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(CNN) -- Welcome to New York City. Hope you packed your appetite. We're not claiming these are the definitive "best," "most essential," or "most authentic" restaurants in all of NYC or any of that jazz. We are just saying that if it were us in town for a few days, these are the places we'd make a beeline for to eat, drink and generally be delighted. Not a fan of our faves? Well, OK then. Just send us a DM or a note @eatocracy on Twitter, let us know where you are, and we'll find you some food to suit your mood. Have a delicious stay. Terroir | Tribeca Address: 24 Harrison St. Phone: 212.625.9463 Website: http://www.wineisterroir.com/ Categories: Downtown, Bar, Eat at the bar Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Three words: Riesling on tap. It may be touted as a wine bar, but the food is killer. Chicken liver and lardo bruschette are life-changers. Caracas Arepa Bar Address: 93 1/2 East 7th St. Phone: 718.218.6050 or 212.529.2314 Website: http://www.caracasarepabar.com Categories: Downtown Tip: For a taste of Venezuela, chomp into one of these stuffed corn-flour arepas. Feeling indecisive? Try the La Popular sampler of three different, traditional varieties. Otto Enoteca Pizzeria Address: 1 Fifth Ave. Phone: 212.995.9559 Website: http://www.ottopizzeria.com/ Categories: Downtown, Celebrity chef, Eat at the bar Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Order some antipasti at Mario Batali's casual pizzeria while you wait on his thin-crusted creations. Runny yolk fans opt for the Pane Frattau -- a pie with a sunnyside-up egg in the center. The house-made olive oil gelato is the ultimate sweet-savory ending. Gramercy Tavern Address: 42 East 20th St. Phone: 212.477.0777 Website: http://www.gramercytavern.com/ Categories: Gramercy/Flatiron, Date night Solo Dining: Yes Tip: It's one of the New York's most beloved restaurants -- and for good reason with its luxurious yet homey atmosphere. Everything's seasonal and you really can't go wrong. Sakagura Address: 211 East 43rd St. Phone: 212.953.7253 Website: http://www.sakagura.com/ Categories: Midtown, Hidden gem, Eat at the bar Solo Dining: Yes Tip: A taste of Tokyo is hidden in the basement of a Midtown East office building -- your friends will be impressed you found this place. Go for lunch and sake -- their platters are a multi-course steal at $20. Pearl Oyster Bar Address: 18 Cornelia Street Phone: 212.691.8211 Website: http://www.pearloysterbar.com/ Categories: Downtown, No reservations Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Come for the lobster roll, stay for the blueberry pie. Impatient diners take note: they do not accept reservations. Spotted Pig Address: 314 West 11th Street Phone: 212.620.0393 Website: http://thespottedpig.com/ Categories: Downtown, Celeb spotting, Late night Tip: The gastropub to end all gastropubs. Devils on Horseback, chicken liver and a burger with Roquefort are a few of its hearty offerings. A 2-hour wait is normal during peak time as is celeb-spotting in the witching hours. Momofuku Ssam Bar Address: 207 2nd Avenue Phone: 212.254.3500 Website: http://www.momofuku.com/ssam-bar/ Categories: Downtown, Celebrity chef Tip: Order the pork buns and stop by Milk Bar next door for a compost cookie, crack pie or one of the ever changing, always inventive soft-serve ice creams. Porchetta Address: 110 East 7th Street Phone: 212.777.2151 Website: http://www.porchettanyc.com/ Categories: Downtown, Casual Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Pork lovers: eat Porchetta's porchetta. That is all. Marea Address: 240 Central Park South Phone: 212.582.5100 Website: http://www.marea-nyc.com/home.html/ Categories: Midtown, Date night, Eat at the bar Solo Dining: Yes Tip: It was just named Best New Restaurant at the James Beard Awards so reservations may be tight. But, it's worth the fuss to order fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow and eat at the bar. Taim Address: 222 Waverly Place Phone: 212.691.1287 Website: http://taimfalafel.com/ Categories: Downtown, Casual Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Skip the ubiquitous street cart falafel and head to the West Village. Choose between red, green or harissa falafel flavors. The Little Owl Address: 90 Bedford Street Phone: 212.741.4695 Website: http://www.thelittleowlnyc.com/ Categories: Downtown, Date night Tip: This darling neighborhood restaurant is perfect for date night. Signature meatball sliders are a must, while a pork chop with butter beans and dandelion is close to porcine perfection. If soft shell crab is available, dive in for a suprisingly light taste of summer. Katz's Delicatessen Address: 205 E. Houston Street Phone: 212.254.2246 Website: http://www.katzdeli.com/ Categories: Downtown, Old New York, Casual Solo Dining: Yes Tip: It's the quintessential New York deli -- as seen in When Harry Mat Sally. Order the classics: corned beef, pastrami or tongue with a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray chaser. Grand Central Oyster Bar Address: 89 E. 42nd St. (in Grand Central Station) Phone: 212.490.6650 Website: http://oysterbarny.com/ Categories: Midtown, Old New York Solo Dining: Yes Tip: This is old school New York. Nab a table in the cavernous, subterranean dining room or saloon or a seat at the curving lunch counter or raw bar and slurp down fresh oysters or a classic pan roast. Blue Hill Address: 75 Washington Place Phone: 212.539.1776 Website: http://bluehillfarm.com/food/blue-hill-new-york Categories: Downtown, Date night Tip: Dine like the First Couple at this lauded, lovely farm-to-table restaurant helmed by James Beard Award winning chef Dan Barber. Torrisi Italian Specialities Address: 250 Mulberry St. Phone: 212.965.0955 Website: http://www.piginahat.com/index.php Categories: Downtown, Casual Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Italian-American classics to take-out or eat-in by two accomplished, contemporary chefs. Word has quickly spread about this 18 seat restaurant's chicken parm hero and turkey sandwich. Degustation Address: 239 East 5th Street Phone: 212.979.1012 Website: No website Categories: Downtown, Adventurous Tip: Skip a la carte and go for the tasting menu: a New York bargain at 5-courses for $55. The tiny restaurant seats diners at a counter around an open kitchen -- dinner and a show. Shake Shack Address: 366 Columbus Ave. Phone: 212.889.6600 Website: http://shakeshack.com Categories: Gramercy/Flatiron, Casual, Outdoors Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Shack burgers, Chicago-style dogs and shakes are the draw at Danny Meyer's ode to summertime eats. Park yourself in the inevitable line -- locations in Madison Square Park, the Upper West Side and Citi Field triple your chances to satisfy crinkle-fry cravings. Death & Co. Address: 433 E. 6th St. Phone: 212-388-0882 Website: http://www.deathandcompany.com/lounge/ Categories: Downtown, Bar Tip: Cocktails are to die for at this East Village bar. Drinks like the Joy Division and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test sparkle amid the Gothic loveliness of this cocktail manor. Lombardi's Address: 32 Spring St Phone: 212-941-7994 Website: http://www.firstpizza.com Categories: Downtown, Casual Tip: The nation's first pizzeria doesn't accept reservations, but their wood-oven pies are worth the wait. Hill Country Address: 30 West 26th Street Phone: 212.255.4544 Website: http://www.hillcountryny.com/ Categories: Gramercy/Flatiron, Casual, Good for groups, Live music Tip: Boot scoot on over to Hill Country for some low and slow-smoked brisket, ribs and all the southern fixings. Save room for a PB & J cupcake. Everything's bigger in Texas so bring your appetite. Beacon Address: 25 W. 56th St. Phone: 212-332-0500 Website: http://www.beaconnyc.com/ Categories: Midtown, Eat at the bar Solo Dining: Yes Tip: This undersung Midtown gem boasts some of the city's greatest bar treats - woodfired pizza and serious cocktails. Lunch prix fixe is a steal. Sripraphai Address: 6413 39th Avenue Woodside, Queens Phone: (718) 899-9599 Website: http://www.sripraphairestaurant.com/ Categories: Queens, Adventurous Tip: Sure, it's a shlep from Manhattan (hop the 7-train to Woodside Ave.), but the papaya and catfish salad and fish maw soup are worth the journey for serious Thai devotees. Sushi Yasuda Address: 204 East 43rd Street Phone: (212) 972-1001 Website: http://www.sushiyasuda.com/ Categories: Midtown, Date night Solo Dining: Yes Tip: Oh, oh, the otoro! Opt for bar seating to watch the master prepare sumptuous fatty tuna, Arctic char and shockingly fresh urchin up close. Flatiron Lounge Address: 37 West 19th St. Phone: (212) 727-7741 Website: http://www.flatironlounge.com/ Categories: Gramercy/Flatiron, Date night, Bar Tip: Artful mixologists led by the fabulous Julie Reiner craft bygone cocktails and daily drink flights by hand in this lovely, Art Deco-influenced bar. Get there early. Han Bat Address: 53 West 35th Street Phone: (212) 629-5588 Website: No website Categories: Midtown, Late night Tip: Skip the late night slice and opt for bi bim bop and ox knee broth served 24/7 in the heart of NYC's Koreatown. Keens Steakhouse Address: 72 West 36th St. Phone: (212) 947-3636 Website: http://www.keens.com/ Categories: Midtown, Old New York Solo Dining: Yes Tip: In 1905, Lillie Langtry sued to be allowed access to the gents-only premises. Upon winning, she swept in and ordered the mutton chop. Follow her lead. Don't miss prime-rib hash and 200+ single malts. Hearth Address: 403 East 12th St. Phone: (646) 602-1300 Website: http://restauranthearth.com/ Categories: Downtown, Date night Tip: Chef Marco Canora's Italian-influenced American fare is inventive, hospitable and homey -- complemented by one of the most creative wine lists in town. WD~50 Address: 50 Clinton St. Phone: 212.477.2900 Website: http://www.wd-50.com/ Categories: Downtown, Adventurous Tip: Chef Wylie Dufresne deconstructs classic like eggs Benedict to re-imagine using high-tech "molecular gastronomy" techniques. Like Mama never made. Pegu Club Address: 77 W. Houston St., 2nd Floor Phone: (212) 473-7348 Website: http://www.peguclub.com Categories: Downtown, Bar Tip: Named for the Pegu Club cocktail, this romantic upstairs bar boasts classics and original inventions by mixologist Audrey Saunders. Nice Green Bo Address: 66 Bayard St. Phone: (212) 625-2359 Website: No website Categories: Downtown, Adventurous Solo Dining: Yes Tip: The bare-bones atmosphere and terse service aren't the draw; the turnip and ham pastries and sumptuous stewed pork balls surely are. Prune Address: 54 East 1st St. Phone: (212) 677-6221 Website: http://www.prunerestaurant.com/ Categories: Downtown, Killer brunch Tip: A wild Sunday brunch Bloody Mary menu and an omelet with a marrow bone side sates adventurous eaters. Spaghetti carbonara breakfast soothes damage from late night revels. Jimmy's Corner Address: 140 W. 44th St Phone: 212-221-9510 Website: No website Categories: Midtown, Dive bar Tip: a.k.a. The Boxing Bar. Jimmy Glenn's low-key joint is a longtime haven for thirsty locals in need of respite from Times Square tourists. Kabab Café Address: 25-12 Steinway St. Astoria Queens N/R to Astoria/Ditmars Blvd. Phone: 718-728-9858 Website: No website Categories: Queens, Adventurous Tip: This eclectically decorated cash-only café is home to Egyptian fare so soulful and sumptuous, it's not unusual to see patrons tearing up. Get the meze platter and let Chef Ali El Sayed select the rest of your meal for you.

Check out our favorites, from Katz's to Caracas . Visit Lombardi's, the nation's first pizzeria . Try the papaya and catfish salad at Sripraphai .

(CNN) -- From Singapore to Norway, there are plenty of reasons to plan your next trip around a fabulous hotel opening its doors next year. Here are 11 of them. The Reverie Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) Opening: January 2015 . Part of the new Times Square building in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1, this lavish lodging doesn't cut corners. The 286 rooms and suites have been fitted out by four of Italy's finest interior designers and come with elaborate chandeliers, jeweled beds and velvet curtains. Cantonese food is dished up by a Michelin-starred chef, there's traditional Italian in a dining room named after Romeo and Juliet (R&J), a deli and one of the longest bar counters in HCMC (reportedly the length of a city block). You can arrive in one of the property's fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantom Dragons or, if you're short for time, chopper in -- the hotel has its own helipad. The Reverie Saigon, 22 Nguyen Hue, Ben Nghe, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; +84 8 3920 9520 . Mama Shelter (Los Angeles) Opening: February 2015 . Philippe Starck may have been responsible for the design of existing properties in the Mama Shelter portfolio, but the French interiors celebrity passes the baton to Thierry Gaugain for the brand's Los Angeles property. Located in a 1923 building and one-time hotel in Hollywood (supposedly a favorite of Jimi Hendrix and Eva Gardner) the property's 70 rooms will feature the same design flair of sister properties across France and Turkey. Unfortunately, we'll have to take the company's word for it -- no photos have yet been released of the secretive new property. In addition to a ground-floor restaurant and bar, the hotel will offer dining and drinks on a rooftop patio. From here you'll enjoy unbroken vistas of the nightlife along Cahuenga Boulevard, the Hollywood ArcLight (one of the largest movie theaters in the city), Amoeba Music and, every Sunday, the Hollywood Farmers' Market, which is a block away on Selma and Ivar. Mama Shelter, 1557 Wilcox Ave., Los Angeles . Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef, Australia) Opening: March 1, 2014 . Cyclone Ita devastated this petite Great Barrier Reef island when it hit in April 2014. Almost 12 months down the track, and following a massive rebuild and remodeling effort, the isle and its resort have set a re-opening date. From March, guests will have access to Lizard Island's understated, barefoot luxury once more, with new resort additions including a standalone two-bedroom suite, The Villa, which comes with its own plunge pool, wraparound deck, and views of the Coral Sea. The Pavilion now features a separate lounge offering ocean vistas, and the Sunset Point Villas now have more plunge pools. Inside are design nods to the reef, with an earth-tones palette complemented by pops of coral, blue and gold. A dedicated wine and cheese room has been added and the island's spa has been relocated and expanded to include a dedicated manicure and pedicure room. One thing that hasn't changed is the spectacular diving and snorkeling, with some of the world's most dazzling marine life steps from your room. Lizard Island, Lizard Island National Park via Cairns, Australia; +61 3 9426 7550 . Park Hyatt Zanzibar (Tanzania) Opening: March 2015 . The UNESCO World Heritage-listed Stone Town, the historic heart of the East African island of Zanzibar, offers a dramatic backdrop for the soon-to-open Park Hyatt Zanzibar. The rich culture and heritage of this Tanzanian island -- an important trading hub for spices during the 19th century -- is reflected in the hotel's design, with its 67 rooms spread over two buildings. One of them is the 17th-century Mambo Msiige, a beautiful Zanzibari mansion enveloping a peaceful courtyard and featuring intricate carvings. Oceanfront rooms and suites offer shimmering views of Dhow Harbour and the Indian Ocean, a view also found from the beach-side infinity pool. Other diversions range from an Anantara Spa to Zamani Residence, the hotel's restaurant designed to pay homage to a traditional family residence by allowing guests to enjoy meals in different areas, including a library with a veranda, the living room and the main dining room, with a terrace and residential-style kitchen. Park Hyatt Zanzibar, Shangani Street, Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania; +255 24 223 1234 . Anantara Tangalle Resort & Spa (Tangalle, Sri Lanka) Opening: mid-2015 . One of two Anantara hotels opening on Sri Lanka's picturesque southern coast in 2015 (the other being the Anantara Kalutara Resort & Spa, welcoming guests from late 2015), Tangalle Resort & Spa sprawls over 18 hectares in Tangalle, a beach-side town around 80 kilometers east of the historic fortified city of Galle, and within easy reach of several national parks. Design is inspired by traditional Sri Lankan architecture, with high-pitched thatched roofs, local artwork and artifacts, hand-carved furniture and plenty of breezy open spaces dotting groves of coconut palms. The 152 guest rooms include 32 pool villas, which the hotel is billing as being the first of their kind in the country. Facilities include a selection of restaurants and bars and an Anantara Spa. Residences will be on offer for those who want to truly make the resort a home away from home. Anantara Tangalle Resort & Spa, Tangalle Bay, Sri Lanka . Patina, Capitol Singapore . Opening: mid-2015 . Patina Hotels & Resorts' flagship hotel is spectacular. The brainchild of Singapore's Kwee family -- who also own the city's Capella, Conrad, Regent and Ritz-Carlton hotels -- the Patina occupies two heritage-listed buildings: the Capitol Building and Stamford House. Part of a bigger redevelopment project transforming the old Capitol Movie Theatre, the 157-room hotel has two huge names attached to it: Pritzker Prize-winner Richard Meier and notable interior design company Jaya International Design, which conceptualized the beautifully laid out accommodations, including Wellness Suites and Art Suites. Other features range from a library-lounge and saltwater relaxation pool to a state of the art fitness center and signature restaurant and bar. Patina staff double as concierges -- a concept designed to tap into the creative skills of employees and have them provide personal experiences for guests. Patina, Capitol Singapore, 15 Stamford Road, Singapore . Four Seasons Hotel Seoul (South Korea) Opening: mid-2015 . South Korea's first Four Seasons hotel will blend traditional designs with ultra-modern trimmings. Occupying a new 25-story building in the CBD of Jong-gu, the hotel stands out for its prime location. Adjacent to Gwanghwamun, the main gate of Gyeongbok Palace and the historic districts of Jong-ro and Isadong, the Four Seasons is a great base from which to explore the Korean capital. The 317 rooms and suites showcase an earthy fusion of blonde wood, marble and local ceramics. Facilities include restaurants and saltwater pool. Meanwhile, another Four Seasons property is set to debut in the Moroccan city of Casablanca mid-year. Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, South Korea . Alila Seminyak (Indonesia) Opening: Q2 2015 . It turns out there's room to squeeze yet another hotel onto Bali. The latest luxury lodgings come courtesy of the Alila hotels group, which has four existing properties across the Indonesian island. This newcomer sits on a beach along Bali's southwest coast, a short walk from the bars, restaurants and busy shopping streets of Seminyak. Rooms and suites ring a pool -- one of three at the hotel -- that leads to the beach. An 811-square-meter penthouse comes with its own infinity pool and terrace, as well as three bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. Like other Alila properties, there's a strong environmental focus: buildings are laced with vertical rooftop gardens and green corridors link the four buildings. Recycled and reclaimed building materials are used throughout and rainwater harvesting and solar energy are employed to reduce the hotel's environmental footprint. Alila Seminyak, Jalan Taman Ganesha No. 9, Bali, Indonesia . SLS Park Avenue (New York) Opening: late 2015 . The third hotel in the SLS portfolio, joining properties in LA and South Beach, SLS Park Avenue has a perch that's hard to beat. Located at 444 Park Avenue in Manhattan's trendy NoMad neighborhood, it's a couple blocks from Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art. A celebrated creative team is behind the project, including visionary designer Philippe Starck, who was responsible for conceptualizing the 190 guest rooms and suites as well as a handful of restaurants and bars spanning the lobby and rooftop. While the design concept is yet to be announced, from what we've seen of the property it's clear that Starck is bringing his signature whimsy to the project, which includes a glamorous blend of gilding and mirrors and a moody color scheme with plenty of designer furniture. SLS Park Avenue, 444 Park Ave. S., New York . Lofoten Opera Hotel (Norway) Opening: late 2015 . The Lofoten archipelago is a dramatic union of soaring peaks, untouched beaches and sheltered bays. It's here that you'll soon find the Lofoten Opera Hotel, a property befitting its wild surroundings. Design firm Snohetta is behind the eye-catching building that cascades toward the sea and links the mountains and ocean. In addition to hotel rooms -- all of which will offer unbroken views thanks to the hotel's circular design -- the 11,000-square-meter site will be home to apartments, an amphitheater and spa. It's a far-flung corner of the world, but that's part of the appeal. The surrounding wilderness offers treks, kayaking and sailing, among other activities. Lofoten Opera Hotel, Lofoten, Norway . Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi (Malaysia) Opening: 2015 . Fringed by tropical rainforest, the Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi enjoys a private cove and beach overlooking the Andaman Sea on the island's southwest corner. The 132-room resort, including 42 villas, nods to traditional architecture: buildings reflect kampong village styles and classic interiorsl. The family-friendly property features three swimming pools, including one just for children, and there's also a Ritz Kids Club. While staff look after your young ones you can head to the spa, replete with a Turkish-style hammam. Restaurants reflect the diversity of local culture, with Malay, Chinese, Thai and Indian offerings -- plus French fine dining and an international beach grill. Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi, Malaysia .

SLS' third hotel will be located in New York's trendy NoMad neighborhood . Four of Italy's finest interior designers fitted out Ho Chi Minh City's Reverie Saigon with chandeliers and jeweled beds . Park Hyatt will be opening a 67-room hotel in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Stone Town .

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Aid started flowing into Haiti Wednesday in the wake of the earthquake that slammed the impoverished nation late Tuesday afternoon. One of two military cargo planes carrying a 30-man assessment team arrived at Port-au-Prince airport Wednesday evening to assess Haiti's needs. One of the team's first jobs is to get the airport working to a point where it can handle flights from around the world filled with people and supplies to help the victims of the quake. In addition, a unit of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Forces left Hurlburt Field in Florida, with the unit including airmen, search-and-rescue experts and equipment to set up temporary air traffic control systems. A Canadian military plane was to depart Trenton, Ontario, laden with supplies at 2 a.m. Thursday. But the air space was not open to charitable organizations, said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's purse, which was planning to send charter planes loaded with supplies to Haiti Thursday morning. "I hope and pray that they will open that air space first thing in the morning," he told CNN. U.S. Embassy staff at the Port-au-Prince airport said the tower and the lights were working, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said; a CNN producer said the windows in the tower were broken. As the scope of the disaster began to come into focus, offers of help began pouring in. Crowley said the Netherlands, Iceland, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Brazil, Canada, Belize, Cuba, Morocco and France all had offered aid. Impact Your World: How you can help . The World Bank promised $100 million in emergency funds for recovery and reconstruction, subject to approval by the World Bank's board of directors. World Health Organization personnel were planning to depart Thursday morning for Haiti, where their priority was to identify hospitals functional enough to treat the injured and coordinating the international health response. After relief organizations found themselves tripping over one another following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, they decided to coordinate their efforts with those of non-U.N. organizations in what is called the "U.N. Cluster System." In the system, WHO plays the lead coordinating role for health; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or the Red Cross does it for shelter; and the World Food Programme does it for food, according to Christy Feig, WHO's director of communications. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who in 1975 honeymooned in Haiti with the current secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, urged listeners to donate to http://www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake/. "Anybody who sends us money, we're just going to move it into those supplies quickly," he promised. He urged world leaders who have already made a commitment at a Clinton Foundation donors' conference to check to see whether they had fulfilled it. "Most countries are way behind on fulfilling it," he said. "They (Haitians) need your help now." He said that, after the 2004 Asian tsunami, Americans donated more than $1 billion, with a median contribution of $56, and half of the money came via the Internet. "Little donations can add up to big amounts," he said. "Five or ten dollars can make a huge difference. These people are just like you and they're hurting now." Search-and-rescue teams from cities in the United States headed to Haiti, with a team from Fairfax, Virginia, due to arrive Wednesday in Port-au-Prince, the State Department said. The U.S. Agency for International Development was expected to have an emergency response team on the ground Wednesday, Crowley said. The United States was also sending aid by ship, and the crew of the USNS Comfort has been ordered to report to the Navy hospital ship. The ship was expected to leave port in Baltimore within five days of receiving its orders, but it had not yet been ordered to deploy, Capt. John Kirby told CNN. It would take about five days to get to Haiti. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti late Tuesday afternoon, knocking down buildings and inflicting destruction and casualties yet to be tallied, given limited communications and emergency services in the Caribbean nation. Many other countries have also offered assistance: . • Brazil's Ministry of Defense ordered its troops in the country to offer whatever assistance they can, Brazil's official news agency reported. The South American nation has 1,266 troops -- including 250 in an engineering unit -- in Haiti as part of a United Nations stabilization force. • China was preparing to send a 50-member rescue team, including three sniffer dogs, the official news agency Xinhua reported. China has 125 peace-keeping police in Haiti, but no diplomatic ties with the country, Xinhua reported. • Spain was sending three planeloads of aid -- two from Panama in Central America and one from Madrid, the Spanish capital, CNN affiliate CNN+ reported. Spain was also making 3 million euros ($4.35 million) available for aid and will coordinate the European Union response. • France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, dispatched two planeloads of rescue personnel, one from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and one from Marseilles, France. • Russia was sending a mobile hospital with a staff of 45, including 20 doctors, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Elena Chernova told CNN. The mobile hospital "has intensive therapy, surgery, diagnostics, ultra-sound, X-ray, electrocardiogram modules as well as a blood test laboratory," and can accommodate 50 patients at a time, she said. • Cuba sent an additional 30 doctors, plus medical supplies, to join the 344 doctors and paramedics it already had working throughout Haiti on humanitarian missions, said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. • Iceland was sending a 37-man search-and-rescue team and offered to help evacuate foreign nationals, its foreign ministry said. • Canada had a five-man team already in Haiti as part of the U.N. relief efforts there. All five were helping with the relief effort, Capt. Elizabeth Tremblay told CNN. • The United Kingdom and Israel also pledged to send survey teams. • Under a U.S. State Department program, individuals with U.S. cell phones can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "Haiti" to 90999. The State Department said Wednesday afternoon that the campaign had received nearly 83,000 hits. • Musician Wyclef Jean's Yele foundation is accepting $5 donations for texting the word "Yele" to 501501. Text the word "Haiti" to 25383 to donate $5 to the Internal Rescue Committee. The donations will appear on mobile phone bills, in addition to any charges for texting and data. • The Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 Million to Doctors Without Borders for operations in Haiti. "It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades," said Angelina Jolie in a news release. The group, also called Medecins Sans Frontieres, said its medical teams have treated more than 1,000 people since the earthquake hit. Prior to the earthquake, its 800 staff members ran three hospitals in Port-au-Prince, but they were all badly damaged. Its teams have been operating out of open-air hospitals since Tuesday afternoon. The group was focusing on re-establishing surgical capacity to deal with crushed limbs and head wounds, said Paul McPhun, an emergency management expert for the organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders. • The United Nations was releasing $10 million from its Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. It was also mobilizing an emergency response team to coordinate relief efforts. • The American Red Cross promised $1 million in aid and said it was releasing enough supplies -- tarps, mosquito nets and cooking sets -- from its warehouse in Panama to meet the immediate needs of 5,000 families. • Islamic Relief USA, which describes itself as America's largest Muslim relief organization, announced it would fly $1 million in aid to Haiti in coordination with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. • The World Food Programme was airlifting 86 metric tons of food from its hub in El Salvador, enough for more than half a million meals, the agency said. The aid included ready-to-eat food and high-energy biscuits. • AmeriCares was sending $3 million in medical aid, including antibiotics, pain relievers, bandages and other supplies, plus relief workers to distribute the aid. It was also releasing 10,000 pounds of emergency relief and pledging $5 million in aid. • The U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said it had released $500,000 to assist the efforts of the 10 international staff and 34 national staff in its Port-au-Prince office. In Jacmel, southwest of the capital, thousands of people have sought shelter in camps set up by the government, UNICEF relief worker Guido Cornale told CNN. UNICEF is providing clean drinking water to the victims and has distributed 2,500 kitchen kits that can be used to set up kitchens in the camps. At least 1,000 people were to be fed a hot meal Wednesday night, Cornale said. • The United Nations Foundation committed $1 million to address the most urgent humanitarian and re-construction needs in Haiti, UNF Founder Ted Turner said in a statement. Turner founded CNN but is no longer associated with the network. • The World Health Organization was sending a 12-person team to Haiti to help with the medical response. • The International Rescue Committee was deploying its Emergency Response Team, focusing on critical medical, water and sanitation. • The Salvation Army was preparing to send a team from Florida that would include emergency disaster services personnel, including Haitian Salvation Army officers who speak Creole. The organization has more than 60 church/community centers on the island, it said. • Catholic Relief Services had 340 staff members already in Haiti, and pre-positioned supplies in the country. The group said it would also send staff members from its home office in Baltimore, Maryland, to the neighboring Dominican Republic. • National Nurses United issued an urgent call for registered nurse volunteers to provide assistance. • The International Monetary Fund was planning to "coordinate with other international agencies, and mobilize our assistance as quickly as possible," Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement. • Businesses pledging relief in amounts exceeding $500,000 included UPS, Google, Coca Cola, Lowe's, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Wal-Mart and ConAgra Foods Foundation. The quake, centered about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Port-au-Prince, struck shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday. Roads in Haiti were unsafe because of a lack of lighting and because many buildings had collapsed into the roads or were threatening to do so, said Ian Rodgers of the relief organization Save the Children. CNN's Elise Labott, Adam S. Levine, Shasta Darlington, Tom Watkins, Maxim Tkachenko, Per Nyberg, Edvige Jean-Francois, Deb Feyerick, Matt Smith, Mike Mount, Larry Shaughnessy, Khadijah Rentas and Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.

NEW: Aid, search-and-rescue experts begin to reach Haiti . NEW: One of two military planes with 30-man team lands in Port-au-Prince to assess needs . World Bank promises $100 million in emergency funds for recovery and reconstruction . Former U.S. President Bill Clinton: [Haitians] "need your help now"

(CNN) -- Home to up to 10 percent of all known species, Mexico is recognized as one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. The twin threats of climate change and human encroachment on natural environments are, however, threatening the existence of the country's rich wildlife. And there is a great deal to lose. In the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre's list of megadiverse countries Mexico ranks 11th. The list represents a group of 17 countries that harbor the majority of the Earth's species and are therefore considered extremely biodiverse. From its coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea to its tropical jungles in Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula and its deserts and prairies in the north, Mexico boasts an incredibly rich variety of flora and fauna. Some 574 out of 717 reptile species found in Mexico -- the most in any country -- can only be encountered within its borders. It is home to 502 types of mammals, 290 species of birds, 1,150 varieties of birds and 26,000 classifications of plants. Pronatura, a non-profit organization that works to promote conservation and sustainable development in Mexico, has selected six species which it says symbolize the problems faced by the destruction of nature. "These are only some of the species which have some degree of conservation," says Eduardo Cota Corona, Director of Conservation at Pronatura. "However, there is a countless number of species in Mexico which find themselves in danger of extinction." Golden Eagle . It is the country's national symbol yet the Golden Eagle is close to extinction in Mexico. One of the largest raptors or birds of prey in the world, the Golden Eagle's wingspan can reach lengths greater than two metres. Only the Bald Eagle and the California Greater exceed it in size in North America. With its powerful hooked bill and long and sharp claws it can sometimes capture prey of a size that is surprising for its size, including crane, wild ungulates and domestic livestock, though more often than not it tends to feed off small mammals such as rabbits, hares, ground squirrels and prairie dogs as well as reptiles and small-to-medium sized birds. Primarily a solitary bird, the Golden Eagle pairs up to breed, building nests made of dry branches in cliffs and escarpments. The female typically lays two eggs which are incubated by both the male and female. Usually, only one of the hatchlings survives. The Golden Eagle can be found in Asia and Europe and mainly in the western part of North America. It was common in Mexico but in recent years has become a rare sight. Its demise has been attributed to the destruction of its habitat and the elimination of its natural prey. Human activity, in the form of hunting, capturing and commercial sale have also contributed to its decline. Pronatura has lobbied for legal protection of this bird that forms part of Mexico's flag and has launched conservation projects in its natural habitat, such as in the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park and the Cuatro Ciénegas Biosphere Reserve. Gray Whale . Pachico Mayoral, a Mexican fisherman form Baja California, claims to be the first person to have a friendly encounter with a gray whale. Up until then this enormous cetacean -- an adult can reach a length of 16 meters and weigh in at 36 tons - had been known as the devil fish for its aggressive behavior when hunted. The main group of gray whales is found in the northeastern Pacific. Each year a herd of 25,000 whales sets out on what is believed to be the longest migration in the animal kingdom - 12,500 miles - between their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska and their breeding territory in the warmer waters of the lagoons of Baja California. Over its lifetime, it is estimated that an Eastern Pacific gray whale will travel the equivalent of a return trip to the moon. A smaller herd of about 300 gray whales can be found in the Western Pacific between Korea and the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia. Excessive hunting in the 19th century pushed the gray whale to the brink of extinction but protection mandated by the International Whaling Commission in 1946 and the declaration by the Mexican government of Laguna San Ignacio in 1972 as a Gray Whale refuge means that it is one of the few success stories. Pronatura and the Aztec foundation have raised nearly $4 million with which they hope to guarantee the protection of 20,000 hectares of the gray whale's habitat in Baja California and ensure its survival in the years to come. Jaguar . It may be top of the food chain but this doesn't guarantee the survival of the jaguar in Mexico. The largest cat in the Western Hemisphere (it's nearest rival is the puma), the jaguar can be found anywhere from the southern United States to as far south as northern Argentina. In Mexico, it can be found mainly in the tropical forests of Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula. With its tawny yellow coat speckled with black rosette-like spots for camouflage, the jaguar resembles most the leopard of Africa, although it has a stockier build which makes it adept at climbing trees, stalking through undergrowth and swimming. The jaguar's list of prey is long: it can hunt anything from white-nosed coati to larger mammals such as deer. Its unique anatomy -- it has an unusually large head and powerful teeth in comparison to other big cats -- gives it an abnormally powerful bite, meaning that it can take on armoured reptiles such as caiman, crocodiles and tortoises, while it often bites through an animal's skull to inflict a killer blow to the brain. It plays an essential part in maintaining a balanced ecosystem by hunting species which would put local environments out of kilter if they were to become too abundant. The jaguar is an important symbol in local Mexican culture. The Mayans believed it was a messenger between the living and the dead and Mayan kings often incorporated the jaguar into their name, while an elite group of Aztec warriors were known as "Jaguar Knights'. In Mexico, the jaguar is a threatened species. Its decline is mainly due to the destruction of its natural habitat. For example, in the Ria Lagartos Biosphere reserve in northern Yucatyan state, Pronatura reports that only 20 percent of the original forest cover remains, the rest having been cleared for cattle-herding. Tourist development also plays its part; El Ocotal Natural Reserve, where cameras placed in the forest have captured images of six individual jaguars and pumas, is close to Mexico's tourism capital, Cancun. Pronatura estimates that if present conditions persist, the jaguar could become extinct in the northeastern part of the Yucatan within 30 to 40 years. Mexican Prairie Dog . Closely related to squirrels, chipmunks and marmots, the Mexican prairie dog is a burrowing mammal found in northeastern Mexico. It earnt its name from its distinctive call -- a mixture of barks and yips -- which is believed to be one of the most sophisticated languages in the animal world. The Mexican prairie dog feeds on the herbs and grasses of the plains of northeastern Mexico and lives in "towns" -- excavated colonies of up to 50 individuals which are ruled by a single alpha male. Listed as an endangered species since 1970, the prairie dog now occupies less than two percent of its former territory and can now only be found in southern Coahuila and northern San Luis Potosi -- an area of less than 500 square miles. While vulnerable to hunting from coyotes, bobcats, badgers and hawks, its largest threat is loss of habitat due to agricultural expansion. Mexican farmers have often viewed the prairie dog as a pest and it has often been hunted or poisoned. Pronatura Mexico fights for the legal protection of "Los Llanos de Tokio", an area of grassland in Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Coahuila and it has signed a conservation agreement with private land owners and ejidos (farming collectives) to protect 42, 000 hectares of land. Monarch Butterfly . Each year, between December and March, these orange and black-patterned butterflies, the size of an adult human hand, congregate in numbers of up to 250 million in a pine and oyamel tree forest in Michoacan in Central Mexico. They migrate approximately 3,000 miles from the border between northeastern United States and Canada and their gathering to breed in Mexico is considered one of the most extraordinary sights in the natural world. During its life cycle, which can be up to 20 weeks, the Monarch Butterfly goes through what is known as a complete metamorphosis, comprising four stages. From eggs laid by the female, a caterpillar is hatched. The caterpillar eats its own egg case and feeds off milkweed while storing energy in the form of fat and nutrients. It then spins a silk pad and hangs from a leaf or twig while it molts. Within its green exoskeleton, hormonal changes occur, converting the caterpillar into a butterfly. After two weeks a mature butterfly emerges. But in the last 20 years forest cover in its breeding habitat has decreased by an estimated 40 percent. Illegal logging, an increase in cases of forest fires and high levels of poverty in the region which put pressure on natural resources, have all contributed to a situation in which Pronatura believes the forest may disappear completely within 20 years. Pronatura and the non-profit organization The National Foundation for the Conservation of the Monarch Butterfly's Habitat have launched projects to promote sustainable development programs that help improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the "El Chapulín" community and reduce the direct pressure on the natural resources. They also hope to reforest 30, 000 hectares of the Monarch Butterfly reserve with oyamel trees. Vaquita . The elusive vaquita ("little cow") or cochito ("little pig") is one of the smallest and most endangered cetaceans in the world. The only endemic marine mammal in Mexico, this porpoise can only be found in a small area in the upper Gulf of California and the Colorado River delta. The vaquita can grow up to 1.5 meters and closely resembles the harbor porpoise in life span and breeding habits. It feeds on small fishes and squids. Only 50 years ago the vaquita was unkown to science and yet it is now classed as "in critical danger of extinction" by the World Conservation Union. The vaquita is difficult to monitor because it often dives when it hears motor boats approaching but generous estimates place its population at 600. However, a recent study put the number as low as 150. With an estimated 39 to 54 dying every year as a result of by-catches, it seems only a matter of time before the vaquita disappears completely. Its main threat comes from gillnets -- highly effective fishing nets used to capture the totoaba, an enormous fish with high commercial value -- in which the vaquita gets caught up and drowns. In 1983 the Mexican government established the Upper Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve to protect them but it would seem that more stringent fishing laws must be implemented if the vaquita is to survive. E-mail to a friend .

