. No doubt Boko Haram, which rejects democratic politics along with other "infidel" ideas, will take advantage of the campaign and voting process to step up attacks. It is hard to imagine how the threat could not have an impact on the vote. In Paris on Sunday, police and military forces fanned out across the French capital, meaning there was a reasonable sense of safety for marchers. In Nigeria, even if the country deployed every last soldier and policeman, it would barely be able to put one security officer at each of its polling stations. And, as if this were not bad enough, declining oil prices have slashed Nigerian government revenues, substantially diminishing the resources available to defeat the extremists in battle and win the subsequent peace with social and economic development of an area whose long-running marginalization helped give rise to the insurgency in the first place. It does, of course, go without saying that both the Nigerian political class and its military, with all their attendant pathologies, bear responsibility for the dire situation the country finds itself in. But that fact alone should not absolve the international community of its obligation (and self-interest) in helping to tackle the growing threat posed by Boko Haram -- any more than legitimate concerns about generally lackluster leadership by French President François Hollande and the French political elite's failure to deal squarely with the potential for radicalization among segments of the country's marginalized Muslim population prevented world leaders from showing their support for France in recent days. As the Roman Catholic archbishop of Jos, Nigeria, pleaded on the BBC recently, "We need that spirit to be spread around...Not just when it happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Cameroon." In the struggle against Islamist extremism and for peaceful coexistence and progress, it is time the international community recognized there is no place for a tale of two cities.

J. Peter Pham: Boko Haram makes significant territorial strides . Its attacks show growing military sophistication, he says .

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(CNN) -- When you think of GIFs, those never-ending sequences of looping motion, you're more likely to associate them with lightly humorous viral content than a respectable art form. However, their hypnotic movement has been gaining favor with the artistic community, and now one of the most high profile museums in the world, London's Saatchi Gallery, has teamed up with Google+ to explore their more reflective side. They gathered a roster of impressive judges, such as film director Baz Luhrmann, artists Shezad Dawood, Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman, and Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst, for The Motion Photography Prize, the first global competition for artists working with animated GIFs. Over 4,000 people from 52 countries entered their work, which fitted into six categories - landscape, lifestyle, action, people, night and urban. The top gong went to a Brooklyn-based creative director Christina Rinaldi, whose mesmerizing GIF of a New York City window cleaner, shown above, draws the viewers in with its almost trance-inducing repetition. Cindy Sherman, American photographer and film director, was attracted to the vibrancy of Rinaldi's work: "It almost transcends the GIF medium by turning the soapy water into brushstrokes, so it seems more like creating a painting," she explained. Rinaldi herself said that choosing motion rather than still photography was crucial to capturing the rhythm of the window cleaner at work: "I was inspired by his brush strokes and the texture of the suds," she said," I watched him as if he were a performance artist -- his work temporary and only to be witnessed within a few seconds. I quickly became enamored with his efficient rhythm. Surviving in New York City requires an elevated sense of efficiency and an innate hustle." The work of other finalists -- Kostas Agiannitis, Micaël Reynaud, Matthew Clarke, Emma Critchley and Stefanie Schneider, highlighted the diverse and creative nature of a GIF as an art form. "There is incredible potential in this technology, and many photographers are now using GIFs to create motion in their work", says Saatchi Gallery's CEO and one of the judges Nigel Hurst. "You're looking at an image that floats somewhere between a still photograph and film, it has elements of both but sometimes incorporated in an unexpected way, which makes it even more compelling," Hurst says. He added that the judging process was no different than when looking at other, more conventional, art: "What stood out for us were images which were arresting, and used the parameters of the GIF in an imaginative way." Artist and illustrator Clay Rodery, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic and on HBO, initially started creating GIFs to practice animation, but soon started making entire pieces for the format drawn by the chance to more eloquently express ideas he had inside his head. He says:" First and foremost I'm conscious of it looping. Its duration might be very short, sometimes only several frames, but in a loop there is the potential for its content to be endless." Moreover, Rodery says that GIFs helped him develop as an artist: "It most certainly has expanded the breadth of my work and its emotional impact. These days you need to work very hard to get your work to stand out, and a moving image really does wonders to get you noticed." The exhibition will be featured online on Saatchi Art, a web gallery for emerging artists. Too haute to handle - inside the world's biggest furniture fair . Korean artist creates fantasy worlds in her studio without Photoshop . Pimp my fish tank: This is the eerie, beautiful world of aquascaping .

Saatchi Gallery has teamed up with Google plus for the first GIF art award . The Motion Photography Prize went to Brooklyn artist Christina Rinaldi . Artists are increasingly looking to GIFs as bona-fide channels for self-expression .

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(CNN) -- After a multi-year odyssey marked by almost nonstop partisan bickering, CIA employees hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers, and former Bush administration officials launching a pre-emptive public counterattack against the committee's report, we finally have a summary of the CIA's use of torture. So what have we learned? The committee report confirms that six days after the 9/11 attacks, "President George W. Bush signed a covert action Memorandum of Notification (MON) to authorize the director of central intelligence (DCI) to 'undertake operations designed to capture and detain persons who pose a continuing, serious threat of violence or death to U.S. persons and interest or who are planning terrorist activities.'" That decision put the CIA on the path to revive and even expand coercive interrogation techniques it had employed during the Cold War. Some key facts we already knew were confirmed, most importantly that agency personnel violated U.S. and international law by repeatedly waterboarding several detainees, including 9/11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The summary of the report provides lurid details of "24"-like interrogation techniques, outlawed by international treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory: running power drills next to the heads of detainees, days of forced sleep deprivation and, in the words of the committee summary, "threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee, and a threat to 'cut (a detainee's) mother's throat.'" The committee report summary also confirms what many have long believed -- that the torture program produced no actionable intelligence and did not to thwart al Qaeda's global activities. The former chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center and torture program participant Jose Rodriguez continues to claim that such intelligence was obtained, and that it did in fact save lives. The available record, as laid out by the committee, amply refutes that assertion. And the committee summary could not be clearer about the actions of agency managers and attorneys in the expansion of the use of techniques that were clear violations of international law. According to the committee summary: . " ... by the end of November 2001, CIA officers had begun researching potential legal defenses for using interrogation techniques that were considered torture by foreign governments and a non-governmental organization." CIA Director George Tenet subsequently sent a letter to Bush urging that the CIA program be exempt from Geneva Convention prohibitions on the use of techniques defined by international law as torture. Whether as federal employees or political appointees, CIA personnel took an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. Instead, they chose to engage in acts that clearly violated those laws, including international treaties banning the use of torture to which the United States is not only a signatory, but a putative leader as well. The response of multiple former intelligence community insiders who authorized or supported these programs is perfectly summed up in this quote from an anonymous former official offered to the Daily Beast earlier this week: . "It goes back to the one basic thing: Whether they did right or they did wrong, they were told to do something, they did it, and they feel like they had the rug pulled out from underneath them." Indeed, those CIA attorneys and managers who signed off on waterboarding and other tactics had an affirmative obligation to refuse to authorize, much less participate in, a torture program. Now, through de facto surrogates appearing on major media outlets and operating a website attempting to rewrite the history of this dark era, participants in the torture program claim they are the victims for simply following orders. The defense of "I was just following orders" is never a winning one. The use of mass surveillance and torture are the hallmarks of totalitarian governments. The United States has employed both since the September 11, 2001, attacks on our nation. While we have yet to renounce the former, the release of this Senate Intelligence Committee torture report summary is a long-overdue first step in renouncing the latter. Let's hope it's not the last step.

Senate Intelligence Committee releases report on CIA torture . Patrick Eddington: CIA violated U.S. and international law . Mass surveillance, torture are hallmarks of totalitarian governments, he says .

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(CNN) -- From the Nintendo 3DS's ability to grab titles on demand to the increasing popularity of retail sites like Steam and Direct2Drive.com, downloadable games will be everywhere in 2011. The days when you had to visit your local store, buy a title and insert a disc into your console to play a game are long gone. Thanks to new episodic titles ("Back to the Future," "Jurassic Park"), popular indie PC games ("Minecraft," "Recettear") and a growing range of smartphone apps and console-exclusive downloads, digital game distribution continues to grow. Whether you're playing on your PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 or mobile handset, here are five new and upcoming titles that exemplify the expanding breadth of what online game downloads have to offer. "X-Men Arcade" (PlayStation Network/Xbox Live Arcade) Revisit your misspent adolescence with a conversion of the popular side-scrolling 1992 arcade brawler starring Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and other comic book favorites -- before they became movie icons. High-definition multiplayer cartoon action for up to six players takes top billing, as you use fists, laser beams and super powers to bludgeon Magneto's crew of villains, including Juggernaut, Pyro and The Blob. "Gemini Rue" (Wadjet Eye Games) A sci-fi point-and-click adventure set in a dystopian future that's drawn comparison to genre classics like "Beneath a Steel Sky," this retro-futuristic, film noir-flavored tale harkens back to PC gaming's early '90s heyday. It's available February 24, and anyone who owned an Amiga or IBM-compatible should appreciate its nostalgic pixel graphics and "Blade Runner"-style vibe. "Full House Poker" (Xbox Live Arcade) Arriving on the heels of interactive game show "1 vs. 100" comes Microsoft's next multiplayer social gaming experiment, which makes online poker tournaments possible for up to 30 players. Texas Hold 'Em showdowns, staffed by avatars, can be played for virtual chips, with hidden surprises -- including new tables, decks and outfits to unlock -- and the ability to compete against professional players. "MotoHeroz" (WiiWare, RedLynx) Following upon the success of popular speedster "Trials HD," developer RedLynx hopes to bridge the gap between side-scrolling platform hoppers and arcade racing with this candy-colored interactive rally for up to four players. Offbeat physics set the stage as you compete on more than 100 levels, with daily competitions, online leader boards and, oddly enough, single-player story options. These should provide a ready excuse to put pedal to the metal. "Bionic Commando Rearmed 2" (PlayStation Network/Xbox Live Arcade) This game picks up where the last downloadable mix of combat and grappling arm-powered action (and 1988 NES game) left off, adding a jump button, items to equip (love the grenade launcher!) and enhanced graphics. With puzzles to solve and bosses to battle, it should provide old-school fun for anyone who's ever dreamed of playing a disgruntled cyborg.

