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(CNN)James Best, best known for his portrayal of bumbling sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard," died Monday after a brief illness. He was 88. Best died in hospice in Hickory, North Carolina, of complications from pneumonia, said Steve Latshaw, a longtime friend and Hollywood colleague. Although he'd been a busy actor for decades in theater and in Hollywood, Best didn't become famous until 1979, when "The Dukes of Hazzard's" cornpone charms began beaming into millions of American homes almost every Friday night. For seven seasons, Best's Rosco P. Coltrane chased the moonshine-running Duke boys back and forth across the back roads of fictitious Hazzard County, Georgia, although his "hot pursuit" usually ended with him crashing his patrol car. Although Rosco was slow-witted and corrupt, Best gave him a childlike enthusiasm that got laughs and made him endearing. His character became known for his distinctive "kew-kew-kew" chuckle and for goofy catchphrases such as "cuff 'em and stuff 'em!" upon making an arrest. Among the most popular shows on TV in the early '80s, "The Dukes of Hazzard" ran until 1985 and spawned TV movies, an animated series and video games. Several of Best's "Hazzard" co-stars paid tribute to the late actor on social media. "I laughed and learned more from Jimmie in one hour than from anyone else in a whole year," co-star John Schneider, who played Bo Duke, said on Twitter. "Give Uncle Jesse my love when you see him dear friend." "Jimmy Best was the most constantly creative person I have ever known," said Ben Jones, who played mechanic Cooter on the show, in a Facebook post. "Every minute of his long life was spent acting, writing, producing, painting, teaching, fishing, or involved in another of his life's many passions." Born Jewel Guy on July 26, 1926, in Powderly, Kentucky, Best was orphaned at 3 and adopted by Armen and Essa Best, who renamed him James and raised him in rural Indiana. Best served in the Army during World War II before launching his acting career. In the 1950s and 1960s, he accumulated scores of credits, playing a range of colorful supporting characters in such TV shows as "The Twilight Zone," "Bonanza," "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Gunsmoke." He later appeared in a handful of Burt Reynolds' movies, including "Hooper" and "The End." But Best will always be best known for his "Hazzard" role, which lives on in reruns. "Jimmie was my teacher, mentor, close friend and collaborator for 26 years," Latshaw said. "I directed two of his feature films, including the recent 'Return of the Killer Shrews,' a sequel he co-wrote and was quite proud of as he had made the first one more than 50 years earlier." People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Stella Chan contributed to this story.

James Best, who played the sheriff on "The Dukes of Hazzard," died Monday at 88 . "Hazzard" ran from 1979 to 1985 and was among the most popular shows on TV .

(CNN)The attorney for a suburban New York cardiologist charged in what authorities say was a failed scheme to have another physician hurt or killed is calling the allegations against his client "completely unsubstantiated." Appearing Saturday morning on CNN's "New Day," Randy Zelin defended his client, Dr. Anthony Moschetto, who faces criminal solicitation, conspiracy, burglary, arson, criminal prescription sale and weapons charges in connection to what prosecutors called a plot to take out a rival doctor on Long Island. "None of anything in this case has any evidentiary value," Zelin told CNN's Christi Paul. "It doesn't matter what anyone says, he is presumed to be innocent." Moschetto,54, pleaded not guilty to all charges Wednesday. He was released after posting $2 million bond and surrendering his passport. Zelin said that his next move is to get Dr. Moshetto back to work. "He's got patients to see. This man, while he was in a detention cell, the only thing that he cared about were his patients. And amazingly, his patients were flooding the office with calls, making sure that he was OK," Zelin said. Two other men -- identified as James Chmela, 43, and James Kalamaras, 41 -- were named as accomplices, according to prosecutors. They pleaded not guilty in Nassau County District Court, according to authorities. Both were released on bail. A requests for comment from an attorney representing Chmela was not returned. It's unclear whether Kalamaras has retained an attorney. Police officers allegedly discovered approximately 100 weapons at Moschetto's home, including hand grenades, high-capacity magazines and knives. Many of the weapons were found in a hidden room behind a switch-activated bookshelf, according to prosecutors. The investigation began back in December, when undercover officers began buying heroin and oxycodone pills from Moschetto in what was initially a routine investigation into the sale of prescription drugs, officials said. During the course of the undercover operation, however, Moschetto also sold the officers two semiautomatic assault weapons as well as ammunition, prosecutors said. Moschetto allegedly told officers during one buy that he needed dynamite to "blow up a building." He later said he no longer needed the dynamite because a friend was setting fire to the building instead. Kalamaras and Chmela are believed to have taken part in the arson, according to prosecutors. "The fire damaged but did not destroy the office of another cardiologist whose relationship with Dr. Moschetto had soured due to a professional dispute," according to the statement from the district attorney's office. Moschetto allegedly gave an informant and undercover detective blank prescriptions and cash for the assault and killing of the fellow cardiologist, according to prosecutors. He also requested that the rival's wife be assaulted if she happened to be present, authorities said. "He was willing to pay $5,000 to have him beaten and put in a hospital for a few months, and then he said he would pay $20,000 to have him killed," said Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly, according to CNN affiliate WCBS.

A lawyer for Dr. Anthony Moschetto says the charges against him are baseless . Moschetto, 54, was arrested for selling drugs and weapons, prosecutors say . Authorities allege Moschetto hired accomplices to burn down the practice of former associate .

(CNN)President Barack Obama took part in a roundtable discussion this week on climate change, refocusing on the issue from a public health vantage point. After the event at Washington's Howard University on Tuesday, Obama sat down with me for a one-on-one interview. I asked him about the science behind climate change and public health and the message he wants the average American to take away, as well as how enforceable his action plan is. Here are five things I learned: . The President enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1979 (he transferred to Columbia University his junior year). While in L.A., he said, the air was so bad that it prevented him from running outside. He remembers the air quality alerts and how people with respiratory problems had to stay inside. He credits the Clean Air Act with making Americans "a lot" healthier, in addition to being able to "see the mountains in the background because they aren't covered in smog." Obama also said the instances of asthma and other respiratory diseases went down after these measures were taken. Peer-reviewed Environmental Protection Agency studies say that the Clean Air Act and subsequent amendments have reduced early deaths associated with exposure to ambient fine particle pollution and ozone, and reduced illnesses such as chronic bronchitis and acute myocardial infarction. The EPA estimates that, between 1970 and 2010, the act and its amendments prevented 365,000 early deaths from particulate matter alone. "No challenge poses more of a public threat than climate change," the President told me. When I asked about the strength of the science supporting the direct relationship between climate change and public health, he said, "We know as temperatures rise, insect-borne diseases potentially start shifting up. We know, in a very straight-forward fashion, that heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses and deaths potentially increase, and so what we're doing here is to make sure that in addition to public awareness around the potential for big storms like Hurricane Sandy or big wildfires or droughts, that people recognize there's a very personal, potential impact in climate change, and the good news is we can do something about it." In many ways, Obama is attempting to reframe the discussion around climate change as a public health issue that affects all of us, while conceding that we don't fully understand the magnitude of the correlation between rising temperatures and impact on human health. When asked what the average American can do about all this, the President encouraged ordinary citizens, doctors and nurses to start putting some pressure on elected officials "to try and make something happen to reduce the impacts of climate change." He also issued a presidential proclamation declaring April 6-12 as National Public Health Week "to better understand, communicate and reduce the health impacts of climate change on our communities." The average American can also do their part to reduce their own carbon footprint, including: . • Change your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights. One CFL can reduce up to 1,300 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution during its lifetime. If every house in the U.S. switched its bulbs, we could reduce the electricity spent on lighting by half. • Unplug your gadgets and chargers when not in use. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this practice can save $100 a year on your energy bill. • Use a laptop instead of a desktop. Laptops are designed to be energy-efficient, because battery life is a major factor in their design. According to Energy Star, a laptop can be up to 80% more energy-efficient than a desktop. • Filter your own water. Beyond the environmental toll of plastic waste, consider just how far your water was transported before you bought it at the grocery store. • Adjust your curtains and thermostats. If you keep your house 2 degrees warmer in the summer and 2 degrees colder in the winter, you can save big bucks on your energy bill. The Department of Energy estimates you can save up to 15% on your bill by turning off your thermostat when you're not at home. Obama did not appear particularly concerned about the current Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act. He said he believes the statute is "clear and straightforward." He said, "I am not anticipating the Supreme Court would make such a bad decision." At issue is the 32 states that did not set up their own health care exchanges and left it to the federal government to do so. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that the language of the Affordable Care Act does not allow for tax subsidies in those states (without state-based exchanges), possibly creating a situation, for example, in which people in Massachusetts would receive a tax credit, but people living in Texas would not. Obama did tell me that if the Supreme Court challenge is upheld, however, there is no Plan B. "Millions of people would lose their health insurance. They would no longer be able to afford the health insurance that's being provided out there." Obama went on to say, "I think this is the last gasp of folks who have been fighting against [the Affordable Care Act] for ideological reasons." He told me that he "gets letters every day from people who say, 'you know what, the Affordable Care Act saved my life or saved my kid's life because I got insurance.' 'I thought I was healthy; turns out I had a tumor, but because I went and got a checkup, it was removed in time, and I'm now cancer-free.' " He added, "I think stories like that will be factored in when the Supreme Court takes a look at this case." CNN's Ben Tinker contributed to this report.

"No challenge poses more of a public threat than climate change," the President says . He credits the Clean Air Act with making Americans "a lot" healthier .

Moscow (CNN)A Russian TV channel aired Hillary Clinton's first campaign video with a rating stamp that means it's for mature audiences, because of fears it might run afoul of the country's anti-gay propaganda law. A clip of the video, which features a gay couple holding hands, got the 18+ rating from the independent TV Rain channel in Russia on Monday. The channel told CNN that it didn't want to break the controversial law, which bans "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations around minors" and bars public discussion of gay rights and relationships within earshot of children. "There are no legal precedents for this law, so we just don't know what comes under this law and (what) doesn't," a TV Rain spokesperson told CNN. "Therefore, fearing to break the law -- especially given the high attention to TV Rain from the supervising authorities -- we decided to put a marker (on the video)." Clinton's video was released over the weekend to announce the start of her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. It features about five seconds of two men holding hands. One of the men says, "I'm getting married this summer to someone I really care about." The former senator and first lady first declared her support for same-sex marriage in early 2013, saying that "gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights." Russia's controversial law caused an international outcry after it was passed by the Russian Parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin in July 2013. Human Rights Watch described the anti-gay propaganda law as "a profoundly discriminatory and dangerous bill that is bound to worsen homophobia in Russia." Rights campaigners called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and a number of bars around the world stopped serving Russian vodka in protest. U.S. President Barack Obama -- Clinton's former boss -- said at the time that he found the legislation offensive. "I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or harmful to them," Obama told Jay Leno in 2013. Putin defended the law, noting that unlike other countries, Russia decriminalized homosexual relationships (in 1993). "We don't outlaw anything and don't nab anyone," he said before the 2014 Games. "That's why you can feel safe and free here," he added, "but please leave our children in peace." The rights group ILGA-Europe said in a May 2014 report that Russia was the worst place in Europe (out of 49 countries) for LGBTI people to live. READ MORE: Social media react to Hillary Clinton logo .

Presidential hopeful's video, featuring gay couple, gets mature rating in Russia . Russian TV channel feared airing it would break the country's anti-gay propaganda law . Clinton announced her support for same-sex marriage in 2013 .

(CNN)Marco Rubio is all in. The Republican senator from Florida has announced that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, running on an optimistic message that he embodies the promise of the American Dream. With his youthful energy and Hispanic roots, it's tempting to see Rubio as the new blood that the GOP needs in order to compete against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Yet Rubio has been his own worst enemy on what could have been his two signature issues: immigration reform and Cuba relations. He holds little appeal to Latino voters. And unless he can offer new ideas, his climb to the Republican nomination will be steep. Back in 2013, Rubio was a member of the Senate "Gang of 8" that crafted a bipartisan proposal for comprehensive reform, including a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. He later distanced himself from the bill after it ran into resistance from House Republicans, and now says he favors a piecemeal approach, starting with securing the border. His retreat on immigration means that Rubio has missed an opportunity to set himself apart from most of the presumptive Republican presidential candidates. That's a shame, for this issue was supposed to be his calling card to Latino voters. Instead, Rubio has embraced a typical conservative approach to immigration. He believes that President Obama's Deferred Action program, offering deportation relief to young immigrants, should be ended. He has stated that the President's executive action on immigration, on hold pending a circuit court review, sets a "horrifying precedent." Meanwhile, both the Deferred Action program and President Obama's executive action on immigration are overwhelmingly favored by Hispanics. No wonder the research firm Latino Decisions reports that, "We find no evidence that Rubio's candidacy will draw significant Latino support for his candidacy or for his party more generally." So, if Rubio is counting on his ethnicity and personal history as the son of immigrants to win over fellow Hispanics, he is mistaken. At a private breakfast Monday for supporters, Rubio described running against "one candidate in the race who's from yesterday, and one who wants to take us back to yesterday." But when it comes to Cuba policy, Rubio himself seems firmly stuck in the past. Over the weekend, he called the recent thaw in relations between the two countries ridiculous. He has warned that Cuba is taking advantage of the United States. Here, he is an increasingly lonely voice. Most Americans support better relations with Cuba, as do a majority of Cuban-Americans. By clinging to the notion that isolating Cuba is better than engaging with the communist country, Rubio has marginalized himself on an issue where he could have provided insight and leadership. Immigration and Cuba policy aside, Rubio's political philosophy will be a tough sell to Hispanics. He is a fierce opponent of "Obamacare" and wants the law repealed. However, the Affordable Care Act has led to a 12.3% drop in the Hispanic uninsured rate, making Latinos the demographic with the largest gain in insurance, thanks to the law. (In fact, Rubio signed his own family up for "Obamacare" on the Washington exchange, taking advantage of a generous federal subsidy offered to lawmakers.) Rubio favors smaller government, while Latinos are more likely than the general public to say they favor a bigger government that provides more services over a small government that provides less. And though Rubio doubts that climate change is caused by humans, The New York Times has noted that Latinos view global warming as a problem and favor government action on the issue. Sure, Rubio is young and charismatic. But his work on the failed immigration bill notwithstanding, Rubio has a significant lack of accomplishments to show for his five years in the senate. In February, he was reported as topping the list of absentee lawmakers by the website Politico. Another Rubio weakness is his lack of bold policy proposals. Consider that his fellow contender for the GOP presidential nomination, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has been willing to present new ideas to the Republican base, such as reforming the criminal justice system and legalizing medical marijuana. Or that another GOP candidate for president, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is entirely comfortable with his image as a conservative firebrand. By comparison, Rubio seems cautious and ill-suited to the task of rousing Republican voters. With his early leap into the 2016 race, Marco Rubio is positioning himself as the next generation of GOP leadership. Unfortunately, a fresh face on stale ideas is not a winning combination -- not for Rubio, and not for Latino voters.

Raul Reyes: In seeking Latino vote, Marco Rubio his own worst enemy on two key issues: immigration reform, Cuba relations . He says on health care, climate change and other issues, he breaks from Latinos' positions. Polls show they don't favor him .

(CNN)SPOILER ALERT! It's not just women getting cloned. That was the big twist at the end of "Orphan Black's" second season. The kickoff to the new season leads the list of six things to watch in the week ahead. 1. "Orphan Black," 9 p.m. ET, Saturday, April 18, BBC America . The cloning cult sci-fi series remains one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV, thanks in large part to the performance of Tatiana Maslany, who has taken on at least six roles on the show so far, including a newly introduced transgender clone. Maslany told reporters this week that we can expect even more impressive scenes with multiple clones. "We like to push the boundaries of what we're able to do and the limits of those clone scenes," she said. "So, yes, you'll definitely see more complex clone work this season and that's just because we're getting more comfortable with the technology and we're excited by getting to sort of further complicate things." And the introduction of a group of male clones will certainly increase the suspense. "There definitely is a shift towards the Castor clones that we get to explore them a little bit more," she said. The fans of the show, dubbed the "Clone Club" have a lot to look forward to when the show premieres on Saturday the 18th, and Maslany is blown away by the response to the series so far. "We've always been really humbled and really inspired by our fans and by their dedication to the show and their knowledge of the show, and just how it changes their own lives. It's incredible." 2. "Turn: Washington's Spies," 9 p.m. ET, Monday, AMC . The series about spies in the early days of the Revolutionary War returns with a new subtitle, "Washington's Spies," and a new Monday night time slot. Series star Jamie Bell told CNN what we can expect in the second season. "This year we have a lot more battles; we have the journey of [George] Washington and we're getting under his skin a little bit as well. We also introduce new characters like Benedict Arnold, a very infamous character in American history." Bell hopes the series might bring more recognition to the Culper spy ring and everything it did. "I think there should be a monument to all of the Culper ring somewhere. I was amazed that there is nothing [in Washington] about these people who did something extraordinary." 3. "Game of Thrones," 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, HBO . The world of Westeros returns for a fifth season in one of the biggest season premieres of the year. Click here for more on what to expect. 4. "Justified," 10 p.m. ET, Tuesday, FX . Timothy Olyphant's tour de force performance as Raylan Givens comes to an end Tuesday night, as the modern-day Western airs its season finale. We'll have to see how his final showdown with Boyd Crowder goes. 5. "Veep," 10:30 ET, Sunday, HBO . Hugh Laurie joins the cast and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now the president of the United States on HBO's hit comedy. 6. "Nurse Jackie," 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, Showtime . The final season of Showtime's long-running melodrama begins.

Critically acclaimed series "Orphan Black" returns . "Turn: Washington's Spies" starts a second season . "Game of Thrones" is back for season five .