Mexico hosts to up to 10 percent of all known species on Earth . It is home to 502 types of mammals, 290 bird species and 26,000 types of plants . Human development and climate change is placing a big strain on its biodiversity . The Golden Eagle is under threat in spite of being the country's national symbol .

(CNN) -- On the sweltering evening of April 12, 2009, as dusk deepened over the Indian Ocean, several hundred miles off the coast of Somalia, three shots rang out. All the bullets found their targets -- three Somali pirates in a small lifeboat bobbing on the darkening sea. For the past five days the pirates had taken hostage Richard Phillips, the American captain of the Maersk Alabama container ship. President Barack Obama had authorized the use of deadly force if Phillips' life was in danger. Unbeknownst to the pirates, days earlier a contingent from SEAL Team 6 had parachuted at night into the ocean near the USS Bainbridge warship, which was shadowing the pirates in their boat. The SEALs had taken up position on the fantail of the Bainbridge and were carefully monitoring Phillips while he was in the custody of the pirates. One of the pirates had just pointed his AK-47 at the American captain as if he were going to shoot him. That's when the SEAL team commander on the Bainbridge ordered his men to take out the pirates. U.S. terror raids: 2 operations. 2 outcomes. 5 questions . Three U.S. Navy SEAL sharpshooters fired simultaneously at the pirates from a distance of 30 yards in heaving seas at nightfall, killing them all. Obama called Vice Adm. William "Bill" McRaven, the leader of Joint Special Operations Command and of the mission to rescue Phillips, to tell him, "Great job." In the eyes of Hollywood at least, the American public can't get enough of these kinds of operations. "Captain Phillips," a movie starring Tom Hanks playing the rescued sea captain, will be in theaters on Friday. The flawless rescue of Philips was the first time that Obama, only three months into his new job, was personally exposed to the capabilities of America's "Quiet Professionals," as they sometimes refer to themselves. They are the secretive counterterrorism units of special operations, made up of units including the Navy's SEAL Team 6 and the Army's Delta Force, whose well-oiled skills Obama has come to rely upon increasingly with every passing year of his presidency. African raids . This was underlined over the weekend in Africa when operators from Delta and SEAL Team 6 carried out raids in Libya and Somalia -- more than 2,000 miles apart -- targeting a longtime alleged member of al Qaeda in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the leaders of one al Qaeda's affiliated groups in the Somali port of Barawe. In Tripoli, Delta operators seized Abu Anas al-Libi, who is wanted for his alleged role performing surveillance on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, which was destroyed by an al Qaeda truck bomb in 1998, while in Barawe SEAL Team 6 operators went ashore to attack a house frequented by commanders of Al Shabaab, the group that launched the attack on the mall in Nairobi two weeks ago where at least 67 people were killed. The Delta raid in Tripoli went off flawlessly, but the SEALs encountered heavy resistance in Barawe and the SEAL team retreated. Details of what exactly happened during the Somali operation are still murky. The two raids over the weekend show that President Obama remains very comfortable deploying special operations forces in countries the United States is not at war with as a means to combat terrorist groups, just as he is comfortable with the use of CIA drones for the same purpose in countries such as Pakistan and Yemen. For the White House, part of the appeal of special operations and drones is that they do not, of course, consume anything like the blood and treasure that are expended on conventional military operations such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, the SEALS have had considerable experience working in and around Somalia in recent years. Six months after the rescue of Phillips, Obama's national security team authorized a mission to take out Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a leader of al Qaeda in Africa. Nabhan was killed by SEAL Team 6 in a helicopter raid on September 14, 2009, as he was driving south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The SEALs landed briefly to take Nabhan's body, and after they had confirmed his identity through DNA samples, he was buried at sea. U.S. official: Raid's target was Al-Shabaab foreign fighter commander . Home of SEAL Team 6 . It is quite challenging to enter the SEALs, but an even greater challenge is to be selected for the SEAL's premier counterterrorism force, the innocuously named Naval Special Warfare Development Group based at Dam Neck, Virginia, near the bustling resort town of Virginia Beach. It's known inside the military as "DevGru" and more popularly as "SEAL Team 6" and is an elite within the SEAL elite. The men of DevGru, around 250 in total, are battle-hardened and are usually in their mid-30s. DevGru is divided into squadrons that are named by color: Red, Blue and Gold are the assault squadrons, Grey handles vehicles and boats, and Black is the sniper team. These squadrons scout other SEAL teams, which number around 2,000 men, for those with the particular skills they need. DevGru's base at Dam Neck does not announce itself. Behind the high wire fence that seals the SEALs off from the rest of the world is a large dog pound where the highly trained dogs that accompany the men on their missions live. There is a giant wall to sharpen climbing skills and a hangar full of exceptionally fast boats. Other hangars house experimental Mad Max-like dune buggies suitable for driving in the deserts of the Middle East and weapons rooms loaded with exotic firearms. 'Somalia-ized' SEAL Team 6's greatest coup, of course, was the 2011 operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which Osama bin Laden was killed. However, SEAL Team 6's integral role in the war against al Qaeda and its allies would not have been easy to predict before the 9/11 attacks. Just recall the debacle that has come to be known as "Blackhawk Down." In Mogadishu, Somalia, in early October 1993 a daytime helicopter assault -- by pilots of the Special Operations Air Regiment and elements of SEAL Team 6, Delta Force and the 75th Rangers -- to snatch Somali clan leaders who were attacking U.S. troops stationed in Somalia turned into a fiasco in which two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down by rocket propelled grenades. Eighteen American servicemen died. Scarred by Mogadishu, the Pentagon was resistant to using SEAL Team 6 and Delta to take on al Qaeda in Afghanistan once the terrorist group had rebased itself there in 1996. Indeed, after the 9/11 attacks, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was deeply frustrated that the first American boots on the ground in Afghanistan were from the CIA and not the highly trained counterterrorism units of SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force. On October 17, 2001, ten days after the U.S. campaign against the Taliban had started, Rumsfeld wrote a secret memo to Gen. Richard Myers, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressing his irritation: "Does the fact that the Defense Department can't do anything on the ground in Afghanistan until CIA people go in first to prepare the way suggest that the Defense Department is lacking a capability we need? Specifically, given the nature of our world, isn't it conceivable that the Department (of Defense) ought not to be in a position of near total dependence on CIA in situations such as this?" Officials working for Rumsfeld commissioned Richard Shultz, an historian on special forces, to find out why special operations units were not deployed to hit al-Qaeda before the attacks on New York and Washington. After all, fighting terrorists was why these units were founded in the first place. Schultz concluded that in the years before 9/11 the senior officers at the Pentagon had become "Somalia-ized." Then-special operations boss Gen. Peter Schoomaker recalled, "Special operations were never given the mission. It was very, very frustrating. It was like having a brand-new Ferrari in the garage and nobody wants to race it because you might dent the fender." The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon allowed Rumsfeld to push special operations to the center of the "Global War on Terrorism." And on September 6, 2003, Rumsfeld signed an order known as an "EXORD" that empowered Joint Special Operations Command to hunt al-Qaeda in as many as 15 countries. Wife: Captured 'most wanted terrorist' al Libi had left al Qaeda . Military's own army . In the decade after 9/11, JSOC became a small army within the military with its own drones, its own air force (known as the Confederate Air Force) and its own intelligence operations. The rise of JSOC was inextricably linked to the vision of Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a brilliant workaholic from a military family who was beloved by his men; during the Iraq War he who would go out with them on missions to capture/kill insurgents. It was McChrystal who took the special operations Ferrari out of the garage and drove it to become a killing machine of unprecedented agility and ferocity. JSOC went from mounting half a dozen operations a month in Iraq in the spring of 2004 to 300 a month by the summer of 2006. It was McChrystal's five-year command of JSOC between 2003 and 2008 that helped turn its core components of SEAL Team 6 and Delta into what is arguably the most agile and deadly force in history. One of the key officers under McChrystal was Bill McRaven, who took over command from McChrystal as head of JSOC when McChrystal went to take a senior job at the Pentagon. McRaven is a strapping, dark-haired, blue-eyed Texan in his mid-50s. In conversation as he chugs a Rip It -- a heavily caffeinated beverage popular with American soldiers in Afghanistan -- he speaks in well thought-out paragraphs, but he also peppers his speech with the occasional "doggone," as well as other, more robust swear words. A battle-hardened colleague says McRaven reminds him of the comic book superhero Captain America, while another says he "is reputed to be the smartest SEAL that ever lived. He is physically tough, compassionate and can drive a knife through your ribs in a nanosecond." Even as a three-star admiral, about once a month in Afghanistan, McRaven went out with his teams on snatch-and-grab missions. It was McRaven who planned the bin Laden raid down to the last details. Now he commands Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, which oversees special operations by the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines. According to its mission statement, SOCOM's job is to "synchronize planning of global operations against terrorist networks." A sign of where the Obama administration is placing its bets about what it believes to be the future of warfare is that while there are major cuts planned for all four of the armed services, SOCOM is one of the few places in the military where the force is actually growing.

Peter Bergen: After 'Blackhawk Down' disaster, U.S. stopped relying on special forces . He says 9/11 led to renewed interest in using SEALs, other special forces . Bergen: Weekend's operations show Obama's continued support for special forces . 2009 rescue of U.S. merchant captain from pirates impressed Obama, he says .

(CNN Student News) -- March 6, 2009 . Quick Guide . Wasteful Spending? - Hear how wasteful spending has presented problems for U.S. presidents. Pet Benefits - Learn about some of the health benefits that come with owning a pet. Women's History Month - Celebrate Women's History Month with some famous firsts from the 1980s. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's the most awesome day of the week! Thank you for spending part of it with CNN Student News. I'm Carl Azuz. We're starting things off with a look at the headlines. First Up: Top Stories . AZUZ: President Obama is calling for a massive overhaul of the country's health care system. At a summit on the issue yesterday, he called rising medical costs "one of the greatest threats" to American families and to the U.S. economy. An estimated 46 million Americans currently don't have health insurance. Among the changes he's pushing for, President Obama wants to create a health care reserve fund that would help move the country closer to universal coverage. Former First Lady Barbara Bush is expected to make a full recovery following heart surgery earlier this week. The wife of the 41st president and mother of the 43rd was diagnosed with the heart condition less than a week before Wednesday's operation. Doctors say the procedure went smoothly and they expect Mrs. Bush to be out of the hospital in about a week. And Wall Street is back on that roller coaster ride. After gaining a bit on Wednesday, the Dow Jones headed in the opposite direction yesterday. The economic indicator dropped 281 points and finished the day at its lowest level since 1997. Word to the Wise . ERIC NIVISON, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise... earmark (noun) in a legislative bill, an earmark is something that is set aside for a specific use . source: www.dictionary.com . Wasteful Spending? AZUZ: There's a bill making its way through Congress right now that includes more than 8,000 earmarks! The president of a group called Taxpayers for Common Sense says these things aren't necessarily good or bad, it's the process that's problematic. President Obama has vowed to cut down on earmarks and wasteful spending, and as Jason Carroll tells us, he's not the first president to try. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JASON CARROLL, CNN REPORTER: One might think Democrats and Republicans don't have much in common, but they do: a shared history of wasteful government spending. Remember the '80s and those military contracts that had the government shelling out $435 dollars for a hammer, $640 for a toilet seat? That type of spending stopped, but over the years, the waste has not. BRIAN RIEDL, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Every president since Ronald Reagan has promised his own crackdown on waste, fraud and abuse, and none have been particularly successful. CARROLL: True, promises have been made. FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: So, let us work together to reform the budget process and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half. CARROLL: Presidents have tried to carve the fat when they found it. FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: There was $1 million to study stress in plants, and $12 million for a tick removal program that didn't work. CARROLL: Now, it's President Obama's turn. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The American people's money must be spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don't work. CARROLL: Even as the president has promised to save taxpayers $40 billion a year, the stop-gap spending bill currently making its way through Congress has come under attack for having the same type of wasteful spending president Obama wants to eliminate. According to the citizens watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, it includes nearly $1.8 million for pig odor research in Iowa, another million for cricket control in Utah. President Obama says his plan will save taxpayers money by not outsourcing services the government can do, ending no-bid contracts that have led to abuses in the past, and strengthing oversight to help maximize accountability. But still, some consumer groups and critics question what incentive there is in President Obama's plan for lawmakers to change their old ways. TOM SCHATZ, CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: It's a full-time job requiring the attention of every secretary and every appointee and every agency, because the individuals that are involved in those systems don't always have an incentive to change them . (END VIDEO CLIP) Pet Benefits . AZUZ: Shifting now from politics to pets. If you've been pushing your parents to get you a dog or cat, you might want to show them this next report. Pet owners do a lot for their animals. But according to some scientists, those furry friends are doing something good for us, too: improving our health! Judy Fortin dives into the details. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JUDY FORTIN, CNN HEALTH REPOTER: People tend to dote on their pets. They groom them, even dress them, and spend a lot of time walking them. JENNIFER ECKERSON, PET OWNER: We walk 5, 6, 7 days a week, 30 minutes every day at least. FORTIN: Jennifer Eckerson's dog Rosco gets her up and out of bed almost every morning. Dr. Edward Creagan says owning a pet can be a prescription for good health. DR. EDWARD CREAGAN, MAYO CLINIC ONCOLOGIST: Many times, I will put on a prescription pad: one cat, one dog, indefinite refills. FORTIN: Creagan adds there is evidence to back the claims. CREAGON: Studies have shown that individuals who have pets have lower blood pressure, they have a decrease in a stress hormone which is called cortisol, and they have a higher level in their blood stream of feel-good hormones. FORTIN: Creagan says companionship is good for everyone. ECKERSON: He doesn't know if you've had a bad day, he doesn't know, uh, he's just happy to see you no matter what. FORTIN: Unconditional love with the added benefit of good health. Yet another reason to enjoy the company of man's, or in this case, woman's best friend. (END VIDEO CLIP) Blog Report . AZUZ: I gotta get up early this Sunday morning, and you should too! Check out our new segment: "Extra Credit!" It airs at 8:45 a.m. ET on CNN, and we're planning to feature some of your blog comments. While we're on the subject: Melissa says she admires McKay Hatch, the student who started the No Cussing Club, for trying to get people to stop swearing. "It's a nasty habit that some find hard to break." But Kate wrote, "I think that a club about that seems pretty silly. You'll hear the words in life no matter what." When we put today's show together, about 59% of you had said you could completely stop cussing; 41% said you couldn't. Michael writes, "I could stop cussing if I really wanted to, but why would I? I am completely comfortable with the words and I believe I have a right to use those words." A lot of you mentioned peer pressure. Harry says, "I support Hatch's ideas and I want to join the No Cussing Club, unless my friends think I'm weird." Shoutout . NIVISON: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Patty's World Geography classes at Central High School in Keller, Texas. How many female justices have served on the U.S. Supreme Court? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Four, B) Three, C) Two or D) One? You've got three seconds -- GO! Two women have served on the country's highest court: Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Women's History Month . AZUZ: March is Women's History Month. We're celebrating the event on our show and online. You can check out our One-Sheet and Learning Activities at CNNStudentNews.com. To kick off our coverage, we're looking back a couple decades to honor some famous firsts from the 1980s, starting with one of the women we mentioned in that Shoutout. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Sandra Day O'Connor is known for her sharp questioning from the bench, especially when she served for 24 years as justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the height of her career as a judge, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to fill an open seat on the nation's highest court, and in September 1981, O'Connor was sworn in as its first female justice. O'Connor attended Stanford University, as did Sally Ride. But it was Ride who received her undergraduate and doctorate degrees in physics. While studying for her Ph.D in 1978, Ride was selected for the NASA astronaut training program. On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space, an experience she later described as "the most fun I'll ever have in my life." Back on Earth, Joan Benoit Samuelson gained stardom as a pioneer of women's marathoning. She won the Boston Marathon in 1979 and again four years later. But in 1984, at the age of 26, Samuelson became the first woman to win a gold medal in an Olympic marathon. A year later, she received a prestigious award as the nation's finest amateur athlete. Another noted female athlete is Ann Bancroft. Her rise to stardom came from her passion for the wilderness. After 56 days by sled and on foot, Bancroft and her teammates arrived at the North Pole in 1986. But Bancroft was the first woman to do it. And she led the first American women's team on the 660-mile expedition to the South Pole. Honoring achievements from the 1980s this Women's History Month. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: And finally, do you want to bolt down the hall when the final bell rings? Apparently, so does this guy. The deer broke into First Flight Middle School recently, and then just broke into flight down the hallway. The speedy scene was caught on security camera. And what's awesome is that Mrs. Blackstock submitted it as an iReport specifically because her students thought it would make a great Before We Go. Goodbye . AZUZ: We "deer" say that they were right. Remember to set your clocks ahead for daylight-saving this weekend, and watch for our "Extra Credit!" segment Sunday morning on CNN. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.

Hear how wasteful spending has presented problems for U.S. presidents . Learn about some of the health benefits that come with owning a pet . Celebrate Women's History Month with some famous firsts from the 1980s .

(CNN Student News) -- October 22, 2009 . Quick Guide . Afghan Runoff Problems - Assess the problems that Afghanistan faces in assembling a runoff election. H1N1 Response - Find out how public settings help germs spread from person to person. College Costs - Examine the rising costs of college and how some students are paying tuition. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: On HLN, online, on iTunes. However you're watching us, thanks for checking out CNN Student News. Bringing you today's headlines, I'm Carl Azuz. First Up: Terror Charge . AZUZ: First up, authorities have charged a man in Massachusetts with planning to provide material support to terrorists overseas. The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts says Tarek Mehanna tried to get training from the Taliban and hoped to attack members of the U.S. government. The official added that those people were never in any danger. The U.S. attorney claims that Mehanna, who you see in this file video, was involved in this conspiracy that lasted for about seven years. If he's convicted on the material support charge, Mehanna could face up to 15 years in prison. TARP Report . AZUZ: A new report says last year's $700 billion could cost the government more than just money. Neil Barofsky, who oversees the program for the Treasury Department, says it could damage the government's reputation with taxpayers, and there's also a risk of rewarding companies that took big chances. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was passed following last year's financial crisis. Its goal was to help struggling banks and companies. So far, about 17 percent of the loans that were given out as part of TARP have been repaid. IAEA Talks . AZUZ: Iran has signed off on an agreement to send some of the uranium it makes to other countries for further enrichment. This was the result of talks between Iran, the U.S., France, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran says part of the reason it accepted the deal was to prove that its nuclear activities are only for peaceful purposes. Other nations have accused the Middle Eastern country of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Afghan Runoff Problems . AZUZ: President Obama says that the U.S. will continue to work with the Afghan government no matter who wins that country's runoff election next month. As we told you about yesterday, the leading candidates from August's election are going to take part in the runoff on November 7th. But as Chris Lawrence explains, there are some potential problems in putting together an election that soon. (BEGIN VIDEO) CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Afghanistan is trying to pull off an election on little more than two weeks' official notice. And these are the problems it's facing: logistics, lack of awareness, fraud and fear. DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people of Afghanistan were threatened. They lost their fingers in the last round of elections. LAWRENCE: Ink-stained fingers were proof of voting, which made them targets of the Taliban. But a U.S. defense official says there are more American and Afghan troops in place now than in August. And a U.N. official says they're reducing the number of polling stations so security teams won't be spread so thin. On Thursday, the U.N. is launching TV and radio spots, trying to make voters aware there is another election. It's not a given that people know; less than 30% of Afghans can read. A high turnout and a safe election. Those are fine goals for politicians and officials to have. But what about the Afghan people, the ones who may be risking their lives to come out again to cast their vote? We found mixed opinions in this crowded Kabul market. MAN ON THE STREET: We want to build up our country. So despite the problems, I will go to vote in the next election. LAWRENCE: Officials threw out more than a million votes because of suspected fraud. And now, a European Union official says there will be far fewer election monitors for the runoff because the EU can't deploy them all on such short notice. LAWRENCE: Do you trust that your vote will be counted fairly? HABIB HAKIM, KABUL RESIDENT: Uhhh, I don't think so. LAWRENCE: And Habib Hakim can't see how President Karzai or his challenger will improve security. HAKIM: And I'm not sure Dr. Abdullah Abdullah will be able to stop the insurgency in Afghanistan, or at least to limit the level of insurgency in Afghanistan. LAWRENCE: At the least, they want to limit the reach of that insurgency on election day. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Kabul. (END VIDEO) Shoutout . RICK VINCENT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! Who is the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Kathleen Sebelius, B) Thomas Vilsack, C) Janet Napolitano or D) Timothy Geithner? You've got three seconds -- GO! Kathleen Sebelius heads up the Health and Human Services Department, which is responsible for protecting Americans' health. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! H1N1 Response . AZUZ: And that puts Secretary Sebelius in charge of the U.S. response to H1N1. Sebelius, who was recently treated for skin cancer above her eye, talked to a Senate committee yesterday about some of the differences between H1N1 and the seasonal flu. U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: Half the hospitalizations for flu-like illness are for people under the age of 25; very different picture than seasonal flu. Nearly 90 percent of the deaths from H1N1 are among people under 65. Again, a very different picture than seasonal flu, where 90% of the deaths year in and year out are for Americans over the age of 65. AZUZ: The World Health Organization has classified H1N1 as a pandemic because of how far this thing has spread around the world. CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen shows us how germs like the H1N1 virus can transfer from person to person. (BEGIN VIDEO) ELIZABETH COHEN, SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let's pretend that you and I are going to get on the subway. We stand in line at this kiosk, and let's say I'm sick. I go like this, I touch this, you're right behind me, now it's your turn. DR. RHONDA MEDOWS, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH: And I'm not so happy with you right now. What happens is, and commonly it happens every single day, is that people who have different illnesses, different symptoms, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, sinus infections, whatever, do the same thing you just did without even thinking about it. H1N1 virus can live on an inanimate object for 2-8 hours. This is a virus that our bodies have never seen before, so all those people who have touched it, if they have H1N1, they have no immunity and neither do you. And this is where the adventure actually starts . COHEN: So, we are now standing behind a whole bunch of people. If one of them were sick and sneezed, could we get sick? MEDOWS: Yes, we can. COHEN: Even at this distance? MEDOWS: It's less than six feet. So that spray, the air droplet spray, could actually come into your being. You're inhaling, you're breathing respiratory droplets. (END VIDEO) No More Fountains . AZUZ: A few moments ago you heard Secretary Sebelius mention it. The H1N1 virus seems to be affecting large numbers of people your age. In order to keep it from spreading, some schools have temporarily shut down, while one Kansas school district is planning to shut down drinking fountains. Students are being urged to bring their own water to class. School officials are even propping doors open to try and keep the handles and the students germ free. Word to the Wise . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise... tuition (noun) a charge or fee for instruction, specifically at a private school, college or university . source: www.dictionary.com . College Costs . AZUZ: You know you have to pay tuition when you go to college. But universities get money from alumni and states as well. And when that money decreases, due to a recession, for example, the tuition you pay can increase. For a lot of people, what you can afford is a big part of determining where you're gonna go. And right now, tuition costs are higher than ever. (BEGIN VIDEO) AZUZ: Higher education is coming with a higher price tag. Unlike housing in America, college is a serious seller's market. PATRICK CALLAN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY & HIGHER EDUCATION: Both the cost and price of higher education have gone up faster than almost anything else in the American economy for 25 years. AZUZ: So, how much money are we talking? According to a new survey by the College Board, if you're planning to go to a public, four-year university in your own state, you're looking at a 6.5 percent increase to around $7,000 dollars per year just for tuition and fees. Public schools in another state: 6.2 percent increase, or more than $18,500 tuition. Private schools: 4.4 percent increase, more than $26,000 per year, tuition. I keep saying "tuition" because room and board in each of these categories is also going up, making the yearly totals even more expensive. There is a silver lining, though. About two-thirds of full-time students are getting help in the form of financial aid. And that doesn't have to be paid back. Fine. But what about the third that doesn't get financial aid? Student loans often come into play here, and not surprisingly, borrowing went up five percent for the '08-'09 academic year. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go today, we're talking about video games. They're not just for young people. This bowling tournament is strictly for seniors and it's all about the Wii. About 600 older rollers took to the virtual lanes at this tournament recently in Texas. The goal of these gamers wasn't just to set a world record -- which they did. The event was also designed to encourage seniors to stay fit in order to avoid injuries. Goodbye . AZUZ: Plus, it looks like everyone had a Wii-ly good time. Aw yeah, that's how we roll. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.

Assess the problems that Afghanistan faces in assembling a runoff election . Find out how public settings help germs spread from person to person . Examine the rising costs of college and how some students are paying tuition .

(CNN Student News) -- October 29, 2009 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Peshawar, Pakistan • Washington, D.C. • Kennedy Space Center . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. MANDY CARRANZA, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Today marks a milestone for the stock market, one that most people probably don't want to celebrate. We'll explain why in a bit. Hi, everyone. Sitting in for Carl Azuz, I'm Mandy Carranza. First Up: Peshawar Blast . CARRANZA: First up, officials in Pakistan are speaking out against the most violent attack to strike the country this year. It happened yesterday in the city of Peshawar, when a car bomb exploded in a busy marketplace that's popular with women. More than a hundred people were killed by the blast and at least 200 others were injured. The bomb sparked fires that quickly spread through nearby fabric stores. The attack happened just hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan to take part in meetings about the nation's fight against the Taliban. She issued a challenge to the people responsible for yesterday's violence. HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process. Let them come forth to the people of Pakistan in this democracy and make their case that they don't want girls to go to school; that they want women to be kept back; that they believe that they have all the answers and that the rest of us who are people of faith have none. Hate Crimes Law . CARRANZA: Back in Washington, President Obama has signed a law that makes it a federal crime to assault someone because of his or her sexual orientation. The new legislation was included in a defense spending bill and it expands on the government's existing hate crimes law. Some critics of the expanded law argue that it's not necessary to specify one particular group. They believe the existing hate crimes law protected people based on their sexual orientation. There's also some concern that the law could be used against people who may say something controversial, although government officials say it will only be used in the case of violent acts. Congressional Gold Medal . CARRANZA: And President Obama took part in another ceremony yesterday, this one honoring Edward Brooke, who you see there on the right. He was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. And yesterday, Mr. Brooke was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor. Brooke served as a Republican Senator from Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979. During yesterday's ceremony, President Obama said Brooke ran for office in order to bring people together who had never been together before. And former Senator Brooke had a similar message yesterday as he urged political leaders to put politics aside and come together. Shoutout . BRENDAN GAGE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's first Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Sherrill's 2nd period journalism class at Riverside High School in Greer, South Carolina. Mars is the Roman god of war. Who is his Greek counterpart? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Ares, B) Athena, C) Apollo or D) Zeus? You've got three seconds -- GO! Ares is the god of war in Greek mythology. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Ares Launch . CARRANZA: And now, Ares might help people reach Mars. Huh? We're talking about NASA and its Constellation program, which includes the new Ares I-X rocket. That's the one. After several days of delays due to bad weather, a test flight of the new Ares rocket launched yesterday, climbing 24 miles above the Earth. According to NASA, this is the largest rocket in the world. The craft is scheduled to replace the space shuttle, and might one day take astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond. Before yesterday's launch, John Zarrella checked in with a preview of NASA's new program. (BEGIN VIDEO) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On launch pad A, the space shuttle. It is the present and soon to be the past. On pad B, the Ares I-X rocket; the future, maybe. Built to replace the retiring shuttle fleet, Ares would be the first vehicle since the Apollo years to take humans out of low Earth orbit, perhaps to Mars. CHARLIE PRECOURT, VICE PRESIDENT, ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS: It behooves us to build an architecture that can serve a multitude of missions for those next 50-plus years. And that's where this was first envisioned, was to think about space station, lunar, asteroids, beyond. ZARRELLA: The White House has still not decided whether Ares, built with a budget as thin as the rocket itself, should be the shuttle's replacement. NASA and the rocket's developers have pressed ahead. The pressure is enormous. Over the summer, the rocket segments were put together in the vehicle assembly building. The upper part of the rocket is made up of dummy segments designed to mimic the real deal. The lower stage of four segments of solid rocket will burn for two minutes, producing 3 million pounds of thrust. The entire vehicle is filled with a web of 711 sensors. JOE OLIVA, ARES I-X PROGRAM MANAGER: The goal of an early flight test is to get the test off early enough that you can actually use that data to influence and make course corrections, if you will, to the design on the full vehicle. ZARRELLA: But course corrections might cause further delays. The first flight with humans sitting in a capsule on top of the rocket won't take place until 2015, at the earliest. At least five years after the last space shuttle flight. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Booster ignition, liftoff of space shuttle Discovery! (END VIDEO) Shoutout Extra Credit . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for a Shoutout Extra Credit! Wall Street's infamous "Black Tuesday" happened in what year? You know what to do. Was it: A) 1929, B) 1953, C) 1987 or D) 2008? Another three seconds on the clock --- GO! October 29, 1929 is referred to as Black Tuesday. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout Extra Credit! Black Tuesday . CARRANZA: Do the math, and that means that today is the 80th anniversary of Black Tuesday. It's called that because on that day in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gives an idea of how the whole stock market is doing, dropped nearly 13 percent. It became the most famous stock market crash in U.S. history. And many experts point to it as the start of the Great Depression, a global economic slump that would last almost a decade. Richard Roth takes a look back at that fateful day. (BEGIN VIDEO) RICHARD WARSHAUER, WALL STREET AFICIONADO: This is where everything started. And for centuries, this is where everything happened. RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Crash. No, not last year's stock market plunge, but the Great Crash. It all went down 80 years ago this week. WARSHAUER: 1929 was the greatest fall in the Dow Jones over a two-day period. In today's terms, it would be like a 2,200-point drop. ROTH: Richard Warshauer and lifelong friend Jim Kaplan give tours every anniversary of the Great Crash. JIM KAPLAN, WALL STREET AFICIONADO: This whole area was filled with people who had come down to see what was going on. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tremendous crowds which you see gathered outside the stock exchange are due to the greatest crash in the history of the New York Stock Exchange in market prices. ROTH: Quite a shock, especially because the Friday before, following a large drop, newspapers proclaimed the stock market crisis was over. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But in October 1929, the Wall Street bubble burst. ROTH: The historic collapse was just starting, eventually leading, many believe, to the Great Depression. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then it actually loses 89 percent of that value in the stock market crash in 1929. ROTH: At the Museum of Finance on Wall Street, a ticker-tape machine from the crash days. The end of a mania for stocks based on easy credit. RICHARD SYLLA, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR AND HISTORIAN: It's leverage. I mean, we learned in the latest financial crisis that firms and individuals can take on too much leverage. That's exactly what they did in the 1920s. ROTH: A familiar replay to someone born during the crash years. HILDA HEIN, MUSEUM VISITOR: It did have the smell of the same thing happening again. ROTH: The crash experts say a famous story is true. At the market's peak, tycoon Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy clan, hearing stock tips from a shoeshine man and selling stocks short, making a fortune. Do you give out stock tips to anyone, like the famous shoeshine man of 1929? LINWOOD HARRIS, SHOESHINE MAN: No, I don't. No, I don't. ROTH: But he did shine the shoes of Kennedy's grandson, John Kennedy Jr. Linwood says he is the last shoeshine man left on Wall Street. I really had a bad year in the market, so I can't pay you right now, but I'm -- no, I'm going to pay you. Richard Roth, CNN, New York. (END VIDEO) Promo . CARRANZA: You've probably noticed that Carl is off this week. But before he left, he broke out the video camera and talked to some of his co-workers about why they enjoy working at CNN Student News. You can check out their responses in the newest video on our Facebook page. Find it at Facebook.com/cnnstudentnews. Before We Go . CARRANZA: Before we go, Halloween always brings out some interesting activities. Like Colorado's annual coffin race! At least, that's what these are supposed to be. They look more like man-powered go karts. Either way, the event seems to be a crowd pleaser. Basically, the boxes are put on wheels, and then contestants tear down a track that's nearly two football fields long! Of course, the coffin race is part of a seasonal festival... Goodbye . CARRANZA: ...so it's just about fun. There are no grave consequences. We hope to see you again tomorrow as we wrap up the week. For CNN Student News, I'm Mandy Carranza.