Digital game distribution continues to grow, thanks to new titles and smartphone apps . "Gemini Rue" is a sci-fi point-and-click adventure set in a dystopian future . With its bosses to battle and its puzzles, "Bionic Commando Rearmed 2" is old-school fun .

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(CNN) -- UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Lazio over allegations a section of their supporters chanted racial abuse at Tottenham players in the Europa League on Thursday. Aaron Lennon, Jermain Defoe and Andros Townsend appeared to be subjected to racist abuse -- including monkey chants -- during the goalless draw at White Hart Lane, a game that was watched by UEFA president Michel Platini. Members of Football Against Racism in Football (FARE) who were at White Hart Lane plan to file reports to UEFA to assist with their investigation. Romanian referee Ovidiu Alin Hategan and match delegate Adonis Procopiu have already submitted their reports of the match's events. Tottenham held by Lazio in Europa League . "UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against S.S. Lazio for the improper conduct of the club's supporters (racist behavior) during the UEFA Europa League group stage match on Thursday 20 September between Tottenham Hotspur FC and the Italian side," read a UEFA statement. "The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body will deal with the case on 18 October 2012." Lazio could be hit with a fine of $26,000 if their fans are found guilty of racial abuse, while UEFA could also force the club to play their next game behind closed doors. Racism remains "significant" problem in English football . Earlier this week Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel had to close his Twitter account after receiving racist abuse online. Chelsea issued a statement condemning those responsible and has informed the police following the matter. The statement read: "We've been made aware of racist tweets targeted at Mikel which are totally unacceptable, disgusting and abhorrent. "We've informed the police and support taking the strongest possible action." This season UEFA has fined Bulgarian side Levski Sofia $39,000 for racist behaviour by their fans during the club's Europa League second qualifying round match. Levski fans unveiled a racist banner during their game against Bosnia & Herzegovina's Sarajevo on July 19. "Fans should realise that the club is responsible for all of their extreme or irrational actions," Levski said in a statement. Meanwhile on Thursday, two AIK Solna supporters suffered stab wounds while in Naples for their side's Europa League game against Napoli. A 41-year-old and a 23-year-old were both wounded in the leg, but the club do not believe the attack was football related.

UEFA has opened disciplinary action against Lazio . Move comes following Lazio's goalless draw at Tottenham . Italian club could be hit with $42,000 fine . Bulgarian side Levski Sofia hit with $39,000 fine .

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Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- A wind shift could push more oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon gusher into the Mississippi Delta and areas west of the river, which is "bad news for Louisiana," Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday afternoon. Louisiana has been mostly spared since the oil rig exploded April 20 and sank two days later about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southeast coast of Louisiana. The catastrophe is sending 210,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico each day. Most of the slick has been centered in an area east of the environmentally sensitive delta. "We've said all along that the oil coming west of the river would pose a whole new set of challenges," Jindal said at a news conference. He detailed efforts to place booms and other restraining devices into four passes near Grand Isle to prevent the oil from reaching land. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters had warned over the weekend that the Mississippi Delta and areas to the northeast of it, including Breton Sound, Chandeleur Islands and the mainland behind them, could see oil hit the coast by Tuesday. Further east, scientists were analyzing tar balls found on a beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama, to determine whether they were caused by the oil spill, Coast Guard spokesman Erik Swanson said. The tar balls are "pieces of emulsified oil" shaped like pancakes, ranging in size from dimes to golf balls, Swanson said, adding they can sometimes occur naturally. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry confirmed the presence of tar balls in some areas, but said they were "easy to clean up." She said booms were being moved toward Grand Isle in anticipation of oil reaching the area soon. In addition to the use of dispersants on the surface and controlled burns, weather allowing, officials were carrying out a third test of sub-sea dispersants to determine their impact, said Landry. She said officials were trying to do in a few weeks what normally would take a few years. So far, the spill has had little impact on wildlife, said Mark J. Musaus, deputy director of the southeast region for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Only a few birds have been taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center at Fort Jackson, Louisiana, he said. Two of them, a gannet and a pelican, were released Monday back into the wild. Another oiled pelican was still in the treatment center, as was a green heron, he said. The stakes are high for residents of coastal Louisiana who make their living from fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The government has closed parts of the Gulf to fishing. The affected area, which is east of the Mississippi Delta, comprises about 4.5 percent of the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA said. Hundreds of thousands of feet of boom and large volumes of dispersants continued to be deployed in an effort to capture or break up the spilled oil moving toward the Gulf coastline. Thousands of workers and volunteers also have been skimming the water's surface. A BP executive said Monday the energy company is working "parallel paths" to fix the oil well. The failure over the weekend of a four-story dome to cap the leak has led BP to move on to other options, including the use of a smaller chamber over the leak and shooting garbage into the gaping hole to try to plug the gusher, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production. The company also is considering placing a valve or a new blowout preventer on top of the existing one, which is not functioning as well as it should, Suttles told CNN's "American Morning" program. As the name suggests, a blowout preventer is a device that is supposed to clamp shut over a leaking wellhead. David Nagel, executive vice president of BP America, said the blowout preventer may be working better than some people believe, limiting the gusher to 5,000 barrels of oil a day. "We have a blowout preventer that we think is mostly shut," Nagel said in an off-camera briefing with reporters Monday in Washington, adding that the situation seems to be stable. He said remote-control inspection machines had not been able to check how the blowout assembly was working but "something is constraining the leak" from what would have been a flow estimated between 40,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. Suttles said BP is drilling a relief well to try to divert the flow to another pipe. "What we're going to do is keep developing options until we get this flow stopped," Suttles said. "That started about a week ago," Suttles said. "That work continues. The well is at about 9,000 feet. "About 5,000 feet of that is the water depth. Then the rest is drilling below the seafloor. We're slightly ahead of plan here. These are complex tasks, but we're making very good process." It may take up to three months to reach the target area, Nagel said. And progress will slow the deeper the drill bit goes, he said. "The rock gets harder, and every time you have to replace a worn-out drill bit, it takes more time to withdraw and stack the drill pipe," in 90-foot sections on the construction vessel to change the bit, re-assemble the sections and lower the drill pipe back into action, said Nagel. On Friday, BP lowered the massive containment vessel over the well to cap the larger of two leak points. But that plan was thwarted Saturday after ice-like hydrate crystals formed when gas combined with water blocked the top of the dome and made it buoyant. BP has built the smaller dome and it is already available, Suttles said Monday. That device would keep most of the water out at the beginning of the capping process and would allow engineers to pump in methanol to keep the hydrates from forming, Suttles said. Methanol is a simple alcohol that can be used as an antifreeze. Called "Tophat," the 5-foot-tall, 4-foot-diameter structure weighs less than two tons. The structure is to be deployed this week by the drill ship Enterprise, to which it is to be connected by two strings of pipe -- one inside the other with a space in between for hot water, he said. The process of stopping the gusher with garbage is called a "junk shot." Under that procedure, debris such as shredded tires, golf balls and similar objects would be shot under extremely high pressure into the blowout preventer in an attempt to clog it and stop the leak. That procedure would be done late next week, Suttles said Monday. Federal investigators are still trying to determine what caused the explosion that sunk the Deepwater Horizon, which was owned by BP contractor Transocean Ltd. BP is legally required to cover economic damages from the spill up to $75 million. But Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has introduced legislation that would raise the liability cap to $10 billion. "If this gusher continues for several months, it's going to cover up the Gulf Coast and it's going to get down into the loop current and that's going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida, and you are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training," Nelson said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." BP has received 3,400 claims for lost income and damages and 295 of those claims have been paid, at a price of $3.5 million, Nagel said. "It's a host of things," he said, "The immediate loss of income is being handled very quickly." None of the payouts are for liability, but Nagel stressed "the interim plans are in no way meant to be final." Also Monday, organizers announced a "Gulf Aid" benefit concert for south Louisiana fishermen and wetlands restoration. The concert, to be held Sunday, is slated to feature Lenny Kravitz, Allen Toussaint, Mos Def and the Voice of the Wetlands Allstars featuring Dr. John, Cyril Neville and Tab Benoit. CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.

Louisiana has been mostly spared since oil rig exploded and sank off southeast coast . BP hit with 3,400 claims for lost income and damages; 295 paid, to tune of $3.5 million . Concert Sunday to benefit south Louisiana fishermen and wetlands restoration .

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(CNN) -- An estimated 13,000 Congolese civilians threatened by fierce fighting and gruesome attacks have fled to neighboring Uganda over the past two days and more are expected, the United Nations' refugee agency said in a news release Thursday. Congolese Anosiate Nyirahabineza holds her son Jeremiah in Kampala, Uganda, in June. The agency said the people fled from villages in the besieged province of North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting between rebels and government troops has prompted the displacement of 250,000 people since August. The staff of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the southwestern Uganda town of Ishasha said the people crossed into Uganda from Congo's Rutshuru district. Since August, about 27,000 civilians have escaped to Uganda, which now hosts more than 150,000 refugees from countries in the region. The U.N. agency said the latest refugees are reporting many attacks and atrocities. It quoted a 25-year-old named Daudi, who said, "The assailants killed everybody in my village. They took the young boys with them and killed all the rest of the population. It's a miracle that my wife and I managed to escape." He said one of his two children was separated from the family and it is not known where he is. Another villager said rebels who attacked his village "killed all the women, even pregnant women," the U.N. agency said.

13,000 Congolese have fled into Uganda in past two days, U.N. says . Refugees report massacres, atrocities in their villages by rebels . Neighboring Uganda now hosts some 150,000 refugees from countries in the region .