(CNN)Emergency operators get lots of crazy calls, but few start like this. Caller: "Hello, I'm trapped in this plane and I called my job, but I'm in this plane." Operator: "You're where?" Caller: "I'm inside a plane and I feel like it's up moving in the air. Flight 448 can you please tell somebody (to) stop it." The frantic 911 call came just as the Alaska Airlines flight had taken off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday afternoon. The caller was a ramp agent who fell asleep in the plane's cargo hold. The cell phone call soon broke up, but the man was making himself known in other ways as the crew and passengers reported unusual banging from the belly of the Boeing 737. The pilot radioed air traffic control and said he would make an emergency landing. "There could be a person in there so we're going to come back around," he told air traffic control. The ramp agent who took the untimely nap and caused all the fuss is an employee of Menzies Aviation, a contractor for Alaska Airlines that handles loading the luggage. He'll no longer have the option of dozing aboard one of the airline's planes. "The Menzies employee has been permanently banned from working on Alaska Airlines planes," said Bobbie Egan, a spokeswoman for the airline. Flight 448, which was on its way to Los Angeles, only spent 14 minutes in the air. Other than being scared, the agent never was in any real danger. The cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled, the airline said. The passengers knew something wasn't right, almost as soon as the plane took off. "All of a sudden we heard all this pounding underneath the plane and we thought there was something wrong with the landing gear," Robert Higgins told CNN affiliate KABC. Not everyone heard the banging, but it was soon clear this wasn't a normal flight. "We just took off for L.A. regular and then ... about five minutes into the flight the captain came on and said we were going back and we'd land within five to seven minutes, and we did," passenger Marty Collins told affiliate KOMO. "When we landed was when all the trucks and the police and the fire trucks surrounded the plane." "I think it's scary and really unsafe, too," Chelsie Nieto told affiliate KCPQ. "Because what if it's someone who could have been a terrorist?" The employee started work at 5 a.m. and his shift was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., just before the flight departed. The agent was off the two days prior to the incident and had taken a lunch break and a break in the afternoon before making his way into the cargo hold, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The man had been on a four-person team loading baggage onto the flight. "During a pre-departure huddle, the team lead noticed the employee was missing. The team lead called into the cargo hold for the employee and called and texted the employee's cell phone, but did not receive an answer. His co-workers believed he finished his shift and went home," the airline's blog said. It's believed he was hidden by luggage, making it difficult for the rest of his team to see him, the source said. All ramp employees have security badges, and undergo full criminal background checks before being hired, according to the airline. After the delay, the flight with 170 passengers and six crew members on board made it to Los Angeles a couple of hours late. CNN's Dave Alsup, Joshua Gaynor and Greg Morrison contributed to this report.

The ramp agent fell asleep in the plane's cargo hold . He can no longer work on Alaska Airlines flights .

(CNN)Mullah Mohammed Omar is "still the leader" of the Taliban's self-declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. That appears to be the primary message of a biography, just published by the Taliban, of the reclusive militant who is credited with founding the group in the early 1990s. The Taliban's "Cultural Commission" released the 11-page document in several different translations on the movement's website, ostensibly to commemorate the 19th anniversary of an April 4, 1996, meeting in Afghanistan's Kandahar province when an assembly of Afghans swore allegiance to Omar. Several Afghan observers say the biography is aimed at dispelling rumors of Omar's demise. "There have been a lot of rumors lately about him. Some people are saying that he is not alive," said Sayyed Muhammad Akbar Agha, a former Taliban insider who has written an autobiography about his days with the movement. "I think the Taliban thought it was an important time to release his biography to give assurances that he is alive and present," Agha told CNN in a telephone interview. Bergen: Why U.S. must stay in Afghanistan past 2016 . The biography also appears to be an attempt to remind the world of the Afghan's jihadi leadership credentials, at a time when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has declared himself "caliph" of the world's Muslims. "The Taliban has a huge leadership problem at a critical political moment," said Graeme Smith, a Kabul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group. "Another caliph has announced himself to the world, and the Taliban has been silent. And that is getting noticed by militants across South Asia." Omar was famously camera-shy during the Taliban's six-year rule over most of Afghanistan. To this day, there are only a handful of photographs of the one-eyed leader. "He never was actively involved in any of these propaganda campaigns. No publicity. No interviews. He never used the Internet," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on Afghanistan who once interviewed Osama bin Laden. Omar then all but disappeared after a U.S.-led bombing campaign routed the Taliban from Kabul in 2001. Washington has offered a $10 million reward for his capture. The Taliban have released written statements purportedly made by the leader-in-hiding. But years without any video or audio recordings of the fugitive have led to growing speculation that Omar may have died. The biography challenges rumors of Omar's death by offering a description of his daily work schedule, which begins with prayers, study of the Quran, and then delivering "orders in a specific way to his Jihadi commanders." The publication also seeks to fill in some of the gaps about the militant's early years, including the detail that his "preferred weapon of choice" was the RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade. According to the biography, Omar was born in 1960 in a village called Chah-i-Himmat in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. His father, a "well-known and respected erudite and social figure," died only five years later, apparently of natural causes. Omar studied at a religious school, or madrassa, run by his uncle. The rise of the Communist Party in Afghanistan, and the subsequent 1979 Soviet invasion, interrupted the young man's studies and propelled him into the arms of the armed Afghan opposition known as the mujahedeen. For the next decade, Omar commanded rebel groups "against the invading Russians and their internal communist puppets," according to the biography. Along the way, he was wounded a number of times and was blinded in his right eye. In one battle, the biography claims, Omar and a fighter named Mullah Biradar Akhund destroyed four Soviet tanks, even though they were armed with only four RPG rounds. The Taliban biography makes no mention of the fact that the U.S., allied with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, helped arm and bankroll the mujahedeen until the Soviet army withdrew in defeat in 1989. Afghan historians have documented the rapid rise of the Taliban in the chaotic years after the communist government in Kabul collapsed in 1992. The movement of warriors who identified themselves as religious scholars emerged to bring order to a country being ripped apart by rival mujahedeen warlords who battled one another for power. The Taliban biography says that Omar and his compatriots "launched their struggle and fight against corruption and anarchy" after an initial meeting in Kandahar in June 1994. Two years later, the Taliban captured Kabul and began imposing its austere interpretation of Islamic law on the rest of the country. While the document denounces the Taliban's post-9/11 overthrow at the hands of a U.S.-backed coalition of rival Afghan fighters, it makes no mention of the Taliban's alliance with bin Laden and al Qaeda. During a decade in exile, the Saudi-born bin Laden continued to release periodic video and audio statements until he was killed by U.S. raid on his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011. Though Taliban militants have continued to battle the U.S.-backed government across Afghanistan, Omar has not been seen or heard from in years. The movement claims he continues to oversee a Taliban leadership council, judiciary and nine executive commissions, as well as military commanders who operate in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Exclusive: ISIS 'recruits Afghans' in chilling video . CNN's Masoud Popalzai contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Mullah Omar, the reclusive founder of the Afghan Taliban, is still in charge, a new biography claims . An ex-Taliban insider says there have been rumors that the one-eyed militant is dead .

(CNN)Wanted: film director, must be eager to shoot footage of golden lassos and invisible jets. CNN confirms that Michelle MacLaren is leaving the upcoming "Wonder Woman" movie (The Hollywood Reporter first broke the story). MacLaren was announced as director of the movie in November. CNN obtained a statement from Warner Bros. Pictures that says, "Given creative differences, Warner Bros. and Michelle MacLaren have decided not to move forward with plans to develop and direct 'Wonder Woman' together." (CNN and Warner Bros. Pictures are both owned by Time Warner.) The movie, starring Gal Gadot in the title role of the Amazon princess, is still set for release on June 23, 2017. It's the first theatrical movie centering around the most popular female superhero. Gadot will appear beforehand in "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," due out March 25, 2016. In the meantime, Warner will need to find someone new for the director's chair.

Michelle MacLaren is no longer set to direct the first "Wonder Woman" theatrical movie . MacLaren left the project over "creative differences" Movie is currently set for 2017 .

London (CNN)British police investigating a spectacular heist in the heart of London's jewelry district said Friday they knew a burglar alarm went off but didn't respond. Southern Monitoring Alarm Company called the Metropolitan Police Service, also known as Scotland Yard, at 12:21 a.m. April 3 to report that the burglar alarm had been activated at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd., MPS said in a prepared statement. "The call was recorded and transferred to the police's CAD (computer-aided dispatch) system," the statement said. "A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required. We are now investigating why this grade was applied to the call. This investigation is being carried out locally. "It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident." The theft was so big that police haven't come up with a value for what was stolen. Over the four-day Easter holiday, thieves broke into the vault of Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. and might have been able to take as long as four days to rifle through the boxes. A former police official in London has speculated that the loss could run to £200 million, or $300 million, in a remark widely reported by news media. Numerous British news organizations put the value of the loss in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Johnson of the London Metropolitan Police Flying Squad said police were still identifying the owners of ransacked safe deposit boxes and trying to contact them to learn what had been lost. The British tabloid The Daily Mirror claimed Friday to have obtained closed-circuit TV footage that captured the robbery being carried out. The video showed people inside the building dressed like utility workers with their faces covered. They carried large bags, what looked like drill equipment and other tools, then exited with trash bins. Toward the end of the video, a white van can be seen on a street during daytime with individuals loading back their gear and the trash bins. British police told CNN they have not released any video of the heist. When asked about the video published by the Daily Mirror, police said they could not confirm that it was footage from the Hatton Garden robbery and that officers have not seen that particular video. The Daily Mirror published time-stamped images it said showed that the thieves had been -- as was feared -- in the vault for days. The Mirror's time stamps, which CNN has not been able to independently verify, show employees locking up for the weekend at 9:19 p.m. on Thursday. If the footage, and its interpretation by the newspaper are correct, at least six people were involved in the heist . Just four minutes later, the first of the thieves, nicknamed "Mr. Ginger" by the newspaper for his red hair, appears in the building holding a black bag. He goes downstairs toward the vault. At 9:27 p.m., a street camera shows a white Ford Transit van pulling up to an alley beside the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit building. Men are seen dragging trash bins down the alley before the van drives away, leaving the men behind. Inside the building, at 9:30p.m., the camera records a thief nicknamed "The Gent" for his natty clothing -- though he also wears a hard-hat and a high-visibility jacket labeled "Gas" on the back. A minute later, "Mr. Strong" appears, wearing a builder's hat and carrying steel supports, which the newspaper speculates could have been used to support the diamond-tipped drill used to smash through the wall of the vault. At 9:36 p.m., Mr. Strong and a thief nicknamed Mr. Montana for the logo on his hooded sweatshirt roll in trash bins, one of which might have contained, according the Mirror, the 77-pound drill that bored through the reinforced seven-foot concrete wall to reach the vault. It is unclear, but the thieves may have spent the night in the basement in or near the vault. At any rate, according to the Daily Mirror, no more activity is seen above ground until Friday morning, shortly before 8:00. The white van returns, is loaded in two minutes, and drives off again. On Saturday evening, Mr. Ginger returns, two days after he was first seen. The newspaper says is wearing latex gloves and carrying a black sack. He goes downstairs toward the vault. Saturday evening also marked the first appearance of the Tall Man, who helped carry some of the loot out of the building. Early Sunday, Mr Ginger, the Tall Man and a robber nicknamed the Old Man are seen to be active. The Tall Man and the Old Man struggle to move a bin before they drag it outside. The Old Man leans on the bin, struggling for breath, and reveals the side of his face to the camera. A white van arrives by the alley and the men start loading equipment on it, including several trash bins. Three men get into the white van and, at 6:44 a.m. they are gone. The heist would not be reported to police for two more days, on Tuesday morning when employees of the company arrived for work. Police said Thursday there was no sign of forced entry. Johnson said the thieves appeared to have gained access to the vault through the shaft of an elevator that is used by several businesses in the building. The thieves disabled the elevator on the second floor of the building -- which would be called the third floor in the United States -- then climbed down the elevator shaft into the basement, he said. Once there, he said, they used a drill to bore through a 6-foot-thick wall and gain access to the vault where the safe deposit boxes were. People with knowledge of the area have speculated that cash and jewels were probably taken. Some jewelry businesses reportedly stored some of their jewels in the boxes rather than leaving it in their stores over the holiday weekend. Johnson said the scene in the vault remained chaotic as police continued their forensic examination. He said the floor was covered with dust and littered with safe deposit boxes and power tools. WATCH: Top five jewelry heists . Johnson called the crime sophisticated and said there were a limited number of people in the United Kingdom capable of pulling it off. He said he had no idea whether the thieves were still in the country. Although there was no sign of forced entry to the building, the detective said, "whether that involves inside knowledge will form part of the investigation." Hatton Garden is a storied area in London and the heart of the city's diamond trade. The area's promotional website says it is home to "the largest and most concentrated cluster of jewellery retailers in the UK" and has been for quite some time. "History tells us that the old City of London had certain streets -- or quarters -- dedicated to specific types of business," the website says. "The Hatton Garden area has been the epicentre of London's jewellery trade since medieval times. "Today, it maintains its international reputation as the centre of London's diamond trade. It is one of the finest and most renowned jewellery locations in the world." How was $4.8 million in gold swiped from a North Carolina highway? The website of Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. says the company was founded in 1954 and offers a "secure and cost-effective solution to store and protect important and irreplaceable personal belongings."

British tabloid releases video it says shows the robbery being carried out . British police say they didn't respond to a burglar alarm in jewelry district . Police give no value of the amount taken in the heist in London's jewelry district .

(CNN)The Baltimore mother who slapped her son several times and pulled him out of a protest told CNN on Wednesday she wasn't concerned that she might be embarrassing her son. "Not at all," Toya Graham told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360˚" in an interview that aired Wednesday night. "He was embarrassing himself by wearing that mask and that hoodie and doing what he was doing." The video of Graham yanking her son, Michael Singleton, and slapping him with a right hand as CNN affiliate WMAR recorded has led to the Internet calling Graham #motheroftheyear. Many people have praised the unemployed, single mother of six for going to the Mondawmin Mall and getting her son away from the escalating violence. Graham told Cooper that she saw her son with a brick in his hand, and she lost control of her emotions and told him to drop it. Wednesday night: Across United States, protests in support of Baltimore demonstrators . "I did (get emotional). You know, once he threw that rock down I said, 'You weren't brought up like this,' " Graham said. He's not a perfect child, but he's also not a thug, she said. The 16-year-old boy said he understood that his mother was there looking out for him. "She didn't want me to get in trouble (with the) law. She didn't want me to be like another Freddie Gray," he said, referring to the 25-year-old man who died of a severe spinal injury after being arrested by Baltimore police. Gray's death has sparked daily protests over police brutality. There have also been riots and looting that prompted the city to put a curfew into effect. Graham said her son told her the night before the violence at the mall that something was up. She told him then and the next morning not to go. He swore to her he wouldn't. Her motherly sense kicked in when she heard school had closed early and the mall was shutting down, too. She went to the mall and focused on the teens who were tossing rocks and bricks. There he was, in sweatpants she recognized. They made eye contact. He had a brick in his hand, and that set her off. Wednesday night: Marchers back in the streets of Baltimore . "I was so angry with him that he had made a decision to do some harm to the police officers," she said. She yelled at him to put the brick down. Singleton said he had seen her, but it didn't make sense that his mother would be there. But when he heard her voice, he realized it really was his mom -- and he was in big trouble. Then the camera captured her memorable smackdown. "It was just World War III from right there," he said, showing some humor about the incident. Graham noticed the TV crew but didn't think anything of it. And she didn't care. "I wasn't there to be recorded. I was there to get my child," she said. Tameka Brown, one of Graham's five daughters, told CNN on Tuesday it wasn't that hard for her mom to spot her 16-year-old half-brother. "She knows her son and picked him out. Even with the mask on, she knew," Brown said. Brown said her mother is always looking out for her children. "She has always been tough and knows where we are at," Brown said. Graham said she tries to steer her son away from potential trouble and troublemakers. "As long as I have breath in my body I will always try to do right by Michael and show him what's going on out in society doesn't have to be you," she told CNN. Her son said that once they got home from the mall he understood why she pulled him out of the crowd. "I was embarrassed a little bit, until she just started talking to me when we got home," he said. "(She was) just telling me she did it because she cared about me. And it wasn't to embarrass me, but because she cared." CNN's Elise Miller and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report. Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

Video of Toya Graham going to a protest and forcefully removing her son went viral, drew a lot of praise . The single mother of six tells CNN her son was scolded that he wasn't brought up that way . Michael Singleton says he knows his mom was trying to protect him .

(CNN)Ever had a headache so big, you felt like drilling a hole in your head to let the pain out? In Neolithic times trepanation -- or drilling a hole into the skull -- was thought to be a cure for everything from epilepsy to migraines. It could even have been a form of emergency surgery for battle wounds. But while there is still conjecture about the real reasons behind the mysterious procedure, what is known is that the implement often used to carry out the primitive surgery was made from one of the sharpest substances found in nature -- obsidian. Obsidian -- a type of volcanic glass -- can produce cutting edges many times finer than even the best steel scalpels. At 30 angstroms -- a unit of measurement equal to one hundred millionth of a centimeter -- an obsidian scalpel can rival diamond in the fineness of its edge. When you consider that most household razor blades are 300-600 angstroms, obsidian can still cut it with the sharpest materials nano-technology can produce. Even today, a small number of surgeons are using an ancient technology to carry out fine incisions that they say heal with minimal scarring. Dr. Lee Green, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta, says he routinely uses obsidian blades. "The biggest advantage with obsidian is that it is the sharpest edge there is, it causes very little trauma to tissue, it heals faster and more importantly it heals with less scarring," he said. "It makes for the best cosmetic outcome." He explained that steel scalpels at a microscopic level have a rough cutting edge that tears into tissue, a function of the crystals that make up the metal. Obsidian, meanwhile, cleaves into a fine and continuous edge when properly cut. Dr. Green said he once helped documentary makers produce a program on surgical technology in ancient Egyptian, setting up a blind test on the cutting power of obsidian. Using cultured-skin burn dressing, a substance composed of skin cells, he made an incision with a modern scalpel and a parallel incision with an obsidian scalpel. The host of the program was then invited to look at the cuts under a video microscope and tell the difference. "It wasn't hard to tell the difference at all -- as soon as he turned around everyone in the studio was like 'Ohhh'," Dr. Green said. "Under the microscope you could see the obsidian scalpel had divided individual cells in half, and next to it the steel scalpel incision looked like it had been made by a chainsaw." Modern obsidian scalpels look nothing like the decorative flint-knapped knives of Neolithic man, often resembling their modern counterparts in everything except for the blade edge, but Dr. Green said they are a very different animal. "The feel is very different because obsidian has no 'bite,'" he said. "If you look under the microscope at a steel scalpel edge it looks almost like a saw, it has teeth, whereas obsidian is smooth even microscopically. "It's a very different feel to work with and you have to practice before you start using it in surgery. "You also have to be careful not to nick yourself with it because you don't even feel it!" And Dr. Green believes incisions made with these blades heal faster. He said a colleague who needed a mole removed agreed to undergo an experiment where half the procedure was carried out with an obsidian scalpel and the other half was removed with steel. "What's really fun is seeing it heal," he said. "Four weeks later the difference was quite remarkable -- there was very much a difference in scarring." In Germany, the manufacturer Fine Science Tools produces obsidian scalpels which can be used in situations where the patient may have an allergy to steel or metal. "For studies where trace metals from ordinary scalpel blades cannot be tolerated, these very special obsidian scalpels may provide the answer," the company says. At €99 per scalpel ($107.40), they represent a considerable saving on their diamond cousins which the company prices at €712.50 ($772.60). But there has been little academic research into the efficacy of obsidian blades compared to steel scalpels, and they do have disadvantages: Obsidian scalpels are not Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, and they are extremely brittle and prone to breaking if lateral forces are applied -- meaning they are unlikely to ever be in widespread use. Dr. Green, whose scalpels were manufactured for him by an expert flint-knapper and archaeologist Errett Callahan, concedes the Stone Age scalpels are not for everyone. "If it was let loose on the market there'd be far too many injuries from it," he said. "It's very fragile and it's very easy to break pieces off."