Hear one official's challenge to militants after violent attacks in Pakistan . Launch into the details of NASA's new space program and its Ares rocket . Look back at a day that many point to as the start of the Great Depression . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN) -- North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died. He was believed to be 69. Regarded as one of the world's most-repressive leaders, Kim Jong Il always cut a slightly bizarre figure. His diminutive stature and characteristically bouffant hair have been parodied by some in the West. "He's a mysterious person -- I think by design," said Han S. Park, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia and a frequent visitor to North Korea. "Mystery is a source of leverage and power. It's maintaining uncertainty." But for the citizens of his Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim was well regarded. This Just In: Up-to-the-minute news on the death of Kim Jong Il . His father, Kim Il Sung, founded North Korea with Soviet backing after World War II. Kim Jong Il was just a little boy when the Communist North invaded the American-backed South, sparking the Korean War in 1950. After the fighting ended, Kim became steeped in his father's philosophy of "juche" or self-reliance -- the basis of North Korea's reclusive nature. North and South Korea never formally signed a peace treaty and remain technically at war -- separated by a tense demilitarized zone. North Korea gives Kim's official birthplace as sacred Mount Paektu. The peak, on the northern border with Chinese Manchuria, is the highest on the peninsula and the site where Korean legend says the nation came into existence 5,000 years ago. Cause of death reported to be "overwork" Researchers who are more objective place Kim's birth in the Far Eastern region of the Soviet Union on February 16, 1942. His father had fled to the Soviet Union when the Japanese put a price on his head for guerrilla activities in occupied Korea. The family returned to the northern part of the peninsula after the Japanese surrender in World War II, and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin anointed Kim Il Sung as the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Timeline: Kim Jong Il . Kim Jong Il's younger brother drowned as a child and his mother died when he was 7 years old. Shortly after, when the Korean War broke out , he was sent to Manchuria, returning three years later when it ended. Despite these hardships, Kim Jong Il was presumably surrounded by luxury and privilege for most of his upbringing. As the first-born son of an iron-fisted dictator, "the doors were likely opening for him from a very young age," according to Dae-sook Suh, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii who specializes in the Pyongyang government. TIME: The iconography of Kim Jong Il . Gradually Kim Jong Il was groomed for the top position, making public appearances in front of cheering crowds. In 1980, Kim Il Sung formally designated his son as his successor. Kim Jong Il was given senior posts in the Politburo, the Military Commission and the Party Secretariat. He took on the title "Dear Leader" and the government began spinning a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the "Great Leader." In 1991, Kim Jong Il became commander-in-chief of North Korea's powerful armed forces, the final step in the long grooming process. Three years later, when Kim Il Sung died suddenly from a heart attack at 82, most outsiders predicted the imminent collapse of North Korea. The nation had lost its venerated founding father. Just a few years earlier, its powerful alliances had evaporated with the fall of the Soviet bloc and China's move toward a market-based system. The economy was on the rocks and energy and food were in short supply. A series of weather disasters, combined with an inefficient state-run agricultural system, further eroded the food supply, leading to mass starvation. The timing could not have been worse for replacing the only leader North Korea had known. "Heaven didn't smile on Kim Jong Il," said the University of Hawaii's Dae-sook Suh. After his father's elaborate public funeral, Kim Jong Il dropped out of sight, fueling rumors, but he soon managed to consolidate power. Zakaria: Will the North Koreans rise up? Under his newly organized government, his father's presidential post was left vacant and Kim took the titles of general secretary of the Workers Party and chairman of the National Defense Commission -- a group of 10 men that includes the heads of the air force, army and navy, who are now considered the most powerful in the country. "It's a peculiar government to say the least," Dae-sook Suh said. "He honors the legacy of his father, but the new government is a Kim Jong Il government. It's quite different from his father's." Kim Il Sung's unique style of Stalinism was subordinated to the more militant theme of Kim Jong Il's "Red Banner" policy, introduced in 1996. The changes afoot were dramatically illustrated in 1997 by the defection of Hwang Jang Yop -- the architect of the juche philosophy and the first high-level official to seek asylum in South Korea. In a news conference after his defection, Hwang warned of a growing possibility that his homeland might launch an attack. "The preparation for war exceeds your imagination," he said. Many outsiders viewed the flight of Hwang as another sign that the North Korean regime was on its last legs, but once again it weathered the storm, perhaps even benefiting from the fears of war heightened by Hwang's warning. Despite sending a test missile over Japan in June 1999 and other such incidents, North Korea under Kim Jong Il also sent signals that it is open to new alliances after decades of isolation. Billions of dollars in international aid poured into North Korea during the 1990s, which did little in return. Many analysts conclude that Kim Jong Il has played a poor hand of cards skillfully. "I tend to disregard rumors that he's irrational, a man that nobody can do business with," said Alexander Mansourov, a longtime Korea scholar and a former Russian diplomat who was posted in Pyongyang in the late 1980s. "I believe that he is smart. He's pragmatic. And I think he can be ruthless. He's a man who will not loosen his grip in any way on the people around him." His obsession for movies led to one of the strangest incidents associated with him: The 1978 kidnappings of South Korean actress Choi En-hui and her director husband Shin Sang-ok. The couple's account of their ordeal, given after they escaped North Korea in 1986, sounds like a B-movie script. They said Kim Jong Il held Choi under house arrest and imprisoned Shin for four years for a failed escape attempt. Kim then forced them to work in the North Korean film industry, paying them handsomely while keeping them in the gilded cage of his artistic and social circles. Although the country was having problems paying its debts, Kim lived extravagantly and spent tens of millions of dollars on their film productions, according to Choi and Shin. The couple told Washington Post reporter Don Oberdorfer that Kim was a "micro-manager" who made all the major decisions in North Korea because of his father's ailing condition. Shin described Kim as "very bright," but said that he had no sense of guilt about his misdeeds "due to his background and upbringing." While the Dear Leader is said to have indulged his appetite for the finer things, his people were literally starving to death. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s hit North Korea hard when guaranteed trade deals with Moscow came to an end. And then devastating floods compounded the famine. The North Korean regime admitted almost 250,000 people perished between 1995 and 1998, but some outside groups believe it was more like ten times that figure. Nevertheless, an artifice of a successful state was maintained in the capital, Pyongyang, including an opulent subway -- proof that Kim would say reflected North Korea's progress under his and his father's leadership. In 2000, there appeared to be a thaw in North-South relations leading to the first-ever summit meeting between Kim Jong Il and his then counterpart from the South President Kim Dae Jung. South Korea's so-called "sunshine policy" of engagement seemed to be bearing fruit. But Kim Jong Il pressed ahead with his nuclear weapons program and then-U.S. President George W. Bush labeled North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address. A year later, North Korea withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. In 2006, the North conducted a nuclear test and test fired missiles adding extra urgency to the six-party talks designed to deal with North Korea's nuclear program. A breakthrough came in 2007, when Kim Jong il finally agreed to disable the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in return for fuel and better relations with the U.S. But despite dramatically blowing up Yongbyon's cooling tower, North Korea seemed to backtrack afterwards and the deal appeared to be jeopardy. In August 2008, Pyongyang halted the disabling of the plutonium-producing plants in after a stalemate over verification measures. Months later -- as Bush wrapped up his final term in office -- the U.S. government agreed to take North Korea off its list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The move was a turnaround from the Bush administration's previous refusal to drop North Korea from the list until Pyongyang agreed to set up an internationally recognizable mechanism to verify it was revealing all its nuclear secrets. Analysts say it is easy for outsiders to demonize Kim Jong Il, a dictator who spent an estimated 25% or more of his country's gross national product on the military while many in his country went hungry. But in North Korea, closed off from outside influences, fearful of threats from its neighbors, and subjected to decades of political socialization on top of a long tradition of a strict hierarchical system, Kim Jong Il is viewed positively by most people, said Han Park of the Center for Study of Global Issues. "The level of reverence for Kim Jong Il in North Korea is quite underestimated by the outside," Park said. "He is regarded by many as not only a superior leader but a decent person, a man of high morality. Whether that's accurate is not important if you want to deal with North Korea. You have to understand their belief system. Perception is reality." But to the outside world, Kim Jong Il will be remembered as one of the worst despots in history, according to Andre Lankov, an author on Korea's history. "He will be remembered as a person who was responsible for awful things: for the existence of one of the worst dictatorships in not only Korean history but the world history at least in the 20th and 21st centuries," Lankov said. "Yet he did not create this dictatorship -- it was his father's but he took responsibility, and he made sure it continued for many more years." CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

Kim Jong Il took over when his father died of a heart attack in 1994 . He will be remembered as one of the world's most repressive leaders . Kim was well regarded within North Korea . He played a poor hand of cards skillfully, analysts say .

(CNN Student News) -- March 25, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Libya • Syria • Japan: Disaster-affected Areas . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome! Thank you for rounding out your week with CNN Student News. I'm Carl Azuz, here to pilot you through 10 minutes of commercial-free headlines. First Up: Libya Civil War . AZUZ: First up, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says there are no signs of a cease-fire in Libya. That announcement came yesterday, one week after the U.N. Security Council voted to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. That's part of the military operation that's been firing missiles and running airstrikes. It's been led by the U.S. Yesterday, there was talk of a deal that would make NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the leader of the operation. But that wasn't set in stone, and there was some doubt about it. One interesting point about the conflict in Libya is how it could affect gas prices in the U.S. Libya produces about 2 percent of the world's crude oil; it's not very much. But some stock traders are afraid that the trouble there could happen in other countries that produce more oil. That fear is one reason why oil prices are rising in the stock market. And that means gas prices are more likely to increase too, since crude oil accounts for about 65 percent of what we spend on gas. Now, getting back to the military operation. Diana Magnay is on the ship that some of those airstrikes are launching from. She gives an idea of what life is like there. (BEGIN VIDEO) DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Each night they fly, Harrier jets off the USS Kearsarge, bound for Libya. U.S. strike missions to take out Gadhafi's air defense and attack capabilities as rebels clash with Gadhafi's forces. CAPTAIN MIKE WYRSCH, HARRIER FIGHTER PILOT: It was pretty neat the next day after the first attacks, to see that the rebel forces, their morale once they saw that they had people coming to help them out. But it's breaking their supply chains as well as slowing down their advance onto Benghazi by taking out their tanks and artillery. MAGNAY: Day times are about maintenance and repair, checking over these V-22 Ospreys, which had their first outing in Operation Odyssey Dawn early Tuesday morning. A daring rescue mission with a team of 30 Marines to find a U.S. fighter pilot who ejected over eastern Libya after his F-15 fighter jet suffered what the military called mechanical failure. The pilot's back in the medical facilities here on board. His other crew member, the weapons officer, also had to eject, but landed in a completely different location. So, he was rescued first by rebel forces and is now back on a U.S. Air Force base in northern Italy. There are around 700 Marines on board, but this isn't a war which involves coalition ground forces. The Kearsarge's six Harrier jets taking the active role in enforcing the U.N.-mandated no-fly zone . REAR ADMIRAL MARGARET KLEIN, COMMANDER, EXPEDITIONARY STRIKE GROUP FIVE: If there are vehicles on the ground that can shoot down our aircraft which are enforcing the no-fly zone, we consider that a legal mandate to be able attack that equipment. MAGNAY: Precision targeting, 500-pound laser-guided bombs, and the sorties continue. No sign here that this part of the offensive is over yet. Diana Magnay, CNN, on the Kearsarge in the Mediterranean. (END VIDEO) Violence in Syria . AZUZ: Syria is the latest country to deal with the political unrest that we've seen around the Middle East and North Africa recently. Syria is located between Iraq and Turkey. And people there have been protesting over economic and human rights issues. Those demonstrations have gotten violent in the past few days, with protesters and security forces fighting on the streets of at least one city. Human rights workers say at least 34 people have been killed in the violence this week. And that includes a soldier who was reportedly shot because he refused to fire on the protesters. Thousands of people came out on Thursday for the funerals of that soldier and some of the other people who've been killed. Disaster in Japan . AZUZ: Toyota, the car company, might shut down some of its U.S. manufacturing temporarily because it doesn't have enough parts. There's been a delay in getting those parts from Japan because of Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami. Inside Japan, workers are still trying to get things stabilized at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. These pictures were taken inside the plant. Two of the workers were taken to the hospital yesterday after they accidentally stepped in contaminated water. Officials say the men could be all right if they're quickly decontaminated. A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is going through a similar process right now. Martin Savidge, you're on deck. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, every piece of hardware, every aircraft and every piece of machinery used to move that aircraft is on the front of the USS Ronald Reagan. And you can see a lot of the crew hands. You're wondering maybe why are they all sitting around? Well, we'll show you. Look what's going on back over here: water. Lots and lots of water just being sprayed all over the deck right now, in what is probably the biggest cleanup effort you're ever likely to see at sea. Impact Your World . AZUZ: You can't help scrub down the deck of the Ronald Reagan. But you can support the victims of these natural disasters in Japan. Go the Spotlight section on our home page, CNNStudentNews.com. Click on the "Impact Your World" link, and find out how you can help. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Ms. Mielke's world cultures classes at Gorzycki Middle School in Austin, Texas! What type of food is a peanut? You know what to do! Is it a: A) Grain, B) Legume, C) Fruit or D) Tuber? You've got three seconds -- GO! Peanuts are legumes. And here's another interesting fact: peanuts are not technically nuts! That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Allergy Outrage? AZUZ: Peanut allergies are pretty common. But in some cases, the allergic reactions can be life-threatening. And that's why experts say it's important to have a plan in place in order to avoid a potential problem. At one Florida school, the plan in place affects everyone, not just the student with the allergy. And as Jason Carroll explains, the plan is prompting protests. (BEGIN VIDEO) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to take away all our rights. JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Protesters picketing outside a school in Edgewater, Florida. Their signs showing how a medical problem for one of the school's students has turned into a controversy that has some parents calling for that student's removal. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not attacking the child or the parents. CARROLL: At issue, rules the school put in place to protect the six-year-old girl who has a life-threatening peanut allergy. Lunches must be left outside the room. Students must wash their hands before entering the room and after lunch. At one point, students were also required to rinse out their mouths. Parents debating whether the rules infringe on the rights of students and take time away from education. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess it's not fair for one kid to have a set of standards that the rest of the kids have to abide by. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's protecting the safety of the child. Everybody has the right to an education, so I don't see what the problem is. CARROLL: A district administrator says the rules must be enforced because the student's allergy is considered a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act. More districts could soon face a similar situation. The Centers for Disease Control says food allergies are on the rise. From 1997 to 2007, reports of food allergies increased almost 20 percent among children under 18 years old. DR. SCOTT SICHERER, PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, MT. SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It's always necessary to have precautions for a young child who has a food allergy. There might be specific procedures that need to be in place to just really ensure that that child doesn't end up eating the food that they're allergic to. (END VIDEO) Sound off on our blog! AZUZ: All right, time for you to sound off about this story. Do you think the school policy's appropriate, or do you agree with those parents who say it's unfair? Head to our blog at CNNStudentNews.com. Tell us what you think. Remember, there's a big rule on our blog: first names only. Please don't give us any more info than that. Women's History Month . AZUZ: In honor of Women's History Month, we have a quick quiz to test your knowledge. Who was the first female ever appointed to serve on the United States Supreme Court? Was it: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O'Connor or Elena Kagan? The answer: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor served nearly 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court after being sworn in on the 25th of September, 1981. In fact, tomorrow is her 81st birthday. Be sure to check out all of our Women's History Month materials. You know the place where you can find them: It's the website you see right there, CNNStudentNews.com. Before We Go . AZUZ: Finally today, I get sore just thinking about a marathon; most runners are sore after running one. But Captain Ivan Castro doesn't mind. He was injured while serving in Iraq and lost his eyesight. Now, every step is a reminder that he is still alive. After the attack, Captain Castro says it took three people to help him stand up. Last weekend, he finished a full marathon. And the only help he needed was his running partner, who helped him navigate the course with a string tied around their wrists. Goodbye . AZUZ: It was an amazing accomplishment. And it's time for CNN Student News to hit the road. We hope to run into you right back here on Monday for more CNN Student News. Until then, have a great weekend.

Find out how the conflict in Libya could affect gas prices in the U.S. Discover why Toyota might temporarily suspend manufacturing in America . Consider a controversy surrounding how one school addresses peanut allergies . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- April 28, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Afghanistan • Hawaii . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz, and in today's show, we're talking about the U.S. economy, education, defense -- could be a presidential Cabinet meeting. And we're gonna be talking about the cabinet, too. CNN Student News starts right now! First Up: Afghanistan Violence . AZUZ: First up, violence in Afghanistan, where a gunfight broke out at an air force compound in Kabul. Eight U.S. service members and an American contractor were killed in the shooting Wednesday. Coalition officials said an Afghan military pilot started the gunfight. The Taliban said it's responsible for yesterday's shooting. The Taliban is the group that the U.S.-led coalition removed from power when the Afghanistan war started in 2001. A Taliban spokesman said the group had worked with the shooter. But coalition authorities -- and the shooter's brother -- denied that. The shooting happened at the North Kabul International Airport. Officials say it started as an argument between the Afghan pilot and an international colleague. That argument led to the gunfight. Defense Dept. Shift . AZUZ: Some changes getting ready to happen inside President Obama's administration. In fact, it's going to be one of the biggest shifts since Obama took office. And it starts with this man: Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Secretary Gates has been leading the Defense Department since George W. Bush was president. He stayed on at President Obama's request, but he's planning to retire later this year. And this is who President Obama wants to replace Secretary Gates: name is Leon Panetta. He's currently the director of the CIA. He also served as former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff. President Obama plans to nominate Director Panetta to be the new defense secretary. The U.S. Senate has to confirm him for that position. Obama Birth Certificate . AZUZ: That wasn't the only announcement at the White House yesterday. President Obama publicly showed off his birth certificate, which says that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Okay. Why? Well, there are two requirements to be U.S. president. You have to be at least 35 years old, and you have to be a "natural born" citizen. Some people had doubts that President Obama was born in the U.S. They wanted to see this: his long-form birth certificate. Because without that proof, their argument was that he might be constitutionally ineligible to be president. This issue's gotten a lot of attention in the media recently. The White House released the birth certificate yesterday to try to put an end to the questions. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Ms. Cormican's enrichment class at Clinton Township Middle School in Clinton, New Jersey! What is the term for financial aid that companies get from the government? Here we go! Is it: A) Subsidy, B) Commodity, C) Liability or D) Security. You've got three seconds -- GO! Financial aid given out by the government is called a subsidy. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Gas Prices, Oil Profits . AZUZ: Subsidies are usually designed to help companies or industries that produce things for the public. For example, farmers might get money from the government to grow crops. This next report from Lisa Sylvester is about subsidies for the oil industry. With gas prices increasing, so are the questions about whether those subsidies should continue. (BEGIN VIDEO) LISA SYLVESTER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The oil and gas industry rakes in billions of dollars in profits a year. Last year, Exxon Mobil made more than $30 billion; Chevron, $19 billion; ConocoPhillips, more than $11 billion; and Royal Dutch/Shell, $20 billion. Meanwhile, it's costing consumers a load of money just to fill up their tank. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no reason for the price to continue to go up, because there's lots of gas. I mean, lots of oil, I hear. SYLVESTER: Average price for regular gasoline is $3.87 a gallon. But in cities like Washington, D.C., gas at some stations is already at the $5 mark or higher. Those prices are expected to contribute to huge first-quarter profits for oil companies. On top of the mega-profits, the oil industry enjoys $4 billion in federal tax breaks. There's now a growing chorus to end those subsidies. FADEL GHEIT, FINANCIAL ANALYST, OPPENHEIMER AND COMPANY: The oil companies do not need subsidies, especially when you have $100 oil. It's outrageous for an oil company or oil lobbyist to ask for a subsidy when you have this high level of profitability. SYLVESTER: The American Petroleum Institute represents the largest oil companies. API's senior economic adviser, Rayola Dougher, says when profits are up, it's the shareholders who benefit. She says they are, for the most part, regular joes. RAYOLA DOUGHER, ECONOMIC ADVISER, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: And at the end of the day, the final earnings, the profits to these companies, broadly go to tens of millions of Americans. Anybody with a 401(k), a pension plan, retired firefighters, teachers. These are the folks that, at the end of the day, benefit from these earnings. About 98.5 percent of the stock of these companies is broadly owned by the American people. SYLVESTER: The American Petroleum Institute says taking away those subsidies would be like a tax on the companies and could cost American jobs. But it is a hard case to make when so many Americans out there are getting squeezed at the gas pump, when we are seeing $5 a gallon for gasoline, and when the companies are making billions in profits. Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO) Southern Storms . AZUZ: This next headline is one you've heard a lot lately, and not one we like reporting: the southern U.S. recovering from another round of severe weather that plowed through the region yesterday. At least 12 deaths were reported. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power. This is what some Arkansas residents woke up to Wednesday morning: damaged buildings, downed trees, no power. That's from another storm system that moved through the South Tuesday night. And this severe weather may not be over. The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for parts of the South yesterday, as the storms worked their way east. In fact, there were 25 tornado warnings across parts of Alabama last night. And officials said a tornado hit the city of Cullman. These images you're seeing are some of the damage that was caused. Show Your Teacher Appreciation . AZUZ: We've been asking you to head to CNNStudentNews.com and send us your iReports for Teacher Appreciation Week. Keep at it, don't give up; Teacher Appreciation Week is next week. There's just something we want you to remember: You need to be at least 13 to send us an iReport. Also, you can show your teacher appreciation on our blog! I just put the post up last night, and you know where to find it: CNNStudentNews.com! Don't Fail Me Preview . AZUZ: CNN's "In America" series explores different aspects of U.S. society. The newest documentary we worked on focuses on something you are all very familiar with: education. I had the chance to sit down recently with CNN's Soledad O'Brien. She's the correspondent for the "In America" programs, and we talked about what this new program is all about. (BEGIN VIDEO) AZUZ: Soledad O'Brien, you've worked on CNN's "In America" series. We've seen "Black in America," "Latino in America." Your latest report is titled "Don't Fail Me." What's the story behind that title? SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is an "Education in America" series. "Don't Fail Me" is the story of three students who represent different geographical and also socio-economical areas in the United States. And what we wanted to look at in that particular title was really the position students, American students, are in today. You know, American students rank 17th and 25 in math and science, respectively, in this country, when you look at all industrialized nations. Those are terrible, terrible, terrible statistics. And so, the question was: How do you change that? How do you move the United States back up to number one, where we used to be several decades ago? The question is really these three students, who are great students, ambitious students, motivated students. Who, their plea is very much "don't fail me." Sometimes teachers fail students, sometimes systems fail students, sometimes students fail themselves; they're not ambitious. In this particular case, we're looking at the entire educational system. Is it failing these young people? (END VIDEO) AZUZ: Those of you who participated in FIRST Robotics will wanna check this out too; that's part of this program. You are not going to want to miss it. "Don't Fail Me" airs on May 15th -- that's a Sunday night -- at 8 p.m. ET on CNN. And if you want to check out my full interview with Soledad O'Brien, learn what else she has to say about the upcoming documentary, you can check that out on our home page: CNNStudentNews.com. Before We Go . AZUZ: All right, before we go, we've got time for a speedy lesson. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your foot off the brake and we'll go forward. AZUZ: Move forward, all right. This ain't driver's ed. It's pace car 101. Rachel Gilbert's been a big NASCAR fan for 50 years. And since she's turning 100 years old today -- happy birthday -- her family got her an amazing gift: the chance to tool around the track in a pace car. Ms. Gilbert hasn't been behind the wheel of any car in about 16 years, but it was smooth sailing as she revved it up to about 50 miles per hour. Goodbye . AZUZ: Maybe this'll be her new motor -- mode or -- method of transportation. She probably bragged that she was going more than 50, but that's just rev-isionist history. Especially since the course tracked her speed. We were gonna drive through a few more of these puns, but we gotta learn to pace ourselves. So we'll brake for now. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz. See you later.

Learn about the details of a deadly gunfight at an Afghan airport . Consider the debate over continuing subsidies to the oil industry . Check out a CNN documentary that looks at science education in the U.S. Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN Student News) -- January 18, 2008 . Quick Guide . Focus on: The Economy - Hear about the "r" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought. No Girls Allowed - Learn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule. A Song for Spain - Consider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome! Thanks for spending part of yours with CNN Student News! From the CNN Center, I'm your host, Carl Azuz. First Up: Focus on: The Economy . AZUZ: First up today: Technically, recession isn't a four-letter word. But it is one that Americans don't like to use, because it describes a downturn in the economy over time. Why might this happen? Well, many Americans' home mortgages are going up. And they're not able to pay. More people are out of work, consumers --like you and me-- are spending less money overall. And we don't even need to mention gas prices. Now these factors add up to an economic forecast that's not so good; Your family may be feeling the pinch. And all this is lighting a fire under government officials to fight a possible recession. Brianna Keilar considers the options Congress has, to try to prevent America from slipping into the red. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN REPORTER: With fears of a recession growing, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was on Capitol Hill Thursday, urging Congress to act quickly on an economic stimulus package. BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Stimulus that comes too late will not help support economic activity in the near term and it could be actively destabilizing if it comes at a time when growth is already improving. KEILAR: The president had a conference call with Senate and House leaders from both parties, the White House characterizing it as a consultation rather than a negotiation. All sides are indicating partisan bickering will take a backseat to finding a quick solution. Today marks the first time the White House has said President Bush is backing a stimulus plan, but spokesman Tony Fratto shied away from discussing specifics. TONY FRATTO, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECY.: The headwinds that we're dealing with right now are things that we see over the next coming quarters. So we do want to try to pass something quickly. KEILAR: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner met for the second day in a row. Both sides are stressing a bipartisan effort, but proposals are still vague. One option Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on: tax rebates: checks sent to taxpayers in an attempt to quickly pump money into the economy. Democrats say they'll scuttle any Republican attempts to extend the president's tax cuts as part of the stimulus package. Privately, congressional Republicans acknowledge it's a fight they can't win. What's more, Bernanke told Congress Thursday, making the tax cuts permanent won't help in the short term. BERNANKE: I think that the evidence suggests that measures that involve putting money in the hands of households and firms that will spend it in the near term will be more effective. KEILAR: Speaker Pelosi is hoping to have a final agreement before the State of the Union on January 28th. Brianna Keilar, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEO CLIP) No Girls Allowed . AZUZ: The next question today is, are girls as good as boys at sports? And if they are, should they be allowed to play at the organized, school level? Swing by Jacksonville, Florida, and you'll find that very controversy rounding the bases. But it's not over a school rule-- It's a state one. Laura Mazzeo of affiliate WJXT steps up to the plate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALYSSA PITRE, WANTS TO PLAY BASEBALL: I can play as well as a boy. LAURA MAZZEO, WJXT REPORTER: Twelve-year-old Alyssa Pitre is passionate about baseball . PITRE: I just love the sport. MAZZEO: She lives by the motto, "practice makes perfect." PITRE: I'm gonna try harder. MAZZEO: She spends hours here in the batting cage and working with coaches on her curveball. But this week, Alyssa went to try out for the middle school baseball team at the Providence School and was told she couldn't play. PITRE: I'm a girl. So what? You're not supposed to discriminate against females if they want to try to do something new, and try to make history at their own school. MAZZEO: The school's headmaster says they have no problem with her playing with the boys, but that she isn't allowed by the Florida High School Athletic Association. DON BARFIELD, HEADMASTER OF PROVIDENCE SCHOOL: Since we have a softball team, the state has indicated to us that she would not be permitted to play baseball. MAZZEO: The most obvious difference between softball and baseball -- it's the ball. The softball and the baseball. But Alyssa says there's much more to it than that. PITRE: The pitching is different. The ball is different. In softball they have longer bats -- different gear. MAZZEO: Alyssa isn't alone in her baseball dreams. her parents are considering taking legal action in hopes of changing the rules. ALYSSA'S MOTHER: If she wants to pursue baseball, then we'll pursue baseball. I just want to give her a chance. You know, give her a chance to try out, to see if she's good enough to make any team. MAZZEO: Alyssa is a humble, yet confident 7th grader. PITRE: I was going to give them something to show, instead of wearing pretty jewelry and short skirts. MAZZEO: She believes she is good enough to play with the boys. PITRE: There's really no difference - girls an play just as good as boys. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo . AZUZ: Standing up for what she believes in; gotta give her props for that. Another famous American who stood up to create change: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. CNN Classroom Edition will air 'The MLK Papers - Words that Changed a Nation.' It's on at 4 am Monday morning. Be sure to set your DVR's now. For special curriculum on the program, check out CNNStudentNews.com. Shoutout . MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Simmons' geography classes at Dixon-Smith Middle School in Fredericksburg, Virginia! Who wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner"? If you think you know it, shout it out! Was it: A) Betsy Ross, B) Thomas Jefferson, C) Susan B. Anthony or D) Francis Scott Key? You've got three seconds, GO! Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the U.S. national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, after witnessing a battle during the War of 1812. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Song for Spain . AZUZ: For many of us, it's hard to say, "Oh Say Can You See" without singing it --the words and music are sort-of glued together. In Spain, there's just a tune to hum. And though one Spaniard recently got really close to putting official words to it. Al Goodman explains why many people there, didn't like the way they sounded. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AL GOODMAN, CNN REPORTER: The English proudly sing their national anthem, the Americans croon to theirs. And then, there's Spain. Hold it. The Spanish anthem doesn't have any words. This man won a nationwide contest with his lyrics for the anthem. But then suddenly the Spanish Olympic Committee, which sponsored the contest, withdrew the winning entry. ALEJANDRO BLANCO, SPANISH OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Once Spaniards heard these lyrics, they sparked a lot of controversy, even rejection. GOODMAN: Viva Espana, or Long Live Spain, is how the now-discarded lyrics began. The phrase struck a sour note. Critics say it harkened back to the long right-winged dictatorship of Francisco Franco. MARGARITA SAENZ-DIEZ, JOURNALIST: You have to understand that many Spaniards do not consider the national anthem as their own. It was played a lot under Franco. GOODMAN: Spain is now a democracy, but many still bristle at the military march that's served for more than two centuries as the national anthem. Spain is made up of many different peoples, and five languages are spoken across the country. So, naturally, getting agreement on one set of lyrics is no easy task. One of those languages, ancient Basque, is among those taught in Madrid: Basques have their own national anthem and lyrics. At the Basque Cultural Center we found a Spaniard who liked the proposed lyrics for the Spanish national anthem. They're good, he says, and very neutral about Spain. Many others say the proposed lyrics lacked polish and shine. ANTONIO VILLALON, RETIRED CIVIL SERVANT (TRANSLATED): The French and American anthems speak about an enemy to defeat; our lyrics mentioned fields, wheat and friends. It's just stupid. MANUEL RINCON, TAXI DRIVER (TRANSLATED): The anthem should give us goose bumps. Spain's long history and diverse culture should show, in the lyrics. GOODMAN: The Spanish Olympic Committee says the search will go on, but in Beijing, Spanish athletes will likely have to just hum along to a wordless anthem, as they've done for years. It's a tune almost every Spaniard knows. Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, smaller cell phones: Cool. Smaller MP3 players: Cool. Smaller bridges? You're not gonna get too much traffic across this Golden Gate bridge. It's pictured next to a toothpick because it's made from one! Check that out-- you can even see the lines on the hand holding it! This thing was carved, with a great deal more precision than I've got, from a single toothpick and glue. The footage sent in to us by I-Report. The guy who did this says he's been a toothpick artist for 36 years! Goodbye . AZUZ: And as you could see, he really knows how to 'pick' his subjects. That's just painful! And that's where we conclude our week's last broadcast. We'll return on Tuesday, next week. Enjoy your three-day weekend, everyone! I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .

Hear about the "r" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought . Learn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule . Consider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics .

(CNN Student News) -- December 13, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Minneapolis, Minnesota • Ivory Coast • Cancun, Mexico . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz. This is CNN Student News, coming to you from Atlanta, Georgia, where we saw some unseasonal snowflakes over the weekend...in Georgia! Some parts of the country, though, are dealing with much worse conditions than we are. First Up: Winter Weather . AZUZ: Especially the midwestern U.S. A powerful snowstorm plowed through that part of the country over the weekend. Parts of Wisconsin got more than a foot and a half of snow, the state's governor declaring a state of emergency for more than 70 counties. What that does is help free up emergency workers and resources to help deal with it. Minnesota got hit pretty badly, too. In Minneapolis, the hometown Vikings were supposed to play an NFL game against the Giants yesterday. But this before-and-after picture shows you why that couldn't happen. That is the Metrodome, the Vikings' stadium. On the left is what the roof is supposed to look like. On the right: what it looked like yesterday. The roof caved in! This is a dome that's held up by air pressure. And after it got more than 17 inches of snow, just too much extra weight caused it to fail. Some workers were up on top, trying to shovel off the snow. They're not sure how long it's gonna take for the building to open back up. The Vikings game got moved back until tonight, and it'll be played in Detroit. Holiday Wreath Laying . CORAL VIDAL, FORTMAN, MARYLAND: I took my time and then, after I laid the wreath, I said thank you for your service. And I think it's just awesome being here laying these wreaths. JOHN ROYSTER, WEST POINT, VIRGINIA: I read whose name was there and their dates and said a thank you. These are men and women who have given the ultimate. All gave some, some gave all. AZUZ: Two of the hundreds of volunteers who helped lay wreaths on the gravesites of American troops at Arlington National Cemetery this weekend. It's a tradition that's been going on for nearly 20 years, and it happened at hundreds of other cemeteries across the country. I.D. Me . APRIL WILLIAMS, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a West African nation located between Ghana and Liberia. I gained my independence from France in 1960. My official name is Côte d'Ivoire. Many people know me as Ivory Coast, and I'm home to around 21 million people. Political Crisis . AZUZ: Côte d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, is in the middle of a political crisis. After a run-off in the country's recent presidential election, both candidates -- the current president and one of his opponents -- declared victory. That's not gonna work. The heads of other West African countries say the idea of two leaders just isn't for Côte d'Ivoire. Christian Purefoy gets us up to speed on the situation. (BEGIN VIDEO) CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, LAGOS: Sworn in as President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo stands defiant. The Ivorian people did not elect him president, says the international community. This man, Alassane Ouattara, who has also sworn himself in, is the true president, according to the independent electoral commission . U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: We are in full agreement that Alassane Ouattara is the rightfully-elected president of Cote d'Ivoire, and that former President Laurent Gbagbo should respect the results of the election and peacefully transfer power to his successor. PUREFOY: Since the election results were announced this month, there has been a dangerous stalemate in Ivory Coast, a standoff threatening to degenerate into civil war. In the early 1990s, Cote d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, was the economic powerhouse of West Africa and attracted immigrants from across the region. But as that economic success began to falter, people in the south of the country turned on what they saw as immigrants in the north. And in 2002, the country was split by civil war. But now, it seems that weeks of regional and international pressure are forcing Gbagbo to the negotiating table. LAURENT GBAGBO, INCUMBENT PRESIDENT OF IVORY COAST [TRANSLATED]: There's no war, and we need to sit down and talk. If there's a problem, we'll talk about it. But men don't hold discussions when things are still hot. They wait for things to cool down to start. So when it'll cool down, we'll talk. So, there won't be a war. I thank you for all that you have done for the Ivory Coast. We are together and the problems you see now, we will resolve them. PUREFOY: Whatever the discussions, other influential West African leaders say a unity government that includes both leaders is unacceptable. GOODLUCK JONATHAN, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA: It's immediate, it's immediate. Elections have been declared, somebody has won, so he has to hand over. PUREFOY: But talks do not mean action, and for now, the uneasy standoff between the two presidents continues. Christian Purefoy, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria. (END VIDEO) Climate Conference . AZUZ: Okay, from Africa, we're heading over to Cancun, Mexico, where a two-week conference on climate change ended with an agreement. Representatives from around the world came up with a plan that Mexico's president is calling the start of "a new era of cooperation in climate change." Among other things, the agreement will create a $100 billion fund to help developing countries deal with climate change. You see a lot of people clapping here, but not everyone likes this deal. The government of Bolivia says the agreement won't be effective. And Bolivia claims that wealthier nations bullied other countries into accepting the deal. This Day in History . [ON SCREEN GRAPHIC] . December 13, 2000 -- Al Gore concedes defeat to George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election . December 13, 2003 -- Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. soldiers . December 13, 2007 -- The Mitchell Report on the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball is released . Blog Repot . AZUZ: In Memphis, Tennessee, a school's trying to get students to pull up their saggy pants by giving teachers zip ties that they'll use as belts on the students' pants. On our blog, 71 percent of you think the "no saggy pants" policy is a good idea. Lana likes it, but here's what she has a problem with: "The wall of shame that shows photos of students with their pants hiked high." Most of you don't agree with the photo board. Brandon says that low riding defines certain people, and adds "if you don't like it, don't look at it." And Robert argues, "Teachers don't have the right to decide what students wear; it should be up to parents". But Desiree writes that "everywhere you turn, there are pants on the ground or someone's underwear showing." She bets 80 percent of her school doesn't own a belt. Robby calls showing your underwear, "gross. It would be so embarrassing if a girl saw your underwear." And Katia calls saggy pants very unattractive, saying, "I know I don't wanna see boxers." Add your comment at CNNStudentNews.com. Remember, it's first names only! Shoutout . SHELBY ERDMAN, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Williams' history classes at Canyon Vista Middle School in Austin, Texas! What is the name of this trophy? Is it the: A) Hart Trophy, B) Naismith Award, C) Heisman Trophy or D) Cy Young Award? You've got three seconds -- GO! You're looking at the Heisman Trophy, the award for the most outstanding college football player. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Heisman Winner . AZUZ: This year's Heisman Trophy winner is Cam Newton, the quarterback from Auburn University. He won the award on Saturday night. Newton has thrown or run for 48 touchdowns this year, leading Auburn to an undefeated season and a spot in the national championship game, and that's coming up in January. But he's also been the focus of some controversy. The NCAA ruled that Newton's father was involved in a pay-for-play scandal. Essentially, he told schools that they had to pay money for Cam to play football there. An NCAA investigation determined that neither Cam Newton nor Auburn knew what Cam's father was doing, so he's been cleared to play. Original Rules Sold . AZUZ: Just how important are the rules in sports? We're about to show you a set of rules that sold for more than $4 million! It's the "Founding Rules of Basketball," written by the man who's considered the inventor of the game: James Naismith. It's a 119-year-old document that was auctioned off last Friday. In the original rules, players could pass the ball, but not run with it; there was no provision for dribbling. And there wasn't any physical contact. Things have, of course, changed a bit since then. The couple who bought the rules is hoping to donate them to Kansas University, where Naismith was a coach. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, competitions aren't always fun and games. But here's one that sure seems like it is. It's a robotics competition in Maine. But here's the catch: the robots have to be built from LEGOs. 350 students participate in the event. They had to use LEGOs to build robots that could complete a series of tasks. By watching it, you'd be pretty impressed. If we had to compete, I don't even know what kind of robot we'd design. Goodbye . AZUZ: There are a few ideas we could toy around with. Not gonna share any of them, though. After all, we wouldn't want to LEGO any of our secrets. Whoo! All right, it's no secret that CNN Student News returns tomorrow. We'll look forward to seeing you then. Remember, this is our last week on the air before the break. Take care. See you soon!

A winter storm hammers the Midwest with more snow than some spots could handle . There may not be room for two leaders in Cote d'Ivoire following recent elections . The original rules of basketball are apparently worth more than $4 million . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN Student News) -- May 16, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Louisiana • Atlanta, Georgia . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz, and today on CNN Student News, we're gonna be talking about something that won't happen until November 6th... of 2012! But we start things off down in Louisiana. First Up: Severe Flooding . AZUZ: Officials facing the threat of massive flooding there have opened several gates on the Morganza Spillway. A spillway is something that goes over or around a dam. It's a safety feature. When too much water builds up around the dam, the spillway's gates can be opened to let some of that water through. This is what the Morganza Spillway looks like normally: gates closed, nothing coming through. But with floodwaters from the Mississippi River rushing in, engineers opened up some of the spillway's gates for the first time in nearly 40 years. That's what you see here: water barreling through the gate. The Morganza Spillway has 125 total gates. Officials plan to open up to one-fourth of those. Opening the gates should divert floodwaters away from major cities, like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. But it will send water toward homes and farmland in other parts of the state. People who live there -- many of whom have had to evacuate their homes -- are preparing for devastation. KELLI TRIMM, BUTTE LAROSE, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard. Instead, this is going to come into our home. It's going to take everything we have got. Presidential Politics . AZUZ: The next U.S. presidential election is more than 500 days away. Might sound like the distant future, but there's a lot that happens between now and then. And since that process is already underway, we're going to break some of it down for you today. Ultimately, one candidate from each party will face off in the general election. That's on November 6th, 2012. Before that, candidates have to win their party's nomination. That's what the primary elections help decide. There are lots of political parties out there. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party. We're going to look at the two biggest parties: the Democrats and Republicans. On the Democratic side, President Obama is an incumbent candidate. He's running for re-election to the office he already holds. He announced his campaign last month. The Republican side has a field of candidates. Some of them, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, have announced their plans to run for president. Others have formed what are called exploratory committees. They haven't officially announced their candidacy, but they're looking pretty seriously at the possibilities. Lot of steps to go through between now and election day. We'll take you through it as campaign season rolls along. Shoutout . STAN CASE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's first Shoutout goes out to Mr. Essex's geography students at Washington Middle School in Miles City, Montana! Whose slogan is "the toughest job you'll ever love"? Here we go! Is it the: A) Boy Scouts, B) Air Force, C) Peace Corps or D) Supreme Court? You've got three seconds -- GO! A promotional campaign described the Peace Corps as "the toughest job you'll ever love." That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Peace Corps at 50 . AZUZ: The organization promotes peace and friendship by having Americans live and work in developing countries. A simple idea, but one that's lasted. The Peace Corps celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Brooke Baldwin caught up with a new member of the corps as she began her journey. (BEGIN VIDEO) JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I have today signed an executive order providing for the establishment of a Peace Corps. BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: That was March 1961. In the 50 years since President John F. Kennedy launched the Peace Corps initiative, more than 200,000 volunteers have served in some 139 countries. Twenty-two-year-old Katie Pollak is now one of them. KATIE POLLAK, PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER: It's an exciting thing to be a part of. So many amazing people have been Peace Corps volunteers, and just the network of people who have done it. They use the word "family" a lot. It's exciting to sort of be going into that. BALDWIN: Katie recently earned her college degree in human biology and African studies. She plans to put it to good use for the next 27 months in Senegal, where she'll work in the Peace Corps malaria program. POLLAK: Professionally, this is going to be sort of the best thing that I can do, in terms of on-the-ground experience and whether I want to work broadly in life or doing policy work. And personally, I think it's going to be the biggest challenge of my life, being in an entirely new culture. BALDWIN: Peace Corps volunteers serve in several areas: education, HIV/AIDS awareness, agriculture, and business development, just to name a few. They are provided with health insurance, a housing allowance, and they receive about $7,500 at the end of their 27-month assignment. And the desire to serve is still very strong. KRISTINA EDMUNSON, DEP. COMMUNICATIONS DIR., PEACE CORPS: Today, we have more Peace Corps volunteers in the field than at any time in the last 40 years. And, you know, I think it's representative that Americans are ready to serve. They're standing up. They're answering President Obama's call to service. BALDWIN: Forty-seven people in this latest group of Peace Corps volunteers are heeding that call. COSTA KOKKINOS, PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER: I just hope to do stuff, to complete projects that people will appreciate. Maybe something that's sustainable, so when I leave they will have it. SARAH KUECH, PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS: Two years seems a lot like now, but in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that big. So, if I can donate a little of my time to try to do some good, I think it's worth a shot. BALDWIN: And for Katie Pollak, she says she is ready for the learning experience of a lifetime. POLLAK: One of the goals of the Peace Corps is to bring a better understanding of Americans to other people around the world. And I hope I can, like, be an ambassador for America. And show sort of the good side. BALDWIN: Brooke Baldwin, CNN. (END VIDEO) Shoutout Extra Credit . BARBARA HALL, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for a Shoutout Extra Credit! When did Jackie Robinson become the first African-American to play in baseball's major league? You know what to do! Was it the: A) 1930s, B) 1940s, C) 1950s or D) 1960s? Another three seconds on the clock -- GO! Jackie Robinson made his major league debut in 1947. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout Extra Credit! Celebrating Civil Rights . AZUZ: Starting with Jackie Robinson, black and white major leaguers played together on the field. But for many years, they couldn't go to the same restaurants and hotels off the field. That changed with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Saturday, young people got to play and talk with former all-stars as Major League Baseball honored those who fought for social justice in the game and in the country. The celebration continued yesterday when the Atlanta Braves hosted the Civil Rights Game. The teams wore uniforms from 1974. That's the year that Hank Aaron hit home run number 715 to break Babe Ruth's career record. T.J. Holmes talked to "Hammerin' Hank" about the influence of the civil rights era. (BEGIN VIDEO) T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Some of them were out there before you. But when you kind of got into the mix, is that something you wanted? Did you ever consider yourself kind of a leader being out front, a leader in the civil rights era? Or did you just want to play baseball? HANK AARON, BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER: I wanted to play baseball and I never felt like I was a leader. But I felt like Jackie Robinson had paved the way for, and I wanted to be a baseball player. Let me put it that way. And Jackie Robinson had paved the way for all of us. When I say all of them, myself, Willie and some of the other black who's came before him and was a little bit younger than he was, had paved the way. And I felt like it was my responsibility, not only as a baseball player, but to carry myself in such a way that other blacks would be able to look at me and say, "oh, I not only want to be the same kind of ballplayer that Hank Aaron was, but I want to carry myself off the field the way that he did." HOLMES: Do you ever look back and think, "You know what? I could have done without it, without the record"? AARON: No, I never did. No. I felt like it was my responsibility. God had given me the ability to play baseball. I had the world on my shoulders. I knew that I could do most anything I wanted to do out on the baseball field. And I always felt like I was, it may sound kind of silly, but I always felt like I was surrounded by angels on the baseball field. You know, I just felt like there was absolutely nothing that could happen to me. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we've got the scoop on a big story out of Canada. It's the world's largest ice cream cake! The massive dessert tipped the scales at more than 22,000 pounds. That's more than 10 tons of ice cream! Engineering students figured out how to build the thing without it melting. Talk about a brain freeze. Thousands of people showed up for the cake's debut. Thousands of lucky people; they each got to try some. Goodbye . AZUZ: Must have been sweet to witness a slice of history. We're gonna chill out for a little bit, but we'll be back tomorrow with more CNN Student News. See you then.

Learn about spillways and the impact that one is having in Louisiana . Follow a new member of the Peace Corps as she begins her journey . Hear from a baseball icon about the civil rights era's influence . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN Student News) -- March 31, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Libya • Syria . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. MRS. LONG'S STUDENTS: We're from Twin Rivers High School in Broseley, Missouri. Start your tractor, Carl! CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We thank Mrs. Long's students in Missouri for getting today's show revved up and ready to go. And we thank all of you for checking out this Thursday edition of CNN Student News. First Up: Changing Strategy . AZUZ: I'm Carl Azuz, and first up today, we have a report from CNN's Chris Lawrence on the conflict in Libya. The U.S. has been involved in this since March 19th, when it launched missiles at targets inside the North African country. But the military strategy is shifting. (BEGIN VIDEO) CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. officials say they're not in Libya to help rebels win a war. VICE ADMIRAL BILL GORTNEY, DIRECTOR OF THE JOINT STAFF: That's not part of our mandate. LAWRENCE: But the coalition is launching missiles at specific units, like the headquarters of Libya's elite 32nd Brigade. GORTNEY: This is one of Gadhafi's most loyal units. LAWRENCE: The coalition has interpreted "protect civilians" to mean it can destroy any weapons Gadhafi could use. Air strikes hit munitions depots in two cities. GORTNEY: Any place that we can see ammunition storage facilities, things of that nature, that, we're going after those. LAWRENCE: A mission that started with preventing attacks from the air is now focused, not even two weeks later, on destroying targets on the ground. New flying gunships like the A-10 have replaced some of the ships that were firing cruise missiles. These new aircraft fly low, closer to a target, and shoot machine gun fire instead of dropping thousand-pound bombs. They're designed to fight in and around cities, where rebels are trying to hold off Gadhafi's forces. On Tuesday, the NATO commander said that protecting civilians mandate extends all the way into Tripoli itself. ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS, NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, EUROPE: I think that any Gadhafi forces that are demonstrating hostile intent against the Libyan population are legitimate targets. LAWRENCE: So far, the assault has cost the Pentagon well over half a billion dollars. But most of that money came from cruise missiles and other munitions. The strategy has shifted, and now the U.S. forces are focused on refueling planes, jamming communication and striking Gadhafi forces. So, the military only expects to spend $40 million over the next few weeks. And a spokeswoman says, "After that, we would incur added costs of about $40 million per month." How many months? It's hard to tell. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: But a stalemate is not an acceptable solution. STAVRIDIS: I think a stalemate is not in anybody's interest. (END VIDEO) Libya Civil War . AZUZ: Some rebel leaders in Libya are calling the battles' front lines "fluid." They made some advances, took control of some key cities. But Colonel Gadhafi's forces have pushed back. And yesterday, the rebels withdrew from some territory they had taken over before. One strategy that coalition military leaders are considering is arming the rebels, giving them weapons. President Obama has said he's open to this idea, and some experts think it could give rebels help in fighting government forces. But there are also some concerns about this, arming the rebels. U.S. intelligence indicates that some terrorists may be fighting on the side of the rebels. So of course, officials don't want to be giving weapons to the wrong people. Shoutout . PAT ST. CLAIRE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Feller's students at Hardin Intermediate School in Hardin, Montana! On this map of the Middle East, which country is Syria? You know what to do! Is it: A, B, C or D? You've got three seconds -- GO! On this map, B is Syria, a country that's home to more than 22 million people. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Syria Unrest . AZUZ: Syria is another country in that part of the world that's dealing with political unrest. Dozens of people have been killed over the last few weeks in fighting between Syrian security forces and protesters who are speaking out against their government. The protesters, here's what they want: changes to Syria's constitution and the end of an emergency law that's been in place in Syria for decades. Yesterday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spoke to his country about this unrest. He said he recognizes that Syrians want reform and acknowledges that the government hasn't met the needs of the Syrian people. But President al-Assad also referred to an anti-Syria "conspiracy," and said his country won't fall like others that have gone through revolutions recently, like Egypt, for example. One thing President al-Assad didn't address was that emergency law that protesters want lifted. 9/11 Hearing . AZUZ: It's been nearly 10 years since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. After those attacks, Congress created the 9/11 Commission. The goal was to investigate the country's counterterrorism policy and to give recommendations for how to help avoid future attacks. A U.S. Senate committee is holding hearings to discuss how prepared the U.S. is for another possible attack. Yesterday, they heard the opinions of some members of that 9/11 Commission who said that, in many ways, the U.S. is safer today from that kind of terrorist attack. But they also had a warning: They said the threat of terrorism has changed. The commission's chairman said, "Although a devastating 9/11-type attack we believe is less likely, the threat is more complex and it's more diverse than at any time in the last decade." What's the Word? TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: What's the Word? It's a term that advertisers use to describe a group of people who share similar characteristics, such as age . DEMOGRAPHIC . That's the word! TVs Watching You? AZUZ: Advertisers use those demographics to decide which ads to show to which people. For example, if you're trying to promote an action movie, advertisers believe they're better off showing that to a younger, male audience than to an older, female audience. Deborah Feyerick is looking at new technology that doesn't just let advertisers target a specific group. It lets them target specific individuals. (BEGIN VIDEO) DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every time you watch TV, your TV is likely watching you through that box which collects information on show after show after show. All that data sent anonymously, ultimately to advertisers, focused on reaching people likely to buy certain products or watch certain shows. What is the benefit to people like me? To consumers? JON WERTHER, PRESIDENT, SIMULMEDIA INC.: The benefit to consumers is that you get more relevant ads and you have fewer ads that are irrelevant to you that are cluttering up your TV experience. FEYERICK: John Werther of Simulmedia successfully helped pioneer targeted advertising on the Internet. Now, he's doing it with TV. If this is done right, how much money is this worth to advertisers? WERTHER: We think billions. Billions of dollars. FEYERICK: Why? Because what you watch tells a lot about you, sometimes unexpectedly. WERTHER: A rerun of "Saved by the Bell "at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning has been one of the most highly effective spots in driving, let's say, audiences to a crime drama several days later. FEYERICK: It's not just set box data, but your other personal data collected when you ask for credit reports or use retail discount cards. Tech companies like Visible World use this data like direct mail, and can now deliver different ads to different households watching the same program. How does the box know which of these four different ads to get to you? SETH HABERMAN, CEO, VISIBLE WORLD: So, we've built a database that talks to Cablevision and sends out these little messages so the set-top boxes switch at the right time to show the right ads in your household. FEYERICK: As for privacy, Ad Age writer Brian Steinberg says it's a tradeoff. BRIAN STEINBERG, ADVERTISING AGE: That's becoming, you know, kind of the new tipping point of how much information we want to give out there and how much will advertisers use to kind of know where we are, where we're walking, what we like, what we don't like, what our preferences are in exchange for more relevant, more interesting advertising. FEYERICK: Commercial advertisers are banking you'll watch. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York. (END VIDEO) Blog Promo . AZUZ: You can see how this benefits advertisers, and it brings up a couple interesting questions. Would you benefit from seeing ads that were more relevant to the things you wanted, or do you think this might be a bit of an invasion of privacy, if people know what you're watching and when you're watching it? You see our blog from our front page right there, From A to Z with me. Head to CNNStudentNews.com, click into this blog, and tell us your comments; tell us what you're thinking about this. Before We Go . AZUZ: The competition you're about to see started out with 75 people. After nearly two straight days of dribbling, it was down to just these two. You can sit, stand, bend, eat; you just gotta keep dribbling. But when one guy reaches down to get a banana, oh no! He knows it's over! The ball just got away from him when he was going for that banana. The winner -- hey, contest's over, you can probably stop dribbling. Anyway, the winner gets to join the NBA's Phoenix Suns on a road trip next season. Goodbye . AZUZ: As for the runner-up, we are sure he'll bounce back from this. We'll bounce back tomorrow with more CNN Student News. Look forward to seeing you then. Have an awesome afternoon. I'm Carl Azuz.

Examine a shift in strategy for U.S. forces involved with the conflict in Libya . Hear some opinions on how prepared America is to prevent a future terrorist attack . Learn about a new technology that tailors advertisements to individuals' tastes . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN Student News) -- January 14, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Arizona • Brazil • Nevada . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's the best day of the school-week and you're about to get a front-row seat to world headlines without a single commercial. In other words, CNN Student News. I'm Carl Azuz! First Up: Arizona Shooting . AZUZ: First up: The giant American flag was recovered in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New York City. That was a little over nine years ago, the same day that Christina Green was born. She was one of the victims of a shooting last Saturday in Tucson, Arizona. So the flag was raised in Christina's honor with those who knew and loved the girl walking past it, on the way to a service to remember her. Five other people were killed in the shooting. Speaking at a memorial service for all of them on Wednesday night, President Obama said he wanted America to be as good as Christina envisioned it. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit. May God bless and keep those we've lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America. AZUZ: Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is a survivor of the shooting. She's one of six people still in the hospital, and the only one in critical condition. Wednesday, Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting and gave her husband a sign she could hear him. Brazil Floods . AZUZ: Australia isn't the only country dealing with ravaging floodwaters right now. We're gonna take you to Brazil, South America, a nation in its summer rainy season. Rains that are out of hand in some places. We want you to look at this -- families that are in "extreme risk" of being washed away. This includes people in the mountains, and people near riverbeds, as landslides, mudslides, and rising waters leave thousands homeless. Around 400 people have died, many are missing. Some families are living in schools and gyms. In some spots, the only dry areas you can see are roofs and tree-tops. And more rains are in the forecast. The country's government is taking some heat for poor disaster planning and allowing people to build homes in dangerous, mountain areas. Etna Erupts . AZUZ: This is what happens when Europe's most famous volcano gets active. Tremors started rumbling in Italy's Mount Etna on Tuesday. By Wednesday, you can see what was going on. The volcano's on the island of Sicily, about 18 miles from the nearest town. It may be spewing ash, but it doesn't seem to be threatening anyone at the moment. That wasn't the case in 1669, the date of Etna's most violent eruption, which killed 20,000 people. I.D. Me . CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. me. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. My name was changed from Michael King when I was five years old. In 1964, I became the youngest person at the time to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most famous figures in the U.S. civil rights movement. MLK Day . AZUZ: Many consider Martin Luther King the face of the civil rights movement. Between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and gave more than 2,500 speeches. His message: Equality through non-violence. Dr. King organized boycotts and protests. He worked with presidents on creating civil rights laws. And in 1963, he helped lead the march on Washington where Dr. King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In that, he discussed his vision for a world where people would be judged by their character, rather than their skin color. On April 4th, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Four days later, the idea of a federal holiday honoring him was first introduced in Congress. That proposal became law in 1983 and the first nationwide observance of the Martin Luther King holiday was in 1986. The holiday is on the third Monday of January every year, which is this coming Monday, January 17th. Many people use it as an opportunity to help out with community service projects. For everyone, it's a chance to remember King's dream and the legacy that he left in his work to achieve it. School Lunches . AZUZ: Pizza sticks, tater tots, and hot dogs: the government wants those off your school lunch menu and replaced with foods like chef salad, baked sweet potato fries, and whole wheat spaghetti. It's a new proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and part of the Obama administration's efforts to cut down on childhood obesity. Healthier foods often cost more, so the government plans to help poorer schools pay for the changes. Critics say it shouldn't be up to the federal government to decide what schools are allowed to serve -- that it's a state or local issue. The rule would limit calories for school breakfasts and lunches. If it takes effect, you could see changes several months down the road. Shoutout . CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Goodman's journalism students at Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, Virginia! What is the atomic symbol for gold? You know what to do! Is it: A) Ag, B) Au, C) Go or D) Hg? You've got three seconds -- GO! The Latin word for gold is aurum; that's why its symbol is Au. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! How Gold is Mined . AZUZ: Gold, money and dreams: A dangerous combination that has been the downfall of many and the success of a few. The California gold rush of 1849 doesn't scratch the surface of gold's historic lure. Ancient Egyptians and Etruscans wore it. Entire currencies were based on it. But why gold instead of other metals? Well, it doesn't tarnish or corrode. It's easy to work with and shape. And it's very hard to destroy. Poppy Harlow takes us far underground, where modern miners cash in on methods their predecessors, didn't even dream about. (BEGIN VIDEO) UNIDENTIFIED MALE, BARRICK CHIEF SAFETY OFFICER: Your self-rescuer is going to go probably on your right-hand side. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM ANCHOR: We're gearing up to go two miles deep into one of the biggest gold mines in the country. I can't believe we're two Empire State buildings down below the surface of the Earth. And we still have quite a ways to go. Hunting for gold goes all the way back to 4,000 B.C. And today, the obsession continues. Here, in Barrick Gold's Cortez Mine in rural Nevada, more than one million ounces of gold were mined last year alone. That's over $1 billion worth. DAVE BUNDROCK, GOLD MINER: Geology has figured out where the pot of ore is, then they just point us toward it. HARLOW: But finding gold these days is much more complex and expensive than just, well, panning for it. In fact, you can't even see the gold in this mine. I mean, it's amazing to me to think that this is gold, but it is. RANDY HAGER, GOLD MINER:Yes. HARLOW: It's right here. HAGER: Yes. You can't see it. It's microscopic. HARLOW: Miners have to drill and blast through layers and layers of rock to reach the gold. HAGER: There's gold in this. And what I'm going to do is turn this into a pile of muck. HARLOW: It looks like dirt, but muck is actually gold ore. Tiny particles of gold that will eventually make up a gold brick. HAGER: I'm going to get about 10 truckloads out of here. About 10 ounces of gold - 10 to 15 ounces of gold at $1,400 an ounce. And we'll do this several times during a day's work. HARLOW: Not bad money. HAGER: Not bad money. HARLOW: So, after the gold ore is mined, about 400 tons of it goes in massive trucks just like this one. Of that, only four ounces is pure gold. It's taken, it's crushed, then it's taken to a mill and then it's refined. JULIUS STIEGER, PROCESS DIVISION MANAGER, BRARRICK-CORTEZ: After of the ore is crushed and ground, we leach the gold out. From there we put it into a pressure-cooker environment, high temperature and pressure with various chemicals, and that pulls the gold out. This is the final step before pouring the gold bar. HARLOW: Barrick mines gold for around $300 an ounce, and gold is selling for record highs, around $1,400 an ounce. Those big margins mean jobs. Something desperately needed in Nevada, a state struggling with the highest in unemployment and foreclosure rates in the country. JOHN ALEXANDER, SHOVEL OPERATOR: I can provide for my family. You know? And I don't know any other job in this world that can -- I get paid for what I get paid and survive now these days, the way the prices are. HAGER: There's job security here with gold that high. Not going to run out of work. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: With snow falling and daily temperatures in the 20s this time of year, ideas for outdoor activities can come to a stalemate. But not for a pair of local artists in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Someone had this kingly idea for them to sculpt an ice chess set! Don't know how long they pawn-dered the proposal, but it took over a month and a half for them to piece this together and let the game begin. Goodbye . AZUZ: It's something people can play by day, and by knights. A board to keep freedom in check, mate! I'm Carl Azuz, and our next move is gonna be January 18th! Enjoy the Martin Luther King holiday, and we'll see you on Tuesday!

Brazil is ravaged by heavy rains and deadly flooding . Mt. Etna roars to life with tremors and ash . The U.S. government proposes healthier school lunches . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- April 16, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Blacksburg, Virginia • Iceland • Kyrgyzstan . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Some fast facts to get us going today: I'm Carl Azuz. This is CNN Student News. Fridays are awesome! Today's show is out of this world, or at least, that's where it starts. First Up: Space Strategy . AZUZ: Space. What parts of it are we going to explore? How much money are we going to spend to get there? President Obama has a new strategy that answers those questions. He talked about it in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center yesterday. The president says he is 100 percent committed to NASA and its mission. He's proposing that the agency get an additional $6 billion over the next 5 years, with a goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s. But under this plan, what you won't see is this: people walking on the moon. President Obama's strategy would cancel plans to send astronauts back there. He says, "We've been there before. There's a lot more of space to explore." Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the moon, agrees with the president. But Aldrin's NASA crewmate, Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, disagrees. He's part of a group of astronauts that have criticized the president's plan. Other NASA officials argue that the proposal could cost thousands of people their jobs. The president believes it's a way to move forward. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This is the next chapter that we can write together here at NASA. We will partner with industry, we will invest in cutting-edge research and technology. We will set far-reaching milestones and provide the resources to reach those milestones. And step by step, we will push the boundaries, not only of where we can go, but what we can do. Mine Safety . AZUZ: The president's also ordering a review of mines that have bad safety records. This comes after last week's tragedy at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. President Obama has criticized the company that owns the mine, specifically because of its safety record. The company called that criticism "regrettable" and said the president may be misinformed about the mine's safety record. Meantime, the governor of West Virginia has asked all of the state's miners to show up for work today. But instead of producing coal, he wants them to spend the day re-evaluating safety procedures. GOV. JOE MANCHIN, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: What better honor can we give those fallen miners than to say we're gonna dedicate this day, re-evaluate, have seminars, re-inspect. And those that have repeated violations will be heavily inspected. That's all we can do in honor of those miners, so that we never have another family or miner go through this. Tea Party Rally . AZUZ: Switching over to politics, the Tea Party movement is getting ready for the midterm elections coming up in November. The group has released a list of "heroes and targets." The "heroes" on the list are candidates that the Tea Party plans to support in the elections. The "targets" are anyone that the group would like to see voted out of office. Of course, lists are not the only way that the Tea Party gets its message out. Rallies are the group's bread and butter. This one in Washington, D.C. yesterday was wrapping up a three-week tour across the U.S. The timing: no coincidence. Yesterday, of course, was Tax Day, and the group is opposed to what it sees as government overspending. VA Tech Remembrance . AZUZ: In Blacksburg, Virginia and all over the U.S., people are taking time today to honor the victims of a deadly shooting. It happened on the campus of Virginia Tech University three years ago today. Police say a student at the school went on a shooting spree, killing 32 people before killing himself. Today, Virginia Tech and the local community are holding memorial ceremonies like this remembrance run from last year. Candlelight vigils and a community arts project are also scheduled to mark the day. Word to the Wise . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise... dormant (adjective) temporarily inactive, or in a state of no external activity . source: www.m-w.com . Iceland Volcano . AZUZ: A volcano in Iceland had been dormant for more than 180 years. But then a few weeks ago, this started. The volcano is erupting, and some scientists say it could last for more than a year. That's about how long it went the last time this happened. That was back in the 1820s. This time, the impact is being felt all across Europe. Here, you see London's Heathrow Airport, planes on the ground. Where you don't see them is in the sky. The UK is not alone in this. More than half a dozen countries canceled flights yesterday; up to 6,000 total across the European continent. The problem is ash. When the volcano erupted, it sent this huge cloud of smoke and ash high up into the air. If a jet were to fly through that, it could cause the plane's engines to shut down. So, that's why there are so many cancellations. Rob Marciano looks at how weather and winds are playing a part in all of this. ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: The way the weather pattern is set up right now -- and Iceland, obviously, to the north -- but we've got this funky upper air pattern about 30,000 feet, which is where that ash went to, up where the jets fly. And it's scooting around towards Scandinavia, back through parts of the UK and also into other parts of Western Europe. Here is the, here it is on the infrared satellite picture. You see it right there kind of heading this way. That's the cloud itself. Kyrgyzstan Unrest . AZUZ: Major political change in Kyrgyzstan. The president of the central Asian country has resigned. Kurmanbek Bakiev left for neighboring Kazakhstan yesterday after he was forced out of power last week. This was all part of a deal between Bakiev and Kyrgyzstan's new government. Russia, the United States and several international groups helped in the negotiations. Kyrgyzstan's temporary government told the U.S. State Department that it plans to hold elections in six months. The U.S. says it hopes that Kyrgyzstan will become a model for democracy in the region. The country is important to the U.S. because there's a military base there. And that base supports NATO operations in Afghanistan. Shoutout . MATT CHERRY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: As we wrap up National Library Week, today's Shoutout goes out to all the librarians out there! Where would you find the largest library in the world? Is it in: A) Athens, B) London, C) Washington, D.C. or D) Cairo? You've got three seconds -- GO! Washington, D.C. is home to the U.S. Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Escape to Charity . AZUZ: Mackenzie Bearup's collection isn't quite that large, but she has rounded up more than 30,000 books. And just like a library, her goal is to share them with other people. Who she shares them with, and why, are what make Mackenzie a CNN Hero. (BEGIN VIDEO) MACKENZIE BEARUP, CNN HERO: I was in the fifth grade when I hurt my knee. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready? BEARUP: Yeah, I'm ready. The doctor diagnosed me with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. When something touches it, it's like a bomb goes off in my knee. Even though I've tried many different treatments, the only thing able to get my mind off the pain was reading. Do you guys like to read? My pediatrician told me about a home for abused children. Any child being in horrible pain like this, they need something, and something that I knew that helped me was books. OK. This is called "Screaming Millie." But the people in these shelters are just like you and me. They need things to get their mind off of whatever they're going through. I put flyers in mailboxes and I set up a Web site. Thank you so much for donating. My original goal was to get 300 books. Before I knew it, I had 3,000 books. My total right now is 38,000 books. And I've delivered books to libraries and reading rooms in 27 different shelters in six states. And take as many books as you want. If one child finds a love of reading through books I've given them, then that will help them in school and just turn their life around entirely. I really think that reading can do that for someone. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Unless you're a librarian, there is one -- and only one -- way to get a Shoutout on our show. Teachers, you head to our home page, CNNStudentNews.com, it's whatyou are looking at right now. Now, in the Spotlight section, which you see, click on that iReport link. And once you get there, hit the "share your story" button to upload a picture of your school. That's it! That's all you gotta do. So start today at CNNStudentNews.com, and be on the lookout for your Shoutout. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we are bringing you the ultimate in extreme sports. Get ready to shred... with your fingers? Well, why not. No helmets, no pads, no problem, right? It's called fingerboarding; it's kind-of like skateboarding. Maybe not like skateboarding. Everything's scaled down to size. But these guys are trying to land jumps and kick-flips, just like those of you who skateboard. It may look a little strange; maybe it's just the next generation of boarding. Goodbye . AZUZ: I mean, after all, it seems like the perfect sport for the digital age. We're sure they won't get board with it. I don't know. We won't have any more puns; we're just sitting here, spinning our wheels. Hope you have a great weekend. We'll see you next Monday. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.