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(CNN) -- President Barack Obama appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, talking about the "fiscal cliff" negotiations and priorities for his administration in his second term. The president told host David Gregory that he was optimistic something will be worked out to keep tax rates from rising on Tuesday -- but if not, his first piece of legislation for the next Congress will be a bill to reduce tax rates on most Americans. Obama slams GOP 'priority' as fiscal cliff hours away . The president also spoke about his second term and what he wants to accomplish. Here are highlights of what he said: . Gun control after the Newtown killings . "Something fundamental in America has to change," said Obama, who visited on December 16 with families of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings. The president said Sunday he will put forth a proposal next year to change firearm laws. Among the things the legislation will address are assault-style rifles, high-capacity ammunition magazines and background checks on all firearm sales. His comments echoed those made five days after the shootings in Newtown, where a gunman killed his mother at home, then 20 children and six adults at an elementary school. Obama said he hopes that the Newtown killings spur Americans to take action and not let the shootings feel like "one of those routine episodes," the emotions of which fade with memory. ""It certainly won't feel like that to me. This is something that, you know, that was the worst day of my presidency," he said. The president said he wanted to listen to all the parties involved in the gun control debate but was skeptical about the National Rifle Association's call to put armed guards in every school as the only solution. Obama said December 19 that a task force led by Vice President Joe Biden will have legislative recommendations in January. Benghazi attack . Obama said the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were "severe," but he blamed human mistakes. "There was just some sloppiness -- not intentional -- in terms of how we secure embassies in areas where you essentially don't have governments that have a lot of capacity to protect those embassies," he said. The State Department will implement all of the 29 recommendations by a review board headed by veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering. The FBI also has some "very good leads" into who carried out the September attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others, Obama said. Among the recommendations in the report sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were strengthening security, adding fire-safety precautions and improving intelligence collection in high-threat areas. "But we'll try to do more than that," Obama said. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice . The president said verbal attacks on Rice for her comments on the Benghazi investigation were "puzzling." "Of all the people in my national security team, she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi," he said. Rice said on Sunday news programs in the days following the attack that it was the result of a protest against an online anti-Islam film. She was heavily criticized for those statements, to the point that she withdrew her name from consideration as the next secretary of state to avoid what she called a "lengthy, disruptive, and costly" confirmation process. Critics said Rice's comments were out of line with the true intelligence about the incident and were an attempt by the administration to avoid tying it to terrorism. "Most Americans recognize that these were largely politically motivated attacks as opposed to being justified," Obama said. Next secretary of defense . He has yet to make a decision as to who to nominate for secretary of defense, Obama said. Sources have said they think the president will pick Chuck Hagel, a Republican, who has met with controversy since his name has been connected with the position. Gay rights groups, which were strong supporters of Obama's election campaigns, have hit Hagel for questioning in 1998 whether a nominee for an ambassadorship was suitable because he was "openly, aggressively gay." Obama, without calling Hagel his preferred candidate for the job, said: "I've served with Chuck Hagel (in the U.S. Senate). I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work." Hagel has apologized for those comments, Obama said. He added that he didn't see anything in Hagel's political record that disqualified him as a potential nominee. Hagel currently is the co-chairman of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board. Leon Panetta, who has been secretary of defense since July 2011, has indicated he wants to return to private life next year. Four issues for the next term . When asked about his priorities for the next four years, Obama listed immigration, the economy, energy and debt reduction. He will introduce legislation to fix a broken immigration system in 2013, he said. "We have talked about it long enough," He said. "We know how we can fix it." Obama also wants to fix America's infrastructure. "If we are putting people back to work, rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our schools, in part paid for by some of these broader long-term deficit reduction measures that need to take place, that will grow our economy," he said . And he wants to increase further the amount of energy, especially green energy, that America produces. "We are producing more energy and America can become an energy exporter. (The question is) how do we do that in a way that also deals with the environmental challenges that we also have at the same time," Obama said. But the most pressing quandary is the fiscal cliff. "It is going to be very hard for the economy to sustain its current growth trends if suddenly we have a huge bite taken of the average American's paycheck," he said.

President speaks to NBC for nearly 30 minutes . Interview covers subjects like taxes, security at foreign embassies, gun control . Obama plans to introduce immigration legislation in next year . He thinks Chuck Hagel would be qualified to be next secretary of defense .

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(CNN) -- Miles away from the somber ceremony on a tarmac where coffins containing the remains of victims of Flight MH17 were returned, dozens of forensic scientists at a military base in the Netherlands were preparing for the grim task of identifying the remains. In all, 298 passengers and crew -- among them dozens of children -- were killed when the packed Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 they were on crashed in eastern Ukraine last Thursday. All of the bodies and body parts recovered from the crash site will eventually be brought to Hilversum, Netherlands, where a team of experts from the Dutch national forensics unit (Landelijk Team Forensische Opsporing) will do everything they can to return the dead to their loved ones. "You don't know which nationality each body is," explains Jos van Roo of LTFO. "So we try to identify all the bodies. We are in contact with the other countries to combine efforts to identify the bodies." The LTFO has experience of other mass disasters, having worked on the 2004 Asian tsunami, the crash of Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 in Libya in 2010 and other incidents in the Netherlands. Van Roo says great care has and will continue to be taken over the bodies, out of respect for the victims and to avoid any further distress to their families. Forensics specialist: 'It must be very precise' It is painstaking work, van Roo says: "There are lot of bodies and body parts coming our way. [Everything] must be examined. ... It must be very precise. You must make sure you don't give the wrong body to the wrong family." The team's work began days ago on the Ukrainian field near the Russian border where MH17's journey from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur came to a premature end. Forensic genetics expert Denise Syndercombe-Court of King's College London says some identifications will be relatively simple. "It sounds as if they have perhaps 200 body bags with identifiable bodies or parts of bodies in," she says. "And while they have been at the site for some time, I would expect that it will be possible to get good DNA profiles from most of those." In some cases, working out who is who may be even easier than that -- if a victim has a distinctive scar or clothing, or even a wallet or passport in a pocket. Dental records can also be used to identify those who are not immediately recognizable. If DNA is needed, it is usually taken from an area of deep muscle. Mitochondrial DNA may also be used. In both cases, the experts will then need to compare the DNA taken from the victim with a relative. Search for DNA matches . But Syndercombe-Court says the fact so many families died on Flight MH17 may complicate the process. "Where you have lots of family members traveling together, you may have to rely on DNA matches to more distant relatives," she explains. "Once you get beyond the immediate family, beyond grandparents or aunts and uncles, it becomes more difficult." In those cases, scientists may have to rely on alternative comparisons, matching DNA from the remains to that found on toothbrushes or clothing owned by the dead person. Van Roo says work has already begun to collect details and DNA matches for those on board the plane, with dozens of detectives interviewing family members. "We have been working with the families of the victims. From them, we ask [for] a description of the victim, and we take DNA, look at the dental records and take fingerprints," he told CNN, adding that the process of talking to relatives can take a long time. "You try to get as much information during your first visit. You don't want to forget some questions. It is very painful to have to get back to families to ask [more] questions." "Every bit of information you get from a relative needs to be collected very carefully. Also you need to take records from the bodies. It is a delicate procedure for example, [to] take dental records or DNA." Syndercombe-Court helped to identify the victims of Yemenia Flight 626, which crashed into the Indian Ocean on its way from Yemen to Comoros in 2009, leaving 152 dead. She says not every victim will be easy to put a name to: Cases where the force of a blast or fire have damaged the remains can be complex. And she says that while experts do have the passenger manifest, some cases may never be fully resolved. But she hopes knowing, at least, that everything possible has been done, and that the remains were handled with great care will offer some solace. "The longer it goes on, the more difficult it can be. ... If someone is not found, or a body part is never identified, but it is dealt with in a sensitive way, the families know someone has gone to the effort, someone has tried their best." For the experts at Hilversum, the next weeks and months will be busy and difficult. Van Roo says the work can be emotional, but everyone is united by their common aim. "We have the drive to give the bodies back to the families," he says. "Every case is unique, [but] you want to get the victim back. The drive stays the same." Syndercombe-Court agrees: "It's a tough job, but a good job. "It is always grim, but we do it with the knowledge that we are helping someone else: The family want to be able to put it to bed, and we want to give them some peace." MH17 tributes in Moscow: 'Forgive us' Mother regrets hot heeding son's fears . CNN's Erin McLaughlin and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.

The remains of victims of Flight MH17 have been flown back to the Netherlands . Dozens of bodies collected from the crash site have been taken to Kharkiv in the Ukraine . Dutch experts will use DNA, dental records and fingerprints to identify the victims . The identification process can be lengthy but is aimed at giving families closure .