Obsidian can produce cutting edges many times finer than even the best steel scalpels . Some surgeons still use the blades in procedures today .

(CNN)More than 500 Houthi rebels have been killed since the start of Saudi-led military operations against Yemeni Shia fighters, a Saudi Defense Ministry official said Saturday, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. A Saudi general said Saturday the nine-nation coalition has undertaken 1,200 airstrikes since they began on March 26. Gen. Ahmed Asiri added that the raids aim to keep the rebels from moving toward southern Yemen, according to the SPA. Clashes took place Friday near the Saudi-Yemeni border, in the Najran region. Saudi forces responded to mortar rounds fired by Houthis on a Saudi border site. Three Saudi military officers were killed and two others were wounded in the shelling, a defense official said, according to SPA. A Saudi source also confirmed to CNN's Nic Robertson that three Saudi soldiers were killed in the shelling. The Yemeni Health Ministry on Saturday said 385 civilians have been killed and 342 others have been wounded. The World Health Organization has put higher figure on both tolls -- 648 killed and 2,191 wounded -- but includes militant casualties in the totals. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Houthi rebels -- minority Shiites who have long complained of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- forced Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January. And even before the crisis escalated with the Saudi airstrikes, most of the 25 million people in Yemen required humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs, the United Nations said Friday. CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

Saudi general says more than 1,200 airstrikes since campaign began March 26 . Three Saudis were killed in attack on border position, source tells CNN .

Washington (CNN)Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say that businesses that provide wedding-related services should be required to provide those services to same-sex couples in the same way they would all other customers, even if they have religious objections. A new CNN/ORC poll finds 57% feel businesses such as caterers or florists should be required to serve gay or lesbian couples just as they would heterosexual couples, while 41% say they should be allowed to refuse service for religious reasons. That's a shift from a Pew Research Center poll conducted last fall, which found just 49% thought businesses ought to be required to serve same-sex couples while 47% that they should be allowed to refuse service on religious grounds. Since the Pew poll last fall, Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law in late March by Republican governor Mike Pence, sparked a nationwide controversy over whether the law allowed wedding-related businesses to refuse service to gay and lesbian couples. Apple, Walmart and the NCAA all spoke out against the law, while some states and cities with Democratic leaders barred spending public money in Indiana. Pence and other Indiana legislators insisted discrimination was not the law's intent and a bill to change the original law was signed in early April. In the CNN/ORC Poll, most Democrats (70%) and independents (60%) say wedding-related businesses should be required to provide services to same-sex couples as they would different-sex couples, while Republicans break broadly the other way, 67% say religious reasons are a valid justification for refusing service. Full poll results . Looking at Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party, 60% in that group say wedding-related businesses should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples, but there are sharp divides within that group by age and ideology. Moderate and liberal Republicans and Republican-leaners broadly say wedding-related businesses should be required to serve all couples the same way (58%) while three-quarters of conservative Republicans favor allowing a caterer or florist to refuse service for religious reasons (74%). Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under age 50, 56% say wedding-related businesses should be required to serve same-sex and different-sex couples the same way while among those age 50 or older, 72% think they should not be required to do so. The big gay wedding cake quiz . Age differences hold across party lines, but the generation gap among Republicans and Republican-leaners is larger than that among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Overall, white evangelicals are broadly in favor of allowing businesses to refuse service for religious reasons - 62% say they should be able to. But among whites who are not evangelicals, 61% say such businesses should be required to provide services to all couples the same way. The shift from the Pew Center results comes across demographic lines. Men, women, whites, younger adults and senior citizens all are more apt than in the Pew poll to say wedding-related business should be required to serve same-sex couples as they do others. The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted by telephone, April 16-19, among a random national sample of 1,018 adult Americans. Results for the full poll have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Michigan auto repair shop says yes to gun owners, no to homosexuals .

Most Americans say businesses should not discriminate against same-sex weddings . Public opinion has shifted on the issue since last fall . Indiana passed and later changed its religious freedom law after public outcry .

(CNN)James Holmes made his introduction to the world in a Colorado cinema filled with spectators watching a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," in June 2012. The moment became one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Holmes is accused of opening fire on the crowd, killing 12 people and injuring or maiming 70 others in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. Holmes appeared like a comic book character: He resembled the Joker, with red-orange hair, similar to the late actor Heath Ledger's portrayal of the villain in an earlier Batman movie, authorities said. But Holmes was hardly a cartoon. Authorities said he wore body armor and carried several guns, including an AR-15 rifle, with lots of ammo. He also wore a gas mask. Holmes says he was insane at the time of the shootings, and that is his legal defense and court plea: not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors aren't swayed and will seek the death penalty. Opening statements in his trial are scheduled to begin Monday. Holmes admits to the shootings but says he was suffering "a psychotic episode" at the time, according to court papers filed in July 2013 by the state public defenders, Daniel King and Tamara A. Brady. Evidence "revealed thus far in the case supports the defense's position that Mr. Holmes suffers from a severe mental illness and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he committed the acts that resulted in the tragic loss of life and injuries sustained by moviegoers on July 20, 2012," the public defenders wrote. Holmes no longer looks like a dazed Joker, as he did in his first appearance before a judge in 2012. He appeared dramatically different in January when jury selection began for his trial: 9,000 potential jurors were summoned for duty, described as one of the nation's largest jury calls. Holmes now has a cleaner look, with a mustache, button-down shirt and khaki pants. In January, he had a beard and eyeglasses. If this new image sounds like one of an academician, it may be because Holmes, now 27, once was one. Just before the shooting, Holmes was a doctoral student in neuroscience, and he was studying how the brain works, with his schooling funded by a U.S. government grant. Yet for all his learning, Holmes apparently lacked the capacity to command his own mind, according to the case against him. A jury will ultimately decide Holmes' fate. That panel is made up of 12 jurors and 12 alternates. They are 19 women and five men, and almost all are white and middle-aged. The trial could last until autumn. When jury summonses were issued in January, each potential juror stood a 0.2% chance of being selected, District Attorney George Brauchler told the final jury this month. He described the approaching trial as "four to five months of a horrible roller coaster through the worst haunted house you can imagine." The jury will have to render verdicts on each of the 165 counts against Holmes, including murder and attempted murder charges. Meanwhile, victims and their relatives are challenging all media outlets "to stop the gratuitous use of the name and likeness of mass killers, thereby depriving violent individuals the media celebrity and media spotlight they so crave," the No Notoriety group says. They are joined by victims from eight other mass shootings in recent U.S. history. Raised in central coastal California and in San Diego, James Eagan Holmes is the son of a mathematician father noted for his work at the FICO firm that provides credit scores and a registered nurse mother, according to the U-T San Diego newspaper. Holmes also has a sister, Chris, a musician, who's five years younger, the newspaper said. His childhood classmates remember him as a clean-cut, bespectacled boy with an "exemplary" character who "never gave any trouble, and never got in trouble himself," The Salinas Californian reported. His family then moved down the California coast, where Holmes grew up in the San Diego-area neighborhood of Rancho Peñasquitos, which a neighbor described as "kind of like Mayberry," the San Diego newspaper said. Holmes attended Westview High School, which says its school district sits in "a primarily middle- to upper-middle-income residential community." There, Holmes ran cross-country, played soccer and later worked at a biotechnology internship at the Salk Institute and Miramar College, which attracts academically talented students. By then, his peers described him as standoffish and a bit of a wiseacre, the San Diego newspaper said. Holmes attended college fairly close to home, in a neighboring area known as Southern California's "inland empire" because it's more than an hour's drive from the coast, in a warm, low-desert climate. He entered the University of California, Riverside, in 2006 as a scholarship student. In 2008 he was a summer camp counselor for disadvantaged children, age 7 to 14, at Camp Max Straus, run by Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles. He graduated from UC Riverside in 2010 with the highest honors and a bachelor's degree in neuroscience. "Academically, he was at the top of the top," Chancellor Timothy P. White said. He seemed destined for even higher achievement. By 2011, he had enrolled as a doctoral student in the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, the largest academic health center in the Rocky Mountain region. The doctoral in neuroscience program attended by Holmes focuses on how the brain works, with an emphasis on processing of information, behavior, learning and memory. Holmes was one of six pre-thesis Ph.D. students in the program who were awarded a neuroscience training grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant rewards outstanding neuroscientists who will make major contributions to neurobiology. A syllabus that listed Holmes as a student at the medical school shows he was to have delivered a presentation about microRNA biomarkers. But Holmes struggled, and his own mental health took an ominous turn. In March 2012, he told a classmate he wanted to kill people, and that he would do so "when his life was over," court documents said. Holmes was "denied access to the school after June 12, 2012, after he made threats to a professor," according to court documents. About that time, Holmes was a patient of University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton. Fenton was so concerned about Holmes' behavior that she mentioned it to her colleagues, saying he could be a danger to others, CNN affiliate KMGH-TV reported, citing sources with knowledge of the investigation. Fenton's concerns surfaced in early June, sources told the Denver station. Holmes began to fantasize about killing "a lot of people" in early June, nearly six weeks before the shootings, the station reported, citing unidentified sources familiar with the investigation. Holmes' psychiatrist contacted several members of a "behavioral evaluation and threat assessment" team to say Holmes could be a danger to others, the station reported. At issue was whether to order Holmes held for 72 hours to be evaluated by mental health professionals, the station reported. "Fenton made initial phone calls about engaging the BETA team" in "the first 10 days" of June, but it "never came together" because in the period Fenton was having conversations with team members, Holmes began the process of dropping out of school, a source told KMGH. Defense attorneys have rejected the prosecution's assertions that Holmes was barred from campus. Citing statements from the university, Holmes' attorneys have argued that his access was revoked because that's normal procedure when a student drops enrollment. What caused this turn for the worse for Holmes has yet to be clearly detailed. In the months before the shooting, he bought four weapons and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said. Police said he also booby-trapped his third-floor apartment with explosives, but police weren't fooled. After Holmes was caught in the cinema parking lot immediately after the shooting, bomb technicians went to the apartment and neutralized the explosives. No one was injured at the apartment building. Nine minutes before Holmes went into the movie theater, he called a University of Colorado switchboard, public defender Brady has said in court. The number he called can be used to get in contact with faculty members during off hours, Brady said. Court documents have also revealed that investigators have obtained text messages that Holmes exchanged with someone before the shooting. That person was not named, and the content of the texts has not been made public. According to The New York Times, Holmes sent a text message to a fellow graduate student, a woman, about two weeks before the shooting. She asked if he had left Aurora yet, reported the newspaper, which didn't identify her. No, he had two months left on his lease, Holmes wrote back, according to the Times. He asked if she had heard of "dysphoric mania," a form of bipolar disorder marked by the highs of mania and the dark and sometimes paranoid delusions of major depression. The woman asked if the disorder could be managed with treatment. "It was," Holmes wrote her, according to the Times. But he warned she should stay away from him "because I am bad news," the newspaper reported. It was her last contact with Holmes. After the shooting, Holmes' family issued a brief statement: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved," they said, without giving any information about their son. Since then, prosecutors have refused to offer a plea deal to Holmes. For Holmes, "justice is death," said Brauchler, the district attorney. In December, Holmes' parents, who will be attending the trial, issued another statement: They asked that their son's life be spared and that he be sent to an institution for mentally ill people for the rest of his life, if he's found not guilty by reason of insanity. "He is not a monster," Robert and Arlene Holmes wrote, saying the death penalty is "morally wrong, especially when the condemned is mentally ill." "He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness," the parents said. The matter will be settled by the jury. CNN's Ana Cabrera and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report from Denver.

Opening statements are scheduled Monday in the trial of James Holmes . Jury selection took three months . Holmes faces 165 counts in the movie theater massacre that killed 12 people .

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)More than 4,600 people dead. More than 9,000 injured. Eight million affected across Nepal. One million children urgently in need of help. Those are the startling numbers that indicate the scale of the devastation from the huge earthquake that struck the Himalayan nation on Saturday. And some of the grim figures are likely to get even worse as hopes of rescuing any more survivors diminish every hour. Heartbreaking scenes of suffering and loss are playing out across this shell-shocked nation as it reels from its deadliest natural disaster in more than 80 years. As the country coped with the fallout of the quake, another natural disaster struck Tuesday afternoon in a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu, and up to 200 people were feared missing as a result of a landslide, a trekking association official said. It happened around 4 p.m. in Langtang National Park, said Ramesh Dhamala, president of the Trekking Agents of Nepal. Laxmi Dhakal, spokesman for Nepal's Home Ministry, said he was aware of reports about the landslide but wasn't immediately able to confirm details. Quake relief efforts continued Tuesday, but officials warned that they were hampered by problems of getting aid into the country and then delivering it to some of the remote communities in desperate need. In Kathmandu, a capital city of shattered temples and toppled houses, some people paid their last respects to loved ones taken by the quake. By the Bagmati River, which winds through the city, more than a dozen funeral pyres burned Monday. As workers stoked the flames for the Hindu cremation ceremonies, some mourners shaved their heads in a traditional show of mourning from children who lose their parents. Alongside their father, two teenage brothers from the Gurung family, Ishan and Iman, said goodbye to their mother, Ishara. "We never imagined this would happen to us. This much pain," said Ishan, the elder of the two. Elsewhere in the city, many shaken residents are sleeping in the open. Some have lost their homes, others are afraid to stay in buildings that may be vulnerable to aftershocks. Large encampments of tents have sprung up in open areas, including a wide space belonging to the military in the center of the city that is typically used for parades. One of the grand gates to the field is now just a pile of rubble. Kisnor Raj Giri, a 22-year-old man from Kathmandu who lost members of his extended family in the quake, said he was too scared to return home. He is camping out at the military grounds with thousands of others even though frequent rain has made the nights an ordeal. "Many people are crying, sharing their hardships," he told CNN on Monday evening. The elements showed no mercy to the homeless masses on Tuesday as thunderstorms rumbled over Kathmandu. More bad weather is forecast for the region in the coming days. But in one piece of good news, Turkish and Chinese rescue crews helped pull free a 21-year-old man trapped under rubble near a city bus park in a 13-hour rescue operation. Houses and families ripped apart by earthquake . The death toll has now climbed above 4,600 in Nepal, officials said Tuesday evening, as rescue and relief efforts continue. Nepal army Lt. Col. A. J. Thapa told CNN's Sumnima Udas that the first 72 hours after the earthquake is the time when the most lives can be saved. "This is not the time to rest and lament," he said. "This is the time to go out and save lives." Thapa said an entire military post was lost during an avalanche. "Remember we are not an outside force that has been parachuted into an area to help," he said. "We are victim ourselves. ... Despite the fact that soldiers have their families and houses are down, we are trying to build morale, maintain morale and help themselves." Thapa said it was fortunate that the quake struck during daylight on a weekend. "Children were not trapped in big schools somewhere and lot of people were outside because it was daytime," he said. Dhakal, the Home Ministry spokesman, put the death toll at 4,620, while Nepal's National Emergency Coordination Center said the number of dead was 4,727. Both sources gave the number of people injured as 9,239. Another 72 people died in India, while China reported 25 deaths. Most of the casualty numbers in Nepal are believed to have come mainly from Kathmandu and the surrounding area. They are expected to climb as information emerges from remote areas. "We have incomplete information, but we apprehend the death toll will go up," Nepalese Information Minister Minendra Rijal told CNN earlier on Tuesday. "We cannot say by how much exactly." The news agency Reuters cited Prime Minister Sushil Koirala as saying that the toll could reach 10,000 and that the country was "on a war footing" in its rescue and relief work. In a live, televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the country had been stunned by the disaster and announced three days of national mourning, starting Tuesday. The government's first priority is to continue search and rescue operations and relief efforts, he said, as he thanked all those involved. Historic and religious monuments destroyed by the earthquake will be reconstructed in time, he added. At least 90% of 96,000 Nepali army troops have been deployed in relief and rescue operations, according to Nepal army spokesman Jagadish Chandra Pokharel. More than 15 countries and agencies have already promised help, Koirala said, as he appealed for other nations also to come to Nepal's aid. Even as international aid pours into the country, overwhelmed hospitals are lacking vital medical supplies, people remain buried in the wreckage of buildings and rescuers are struggling to reach hard-hit rural areas near the quake's epicenter. "The biggest problem is reaching these villages," Matt Darvas, an emergency communications officer for the humanitarian group World Vision, told CNN from Gorkha district, northwest of Kathmandu. Nepal struggles to cope with international aid . Nepali Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sagar Mani Parajuli, who is coordinating relief efforts, said government efforts to get aid to remote areas had been hampered by rugged terrain and poor weather, which limits the use of helicopters. "The helicopters are small. They don't fly in windy and cloudy conditions. Given Nepal's geographical terrain, we cannot use surface transport much but are using it," he said. "We need 150,000 tents and tarpaulins, but we don't have enough of them." Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. resident coordinator for Nepal, told a news conference Tuesday that bringing in relief materials has been difficult because Kathmandu's international airport, which has just one runway and space for only a limited number of aircraft to park, is log jammed. The United Nations is aware of the request for tents, he said, but is working to procure high quality ones to withstand the expected monsoon rains. Of the 8 million people affected by the quake across 39 districts of Nepal, some 1.4 million need food aid, McGoldrick added. Nepal's population is about 31 million. At an event in Paris, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his condolences to the people of Nepal and called the humanitarian needs "huge and urgent." "The United Nations is supporting international operations for search and rescue and strengthening relief efforts," he said. "I count on the generosity of the international community in Nepal's hour of need and the longer term rebuilding efforts that will be needed." A CNN team that joined a Nepalese military helicopter flight to Dhulikhel, a rural area east of Kathmandu, saw extensive damage in the Kathmandu Valley from the air, including many landslides. On landing, the team went to a hospital where all the injured from six surrounding districts are being brought. More than 1,000 people are currently in the hospital -- three times its usual capacity -- so some of the injured are being left out in the streets. Social media posts from Nepal . Darvas of World Vision said he had been told of frightening levels of damage in villages in the region surrounding Gorkha district, which is near the earthquake's epicenter. They included one where 35 out of 45 homes were destroyed and another where 70% of the houses had collapsed, trapping and crushing the people inside, most of them children and the elderly. Even though aid groups and Nepalese officials are aware of critical situations in areas spread across Nepal's mountainous terrain, they face daunting challenges getting help to them. "Some of those villages -- several years ago, before there was vehicle transport -- used to take seven days to reach. Roads are shut now to some of those villages, so we can only imagine how long it will take to get there," Darvas said Monday. He said injured people who had been airlifted from some remote areas were often suffering from crush injuries, lacerations and dislocations. Looking for missing loved ones in Nepal? CNN iReport wants to help . UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said Sunday that nearly 1 million Nepalese children urgently need assistance. Aid groups and at least 16 nations rushed aid and workers to Nepal, with more on the way. High-altitude rescue efforts have also been undertaken on the difficult terrain of Mount Everest, where the earthquake released deadly avalanches. Four U.S. citizens are among those who died on Everest, according to officials and relatives. Damage to climbing infrastructure on the mountain, not to mention the overall situation in Nepal, means the climbing season is over for the year, climber Jim Davidson told CNN from the Everest base camp, where he was evacuated after spending two days on the mountain. China has canceled all climbs on its side of the mountain, the official news agency Xinhua reported. Are you in Nepal or do you have loved ones affected? Please share with us if you are in a safe place. How to help the earthquake victims . Fast facts on earthquakes . CNN's Ivan Watson and Tim Hume reported from Kathmandu; CNN's Jethro Mullen wrote and reported from Hong Kong, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Elizabeth Joseph, Pamela Boykoff, Manesh Shrestha, Sumnima Udas, Kristie Lu Stout, Anjali Tsui, Kunal Sehgal and Ingrid Formanek also contributed to this report.