Discover why some famous astronauts disagree about a new space proposal . Find out how a volcano in Iceland is affecting flights across Europe . Hear how one teenager is giving back through a massive book drive . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- May 2, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Libya • Vatican City • Alabama . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. GROUP OF STUDENTS FROM BUSINESS, ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY (B.E.S.T.) ACADEMY: Welcome to CNN Student News at B.E.S.T. Academy Middle School. UNIDENTIFIED MALE B.E.S.T. STUDENT: Today, we are very glad and appreciative of the teachers who are striving to make us the best and prepare us for a promising and productive future. GROUP: And remember, we are accepting no excuses in our journey to be the B.E.S.T. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks to the students at B.E.S.T. Academy for getting things started today as CNN Student News kicks off Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm Carl Azuz. Let's get to it. First Up: Libya Civil War . AZUZ: First up, the Libyan military is increasing its attacks on rebel forces, and at least one witness says it's "like revenge." This comes after a NATO airstrike reportedly killed part of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's family. Gadhafi has controlled Libya for 42 years. Rebels want him out of power; they're fighting against his government and military. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is leading an international operation to protect Libya's citizens. Libyan authorities say one of Colonel Gadhafi's sons and three of his grandchildren were killed in Sunday's airstrike. Government officials say Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were in the house when it was targeted, but that they're all right. NATO says it doesn't target individuals, just military-related locations. NATO commanders added that they regret any loss of life during Libya's ongoing civil war. Pope Beatification . AZUZ: The late Pope John Paul II can now be called "blessed," which means he's one step away from becoming a saint. The pope -- the position -- serves as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. And John Paul II served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. In the Catholic faith, in order to be beatified -- that's when you're declared as "blessed" -- a person has to be credited with performing a miracle. Becoming a saint requires two miracles. Some people have been critical of how John Paul II handled some issues in the Catholic Church while he was pope. But more than a million people came out to the Vatican on Sunday for the beatification ceremony led by the current pope, Benedict XVI. John Paul performed more than 1,300 beatification ceremonies while he was pope, a very popular pope to this day. Royal Wedding . AZUZ: Their names are still William and Kate, but from now on, you can call them the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Those are the titles that Britain's Prince William and Catherine Middleton were given after their royal wedding last Friday. It was not what you'd call a small ceremony. The couple tied the knot at Westminster Abbey in front of family and friends. But people around the world tuned in to watch, and huge crowds showed up in London for a chance to see the bride and groom. They will be going on a honeymoon, although they aren't saying where. But they're not leaving for a while. After a quiet weekend, Prince William was headed back to his job as a search and rescue pilot. Sound Check . WALTER MADDOX, MAYOR OF TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA: My heart's broken. There's no way you can walk on these streets where I have grown up, and the 93,000 citizens that I represent, and see the pain in their eyes, the look of what has happened to us. This has clearly been a dark hour for me personally, and for our city. But I am confident. I believe that we will come out of this stronger, and a new day will dawn for the city of Tuscaloosa. Alabama Aftermath . AZUZ: The mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His city was hit hard by severe weather and tornadoes that whipped across the southern U.S. last week. Churches across the state of Alabama held a day of prayer yesterday for the victims and survivors. Authorities say more than 330 people were killed across six states; that made it the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. President Obama went to see some of the damage in Tuscaloosa on Friday. He declared major disasters in parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. That declaration will give money to help with the recovery efforts. Weather anchor Reynolds Wolf was also in Tuscaloosa. He gives us a closer look at what the president saw. (BEGIN VIDEO) REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: This is Alabama. It's my home state, the heart of Dixie, and after suffering the worst tornado in its history, this place will never quite be the same. When it comes to damage, it's so incredibly random. One house will have a wall completely ripped away, part of a roof. This one, on the other side of these trees, was actually lifted up and pushed completely off its foundation. And then right across the street on this side there's nothing there. Unreal. Now, before the twisters struck, this truck was in perfect condition. But after experiencing winds, possibly as high as 300 miles per hour, this vehicle has been reduced to rubble. And since this story began, we've been down countless streets, been in many neighborhoods, and still, we're seeing the same stuff. Near and far, there's just destruction. From houses to trees, just devastation. Here in Tuscaloosa though, things are slowly getting back to normal. You look across McFarland Boulevard and you see some construction crews trying to put things back together. All around them, plenty of damage. But things like that can get fixed. For the people who lost loved ones, though, life will never be the same. (END VIDEO) Shuttle Launch Delay . AZUZ: This is not where Endeavour is supposed to be right now. The shuttle was supposed to launch last Friday. NASA called that off because of concerns about the heating system. Next possibility was today, but that's off too. A power problem is what's causing the other delay. The Endeavour crew and support staff were allowed to go home. Officials haven't set a new launch date, but they say it won't be any earlier than next Sunday, May 8th. Shoutout . STAN CASE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Boswell's class at Moreland Ridge Middle School in Blue Springs, Missouri! What is this person operating? You know what to do! Is it a: A) Jib, B) Steadicam, C) TelePrompTer or D) Boom mic? You've got three seconds -- GO! This is a Steadicam, which helps eliminate shaking for hand-held cameras. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Career Connections . AZUZ: We're putting the Steadicam in focus today because our Career Connections segment is back! Our own Tomeka Jones is here to give you the scoop. Tomeka? TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Well, the title pretty much speaks for itself! We're trying to help you connect with careers that interest you. Carl, what gave you the desire to become an anchor? AZUZ: Uh, I was a better talker than listener. JONES: Well, CNN's Matt Lingerfelt knew he wanted to be a professional cameraman from the time he was young, like middle-high school age. He learned a lot from the work of Garrett Brown, who invented the Steadicam in the 1970s. And now, he's following in Brown's footsteps. (BEGIN VIDEO) MATT LINGERFELT, CNN STEADICAM OPERATOR: A good operator makes Steadicam look good. RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: The breakdown is a monumental shutdown. LINGERFELT: Steadicam was originally designed for film. Basically, it's a vest that has an arm that comes around. And I attach this arm that has springs loaded into it. The camera attaches to it. The springs take out all the load of the camera and me walking around, so it balances it out; makes it nice and smooth. We have two minutes until we are live. Right now, we're in the middle of a break and I'm getting time cues in my ear from master control. UNIDENTIFIED CNN DIRECTOR: Her mic. Go Matt. Cue. FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You are at the international desk, where we bring you the world up to the minute. UNIDENTIFIED CNN DIRECTOR: Go Matt. Roll them. LINGERFELT: So, the director is telling me, "Matt, I need this shot." And then he'll explain whatever shot it is, either the anchor at a wall or I'm doing a bump shot. And all a bump shot is is just a beauty shot of the studio. UNIDENTIFIED CNN DIRECTOR: Go! Standby to bump everything down, please. LINGERFELT: Well, that's what happens when the president takes over: our shot gets killed. No big deal; happens every day. The best advice I was given is to volunteer and always ask questions if you don't understand what something is. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Well, you heard Matt Lingerfelt, a friend of mine, talk about directors a lot. You can watch our Career Connections segment on directors at CNNStudentNews.com! Well, we hope you saved enough room for today's Before We Go segment, because it is gonna leave you stuffed. Between the tomato, cucumber, lettuce and bread, you're looking at a five pound burger! And more than three pounds of that is meat. A restaurant in China offers its diners a challenge: if they can get it down in 2 hours, the burger's free. Free food versus massive heartburn? Goodbye . AZUZ: There's a debate you can really sink your teeth into. And you knew it could only show up in our beef-fore we go segment. There's an a-bun-dance of puns we could make about this story, but we've already eaten up all of our time. Just one more thing: This show goes out to our friends at A.C. Reynolds Middle School in Asheville, North Carolina. We appreciate your stopping by CNN last week!

Examine the circumstances surrounding a NATO airstrike in Libya . Tour some of the devastation in Alabama following deadly storms . Meet a CNN Steadicam operator in our Career Connections segment . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN) -- Imagine sipping Argentina's finest wines with the snowcapped Andes in the distance. Sailing the fjords of Finland while the midnight sun shines down. Or taking in a live opera under the stars in the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico. These stirring scenarios have one thing in common: a gorgeous backdrop tailor-made for romance. "We're all starring in the movie of our lives," declares Susan Moynihan, founder of The Honeymoonist, a boutique travel-planning company for luxurious romance experiences. "And a beautiful setting makes you feel more beautiful—you want a setting that matches your mood." Sometimes it's not just the usual hot spots that hit the spot, though. In compiling our favorite romantic summer getaways¸ we looked further afield than staples like Rome, Bora-Bora, the Greek Islands and Paris. (Don't worry, we'll always have Paris.) We even let another of New York's boroughs steal our hearts away from perennial favorite Manhattan. "Part of the goal for a romantic trip is to get out of your routine and away from everyday stresses and surroundings so you can focus on each other," says Moynihan. "Going to a destination that is distinct and different from your everyday life helps create that mood and magic." Find out where you two can create some magic of your own this summer. Rovinj, Croatia . Dubrovnik gets lots of love, but we're smitten with the lesser-known city of Rovinj to the north. The terracotta rooftops, church steeples and winding cobblestoned streets of the medieval old city are set on a peninsula jutting into the Adriatic Sea, which provides the focus for the many alfresco cafés lining the waterfront. Shop for wild asparagus, truffle and just-off-the-boat seafood at the St. Euphemia farmers' market, held daily, then take your picnic to Golden Cape Forest, a short bike ride or walk from the old town. The striking Hotel Lone overlooks the edge of the forest and offers chic, design-conscious rooms with private infinity pools on each balcony. Dine at the top of the hill, near the cathedral, at Monte, where molecular cuisine meets farm-to-table fine dining. Travel + Leisure: Beautiful beaches to visit in 2014 . Mendoza, Argentina . Tear yourselves away from Buenos Aires for some wine-region romance in Mendoza, an hour's flight. At Cavas Wine Lodge, the stylish west-facing adobe rooms include perks like plunge pools, wood-burning fireplaces and outdoor showers—plus views of the snowcapped Andes mountain range. Hit the wine trail to sample some of the region's praiseworthy Malbec. Carlos Pulenta showcases impressive reds and sparkling wines in a bucolic setting whose main house features Criollo native Argentinean architecture. Wind down at the 19th-century Park Hyatt Mendoza, whose excellent Kaua spa offers decadent treatments like a "chocolate body glow." Travel + Leisure: America's most romantic restaurants . Helsinki, Finland . Embrace summer by heading to a land where the midnight sun shines all season long. The Finnish capital really comes into its own in the warm months, when locals take both to the water—to explore Helsinki's gorgeous islands and fjords—and the streets for the culinary spectacle that is Restaurant Day. Thousands of the city's best cooks gather to host pop-up restaurants selling everything from Finnish-style donuts to Thai curries. Board the jaunty blue-and-white ship Doris for lunch and a sightseeing tour of the archipelago, then hit the Design District, a walkable route with 200 shops, galleries and boutiques. Over dinner at Juuri, you can sample sapas, a Scandinavian version of tapas. Sleep it all off at the chic Klaus K, where that famed Finnish design is on full display. Travel + Leisure: America's best road trips . Jamaica . This laid-back island continues to be among the most-visited Caribbean destinations thanks to its heady combination of intoxicating music, sublime sunsets and affordability. Couples should make a beeline for Negril, the fun-loving resort town on Jamaica's northwest coast, and check in to T+L reader favorite Rockhouse Hotel, where love is always in the air. Book one of the thatched-roof villas on the edge of cliffs overlooking Pristine Cove, and feast on blackened mahi mahi with mango chutney—served by the light of tiki torches in the cliff-side restaurant. Hit the elevated wooden boardwalk in Negril's tranquil Royal Palm Reserve, a forest oasis filled with Morass royal palms (found nowhere else in the world) and more than 300 species of fauna, including butterflies and exotic birds. Riga, Latvia . Charming architecture and a lack of tourist hordes make the Latvian capital an alluring alternative to the usual European hot spots. Start by taking a guided tour of the opulent Opera House, then head to Alberta and Streinieku streets to ogle a wealth of perfectly preserved Art Nouveau buildings—there's even a small museum dedicated to the movement (known as Jugendstil here). While on Alberta, pop into Madam Bonbon, a boudoir-like boutique stocked with chic shoes, fine jewelry and pretty frocks you won't find elsewhere, many by Latvian designers. Dine at the city's most acclaimed restaurant, Vincents, where star chef Martins Ritins works his culinary wizardry: expect decadent dishes like foie gras ravioli and risotto Milanese served with gold leaf. For a more casual but no less memorable dining experience, check out Valtera, a serene, clean-lined restaurant in the old city where chef Valters Zirdzinš uses organic produce to great effect. At the end of the day, retreat to the hip Hotel Bergs, whose sleek, contemporary rooms (some with Art Nouveau fireplaces) hide behind a 19th-century façade. Beaver Creek, Colorado . This tiny ski town has a hot secret: it rocks in summer too. Park yourself at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and indulge at the Allegria, the only spa in town to offer couples suites. The two-hour-and-15-minute "Spa Romance" Colorado-inspired ritual features a wildflower and eucalyptus scrub, a steam, a Swedish or deep tissue massage, a lavender bath and champagne. On select summer Tuesdays, the lawn behind the Park Hyatt hosts Movies Under the Stars, family-friendly movie screenings. It's grown-ups only at the Beaver Creek Wine and Spirits Festival, an annual August event that showcases great wine and food along with cooking demonstrations and hikes followed by farm-to-table feasts. Riviera Nayarit, Mexico . Stretching nearly 200 miles from the colonial town of San Blas to Nuevo Vallarta (just north of Puerto Vallarta), Riviera Nayarit winningly combines Pacific coastline with the majesty of the Sierra Madre Mountains. An acclaimed culinary scene and some of the world's best whale-watching don't hurt either. The city of Puerto Vallarta's siren song is strong—lively nightlife, a pretty historic center and winsome hotels like colonial art--filled Hacienda San Angel. If you're in the mood to splurge, seek out the 250-acre Imanta (doubles from $800), hidden between lush jungle and a perfect sweep of beach near Punta de Mita, at the northern tip of Banderas Bay. Kick back with a margarita and sublime fish tacos at the beach restaurant. Nearby, the famous surf town of Sayulita offers a laid-back vibe and activities (paddleboarding, horseback riding, yoga) that draw a youthful and New Agey crowd. Lake Garda, Italy . Como attracts the glamorous set (ciao, Mr. Clooney!) but Lake Garda has all its neighboring star's pulse-racing beauty and old-world charm—minus the day-trippers and celebrity-spotters. Wander among olive and lemon groves, take a lazy paddle out on the glimmering water, or savor a long lunch in picturesque villages like Sirmione (known for its thermal spa culture and ruins from ancient Rome) or Gargnano, with its cobblestoned medieval town and charming marina. Whether for drinks or an overnight stay, be sure to check out the lake's most storied address: Villa Feltrinelli. It's a neo-Gothic 1860s mansion-turned-luxury-hotel whose many virtues include a Fellini-esque sweeping marble staircase, frescoed walls, a lemon grove and dilettante distractions like a croquet court. Bali . Awe-inspiring scenery, spiritualism and rich cultural and culinary traditions continue to lure lovers to this Indonesian island—which also has its share of world-class spas and resorts. One of the newest, The Mulia, has three tiers of lodgings: rooms within the Mulia Resort, butler-serviced beachfront suites at The Mulia and ultra-private Mulia Villas, also with private pools and butlers. Sip cocktails at the Instagram-worthy candlelit Sky Bar, with its sweeping Indian Ocean views, then dine at Table8, the property's new restaurant, featuring home-style Cantonese and Sichuan dishes and fancy street food. For a dose of culture, head up to the lovely hill town of Ubud, with its poetically beautiful jade-green terraced rice paddies and vibrant arts scene, and wander through the Sacred Monkey Forest, a wooded sanctuary filled with Hindu temples and cheeky macaques. Guanacaste, Costa Rica . Helping burnish Costa Rica's reputation as an eco-destination, the recently opened Andaz Peninsula Papagayo overlooking the Gulf of Papagayo and Culebra Bay caters to couples seeking pura vida—without giving up the indulgences of romantic travel. Architect Ronald Zurcher's design uses clean, modern lines while embracing the artisanal heritage of the region; local influences also turn up in dishes like fresh ceviche and Costa Rican chicharrones at three on-site restaurants. If you fancy bonding at the beach instead, the affordable Witch's Rock Surf Camps, around 1.5 hour's drive from Peninsula Papagayo, offers surf lessons, a restaurant, a brewpub, and 18 rooms. See more spots for romance at Travel + Lesiure . Planning a getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to the World's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

These ten spots around the world are ready-made for romance . Enjoy the alfresco cafes of this charming Croatian city to the north . Bali has stunning scenery, spirituality and romantic world-class resorts .

London (CNN) -- Channeling his best Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt showed his greatness Thursday on the track then made sure everyone was clear on the brilliance they had just witnessed. "I have done something that no one else has done before," the Jamaican superstar declared after winning the 200 meters to complete a sweep of the showcase sprints -- the 100 and 200 meters -- for the second consecutive Games. "I am the greatest," he said. And Bolt has one more race, and the opportunity to become the first man to win a double-triple -- if Jamaica can win the 4x100 relay as it did in Beijing. Considering his countrymen Yohan Blake and Warren Weir were second and third in the 200, they seem a strong favorite. At the Olympic Stadium, Bolt, running in an outside lane, came off the turn well ahead going down the home stretch. "There wasn't a doubt after I won the 100 meters," Bolt said. "I was really confident. Loads of people were talking, but they can stop talking; I am a legend." Bolt, who at 26 is in his prime, can't say if he'll try for a third Olympics. He talked to Blake, also the runner-up at 100 meters, before the 200 final. "I said, 'Yohan, it's not your time, it's my time. After the Olympics, it's your time.' '" Blake agreed warning people and his competitors to watch out at next year's world championships. As Bolt made his history, the U.S. women's football team got revenge for its loss in the 2011 World Cup final, beating Japan 2-1 to win its third consecutive Olympic gold medal and fourth overall. Carli Lloyd scored twice for the United States, which also got several classic saves including a spectacular late-game diving effort from goalie Hope Solo to preserve the win. "It's a team effort, but I'm proud to contribute finally," Solo said. Lloyd notched up a goal in each half, with an early header off a cross from Alex Morgan and a long run up the right side of the field that ended with a cracking strike from just outside the penalty area. "It opened up and I just kept going and just unleashed it," she said of the second goal, which provided the match-winner. An Olympic record crowd of 80,203 watched the match, played at Wembley Stadium. Canada defeated France in the closing moments of their bronze-medal game to take the third spot on the podium, with the winning goal from the boot of midfielder Diana Matheson. Another American women's team won gold Thursday when the water polo squad defeated Spain 8-5. "We played great defense today and that is what won us the medal," Brenda Villa said. For Villa, who had been on silver medal winning teams in 2000 and 2008 and the bronze medalists in 2004, it was her last competitive game. "I got my fairytale ending," she said. The U.S. continues its successful athletics meet as Ashton Eaton won the decathlon and Christian Taylor won the triple jump. The Americans have won 24 of their Olympics-leading 90 medals at Olympic Stadium. The crowd there was also treated to a world record in the men's 800 meters as Kenyan David Rudisha ran 1:40.91. "To come here and get a world record is unbelievable," he said. "I had no doubt about winning. Today the weather was beautiful. I decided to go for it." In the women's 4x100 meter relay, the United States had the fastest qualifying time with a 41.64, just .04 away from an Olympic record set by East Germany in 1980. Female fighters firsts . History was made in the boxing ring Thursday, as Great Britain's Nicola Adams became the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold and Team USA's Claressa Shields followed with the middleweight title. "I think I will wear (the gold medal) every day for the first year," Shields said. Adams' triumph in the flyweight final over China's Ren Cancan was greeted by ear-splitting screams of delight by the home crowd. "It sounds really good, it's like a dream come true," Adams said. "I've wanted this all my life and it's finally come true. I'd really like to thank all the supporters here and elsewhere. I'm so happy and overwhelmed with joy right now." Shortly after, Ireland's Katie Taylor came out on top in the first Olympic women's lightweight final, making a spirited comeback in the last round to beat Russia's Sofya Ochigava by 10 points to 8. Taylor fell to her knees in joy and relief as the victory was announced, giving her country its first gold medal of the Games, before doing a lap of honor around the ring draped in the Irish flag. Photos: The youngest female boxer . Shields' 19-12 victory against Russia's Nadezda Torlopova is a remarkable achievement for the 17-year-old from Flint, Michigan -- and makes her the first American woman to take an Olympic boxing gold. Flyweight Marlen Esparza, from Texas, took a bronze. Women's boxing was an exhibition sport in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis but only made its debut as a full Olympic event at the London 2012 Games. It has proved hugely popular with the crowds and seen skillful sparring in the ring, defying the critics who argued boxing was a man's game. Read more: Sex, Games and Olympic Village life . Roller coaster day for Pistorius . There was disappointment in the Olympic Stadium earlier Thursday for those hoping to see South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, the first double amputee to compete at the Games, run in the 4 x 400-meter relay. The baton never reached the hands of the man nicknamed the Blade Runner, for the artificial blades on which he runs, after the second South African runner, Ofentse Mogawane, fell before he could pass it over. However, in a dramatic turn of events, the South African team was reinstated on appeal and will contest the final Friday, after officials accepted that Mogawane had fallen as a result of obstruction by a Kenyan runner. Pistorius was delighted by the turnaround in his team's fortunes, the official Olympic website reported. "It's been absolutely phenomenal, just stepping out there again today on the track in front of a crowd like this has been awesome. This whole experience has just been mind-blowing for me," he is quoted as saying. And the relay final won't be the last time for the crowds to see Pistorius in action, as he's set to return in the Paralympic Games later this summer to defend his 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter titles. Trinidad and Tobago won the first 4 x 400-meter relay heat, with Great Britain and Cuba in second and third. Team USA, the defending champions, and Russia also qualified for the final, as did the tiny Caribbean nation of the Bahamas. Venezuela also made it into the relay final on appeal, meaning nine teams will contest the final for the first time. Read more: Gender testing 'imperfect' for female athletes . Women's hoops, volleyball finals set . At North Greenwich Arena, site of the basketball tournaments, the American women earned a spot in the gold medal game, beating fierce rival Australia 86-73. The U.S. was forced to rally after trailing at halftime by four points. "We've played a lot of basketball in the last month and I don't think anyone's played better against us than Australia in that first half," U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said. Tamika Catchings said the team recommitted itself during the intermission. "At halftime we had a heart-to-heart about where we want to be," she said. The U.S. women's volleyball team made it through to the final with a win over South Korea, where it will face Brazil. Team GB stars at the horse park . Over at Greenwich Park on day 13 of the Games, Great Britain's Charlotte Dujardin, took gold in the individual dressage final, only two days after helping Team GB win the team dressage gold for the first time. Dujardin, who only started riding in top level dressage competitions last year, held the Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen to silver. Team GB's Laura Bechtolsheimer took bronze and compatriot Carl Hester, who trains Dujardin on her horse Valegro, took fifth. Dujardin got ready for the event Thursday without the help of her coach, Hester. "I warmed up on my own. I'm pretty confident with the horse," she said. "I've had Carl in my left ear for the past nine or 10 days. So, if I haven't learned by now, I need shooting." The latest successes cap a remarkable Games for Britain's equestrian competitors, who have also taken medals in show jumping and eventing. Read more: Where is Australia? Odds and ends . China won a gold medal for the 33rd consecutive day over the past three Olympics, one day better than the United States' previous mark set in the Games of 1996 to 2004. Hopes were high for Team GB's Keri-Anne Payne, the 10-kilometer open water world champion and Beijing silver medalist, to repeat her success in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. After a hard-fought two-hour race Payne could only manage fourth, though, with gold going to Hungary's Eva Risztov and silver to America's Hayley Anderson. Thousands of spectators gathered in the sunshine on the banks of the lake, more usually home to swans and geese, to watch the grueling swimming marathon. Earlier, Germany took two golds in a busy morning on the waters of Eton Dorney lake. One went to Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze, who clinched top spot in the women's kayak double (K2), with Hungary in silver and Poland taking bronze. The other was won by German duo Kurt Kuschela and Peter Kretschmer, who triumphed in the men's kayak double (K2) 1,000-meter canoe sprint final. After a slow start, Australia is now climbing the medal table. Their latest victory came courtesy of Tate Smith, Dave Smith, Murray Stewart, and Jacob Clear, who took gold in the men's kayak four (K4) 1,000-meter canoe sprint. Danuta Kozak took gold for Hungary in the women's kayak single (K1) 500-meter final. Video: How athletes are partying in London .

Usain Bolt captures first Olympic sprint double-double . Team USA wins women's football gold to avenge World Cup loss . U.S. women's basketball, volleyball teams advances to gold medal matches . Team GB's flyweight Nicola Adams takes the first ever women's Olympic boxing gold medal .

(CNN)Whenever someone starts talking about the "good ol' days" of air travel, remind them about eating at old school airports. Back then, a meal at the airport meant horsing down a candy bar from the gift shop and wrestling with a vending machine for a can of soda. Nowadays, large, medium and even some smaller airports provide legitimately good restaurants, with enough interesting offerings and atmosphere to make that three-hour layover just a little less hellish. There's still room for culinary upgrades -- as noted below, some airports haven't yet figured out that sitting on planes makes us hungry and irritable -- but the best places to eat in the country's busiest airports (ranked by passenger traffic, per FAA statistics) generally range from good to great. 20. Honolulu International (HNL) What Hawaii offers in fun and sun, its marquee airport lacks in decent food options. Your best bet: Eat before you hit the road. If you must eat at HNL, opt for a sit-down meal at Stinger Ray's; it's the only place with a restaurant-like feel to it. Hard to go wrong with the nachos or pulled pork sandwich. 5 healthy eating tips for travelers . 19. Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) Anthony's Restaurant started as a single seafood joint in 1969. Now the company consists of 22 locations and a private fleet of fishermen. Each location -- yes, even the one in the Central Terminal -- serves seasonal Pacific seafood and shellfish from the Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii. The mountain blackberry cobbler is an addictive Cinnabon alternative. 18. Fort Lauderdale International (FLL) The Food Network finally cooked up the most obvious way to cash in on its success: It opened a restaurant. Fans can stop by Food Network Kitchen in Terminal 3 and choose Florida-inspired dishes from the grab-and-go menu (Caesar salad with key lime dressing) or the made-to-order menu (including a club sandwich with, you guessed it, key lime mayo). Of course, the TVs play the likes of Guy Fieri and Bobby Flay all day long. 7 of the world's artsiest hotels . 17. Orlando International (MCO) Orlando airport seems to be unaware of the current revival in airport restaurants. Nonchain options are limited. You can try your luck with a latte at ZaZa's Cuban Coffee or the sliders at Johnny Rivers' Grill and Market. But you might be just as happy going with what you know at Qdoba, Burger King or Outback. 16. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) The venerable kid staple gets a makeover at PB&J near Gate A1. The menu offers preset gourmet peanut butter and jelly combos, as well as an option to customize your own. "The Exceptional is the most popular sandwich," says Fares Saah, one of the airport's food court managers. It comes loaded with peanut butter, honey and bacon on cinnamon swirl bread. "People are always surprised by the combination, but there have been no complaints." 15. Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP) At upscale noodle and sushi shop Shoyu, you use an anchored-down iPad to order your meal. Once you've picked your food, you can continue to play with the iPad or you can watch the chefs make Japanese noodles in the open kitchen. Pork belly pot stickers, Thai lettuce wraps, sushi and noodle bowls are all on the menu. 14. Newark Liberty International (EWR) You're in New Jersey, but you can eat like you're in New York. OK, the Grand Central Oyster Bar in Terminal C may lack the atmosphere of its New York City sister, but, hey, you're in an airport. The food, especially the crab cakes and fried calamari, is still equally good. 13. San Francisco International (SFO) There's real, upscale comfort food at Cat Cora's Kitchen near Gate 55. The Iron Chef uses organic and fresh ingredients with a health-conscious mindset. Highlights include the steak tacos, lobster mac and cheese or baked jalapeño poppers stuffed with creamy feta cheese and breaded with panko crumbs. The cocktails are stiff and refreshing, too, like the cucumber martini or the Love and Haight (chili-infused tequila with blood orange juice, lime juice and honey). 12. Miami International (MIA) You may recognize chef Lorena Garcia from her Taco Bell commercials, but fast food burritos notwithstanding, she really has made some good career moves. Her airport outpost, Lorena Garcia Cocina (Concourse D), serves Caribbean jerk chicken, shrimp ceviche and baked breakfast empanadas that come out of the kitchen fast, but not suspiciously fast. The restaurant also includes a Bacardi Mojito Bar, where you can order (very) tall drinks before facing the departure lounge. 11. John F Kennedy International, New York City (JFK) Chef Andrew Carmellini's New York restaurants -- The Dutch and Locanda Verde -- are always packed. Can't be bothered? Stop by Croque Madame in Terminal 2 and grab his food to go. On offer: French-inspired open-faced sandwiches, crepes and made-to-order salads. 10. Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) Ask any Phoenician where to find the best tamale and they'll point you to El Bravo in Sunnyslope. No time to get there during your trip? Check in at the airport early and snag one there. The family team makes its famous green chile tamales at its original outpost every morning and drops them off, so you're getting quality. "People will try one for lunch and like them so much they'll buy a dozen frozen ones to take home," says Monique Othon, whose grandmother created the original recipe. 9. Philadelphia International (PHL) In town, Chickie's & Pete's is a go-to spot for watching sports and it's no different in PHL. It's not just for Eagles fans, either. With four airport locations, its TVs offer a multitude of sports and teams. "It's not uncommon for us to have international soccer league games on for our foreign travelers," says co-owner Pete Ciarrocchi. If you don't care about the games, there's always the crabfries: crinkle-cut fries dusted with salt and spicy crab seasoning, served with a side of cheese sauce. 8. George Bush Intercontinental, Houston (IAH) Urban Crave has the look and feel -- and trendy menu -- of a real restaurant, it's just smaller, and in an airport. At Gate C33, one of the restaurant's most popular orders is the 10-inch all-beef "haute dog." We like the Sonoran Dog, which comes wrapped in bacon and topped with mayo, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and salsa verde. The 10-ounce inside-out burger has bacon and cheddar on the inside of the patty. 7. McCarran International, Las Vegas (LAS) The recently opened Terminal 3 features 14 new gates and seven new restaurants. The best one: The Village Pub, which has locations all over Las Vegas. The family-owned restaurant offers beer-battered fish and chips, fried chicken and handcrafted beers from Vegas. There's even a convenient beer window so you can grab a pint and play the slots right until fly time. 6. Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) The meaty aromas emanating from Brookwood Farms BBQ waft all the way to the security lines, where they taunt hungry travelers. The restaurant has an onsite smoker and whatever doesn't get cooked there gets smoked at Brookwood's 80,000-square-foot facility nearby. "We have 200 yards of barbecue pits with a capacity to smoke 100,000 pounds of meat per night," says Craig Wood, a vice president at the company. Not surprisingly, the pulled pork -- which is blended with tangy Carolina vinegar barbecue sauce -- is the best-seller. 5. Los Angeles International (LAX) Late last year, LAX finally announced plans to add 15 eateries to Tom Bradley International Terminal. Between now and 2014, hot spots, including Umami Burger, 800 Degrees and Michael Voltaggio's sandwich shop ink.sack, will open. Until then, your best bet is Pinks, which specializes in hot dogs but also has a pastrami burrito and cheese fries on the menu. 4. Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) If you've got a morning flight, Cereality at gate C6 is like Chipotle, but with cereal instead of burritos. The more obvious Texas choice is barbecue. Family-owned Cousin's Bar-B-Q (at Terminals B and C) also offers locations outside the airport and has 30 years of experience cooking ribs and sausages. 3. Denver International (DEN) If you're a Denver transit traveler who likes to knock back a few before hitting the skies, there's the New Belgium Hub (Gates B80). The food here is fine, but it's the beer selection -- from the eponymous local craft brewery -- that keeps tables full. Fat Tire Amber Ale and Ranger IPA are popular. Of course, so is Coors Light. 2. Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) Chef Rick Bayless is known for his Mexican food and has several restaurants in Chicago. The only problem? Most of them are closed on Sundays and Mondays. But his Tortas Frontera restaurants (in Terminals 1 and 3) are open every day, giving travelers a chance to try his tortas, molletes and fresh-made guacamole. Bayless stands by his food so confidently that he lists food suppliers on his website, accounting for everything from antibiotic-free chicken to the sour cream. 1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) Passing through the busiest airport in the country? You could support a local franchise and get a chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A. But One Flew South in Terminal E is the airport's first upscale restaurant. On the menu: pecan-dusted scallops, pork belly sliders and a house-cured salmon bruschetta. Once you're nice and stuffed, you can fall into a food coma in a private 7-by-8 foot room at Minute Suites ($32 for the first hour), located at Concourse B, Gate B15. Where's your favorite airport restaurant? Share your top picks in the comments section below.

Believe it, you can get a good meal at the airport . The Food Network Kitchen is open in Fort Lauderdale International . Real deal tamales are available at Phoenix Sky Harbor International . Lots of new options are coming to LAX in 2014 .