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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration said Friday its officers at a Texas airport appear to have properly followed procedures when they allegedly forced a woman to remove her nipple rings -- one with pliers -- but acknowledged the procedures should be changed. The woman involved -- Mandi Hamlin -- told reporters earlier Friday she was humiliated by last month's incident, in which she was forced to painfully remove the piercings behind a curtain as she heard snickers from male TSA officers nearby. The incident occurred at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. The officers "rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved," the TSA said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday afternoon. "TSA supports the thoroughness of the officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day." However, "TSA has reviewed the procedures themselves and agrees that they need to be changed," the statement said. "In the future, TSA will inform passengers that they have the option to resolve the alarm through a visual inspection of the article in lieu of removing the item in question." Hamlin and her lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, said they want a public apology from the agency, as well as a guarantee that future passengers with piercings will be treated with dignity and respect. Allred pointed out that TSA's Web site says passengers with piercings can undergo a pat-down inspection if they do not want to take their piercings out -- an option she said Hamlin was never offered. "The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred told reporters at a news conference. "Last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon." She said if an apology was not forthcoming, "Mandi is going to have to consider her legal options." Attempts by CNN to reach Allred for a response to the TSA statement Friday afternoon were unsuccessful. TSA said in its statement it acknowledges "that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets (the) situation in which she found herself. We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again." The incident occurred February 24 as Hamlin, 37, was preparing to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth from Lubbock, where she had been visiting her elderly great-uncle. Hamlin said she also has navel and ear piercings and has never set off a metal detector or been singled out for additional screening at an airport. She did not set off the metal detector at Lubbock International Airport, but was pulled to the side for additional screening, Allred said. A hand wand used by a TSA officer beeped when it was waved over her breasts. Hamlin told the officer she had nipple piercings, Allred said, and that officer called over another officer, who told her she would need to remove them. "Ms. Hamlin did not want to remove her nipple piercings," Allred said, reading from a letter she sent TSA. "After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove. In addition, once removed, the pierced skin may close up almost immediately, making it difficult and painful to reinsert the piercing." More officers were called over, and the group grew to four male and two female TSA officers, according to Hamlin. Also, a small crowd of onlookers had started to gather. The officers insisted that Hamlin remove the nipple rings, Allred said. "She felt humiliated by the scene that the TSA officers were making," Allred said. "With tears streaming down her face, she again asked to show the piercings to a TSA officer instead of having to remove them. She was told, however, she would not be allowed to fly unless she removed them. Had she been told that she had a right to a pat-down, she would have chosen that option." She eventually was taken to a private area behind a curtain to remove the piercings, Allred said. One came out easily, but the other would not, and she called to an officer that she was having trouble and would need pliers. She was handed a large pair, Allred said. "As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing, behind the curtain she could hear a growing number of predominately male TSA officers snickering in the background," Allred said in the letter. "Mandi Hamlin was publicly humiliated. ... Clearly, this is not how passengers should be treated." Watch the passenger demonstrate removing the jewelry » . Afterward, Hamlin underwent another scan, but realized she had forgotten to remove her navel ring. She offered to remove it, Allred said, but an officer told her it was not necessary because he could see it. Hamlin wondered why a similar visual inspection of her nipple rings would not have sufficed, Allred said. "I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Hamlin told reporters. "I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated and scared. No one deserves to go through this." In a statement earlier Friday, the TSA said it "is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body. Therefore, we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm that we discover." TSA included in its statement a picture of a prototype training device it will use to simulate a "bra bomb" in training and testing its officers. Hamlin said she had to visit the person who originally pierced her nipples to get the rings reinserted, and said the process was excruciatingly painful because of the scar tissue that had formed. "People who are pierced should not be snickered at, should not become the object of ridicule, should not be singled out for special and uneven and unequal treatment," Allred said. "They should be respected just like everybody else." She said she had received a call from TSA's public affairs office Friday morning. "We hope that means they're going to jump on this and do something about it," she said. "We want TSA to do the right thing now. We're going to give them the opportunity." Hamlin said she will continue to fly but will avoid the Lubbock airport. The next time she visits her great-uncle, she said, "I will be driving." E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.

NEW: TSA backs officers who made passenger remove nipple rings . NEW: Agency acknowledges that procedures need to be changed . Agent using handheld metal detector at Lubbock airport found piercings . Woman says she heard male agents snicker as she removed rings .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican presidential front-runner Sen. John McCain on Thursday defended his statement that U.S. troops could spend "maybe 100" years in Iraq -- saying he was referring to a military presence similar to what the nation already has in places like Japan, Germany and South Korea. Sen. John McCain defends his stance on troops in Iraq Thursday on CNN's "Larry King Live." This week, Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama both took McCain to task for the comments, saying that if he's elected he would continue what they call President Bush's failed policies in Iraq. "It's not a matter of how long we're in Iraq, it's if we succeed or not," McCain said to CNN's Larry King. "And both Sen. Obama and Clinton want to set a date for withdrawal -- that means chaos, that means genocide, that means undoing all the success we've achieved and al Qaeda tells the world they defeated the United States of America. "I won't let that happen." Last month, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, a crowd member asked McCain about a Bush statement that troops could stay in Iraq for 50 years. "Maybe 100," McCain replied. "As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it's fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day." The remaining Democratic contenders for the White House seized on the statement. Watch McCain talk about Mitt Romney's endorsement and his critics on the right » . "He said recently he could see having troops in Iraq for 100 years," Clinton said at an Arlington, Virginia, rally last week in a line she's repeated on the campaign trail. "Well, I want them home within 60 days of my becoming president of the United States." Obama took a similar tack. "Sen. McCain said the other day that we might be mired for 100 years in Iraq -- which is reason enough not to give him four years in the White House," Obama has said on several occasions. McCain told King he thinks opponents are taking the quote out of context. He said any long-term troop presence in Iraq would depend on agreement from the Iraqi government. "If they don't want to and we don't feel a need to do so, obviously, the whole thing is keyed to Americans being able to withdraw and come home with honor, not in defeat," he said. McCain was endorsed Thursday by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, once considered his fiercest rival for the GOP nomination. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee remains in the race, although McCain has an overwhelming advantage in the number of delegates earned for this year's Republican convention. E-mail to a friend .

McCain: referred to a military presence like U.S. has in Japan, Germany, South Korea . "It's not a matter of how long we're in Iraq, it's if we succeed or not," McCain said . Sen. Hillary Clinton: "I want them home within 60 days of my becoming president"

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(CNN) -- Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed. He was 50. He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center. As news of his death spread, stunned fans began to react and remember one of the most remarkable careers in music.

Video shows ambulance rushing the pop star to the hospital . Crowds gather at the hospital where Jackson was rushed . A.J. Hammer: This "is big as it gets"; Rev. Al Sharpton: He was "a trailblazer" Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. says he's "numbed and shocked" at the news .

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(CNN) -- The small, World War II-era plane that crashed Friday during a Reno, Nevada, air race was equipped with data and video recording devices that investigators hope to use to help determine what happened and why. Seven people, including the pilot, were killed when the plane crashed into spectators at the race, with two others later dying at area hospitals. Close to 70 people were injured. National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind on Sunday described this realization, as well as the discovery of information and pieces that may have come from the devices, as "significant new information." It was also not entirely expected, given the size and nature of the P-51 aircraft. "I'm not aware of a lot of aircraft having it, this is the first one I came across," said Howard Plagens, who is the NTSB official heading the investigation. Plagens was referring to a "box" that recorded key variables such as altitude, latitude and oil pressure. In addition, there was an outward-facing video camera on the plane, according to Rosekind. Several memory cards have been found at the wreckage site that may have come from either device, and will be sent to the NTSB laboratory in Washington, D.C., for a full analysis, Rosekind said. They may belong to some of the 200,000 spectators then at the annual National Championship Air Races and Air Show. Investigators do have a copy of the "box" data, since it was sent in real time by telemetry to sources outside the aircraft. Besides the cards, Rosekind said parts of a plane's tail, an "elevator trim tab" and video camera fragments have been found. "There were thousands of pieces of debris," Plagens said, explaining how the site had been laid out in a grid system to help organize the probe. As with the memory cards, one of the authorities' first goals will be to determine if these came from the plane being piloted by 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward. Countering earlier reports, Rosekind said on Sunday that Leeward did not send a "Mayday call," indicating he was in distress. Investigators have repeatedly stated that it is not now known why the aircraft nosedived. Some speculation has surrounded the elevator trim tab -- which was breaking apart prior to the crash, a photograph shows. Besides the plane's trim tab, parts of a tail, the memory cards and already known plane data, investigators also will pore over "a tremendous (amount of) video that was captured" at the scene, according to Rosekind. While a preliminary report will be available Friday, Rosekind has said the full investigation could take six to nine months. "It's not just what happened, it's why it happened," he said Sunday. "(We're) trying to make sure this doesn't happen again." Meanwhile, the crash's toll became clearer Sunday as more of those killed were identified. Besides Leeward, the dead include Michael Joseph Wogan, a 22-year-old from Phoenix who was attending the event with his father as part of a father-and-son vacation, his family said in a statement. His father, William, was "seriously injured," the statement said. Wogan was diagnosed at an early age with muscular dystrophy, and was wheelchair-bound his entire life. However, his 19-year-old brother James Wogan said in the family statement, "He was about moving past that and always driven toward independence. Michael liked to get out and travel, and he was so excited about getting on a plane as part of this trip." Michael Wogan graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University with a finance degree in May, his family said. He had operated a web development company and was in the process of developing a second business. Memorial service details were pending, the statement said. Also identified Sunday were George and Wendy Hewitt, members of Cascade EAA Warbirds Squadron 2. The Hewitts were killed when the plane crashed into the seating area, said R.D. Williams, a spokesman for the squadron. According to its website, the squadron aims to "promote and encourage the preservation and operation of World War II and other such aircraft that are representative of military aviation operations" along with educating people on safely operating and maintaining such aircraft. The plane that crashed Friday -- dubbed the "Galloping Ghost" -- was one such plane dating from that era. Several witnesses have portrayed Leeward -- a real estate developer from Ocala, Florida -- as a hero because he appeared to manuever the plane away from the crowded grandstands at the last moment. He went down around 4:15 p.m. PT Friday while taking part in a qualifying round in the "unlimited class" division of the air race, said Mike Draper, the show spokesman. The final rounds, which had been slated for the weekend, were cancelled. "This is the first time in 40 years, I think, that we've had a visitor injured or killed," Reno Mayor Bob Cashell told reporters Saturday. "We've lost some pilots, but we've never had a major catastrophe." One local hospital, Renown Medical Center, received 34 patients, four of whom were in critical condition as of Sunday afternoon. Two patients -- a male and a female -- died, the hospital said Friday. Dr. Mike Morkin, the medical director of emergency services at the hospital, was on duty when the call about the crash came in Friday. "The severity of this accident was the worst I've seen since I've been at Renown," Morkin, a 16-year veteran at the hospital, said. Renown South Meadows Medical Center received and discharged five patients, the hospital said Saturday. St. Mary's Hospital in Reno said it had accepted 28 patients from the accident: As of Sunday afternoon, two were in critical condition and six in serious condition. The remainder have been released. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.