Death toll in Nepal climbs above 4,600, officials say, with more than 9,000 injured . Shattered villages near epicenter are hard to reach, says aid worker in the area . More bad weather is forecast for the region in the coming days .

(CNN)We did it again, in another American city. We set Baltimore on fire this time. We brutalized black bodies. We turned a funeral into a riot. We let things get out of hand. We looted. We threw stones at policemen. We threw stones at citizens. We created camera-ready chaos, and we replayed the images. We created a culture of such deep distrust and disrespect that violence seemed the inevitable response. We let the violence flow. We let the violence stand for everything that's wrong with the things we already didn't like. By now you may be asking, "Who's we?" You may be saying with some irritation, "Don't lump me in with them. I didn't have anything to do with it." To which the only real answer can be: Stop kidding yourself. The word "we" is one of the great American words. We the People. Yes we can. We are family. I use "we" a lot when I talk about our country's achievements. I like to say we won the Second World War, we put a man on the moon, we invented the Internet, we gave the world jazz. Well, if I -- a son of immigrants whose family had nothing to do with any of those accomplishments -- if I get to claim those aspects of American history, then surely I have to claim the unsavory aspects too. "We" cuts both ways. We enslaved Africans. We cut Reconstruction short and made a mockery of equal citizenship. We supported Jim Crow, then redlined, subordinated, and ghettoized African-Americans. We cut blacks out of the New Deal. We created a polity in which racial inequity and economic inequality magnify each other unrelentingly. We tried to put a lid on it with heavy policing and a War on Drugs. We failed. We are the authors of every page of Baltimore's story. Don't tell me it's not your responsibility or mine. About how slavery and its legacy are artifacts of a time past. Someone else's problem. No, we own them all. And we all have to face that before we can fix anything in Baltimore or beyond. But there's another dimension of the story of "we" that matters as well. It's about progressives and conservatives and their competing stories of how we got here. Every time protests and violence break out in response to police brutality, the same depressing pattern breaks out. The event becomes simply a Rorschach test for left and right, and each side sees in the rioting confirmation of its prior views. For the left, it's about the deep structural root causes of the alienation and violence. Liberals gravitate on social media to commentaries or reactions that reinforce this frame, like the surprisingly astute comments from the Baltimore Orioles executive who spelled out why a long history of racial injustice and economic disenfranchisement made rioting nearly inevitable. Conservatives gravitate to their own frames, about a lack of personal responsibility or role models among poor urban blacks, about the failures of Great Society and Democratic programs, and about how it all comes back to a president (who happens to be black) who has divided us by focusing so much on race. What gets lost in this Groundhog Day replay of left-right frames is a simple reality that we all have to recognize: Both longstanding structural racism and personal irresponsibility are on display this week. Both a history of police brutality and a present crisis of street violence. Both an inherited, multigenerational lack of opportunity and a dearth of leaders willing to address it. We cannot separate out the aspects of the problem that don't fit our preferred explanation -- not if we are sincere about solving the problem. And until more people can see this, we will not see progress. We can't judge looters for their antisocial behavior without judging a color-caste structure and a school-to-prison pipeline that has flushed them away like so much refuse. By the same token, we can't keep opining about root causes without also supporting the parents and pastors and neighbors who, in their own small ways, are organizing each other to break the cycle of brokenness. I'm of the left. But it cannot possibly be that only those with whom I disagree are responsible for what is happening in Baltimore. It cannot possibly be that only my worldview contains all the solutions. Whatever our political perspective, we need to open our eyes to what is actually happening in Baltimore and other cities in the United States in the second decade of the 21st century. It is an abomination. We should all be able to say that. It's time to push each other out of our ideological and identity comfort zones and build unlikely coalitions to create more opportunity. It's time to act like we are all in charge. Because we are. And there is no other "we" waiting in the wings.

In Baltimore, after the death of Freddie Gray, riots erupted, cars were set on fire and 200 arrests were made . Eric Liu: Liberals and conservatives react predictably, see the riots as confirmation of their views . It's time to push each other out of our ideological and identity comfort zones and change the status quo, he says .

(CNN)By now, you probably have a position regarding the controversy over Indiana's religious freedom law. You applaud the growing chorus of companies blasting the law as an invitation for businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians, using religion as a cover. Or, like Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, you are surprised at the backlash and maintain that it is basically a copy of a law that is already in the books at the federal level and 19 other states. The issue drives a wedge because, well, the debate over religious freedom and gay rights is always heated, but also because the interpretations and motives behind the law can be questioned. Whichever side you're on, here are five things you might not have considered when thinking about this controversy. These points might not change your mind, but offer context to better understand the uproar. As the author of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Sen. Chuck Schumer is one who can offer clarity over the controversy surrounding Indiana's version of the law. Schumer mocks Indiana's contention that the state law is simply a mirror of the 22-year-old federal law. "That may be true only if you're using a Funhouse mirror," Schumer wrote on his Facebook page. The federal law was intended to protect individual's religious freedom from government intervention, he said. The Indiana law justifies discrimination in the name of religious freedom, he contends. Also, the law was envisioned to protect the religious freedoms of individuals, while the Indiana law also protects private companies, Schumer said. So, how can the law's supporters claim it is basically a copy of the federal law? If you look at the purpose of the law, the language in the federal and Indiana religious freedom laws are indeed nearly indistinguishable. In short -- the government cannot interfere with a person's religious practices unless there is a compelling government interest to do so. The uproar is over that fact that the Indiana law expands the reach of the religious protections to include private companies and cases where the government is not involved. Other states previously passed their own version of the religious freedom law -- Indiana became the 20th. But other state laws mirror the federal law much more closely than the Indiana law does. The key difference in the Indiana law is that it expands the instances where someone can use religious freedom as a defense. This is how it could make a difference: . In 2006, Vanessa Willock contacted a photographer about shooting her commitment ceremony with her partner. This was in New Mexico, a state with a religious freedom law at the time of the dispute. The company, Elane Photography, refused the job because of the co-owner's religious beliefs. Willock sued Elane Photography for discrimination, and the company defended itself by citing the law. The photography studio lost the case because the court ruled that it could not use the religious freedom law because the dispute was between two private parties and not a government entity. What would happen if that case happened today in Indiana, with the new, expanded religious freedom law? For sure, the case would have proceeded to trial, said Tim Holbrook, a law professor at Emory University. The photography studio would have had the chance to make its argument in court that it denied the service because of religious reasons. Would the outcome have been the same? Would an Indiana jury side with the company that refused service to a couple because of their sexual orientation? In a letter expressing concern about the Indiana law, a group of 30 legal scholars argued that what Indiana has done is expanded the scope of the law to the point that religious considerations might trump discrimination concerns. "In our expert opinion, the clear evidence ... unmistakably demonstrates that the broad language of the proposed state RFRA will more likely create confusion, conflict, and a wave of litigation that will threaten the clarity of religious liberty rights in Indiana while undermining the state's ability to enforce other compelling interests," the letter, whose signatories included many Indiana law professors, stated. These concerns are based on speculation of what might happen, said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law. Yes, the Indiana law makes it clear that individuals and private companies can use the religious freedom law as a defense, he said. "But, just because you raise the defense does not mean it will be successful." Those who try to defend their discriminatory actions in court tend to lose, Blackman said. In his opinion, if Elane Photography had been able to use the law as a defense in New Mexico, it still likely would have lost the case. What's clear is that Indiana's law increases the potential pool of people who can defend themselves claiming religious freedom. The success of such arguments is to be seen. In the meantime, some are already hatching plans on how to test the law, including Bill Levin, founder of The First Church Of Cannabis, who argued on CNN that the law should protect his right to smoke pot. Much is being made of the fact that the first religious freedom law was signed by President Bill Clinton more than 20 years ago. There was bipartisan support in 1993, so why the commotion over a similar law in 2015, some ask? Context, timing and intent have changed the way these laws are viewed. The federal law was written by two Democrats, Schumer and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Today, it is being championed by Republicans. The law came into being after two Native Americans in Oregon were fired from their jobs at a rehab clinic because they had consumed peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus. They were denied unemployment benefits, and they sued the state, claiming that the peyote was part of their religious customs. They lost the case. There was outrage over the decision, and the law was created as a remedy. As envisioned by its authors, it would protect the freedoms of religious minorities. Over the years, the law helped a number of people -- a Muslim prisoner won the right to grow a short beard, a Santeria priest was allowed to sacrifice a goat on special religious occasions, and a Native American boy received an exception to his school's policy banning long hair on boys. The law was on the books for years, with little attention paid to it. But Holbrook says it is no coincidence that the religious freedom laws became popular at the state level just as the gay rights and marriage equality movement made historic steps. Many states are using the laws to carve out exceptions to allow Christians to deny services to same-sex couples. Holbrook said. "The timing is beyond a coincidence," he said. "We are having an interest in RFRA at the time same-sex marriage is coming forward." Though not enshrined in the law, critics accuse the states pursuing the laws of using them to justify discrimination by the majority religion. Blackman said the history of the state religious freedom laws shows that they have not turned into conduits for discrimination. The expanded laws might mean more people will defend themselves using it, but most will likely lose, he said. "The moral outrage over this reflects how uninformed people are on the history of the RFRA," he said. So we've established that the biggest difference between the federal law and the Indiana law is the scope: In Indiana, the law can be raised as a defense in private disputes, while the federal law applies only to government matters. Not so fast. According to Blackman, the interpretations of the federal religious freedom law are not uniform. Four U.S. circuit courts of appeals have ruled that the federal law can be used as a defense in cases involving private parties. Two other appeals courts have ruled that this is not allowed. And then, there is the Hobby Lobby case. Hobby Lobby, citing the federal religious freedom law, argued that it should not have to provide contraception coverage through insurance to its employees via Obamacare because it was against the owners' beliefs. And, Hobby Lobby won the case before the Supreme Court. The ruling, in effect, expanded the reach of the federal law to include a business. The Hobby Lobby decision, plus the appeals courts rulings, may have opened the door for states like Indiana to be explicit about its expansion of the law. One way to look at it, Blackman said, is that Indiana simply clarified and codified something that is hazy in the federal courts. The outrage over the Indiana law is that it can be used to deny services to the LGBT community on the ground of religious beliefs. Some may rightfully ask, "Where was the outrage before the religious freedom law?" Indiana does not have an nondiscrimination law that protects people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In that sense, the religious freedom law is not necessary for those who want to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Even before the controversial Indiana law was passed, if a restaurant denied service to a gay couple, the couple might be able to sue, but not for discrimination. For that matter, there is also no federal law that protects the LGBT community. According to the Human Rights Campaign, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are sometimes fired, denied a promotion or harassed in the workplace. And their recourse is limited. With the proliferation of religious freedom state laws, nondiscrimination laws become even more important. Another hypothetical outcome of the New Mexico case involving the lesbian couple and the photography studio. If New Mexico had the same religious freedom law as Indiana, the case would have gone to trial. But New Mexico has a nondiscrimination law that protects the LGBT community, it and it would have provided a strong counter-argument to the religious freedom claim. In Indiana, that protection would be lacking. (It gets more complicated when some local governments, like the city of Indianapolis, do have nondiscrimination ordinances). For this reason, Holbrook suggests that a "fix" for the Indiana law would be the passage of a nondiscrimination law. Or, at the very least, an exception written into the religious freedom bill that protects from such discrimination.

The controversy over Indiana's religious freedom law is complicated . Some factors you might have not considered .

Paris (CNN)Six survivors of the Paris kosher supermarket siege in January are suing a French media outlet for what they call dangerous live broadcasting during the hostage-taking. According to Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, the lawsuit was filed March 27 and a preliminary investigation was opened by the prosecutor's office Wednesday. The media outlet, CNN affiliate BFMTV, is accused of endangering the lives of the hostages, who were hiding in a cold room during the attack, by broadcasting their location live during the siege. BFM in a statement Friday said one of its journalists "mentioned only once the presence of a woman hidden inside the Hyper Cacher, on the basis of police sources on the ground." "Immediately, the chief editor felt that this information should not be released. It therefore has subsequently never been repeated on air or posted on-screen. BFMTV regrets that the mention of this information could cause concern to the hostages, as well as their relatives, that their lives were in danger," the statement said. Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, also suspected in the slaying of a police officer, stormed the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket on January 9, killing four people and taking others hostage. He was killed in the police operation to end the siege. A 24-year-old supermarket employee, Malian-born Lassana Bathily, was hailed as a hero afterward when it emerged that he had risked his life to hide 15 customers from Coulibaly in the cold room. The hostage-taking was the culmination of three days of terror in Paris that began with the January 7 shooting of 12 people at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The two brothers blamed for that attack, Cherif and Said Kouachi, were killed on January 9 after a violent standoff at an industrial site. The terror attacks claimed the lives of 17 people and put France on a heightened state of alert. CNN's Ariana Williams reported from Paris, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.

Six people taken hostage in a kosher market siege say media outlet endangered their lives . They hid in a cold room during the attack in Paris by gunman Amedy Coulibaly .

Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)Police officers Saturday accompanied the hearse carrying the body of Walter Scott to his South Carolina funeral service, where hundreds of mourners celebrated his life and death as a catalyst for change in America. A pair of officers on motorcycles were part of the large procession delivering the father of four -- who was fatally shot in the back by a police officer -- to a service open to the public. An overflow crowd gathered on a humid and occasionally rainy April afternoon at W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center in Summerville, which has a capacity of about 300 people. The flag-draped casket of the U.S. Coast Guard veteran was wheeled inside the church as Scott's relatives and friends followed. Some dabbed tears; others embraced. Hundreds, including local officials, assembled inside the packed sanctuary -- in corridors, under an awning at the entrance, wherever they could stand. Silence filled the vast space as Scott's daughter Samantha read a poem of love dedicated to her father. Anthony Scott said God had selected his brother as a candidate for change in America. "The change will come," he said, bringing to the crowd to its feet. The head of the church, George Hamilton, spoke of how Scott had brought members of his family to the church, of the agony of not only losing a family member but having to watch it happen on video. The death of Scott, who was black, at the hands of a white police officer was "motivated by racial prejudice," Hamilton said. It was "an act of overt racism." "Hate came because Walter was an African-American," he said. Hamilton said his remarks were not meant as an indictment of law enforcement, but he singled out the officer who killed Scott as a "disgrace to the North Charleston Police Department." "There is gong to be change," he said. "Walter's death will not be in vain." After the service, pallbearers gently lifted Scott's casket into the hearse. Crowds poured from the church. A slow-moving procession of black cars then made its way to Live Oak Memorial Gardens in Charleston for the private burial. Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Scott family, said the death represented more than an race issue. "It's a human issue," he said. "We're getting emails from people in Arkansas telling us, 'I'm a white male, and I'm supporting this family.' Their son is going to be remembered for changing the way we look at each other." On Friday night, Scott's open casket was draped with an American flag, and he was in a dark suit for his private visitation in Charleston. A Dallas Cowboys banner -- his favorite NFL team -- was placed outside the casket, and a figurine of a Cowboys player stood at his side. But Scott's family was missing. They needed privacy, said Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley, who attended. A week ago, Scott was killed in North Charleston after getting pulled over for a broken taillight. A passer-by caught the shooting on cell phone video, and Officer Michael Slager was swiftly charged with murder. He was fired and faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Who was Walter Scott? The video shows Scott running from an officer, who fires eight shots. Scott is struck five times; he falls to the ground. "Nothing in this video demonstrates that the officer's life or the life of another was threatened," National Urban League President Marc Morial said. "The question here is whether the use of force was excessive." But one witness is speaking of a struggle before the shooting. And at least one expert believes a murder charge may not hold up. On Thursday, Gwen Nichols told CNN's Brian Todd that she saw Scott and Slager scuffling at the entrance to a vacant lot. "It was like a tussle type of thing, like, you know, like, 'What do you want?' or 'What did I do?' type of thing," Nichols said. "I didn't hear Mr. Slager saying 'Stop!' " Nichols' account has similarities to Slager's. He had told investigators that he had tussled with Scott over his Taser and that he feared for his safety. A timeline of events . Criminal defense attorney Paul Callan said he believes Slager's defense will play up the reported scuffle in arguing that this is not a murder case. "Defense attorneys will say this was a heat of passion shooting -- (that) this was something that he did suddenly after some kind of an altercation, a physical altercation with a suspect," Callan said. "And that would constitute manslaughter under law, as opposed to murder, and it makes a huge difference in sentencing." In South Carolina, a murder conviction requires a measure of premeditation. But the account from the witness who recorded the cell phone video, Feidin Santana, paints a different picture. He was walking to work when he saw Slager on top of Scott, he said, who was on the ground. Santana said he could hear the sound of a Taser in use. He said he didn't see Scott go after the Taser, as Slager initially claimed. He said he believes Scott was trying to get away. "Mr. Scott never tried to fight," Santana said. Neither the struggle nor the use of a Taser was captured on video, because Santana started recording shortly after that. Investigators from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division found troubling inconsistencies from the very start, it said in a statement. "We believed early on that there was something not right about what happened in that encounter," division Chief Mark Keel said in a statement. "The cell phone video shot by a bystander confirmed our initial suspicions." Slager's lawyer, Andy Savage, has complained that he "has not received the cooperation from law enforcement that the media has." Savage's office said in a statement that it has yet to receive "any investigative documents, audio or video tapes, other than a copy of Mr. Slager's arrest warrant." The news release added that the lawyer has been advised that the police union that Slager belongs to "is no longer involved in the case." Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said Slager's wife, Jamie, who is eight months' pregnant, and his mother had a visit with him at the county detention center Friday. Slager was being held in isolation and being "monitored for his mental health," Cannon said. In a statement, one of Slager's lawyers said the meeting lasted about an hour. "His wife and mom were tearful but strong, and they were all very grateful for the chance to see him in person, even if separated by a thick pane of glass," the statement said. "They held up family photos -- and even Jamie's ultrasound from earlier that day -- to remind him of all those who love him. Throughout the visit, Michael was focused on Jamie and their baby and was very relieved to know that she is being shown so much love and support by their families." A second video, taken from a police dash cam, has also emerged from the day Scott died. It shows moments before the shooting, when things seemed to be going smoothly between Scott and Slager. Scott apparently tells the officer that he has no insurance on the vehicle, and Slager returns to his car to do paperwork. Then Scott gets out of the car and runs out of the camera's frame. Scott was the subject of a bench warrant over $18,104.43 in unpaid child support at the time of the stop, according to court records. That was why he ran, lawyers for the family said after the funeral service. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, told reporters outside the service that Scott lost a $35,000-a-year job the first time he was jailed for failing to pay child support. "He said it was the best job he's ever had," Clyburn said. "Now you have to ask ... if you want to collect child support, there's got to be income. And you ain't going to make much income from jail. It seems to me that we need to take a look to how to deal with that issue without causing unemployment and the loss of freedom." On Friday afternoon, police met with a man who was in Scott's car, but the passenger's name wasn't in a police report obtained by CNN. He was detained briefly after the shooting, one officer wrote in the report. Scott family attorney Chris Stewart said he was a co-worker and friend. But he did not identify the passenger by name. On Friday, a few mourners trickled into the Fielding Home for Funerals. A white banner with a blue star near Scott's casket displayed his favorite NFL team. It said: "Tradition, the Cowboys way." "This is a heartbreaking tragedy for everyone in our community," said Riley, the mayor. "It breaks everyone's hearts." CNN's Polo Sandoval and Martin Savidge reported from Charleston, and Ben Brumfield and Ray Sanchez reported and wrote in Atlanta and New York.

Police officers escort the funeral procession to the service . Scott's family did not attend his visitation; they need privacy, mayor says . Police meet with the man who was a passenger in his car when it was pulled over .

(CNN)Arizona investigators have released dramatic video of a Walmart parking lot brawl that left a police officer wounded, one man dead, and reportedly involved members of a Christian family band. Enoch Gaver, 21, was killed in the fight in the town of Cottonwood, and suspect David Gaver, 28, was shot in the stomach and taken into custody. Police Sergeant Jeremy Daniels was hit in the leg by a bullet fired during the melee. The police dashcam video, released Friday, shows Cottonwood Police approaching the group of eight people -- all identified as members of the Gaver family -- around a large SUV in a Walmart parking lot on March 21. Officers wanted to question them about the alleged assault of a Walmart employee who was going into the store bathroom. The police were accompanied by another Walmart employee. On the video, an officer tells the group that they "need to separate these folks and talk to them." Someone then responds, "No, you are not going to separate me from my parents," and, "don't touch me." The video then shows a police officer being put in a headlock and knocked to the ground. The sound of Taser fire is heard. Police say pepper spray was deployed and that at least three shots were fired in an apparent struggle for an officer's gun. Several times on the video the group appears to surrender, but starts fighting again. The melee goes for several minutes until backup officers arrive and make arrests. Police charged four members of the family with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. Two minors were also taken into custody and are being held at a juvenile detention facility. At least three members of the family are reportedly in a Christian band named "Matthew 24 Now," which is a Bible verse that refers to the end times, according to CNN affiliate KPHO. The family was living out of its Chevy Suburban. CNN's Greg Morrison contributed to this report.

Police questioned the group about an alleged assault of a Walmart employee . A man put a police officer in a headlock and fighting broke out .

(Billboard)The key to rock's longevity is it never defines itself into irrelevance. So while there were some loud, dirty guitars at the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday night, there was as much recognition for rock's antecedents in soul and blues, speaking less to a particular taxonomy than a spirit that's beyond words. It's easy to talk of such spirit when Paul McCartney is there to honor Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono is on hand as well. Speaking briefly backstage, Ono expressed feeling that it was wonderful for Starr to be honored, "just sad John and George aren't here," referring to her late husband John Lennon and Beatles guitarist and fellow songwriter George Harrison. Starr was certainly happy to be there — after a long wait, he's the final Beatle to be inducted as a solo act. "I've finally been invited, and I love it," said the 74-year-old drummer. "I got lucky, and it was actually in Cleveland," he said to enormous applause. Fifty-one years earlier, Starr had been in town to play the very same Hall; he admitted backstage that he didn't remember the cops stopping the show during "All My Loving" and making the Beatles return to the dressing room for ten minutes until the fans could be calmed. Starr said in a backstage interview that he couldn't recall the incident specifically, but admitted that there had been a lot of shows in between. "I'll remember this one," he promised. Others receiving Rock Hall honors included Paul Butterfield Blues Band, early soul act The 5 Royales, singer Bill Withers, punk rockers Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a night for the young to honor the old and perhaps prepare for a later visit. John Mayer hailed his longtime idol, the late Vaughan, in a heartfelt speech. John Legend came out to honor Bill Withers with a performance of "Use Me" backed by Stevie Wonder, who inducted Withers. The two then shared "Lean on Me," until Legend went and pulled Withers to the front of the stage to join them. Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bill Withers, Seymour Stein hit Rock Hall's weekend festivities . The 76-year old soul legend hasn't performed live in many years but had hinted in the months leading up to the induction ceremonies that he might sing once more. Withers sounded great, though he may have an even brighter future in stand-up. "This has got to be the biggest AA meeting [in the] Western hemisphere," said Withers, alluding to an earlier moment in the show when Jimmie Vaughan confessed, "I taught my brother guitar, and he taught me how to get sober." He called being inducted by Wonder, "A lion holding the door for a kitty cat." The moment of relative levity was welcome after moving tributes paid to the late Lou Reed by Patti Smith and Reed's widow, music artist Laurie Anderson, who shared the three rules for life that they came up with: "One: don't be afraid of anyone; Two: get a really good b------t detector and learn how to use it; Three: be really, really tender." Smith had to push back tears on at least three occasions. She recalled a night when they wound up in the same hotel and Reed invited her up. She found him in the tub dressed in black and she sat on the toilet and talked with him. Green Day was inducted by Fall Out Boy, who referenced the length of some of the speeches. Cracked Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump: "I feel like I'm in a line at the DMV." As one of the youngest acts, it's not surprising they gave one of the two most exciting performances of the evening. Rock Hall induction ceremony: Lou Reed 'would be amused,' says sister . The other belonged to Tom Morello, Doyle Bramhall II and Zac Brown with harmonica player Jason Ricci performing "Born in Chicago" in tribute to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Not only did Ricci slay, but Morello played a nasty scabrous solo that raised the hairs on your arm, it was so alive. Miley Cyrus inducted Joan Jett in her own inimitable way, recalling a time she walked in on Jett smoking pot and being so turned on by her strength, wisdom and soul that the young pop star wanted to have sex with the legendary rocker. Jett joined the Blackhearts and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl for a mini-set that include such classics as "Bad Reputation," the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" and "Crimson and Clover," the Tommy James & the Shondelles cover that Jett took to No. 1. It was that kind of a night, and it closed with a rousing version of the Beatles' "I Want to Be Your Man," where just about everybody who could make it out on stage did, including a near-end guitar scrum/lead-off between Gary Clark Jr., Morello, Zac Brown and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner. ©2015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.

Paul McCartney honors Ringo Starr at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony . Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts also honored .

(CNN)A judge this week sentenced a former TSA agent to six months in jail for secretly videotaping a female co-worker while she was in the bathroom, prosecutors said. During the investigation, detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department in Tennessee also found that the agent, 33-year-old Daniel Boykin, entered the woman's home multiple times, where he took videos, photos and other data. Police found more than 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer. The victim filed a complaint after seeing images of herself on his phone last year. Boykin plead guilty to unlawful photography, aggravated burglary and violation of the computer act, the Nashville District Attorney's Office said. Police said the incident happened in a TSA-only restroom, and that there was no evidence public restrooms were targeted. A TSA official tells CNN that Boykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't engage in public security screening. Assistant District Attorney Amy Hunter said this case was one of the worst invasion of privacy cases she's seen. "We are thankful that the sentence includes periodic confinement so that the sentence will hopefully make an impression on this defendant and others," Hunter said in a statement. The judge, Randall Wyatt, on Friday called the invasion of privacy "egregious." His sentence also includes five and a half years of probation, which will include GPS monitoring. Boykin was terminated last year when the investigation began. "TSA holds its employees to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace," TSA's Ross Feinstein said in a statement.

Former TSA agent Daniel Boykin, 33, videotaped his female co-worker in the restroom, authorities say . Authorities say they found 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer . Boykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't do public security screenings, TSA official says .

Washington (CNN)Until recently, if you sat in church on Sunday mornings, pollsters could predict where you stood on same-sex marriage. What a difference a decade makes. In 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court became the country's first to legalize same-sex marriage, less than 30% of religiously affiliated Americans supported gays' and lesbians' right to wed. By 2014, that number had climbed to 47%, according to a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. That's more than the 45% who said they opposed same-sex nuptials. The margin is small but statistically significant, said Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI, because of the exceptionally large pool of respondents: 40,000 adult Americans. (Eight percent refused to answer or said they didn't know their stance on same-sex marriage.) According to PRRI's poll, there are now more people of faith who favor marriage equality than stand against it, a dramatic turn in one of this country's most divisive debates and a generational shift with the potential to sweep through everything from the wedding industry to the 2016 presidential race. "There's been a huge swing in the last decade," said Jones. "There are now big, mainstream groups on both sides of the debate." If the U.S. Supreme Court has been paying attention, it likely saw this trend coming. Each time the high court has considered a case related to same-sex marriage, the pile of amicus briefs from religious groups supporting gay rights has inched a little taller, and the crowds protesting outside their grand marble steps has gradually grown more diverse. On Tuesday, for example, as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case widely expected to produce a landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, an interfaith coalition of clergy led by the dean of Washington's National Cathedral is planning to march in support of LGBT rights. "I join with many across the spectrum of American faith communities in my hope that the Court's ruling will permit same-sex marriage in all 50 states," the Very Rev. Gary Hall, the cathedral's dean, said in a statement. "I trust that their judgment will end discrimination against those who seek God's blessing on their marriages." Clergy from Hall's religious denomination, the Episcopal Church, have also submitted an amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage. The brief is endorsed by nearly 2,000 faith leaders, including rabbis, Methodist ministers, Lutheran bishops, seminary professors and Congregationalist chaplains. Another brief, submitted by the Anti-Defamation League, is signed by Jewish, Hindu and Presbyterian groups. In a reverse of traditional arguments against gay marriage, some members of these groups say their religious rights will be curtailed if states do not allow them to perform same-sex nuptials. Prominent and powerful religious groups are lined up on the other side as well, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Association of Evangelicals, Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. Together, leaders of these faiths represent more than 120 million Americans. But as PRRI's survey shows, there are often differences of opinion between the pulpits and the pews. Despite vocal opposition from the U.S. Catholic Bishops, for example, 60% of Catholics now favor same-sex marriage. That's a huge increase from 2003, when just 35% backed gay rights, according to survey conducted at the time by the Pew Research Center. Mainline Protestants -- so-called for their prominence in 20th century American life -- also saw a huge shift in the last decade. While 36% supported same-sex marriage in 2003, now 62% do. At a glance, the pro-gay marriage faction is now strikingly diverse, encompassing Buddhists, Catholics, Jews and Hindus. But the pro-traditional marriage crowd is just as motley, bridging black Protestants, Mormons, Muslims and white evangelicals, according to PRRI's survey. Same-sex marriage rights worldwide . Legalized nationwide:Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden . Legalized in certain regions:Brazil, Mexico, United States . Civil unions or domestic partnerships:Andorra, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay and parts of Australia, Mexico, United States and Venezuela . The survey data comes from PRRI's American Values Atlas, conducted between April and December of last year. PRRI is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that focuses on faith and American culture. Separate surveys conducted by PRRI and other groups show much of the newfound religious support for same-sex marriage is coming from younger Americans. Seven in 10 Millennials, for example, support same-sex marriage and say that faith groups alienate young adults by being judgemental on sexual ethics. Half of millennial Republicans say gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry, and 43% of white evangelical millennials agree. Those numbers could put GOP presidential candidates in a tight spot, said Jones, as they try to expand their base and appeal to younger Americans. "The real challenge for GOP candidates is how can they plant their feet deftly enough not to offend older conservatives in the primaries but still be able to pivot in the general election to a younger generation," Jones said. Politicians may pivot on same-sex marriage, but Bible-believing Christians should not -- even if public opinion turns against them, said Denny Burk, a professor at Boyce College, a Southern Baptist school in Louisville, Kentucky. "For me, the number of people who come to the message is not the main issue. There are periods when the Gospel is popular and periods when it's not. You can't base your evaluation of its truthfulness on its popularity at a given historical moment." Still, Burk said he doesn't doubt that more millennials accept same-sex marriage, and he fully expects the Supreme Court to legalize gay weddings countrywide this June when the justices render a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. But the fight is far from over, Burk said. "Just like we've seen this decades-long culture war with abortion, we're going to see the same thing with gay marriage."

There are now more people of faith who favor marriage equality than stand against it, according to a new poll . If the U.S. Supreme Court has been paying attention, it likely saw this trend coming .

London (CNN)The Hatton Garden heist, as it will surely come to be known, was every safe deposit box holder's nightmare, every movie director's dream. Thieves using heavy cutting equipment and rappelling gear broke into the vault of an esteemed 60-year-old safe deposit company in the heart of London over the past holiday weekend, possibly taking advantage of as many as four days to rifle through an uncounted number of safe deposit boxes. And they reportedly got away with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of gems and cash -- even, in the educated guess of one former police official, as much as 200 million pounds, or $300 million. Police were offering few details Wednesday of the robbery at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. Detectives on the scene were carrying out a "slow and painstaking" forensic examination, police said in a statement. "Officers anticipate the process to take approximately two days," the statement said. "At this stage it is believed that approximately 60-70 safe deposit boxes were opened during the burglary. Officers are working closely with Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd to establish the identities of those affected. Police will be contacting victims directly as and when they are identified." WATCH: Top five jewelry heists . Throughout the day Wednesday, customers of the business went in and out of the premises, clearly unhappy about not being able to learn whether their boxes were among those ransacked. Hatton Garden is a storied area in London and the heart of the city's diamond trade. The area's promotional website says it is home to "the largest and most concentrated cluster of jewellery retailers in the UK" and has been for quite some time. "History tells us that the old City of London had certain streets -- or quarters -- dedicated to specific types of business," the website says. "The Hatton Garden area has been the epicentre of London's jewellery trade since medieval times. "Today, it maintains its international reputation as the centre of London's diamond trade. It is one of the finest and most renowned jewellery locations in the world." $4.8M in gold swiped from N.C. highway. But how? The police statement did not put a value on the amount of the haul. But numerous British news organizations put the figure in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, which translates into even more hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of those who rent safe deposit boxes at the company are reportedly in the jewelry trade. But Roy Ramm, a former chief of the Flying Squad, an economic crime unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service, came up with a much higher guess. "I would not be surprised, given where this one is, in Hatton Garden, if 200 million pounds is around about the amount stolen," Ramm said on BBC Radio 4. Because of the long Easter weekend, police did not hear of the robbery until Tuesday morning. This may prove to be an embarrassment, as the Telegraph newspaper reported that the alarm at the business sounded Friday but, as the front and back doors still appeared locked, no action was taken. The website of Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. says the company was founded in 1954 and offers a "secure and cost-effective solution to store and protect important and irreplaceable personal belongings." Robbers target security vans in France jewel heist .

Robbers may have taken advantage of a four-day holiday weekend . Estimates of the value of the items taken rage from hundreds of thousands of pounds to 200 million pounds . The heist took place in a historic heart of London's jewelry business .