(CNN Student News) -- February 4, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Washington, D.C. • Egypt • China . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. SHANELL, CNN STUDENT NEWS IREPORTER: Hi! I'm Shanell. AMANDA, CNN STUDENT NEWS IREPORTER: And I'm Amanda. SHANELL: And we're from Colby, Kansas. AMANDA: And this is Carl Azuz with today's CNN Student News! CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Very nicely done, ladies, getting us off to a galloping start. That was awesome, just like Fridays! Wonder if those horses were neighbors. Whether you live next door or halfway around the world, we welcome all of our viewers to CNN Student News. First Up: Roof Collapse . AZUZ: So, let's say you're a Steelers or Packers fan. You're heading to the Super Bowl in Dallas, Texas to get away from the cold weather in your hometown. But when you show up in Texas, the wind chill is 10 degrees below zero! Believe that! That's what it felt like in Dallas yesterday. Throw in several inches of snow and ice, parts of the city just shut down. One Packers player said it was funny to see everything closed. He said in Green Bay, this would've been a normal day. What we're about to show you, though, is not normal. Watch this. That's the power of this snowstorm. The roof of the building in Massachusetts completely collapsed under the weight of all the snow. Luckily, everyone who was inside got out safely ahead of time. Prayer Breakfast . AZUZ: The National Prayer Breakfast has taken place in Washington, D.C. every year for nearly six decades. During yesterday's prayer breakfast, President Obama gave a very personal speech about his religious faith. He talked about how his faith sustains him and how he asks God for strength. The president wasn't the only speaker at the event. U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly -- he is the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords -- gave the closing prayer. He also talked about his wife's recovery from a shooting attack in Arizona. The president also talked about violence that's taking place in a different part of the world. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We pray that the violence in Egypt will end, and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realized. And that a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world. Egypt Unrest & Social Media . AZUZ: People who support and people who are against Egypt's government continued to fight against each other in the country's capital of Cairo on Thursday, though the fighting wasn't as intense as it was the day before. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour of ABC News, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who's the main focus of these protests, said he was very unhappy about the fighting. He also said that he would leave office right away, but that he didn't want to risk plunging his nation into chaos. Political protests certainly aren't a new idea. They've been happening for centuries. But as Karen Caifa explains for us now, there is a very modern twist to these protests in Egypt. (BEGIN VIDEO) KARIN CAIFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Pictures that speak a thousand words. Protests fueled by 140 characters. The unrest in Egypt targets the 30-year tenure of leader Hosni Mubarak, protests led by a generation that's come of age and found their voice in the era of social media. NASSER WEDDADY, AMERICAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS: You have a generation right now, an entire generation that was born under the Mubarak rule, that has taken to the streets and they want him out. CAIFA: While the percentage of Egyptians engaging in social media is small compared to that in the United States, like young Americans, it's young Egyptians making the most use of it. So before they took to the streets, they took to Twitter and to Facebook to mobilize, organize, to share their anger with each other and with the world. But at points during the height of the unrest, those tools went dark, with reports of the Egyptian government cracking down on Twitter and Facebook use, and cutting off internet access. A move criticized by the White House. ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We believe that the people of Egypt have a right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech, and that includes the use of the internet. CAIFA: And even with postings from within Egypt limited, the events stayed among the top trending topics on Twitter, piquing the interest of social media users worldwide using a number of hashtags. WEDDADY: The demonstrations that you're seeing right now in the streets, that's an example of online activism going back into the real world. (END VIDEO) Health Care Debate . AZUZ: An effort to overturn the controversial Health Care Reform Law will not be moving forward in the U.S. Senate. Senate Democrats blocked the move by Senate Republicans on Wednesday in a 51-to-47 vote that was right down party lines. Two Democratic senators didn't vote. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to overturn the law last month. But with the Senate vote on Wednesday, this debate may be over in Congress. But it's not over in the courts. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the health care law is unconstitutional. Another judge has ruled the same way. But two other federal judges have said the opposite. All this, what this means, this will probably end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. So there's a good chance we haven't heard the end of this health reform law debate. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Linser's social studies classes at Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Washington! On the Chinese calendar, what year has just begun? You know what to do! Is it the Year of the... A) Rabbit, B) Ox, C) Snake or D) Tiger? You've got three seconds -- GO! The Chinese calendar has just kicked off the Year of the Rabbit. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Chinese New Year . AZUZ: All right. The Chinese calendar is lunar; it's based on the moon. And in a 12-year cycle, every year is assigned a different animal from ancient times. Astrologers describe the rabbit as kind and gentle, so maybe this will be a year of calm in China. Who knows? One thing we do know. These Year of the Rabbit celebrations are hopping, and they're going to go on for two weeks. The new year kicks off a fifteen-day Spring festival. There are parades, like this one. A lot of fireworks and festivities. And we're not just talking about things that happened in China. These celebrations happen in cities all around the world. Digital Dating Abuse . AZUZ: There was a time, when you wanted to ask someone out, you'd pass them a note that said "Do you want to go out with me? Check yes or no." And you'd really, really hope she didn't say maybe. These days, dating, of course, as you know, is a lot more high-tech. But the technology can also be used in harmful ways. We have a report now about some of the potential problems of dating in a digital world. (BEGIN VIDEO) CINDY SOUTHWORTH, NATIONAL NETWORK TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: What else makes digital dating abuse, do you think? CAIFA: Inside this classroom at Jefferson Middle School in Washington, D.C., lessons about the technology that connects teens, but also brings new challenges. Many parents are aware of cyberbullying. But others may not know the signs of digital dating abuse. And a recent survey found that more than half of teens know someone who's been a victim. PATRICIA PRIDE, JEFFERSON MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: A lot of the things that happen on Facebook, on MySpace, on the social networks on the weekends, we see filter into the school on Monday morning. CAIFA: Digital dating abuse includes things like excessive or harassing text messages or emails, accessing or manipulating a boyfriend or girlfriend's Facebook or MySpace page, or "sexting" with racy photos, all by simply using a mobile phone. SOUTHWORTH: It doesn't necessarily cause dating abuse. You can take the phone away and there's still going to be a controlling relationship, but it's definitely playing out through the technology. CAIFA: So, "Love is Not Abuse," a nationwide coalition that teaches teens about the dangers of domestic violence, now has a bigger focus on the role of the internet and social networking, during and after a relationship. SOUTHWORTH: You're texting a lot, and it's a good thing and both people are happy. But what if you try to break up and the texting keeps happening? CAIFA: The students here were the first to take part in the new curriculum, a kickoff to February's National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. It will soon roll out across the country, a campaign to help students understand that abuse is real, even if it's in the digital realm. In Washington, I'm Karin Caifa for CNN Student News. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go today, we're taking you to an obstacle course where the obstacles are alive! It's at an alligator farm in Florida. And it includes a zip line that takes you right over the gators! The woman on the zip line's thinking, "cool, gators!" And the gators are thinking, "cool, lunch!" Fearless flyers are strapped onto safety lines at all times. And in truth, you're zipping along about 50 feet over the reptiles' reach. Goodbye . AZUZ: Still, you'd think they would put up a gator something. Maybe these are helpful animals. Maybe if you fall in their pit, they'll just offer you gator-aid. I think that's one of the best one's we've done in awhile. Today's sign-off line from Facebook.com/CNNStudentNews comes from Lindsey, who says a bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired. You can send us your sign-off lines at Facebook.com/CNNStudentNews. We look forward to 'em. Today's last suggestion came from Philip, Lauren, Bailey and Gemma. Here it comes: [Carl throws pillow at camera] .

Witness the power of a winter storm stretching across the U.S. Explore the role of technology in the political unrest in Egypt . Consider some potential problems of dating in a digital world . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- October 12, 2009 . Quick Guide . Pakistan Attack - Learn about the rescue operation that ended a 22-hour standoff in Pakistan. Peace Prize Awarded - Study the praise and challenges that accompany President Obama's Nobel Prize. Space Station's Future? - Discuss how the international space station could become an abandoned laboratory . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's Columbus Day! Some interesting info on that, just part of what you will find on CNN Student News today. What you will not find are commercials. I'm Carl Azuz, let's get started. First Up: Pakistan Attack . AZUZ: First up, a rescue mission ends a 22-hour standoff between militants and government forces in Pakistan. All this started on Saturday with an attack on an army post in Rawalpindi, which claimed the lives of six guards and five gunmen. Militants then took control of the army headquarters. They held dozens of people hostage and threatened to blow up the building. That sparked the standoff that lasted nearly a full day. Pakistani officials say they were in communication with the militants throughout the ordeal. On Sunday morning, the situation came to a close when Pakistani forces carried out a rescue operation that freed a total of 39 hostages. The militant who led the assault on the army facility was also captured. And according to one Pakistani military official, the Taliban said it was responsible for the attack. I.D. Me . NINETTE SOSA, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm an award that was first established in 1901. I'm given at an annual ceremony in Oslo, Norway on December 10. Some of my winners include Martin Luther King, Jr., UNICEF and the International Atomic Energy Agency. I'm the Nobel Peace Prize, named for a Swedish chemist and engineer named Alfred Nobel. Peace Prize Awarded . AZUZ: And the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize: President Barack Obama! The announcement came last Friday and it came as a surprise to some people, including the President himself, who said he considers the award a "call to action." The reaction, both from around the U.S. and around the world, has been mixed. Ed Henry has more on the award and the response. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Good morning. HENRY: Yes, he can win the Peace Prize on the same day his war council met again to consider sending up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, while a second war is winding down but still raging in Iraq. Fresh reminders this award is more about the promise of change than actual change. OBAMA: We have to confront the world as we know it today. I am the commander in chief of a country that's responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. HENRY: The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the president's ability to create a new climate around the world. A deliberate approach from day one to break from the Bush years, especially with an historic speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. OBAMA: And I'm also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country. Salaam alaikum. HENRY: As well as major speeches in Prague and at the United Nations, laying out an aggressive plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons. OBAMA: All nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy. That nations with nuclear weapons have a responsibility to move toward disarmament, and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them. HENRY: But so far, only great speeches, with little tangible results. ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I think, certainly, you have to give him an A for trying, but at the end of the day, what has he accomplished? HENRY: Not to mention the details of other accomplishments are still a little, well, fuzzy. OBAMA: I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed, and we are doing the hard work of forging a framework to combat extremism within the rule of law. HENRY: Top administration officials now admit they'll likely miss the January deadline of closing Guantanamo, a prime example of the difficulty of translating the president's vision into some actual victories. Ed Henry, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO CLIP) Two Issues . AZUZ: Okay, President Obama is getting some advice on one of the challenges mentioned in that report: the War in Afghanistan. A top U.S. commander has reportedly requested 40,000 additional troops for the conflict. Sen. John McCain says not following that recommendation would be "an error of historic proportions." Yesterday, CNN's John King asked Senator McCain about his biggest concerns when it comes to Afghanistan. JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING: Do you think the United States can win in Afghanistan with fewer than 40,000 more troops? SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I do not. And I think the great danger now is not an American pullout. I think the great danger now is a half measure. Sort of a, try to please all ends of the political spectrum. AZUZ: And the issue of gay rights gaining attention this weekend as the National Equality March took place in Washington, D.C. yesterday. Thousands of demonstrators took part, demanding full equality under the law. The day before, President Obama had addressed the nation's largest gay rights group. During his speech, he talked about protection against hate crimes, his support for the rights of gay couples, and his pledge to end the ban on gays in the U.S. military, what's known as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Fast Facts . BRENDAN GAGE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for some Fast Facts! The first Columbus Day was celebrated in New York City in 1792 to mark the 300th anniversary of the explorer's first voyage to America. It's been observed every year since 1920, and features parades and ceremonies around the country. For decades, many states celebrated Columbus Day on October 12, because that's when Columbus landed in the Bahamas. But in 1971, Columbus Day became a federal U.S. holiday. And now, it's always celebrated on the second Monday of October, which makes today Columbus Day! Space Station's Future? AZUZ: From an Earth-bound explorer to exploration in the skies. The first part of the international space station was put in orbit back in 1998. Since then, modules and laboratories have been added, all with the goal of creating this massive research center to conduct science experiments. The only problem, as John Zarrella explains, is that it may never happen. (BEGIN VIDEO) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: More than a decade of construction. The U.S. cost alone, including shuttle flights: $44 billion. That's right, billion with a B, and still counting. Now, after all that time and money, the international space station is ready to do world-class science. The problem is, it may be scuttled before it ever has the chance. ROBERT BRAUN, FORMER NASA CHIEF ENGINEER: The general idea that we would spend approximately 11 years building a space station, get it to its full operational capability and then kind of abandon it a few years later, to me personally, it doesn't make a lot of sense. ZARRELLA: That's exactly what might happen. Funding to keep the station in orbit will run out by 2015. The promise of cures for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and ground-breaking research may never be realized. THOMAS PICKENS III, CHAIRMAN, ASTROGENETIX: We think that you can't do them on Earth. That the bias of gravity is so extreme that you really need to take it out of a gravitational influence and start doing these things in space. It's probably the only place to get these done. ZARRELLA: Tom Pickens' company is already reaping the benefits. A salmonella vaccine developed in space is moving through the Food and Drug Administration for approval. The last shuttle flight carried an experiment aimed at producing a vaccine for MRSA, a highly-resistant staph infection. The absence of gravity allows for the rapid growth of very virulent bacteria, perfect for building vaccines, says Pickens. PICKENS: That process on Earth is extremely long. It can take up to 10 years to do if they get it at all, and we've sent it up to space for really three trips and we found that we already had a vaccine for salmonella just after three trips. ZARRELLA: During its construction, the station has been used for some experiments, but not the kind that might produce miracle drugs and cures. Even if the station's life is extended, the science community acknowledges there are no guarantees the football field-sized flying laboratory will produce great breakthroughs. And getting funding for a "maybe" is tough. Still, the station's backers say funding to keep it flying is a no brainer. You don't spend a fortune on a house, they say, and then abandon it. So the question is, is the hope of great science, not the promise, enough for the Obama administration to keep the lights on? John Zarrella, CNN, Miami. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Well, it's a question you can answer too. Should the ISS be grounded? We'd love for you to weigh in with your thoughts on our blog. You can find that, you know where, on our blog at CNNStudentNews.com. Now before we go today, anyone hungry for a snack? Guess it's time for a trip to the vending machine and some delicious... apples? Apples! That's the whole point of these new products, which replace chocolate and chips with fruits and veggies. The goal is to help hungry folks make healty choices. And the company guarantees that the fresh foods won't go bad too quickly. Goodbye . AZUZ: You might think that fact would be ripe for a pun, it's just a good thing we could produce something that met our usual standards. But would you really want apples over chocolate? I mean it is healthier, but c'mon. Really? For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz. Make the healthy news choice. Join us again tomorrow when we return.

Learn about the rescue operation that ended a 22-hour standoff in Pakistan . Study the praise and challenges that accompany President Obama's Nobel Prize . Discuss how the international space station could become an abandoned laboratory .

(CNN Student News) -- October 27, 2009 . Downloadable Maps . Download PDF maps related to today's show: • Afghanistan & Pakistan • Los Angeles & San Diego • Ft. Jackson, South Carolina . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. NATISHA LANCE, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: A member of the military is making history. We'll explain how in today's edition of CNN Student News. Hi, everyone. Carl Azuz is off this week. I'm Natisha Lance. First Up: Afghan Crashes . LANCE: First up, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The countries share a border, and they also share a common problem: threats from militant groups and terrorists like the Taliban and al Qaeda. It's an issue facing both nations' governments, and one that the U.S. government is concerned about as well. That's why President Obama has been holding a series of meetings with some of his advisers. They're reviewing the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Samantha Hayes has the latest on those meetings and on the violence in the region. (BEGIN VIDEO) SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Two helicopter crashes make it the deadliest day in four years for Americans in Afghanistan. While a NATO security force spokesman says enemy fire is not to blame, the loss of 14 Americans comes while President Barack Obama is considering a request to send thousands more troops to the region to fight al Qaeda. The president addressed service men and women in Jacksonville, Florida Monday, after a White House meeting with his national security team. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Fourteen Americans gave their lives, and our prayers are with these service members, their civilian colleagues and the families who loved them. HAYES: The deadliest of the two crashes happened following a raid on suspected drug traffickers, and three DEA agents were among those killed. Also among the dead, three U.S. civilians, members of the embassy community. The State Department says the efforts of civilians and other nonmilitary personnel are essential to the overall mission. JACOB LEW, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Improving Afghan governance, providing security, justice, jobs and services, and giving the Afghan people a meaningful alternative, as much as possible, to the Taliban's recruiting. HAYES: Democratic Senator John Kerry, off of a recent trip to the region, addressed those efforts and the U.S. relationship with the Afghan government in a Washington speech. SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: The fact that the Afghan government has not prosecuted a single high level drug trafficker damages all of our efforts because it goes to the fundamental question of credibility. HAYES: President Obama's White House meeting was the sixth in a series of high-level discussions about what to do in Afghanistan, as the administration awaits results from that country's November 7th presidential runoff. For CNN Student News, I'm Samantha Hayes. (END VIDEO) I.D. Me . CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I was born in 1939 in Searchlight, Nevada. I was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, and I'm currently the Senate Majority Leader, which means I'm the highest ranking member of the Senate's majority party. I'm Harry Reid, a Democrat who is the senior senator from Nevada. Public Option . LANCE: And in that role as majority leader, it's Sen. Reid's job to help combine health care bills from different committees into a single bill that can be presented to the entire Senate. Yesterday, Sen. Reid announced that the combined bill will include a government-run health care program; what's been called the public option. During his announcement, Reid also said that the bill will let individual states choose not to take part in the public option. They would have until the year 2014 to make that decision. This has been one of the most controversial issues in the debate over health care reform. Critics argue that if companies use the public option, then some people might lose the health care coverage that they currently have and are happy with. But Sen. Reid believes it's an important part of the reform. SEN. HARRY REID, (D-NV) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I believe that the public option can achieve a goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, ensure competition, and that's why we intend to include it in the bill that we submitted, that will be submitted to the Senate. Tea Party Protests . LANCE: Meanwhile, the Tea Party Express is back on the road, protesting issues like government involvement in health care. The Express, which is named for both the organization and its bus, launched a new tour Sunday in California with rallies in San Diego and Los Angeles, where some people actually showed up to protest the Tea Party protesters. The Express plans to hold demonstrations in dozens of cities over the next several weeks. One of the group's main goals is the push for less government involvement, and these rallies also aim to give people who feel that way an opportunity to express their views. CHRIS KEAYS, TEA PARTY PROTESTER: We need to get back to the days when we were responsible and we assumed the responsibility of ourselves and our families, and the government is not a part of my daily life. I really resent the government taking up so much of my time that I'm down here having to protest right now. New Jobs Outlook . LANCE: And some potentially good news for the U.S. economy: A new survey indicates that companies are planning to hire more employees in the very near future. The report from the National Association of Business Economics says for the first time since the recession started nearly two years ago, the number of employers planning to hire workers over the next six months is higher than the number of jobs that are expected to be cut during that same time. The country's current unemployment rate is 9.8 percent. That's the highest the statistic has been in more than a quarter century. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! What base is home to the U.S. Army's Drill Sergeant School? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Fort Bragg, B) Fort Hood, C) Fort Jackson or D) Fort Knox? You've got three seconds -- GO! You'll find the Army's Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Top Drill Sergeant . LANCE: Drill sergeants are responsible for training tens of thousands of soldiers every year. And the head of the Drill Sergeant School, its commandant, is responsible for training them. The current commandant broke new ground when she took over the position last month because she's the first she to head up the school. Jason Carroll introduces us to this trailblazing soldier. (BEGIN VIDEO) JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Historically, this is the image of the military drill sergeant: a tough guy. That was then; this is now. At 48, Command Sergeant Major Teresa King is the first woman to lead the Army's Drill Sergeant Training School. What are you looking for? I mean, because it all pretty much looks like everybody's exercising to me. CMD. SGT. MAJOR TERESA KING: I'm looking for attention to detail, conformance. CARROLL: Before sunrise at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, King readies her drill instructor candidates for a rigorous run. What's wrong with that? KING: That's too big, Top. You need to break it up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fall out! CARROLL: She leads by example. King runs the five-mile course from the front of the pack, outperforming men half her age. STAFF SGT. LERON DELANEY, U.S. ARMY: She's older than me, so if I fall out and she's still running, I feel bad. CARROLL: Extinguishing those who think a woman can't be commandant. SGT. 1ST CLASS MICHAEL CHILDS, U.S. ARMY: We've got to stay on top of our game even more than we used to with her, because she's that sharp. CARROLL: King says she wakes up some mornings still shocked she is commandant. KING: I had never considered it, although I've been in training for about seven years. But I never considered it, the Drill Sergeant School. CARROLL: King's first Army job some 30 years ago was postal clerk, but her hero, General George Patton, inspired her. KING: I saw that he had the respect of his men. And I saw he was resolute. CARROLL: King eventually rose through the ranks, excelling at training infantry men and paratroopers alike. KING: I'm doing what I've always done. It's just now, people are paying attention to it. CARROLL: And to her opinions. The military prohibits women from serving in front line combat roles. King trains men for combat and thinks it's time to train qualified women. KING: I think if they can do it, they should be allowed to do it. CARROLL: The reality: Women make up 14 percent of active soldiers in the Army. Some women question how many others will follow in King's footsteps. OPERATIONS SGT. ANGELA ANDREWS, U.S. ARMY: I wouldn't say it opens the door, but it may crack it somewhat. CARROLL: King says she will continue to lead by example. KING: I have vision. And I believe I can cause people to do some things that they thought they never could do. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, some science projects can balloon out of control. Which was the whole point of this experiment in Indiana. College students filled this high altitude balloon with helium and then let it fly away. The thing actually climbed 90,000 feet before... awww. Looks like their bubble burst. Actually, they knew it would. The cameras and sensors inside the balloon gently parachuted back to the ground. So in the end, the experiment was a total success. Goodbye . AZUZ: Just don't tell that to the students. We wouldn't want them to get an inflated ego. That's all the time we have for today. For CNN Student News, I'm Natisha Lance.

Consider U.S. efforts to offer Afghan citizens an alternative to the Taliban . Hear how a proposed health care bill addresses the issue of the public option . Meet a soldier who is making history at the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant School . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN) -- Juan Salgado was 16 when he started cutting sugarcane, in a town near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua in 1966. His symptoms began about 35 years later: Fever. Headaches. Poor appetite. Feelings of faintness. For no obvious reason, his kidneys were severely damaged, to the point that doctors said he couldn't do agricultural work anymore. Many of his friends had it worse. "I know, many, many workers who were colleagues of mine, who have already died, and I know also many who are not capable of working anymore because of the disease," said Salgado, now 65, who worked near the town of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. The disease is known by scientists as "chronic kidney disease of unknown origin," or CKDu. In rural communities in Nicaragua, it's "creatinina," the Spanish word for creatinine, a biomarker of kidney strength. At least 20,000 people have died prematurely from this mysterious disease in Central America in the last two decades, according to one estimate, but the real scope of the problem is unknown. The illness is not related to diabetes or hypertension -- drivers of kidney disease in the United States -- and affects primarily young men. The disease is concentrated on the Pacific Coast in male agricultural workers, especially those cutting sugarcane. El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica seem to be hotbeds of the illness. Scientists believe that a multitude of factors could be contributing to the disease, but that there's likely at least one factor that is job-related. Making matters tricky, the sugarcane industry has been a provider of funding for major studies on the illness, raising concerns that companies could be influencing the results. In Salgado's opinion, the Nicaraguan sugarcane industry players "know well the cause of this disease." Jason Glaser, a documentary filmmaker and community advocate, is not as sure. It is not yet clear to scientists and industry leaders what is causing this increased incidence of kidney disease. La Isla Foundation, which Salgado co-founded with Glaser in 2008, is dedicated to improving the well-being of sugarcane workers with the disease and promoting prevention, and is collaborating with researchers to better understand what's causing this enigmatic illness. The organization is convening a meeting in July with CDC representatives, and researchers from various institutions to explore possibilities for more research. "This is a complex problem," said Dr. Reina Turcios-Ruiz, resident adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Central America Regional Office in Guatemala. "It's going to take some time to find an answer, but I think it's important that we stick to it." "None of the scientific investigations that have been made have established a link of causality between the sugar activity in Central America, and therefore our company, and CKD," Ariel Granera Sacasa, spokesperson for Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited, said in an e-mail. Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited is the company that owns Ingenio San Antonio, where Salgado worked for decades. What is CKDu? In the United States, a typical patient dies of chronic kidney disease their 70s or 80s, said Daniel Brooks of Boston University School of Public Health. But in Central America, men often get it in their 20s or 30s, and die by their 40s or 50s. There are no early-stage signs. When patients experience symptoms such as fatigue, pain and high blood pressure, "a lot of the kidney function is already gone," said Brooks, who has been studying the illness. "In order to be able to help people, they (screenings) need to be done on people who are asymptomatic," he said. Stage 3 is considered chronic kidney disease, Brooks said. Stage 5 is "end-stage" -- where the only way to stay alive is to be on dialysis or get a transplant. Different people progress at different speeds. Kidney dialysis and transplant -- both expensive undertakings -- are not accessible to many people in Salgado's region of Nicaragua. "The people who are mainly affected are poor workers, typically in agricultural situations," Brooks said. "There's really not much availability of the treatment options. "Most people just live 'til they die." Out in the fields . Why Pacific regions of Central America are especially affected is a mystery. So is the specific connection to sugarcane cutting. "Some studies have indicated that greater than 20% of men may have it in the areas where people are employed in sugarcane," Brooks said, although there are also high rates of the disease reported in miners and stevedores. To some familiar with the disease, it seems clear that something about sugarcane working conditions is relevant. "This epidemic is an occupational disease with possibly one or more yet unknown environmental components interacting with occupational dehydration," said Catharina Wesseling, researcher at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia, Costa Rica, and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who has studied the disease. "The unknown factor(s) may be a pesticide, arsenic, an infectious agent, use of nephrotoxic drugs, or other environmental pollutants. But there is no room for much doubt that chronic dehydration is one major factor." Wesseling was co-author on a 2012 study measuring markers of kidney function, including creatinine, in 256 men and 408 women in five communities in El Salvador. They found a correlation between markers of decreased kidney function and people who performed labor on lowland sugarcane and cotton plantations. Men had a higher prevalence, but women may still be at risk, the study authors said. In a hot climate, performing physically intense labor, agricultural workers are probably facing dehydration, Turcios-Ruiz said. What's more, it's common for the workers to drink sugary soft drinks as they toil, which some mice studies suggest could be an exacerbating factor in kidney failure. "Acute dehydration has been linked to acute kidney injury. But there has not been evidence that repeated dehydration is related to chronic kidney injury," Turcios-Ruiz said. There could be a genetic explanation, researchers said. It's possible that genetics could interact with environmental risk factors, such as those encountered in agricultural work, Wesseling said. One of Brooks' next studies will look at genetic susceptibility or predispositions that could affect the likelihood of developing CKDu. Another study will test children and adolescents for kidney damage before adulthood. Funding controversies . It is troubling that the sugarcane industry is financing research into the causes of CKDu, Wesseling said, because companies have been very resistant to the idea that working conditions could be related. So far, Wesseling's research has not incorporated industry funding. She has partnered with La Isla Foundation to study the disease further. She and colleagues are looking to do a study that will test different hydration and rest-time protocols. You can't do an intervention without the cooperation of the sugarcane companies, she said. "But you need independent sources to be able to keep your independence." Upcoming research by Brooks and colleagues will be partially funded by the sugarcane industry, with the money channeled through the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit established by Congress to connect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to other groups and individuals, Brooks said. "The donors have no involvement in the research beyond providing funding. The CDC Foundation is administering the grants," according to the CDC Foundation. There are conflict of interest policies to maintain independence from the funding source, Brooks said. Also, an external advisory board will be established to review the studies. "CDC is providing technical assistance to Boston University on investigations into chronic kidney disease. Some of these investigations are funded through the CDC Foundation, others are not," Turcios-Ruiz said. Brooks' previous studies also received industry funding -- specifically, from Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited and a professional group to which it belongs, the Comite Nacional de Productores de Azucar. La Isla Foundation would like to work with sugarcane companies on improving working conditions, provided they acknowledge that working conditions could be contributing to the illness, "and need improvement independent of that," Glaser said. What can be done? The rise of CKDu in Central America, on top of conventional cases of kidney disease, is "overwhelming local health care systems to the point of collapse," Wesseling and colleagues wrote in 2013 in the American Journal of Public Health. The disease is incredibly expensive, and will break the bank of any ministry of health, said Turcios-Ruiz. Nicaragua Sugar Estates Ltd. has followed recommendations from Boston University to update its protocols on hydration, rest and shade, Granera Sacasa said, and health and security personnel on the fields has doubled to implement these policies. The company is developing a program that "includes adequate hydration, balanced diet and pauses in the work process to avoid overexertion and fatigue." Some sugarcane companies have even started screening employees for the kidney disease biomarker before they start work, Brooks said. La Isla Foundation is working on evaluating treatment programs and helping improve the quality of health care for people with the disease. Nicaragua's health system is "overwhelmed and underfunded," said Dorien Faber, public health project coordinator for La Isla Foundation. In El Salvador, Faber and Glaser are looking at how adequate care can be delivered to patients with low resources. "There are two to three funerals a day when people drop off during the dry season," said Glaser. "It's just a burden for the people. We want to do something that has nothing to do with politics." Nowhere else to work . Salgado is lucky compared to many with CKDu. He has never been on dialysis or needed a kidney transplant. He still has occasional fluctuations in blood pressure, but a low-fat diet and less physical exertion away from the sugarcane fields, have prevented severe kidney failure, according to his colleagues. Salgado said he receives social security of about $150 a month because he had been working for so long, but did not receive any compensation from his company, he said. Three of his sons -- ages 26, 29, 33 -- work in sugarcane. Two operate machines, one is a cutter. His daughter's husband, who is like a son to him, works in irrigation. "There is nowhere else to work," he said. "The whole agricultural area is sugarcane." With few jobs in the area, Salgado's sons have little choice, but he fears for their health. "I'm afraid because I've seen so many young people who are already in advanced stages," he said. "I know many young people of almost the age of my children, who have already left Ingenio San Antonio and can no longer work, and who have an advanced illness, and who are truly already candidates for dying."

CKDu is a complex health problem with unknown origins . The disease is especially prevalent among sugarcane workers . Kidney dialysis and transplants are often too expensive for employees . Some research on the disease is funded by the sugarcane industry, causing controversy .

(CNN) -- "I love Merion, and I don't even know her last name," legendary golfer Lee Trevino was once memorably quoted when asked about the venue for this week's U.S. Open. "Supermex" had good cause for his admiration of the famous inland links near Philadelphia, having won the 1971 edition of the tournament after a playoff with Jack Nicklaus, no less. Nicklaus, who went on to win a record 18 major titles, described Merion's championship East Course as "Acre for acre, maybe the best test of golf in the world." Current No. 1 Tiger Woods is another big fan. "You have to be so disciplined to play that course," he said after a recent practice round. So what is it about the Merion which evokes such praise -- and what will await Woods and his rivals when they bid for major glory this week? Thursday's opening round was disrupted by the arrival of predicted bad weather, but there is much more at the Pennsylvania venue to challenge the world's top golfers. CNN's Living Golf has gone behind the scenes at the iconic venue to provide the definitive guide to the magic of Merion and all its charms. Wicker wonders . Foremost among them are the famous red wicker baskets which are positioned above the pin sticks in place of conventional flags -- a peculiarity these days, though more common earlier in the history of golf. They first appeared at Merion in 1915, three years after the course opened in September 1912. The historical origins of the baskets and indeed the reason for them remain unclear, but by the time the 1916 U.S. Amateur Championship was hosted -- the first major event on the course -- they were still in place and have remained ever since. The green staff even have a special machine into which each individual wicker basket flag can be gathered up each night in the "wicker cart." When a move to replace "the wickers" with standardized flags was mooted, the outcry was loud and clear. But, according to Trevino, they add to the challenge facing the golfers, particularly in breezy conditions. "Generally when we stand out in the middle of the fairway we can see which way the flag is blowing so we have some idea of how to play the wind," he told CNN. "But with the wicker baskets, no!" Whoever emerges the winner this Sunday evening will be presented with a wicker basket to commemorate their win along with the championship trophy. One-iron wonder . In 1950, the legendary American golfer Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open at Merion -- just 16 months after suffering terrible injuries in an automobile crash which nearly claimed his life. By a curious twist, and for the only time, the wicker baskets were not used that year. Perhaps they did not want to upset Hogan -- who had the unfair reputation of being a ruthless and aloof winning machine -- on his courageous comeback trail. So when he came to play his second shot to the testing par-four 18th in the final round, he would have seen a flag blowing in the far distance over 200 yards away. Struggling with pain from his still-healing injuries and knowing he needed to find the small green with his shot to have any real chance of joining two other golfers in a playoff, Hogan selected a one-iron club -- which hits the ball far and low if hit correctly. Ever the perfectionist, Hogan's strike was pure perfection and brought gasps from the galleries as it arrowed its way to the heart of the green. Two putts for a par were enough and he won the next day's 18-hole playoff against Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio. The drama of the moment was captured for posterity by famous Sports Illustrated and Life Magazine photographer Hy Peskin. It is rated one of the best sports photos of the 20th century. That club used by Hogan now resides in the U.S. Golf Association Museum as one of its prized exhibits. Iconic winners . Hogan would be near the top of any list of all-time great golfers, but call it coincidence, the best of the best have filled the honors board at Merion. The 1916 U.S. Amateur was the first tournament for a 14-year-old Bobby Jones. He returned in 1924 to win the event, but his victory in 1930 is best remembered. In the days before the U.S. Masters and PGA Championship, the majors were considered to be the U.S. and British Opens and the British and U.S. Amateur Championships. Jones, the dominant golfer of his era, amateur or professional, arrived at Merion in September 1930 needing to win the U.S. Amateur to complete the set in the same calendar year. In the 36-hole final, played to a matchplay format, he thrashed his unfortunate opponent Eugene Homans, watched by a massive crowd. A reporter labeled the feat as the "Grand Slam" -- a term which has stuck. It was to prove Jones' final tournament as he retired from competition aged just 28 to practice law, although he was the driving force behind founding the Masters at Augusta. Olin Dutra won the first U.S. Open to be staged at Merion in 1934, Hogan's 1950 heroics have gone down in golfing folklore, while Nicklaus famously led the United States to victory there in the Eisenhower Trophy (the World Amateur Team Championship) in 1960. His four-round total of 269 is considered one of the greatest displays in the history of the game, but when Nicklaus returned to Merion for the U.S. Open at the peak of his powers in 1971 he found Trevino barring his way to victory. They both tied in 280 level par after four rounds on a course Trevino described as holding "a lot of trouble and with a lot of tall grass." Few gave him much chance in the playoff, but with a round of 68 to Nicklaus' 71 he claimed his second U.S. Open and his words "had beaten the best" giving him the belief he "really belonged" in very elite of golf. David Graham claimed the fourth staging of U.S Open at Merion in 1980 and was in awe of his place in golfing history, becoming the first Australian to win the tournament. "Bobby Jones won there, Trevino, Hogan won there and then this little kid from Australia comes along and wins," he told CNN. Hogan phoned him after his victory and they had lunch. "He liked international players, he congratulated me on winning. It was cool," Graham said. Anyone for cricket . Coming from Australia, Graham would acknowledge that while golf is a popular sport, cricket is a national obsession as it is in England -- the two battling for supremacy for the famous Ashes. When the original Merion club was founded in 1865 -- a playground for the rich society elite of Philadelphia -- the British influence was still strong, so cricket was the chosen sport for the country club setting, while tennis also became popular. In 1896, a golf club was formed from the membership and a course built on existing grounds. The Merion East Course came later -- completed in 1912 and built on land acquired near Ardmore. It was designed by one of the club's members, Scotsman Hugh Wilson -- who had never done such a job before. Scottish roots . He went back home to find inspiration from Scotland's famous coastal links courses, and it was he who introduced the wicker baskets. North Berwick Golf Course, near the border of England, has a strong resemblance to Merion, particularly the 15th and 17th holes. The style of the bunkers is also different from that commonly found in the United States and according to Trevino are devilishly difficult. They are nicknamed the "white faces of Merion" and with good reason. "The Scottish-type bunkers are unbelievable because you think you might be in the bunker, then all of a sudden you're in the lip of it and you can't find your ball, I mean it's hiding in there!" Trevino told CNN. Trevino believes that despite its short length by modern standards, the combination of the bunkers, small greens and forbidding rough will leave Tiger and co. with a very real test. "That'll be the toughest little 7,000-yard golf course you'll ever see." Lunch tee . One of other challenges facing the players will be the unusually close proximity of the dining patio to the first tee. Nerves jangling at the start of an important round, the players can almost hear the tinkle of cutlery and glasses as the members tuck in to some fine cuisine. "It almost feels like you're teeing off in a carport because the first tee is just outside the door there," Trevino said. "That's the way all the courses used to be. If you go over to Scotland and if you shank a ball out of a bunker, then you'll break the biggest window in the world in a dining room. "That's the way they built it -- they had a lot of property, they didn't waste it. Now you're building golf courses on 500 acres and nine holes covers five miles!" Merion, hosting the U.S. Open for the fifth time, takes up a mere 120 acres. All about tradition . As Trevino and others have suggested, it is a course absolutely dripping with traditional influence and none more so than the clubhouse, which was once a farmhouse. Players will use a changing room full of big metal lockers and period features. Photos and old scorecards adorn the walls and there is a massive trophy case -- appropriate for a club which has hosted more USGA events, 18 in all, than any other in the United States. The last was the 2009 Walker Cup amateur competition, where the likes of Rickie Fowler helped the United States to victory over Great Britain and Ireland. Once on the course, players and caddies will have to do without yardage markers, while golf carts are prohibited even for members. Graham has nothing but praise for the work of the club in preserving its culture and heritage. "They've done such a superb job with their museum, they're very cognizant of the club's tradition and they do what Augusta National does. At all costs they protect the integrity of the club," the 67-year-old said. "Certain (U.S.) Opens, like the one at Pebble Beach, is a little special and certainly the Open at Merion was special, especially for me." Doubtless, whoever writes their name into the roll of honor under 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson will take away similar thoughts and join a list of special greats.