NEW: The downed plane had video and data recording devices, a NTSB official says . NEW: Some of the data was transmitted, and several memory cards have been found . NEW: The pilot did not send a "Mayday" call, as had previously been reported . More of the 9 people killed in Friday's crash were identified Sunday .

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(CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo has urged his Real Madrid teammates to carry their recent impressive form into the New Year after they cut Barcelona's lead at the top of Spain's La Liga to two points. The Portugal international scored a spectacular goal as Real kept the pressure up on defending champions Barca with an emphatic 6-0 victory over Real Zaragoza. But Ronaldo does not want his colleagues to take their foot of the gas and keep the pressure on the Catalan side, who won the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, when the season resumes again on January 2 after the winter break. "It was important to seal the year with a victory, so we are happy about that. We must all now think of the New Year, which we should start as well as we've ended this one," Ronaldo told the club's Web site. "I'm working well and I want to carry on this way until the end of the season. I'm doing better every day. I missed two months and coming back was difficult, but things are working out for me." Real coach Manuel Pellegrini also paid tribute to Barcelona for an amazing 12 months in which they added the Club World Cup trophy to victory in La Liga, the Copa del Rey, Champions League and European and Spanish Super Cup titles. "What Barcelona have achieved is a great feat and hard to emulate. But there is also great merit in just being two points behind them on the table," he said. "We've played well away from home against the teams that earned the most points last year. Barcelona's excellent performances add to our own merit." Meanwhile, Hugo Sanchez become the fourth La Liga manager to lose his job his season after he was sacked by Almeria following their 2-0 away defeat to Espanyol which left them a point above the relegation zone. Almeria had lost eight of their 15 games in La Liga this season and the Mexican has been replaced by Constantin Galca, the coach of Almeria's B team, on a temporary basis.

Cristiano Ronaldo has urged his Real Madrid teammates to carry their recent impressive form into the New Year . Real Madrid cut the lead of defending champions Barcelona to two points after a 6-0 thrashing of Real Zaragoza. Coach Manuel Pellegrini also paid tribute to Barcelona's amazing 12 months following their victory in the Club World Cup .

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(CNN) -- More than 2,000 lives lost. A vast and unfolding humanitarian crisis. And the downing of a civilian airliner that shocked the world. It's hard to imagine -- but true -- that the raging conflict between Ukraine and Russia, or at least Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels, all started with a humble trade agreement. As tensions run high over a Russian aid convoy described by Western leaders as a provocative incursion, reports of direct Russian military activity inside Ukraine and Ukrainian fears of an outright invasion, it's time to look back on how we got here, and where things are headed: . How it started . While the roots of the crisis run quite deep, what's happening now began to unfold in earnest in the fall of 2013. That's when then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych scuttled a trade deal with the European Union that would have pulled the country, so recently a satellite of the Soviet Union, toward Europe in the latest twirl of a dance that has lasted centuries. Instead, Yanukovych jumped at Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to buy $15 billion in debt from his cash-strapped government and cut the price of vital natural gas to the country. Yanukovych's decision set off protests in Ukraine's more Europe-leaning west calling for the government's ouster. Security forces responded harshly, beating protesters and firing live ammunition into demonstrations, resulting in several deaths. As clashes spread, so did international anger over the situation. By late February, Yanukovych had fled to Russia, the government had fallen and a new pro-Europe government had formed to replace it. That, in turn, set off pro-Russian demonstrations in Crimea, a semi-autonomous Ukrainian republic and the location of a major Russian navy base. After thousands of Russian troops filtered into the territory -- purportedly at the invitation of Ukraine's self-exiled president -- Ukraine's regional parliament called a referendum on secession, and before you could say "borscht," Crimea was part of Russia. And it's here that things turned even uglier. Pro-Russian fighters occupied government buildings in the country's east, demanding a referendum on independence. Before long, rebel forces -- believed to be supported by Russia -- had taken control of major cities in Ukraine's east. Fighting broke out between the rebel groups and Ukraine's military, fighting that continues today. In a major and likely inadvertent escalation in July, a suspected surface-to-air missile believed to have been operated by pro-Russian rebels shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 people aboard and hardening Western opinion, particularly in Europe, against Russia. What's happening now . Ukraine's military has been on the offensive recently against the pro-Russian forces, but those successes seem to have slowed. Russian troops remain camped along the Ukrainian border, Western leaders say. And Ukrainian officials said Tuesday that they had detained 10 Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, further evidence, Kiev says, of direct Russian involvement in the conflict. Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis sure only to get worse unless something is done to stem the fighting. What's next . A full-scale invasion is unlikely. While Putin's approval rating among Russians is sky-high, recent polling shows the Russian people aren't wild about an out-and-out invasion of Ukraine, said Robert D. Kaplan, the chief geopolitical analyst for Stratfor. "He may be a dictator, but dictators care about public opinion as much as democrats," he said. But any talk of peace from Putin is likely a stalling tactic. Putin is buying time so that he can continue slipping arms and aid to help rebels recover from their recent losses, said Heather Conley, senior vice president of Europe and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "His best option is to have a permanent frozen conflict," she said. Fall and winter will slow the fighting. Kaplan said the colder seasons in Ukraine mean mud and mud means a slower tempo for military operations. Just don't expect total silence, he says -- there will still be fighting. Moscow will try to squeeze Ukraine. Putin will slow the flow of crucial natural gas and goods into Ukraine, putting further pressure on Kiev's economy and war-fighting ability. "The Russians will try everything to weaken the regime in Kiev," Kaplan said. The West has some soul-searching to do. Sanctions applied by the United States and Europe against Russia have so far only played into Putin's playbook, enhancing the image of an aggrieved Russia trying to shake off its detractors, Conley said. Putin's strategy of assembling a larger Russian empire has significant ramifications for Estonia and Latvia, Conley said, raising questions about just what the West will do to stop Russia if Putin chooses to further extend his reach. And what will it take to end this? Ukraine is a linchpin of Putin's plans for Russia, whether it's reassembling a historical empire or shoring up the Russian economy, Conley says. So whatever happens must support that. Kaplan says Putin can't pull back without gaining assurances that Ukraine will never become part of NATO. Ukraine, he said, needs assurances about its sovereignty and energy security.

The Ukraine conflict started with a dispute over a trade deal . That ballooned into protests, then Russia stepped in . Looking forward, an outright invasion seems unlikely, analysts say . It won't be easy to unravel the complex political and economic forces tugging at Ukraine .

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NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- An FBI analyst and former vice presidential aide was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for espionage after he admitted supplying classified documents to Philippine nationals in an effort to overthrow that country's government, federal prosecutors said. Leandro Aragoncillo, 48, a former U.S. Marine and Philippine native who worked as a military aide to Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney before joining the FBI as a civilian employee, pleaded guilty to four charges of espionage in May 2006. The plea deal spared Aragoncillo from facing the death penalty, prosecutors said. In a sentencing hearing Wednesday morning, U.S. District Judge William H. Walls sentenced Aragoncillo to 10 years in prison for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In addition, he fined Aragoncillo $40,000. Aragoncillo could have been sentenced to up to 20 years for participation in a conspiracy to transmit national defense information, prosecutors said. U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, in a news release issued Wednesday, accused Aragoncillo of "betraying his Marine uniform, his adopted country and the trust bestowed on him as an FBI analyst." Michael Ray Aquino, a co-conspirator, was sentenced by Walls on Tuesday to six years in prison. Aquino, 41, is a former Philippine national police officer who pleaded guilty in July 2006 to taking classified documents, obtained from Aragoncillo, and passing them on to Philippine officials plotting to overthrow Arroyo. Aragoncillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested along with Aquino on September 10, 2005. Mark Berman, an attorney for Aquino, said that his client admits receiving documents from Aragoncillo, but maintains that he did not know the information was classified. Prosecutors say that Filipino recipients of the classified documents included former President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted six years ago; Sen. Panfilo Lacson, an opposition politician; and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella. "I never intended to cause harm or injury to the United States," Aragoncillo told the judge. Aquino's attorney said his client was "relieved" that the court rejected the government's recommended sentence of 10 years in favor of a lighter penalty. Attorneys for Aragoncillo refused to comment. E-mail to a friend .

Man passed classified documents to foes of Philippines president . Leandro Aragoncillo is ex-Marine, former aide to two U.S. vice presidents . Conspiracy to transmit national defense information could have brought 20 years . Second man sentenced Tuesday to six years in same conspiracy .

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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Voters in Japan will turn out for parliamentary elections Sunday in what poll after poll shows will be a historic shift in political power to oust the ruling party. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has approval ratings in the teens. The Liberal Democratic Party has been in nearly continuous control of Japan's parliament for more than five decades. But the country's worst economic crisis since World War II has led a normally sedate electorate to the polls, disgruntled with how slowly the country is emerging from the downturn. Polls show that the opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan, will snag more than 300 of the 480 seats up for grabs in the lower house of Japan's parliament. If the DPJ does win a majority, it will be the first time it will govern the world's second-largest economy. Leading the DPJ is Yukio Hatoyama, who has been mobbed at street rallies by supporters, the kind of support the opposition has never seen. Hatoyama is touting an Obama-style message of change, pledging to raise the minimum wage and discourage hiring through agencies or on temporary contracts. That message is gaining traction in a country that is witnessing historic highs in unemployment and experiencing ramifications like homelessness for the first time. Voters are looking for somebody to pay, and if the polls are right, that target is the current prime minister, Taro Aso. Aso's approval ratings dwell in the teens, and his stimulus packages, though credited for lifting the economy slightly out of recession, are not being credited with helping households feel more secure about a lasting economic recovery. The LDP, in political ads and stump speeches across Japan, says the DPJ is making empty promises and can't pay for its proposed programs. CNN's Kyung Lah contributed to this report.