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)University of Nairobi students were terrified Sunday morning when they heard explosions -- caused by a faulty electrical cable -- and believed it was a terror attack, the school said. Students on the Kikuyu campus stampeded down the halls of the Kimberly dormitory, and some jumped from its fifth floor, the university said. Hundreds were injured and were taken to hospitals. One person died, according to the school. The confusion and panic came less than two weeks after Al-Shabaab slaughtered 147 people at a college in Garissa, Kenya. Kenyan teachers and students have said they fear being targeted by the Somalia-based terrorists. On Sunday, as many as 108 students from the University of Nairobi were admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital. Among them, at least 63 students have been discharged, and at least four are slated for surgery, the school said. Almost all of the 54 students being treated at PCEA Kikuyu Hospital have been released, the university said. Kenya Power authorities and its CEO are at the school and looking into the electrical issue. Normal power supply will resume after repairs, the university said. "As we mourn the unfortunate loss of the departed student, we are also praying for the quick recovery of those who were injured," said Vice Chancellor Peter M.F. Mbithi in a statement. He called on the students, staff and public to remain calm. CNN's Lillian Leposo reported from Nairobi and Ashley Fantz wrote this story in Atlanta.

Students stampeded; some jumped from a fifth story at a dorm; one student died, school officials say . The blasts were caused by faulty electrical cable, and Kenya Power is at the school . The panic came less than two weeks after terrorists attacked Kenya's Garissa University .

(CNN)A Saudi-led coalition Tuesday ended its "Operation Decisive Storm" -- its nearly monthlong airstrike campaign in Yemen -- and a new initiative is underway. "Operation Renewal of Hope" will focus on the political process. Saudi Arabia had launched airstrikes on Houthi positions across Yemen, hoping to wipe out the Iranian-allied rebel group that has overthrown the government and seized power. The Saudis say they want to restore the Yemeni government, a key U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, which was kicked out of the capital by the rebels earlier this year. This month, Saudi officials said airstrikes have degraded Houthi-controlled military infrastructure, including key buildings in the capital Sanaa. The campaign achieved its objectives "by a very good planning, very precise execution, by the courage of our pilots, our sailors, our soldiers," said Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, a Saudi military spokesman. A senior Saudi official told CNN that the Houthis agreed to "nearly all demands" of the U.N. Security Council. Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family will leave Yemen and never return for a position in politics, the source said. A statement from the Saudi Embassy in Washington outlined objectives of the next phase of operations, including protecting civilians, enhancing humanitarian and medical assistance, confronting terrorism and creating an international coalition to provide maritime security. Ground troops will continue to protect the border and confront any attempts to destabilize the situation, Asiri said. Military action will be taken if needed. But beyond the military campaign, the Saudis and their allies have said they want to find a political solution for the violence-plagued nation. The aim is to bring back Yemen's "security and stability through establishing a political process," said a statement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Ousted Yemen President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi thanked the Saudi-led coalition. Hadi claims he's Yemen's legitimate leader and is working with the Saudis and other allies to return to his country. "We promise to restructure the Yemen military to ensure that it serves the people of Yemen," Hadi said, calling on the Houthis to withdraw, and saying that he would return to Yemen at "the right time" to rebuild the country. "You will witness many changes in the days to come in our mission to build an institutional government and military, far from rebel militancy," said Hadi. Also Tuesday, a U.S. military official told CNN that the United States is conducting "manned reconnaissance" off Yemen. The official stressed that the repositioning of U.S. ships over the last days was not done to interdict Iranian ships, but to ensure freedom of navigation and maritime security. Why is Saudi Arabia bombing Yemen? CNN's Jethro Mullen, Tim Lister, Anas Hamdan, Jamie Crawford and journalist Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report.

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave, a source says . Ousted leader Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi promises to return . Next phase, called "Operation Renewal of Hope," will focus on political process .

(CNN)"It really depends what you want. Boy? Girl? Young? Old?" The man on the phone was offering us young children with the casualness of a market trader. After a week of back and forth phone calls, his initial caginess had given way to greed. He'd heard my foreign accent and clearly decided I would pay more than the domestic rate. "We can get," he said. We'd been put in touch with the man through a contact on the ground. We were told he was one of the men running this "unofficial" displaced camp -- one of the many that has mushroomed in the town of Yola as the influx of people fleeing Boko Haram has grown beyond the capacity of the official camps. It had all been heartbreakingly simple. We'd asked who had children available to "foster" -- a catch-all code word designed to conceal the true intent of those offering up the orphaned children. The man on the phone was the end result of those inquiries. When our colleague want to see them, he was shown a group of children and asked which one he wanted to take. One, two maybe? He escaped by saying he needed to check with his "madam" -- me. I called. The man picked up and began referring to me as "sister." I told him we wanted to know what we'd need to do, if we decided we did want to "foster" the children. He told me, "Sister, Jesus will reward me," so the "fostering" was free, he said. No need for any pesky paperwork -- just a reassurance from me that the children, if I chose to take them, would "live in my heart." If I could also then find it "in my heart" to donate to those still in the camp, then that would be "God's work." In spite of the harsh measures the Nigerian government has put in place to punish human traffickers, by the government's own admission, 8 million children are currently engaged in forced labor. The Global Slavery Index says Nigeria has the highest number of people in modern slavery of any sub-Saharan country. Paradoxically, the group also rates Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, Naptip, as one of the strongest government responses on the continent -- but it's clearly overwhelmed by the realities of working in what is now a zone of military operations, Nigeria's north. As the insecurity in the region has spiraled, the worry is that more and more children are falling through the cracks. And as Boko Haram increases its reliance on child suicide bombers, concerns are growing that orphaned children could end up in the hands of the terror group. At the camp where we finally met the man face to face, there was no attempt at subterfuge. We spoke in normal tones in full view of the children playing. I could have had one of them, I was told, but because I'd specified a younger child, they'd only identified one so far -- a 3-year-old. Did I want to consider an older girl? A 12-year-old maybe? She could look after the 3-year-old, and cook and clean. Either way, two girls would be ready tomorrow, he said. I could see them then. Our last phone conversation revolved around what an appropriate "donation" would be in exchange for the children. He couldn't, he said, bargain for it. He then proceeded to do just that, laughing down the phone at my first tentative guess of $200. Laughing again at $300. We finally found a figure he didn't find funny -- $500. I put the phone down and we traveled back to the capital that day to show Naptip what we'd found.

CNN team finds a man at "unofficial" displaced camp willing to provide children to be "fostered" He says he can't take money for them, but eventually demands $500 for two girls .

(CNN)Much like the ardent young royal-watchers of today, enamored by the Duchess of Cambridge's very being, I was similarly captivated by Diana, Princess of Wales when I was a youngster. She was a rare breed: stunningly beautiful, immediately accessible, witty, charming and endearingly mischievous -- she was one in a million. Of course that was long before the, "there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," interviews and tell-all books alleging suicide attempts and acts of betrayal, but back then I was unaware of her more scandalous infamy. I simply adored her ... I still do. As the world awaits the impending birth of William and Kate's second baby, potential names have become the topic of rampant speculation and heated debate. Girls' names are causing the biggest stir, as there seems to be a belief that the couple are expecting a princess. If the assumptions are correct, she will be the first Princess of Cambridge born into the royal family in 182 years. The birth of any baby is cause for celebration, but given recent changes in the laws of succession, her arrival would be a historical one. In choosing a name, titled royals tend to turn to the family tree, rather than a well-thumbed copy of "1,001 Best Baby Names" like the rest of us. Traditionally they pick dynastic names, and there are plenty to choose from: Elizabeth, Alice, Victoria and Charlotte have all been frontrunners, but the sentimental favorite among punters remains Diana. In a recent Today Show poll, 32% of Americans predicted the name was a shoo-in, and in the UK the bookies' odds of a baby named after her late grandmother change almost daily as Diana becomes an increasingly popular choice. That said, in the event the couple do welcome a baby girl, I would hope that they do not opt to name her Diana. Today Diana's name is as divisive as the very institution of monarchy itself: while some have virtually sainted her, others have been vehemently critical, accusing her of being childish, unhinged and self-serving. Contrary to popular belief the Queen was very fond of Diana, but should her name be bestowed as a first name upon the baby, it would be perceived as a slap in the face to the monarchy. In the years since Earl Spencer's scathing attack on the Windsors at Diana's funeral, the nation has moved on and Diana's legacy has been celebrated. She has become a part of royal history. Her memory has been preserved, and the royal family is once again enjoying a renewed sense of popularity. Out of respect to the Queen, Charles, Camilla and the baby herself the couple simply wouldn't do it. Diana's name conjures up both positive and negative responses the world over, and whichever side of the fence you're on, the moniker seems to me an almighty burden for a newborn baby to carry. Since Diana's death almost 18 years ago, William has honored his mother's memory in a private and personal fashion. He has taken on many of her patronages and continued to champion her causes. At his wedding in 2011 the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, a close friend of Diana and executor of her will, gave the address. The hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, which was sung at both Diana's funeral in 1997 and at the memorial marking the tenth anniversary of her death in 2007, was chosen for the royal wedding. Julia Samuel, another close friend of Diana, was asked to serve as Godmother to Prince George. William chose Kensington Palace, his own childhood home, to be the primary residence for his family, and in perhaps the most public acknowledgment of his mother's memory, he gave Kate Diana's engagement ring. William doesn't need to name his second-born child after his mother in order to honour her; he does so by being a good husband and father. I still miss Diana. She was a one-off, and I don't believe the world will ever witness another quite like her. Daily comparisons to her late mother-in-law are already Kate's cross to bear. Shouldn't a baby girl be spared the same fate? Diana's tragic, untimely death and iconic status will ensure her memory is kept alive for generations to come. She wouldn't want her granddaughter to languish in her shadow. She would want her to go out into the world, to make her own mark and help those less fortunate, to enrich the lives of others and to carve out her own unique identity -- as Alice, Elizabeth, Victoria, Charlotte, or -- my own personal pick -- Alexandra.

As William and Kate await the arrival of their second child, speculation is rife as to what he or she will be named . Royal expert Victoria Arbiter argues that naming a newborn princess after Diana would put too much pressure on her .

(CNN)Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was once known as the murder capital of the world. Back in 2010, at the height of cartel violence, the city averaged 8.5 killings per day. But five years later, local officials say the city is much safer, and plans are underway to lure foreign tourists and investors back to Juarez. This month the city launched the tourism campaign "Juarez is Waiting for You." The rebranding effort started quietly a year ago, and on April 10, it was on full display. Mayor Enrique Serrano officially kicked off the campaign, giving what he called an "unprecedented" high-profile tour to regional leaders from the United States and Mexico. U.S. Rep. Robert "Beto" O'Rourke of Texas was one of those on a leg of the Juarez tour. His congressional district includes El Paso, Texas, which sits directly across the Rio Grande. O'Rourke says there's good reason for locals to be hopeful. "As a region, El Paso and Juarez represent 20% of all U.S-Mexico trade. The binational ties are strong and have remained strong," O'Rourke says. "Yes, we had a really difficult time for a ... period. Juarez was at one time the deadliest city in the world." O'Rourke speaks of a time between 2009 and 2012 when men, women and children were killed indiscriminately. Many were helplessly caught in the cartel violence. Others were victims of the drug turf war. It wasn't that long ago, O'Rourke says, that he thought twice about crossing the bridge into Juarez. "(Now) I travel to Juarez regularly to have lunch or meet people or just to go. I always feel safe and secure." A spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office told CNN that at one point, there were days when Juarez had more than 20 killings. "That was normal," spokesman Julio Castaneda told CNN. "It's safer now." The numbers from the attorney general's office seem to bear that out. More than 3,000 people were killed in the city just four years ago, but so far this year there have been 89 killings, according to Castaneda -- a dramatic decrease in the violence. "Undoubtedly, the work we did here in the past year with the police institutions, and specifically the local police, helped. There was a coordinated effort between agencies," Castaneda said. "Without a doubt this work played a part in breaking apart the gangs that were plaguing the city." The government cleaned up corruption within the local police force, and fired or arrested a lot of bad cops who were helping the cartels. Another factor that may have helped: The turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels essentially ended, with the Sinaloa cartel claiming victory in the battle for the trafficking route in Juarez. O'Rourke argues that the El Paso-Juarez border is "safer than it's ever been." He cites the "30 million lawful crosses from El Paso into Juarez" last year as a symbolic step. Yet there are those who don't want to celebrate too soon. "For Juarez to be considered a safe city, there's a long way to go," says Sergio Meza, executive director for Plan Estrategico de Juarez, an independent organization that works to improve the city's quality of life. "Just this past year (in 2014) there were 424 homicides. In 2007, there were 272. Yes, we're not as bad. But we're still very sick," Meza told CNN from his office in Juarez. "In reality, we're progressing from the conditions that were generated by the insecurity. We're still working out the corruption in the city. It's still an issue here." With more than 40% of Juarez living below the poverty line, according to Plan Estrategico de Juarez, the future of the city will depend on "the people's participation in public matters." In fact, the organization's slogan is "Nothing is fixed alone. Participate." "We are looking at a compromised future," Meza said. "We don't talk about that. We don't have the money to generate work here." One bright spot: U.S. investment is making a comeback. American companies Delphi, Honeywell, Flextronics and Lear are among those that ramped up hiring and investment in Juarez over the last year. That hiring would have been hard to imagine four years ago. But with the average salary at $20 per week for local workers in the maquiladores, or factories, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez, Meza says more needs to be done. The scars from the recent past remain. Several buildings downtown are shuttered and marred by graffiti. Americans who, before the violence, came to Juarez for bargain shopping have not returned in the numbers seen before the spike in violence. But in a sign of progress, the U.S. State Department amended its travel warning for the city. While it still urges visitors to exercise appropriate caution, it's no longer telling people not to come. Longtime residents of Juarez and neighboring El Paso may be reluctant to say the wounds of the violent past have altogether healed. In the last year, however, they have definitely noticed that "life is back." "I measure it by the everyday coming and going of people," Gustavo Reveles, 39, told CNN. "For someone who grew up on the border and for someone who spent half of his life crossing the border on a weekly basis, it's encouraging to be crossing back to Juarez without that sort of hesitation or worry that something might happen." Reveles lived in Juarez until he was 15 and now lives in El Paso. He says the threat of violence is "still a little bit concerning," though that hasn't stopped him in recent weeks from going to Juarez to meet friends for dinner and drinks. "Things have changed," he said. "To go through what Juarez went through, you see life there again. You see a semblance of what was there before. To really recover and heal wounds, there's a long way to go, but the process has started and that's a step in the right direction." CNNMoney's Octavio Blanco contributed to this report.

Cartel violence helped make Juarez the murder capital of the world five years ago . But the murder rate in the city has declined rapidly since 2010 . Now city leaders are working to bring visitors and foreign investment back to Juarez .

(CNN)The Arizona police officer who slammed into an armed suspect with his patrol car told investigators he thought he was too far to take a shot at the man, so he chose the other option, CNN affiliate KVOA reported Wednesday. Officer Michael Rapiejko ran his car into Mario Valencia in February as the suspect carried a rifle he had just fired in the air. Rapiejko sped around another officer as Valencia walked through a business park, hit the man from behind with the left side of his front bumper. Valencia, who flew through this air, survived and faces more than a dozen charges for an alleged crime spree that day. His lawyer has said police used excessive force and could have killed a man who was obviously unstable. The Marana Police Department has defended Rapiejko, saying deadly force was warranted because the suspect had a rifle, ammunition and was walking toward offices where hundreds of people work. Marana is just northwest of Tucson. Officer who drove into suspect justified, chief says . KVOA obtained police inquiry tapes on which Rapiejko tells investigators why he chose his car as a weapon. The officer, who has been a cop for more than a decade but joined the Marana Police Department in 2014, said he was 50 yards away from the suspect and worried a missed shot might hit another officer or bystanders. "There were occupied businesses, and there were two officers at the other side of the street," he says on the recording. "This is what I deem as a lethal force encounter. I have two thoughts that go in my mind: I need to shoot him to stop the threat, or I need to run him over to stop the threat." Another officer, who was slowing trailing Valencia and ahead of Rapiejko, says on another recording that if a civilian had stumbled upon Valencia, the suspect might have taken a hostage or killed the person. Video of the car striking Valencia sparking nationwide debate on what type of force police should use to go after armed suspects. Many people commended the officer. Some people said the police should have set up a perimeter around the man and talked him into surrendering. Valencia faces 15 charges, including three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of armed robbery and possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor. Valencia's attorney, Michelle Cohen-Metzger, told CNN last week that "it is miraculous that my client isn't dead." Valencia, who is in Pima County Jail, is scheduled to appear in court again on May 18. Authorities chose not to charge Rapiejko. Officer who drove into suspect subject of excessive force lawsuit in New York . CNN's Shane Deitert and Tony Marco contributed to this report.

Officer Michael Rapiejko said he needed to use lethal force to stop the suspect . Mario Valencia was carrying a rifle and fired one round into the air . Rapiejko said two options crossed his mind and it was too far to shoot Valencia .