Merion is renowned as one of the finest golf courses in the world . Legendary players have won important tournaments on the inland links . U.S. Open venue is famous for its wicker basket flags . Strong Scottish influence in the design of the East Course .

PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Jaime Andrade had just gotten out of the shower when the men came to snatch him. Jaime Andrade was kept in this closet for three days without food or water, police say. His wife, Araceli Valencia, was mopping the kitchen in their family home on a typical warm spring morning in Phoenix, Arizona, "when she suddenly felt a hard object pointed to the back of her head and a voice in Spanish tell her not to move," according to a Phoenix, Arizona, police investigative report. "I told you not to look at me!" Valencia heard one of the kidnappers bark as he struck Andrade across the head. Her four children bawling, Valencia was hustled into a bedroom where an armed man fondled her and threatened to rape her if she didn't tell him where Andrade hid his money, according to the report. After beating and binding Andrade, one of the kidnappers put a gun to Valencia's head. His message: We're taking your husband and SUV. We'll be watching your house. If you call the cops, he's a dead man. Andrade, his wife would later tell police, was a mechanic and freelance human smuggler, or coyote. Police say his 2006 kidnapping was evidence of a growing trend in Phoenix: drug and human traffickers abducting each other for ransoms or retribution. Watch why Phoenix is the hotspot » . The trend continues, as police investigated roughly a kidnapping a day in 2007 and 2008 and are on track to shatter those numbers this year. Police are stingy with details of fresh cases navigating the court system, but recently allowed CNN to review the files from Andrade's kidnapping. For two and a half days after Andrade's abduction, the kidnappers -- including a man whom Andrade later said had been a friend -- deprived their victim of food and water. Through the door of the closet where he was held, Andrade could hear the cries of other victims being tortured in the house, the report said. Meanwhile, Valencia had defied the kidnappers and called police, who listened to Andrade "scream and howl in pain" over the phone as the kidnappers tried to cut off his ear and a finger. The torture would continue until Valencia came up with the ransom, the kidnappers told her. Hear Andrade's wife plead with the kidnappers » . They were true to their word. Andrade was pistol-whipped and beaten with a baseball bat and the butt of a rifle. The kidnappers tried to gouge out his eye and slashed open his left eyebrow. They burned his back as well -- presumably, police said, with a blowtorch found at the scene. Read how the next door neighbors knew nothing of this . The blindfolded Andrade "could feel his pants and underwear being cut open by an unknown person," he told police. He was told to bend over and was beaten when he refused. "Jaime felt his legs being forced apart and heard Aldo say he was going to get his money," the report said. The kidnappers then sodomized him with a broomstick, a pair of scissors and a wooden dowel used to hang clothes in a closet. Kidnappers creative with coercion . Ferocity is often a hallmark of the abductions taking place in this south Arizona city of 1.5 million that serves as a prime transshipment point for drugs and human cargo. Watch how the kidnappers choose their targets » . Phoenix police say they have yet to witness the level of violence -- the beheadings, the bodies shoved in drums -- that their counterparts are seeing in Mexico City or the border town of Juarez. "It gets close sometimes," said Lt. Lauri Burgett, who heads the Home Invasion and Kidnapping Enforcement squad. Kidnappers will smash their victims' fingers with bricks, snip their backs open with wire cutters, carve them up with knives or simply shoot them. "We've had them electrocuted. They set them in a tub with water and use kind of barbaric means and zap the tub. I think it was a battery hooked up," Burgett said. Two kidnappings last year resulted in murders, she added, but it's not the norm. Phoenix police formed the HIKE squad in October after two years of unprecedented kidnapping numbers -- 357 in 2007 and 368 in 2008 -- gave the city the dubious distinction of being the nation's kidnapping capital. Home invasions were not far behind: 317 in 2007 and 337 in 2008. See kidnapping numbers since 1999 » . "It's all about the money. And there's so much money to be made in this that you can't stop it, but you can try to reveal it, and then you can try to do something about it," Burgett said. The task force has made dozens of arrests, but as of March 31, the city had 101 reported kidnappings. If the trend continues, Phoenix will record an increase in kidnapping for a fourth straight year. More frustrating is that the numbers represent only a third, maybe less, of the city's kidnappings, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman with 16 years of drug enforcement experience. Most kidnappings aren't reported, he said, because the victims are generally smugglers, drug dealers or illegal immigrants -- or some combination of the three. Other criminals targeted . The most common cases are criminal-on-criminal -- drug smugglers or coyotes snatching rivals or their loved ones. In some cases, a drug dealer may have lost a load or failed to make a payment, but there are also cases when kidnappers do it solely for the ransom, which can be between $30,000 and $250,000, Thompson said. "[The victims are] wearing the doper bling-bling, and they target them," he said. "We've had several cases where the ransom amount has been $1 million that the person has asked for. In addition to that, they often ask for drugs -- 100 pounds of marijuana, perhaps a pound or two of speed, a pound or two of cocaine or several ounces of heroin." Phoenix police have even arrested victims after rescuing them, Burgett said. Less frequent but still accounting for 78 kidnappings last year are cases in which coyotes hold their human cargo captive or steal another coyote's patrons, known as pollos (Spanish for chickens), Burgett said. Burgett said human trafficking is often linked to the drug trade because both industries require the same routes and subterfuge to ferry their wares into the country. See what other cities have a cartel presence . There are rarely "true victims" in Phoenix's kidnappings, the lieutenant said. However, one criminal attorney who has represented at least 10 kidnappers in the last decade insists that the coyote business is "uglier than the drug trade" and that pollos are often killed or forced to do coyotes' bidding when they can't come up with the ransoms. "In the drug business, the people getting killed are in the business. They are not end users, not consumers," said Antonio Bustamente. "In the coyote business, the people killed are really innocent. [First-time] illegal entry is a petty offense." Though many might debate the innocence of victims entangled in Phoenix's border-related violence, police say there have been instances when the kidnappers snatched the wrong mark. Girl mistakenly snatched . On the evening of March 17, 2008, a 13-year-old girl and her friend were walking out of a home in the suburb of Avondale. They were planning to play basketball. The friend, according to a police investigative report, was the niece of a man named "Chucky." Chucky and his cohorts, witnesses told police, had earlier stolen 55 pounds of marijuana and left several men tied up in a vacant house. Hours later, the investigative report said, armed men arrived at Chucky's sister's house in three vehicles, one a white Chevrolet Tahoe with blue-and-red strobes like the police use. The men wanted Chucky, their drugs or $24,000. The 13-year-old said she didn't know Chucky. When she tried to walk away, "one of them grabbed her by the neck, pointed a gun at her and forced her in the vehicle," the report said. Eventually, the men called the girl's mother to demand ransom. A police officer took the phone and informed the men they had the wrong girl. She was released relatively unharmed in the suburb of Surprise. The case serves as a reminder that as police scramble to tamp the bloodshed before it reaches the levels proliferating south of the border, collateral damage is a reality. Watch how the kidnapping often occur in quiet neighborhoods » . The origins of the kidnappers -- 90 percent of whom hail from the Mexican state from which the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel takes its name -- also remind law enforcement that 150 miles south lies a country racked with a more extreme brand of violence. The tortured Andrade was fortunate that police were able to find him. On Andrade's third day in captivity, an undercover officer posing as a loan shark convinced the kidnappers to lower their ransom from $50,000 to $10,000 and the title to the Ford Expedition they had stolen. When the kidnappers arrived at the drop point, a Safeway supermarket parking lot, police swarmed on their green Chevrolet Tahoe, the report said. One of the men, Luis Alberto Castro-Vega, then 23, disclosed Andrade's whereabouts after police promised not to charge him with kidnapping. Only Castro-Vega has been convicted of crimes associated with Andrade's kidnapping: first-degree burglary, theft by extortion, armed robbery and three counts of aggravated assault. In September 2006, a judge sentenced Castro-Vega to 54 years in prison. Thompson said he hopes the stiff sentence sends a message that Phoenix police expect the kidnappings and violence to end, regardless of the targets and the perpetrators. "The problems that occur when it's criminal versus criminal, that's still violence on the streets of America," he said. "If those people get in a gunbattle, those bullets have to go somewhere, and that could be a playground where kids are playing. That could be a neighbor's house where a neighbor is inside sleeping that has nothing to do whatsoever with the illegal activity, but yet they become senseless victims of the violence."

Phoenix police investigated 368 kidnappings in 2008, 357 in 2007 . Human smuggler was tortured for days because kidnappers suspected he had cash . Police say kidnappers cut, beat, shoot and electrocute victims to get their money . Men kidnapped innocent 13-year-old girl after neighbor stole marijuana, police say .

(CNN)A pair of dramatic raids Friday in France led to the killing of three terrorists -- one suspected in the fatal shooting of a policewoman and four hostages, the other two in the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine -- and to the freeing of more than a dozen people being held hostage. The French government's work is not over. There's still a lot of healing to do, a lot of questions to answer about how to prevent future attacks, and the pursuit of a woman wanted in the policewoman's shooting. Still, as Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, "The nation is relieved tonight." Latest updates at 8 p.m. ET . •The wife of suspect Cherif Kouachi and the girlfriend of hostage taker Amedy Coulibaly-- Hayat Boumedienne -- exchanged 500 phone calls in 2014, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molin. The wife told investigators that Cherif and Coulibaly knew each well. • Cherif Kouachi, a suspect in the Charlie Hebdo slaughter, visited Yemen in 2011 and French authorities were aware of his contacts with terrorist organizations in Yemen and Syria, Molins said at a press conference. • The government of Yemen has launched an investigation into a possible al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula link to the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack, Mohammed Albasha, Yemen's spokesman in Washington, tweeted Friday. • Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for orchestrating the deadly terrorist attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the founder of the magazine The Intercept, Jeremy Scahill, told CNN. CNN has not independently confirmed this claim. • Four hostages were killed and 15 survived in the standoff between an armed terrorist and police at a Paris kosher grocery store on Friday, according to Israeli government sources who characterized a phone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President François Hollande. • U.S. President Barack Obama said he wants the people of France to know that the United States "stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow" after this week's terror. He told a crowd in Tennessee that "we stand for freedom and hope and dignity of all human beings, (and) that's what Paris stands for." • The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the United States discussing the Paris terrorist attack this week and the sophistication of the tactics, a U.S. law enforcement source told CNN. The bulletin says the attacks demonstrated "a degree of sophistication and training traditionally not seen in recent small armed attacks," the official said. • A man claiming to be Amedy Coulibaly, the suspected hostage-taker at the Paris grocery store, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he belonged to the Islamist militant group ISIS. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the recording. Charlie Hebdo attackers holed up in print shop . The day's drama began in Dammartin-en-Goele, where brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi ended up in a print shop in an industrial area. A salesman, who identified himself only as Didier, told France Info radio that he shook one of the gunman's hands at about 8:30 a.m. as they arrived at the business. Didier said he first thought the man, who was dressed in black and heavily armed, was a police officer. As he left, the armed man said, "Go, we don't kill civilians." Didier said, "It wasn't normal. I did not know what was going on." The gunmen told police that they wanted to die as martyrs, Yves Albarello, who is in France's Parliament, said on channel iTele. The area, meanwhile, was locked down -- with children stuck in schools, roads closed and shops shuttered. Shortly before 5 p.m., gunshots and at least three large explosions pierced the relative silence. . Soon after, men could be seen on the roof of the building where the brothers had holed up. Four helicopters landed nearby. Word came that the brothers were dead and that a man who had been hiding in the building was safe, said Bernard Corneille, the mayor of nearby Othis. Hostages at kosher grocery store . At the same time, in a different setting near Paris's Porte de Vincennes about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, a similar crisis played out at a kosher store. Amedy Coulibaly -- the same man who, authorities said, is suspected with Hayat Boumeddiene of killing a policewoman Thursday south of Paris -- on Friday took a number of hostages there. Boumeddiene remains at large. Like Cherif Kouachi, a man claiming to be Coulibaly called BFMTV on Friday. At the scene, witnesses heard Coulibaly demand freedom for the Kouachi brothers, according to police union spokesman Pascal Disand. Law enforcement swarmed the area. Dozens of schools went on lockdown. A resolution came a few minutes after the Dammartin-en-Goele climax, in the form of explosions and gunfire. Up to 20 heavily armed police officers moved into the store. They came out with a number of civilians. Not everyone made it. Hollande said four people were killed. Israeli government sources told CNN that Hollande told Netanyahu that four hostages were killed and 15 were rescued. Molins said four hostages were killed by the gunman before police stormed the market. Father: 'It's like a war' In a speech Friday night, Hollande called the Porte de Vincennes deaths an "anti-Semitic" act. He urged his countrymen not to respond with violence against Muslims, saying, "Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with the Muslim religion." "Unity" he said, "is our best weapon." That kind of military language is apt when you're talking about two deadly attacks and violent standoffs in a few days. It's something that a man, who asked to be called simply Teddy, understands. He was outside Henri Dunant elementary school in Dammartin-en-Goele on Friday, hoping to pick up his young son. And, eventually, the students did leave the school -- accompanied by police officers who held their hands and, in some cases, lifted them onto an awaiting bus that would take them to safety. "It's like a war," Teddy said. "I don't know how I will explain this to my 5-year-old son." Parts of France on high alert . This "war" erupted two days ago, when a pair of heavily armed men -- hooded and dressed in black -- entered the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine known for its provocative, often profane, take on religion, politics and most anything else. Satirical magazine is no stranger to controversy . They burst into a meeting, called out individuals, and then executed them. The dead included editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier and four other well-known cartoonists known by the pen names: Cabu, Wolinski, Honore and Tignous. Authorities followed a lead Thursday morning from a gas station attendant near Villers-Cotterets, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Dammartin-en-Goele, whom Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, reportedly threatened as they stole food and gas. Police think the brothers may have later fled on foot into nearby woods. Ties to Islamist extremists . As the suspects moved, the French government -- including more than 80,000 police deployed across the country -- also didn't stand still. Some of them tried to prevent more bloodshed, which might have something to do with nine people detained after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Investigators also dug to learn about the attackers. Who are the suspects? Both men had ties to Islamist extremists. Said, the elder of the Kouachi brothers, spent several months in Yemen in 2011, receiving weapons training and working with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to U.S. officials. His younger brother, Cherif, has a long history of jihad and anti-Semitism, according to documents obtained by CNN. In a 400-page court record, he is described as wanting to go to Iraq through Syria "to go and combat the Americans." "I was ready to go and die in battle," he said in a deposition. "... I got this idea when I saw the injustices shown by television. ... I am speaking about the torture that the Americans have inflicted on the Iraqis." Cherif was a close associate of Coulibaly, a Western intelligence source told CNN. A man claiming to be Cherif told CNN affiliate BFMTV in a phone call before he was shot and killed Friday that he was sent to carry out the massacre by al Qaeda in Yemen and that the late Anwar al-Awlaki financed his trip. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the recording. Al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim scholar and cleric who acted as a spokesperson for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed in 2011 by a CIA drone strike. Cherif and Coulibaly were involved in a 2010 attempt to free an Algerian incarcerated for a 1995 subway bombing. Coulibaly was arrested with 240 rounds of ammunition for a Kalashnikov rifle and a photo of Djamel Beghal, a French Algerian once known as al Qaeda's premier European recruiter. The Western intelligence source said that Coulibaly lived with Boumeddiene, his alleged accomplice in the police shooting, and that the two traveled to Malaysia together. Charlie Hebdo columnist: 'They didn't want us to be quiet' A unity rally will be held Sunday "celebrating the values behind" Charlie Hebdo, said British Prime Minister David Cameron, who will travel to Paris to attend. And the magazine itself -- whose former offices were firebombed in 2011, on the day it was to publish an issue poking fun at Islamic law and after it published a cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed -- will go on as well, even without its leader and most talented staffers. It's set to publish thousands of copies of its latest edition next Wednesday. Patrick Pelloux, a columnist for the magazine, told CNN that "I don't know if I'm afraid anymore, because I've seen fear. I was scared for my friends, and they are dead." He and many others are defiant. "I know that they didn't want us to be quiet," Pelloux said of the slain Charlie Hebdo staffers."They would be assassinated twice, if we remained silent." CNN's Jim Sciutto, Ben Brumfield, Atika Shubert, Laura Smith-Spark, Richard Greene, Fred Pleitgen, Christiane Amanpour, Jim Bittermann and Bryony Jones contributed to this report.

Four hostages killed, prosecutor says . Forces kill the 2 brothers suspected in the Charlie Hebdo attack . A terror suspect who took over a kosher market and killed four hostages was also killed .

(CNN Student News) -- September 1, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • U.S. East Coast • Pakistan • Chile . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome to our show. Why is NASA testing a rocket that might never get off the ground? We're launching into the details in today's edition of CNN Student News. Hello everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. Let's get started. First Up: Hurricane Earl . AZUZ: First up, Hurricane Earl. A viewer sent in the video you see over my shoulder here of Hurricane Earl. Yesterday, it was a category four hurricane with maximum winds around 135 miles per hour. This is a powerful storm. It's in the Atlantic Ocean and expected to turn towards the U.S. east coast tomorrow. Officials say Earl probably won't make landfall; that's when the center of the hurricane actually reaches shore. But the storm is so big that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says people along the coast may need to evacuate. On Monday, rain and wind from Earl knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This iReport you're looking at shows some of the flooding in Puerto Rico. Is This Legit? TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? A kilometer is longer than a mile. Not at all! It's the other way around. A kilometer is about six-tenths of a mile. Pakistan Aid . AZUZ: A lot of people in Pakistan are traveling more than a dozen kilometers to try and get away from dangerous flooding. If you've been watching our show, you've seen our reports about these floods. They've killed more than 1,600 people in Pakistan and affected at least 17 million other people there. Aid is coming in from countries around the globe and from private companies: money, food, medical supplies. The U.S. is sending more helicopters to Pakistan to help distribute that aid top people who need it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent, is in Pakistan. He gives us a look at the journey that some families there are going through and the struggles that they're facing. (BEGIN VIDEO) DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Most people actually are leaving like this: by foot, in the hot sun, walking for kilometers with no real idea of where exactly they're going or what they're going to find there. It is easy to see why they're leaving. We are literally surrounded by water, and they're worried that that water is just going to get higher and higher. So, they're fleeing the floods with the thing, the priority that they value the most, their livestock, and just starting to walk. This is where so many of them ended up. They were just walking for kilometers and kilometers down that hot road, looking for high land, anything that could protect them from the flood waters. And look at what their lives are like now. Thousands of people, literally, they have this little barrier here. It is so hot outside, anything to try to keep themselves cool. There's no question that relief is slow coming here, but even as we're filming today at the camp, this Pakistani army helicopter comes over and drops parcels of food. But this is just one camp. There are thousands of camps like this. There are more than 20 million people displaced. A fifth of this country is under water. (END VIDEO) Trapped Miners . AZUZ: Terrible conditions there. Now over in the South American country of Chile, efforts are underway to rescue 33 miners who are trapped more than 2,300 feet underground. They've been down there since a cave-in back in early August. All 33 people who are trapped survived and officials think it could take several months before they get out. The plan right now is to drill down through all that rock to reach the miners. What they're making at this time is called an excavation hole. That's where the drill bit will go. Reports are that the miners are doing all right. They're living off of supplies that are being sent down through bore holes. Now those things are only about 4 inches in diameter. A team from NASA is helping out with ideas on how to keep the miners healthy. Sound Check . [SOUNDS OF ARES ROCKET TEST] . Ares Rocket Test . AZUZ: Behold: the Ares rocket. The thing kicks out 22 million horsepower. It could launch humans to the Moon, to Mars. It's a huge part of NASA's Constellation program. Just one problem: a lot of people don't want it, including some officials at NASA. The White House canceled the Constellation program. A panel declared that the Ares rocket is too expensive and behind schedule. So, the big question. Why run the test? Some members of Congress still want it. And since the money for Ares is still in the federal budget, at least for the moment, the company that makes the rocket is required to keep developing it, even if it never gets off the ground. This Day in History . September 1, 1897 -- The first U.S. subway line begins service in Boston . September 1, 1939 -- Germany invades Poland, launching the start of World War II . September 1, 1985 -- The wreck of the Titanic is found on the ocean floor . Fix Our Schools . AZUZ: Well, I know you guys get assignments every day. I had a little homework last Thursday after we wrapped up CNN Student News. It was to interview 11 high school students from around the state of Georgia, some of the state's brightest for Fix our schools. This is a special project that's running all over CNN all week long. It takes ideas from teachers, administrators and, yes, students to look at how schools can succeed even while they're facing challenges. And you've probably seen some of those challenges at your school. Now that homework assignment that I had - that group of high school juniors and seniors that I sat down to speak to - yesterday we brought you what they had to say about what makes schools good. Today, we're focusing on teachers. (BEGIN VIDEO) AZUZ: Teachers, should they be your friends on Facebook? FEMALE STUDENT: No. AZUZ: Anybody think so? Go ahead. ALEXIS JOHNSON, CHAMBLEE CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL: OK. So, my teacher has her own Facebook page, and all of my friends add her, all my classmates. And it's so convenient because we ask her a question on what homework we had that night and she automatically replies. AZUZ: Any of you think teachers should not be your friend on Facebook? Want to say why? JANVI CHAWLA, WALTON HIGH SCHOOL: I still really think a teacher is a teacher and students are just also there to learn. AZUZ: What qualities does a good teacher have? Think of your best teacher. Tell me what he or she is like. Go ahead. MCCALL STILES, NORTH OCONEE HIGH SCHOOL: She had a way of adding humor to the class. But then when we were studying, she would be serious about it. And we had a level of respect for her because she added that comedic level to the classroom. AZUZ: Sort of a human factor? STILES: Yes. MARIA FLORES, ETOWAH HIGH SCHOOL: If it weren't for the dedication, the passion that my teachers have, we would all probably be all failing in those classes. But it's the fact that they're willing to stay after school, to be there before school, to walk around during lunch and come say, "Oh, you're working on the homework? How are you doing?" AZUZ: So, I'm hearing passion, dedication and humor. Let's say your administration asks you to sit in on a hiring session. What qualities are you going to be looking for if you could make that decision to hire a teacher? LARRY HOWARD, DEKALB SCHOOL OF THE ARTS: I would say someone that always prepares you for the next step. JULIA ABELSKY, NORTH SPRINGS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL: I would definitely ask them to talk about the subject, maybe talk about their favorite ways to teach. Beause my teacher, he doesn't teach the same way every day. He finds different ways to communicate the information. It really sticks once you laugh about it and you share experiences with your classmates. AZUZ: You aren't afraid of a challenging teacher as long as you're learning something. Does anybody not like a hard teacher? ALEX KELLY, CARVER HIGH SCHOOL: It depends on what you mean by "hard teacher," because there are teachers that be more hard than they should be. So, it's a difference between being hard and overly aggressive. AZUZ: What do teachers do that make you shy away from learning? ZACK KENT, APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL: When you spend too much time on one subject and you can't complete the entire course, it makes me shy away from trying to study myself, because I think we're going to spend that much time, the rest of the time, on each subject, that long. FLORES: Something that shies me away from learning is when I know what's going to happen in the classroom. For instance, I had a math teacher that, every day, we would walk in and we knew what we were going to do. We were going to check homework, take notes, start on homework. So, I think adding creativity to the teaching really helps keep our attention in the front of the classroom. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go today is something we've been laughing about at workall day long. Just watch it. Looks like man's best friend is man's best dance partner. That dog is burning up the dance floor, and this YouTube video is burning up the internet. You might think we're just showing this just because it's awesome video, and you're right. But it also fits in with one of the main goals of CNN Student News. Goodbye . AZUZ: Making sure our show has plenty of balance. Time to clear the dance floor for now. CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz. We return tomorrow fired up and ready to go. Looking forward to seeing you then.

Learn about some of the struggles facing flood victims in Pakistan . Find out why NASA is testing a rocket that may never get off the ground . Hear some students' views on the qualities that define a good teacher . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN) -- How do Burmese punks keep their mohawks standing tall? Why does cash in Myanmar need to be kept clean? What does making a kissing sound in a Yangon restaurant get you? As recently as a year ago, few people would have cared about the answers to any of these questions. But newfound political freedom has brought a surge in tourism to the once isolated country, making Myanmar a 2013 traveler's hot spot, and a place worth getting up to speed on. Fall in love with Burmese food . 1. New Year celebrations last four days . The Burmese make a big deal of the New Year. Thingyan, known as the "water throwing festival," is celebrated in April. This year it takes place April 13-16. Everything shuts down over the four-day New Year -- banks, restaurants, shops. The biggest celebrations are in Yangon and Mandalay. During the New Year water-throwing frenzy everyone throws and sprays water at each other. Staying dry isn't an option. Water symbolizes the washing away of the previous year's bad luck and sins. On New Year's Day, the fourth day of the festival, fish and birds are released as acts of merit and feasts are held for monks. In recent years of privation, hard-core Burmese punks used leather glue to spike up their hair at New Year. The superstrong glue meant their mohawks stayed standing through the Water Festival, but when the party was over they had to shave their hair. These days, Burmese punks use hairspray. Myanmar: Is now a good time to go? 2. Myanmar has fantastic beaches . Myanmar has 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) of coastline and some of the finest stretches of beach in Asia. Many beaches along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea remain undiscovered by tourists and unspoiled by development. Many of them face west, so they produce great sunsets. The best known is Ngapali Beach, a 45-minute flight from Yangon, where almost two miles of white sand are lined with palm trees overlooking the Andaman Sea. Here, you'll find a number of large resorts. Less developed is Ngwe Saung, a beautifully unspoiled beach that's a five-hour drive from Yangon. Also called Silver Beach, its eight-mile (13 kilometers) stretch makes it one of the longest beaches in Asia. 3. The Internet isn't censored anymore, but it's still slow . The Internet arrived in Myanmar in 2000, but high prices and slow connections mean it's still not widely used. Under the former government, websites such as YouTube and Gmail were blocked, but restrictions have largely been lifted and last month Google chairman Eric Schmidt visited the country. Far more popular than the Internet are mobile phones, though here, too, prices are high compared with other Asian countries. Local IT firms are lobbying to introduce cheaper SIM cards and a breakthrough is expected soon. A U.S.$15 SIM card for mobile phones will be made available in June, in the run-up to the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Myanmar in December, but will be available only to foreigners. 4. You'll need plenty of cash -- and make sure it's clean . There are few ATMs in Myanmar, so visitors need to bring plenty of U.S. dollars. The higher the denomination, the better the exchange rate. Your greenbacks should be squeaky clean -- that means no creases, stains, marks or tears. A note that's folded or even a little worn is worthless in Myanmar. At present, credit cards are accepted only in five-star hotels and up-market shops and restaurants, usually with a 2-3% fee added to the bill. But this is changing. By the end of the year, credit cards should be more widely accepted. The local currency is the kyat (pronounced "chat") and U.S.$1 will get you about 882 kyat. The new 10,000-kyat note (less than U.S.$12) is the highest denomination -- be prepared for a bulging wallet. There's little worry about carrying a lot of cash. Crime against foreigners is rare and the Burmese -- the vast majority of whom are Buddhist -- are generally honest. Myanmar records 1 million tourists, surge in tourism income . 5. A kissing sound gets you a beer . When the Burmese want to get a waiter's attention they make a kissing sound, usually two or three short kisses. It's the sort of sound you might make if calling a cat. Walk down 19 Street in Yangon's Chinatown and you'll hear that kissing sound a lot. This narrow, pedestrian-only street is where the Burmese come to drink. Restaurants line either side of the street and chairs and tables are set out in front. The local brew is Myanmar Beer and it's cheap -- about 60 cents for a glass of draught. This is prime people-watching territory and if you keep an eye out you'll spot Yangon's hip-hop royalty on the prowl. Just don't expect to see any females. Most Burmese women -- married and single -- stay home in the evening. That's not to say Western women aren't welcome. It's understood that foreigners have different customs. 6. Hotels are expensive . Room rates shot up 350% last year, which means that a room that cost U.S.$25 a night in 2011 now goes for almost U.S.$100. It's a simple matter of supply and demand. Since the country opened up, business travelers and tourists have been packing flights to Myanmar. There are a lot more visitors -- more than a million last year -- but roughly the same number of hotels. More hotels are on the way, but they take time to build and the hotel shortage is expected to continue five to 10 years. Book accommodation well ahead. A lot of hotels are renovating and since they don't want to miss out on the visitor boom, they're staying open while upgrading. When making a reservation it's worth checking to see if any work is in progress and, if so, requesting a room away from the noise. Myanmar hit by severe hotel shortage . 7. The men wear skirts . The traditional Burmese dress is the longyi, a wraparound skirt worn by men and women. Men tie theirs in the front and women fold the cloth over and secure it at the side. NLD Leader Aung San Suu Kyi is known for her beautiful longyis and tailored tops. Her high-profile appearances have helped boost the popularity of the traditional dress among young women in Myanmar. As for what's worn underneath, that's a matter of personal preference. In the cities, Burmese men usually wear underwear beneath their longyis when they go out, but at home wear it as the Scots wear their kilts. In the countryside, underwear is much less common -- for men and women. As one man jokingly put it: "Longyi are great. Free air-conditioning." That's a plus, especially when the summer temperature tips 104 F (40 C). It's completely acceptable for a foreigner to wear a longyi and can be a conversation starter. 8. The food is exceptional . It's considered rude to eat with the left hand as this is the hand used for personal hygiene. To spell that out -- the left hand does the job of toilet paper. So eating -- as well as giving money -- is always done with the right hand. A typical Burmese meal includes steamed rice, fish, meat, vegetables and soup and all the dishes arrive at the same time. The Burmese use their fingertips to mold the rice into a small ball and then mix it with various dishes. As is the norm, Buddhists usually avoid eating beef and the Muslims don't eat pork. Meals are served with plenty of condiments -- from sweet to savory -- and everyone has their preferred way of customizing a dish. Myanmar vs. Burma. Which do you prefer? 9. The trains are seriously bumpy . The poor condition of railway tracks means carriages get shaken about. This makes for a bouncy ride, but trains are still a great way to see the country. Myanmar's trains are slow and have a reputation for running late. The most reliable route, Yangon to Mandalay, takes about 16 hours, assuming no delays. On overnight trains, there's more chance of getting some shut-eye in an upper class seat than in a sleeper. It can get surprisingly cold a few hours after dusk, so it's smart to bring something warm to wear. Buses are usually a faster option, but they're often crowded. Domestic flights are the most comfortable way to cover long distances and relatively cheap. 10. Yangon has a newspaper vendor on every street corner . After five decades under a repressive military regime, the Burmese are enjoying their newfound press freedom and showing a healthy appetite for news. In the past, all publications had to submit their stories to the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division for approval. Censorship was gradually phased out in 2012 and at the beginning of this year the bureau was formally abolished. Under the former ruling military junta, Myanmar had a reputation for jailing anyone who dared voice opposition; that included many in the media. Last year was the first year since 1996 that no journalists were jailed. Burmese journalists who fled the country and were forced to live in exile are slowly returning. April 1 was a landmark for the country's media. For the first time since 1964, daily newspapers were permitted. It's a big step for press freedom, but there are concerns that some of the popular weekly newspapers will struggle to make the transition to daily circulation. 11. The people with red teeth aren't vampires . Chewing betel nut is a national pastime. Small street stalls selling the palm-sized green leaves are everywhere. The leaves are filled with hard squares of betel nut, spices and sometimes a pinch of tobacco and then folded up and popped in the mouth and chewed. You have to chew a while before you feel the mild narcotic effect of the betel nut. At about 6 cents a wrap it's a cheap hit, but there's a downside. Not only does betel nut stain your teeth a reddish-brown, the little packages are spat out on the floor when finished -- making for messy sidewalks. It's also highly addictive. This article first appeared for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown .

Book accommodations early -- Myanmar's hotel room shortage is expected to last 5-10 years . With more than 1,000 miles of coastline, the country has some of Asia's best beaches . Newfound press freedom has led to explosion in newspaper popularity . Bring crisp, new cash -- old, dirty and creased bills are often rejected by money changers .