Liberal Democratic Party has been on top for almost five decades . Voters disgruntled with slow progress on economic recovery . Democratic Party of Japan set for its first majority . DPJ's Yukio Hatoyama has Obama-style message of change .

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(CNN) -- There are no easy answers when journalists have to decide how to cover a terrorist group's video. The issue resurfaced Tuesday when a member of the Islamic extremist group ISIS was shown on camera beheading American journalist Steven Sotloff. No major news organization showed the gruesome conclusion of the ISIS video, but many did show screen grabs and short video clips of Sotloff and the executioner, as well as another hostage that ISIS is threatening to kill. The video is newsworthy -- even if it also plays into the propagandistic hands of the people who produced it. But a vocal flock of viewers and readers -- and some fellow journalists -- have deplored the decisions to show snippets of the video, reprising arguments that were made in August when news organizations showed screen grabs of James Foley, another American journalist who was beheaded by ISIS. "Can't believe this bears repeating, but one should not empower ISIS by publishing their PR materials," freelance journalist Jeb Boone wrote on Twitter after the Sotloff video emerged. One major international broadcaster, Al Jazeera, said it had decided not to show any images of Sotloff from the video -- a more conservative position than other television networks. "We suggest all media do the same," Al Jazeera's public relations account said via Twitter, using the hashtag #ISISmediaBlackout. Not showing the video at all, however, risks sanitizing the grim reality of the world. So most media outlets tried to strike a balance. ISIS "would like us to show you the most graphic images on that video, as part of their campaign of terror. We will not," CBS News anchor Charlie Rose said as he introduced a segment about Sotloff's death. Instead, CBS showed only video clips from it. Media figures also tried to demonstrate some self-awareness when dealing with the issue. "No way to avoid leading the show with ISIS butchery and yet, maddeningly, that also seems like what ISIS wants," Chris Hayes wrote on Twitter before his 8 p.m. MSNBC program. Newscasts tended to show more photos of Sotloff in the field, reporting on stories throughout the Middle East, than of him as a hostage. But screen grabs from the video were still widespread, including on CNN's homepage and television networks. The Foley video surfaced on the social media website Diaspora, as reported by INSITE, a blog on terrorism and extremism run by the SITE Intelligence group. It was later put on YouTube and promoted via Twitter. The Sotloff video was discovered on an unidentified file-sharing website by the SITE Intelligence Group, which researches terrorist threats. Perhaps that's why social media reactions to the Sotloff video were more muted -- or perhaps, terribly, it's because the shock value was diminished the second time around.

No major news organization showed the conclusion of the ISIS Steven Sotloff video . Some viewers, readers and journalists have deplored decisions to show snippets of it . "One should not empower ISIS by publishing their PR materials," a journalist tweets . Not showing the video at all, however, risks sanitizing the grim reality of the world .

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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A car bomb killed one of Israel's most prominent crime bosses in Tel Aviv Monday, Israeli police sources say. Police at the scene of the car bomb blast which killed crime boss Yaakov Alpheron. Police say Yaakov Alperon was killed instantly when an explosive device was apparently detonated by remote control on a busy street in Tel Aviv. The blast injured two other people, including a 13 year-old boy. Head of one of Israel's most notorious crime families, Alperon is the most senior figure to be killed and the latest casualty of ongoing mob wars that have left scores of innocent people dead. In the past these mob-style hits have led to more revenge attacks.

A car bomb has killed one of Israel's most prominent crime bosses, police say . Police sources say Yaakov Alperon was killed instantly . Explosive device was apparently detonated by remote control in Tel Aviv .

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Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- A member of the Shiite militia Hezbollah, who escaped from an Egyptian prison during the recent unrest there, made a surprise appearance Wednesday at a Hezbollah rally in Beirut. The Hezbollah television network al Manar showed Sami Shehab being greeted by rapturous applause as he took the stage at the rally in a southern suburb of Beirut to mark the group's martyrs' day. Shehab, also known as Mohammed Yusuf Mansour, was accused by Egyptian authorities of leading a Hezbollah cell in Egypt and planning attacks in Egypt. He had been in prison for nearly two years before escaping on February 3 along with several members of the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, Hezbollah officials said. He was described as a "brother in our struggle" as he joined a group of Hezbollah officials on stage.

Hezbollah member escaped from Egyptian prison . He makes surprise appearance in Beirut .

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(CNN) -- Jessica Heeringa, 25, was due to close the Michigan gas station where she was working alone as a cashier at 11:30 p.m. Friday. But at 11:15, police got a 911 call that the station was unmanned. When police responded, Heeringa was gone. "Something very bad happened," the police chief of Norton Shores, a community of 22,500 near Lake Michigan about 40 miles west of Grand Rapids, told CNN affiliate WOOD-TV. "This was an abduction, not just a missing person," Chief Daniel Shaw told the station. "There was nothing disturbed inside the store. There was no sign of a struggle or a robbery had occurred," Shaw told the station. Heeringa's purse was left in the store, and her car was still there, WOOD reported. Heeringa last served a customer about 10:50 p.m., police said. "Between the time that last purchase was made and the time that the customers came in and found the store empty is when Jessica was abducted," Shaw told WOOD. "We have spoken with the person who made the purchase there and cleared them of any wrong. And unfortunately, they didn't see anything that would lead them to believe there was something going on at the store that was leading to that abduction." The chief told the station police are looking for the driver of a silver minivan who was seen in the store's parking area late Friday. Shaw described him as a white male, between 30 and 40, with wavy hair parted in the middle, according to WOOD. The van could have been a Chrysler Town and Country, he told the station. The store did not have security cameras, leaving police with few other clues. "We are desperately looking for additional information," he told WOOD on Monday morning. Heeringa's family and friends were posting missing posters around the area, and a Facebook page was set up for people to offer clues or support. "We are searching! Hang tight! The whole Country wants you home!" said a Facebook post from Monday morning. Tips had come in from as far away as New Jersey, Missouri and Arkansas, WOOD reported. Heeringa is described as 5 feet, 1 inches tall, 110 pounds with blond hair, blue eyes and wearing wire-rimmed glasses. She has a 3-year-old son, her family told CNN affiliate WZZM-TV. Besides local police, the county sheriff's department and the Michigan State Police were involved in the investigation, according to local media reports. The FBI has also been contacted, the reports said. "We've got a team of detectives and investigators on staff all day and night to track down those leads," Shaw told WOOD. "We are very concerned. It's been too long," Heeringa's grandfather, Roman Homrich, told Mlive.com on Monday. Heeringa's mother, Shelly Heeringa, told WZZM that she thinks her daughter's abductor was a past customer who knew Jessica and the store. "She's very helpful, that's why I think he lured her out of the gas station," the mother told the station. "He knew there wasn't security cameras." People with information that may help find Heeringa are asked to call the Norton Shores police at 231-733-2691.

Jessica Heeringa was lone clerk at gas station . She last served customer at 10:50 p.m. Friday, police say . Station was reported empty at 11:15 p.m. "Something very bad happened," police chief tells TV station .

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(CNN) -- A potential salmonella outbreak has prompted a multi-state recall of sprouts, an Idaho food company announced Friday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made a formal recall request Monday, urging on its website that people not eat alfalfa or spicy sprouts from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts. The federal agency noted that the salmonella Enteritidis pathogen is different from the E. coli bacteria that has been blamed for at least 47 deaths, and widespread recalls, in Europe. The next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on its website there had been 21 reported cases of salmonella tied to the sprouts, which are also labeled as Evergreen Produce. Nine of those were in Washington state, seven in Montana, three in Idaho, one in North Dakota and one in New Jersey. Three of those people have been hospitalized, and there have been no deaths, according to the CDC. Those affected, ranging in age from 12 years old to 77 years old, fell ill between April 12 and June 7. A vast majority, 77%, of those who became sick were female, according to the CDC. The recalled sprouts were delivered to four distributors and three retail stores in Idaho and Washington state, Evergreen said in its press release Friday. They include 4-ounce, 16-ounce and 5-pound bags of alfalfa sprouts, plus 4-ounce and 16-ounce bags of spicy sprouts. The expiration dates for all the affected products are between June 22 and July 14. Evergreen said that authorities determined that all those who fell ill with the salmonella had eaten its sprouts. But the Moyie Springs company said that tests on its products are still pending, and no products have come back positive yet. According to its website, Evergreen has been family owned and operated since 1990. Besides vegetables, it also distributes fruits, dairy items, pastas and a host of other food products.

Evergreen Produce issues a voluntary recall of alfalfa and spicy sprouts . The move comes days after warnings from federal health authorities . According to the CDC, there are 21 cases in 5 states tied to the sprouts .

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(CNN) -- Arsenal came back from two goals down to claim a 4-2 victory over Bolton at the Emirates Stadium which saw them climb to the top of the English Premier League. Bolton, who had been beaten 2-0 by the Gunners on Sunday, raced into an early lead through Gary Cahill who finished well from close range to direct his shot past Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia in the seventh minute. Owen Coyle's side then doubled their advantage from the penalty spot through Matthew Taylor after Arsenal midfielder Denilson had fouled Lee Chung-yong inside the area. But Arsene Wenger's young side kept their composure and pulled a goal back before halftime through Tomas Rosicky who lashed an angled shot past Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. Arsenal grabbed a controversial equalizer in the 52nd minute when Cesc Fabregas latched on to Andrey Arshavin's pass to slip the ball through Jaaskelainen's legs but there had appeared to be an earlier foul when William Gallas appeared to catch Mark Davies on the ankle. The turnaround was complete when Thomas Vermaelen fired home Arsenal's third after Abou Diaby had knocked down a corner into the path of the Belgian defender. Arsenal scored their fourth -- and the goal required to send them top of the table -- in the 85th minute when Eduardo slipped in Arshavin and the Russian made no mistake to fire the ball past Jaaskelainen. Wenger's side are level on points with Chelsea on 48 points, and are level with a goal difference of 34, but the Gunners go top having scored more goals than their London rivals. Elsewhere, Liverpool produced a defiant performance to help ease the pressure on Rafael Benitez with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield thanks to a brace from Dirk Kuyt. The Holland international gave Liverpool the lead in the sixth minute with a low shot from the edge of the area which flew past Heurelho Gomes' right-hand after he had been set up by Italian playmaker Alberto Aquilani. Liverpool, who were without the injured Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, showed their defensive discipline to keep out Spurs and should have been out of sight by the time they were awarded an injury-time penalty after David Ngog was brought down by Sebastien Bassong. Kuyt scored the first effort only to be ordered to re-take by referee Howard Webb, but the Dutchman held his nerve to send Gomes the wrong way and keep Liverpool in the race for the fourth Champions League place. Meanwhile Aston Villa beat Blackburn Rovers 6-4 in a thrilling English League Cup semifinal second leg tie to go through 7-4 on aggregate and secure a Wembley final against either Manchester United or Manchester City. A Nikola Kalinic brace had Rovers ahead, but Stephen Warnock slotted in before Christopher Samba was sent off. James Milner converted the subsequent penalty and a Steven Ngonzi own-goal and Gabriel Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey's strikes seemed to seal it. Volleys from Martin Olsson and Brett Emerton gave Rovers hope before Ashley Young curled home to wrap up the win for Martin O'Neill's side.