(CNN)There's an old saying which states the Cape Verde Islands are home to a greater number of musicians per square kilometer than any other country in the world. In truth, such a definitive claim may be nigh on impossible to prove. But there is a certain factual accuracy behind the legend: the important and proud relationship the Atlantic island country of just 500,000 people has with music. Situated roughly 350 miles off the west coast of Africa, Cape Verde has long been a mesh of cultures, history and races. The former Portuguese territory was once a key location for the transatlantic slave trade, a target for 16th century pirates and a refuge for exiled Jews. From this diverse melting pot were born the unique sounds of the batuque, morna, funana and other distinct musical styles. Now, Cape Verde is seeking to tap-into the spoils of this rich cultural heritage in a bid to help its economy flourish. Bereft of oil, gas, gold, diamonds or the conventional natural resources that have fueled growth in many other African countries, Cape Verde has had to look for alternative sectors to aid its development. And what's more alternative than a jiving, swinging, musical economy? "Besides fish, it is pretty common (for Cape Verde) to say 'our biggest richness is in music and culture,'" said Christine Semba of Womex, an international networking platform for the world music genre. The economic potential of music has been also acknowledged by Cape Verde's prime minister, Jose Maria Neves, while the country's ministry of culture is run by Mario Lucio de Sousa, himself a popular musician. "The future of our country lies in our capacity to create, our capacity to innovate," Neves said in reference to the music and the arts at a World Trade Organization conference in 2013. Other elements of the creative economy include handicrafts, fashion and visual arts to name but a few. However, a 2013 report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development noted that Cape Verde's creative sector remained a relatively small part of its economy with much room for improvement and long term planning. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been some promising early signs that music has the potential to play a key role in the future. One early musical success has been the Kriol Jazz Festival. The event, which is celebrating its seventh edition, took place in the capital city of Praia this past weekend. Artists including Grammy-winning U.S. singer Esperanza Spalding have been invited to perform, as have acts from the likes of Luxembourg, Brazil and, of course, Cape Verde. According to Harold Taveres, a liaison to the mayor of Praia involved with promoting the festival, "KJF has become one of the most spectacular events in Cape Verde. "We breathe the music in Cape Verde, we live with the music," he added. "Now the festival has brought people from every corner in the world (to share in this)." During the festival, bars, hotels and restaurants are full to the brim while taxi drivers are seldom unable to find a fare during what locals refer to as "the week of party." It's a lucrative trade, for sure. Yet in order to take full advantage of this bustling scene the country's ministry of culture, alongside some enterprising private sector figures, thought a deeper relationship with the music business was required. Enter the Atlantic Music Expo, a three-year-old conference and networking event that seeks to help Cape Verdean artists secure international exposure. This year's AME took place in the days before the Kriol Jazz Festival. Delegates, local musicians and their management teams were exposed to roundtables, workshops and talks on the intricacies of the global music business. "We try to invite lots of producers and a lot of journalists from around the world to see the festival and the musicians from Cape Verde," said Jose Da Silva, long time manager of the late Cape Verdean songstress Cesaria Evora. Da Silva is one of the driving forces behind AME as well as being the founder of the Lusafrica and Harmonia record labels that aim to discover a new generation of artists from Cape Verde. He hopes that by exposing musicians to a range of experienced industry professionals and top-level musicians, they will become equipped with the tools and ambition to take the music of Cape Verde across the globe. Not only will this help launch the careers of artists and musicians (with all the respective behind the scenes business structures such developments require) but it will garner valuable attention for the country. This is where the greatest potential economic benefits lie. Tourism is expected to account for 20% of the country's GDP by 2024, according to research from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Getting Cape Verde's name out on the world stage through recognition of its rich musical culture is therefore increasingly important. "Economically it's beneficial for the country because the money we would have to spend on the market to give the country this exposure in the world would be too big," Da Silva said. "This way it costs less money." Semba agrees with this, and highlights the joined up thinking of the government and private sector actors like Da Silva for special praise. "In the long term, the whole country is behind this event," Semba said, adding "this is a very innovative approach which we would like to see in many more countries." It must be noted, however, that few countries have the same natural resources for music as Cape Verde. More from Marketplace Africa .

Cape Verde seeking to tap-into rich cultural heritage . Tiny island nation wants to grow creative economy .

(CNN)It is a city transformed, swollen in size but shrunken in scope, anxiously awaiting what comes next. On Kabul's streets, you can easily find the uneasy legacy of America's longest war. Outside one mosque -- mixing with other men desperate for a day's worth of casual manual labor -- are five men who months ago had one valuable skill NATO depended upon: they speak English. Now however, their world has turned upon them. They were, each for a different reason -- each for a reason they do not understand -- all fired from their jobs and then blacklisted, they say, meaning they can no longer get work with other government groups or NGOs here. The skill they once thrived off has left them isolated, and fearing reprisals. They sleep in market stalls, and avoid traveling to see their families in case the threats they face are visited upon them. "My family is still living in the provinces," one of the men tells me. "I cannot go there. I am living in a market, in one of the empty shops." Another adds: "My family, everybody, give up on me, they are nervous." A third man -- all requested anonymity -- says: "Right now I sleep here, on the street, in this mosque area." "We are in prison in Afghanistan," a fourth says. The U.S. Embassy and NATO declined to comment for this story. EXCLUSIVE: The last Americans in Afghanistan . Helicopters still buzz around the capital. Its population is five times what it was when NATO arrived here, even by the most conservative estimates, and the violence in the provinces means people swell it further still -- arriving in Kabul's dusty, mountainous bowl of a city in order to avoid the fighting. Neighborhoods that were once massively over-priced cliques of foreigners living in "poppy palaces" -- villas allegedly bought from profiteers of the opium trade -- are now empty. One road, forever pot-holed in the past decade, is now being covered over by Afghans who, it seems, are finally reclaiming that street. Even Chicken Street, the hackneyed pedestrian shopping road where new Western arrivals would buy carpets or local trinkets, is more or less deserted. One shopkeeper says it could be the embassy security warnings that are keeping people away now. It is the same for the restaurants here that used to brim with contractors and NGO workers. They are now empty, the sound of their heavy metal doors echoing across deserted tables. It is immeasurably different to three years ago when I lived there. Drive out east -- past the women in burqas who sit on road bumps, holding their children, hoping drivers will slow enough to throw them change -- and you see roads lined with the detritus of America's war here. Huge lines of excavators, cherry-pickers, and forklift trucks sit idle. At times it seemed there was little America wouldn't do, or try, to meets its often fluid goals in the country. Yet today, the machines that could have once moved small mountains do little more than gather dust. EXCLUSIVE: Afghan woman forced to marry her rapist . Further down the road too are more winners-turned-losers of the NATO presence here. Vast supply chains once kept 120,000 troops fed and watered. Trucks lined the roads and climbed up to the military bases. Now the bases are gone, and the trucks that once supplied millions sit still. Their bosses may have fled abroad with their winnings, yet the drivers have been left behind, stuck with vehicles that cost them $30,000 to buy -- and $1,000 a year just to keep on the road -- but that would fetch just a tenth of that price now. "The contracts were with big businessmen and commanders who were giving us very little and made themselves very rich and are now living comfortably in Dubai," one truck driver tells us. Yet still the wedding palaces proliferate. Along one stretch of road their endless, multiplying lights throb. Each night the houses seem packed -- the commitment to the future still is popular here, despite the uncertainty -- even if the lights that decorate them seem more and more like a symbol of leaving. One set actually replicates the shape of an expensive hotel in Dubai. The city's lights do shine staggeringly and often constantly -- something the Taliban never achieved during their rule here. NATO's efforts to keep them on are reported to have involved diesel power stations that cost billions but were barely switched on. The question many surely ask here -- as the last American troops prepare to retreat inside the U.S. Embassy by the end of next year -- is how much longer the lights will continue to glow. READ MORE: Nick Paton Walsh answers your questions about Afghanistan .

Kabul faces uncertain future as NATO presence -- and the money that came with it -- fades away . Interpreters are out of work, NATO trucks sit idle on roads, restaurants are empty .

Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)A roller-coaster series of talks wrapped up Thursday in Lausanne as a group of world powers known as the P5+1 reached a framework agreement with Iran over the country's nuclear program. The success of that agreement remains to be seen. The parties have until the end to June to work out the details and put the plan to paper. But the talks this week were, nevertheless, historic, particularly for the otherwise frozen U.S.-Iranian relationship. But that's not to say they were glamorous. In fact, the negotiations this week provided a modern demonstration of diplomacy at its best, but also at its most hectic. Tucked amid the Swiss Alps on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lausanne is certainly one of the more scenic places to be trapped for talks -- a sort of Camp David for the rich and famous. But make no mistake: The site of these negotiations is also a gilded cage. Over the course of the eight-day round of talks, negotiators, their delegations, their security details and reporters were confined primarily to the immediate area around the five-star Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, which played host to the negotiations. This isn't the first time the hotel has provided a backdrop to a major diplomatic event. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed there, breaking up the Ottoman Empire and defining the borders of modern-day Turkey. More recently, the hotel has been a getaway for wealthy tourists and the occasional celebrity. Coco Chanel famously lived there in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and even had her dog buried on the hotel grounds, some reports say. 'It was tough, very intense at times' The setting is idyllic, and the grounds are beautifully maintained. The first-floor terrace even features a large-scale chess board, which served this week as an artful analogy for the game of nuclear chess going on just inside. For the negotiators, the past week was marked by a marathon run of meetings, sometimes lasting throughout the night. In an interview with CNN shortly after the framework agreement was announced, Secretary of State John Kerry said, "I think there was a seriousness of purpose" in meetings with the Iranians. "People negotiated hard," he added. "It was tough, very intense at times, sometimes emotional and confrontational." That sentiment was echoed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif even as the talks were still going on. Over the past 18 months since talks began, Zarif said, negotiators have "developed personal respect" for one another, even though serious mistrust still exists between Iran and the Western powers. "We have a very serious problem of confidence -- mutual lack of confidence we need to address -- and we hope that this process will remedy some of that," he added. Media give-and-take . Zarif made these comments to reporters who swarmed him during an afternoon walk along the lake Thursday. Such ambushes were a frequent occurrence during the talks as reporters tried to supplement what little information was being circulated through official channels. Kerry was seen riding a bike on at least one occasion and dining at a nearby crepery on another, with both occasions prompting a cacophony of camera flashes. Reporters briefly followed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as he took a morning jog shortly after his arrival in Lausanne on Sunday. And Zarif took several lakeside walks with advisers and security personnel, perhaps just hoping to take in the view, but certainly not making any effort to bypass the area where television cameras were staked out around the clock. The officials sometimes bemoaned the media circus, but they also used the attention to bolster their demands during negotiations, making statements to reporters that they hoped strengthened their footing in talks with their foreign counterparts. "People often use you guys to deliver messages to the negotiation," a senior administration official who asked not to be named told reporters on the flight back to Lausanne, "as do the Iranians." "I think they're quite skilled, actually, at using the media to deliver messages and to try to shape the frame of the negotiation," the official said. Different orbits . More than 600 reporters were credentialed to cover the talks this week. Many of these were based in a large workspace at the nearby Olympic Museum. Meanwhile, the traveling press corps covering the foreign ministers were given coveted red badges, allowing them access to the hotel, where the talks took place. While these journalists had a bit more access to officials, they were usually cordoned off inside a couple of claustrophobic media rooms and barred access to most of the building, including the hotel's reception desk, the first-floor restrooms and the two-Michelin-star restaurant's entrees, costing 200 francs or more. Many journalists found refuge in the more comfortable downstairs bar, a shorter walk from the cameras and satellite trucks used around the clock by television reporters on a rolling deadline. For meals, the crowd dispersed to a dozen or so nearby restaurants, where they could enjoy 25-franc pizzas and 60-franc hamburgers, washed down with 8-franc bottles of water, of course. Also popular: a Thai place around the corner that offered quick takeout -- a plus for reporters on a deadline. 'We'd all take deep breaths and try again' In the closed-off wings of the Beau-Rivage, the pace of meetings was frantic as different subsets of delegates gathered in ornate conference rooms. There was a sense of urgency, both before and after the initial March 31 deadline passed, to reach a final understanding so the foreign ministers could leave Switzerland ahead of other time commitments, not to mention the Easter holiday. The process was further complicated by restrictions on the flight crew for Kerry's plane, which could stay on standby at the airport for only a limited number of hours in a given time period. "We'd get close, we kept on changing the plane schedule," a senior administration official told reporters. "It would go, it wouldn't go; we had to reset the clock." On the evening the understanding was finally announced, the window had already lapsed, requiring Kerry and his team to depart at 3 a.m. Friday. There were "many moments (throughout the negotiations) when we thought we'd call it a day, call it a night, decide we'd gone as far as we could go," said the official, who briefed reporters on Kerry's plane. "Then we'd all take deep breaths and try again." But perhaps the most difficult night for negotiators was between Wednesday and Thursday, just before the final sticking points were resolved for a deal. "It was a very, very intense," said the official. "It went from 9 -- about 9 in the evening until 6 in the morning when we all decided we'd reached a couple of roadblocks, didn't know whether we'd be able to get past them, and we were all utterly, utterly exhausted." "So we all went to sleep by maybe 7, got up again and started again about 9:30, and engaged on what we thought were the really final issues," the official added. Rushing to report the agreement . That morning, the deal began to solidify, and plans for the announcement were set into motion. The announcement that an agreement had been reached sparked some chaos. It was first sent out by the European delegation, which spread the word to its traveling press corps even as negotiators were still meeting. As news began to get out, one European reporter ran frantically into the media area at the hotel, urging everyone to listen. His message: There's going to be an announcement. There are buses waiting to take you to the auditorium of a nearby university where it will take place. And with that, the room devolved into chaos as journalists ran for the doors. The eight-day-long diplomatic event had hit its crescendo before finally subsiding. By midday Friday, the delegations had left Lausanne, along with most of the media, returning the scenic Swiss city to its more tranquil pace.

This week's talks on an Iranian nuclear deal framework are historic . The negotiations demonstrated diplomacy at its best, but also at its most hectic . Reporters resorted to ambushes to talk to officials; negotiations were "sometimes emotional and confrontational"

(CNN)It was a typical practice day for the Washington University of rowing team, but then danger came from beneath. The scene was Creve Coeur Lake outside of St. Louis early Friday morning. The team's boat got near the dock, when suddenly a swarm of Asian carp emerged from the water and went on the attack, some even going into the boat. Team member Devin Patel described the moment of terror: "The fish was flopping on my legs. It was so slippery that I couldn't get a grip on it." Patel screamed at teammate Yoni David, "Yoni, get it off me!" Thankfully, no rowers were injured during the ordeal, but the strong smell of fish lingered in the moments afterward. Watch iReporter Benjamin Rosenbaum's video above.

Rowing team at Washington University attacked by flying carp . Member of the team caught the attack on video .

Marseille, France (CNN)Initial tests on the flight data recorder recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 show that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz purposely used the controls to speed up the plane's descent, according to the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA. The flight data recorder, or "black box," was found Thursday by recovery teams that have spent days since the March 24 crash scouring the mountainside in the French Alps where the plane went down. A statement from the BEA on Friday said its teams had immediately begun to investigate its contents. "The initial readout shows that the pilot present in the cockpit used the autopilot to put the (airplane) into a descent towards an altitude of 100 (feet) then, on several occasions during the descent, the pilot modified the autopilot setting to increase the speed of the (airplane) in descent," it said. "Work is continuing to establish the precise history of the flight." Evidence from the plane's cockpit voice recorder, recovered swiftly after the crash, had already led investigators to believe that Lubitz acted deliberately to bring down the plane, killing all 150 people on board. And prosecutors in Germany said Thursday that an analysis of a tablet device retrieved from the 27-year-old's apartment in Dusseldorf revealed that he had researched suicide methods and cockpit door security on the Internet. The correspondence and search history on the device demonstrated that the co-pilot used it from March 16 to March 23, Dusseldorf prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said. The search history was not deleted and also revealed searches concerning medical treatment, the prosecutor said. Investigators have focused on Lubitz's health as they try to establish his motivation. But the missing "black box" was expected to yield important evidence about the plane's final minutes. A female police officer digging by hand for clothes in a ravine that been searched previously found the flight data recorder Thursday afternoon about 8 inches (20 centimeters) below the surface, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters. Usually white with florescent orange, this discovered recorder lived up to its name as a black box because fire had darkened it with ashes. In addition, out of more than 2,000 DNA samples collected from the crash site, lab workers have isolated 150 DNA profiles, Robin told reporters. "That does not mean we've identified" the crash's 150 victims, Robin said -- noting the recovered DNA still must be compared with DNA submitted by the families of those who died in the crash. Authorities have also found 470 personal effects at the site, according to Robin. That number includes 40 cell phones, though all those were badly damaged. Robin cast doubt that any useful information could be retrieved from those phones, given their condition. That view is consistent with French officials' claims Wednesday insisting that two publications, German daily Bild and French Paris Match, were wrong to report that cell phone video showed the harrowing final seconds from on board the flight. Noting he's made a criminal request to German authorities but is for now conducting his own investigation, the French prosecutor said he is tasked with an involuntary homicide investigation. But Robin noted that Lubitz made voluntary actions -- such as guiding the plane toward the mountain and reducing its speed to prevent alarms from going off -- and was "alive and conscious" to the very end. A European official government official with detailed knowledge of the investigation said that Lubitz's actions amount to "premeditated murder." While cautioning that there are still many holes in understanding Lubitz's motivation, the disclosures about his Internet searches show that he planned to do what he was going to do, according to this official. Calls for crash avoidance technology . It is becoming increasingly clear to investigators that Lubitz was "very afraid" he would lose his license to fly because of his medical issues, a law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Thursday. It's already emerged that Lubitz had battled depression years before he took the controls of Flight 9525 and that he had concealed from his employer recent medical leave notes saying he was unfit for work. But the law enforcement source said that after a severe depressive episode in 2009, Lubitz relapsed with severe depression and stress in late 2014. In the weeks leading up to the crash, Lubitz was shopping doctors, seeing at least five, perhaps as many as six, the source said, as he kept going from one doctor to the next seeking help, including from a sleep specialist. He was prescribed powerful medication, though it's not clear he was taking it. Opinion: What if my patient is a pilot? CNN's Margot Haddad reported from Marseille, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Pamela Brown and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

French investigators: Flight data recorder reveals Andreas Lubitz acted deliberately to crash plane . He used autopilot to set altitude at 100 feet and then used the controls to speed up the descent .