Arsenal came back from two goals down to claim a 4-2 victory over Bolton at the Emirates Stadium which saw go top of the Premier League. Liverpool produced a defiant performance to help ease the pressure on Rafael Benitez with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. Aston Villa beat Blackburn Rovers 6-4 in a thrilling English League Cup semifinal second leg tie to go through 7-4 on aggregate.

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(CNN) -- Getting hired or promoted in today's competitive environment is no easy feat. But, then again, neither was our pitch for MasterCard. The rules of the game were made clear: whichever advertising campaign had the best consumer test score would be declared the winner and awarded the MasterCard account. Yet, despite the fact that our now famous "Priceless" campaign did not fare well in testing, we won the business, and the rest is history. Fifteen years later, "Priceless" remains one of the most recognizable ad campaigns in recent history. So why did we win the business, defying set rules and what early testing said would be a failure? According to MasterCard's CMO Larry Flanagan, it was because of our "core" -- we were a fighting and a cohesive team of competitors, who believed with every ounce of our beings that this campaign would crush their long-standing competitor, Visa. In other words, we had tapped their "hidden agenda." The hidden agenda is the unspoken, visceral, emotional motivation that is behind every decision. Whether deciding who wins the billion dollar deal ... or the job, the hidden agenda is always at work. Your mission is to connect to it, and here's how: . Do your hidden-agenda homework . It's not enough to know factoids about the company. That's table stakes. Do your homework about the emotional state of the company. Are they on a high, yet searching for the next big thing? Are they in crisis and in need of a turnaround? Are they guided by a value system that drives the decisions they make? It turns out that every decision stems from a hidden agenda, which can be found in three forms: . • Wants are about people viewing their circumstances through the lens of ambition and confidence. • Needs are about viewing circumstances through the lens of fear or concern. • Values are about people viewing the world entirely through the lens of their belief systems. In addition to understanding the company's hidden agenda, study the person who will be interviewing you to determine their hidden agenda. Connect with your real ambition . I had breakfast a few weeks ago with a very compelling young man. This electrifying fellow was exuberant, quirky bordering on eccentric, and without pretense. He spoke of what he hoped to create in his life, and I hired him on the spot. Your real ambition is a deep desire to create something special that doesn't yet exist. It's bigger than mere ambition because it's noble. When the person you are trying to reach is touched by your real ambition and makes common cause, they'll hire you. Try this: Think about what you want to accomplish, but precede with the words "I will ..." Make sure it is seemingly impossible, devoid of practicality and utterly fantastic. You can create a shared bond with your interviewer, because they see you both share a common vision. See also: Is happiness the secret of success? Bond with your credo . A company is many things, but it is a community first. Each community has a set of values that bind them; I call it a credo, Latin for "I believe." Dig deeply and look behind the facts and figures. What does the company you're applying to believe? If you want to be part of it, know it and connect yourself to it. Try this: Take out a sheet of paper, and write "I believe that ..." What words would you select? What values would you express that would make you proud for others to see? Connections are made because of the beliefs you share. You'll be hired, because your interviewer will see that your credo syncs perfectly with theirs. Ignite with your core . Your core is what makes you stand out from the pack. While many people have similar traits, your core is comprised of a set of skills, abilities, and strengths that, together, are completely unique to you. And as was the case with MasterCard, your core will be seen as something the company needs -- the "answer to their prayers" and a means by which you can help them. See also: Is workplace boredom 'the new stress?' Critical to your core is authenticity. As a wonderful mentor once told me when I was presenting what I thought was a perfect version of myself and thinking that the real me was no road to glory: the person you are is the person they want to see. They are hiring you, not a manufactured version of something or someone else. Try this: Ask five people who know you well and support you to write down the key characteristics they associate with you. Not only will you be staggered by what you'll get, but you will also feel proud and affirmed. You mobilize people to hire you, because their vital needs are satisfied by the authenticity and sincerity of your core. Your pursuit for the promotion or job of your dreams is not a fact and figures game -- it is a human game. When you make a profound connection with the emotional desire of your boss or interviewer, the facts and figures will take the backseat, every time. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kevin Allen.

Every company has an emotional motivation, or hidden agenda, says Kevin Allen . He believes tapping into the hidden agenda is key to getting your dream job . Share your 'real ambition' to connect with potential employers . When applying for a job, show that you connect with the company's core beliefs .

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When Harry returned home the morning after the typhoon struck, he found part of the roof missing from his home. It wasn't as bad as Yolanda," he said, referring to Typhoon Haiyan, which completely destroyed his house in the Magallanes "barangay," or district, of Tacloban a year ago. "It was so scary." Much of his barangay, which lies close to the water's edge, was decimated by the storm surge that was generated by the most powerful storm ever to make landfall in November, 2013. It is also one of the poorest areas in Tacloban. Little more than a year on and most people in this traumatized town in the central Philippines will be incredibly relieved that Typhoon Hagupit, which passed some 50 kilometers north, came with nothing like the force of Haiyan. Most of what has been rebuilt in the past few months has largely remained intact. Harry was one of many who heeded official warnings to evacuate to safer areas during the storm -- he was not going to repeat the mistake he made last year of trying to ride it out. Surveying the damage around his modest home, its walls held up by various metal sheets and cardboard boxes, Harry seemed remarkably positive: "It's not so bad." Pointing at the missing part of his ceiling above his living area and kitchen, he added: "It was not nailed down as well as the other area of roof." He'll just repair it again like last time. TYPHOON TRACKER: Follow Hagupit's path . Checking for damage . This was a typical scene across Tacloban on Sunday morning, as some 48,000 people anxiously prepared to return to their homes from evacuation centers to check the damage. According to the mayor and the city's disaster management authorities, there have so far been no casualties and power should be restored in the next day or so. Clearing up is more about mopping up; torrential rains drenched the entire area, flooding many roads. Though the storm was nowhere near as powerful as last year's, authorities took no chances and were prepared for what was to come. Our next stop was the Santa Nino church, a building that became symbolic of the damage done by Haiyan. Almost leveled completely, it was in the process of being renovated. Hagupit spared it this time around -- the only clues to what took place the night before were lots of tree branches and roots strewn around the surrounding streets. Still waiting for homes . Many people in Tacloban are still living in tents or other rudimentary structures more than a year after Haiyan. They've been promised new homes but the process has been extremely slow. For those lucky enough to get one, they're often located miles away. They may be away from vulnerable, flood-prone areas, but they're also far from where they work, shops and their friends. These are the main reasons why many have chosen -- against the wishes of the government -- to rebuild their basic shanty homes in areas like Magallanes and San Jose. Yet some like Lucrecia Simbajon, 58, another resident of Magallanes, would jump at the chance of a new home if only she was offered one. She and her family are among hundreds who have spent the last few days camped out at the local Roman Catholic "Redemption" church. "I don't know how long I'm going to be here, as the roof was blown off my house last night," she said. Her home -- a typical wooden and metal shack -- was wiped out last year. As a result, she spent more than 20 days at the Redemption, lying between pews with her children. Though it is easily the sturdiest building in the area, the church's perforated roof is a reminder that Haiyan spared little in its path. Simbajon doesn't know how she'll carry out the repairs this time around. Her house is located in an area declared a "no build zone" because it was so close to the coast and therefore vulnerable to storm surges. "We need help from the government -- financial assistance, materials, so we can rebuild," she said. They got no help after Haiyan, she added. Aside from delivering parcels of rice and noodles, she said no one from the government had been near over the past few days. Asked if she'd consider one of the new houses the local government pledged to build in the wake of Haiyan, she was emphatic: "We no longer have a home here. For my family we are willing to move, to transfer." Sheltering in chapel . The atmosphere inside the main chapel at the Redemption was far calmer than a day earlier when everyone nervously awaited the arrival of Hagupit -- these were among the town's poorest and most vulnerable. A white board listed everyone who was evacuated here, including several heavily pregnant women. Alita Castillo, another local, is also a volunteer with a local NGO dealing with disaster risk reduction. Her entire family is staying in an adjacent hall. "We're more prepared this year, with more people prepared to leave their houses," she said. "Last year, we had 70 families staying with us in the church. This time we have more than 200." Yet she and her family still don't have a house, more than a year after Haiyan. And now the house she had been staying in has been badly damaged. "I don't know where we'll go this time," she said. "We helped organize a home owner's association and luckily, with help from the church, the United Nations, and a few other groups, we'll be eligible for free housing -- but it's still in the process. Hopefully two years from now I will have one."​ .

Residents of Tacloban returning to home to check for damage . Town relatively unscathed by Typhoon Hagupit which made landfall Saturday . Tacloban was all but destroyed by Super Typhoon Haiyan last year . Survivors feared all their efforts to rebuild would be destroyed .