(CNN)Authorities in South Carolina have released dash cam video in connection with the fatal shooting of Walter Scott, but the footage does not show the actual shooting. Video from the patrol car of North Charleston's Michael Slager shows an initial traffic stop and early interactions between the officer and Scott. Slager approaches Scott's vehicle. The two men speak. Scott tells the officer he does not have insurance and is in the process of purchasing the vehicle. Slager then returns to his patrol car. Scott exits his vehicle, briefly, and Slager tells him to stay in the car. Scott then gets out of the car, again, and runs away, out of the range of the dash cam. The video, which was released Thursday, also shows a passenger in Scott's car. The passenger's identity was not given in a police report obtained by CNN, but another officer responding to the incident said in the report that the passenger was detained and placed in the back seat of a police vehicle. Scott family attorney Chris Stewart told CNN the man with Scott was a co-worker and friend. He did not identify the friend by name. When asked what might have motivated Scott to run, Justin Bamberg, another attorney for the family, speculated that Scott might have been concerned about child support issues. Scott owed back payments on child support totaling $18,104.43, according to Charleston County family court documents obtained by CNN. He had a bench warrant issued against him for failure to pay at the time he was stopped by Slager. But Bamberg was adamant the dash cam video does not alter what happened. "This dash cam footage does not change the fact that at the moment the officer shot and killed Mr. Scott -- that shooting was completely unjustified. And that is the key point of both the criminal investigation and the civil lawsuit," the lawyer said. The North Charleston Police Department is not providing more information, citing an ongoing investigation of Scott's killing that's being conducted by the independent South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Many questions remain about what happened on Saturday when Officer Slager pulled Scott over for what police have said was a broken taillight. In the police report that CNN obtained, a responding officer said that Slager said that at one point he started to chase Scott down a street. "Shots fired and the subject is down," the officer writes that Slager said. "He took my Taser." But a witness who shot cell phone video of the incident says he never saw Scott try to get Slager's Taser. Feidin Santana was walking to work when he saw Slager and Scott struggle on the ground, he told NBC's Lester Holt on Wednesday. Santana then took out his phone and started recording video. "I remember the police (officer) had control of the situation. He had control of Scott," Santana said. Then, Santana said, he heard the sound of a Taser. It seemed to Santana that Scott was trying to get away and avoid being zapped with the Tasered again. On Thursday, a second witness spoke to CNN about what she saw. Gwen Nichols said she was in the neighborhood when she heard police cars speeding by and, curious, she followed them. She saw Scott and Slager at the entrance to a vacant lot. "It was like a tussle type of thing, like, you know, like, 'What do you want?' or 'What did I do?' type of thing," said Nichols, who said she has not yet talked to police about what she saw. "I didn't hear Mr. Slager saying: 'Stop!' " she said. Feidin showed the video to the Scott family. But Santana has said fear for his own life almost kept him from revealing the tape. In interviews with MSNBC and NBC, Santana recalled the moments when he recorded the video. "I ... thought about erasing the video," Santana told MSNBC's "All in With Chris Hayes" in an interview that aired Wednesday evening. "I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger." The video shows Slager shooting eight times at Scott as Scott runs away. Witness: I nearly erased shooting video out of fear . An autopsy showed that Scott suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the back of his body. Before the officer starts firing his gun in the video, a dark object falls behind him and hits the ground. It's not clear whether that is the Taser. Later in the video, when the officer approaches Scott's body, he drops a dark object next to the man. It's also not clear whether that is the Taser. It's unknown whether Scott took the officer's Taser or whether the officer picked the object up and moved it closer to the body. Slager has been fired and charged with murder. He is white. Scott, who was unarmed, was black. Timeline of events . Scott's shooting stirred memories of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer. A grand jury declined to indict the officer in that case. But not everyone agreed that Scott's case is like Brown's or that race was a factor. Asked how he felt about Slager being charged with murder, Santana answered that "no one can feel happy." "He has his family, and Mr. Scott also has his family," he told Holt. "But I think, you know, he made a bad decision. ... Mr. Scott didn't deserve this. And there were other ways that can be used to get him arrested. And that wasn't the proper way to do that." Lessons learned from Ferguson to North Charleston . The FBI is investigating, as is SLED. "I have watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw," North Charleston police Chief Eddie Driggers told reporters Wednesday. Mayor Keith Summey spoke at the same news conference, which was repeatedly interrupted by protesters who chanted: "No justice! No peace!" They called for the mayor to step down. Summey said that the city has ordered an additional 150 body cameras "so every officer on the street" in the city will have one. That is in addition to 101 body cameras already ordered, he said. Just before the conference was set to begin, demonstrators walked in. They were led by a man wearing a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt who shouted, "This is what democracy looks like!" 2010 census data show that North Charleston is 47% black and 42% white. The makeup of the city's Police Department is unclear, though it's been widely reported that 2007 federal figures indicated it was about 80% black. Three of 10 City Council members are black. It's unclear what Slager's motivation was, or if race played a part in Scott's slaying. "We can't get into the brain of another individual, so we can't state that," Scott family attorney Stewart said. "I think it would be irresponsible to say that and try and inflame a community or anything of that nature." If convicted, Slager could face life in prison or the death penalty. Who is Officer Slager? An autopsy of Scott showed that he "sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back of his body," and his death was the result of a homicide, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said. Asked whether CPR was performed on Scott after Slager shot him, Driggers said: "In the end of it (the video), what I saw was (what I) believed to be a police officer removing the shirt of the individual and performing some type of life-saving (procedure), but I'm not sure what took place there." When Scott's brother Anthony saw the video, he was convinced Slager's account of what happened was not true, he told CNN. "There was not a struggle for the Taser," Anthony Scott said. "I didn't believe my brother would have done that anyway." To Anthony Scott, the videotape shows his brother was "running for his life" away from the officer. "I think my brother was thinking he was not going to be shot, no one would have thought that," Scott said. Family members have adamantly repeated that they don't want protests over Scott's slaying to become violent. And, so far, the demonstrations have been passionate but peaceful. Scott's mother, Judy Scott, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that she feels "forgiveness in my heart, even for the guy that shot and killed my son." "He was a loving son, a loving father," she said. "He cared about his family and ... no matter what happens, it will not replace my son." Who was Walter Scott? CNN's Tony Marco, Ryan Scallan, Christine Bear, Tristan Smith, Martin Savidge, Brian Todd, Dana Ford, Sam Stringer and Evan Perez contributed to this report.

Footage shows a traffic stop and early interactions between Officer Michael Slager and Walter Scott . The two men speak, and then Scott gets out of the car, running . Slager, charged with murder, was fired from the North Charleston Police Department .

(CNN)You might call her a watchdog, because this Boston area Doberman really has a thing for timepieces. She recently ate three. Last Thursday, Jeff Courcelle came home from work to find 5-year-old Mocha -- a pure bred fawn-colored Doberman pincher -- hovering over a pile of screws, metal pieces, three watch heads and some chewed leather straps. "My husband, who's the most calm person that I know, called me up and said, 'I'm not quite sure if I should panic,' " said Courcelle's wife, Michele Parkinson. The 80-pound Doberman, whom her owners describe as "more goofy than scary," had pulled down a basket of wrist wear from a shelf in their bedroom and eaten nearly all the contents. Parkinson knew that Mocha wouldn't be able to pass all that leather on her own. The couple took her to the MSPCA's Angell Animal Medical Center, a 24-hour emergency and specialty hospital, where a veterinarian performed a 3-hour endoscopy to explore the contents of her belly. Mocha was a repeat offender: Just last summer, she got very sick and had to have emergency stomach surgery after a piece of plastic from an orange juice container perforated her intestine. She had 28 staples down her belly and 10 inches of intestine removed, Parkinson said. Fortunately this time, the jewelry remains were still in Mocha's belly and had not made their way into the digestive tract. The X-ray, however, was disturbing. Parkinson and her husband were just expecting to see a couple metal pieces. "It just looked like a Christmas tree and I almost threw up," Parkinson said. The veterinarian removed "about a pound of leather straps and metal pieces and detritus" during the endoscopy, and let nature take its course for the remaining pieces, MSPCA spokesman Rob Halpin said. As of Friday, Mocha was no worse for wear. The hospital sees dozens of cases each week of dogs ingesting foreign objects, and is trained to look for the symptoms of blockages -- typically lethargy, not eating and vomiting, Halpin said. They once saw a golden retriever who had stopped eating and found 43 pacifiers in her belly. (Apparently she was taking them from babies at the park.) And there was the 100-pound bull mastiff who ate his owner's brie that was set out for a party -- along with the cheese knife. The night Mocha stayed in the hospital, a nervous Parkinson stayed awake reading stories about dogs ingesting watches and other objects. She found one article about a Newfoundland whose owner knew something was awry only when he heard an alarm go off from his dog's belly. "We've taken every imaginable thing that could fit down the gullet of a dog out with surgery," Halpin said. "There's some evolutionary traits that some dogs have that lead them to eat first and think later ... and some of them are so food motivated that anything with a scent could be associated with food, and they go for it." Mocha likes to suck on fleece blankets and has been known to eat rubber ear buds or hair elastics, but nothing like a pile of jewelry, Parkinson said. Her breeder wondered if the dog was acting out of anxiety. That day, Parkinson had left Mocha in a different apartment the couple owns that the dog wasn't as used to. The breeder told Parkinson that Dobermans are particularly known to get anxious and do these sort of things. "She had a dog that actually consumed her whole dog bed," Parkinson said. From now on, Parkinson said she will put Mocha in a crate if the dog will be staying somewhere new. Follow-up X-rays Monday on Mocha showed a few pieces of metal left, "but they were moving along" and the vet expected her to pass them naturally. Parkinson said Friday Mocha was "her playful, energetic, curious Doberman self." But now that she thinks of it, the timing of this whole incident is a little suspicious. "My husband was all excited about the new Apple watch, but couldn't justify a reason to purchase it since he owned three watches," she said. "I am convinced that he and Mocha joined forces here to destroy all of his current watches in order to make room for Apple's new watch."

A Boston-area dog ate three of her owner's wristwatches . A veterinarian removed about 1 lb. of watch parts from her stomach . Mocha the Doberman is now doing well .

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN)The questions Turks asked on Tuesday were tinged with fear. "What's going on? What happened? Why can't I get into the subway?" asked an elderly woman in a white headscarf with several shopping bags as she stood outside the barricaded entrance to one of Istanbul's busiest subway stations. She was one of millions of Turks left confused and concerned by the worst power outage to grip the country in more than a decade. Dozens of cities across Turkey lost power for hours on Tuesday. Millions of people were affected, including passengers stranded on paralyzed trains and subways. Municipal workers were forced to evacuate Istanbul's Marmaray Tunnel, where the black-out left commuters trapped deep beneath the rushing waters of the Bosphorus Strait. More than 24 hours later, Turkish officials were still at pains to explain the power outage. The energy minister suggested a possible failure in transmission lines. The prime minister did not rule out the possibility of a terror attack. The mysterious collapse of much of the country's energy grid triggered a burst of wild conspiracy theories across social media. Some Twitter users went so far as to suggest the black-outs were a warm up for elections scheduled to take place in June. There is fertile ground for rumor-mongering in Turkey. Over the last five years, security forces have arrested hundreds of army generals, journalists, prosecutors, civil society activists and police commanders and accused them of being members of assorted plots aimed at toppling the government. The government's increasingly heavy-handed repression of public dissent, combined with overt censorship of the media and the internet, have also contributed to a hyper-polarized and deeply mistrustful political atmosphere. Even Turkey's veteran deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, recently observed that opposition supporters now look at him "with hatred" rather than the grudging respect he enjoyed when his political party first swept to power in elections in 2002. Meanwhile, mysterious black-outs are a sore spot for some Turks, after a surreal 2014 incident on election night -- allegedly involving a feline saboteur. That is -- a cat that allegedly wandered into a power transformer. That was almost exactly a year ago, a smaller series of power outages affected some polling stations during nationwide municipal elections, prompting unsubstantiated accusations of vote rigging. The ruling Justice and Development Party ended up winning by a comfortable margin, but few Turks were reassured by the energy minister's explanation that the voting day black-outs were caused by a cat getting lost. As electricity was just starting to come back on in Istanbul on Tuesday, a second crisis erupted. Websites linked to an extremist leftist militant group known as the DHKP-C began publishing chilling photos of a masked man holding a pistol to the head of a hostage in front of communist flags. Two gunmen had somehow infiltrated the Palace of Justice, the monolithic court house in the center of Istanbul. There they took hostage Mehmet Selim Kiraz, the prosecutor in charge of one of the most politically sensitive trials in the country. The gunmen demanded the confessions of police officers accused of shooting a tear gas canister at Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was critically wounded during anti-government protests that raged across Istanbul in 2013. The boy's death after months in a medically-induced coma triggered a fresh burst of protests and riots against the government. On Tuesday, in the midst of the hostage crisis at the court house, the Turkish government imposed a gag order banning broadcasters from reporting on the Palace of Justice siege. The broadcast ban is a measure that the Turkish government has repeatedly used in recent years to stifle reporting on deadly terrorist attacks. The government also famously shut down Twitter and YouTube in an effort to kill highly embarrassing political scandals involving corruption. Ultimately, Tuesday's court house siege ended in a deadly hail of bullets that left both gunmen dead and the prosecutor mortally wounded. Turkish officials say special forces raided the court house only after the militants began shooting. Online and in the streets, some Turks began linking the massive electricity blackouts to the hostage-taking inside one of Turkey's best-protected buildings, even though there is little to suggest the two incidents are connected. Just hours after the shooting, tensions exploded yet again at the court house. Istanbul's police chief had called for a press conference. As journalists jostled their way through security at the entrance to the largely deserted courthouse, some bystanders began chanting "government thieves." Just hours after a devastating lapse of security at the Palace of Justice, police began detaining the demonstrators hurling abuse at their elected government. The reactions to Tuesday's bewildering series of events revealed several truths about contemporary Turkey. The country is tense and confused after years of back-to-back political crises. Heavy-handed censorship has left the mainstream media widely distrusted and discredited by broad segments of society. And the absence of a common, credible space for sharing information has pushed critics of the government to the fringes of social media. Amid the burst of optimism and civil society activism in the early heady days of the Arab Spring in 2011, Turkey was often cited as a possible democratic model for countries in the Middle East. Many of those Arab countries have since descended into conflict, repression and instability. In the meantime, Turkey feels increasingly vulnerable to demons of its own making.

This week, Turkey was gripped by a massive power outage and a deadly hostage crisis . Reactions reveal contemporary Turkey is tense and confused after years of political crises . Censorship has pushed critics to fringes in country cited as democratic model for Mideast .

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)Al Qaeda fighters attacked a prison in the coastal Yemeni city of Al Mukallah early Thursday, freeing at least 270 prisoners, a third of whom have al Qaeda links, a senior Defense Ministry official has told CNN. Khaled Batarfi, a senior al Qaeda figure, was among the escapees, officials said. Dozens of attackers took control of government buildings, including the city's Central Prison, Central Bank and radio station during the assault early Thursday, according to officials. Government troops arrived early Thursday and clashed with the al Qaeda fighters, and most of the militants fled, the officials said. Last month, hundreds of inmates escaped from Al Mansoorah Central Prison in Aden after clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to ousted Sunni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Shiite Houthi rebels removed Hadi, a Sunni, from power. The sectarian nature of the conflict is drawing in regional rivals Saudi Arabia, which is predominately Sunni -- and is the country to which Hadi ultimately fled -- and Iran, which is predominately Shiite and supports the Houthi rebels. Because of that, the conflict in Yemen risks becoming a proxy war in the struggle between the Iranians and the Saudis for preeminence in the Middle East. The Saudis have conducted airstrikes against the Houthi rebels and could send in ground troops. But little is simple in the Middle East. And while the conflict between the Houthis and forces loyal to Hadi rages in the western part of the country, where it has caused hundreds of civilian deaths, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, controls parts of eastern Yemen. AQAP is considered one of the most ruthless branches of the terrorist organization.

Al Qaeda fighters attack a prison and other government buildings, freeing many prisoners . Government troops clash with the fighters, most of whom flee . Yemen is descending into chaos as a Shia-Sunni conflict draws in regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran .

(CNN)Editor's Note: Ines Dumig was recently announced as a CENTER Grant Recipient. Sahra, a Somali refugee, left her home at 14 years old. Throughout her journey in search of asylum, she managed to overcome dangers and discomforts. But she never gave up, and she continuously reminded herself to keep going. She's the focus of Ines Dumig's photo series "Apart Together." Dumig met Sahra through a photo workshop at Refugio, a shelter in Munich, Germany, for refugees and torture victims. What drew Dumig to Sahra specifically was her strength and her ability to effectively reflect on all of her experiences. "It really impressed me how she deals with everything," Dumig said. "She's strong in her way of connecting with the culture here and also reflecting on what happened, the culture where she comes from." The number of refugees seeking asylum in the European Union increased by 25% last year, with Germany receiving the most applications. One of the reasons Dumig decided to photograph Sahra is because growing up in Germany made Dumig realize that she lived a fortunate lifestyle. Another reason has to do with Dumig's interest in people's emotions and finding one's identity. "I realized so many people want to come to Europe, and I always had the feeling to disappear or to go away," Dumig said. "Seeing how people live in other parts of the world made me realize how privileged I am." "Apart Together" serves not only as a documentation of Sahra, but as a far-reaching story about people from all backgrounds. The title of Dumig's work refers to the fact that although people may be physically apart from one another, the comparable feelings they experience are what link all people together. "Sometimes we feel strong, sometimes we feel lost -- that's kind of universal, I think," Dumig said. "That's why I want to universalize (Sahra's) story as well, not only make it about her." The underlying themes of "Apart Together" include the feelings of isolation and "otherness" and the search for a valuable human dignity. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. "Every one of these (refugees) have strong stories, and in the bureaucratic system, they are just a number or a document," Dumig said. "But they are a person, they are people with emotions and lives." Sahra is currently under the status of "suspension of deportation," meaning German immigration officials may grant her discretionary relief from deportation. Dumig describes Sahra as someone living through an unresolved situation. Regardless of the challenges Sahra faces as a refugee in Germany, she is a survivor and the embodiment of resilience, determined to establish a new life for herself. She has learned to speak German fluently, and she has started working in the nation as well. Like an unsolved photographic puzzle, each photo within "Apart Together" provides a piece of insight into Sahra's experiences. There is no certain and clear way in which to arrange the pieces, because they are a representation of the fragmented nature of Sahra's life. Many of Dumig's photos are not of Sahra herself, but instead show her surroundings. This makes "Apart Together" rich in symbolism and challenges viewers to develop their own perceptions. The photos are powerful because of this symbolic nature, as there are infinite interpretations attached to each one. "I think everyone interprets by themselves, by however way they perceive it through their own experience. That's up to the viewer," Dumig said. "It depends on who looks at the pictures. ... Everyone will see something different." "Apart Together" allowed Dumig to share various special moments with Sahra, and they were both able to learn from each other. "It was just something we both got something out of," Dumig said. Ines Dumig is a photographer based in Germany.

Ines Dumig's photo series "Apart Together" follows a Somali refugee living in Germany . The underlying themes include isolation and "otherness" and the search for human dignity .