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Sydney (CNN) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed the return by Australia of two ancient Hindu art treasures that were allegedly stolen from temples in Tamil Nadu. During a meeting with Modi in New Delhi on Friday Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott handed over a 900-year bronze statue of Shiva Nataraja (dancing Shiva) and a stone statue of Ardhanariswara (Shiva in half-female form), also from circa 1100. "I would like to convey to Prime Minister Abbott the deep sense of gratitude of 1.25 billion people of India for the efforts he has made to bring with him two ancient statues that were stolen from India," Modi said. Modi said Abbott and the people of Australia "have shown enormous respect and regard not only for our ancient treasures, but also for our cultural heritage." The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra bought the Shiva Natarja for $5 million (A$5.3 million) in 2008 from then New York-based art dealer Subhash Kapoor. Kapoor was arrested in Germany in 2011 after U.S. investigators raided Manhattan storage units allegedly leased in his name, and found items "displayed in major international museums worldwide." Kapoor was subsequently extradited to India where he's awaiting trial. The former owner of the Art of the Past Gallery, Kapoor sold the Ardhanariswara to the Sydney-based Art Gallery of New South Wales for $280,000 (A$300,000) in 2004. In March this year, the Indian Government wrote to Australia seeking the return of the two idols. In a statement to mark Abbott's return of the two statues in New Delhi, the National Gallery of Australia said it "would never knowingly purchase a stolen or looted item." It said the gallery had undertaken lengthy, comprehensive and independent research before it bought the Shiva Nataraja from Kapoor. "Despite these efforts, court proceedings may yet confirm that the gallery has been a victim of a most audacious fraud," gallery director Ron Radford said. Radford noted that Kapoor's trial "is yet to be heard and he has proclaimed his innocence."

Australia returns lost art treasures to India, including Shiva Nataraja . Australian galleries bought the artworks from a dealer who's awaiting trial . Subhash Kapoor is facing trial on theft-related charges . Modi conveys "deep sense of gratitude" from Indian people .

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(CNN) -- The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year. And more than half of those attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog group said Wednesday. The increase in attacks has forced many countries to patrol pirate hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden. "The increased activity in Somalia is the major reason for the spike," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, the Bureau said. Of the incidents this year, Somali pirates accounted for 54 percent: they launched 168 attacks. Most of them took place off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. They successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight others were wounded, four more killed and one is missing, the Bureau said. Somali pirates are still holding four ships for ransom with 80 crew members as hostages. Somalia's transitional government, which has a tenuous grip on power, has been unable to stop the pirates -- many of whom are based in the port cities. This has prompted Europe and other Western countries to step up maritime patrols. "In the Gulf of Aden, the number of attacks have gone up. But because of the presence of naval vessels, the success rate of the pirates have decreased," Mody said. "The navies are responding very very effectively." Today's pirates are a far cry from the eye-patched, peg-legged swashbucklers of Hollywood. They don night-vision goggles, carry rocket launchers and navigate with global positioning devices. Many pirates are trained fighters; others are young thugs enlisted for the job. Experts say they often sail out to sea in a mother ship and wait for a target. When they find one, the pirates board smaller boats and move in, typically with five to seven armed hijackers per boat. Two recent trends have led to a rise in piracy: access and opportunity. As global commerce picks up, more and more of the world's fuels, minerals and other crucial commodities travel by ship. Ninety-five percent of America's foreign trade, for instance, moves by water, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. That cargo is an easy target for robbers in countries that lack the resources to secure their shorelines, such as Somalia. Those who have tracked pirate activity say it started in Somalia in the 1980s, when the pirates claimed they were aiming to stop the rampant illegal fishing and dumping that continues to this day off the Somali coast. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. With the ransoms they collect, pirates can earn up to $40,000 a year, analysts say. That's a fortune for someone from an impoverished country. Some analysts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the piracies. "Yes, the ransoms have probably caused the piracy to become a bit more rampant. But at the same time, from the owner's point of view, there is no other way currently to secure the safe release of the vessel along with the crew and the cargo," Mody said. "It's basically a cycle." Other trouble spots this year were waters off Nigeria, with 20 attacks; Malaysia with 14; and Bangladesh with 12.

Somali pirates accounted for 54 percent of all attacks this year . Most of them took place off east coast of Somalia and in Gulf of Aden . Somali pirates are still holding four ships for ransom . Other trouble spots were waters off Nigeria, Malaysia and Bangladesh .

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(CNN) -- Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine. Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text. The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece's title, "1984," invoked author George Orwell's message and stood as a warning against conformity. Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different. "The Macintosh demonstrated that it was possible and profitable to create a machine to be used by millions and millions of people," said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, California, think tank, and chief force behind "Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley," an online historical exhibit. "The gold standard now for personal electronics is, 'Is it easy enough for my grandmother to use it?' People on the Macintosh project were the first people to talk about a product in that way." Pang, 44, remembered being "mesmerized" by the computer when he first saw it up close in his college bookstore. He wasn't alone. Read about how iReporters are preserving Mac history . For graphic designers like Zoë Korstvedt, now a Los Angeles creative director, the evolving Mac, with each added feature, was ripe with ah-ha moments. To tinker with a piece, play with the text, "to visualize on your computer was just insane," she said. "My colleagues and I wonder how we did it [their jobs] before." No wonder, then, that when Korstvedt, 44, married her first husband in 1989, she used half of their wedding money to buy her first home computer: a Mac SE/30, for which she forked over extra bucks for an upgrade to a whopping 8 megabytes of RAM. Nothing compared to the 12 gigs she now has. "I was styling," she said with a laugh. Jeremy Mehrle, 30, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area is too young to know a world without Macs. This MacAddict began hoarding and tinkering with tossed-out computers, and then he discovered eBay. Today, the motion graphics designer's 1,400 square-foot basement is a museum to Apple computers, all-white and in gallery-style with about 80 fully-functioning machines on display. "Some people think it's really cool. ... Others say 'It's Jeremy's thing, it's a little weird, whatever,'" he said. "I think if I had stacks everywhere, and you couldn't move in my house, people would be worried." What's Mehrle's hobby, however, became a career for Dan Foust, 38, of Bloomington, Illinois. "Danapplemacman," as he's known on eBay, makes a living out of buying, and when necessary resuscitating, these computers before hawking them online to customers/collectors in places as far-flung as Italy and Australia. So what would people pay for an original Macintosh? "A complete boxed system?," he said. "I can't put a price on that." The extremes to which people have gone in their love and loyalty for Apple (and specifically Macs) knows no bounds. Perhaps no one knows this better than Leander Kahney, news editor at Wired.com and author of Cult of Mac, as well as the more recently published Inside Steve's Brain. That would be Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' brain, of course. From his phone in a San Francisco coffee shop, Kahney told tales of people allotting their limited vacation time to Macworld conferences, a man who has traveled to 40 Apple store openings and those who shaved Apple logos into their heads. As for the Apple tattoos, those, at first, really bothered him. "I'm a bit of a leftie," he said. The idea of "corporate worship" didn't initially sit well with him -- although he's not afraid to admit his own obsession. "It's a very deep relationship people have with their computers. ... If the computer's not working, it's more important than the car breaking down." Speaking of worship, Israeli filmmakers Ron and Kobi Shely created "MacHEADS: The Movie," a 50-minute documentary that'll be available next week on Amazon's video on demand service and, soon after, on iTunes. The film includes footage from The Church of Mac in Los Angeles, where a preacher and congregants gathered to glorify the computer at a service that ended with, "Praise Steve." "Although we read a lot about the [Mac] phenomenon," Ron Shely said by phone from Tel Aviv of the two-year film project, "we didn't realize how big this social movement really is." And that, beyond the products, is what has been so powerful about the Mac brand, said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. iReport.com: Got your own Mac Museum? Show us! Steve Jobs "really has changed the world," Friess said. "You hardly find people who changed cultures. He changed culture." Decades before Jobs' health became a topic of discussion, Friess was lucky enough to meet the man. At the time, German-born Friess was a lowly watchmaker, repairing clocks in the basement of Munich's Deutsches Museum, the largest science and technology museum in the world. The year was 1984, and Friess thought a Macintosh might come in handy, so he called Apple Germany to see if he might be able to get one. The answer, as he recalled it, "'You're very lucky. Steve Jobs is in town. We'll come over and give you one.'" Ever since, he's been amazed and exceedingly intrigued by every new computer. "My wife goes crazy," Friess, 49, admitted. "Every Apple computer I buy, the first thing I do is take it apart, just to see what's inside." For Gary Allen, 61, of Berkeley, California, his interest is less inside than it is outside the company's stores. He runs ifoAppleStore.com, the first three letters taken from his police dispatch days, meaning "in front of." The site's genesis dates back to 2001 when Apple store No. 9 opened, in Palo Alto, and he and his son went early. Way early -- as in the night before. The crowds, and natural community, grew on Allen, who began seeing new-found friends at other openings. They were like groupies chasing a band. So he started a Web site, to help fans keep in touch, and soon other Apple enthusiasts began writing from across the globe, sharing tips about new stores, as well as testimonies and photos. The site, he said, averages about 4 million visitors a month. Allen, who guessed he's been to 22 store openings so far, once stood in the rain for days in Tokyo so he could snag the first spot in line. He's seen old friends at openings in Germany and Italy. Last summer, he and his now 21-year-old son experienced what he called "the perfect storm," hitting Boston, Beijing and Sydney. Next stop: Paris. He may not speak the same language as the thousands who surround him in these various cities, but that doesn't much matter when people speak the same language of computer love. "Apple enthusiasts, it turns out," Allen said, "are the same wherever you go."

Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the first Macintosh computer . Apple launched the Mac in 1984 with Ridley Scott's landmark Super Bowl XVIII ad . Steve Jobs is credited for cult-like worship seen in tattoos, collections, Macquariums . Fans flock to Macworld expos, Apple store openings and hoard eBay purchases .

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