(CNN Student News) -- February 17, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Afghanistan • Iran . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: This Wednesday, February 17th, CNN Student News begins with a big story out of southeast Asia. I'm Carl Azuz, reporting from the CNN Center in Atlanta! First Up: Taliban Leader Arrested . AZUZ: First up: What could be a major defeat for the Taliban. Pakistani officials say the Taliban's second-highest leader has been arrested. Details, right after some fast facts on the Taliban: This is a militant organization that used to control Afghanistan. It allowed the al Qaeda terrorist group to live and train there. A U.S. led coalition knocked the Taliban out of power in late 2001, after the September 11th attacks on America. Now, Pakistani intelligence says Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was caught several days ago in Pakistan, which borders eastern Afghanistan. Baradar's capture could be a huge victory for the U.S. because America has been hunting him for years and he could have some incredibly valuable information about both the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists. American officials are saying this could be a turning point in the war in Afghanistan. But there is a hitch: the Taliban deny that Baradar's been caught. They say he's still working for them and that reports of his arrest are designed to hurt the Taliban's morale. That is important to them right now because America, along with other coalition forces, are currently fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. In the town of Marjah, a stronghold of the Taliban, U.S.-led forces are making progress. Marines took over a police headquarters there yesterday. New Nuclear Power Plant . U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are announcing roughly $8 billion in loan guarantees to break ground on the first new nuclear plant in our country in three decades. AZUZ: And it would be an expansion of this nuclear facility in the eastern part of Georgia. The Obama administration claims the two, new nuclear reactors would create more than 3,000 construction jobs and 850 permanent jobs at the nuclear plant. The White House also says the power it would generate would be enough for more than half a million homes. Republican leaders, including both of Georgia's senators, like this idea. Sen. Saxby Chambliss says it's a step in the right direction, adding, the power generated by the Burke County Facility -- that's the one that's already there -- is safe, reliable, emissions-free and environmentally responsible. But some Democrats are against it, along with nuclear power critics. One of those, energy analyst Ben Schreiber, says, "The last thing Americans want is another government bailout for a failing industry." Schreiber went on to call nuclear power "unsafe and dirty." Iran's Warning . AZUZ: Iran's nuclear plan is worrying diplomats at the United Nations. And Iran's leader is warning the U.N. Security Council not to punish his Middle Eastern nation for its nuclear program. At a news conference yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants the U.N. to "move in the spirit of cooperation." But if it doesn't, he says Iran would react in a way that would put the U.N. to shame. To the international community, those are very unwelcome words. The U.N. wants Iran to stop enriching uranium, because enriched uranium could help Iran make an illegal, nuclear weapon. Iran continues to argue its program would be used only to help provide power to civilians. The global community doesn't believe it. Cybersecurity . AZUZ: There are attacks going on in the U.S. that most people never hear about probably because most of the time, they fail. We're talking about cyber attacks. And many times, they come from other countries, testing our electronic systems -- they might target cell phone companies, power companies, Internet companies. Yesterday, a panel of former government workers got together in a cyber-attack drill to work on ways the U.S. could react to a large-scale, cyber attack. What they hope to get out of this are ideas: suggestions they could take to the Obama administration on how to improve the electronic systems that so many of us rely on day-to-day. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to the students of Pikeville High School in Pikeville, Kentucky! Which of these rulers was known as "the boy king"? You know what do to! Was it: A) King Henry VIII, B) Genghis Khan, C) Alexander the Great OR D) King Tut? You've got three seconds--GO! The ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamen is "the boy king"; he took over at around age 10. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! King Tut Findings . AZUZ: So we know he was young when he took over, that he died young in his late teens, and that King Tut ruled for about 10 years, starting in around 1336 B.C. But there is so much more we do not know, like how he died. Well, there's a new report out, based on King Tut's DNA. It's being published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association and it could fill in some blanks. The report suggests that the boy king died of complications from a broken leg along with malaria, a disease of flu-like symptoms carried by mosquitos. He also had a form of scoliosis and foot disease: health problems that researchers believe ran in his family. Hip-Hop Orchestra . AZUZ: Hip-hop and classical: Two musical genres that don't seem to go together. But the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and hip-hop artist A. Leon Craft mixed it up recently. It's part of the orchestra's work to promote the arts in school curriculum as well as try something new and novel. Take a listen. Hear for yourself how it came together and how it sounded. (BEGIN VIDEO) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. "808 BLAKE" GERMAN, SMKA PRODUCTIONS: Classical music, it gets kind of the rap that it's, you know, old-timey and boring and that it's for an older generation. It's really the basis of how a lot of the music today is put together. The chance to work for a symphony to me is extraordinary. A. LEON CRAFT, RAPPER [RAPPING]: Use it to escape.... JERE FLINT, CONDUCTOR, ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Well, I think this is our first venture into hip-hop. By blending the two, I think that we reach really a kind of a broad expansive of audiences. We took basically a sampling of a piece. GERMAN: Gave me "Hoe-Down" by Copeland. I took the sample and I slowed it down, which kind of gave it this sort of feel right here. And I took it, chopped it up, and kind of looped it again, and then I added a second part right here. I usually start layering it with instrumentation, so, and the guitar kind of gives it that laid-back, just good-feeling vibe to it. As is with hip-hop, you know, you've got to have, this is the, that snap is what, the fact that it kind of gets you really bobbing your head. Kind of really feeling the music right there. What really drives it is this. Once we got the music together, then we brought in A. Leon Craft to do, to bring in and do the lyrics for us. CRAFT [RAPPING]: Music, yes, feel good, music. CRAFT: The hood goes, music is my life. GROUP [SINGING]: Music is my life. CRAFT [RAPPING]: The base clef and treble clef carries me away. CRAFT: I'm, like, I'm lost in the music. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE [SINGING]: On a beat like maestro. CRAFT [SINGING]: Music is my life. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE [SINGING]: It's with me everywhere. It's in my soul. CRAFT [RAPPING]: Music, yes, feel good music. So I got to make you feel good. CRAFT: I'm singing and rapping in front of the orchestra while, you know, the conductor is conducting the music, like, it's, wow. CRAFT [RAPPING]: Whether you appreciate my musical past. Everything in life has a rhythm, has emotion. Through emotion music will infinitely last. FLINT: It was just fascinating. A fascinating piece of work. Whether it's, whether it will last as a real art form or genre or just as an experiment, I can't tell. But it was fun to do it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very fun. I am, I'm a big fan of hip-hop. I like to dance a lot. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very fun. I really enjoyed it. CRAFT [RAPPING]: Oh how I love my music . CRAFT: Thank you so much. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Facebook, tomorrow, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Pacific: Be there. I will be live at Facebook.com/CNNStudentNews, answering your questions. They could be questions for me, questions about the show. You know where to find us: Facebook.com/CNNStudentNews. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, picture an igloo. Maybe one of those domed rooms of ice blocks with a little crawl space to get inside. Now picture a luxury igloo. Because what else would you call a spacious, four-room, iced house wired for a sound system, fired for warmth with a wheelbarrow, and, oh yes, a flat-screen TV. It's taken since about New Year's to finish the thing, but it's no doubt the coolest home you'll ever see. Goodbye . AZUZ: ...though to live there, you'd have to be an ig-lunatic. I can see your class from here, and I can feel your cold stares. Hopefully, you'll warm back up to us by tomorrow. I'm Carl Azuz for CNN Student News.

Take note of what could be a major blow to Taliban militants . Unravel part of the mystery surrounding a legendary boy king . Lend your ear to a sound that blends classical and hip-hop . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

(CNN Student News) -- January 21, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Washington, D.C. • China • Texas . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It is Friday, and it is awesome! Thank you for rounding out your week with CNN Student News. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm Carl Azuz. Let's get to today's headlines. First Up: China Relations . AZUZ: First up, President Hu heads to the Hill. The Chinese leader wrapping up his visit to Washington, D.C. yesterday. The reception he got when he met with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, not necessarily a warm one. Democratic and Republican leaders raised some of the strong concerns they have about China's policies on human rights and economic issues. It was a different story Wednesday night at the White House, when President Hu was the guest of honor at a formal state dinner with President Obama you see here. These are special events, these state dinners, for world leaders when they visit the United States. The White House hadn't hosted one for China since 1997. During his time in Washington, President Hu talked about China's role as one of the biggest economic powers in the world. Some of China's economic policies are frustrating some officials and companies in the United States, and Brian Todd explains why. (BEGIN VIDEO) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: At the White House, the dignified pageantry of a state visit for China's president, Hu Jintao. But just under the surface, smoldering resentment towards the Chinese in the halls of American government and business. Accusations of currency manipulation, unfair barriers to American businesses in China, and American products being copied or ripped off. Bootlegged DVDs of the latest Hollywood releases are sometimes available on Chinese streets before they even open in American theaters. American companies developing electronics, prescription drugs and software have similar complaints. The Chinese government even engages in some of this practice, right? FRED BERGSTEN, PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: The Chinese government has laws that protect intellectual property, but in practice, enforcement is very lax. And in some cases, Chinese government agencies, including military agencies, will sometimes rip off the intellectual property themselves. TODD: Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute says the Chinese steal American intellectual property by reverse engineering: buying American products, figuring out how they're put together. Then they make those parts themselves at a cheaper cost. Then there are complaints about China's trade rules. Take a company like Marlin Steel Products in Baltimore, where 20 percent of revenue comes from exports. Company president Drew Greenblatt says he'd like to export to China, but the Chinese have a rule that many products sold to government agencies there, or which get tax breaks, have to be made completely in China. Known as the "indigenous innovation policy," it stacks the deck against American companies like Marlin Steel. There's a direct impact, Greenblatt says, on American jobs. GREENBLATT: For every million dollars in new exports I get, I'm going to hire about eight more people. TODD: Chinese officials say their trade policies are not unfair, and they're stepping up enforcement of intellectual property laws. But the list of American complaints may prompt action from Congress, especially newly empowered Republican leaders in the House. What are you and other congressional leaders prepared to do to put more pressure on China to level this playing field? REP. CHARLES BOUSTANY, (R) LOUISIANA: We're going to continue to work, looking at our trade law, what we have to enforce trade agreements. We're going to continue to really pressure Chinese leaders, whether it's coming from Congress or from the administration, on this indigenous innovation policy and meeting their agreements under the WTO, the World Trade Organization agreements. TODD: But taking action against China is not risk free. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute says, as the second biggest economy in the world right now, the Chinese have a lot of clout, that they can and will retaliate. They'll block U.S. exports, they'll reduce their investments in American securities. The Chinese are America's biggest banker in the world by far, Bergsten says, and right now, they have a lot of leverage. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO) Is This Legit? TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? The U.S. vice president oversees the U.S. House of Representatives. Not true! That part of Congress is overseen by the Speaker of the House. Health Care Vote . AZUZ: Republican John Boehner is currently serving in the role as speaker of the House. And earlier this week, he oversaw a House vote to repeal President Obama's controversial health care reform law. This law is widely considered to be President Obama's biggest U.S. accomplishment while he was president. House Republicans are working to come up with some replacement plans for the law. But as Samantha Hayes explains, the idea of repealing the existing law altogether might not go any further than it already has. (BEGIN VIDEO) SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: It may turn out to be largely symbolic, but House Republicans, along with three Democrats, voted Wednesday to repeal the health care law championed by President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress. The vote, 245 to 189, was mostly along party lines. It's the culmination of a campaign promise Republicans made ahead of the November midterm elections. The next step for the newly passed legislation is all but certain: the Senate likely won't even take it up. Earlier Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor challenged his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, to consider the bill. REP. ERIC CANTOR, (R) MAJORITY LEADER: And leader Reid continues to say that he is not going to bring this up for a vote in the Senate. The American people deserve a full hearing. They deserve to see this legislation go to the Senate for a full vote. HAYES: A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows 50 percent of Americans favor getting rid of the law. But for Democrats, defending the president's top domestic achievement is paramount. REP. ROBERT ANDREWS, (D) NEW JERSEY: I think what is picking up steam is the understanding that this repeal hurts the middle class of this country. REP. JOHN LARSON, (D) CONNECTICUT: This is not about campaign promises. This is about real people experiencing real problems in real time that we need to address. HAYES: Most Republicans acknowledge that an outright repeal is highly unlikely and will instead focus on finding ways to cut funding for the law. For CNN Student News, I'm Samantha Hayes. (END VIDEO) Mafia Raids . AZUZ: Federal agents carry out a huge raid on suspected Mafia members and take dozens of people into police custody. Kinda sounds like something out of a movie, and some of the suspects arrested yesterday probably wish it was. Officials are calling this one of the biggest, single-day operations against the mafia in FBI history. More than a hundred people with alleged ties to the mob were arrested across parts of New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and even Italy. The charges include drug trafficking, illegal gambling, extortion, arson and murder. Some of those charges go back to 1981. Officials say organized crime -- the mob -- is an ongoing threat, but that yesterday's raids made a serious dent against that threat. Shoutout . JOHN LISK, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! Which of these terms describes a low-level crime? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Felony, B) Habeus corpus, C) Capital offense or D) Misdemeanor? You've got three seconds -- GO! A misdemeanor is a low-level crime. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Ticketing Students . AZUZ: So, for examples of a misdemeanor: They might include vandalism; they might include trespassing. In parts of Texas, you can add disrupting class or using profanity to that list. Instead of getting sent to the principal's office, students who act up are issued tickets and could end up in court in some places! They could face fines of up to $500. This policy isn't new; it's been going on for a while there. Some parents aren't happy about it. They argue that schools and parents -- not the court system -- should help students figure out right from wrong. A school district in Dallas issued a statement saying, "The vast majority of our students are not disruptive. Those who do receive tickets are hopefully learning that their actions have consequences." Promo . AZUZ: You know what comes next. Go to CNNStudentNews.com and tell us what you think of this story! Our blog is the perfect place for you to sound off on ticketing as a method of discipline. And if you don't like it, tell us what should be done instead. Also, you should totally introduce our show. Record your intro, head to CNNStudentNews.com to send us your iReport. And then, look for our e-mail response that tells you the next step in getting on CNN Student News. It's easier than you think! Before We Go . AZUZ: And before we go today, they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In this guy's case, his good looks are also at the mercy of the sun. Students heading back for the spring semester at Notre Dame were greeted by this frosty fellow. His eyes are made of coal; yeah, that's pretty predictable. But the nose is a traffic cone. And the hat, well, that's from the sculpture that this gigantic snowman was built around. Goodbye . AZUZ: It's a cool idea. We just hope no one got confused and thought it was a real person. Although if they did, you know what we'd have to tell them: That's no man! It's the kind of story you can always say you thaw on CNN Student News. We're gonna go chill out. We hope you have a great weekend, that you forgive us for those puns, and that you join us on Monday, when CNN Student News returns. Bye bye now!

Explore how some Chinese economic policies lead to frustration in the U.S. Examine the efforts of U.S. House Republicans to repeal health care reform . Consider a program in Texas that hands out tickets to disruptive students . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Embattled President Hosni Mubarak said early Saturday that he asked the country's government to resign after thousands of angry Egyptians defied a government curfew and faced stinging police tear gas as they marched for change. "I asked the government to resign today and I will commission a new government to take over tomorrow," Mubarak said in a national address on Saturday shortly after midnight. As Mubarak spoke, Egyptian tanks rolled into the country's major cities after the nation's police force had been largely faced down by protesters on Friday. Demonstrators burned many police stations in Cairo and Alexandria and overturned and torched police vehicles. Mubarak faces toughest challenge . U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with the Egyptian president after Mubarak's address. "When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity," Obama said from the White House. "I just spoke to him after his speech, and told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise," Obama said in a televised appearance. "Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." ElBaradei: The man to lead a free Egypt? Mubarak gave no indication that he would step down or leave the country. "I assure you that I'm working for the people and giving freedoms of opinion as long as you're respecting the law," he said. "There is very little line between freedom and chaos." Are you there? Send images, videos . At the same time, Mubarak said that "these protests arose to express a legitimate demand for more democracy, need for a greater social safety net, and the improvement of living standards, fighting poverty and rampant corruption." "I understand these legitimate demands of the people and I truly understand the depth of their worries and burdens and I will not part from them ever and I will work for them everyday," he said. "But regardless of what problems we face, this does not justify violence or lawlessness." CNN Arabic . A senior Obama administration official, meanwhile, said Friday evening that Mubarak's speech was "hardly conciliatory and highly disappointing, but what did you expect?" It's clear, the official said -- speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter -- that Mubarak believes he can ride this out, "and this time, we're not so sure that is the right assumption." Administration officials had hoped Mubarak would promise an immediate and open dialogue, the official said. The streets of downtown Cairo appeared to calm somewhat overnight Friday as the army -- a much more respected force than police among Egyptian civilians -- took control of the country. The army was much less aggressive with protesters than the police had been, and many Egyptians applauded the arrival of its tanks in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere. One of the key questions ahead of sunrise in Egypt on Saturday is whether people will continue to welcome the army as a protective force or reject it as a tool of Mubarak. Celebratory crowds that had gathered overnight Friday ahead of Mubarak's speech, expecting him to announce his resignation, quickly transformed into street demonstrations when the president announced he was staying put. The government cracked down throughout Friday with thousands of riot and plainclothes police, later joined by army troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers equipped with gun turrets. Undeterred, people ran, screamed, hurled rocks and accosted walls of security as they tried to make their way to central Cairo. Anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets in Egypt since Tuesday to demand an end to Mubarak's rule. The protests come weeks after similar disturbances sparked a revolution in Tunisia, forcing then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. Both Egypt and Tunisia have seen dramatic rises in the cost of living in recent years and accusations of corruption among the ruling elite. In downtown Cairo, a calm seemed to be settling in overnight Friday amid little sign of authority. "There is no authority ... there's nobody to protest against," CNN's Ben Wedeman said, speaking of the capital's downtown area. "State authority in much of downtown Cairo has disappeared." Mubarak imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday. State-run Nile TV said the curfew was in response to the "hooliganism and lawlessness" of the protesters. Vans packed with riot police circled Cairo neighborhoods before the start of weekly prayers in the afternoon. Later in the day, Egyptian soldiers moved onto the streets, the first time the army has been deployed to quell unrest since 1985. But protesters defied all warnings to demand an end to Mubarak's authoritarian 30-year-rule. They chanted "God is Great" and that the dictator must go. "Down, Down, Mubarak," they shouted. Plumes of rancid, thick smoke billowed over the Nile River as, by nightfall, chaos reigned in the bustling metropolis. The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was ablaze Friday night. Nile TV said protesters ransacked the building and set it afire. Police fired water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas with force and impunity. A tourist on the balcony of his 18th floor hotel room told CNN he had to run in and wash his eyes and face from the stinging gas. Police confiscated cameras from people, including guests at the Hilton Hotel. At least six people have died in the demonstrations this week, according to Egypt's Interior Ministry. But Nile TV reported Friday that 13 have died and 75 were injured in Suez, south of Cairo, citing medical sources . As the government cracked down on protesters across Egypt, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who returned home to Cairo to join the demonstrations, was placed under house arrest, a high-level security source told CNN. ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, was warned earlier not to leave a mosque near downtown Cairo where he was attending Friday prayers. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the U.S. is reviewing its aid to Egypt "based on events now and in the coming days." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the Egyptian crisis Friday, urging all parties to be peaceful and engage in dialogue. "We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything within its power to restrain its security forces," Clinton said. "At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully." The protests sent ripples around the world, with stocks plunging on news of Egypt unrest. The Dow dropped 166 points on Friday, its largest loss since November. The State Department urged Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Egypt and within the country. Delta Air Lines said its last flight from Cairo will depart Saturday; all other Cairo service was indefinitely suspended, said spokeswoman Susan Elliott. American Airlines and British Airways will allow customers with tickets between Friday and Monday to or from Cairo to change their flights at no charge, according American Airlines spokesman Edward Martelle. Egypt is the most populous nation in the Arab world and often a barometer for sentiment on the Arab community. "What happens in Egypt will have an impact throughout the Arab world and the Middle East," said Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria. In the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Friday, at least 1,000 protesters gathered and youths hurled rocks through black clouds of gas. Crowds ran through the streets toward the city's central square. There was no indication of a curfew in that city either, as people remained out well after the time it was to begin. In Suez, 15,000 riot police were out, using tear gas to disperse crowds, Nile TV said. Riot police also confronted protesters in the cities and towns of Ismailia, Fayoum and Shbin Elkoum, according to the anti-government group Egyptian Liberation. A CNN crew covering the clashes in Cairo felt the wrath of the police. CNN's Wedeman and Mary Rogers were under an overpass and behind a column as police tried to hold back protesters. Plainclothes police wielding clubs surrounded the CNN team and wanted "to haul us off," Wedeman said. In a struggle, police grabbed Rogers's camera, cracked its viewfinder, and confiscated it. Wedeman said the police threatened to beat them. Egypt's Interior Ministry forbade protests Friday, but some Egyptians went door to door in Cairo, urging their neighbors to participate. The main opposition bloc, the Muslim Brotherhood, urged its supporters for the first time to take to the streets. Hours ahead of the protests, the internet went dark in many parts of the country. Some text messaging and cell phone services appeared to be blocked. Even though it was difficult to use Twitter and Facebook within Egypt, thousands of others outside the country ran with the powerful social media tool to provide a real-time chronology of events. "Mubarak" was a trending topic. Authorities arrested a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader early Friday, detaining the party's main speaker, Issam al-Aryan, according to a relative. Other government critics voiced their opinions -- amazingly -- on state-run television. A popular morning show on state-run Nile TV included comments from guests calling for the resignation of government officials and increased dialogue between authorities and arrested protesters. The network carried coverage of the protests, even at times calling them large and peaceful. They followed days of unrest that have roiled several Arab countries. Demonstrations in Tunisia were followed by protests in Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan. "They all want the same," said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the Middle East, speaking of protesters in different Arab countries. "They're all protesting about growing inequalities, they're all protesting against growing nepotism. The top of the pyramid was getting richer and richer." People are also fed up with authoritarian regimes that do not afford the people proper representation. Mubarak has not been seen in public for some time. He is 82 and there has been speculation of failing health. Many Egyptians believe Mubarak is grooming his son, Gamal, as his successor, a plan that could be complicated by demands for democracy. CNN's Nic Robertson, Frederik Pleitgen, Salma Abdelaziz, Housam Ahmed and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.

Tanks roll into Egyptian cities as army takes control . President Obama speaks to the Egyptian president after Mubarak gives an address . Mubarak says he has asked government to resign . Protesters defy a curfew that went into effect at 6 p.m. Friday .

(CNN) -- The weather in St. Pete Beach had been bad all day, so Laura Miller and Brenda Pace hunkered down to watch a baseball game on television. But conditions outside Sunday night quickly went from bad to worse, they said Monday, as Tropical Storm Debby spawned a suspected tornado. "The winds started picking up," Miller said. "We heard the proverbial noise -- the train -- the transformer blew, the windows started busting out. It was just very chaotic, all the glass flying, the debris flying into the house. It was pretty intense." They looked for a place to hide, but the door to their ground-floor bathroom wouldn't open. "We managed to get between the refrigerator and the pantry area and just ride it out," Miller said. A suspected waterspout may have roared ashore and become a tornado in their neighborhood, the Pass-A-Grille area of St. Pete Beach, according to CNN affiliate WFLA. Pace said she was still in shock, but "it's amazing we got out without a scratch." Two people had minor injuries, said St. Pete Beach Fire Marshal Ernest Hand. Eight properties in the area sustained major damage and 24 had minor damage. "We were lucky," he said. "It was so windy and rainy, I couldn't go outside to look," resident Michael Hamm told WFLA. "Ten or 15 minutes later, when I did, I noticed the roof was gone over the deck, the picnic tables had blown off, the railing was gone, the electricity was off. ... We didn't get hurt, so we're very lucky." Elsewhere in Florida, one person was killed in an apparent tornado on Sunday, officials said. Debby remained offshore Monday but continued to pose a threat of tornadoes, heavy rain, additional flooding and high winds to much of Florida as it slogged slowly to the northeast. Floridians were warned the rain may stick around through the week in some areas. A few tornadoes were possible Monday across the eastern Florida Panhandle, the Florida peninsula and southern Georgia, forecasters said. A large swath of Florida was under a tornado watch until Monday afternoon. Numerous flood watches and warnings were also posted. As of 1 p.m. Monday, Debby was centered about 50 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm had weakened slightly, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. However, tropical-storm-force winds -- those 39 mph or stronger -- extended 230 miles out from its center, mainly to the southeast. "Debby is a large tropical cyclone, with the strongest winds and much of the heaviest rainfall well removed from the center of circulation," the hurricane center said. After being nearly stationary overnight, Debby began inching northeast Monday at about 5 mph. "Tropical storm conditions will continue over portions of the Florida Gulf Coast today," forecasters said. Debby is expected to dump a total of 10 to 20 inches of rain over northern and central Florida, with 25 inches possible in some areas, forecasters said. A total of about 5 to 15 inches of rain is possible across coastal southeastern Georgia and extreme southeastern South Carolina, according to the hurricane center. Total rain accumulations of 5 to 10 inches are expected over central Florida and southeast Georgia into coastal South Carolina, with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible, forecasters said. CNN iReporters sent pictures and video of flooding in their areas. Magalie Caragiorgio said Monday she has been stuck in her New Port Richey, Florida, home since Sunday because of flooding and hasn't been able to get to her job as a nurse. "It's unnerving because you can't do anything," she said. "I guess I wasn't prepared. I wasn't expecting to be flooded out like this." In Wilton Manors, Florida, "the flooding cut off access to everyone's homes until it subsided," said iReporter Jon Carson. "... I have a small car so I was terrified about how I was going to get the kids to school." In Panama City, some tourists stuck around to ride out the storm, said iReporter and restaurant employee Michael Dunning. "Usually people pack up and leave when they hear about a storm," he said. "It was just another storm, lots of wind and rain." Chris Anuszkiewicz of Clearwater, Florida, said water came through his garage and front door. "I've been through hurricanes on the beach here, and the rain from this was more intense," he said. The U.S. Coast Guard in Mobile said it rescued a family that became stranded on Dog Island, south of Carrabelle, Florida, by weather associated with Debby. The Coast Guard said Monday it received a phone call about 12:30 p.m. Sunday from a man saying his family, including five adults, four children and two dogs, was stranded in a vacation house located on a narrow sandbar on southwest Dog Island. "Water was reportedly surrounding the house, and there was no way for them to evacuate to higher ground," the Coast Guard said in a statement. "The commercial vessel that brought the family to the island would not come back for them due to the weather conditions from the storm." The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter and rescue crew, which were able to evacuate the family. All those rescued were examined by medics and found to be uninjured. Citing the threat of heavy rainfall and potential tornadoes, Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Monday declared a state of emergency "so we can coordinate the use of all state resources to make sure we can respond promptly if anything happens." He warned residents to expect "a significant amount of rain." Pinellas County also declared a state of local emergency on Monday, officials said. Crews in Sarasota County were assessing flooding, and the county was asking residents to reduce their water usage, as its water reclamation facilities were "reaching treatment capacity," said county spokeswoman Crystal Pruitt. The hurricane center narrowed the warning area for Debby on Monday. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Florida Gulf Coast stretching from Destin to Englewood, Florida. The storm was expected to continue moving slowly northeast or east-northeast over the next couple of days, forecasters said. Little change in strength was expected. A revised forecast track showed Debby remaining a tropical storm until it makes landfall early Thursday near Apalachee Bay, Florida -- in the bend of the state where the Florida Panhandle ends. The storm is then expected to cross the state of Florida and head into the Atlantic Ocean south of Jacksonville as a tropical depression on Saturday. Seminole, Florida, received more than 10 inches of rain on Sunday, according to preliminary 24-hour totals from the National Weather Service. Pinellas Park, Florida, received nearly 9 inches, and the Apalachicola, Florida, airport received 8.65 inches, according to the weather service. The Ocala, Florida, airport measured nearly 8 inches. Other preliminary rainfall totals included 6.68 inches in Wakulla, Florida; 6.58 inches in Orange Springs, Florida; and 6.27 inches in St. Petersburg. On Sunday, two apparent twisters destroyed four homes in Florida's Highland County, said Gloria Rybinski, emergency operations spokeswoman for the county. A woman was found dead in a home in Venus, located in the middle of the state between Port St. Lucie and Sarasota, Rybinski said. About 35,000 people statewide were without power, Bryan Koon, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told reporters. "That number is going to fluctuate as we go through this week," he said. Follow Bay News 9's live blog . The Sunshine Skyway bridge, which stretches over Tampa Bay and connects Bradenton with St. Petersburg, Florida, was closed Sunday because of high winds and remained closed Monday, Pinellas County officials said. Winds in the area have been clocked at 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts, according to CNN affiliate Bay News 9. Seas were between 12 and 15 feet. Residents of a Tampa retirement home were evacuated Monday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. The Sunrise Village Retirement Home "is located in an area that is prone to flooding and the water is up to the building right now," authorities said in a statement Monday morning. About 90 residents were being moved to other Sunrise Village facilities, the sheriff's office said. Debby's effects were being felt as far north as Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. CNN iReporter Greg Dee was on the beach when one of Debby's rain bands passed through. "It began picking up sand and you could actually see it moving down the beach with the wind," he said. "It felt like my legs were being sandblasted." Video from the Tampa area showed drivers inching through water on a flooded street Sunday night, with at least one stranded. The floodwaters were beginning to recede Monday morning, but several stalled cars remained on flooded roadways, CNN affiliate WTSP reported. Forecasters warned the combination of a storm surge and the tide would cause coastal areas to be inundated with water. An area from Apalachee Bay to Waccasassa Bay, Florida, could see a 3- to 5-foot surge, while Florida's west coast south of Waccasassa Bay could see 1 to 3 feet. An area stretching from southeastern Louisiana to Apalachee Bay, Florida could get a 1- to 3-foot surge, according to the hurricane center. Officials in Alabama and Louisiana have said they are monitoring Debby's progress, given uncertainty regarding its path. The storm has raised concerns for those working on 596 manned oil and gas production platforms throughout the Gulf, run by various companies. Shell said Sunday that it had evacuated 360 staff members the previous day and was planning further evacuations. However, given the forecast shift that showed Debby steering clear of Louisiana, Shell said Monday it was in the process of redeploying staff. "By end of day Tuesday, we will be back to normal operations across the Gulf," the company said. ExxonMobil said Sunday it had "evacuated nonessential personnel" from its offshore facilities and was preparing to evacuate the rest. And BP spokesman Brett Clanton said Sunday evening that the company has evacuated the "majority of our offshore personnel in the Gulf of Mexico" due to Debby. "Those unable to be evacuated will shelter in place for the storm," he said. CNN's Sarah Dillingham, Meridith Edwards, Kim Segal and Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.

NEW: Widespread flooding is reported in Florida . Florida's governor declares a state of emergency . A woman was killed after apparent tornadoes hit central Florida . Debby is expected to dump 10 to 15 inches of rain over the Florida panhandle .

(CNN Student News) -- October 1, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Ayodhya, India • Tulsa, Oklahoma . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's the start of a new month, the start of the government's fiscal year -- we'll explain why that one's important in a second -- and of course, it is the most awesome day of the week. I'm Carl Azuz. Let's get started. First Up: Budget Deadline . AZUZ: First up, Congress votes to keep the government running, at least for another two months. Here's the deal: The government has a budget for every fiscal, or financial year, which starts on October 1st. The budget says where different money goes and how it's spent. Congress has to pass that budget; they haven't done that yet. Without a budget, the government would shut down. So this week, Congress passed what's called a stop-gap measure. That's going to keep things running for two months. Some people say that Congress only passed the stop-gap to avoid tough questions from voters. This is an election year and it might be hard to get re-elected if you have to explain why you voted against the budget and let the government shut down. Other folks are upset that Congress wouldn't stick around to work on the budget. After they passed the stop-gap, most Congressmen and women headed home to campaign. These budget delays aren't a new thing though. Over the last 35 years, Congress has missed the October 1st deadline more often than it's made it. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Hudgins' 8th grade World History class at Opelika Middle School in Opelika, Alabama! What is the second most populated country in the world? Is it: A) India, B) China, C) Russia or D) the United States? You've got three seconds -- GO! With more than one billion people, India is second on the list, right behind China. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Holy Site Divided . AZUZ: Most of that population, around 80 percent, follows the Hindu religion. There are also more than 160 million Muslims in India. And those two groups -- plus one smaller religious group -- have been fighting over a holy site in India. All three groups say it should belong to them. Yesterday, a court ruling ordered the groups to divide up the site. India's government sent out extra security forces after the decision to try and keep things calm. In the past, the fighting over this holy site has led to violence in different parts of the country. Sara Sidner explains how this fight started. (BEGIN VIDEO) SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, NEW DELHI: The legal battle over this piece of land in Ayodhya, India has spanned more than a century. The bitter dispute pits Hindus against Muslims and has sparked some of the deadliest riots the country has experienced since partition. MUSHIRUL HASAN, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARCHIVES: Ayodhya has captured the imaginations of the people in and around that region for well over 150 years. For the first time after independence though, the problem surfaced in 1949 when an idol was placed in the mosque. SIDNER: The main fight is over who is entitled to this piece of land some consider sacred. In the 1500s, a mosque was built on the site by India's then Muslim rulers. But Hindus believe long before the mosque was constructed, a temple stood to mark the birthplace of one of their most adored Hindu dieties, Lord Ram. (END VIDEO) This Day in History . [ON SCREEN GRAPHIC] . October 1, 1908 -- Ford unveils the Model T, the first affordable car mass produced in the U.S. October 1, 1949 -- People's Republic of China is established as a communist nation . October 1, 1958 -- NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, opens its doors . October 1, 1982 -- The first CDs, compact discs, are released to the public . Is This Legit? MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? Light travels at more than 180,000 miles per second. Legit! And a light-year, the distance that light can travel in one year, is around 5.8 trillion miles. New Planet Discovered . AZUZ: Scientists say a newly discovered planet that's about 20 light years away from Earth could be the closest thing they've found out there so far to our home world. It's called Gliese 581g and this is an artist's conception of what it looks like. The red thing is a dwarf star. Gliese 581g orbits the star kinda like the Earth orbits the sun. The similarities don't stop there. Experts think this planet has enough gravity to keep an atmosphere around it. They say there's also a good chance that there's water on the planet. But, there is at least one difference and it's pretty significant. One of the scientists who discovered the planet explains. STEVEN VOGT, UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ: This planet doesn't have days and nights. Wherever you are on this planet, the sun is in the same position, or the star is in the same position all the time. So, it keeps one side facing towards the star, and that's fairly warm. And the other side is in perpetual nighttime. The Enviropig . AZUZ: Sticking with the science theme, people are always looking for ways to help this planet. Well, some scientists are squealing about an idea that involves pigs. You've heard of green eggs and ham. Take out the eggs. Allan Chernoff introduces us to enviropig! (BEGIN VIDEO) ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: It looks just like a pig. PROF. RICHARD MOCCIA, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH: It looks, sounds, acts identical to a normal Yorkshire pig. CHERNOFF: But it is different genetically. To create this pig, scientists here added an E. coli bacteria gene and mouse DNA to a normal pig embryo. They call it an enviropig. I mean, actually, the idea is that someone like this could end up on a dinner plate. MOCCIA: Certainly, one of the goals of the technology is to produce a pig which could be consumed by humans and enter the food chain. We have done extensive testing, though, on the various internal organs and different meat cuts from the enviropig, looked at the nutritional content. They're identical to a normal Yorkshire pig. LARISA RUDENKO, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: What I can tell the American public is that no food from a genetically-engineered animal will go on the market unless the FDA has demonstrated that it's safe. CHERNOFF: But the original idea was not to create a bigger, tastier pig. Why create a pig like this? MOCCIA: To try to control and reduce the environmental footprint of pig farming around the world by reducing the amount of phosphorous that the pig produces. CHERNOFF: Phosphorous is a nutrient that helps the pigs grow, but that they can't fully digest. So, much of it comes out in their manure. Farmers use that manure as fertilizer. When it rains, some of the manure runs off into the watershed, meaning plenty of phosphorous gets into our rivers and lakes. The enviropig's genetic additions allow it to digest more phosphorous. About 50 percent more, according to researchers. That means half as much in its manure, and that's why it's called enviropig. But the head of the Center for Food Safety, an organization promoting organic agriculture, says hog farming needs to change, not the pigs. ANDREW KIMBRELL, CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: It's a completely novel cell invasion technology where we are crossing the boundaries of nature as no other generation has before. (END VIDEO) Blog Report . AZUZ: Civility. A study at Rutgers University examines it. We asked on our blog how you would "bring back nice." Kaleb writes that "people are constantly thinking of themselves, so they can't think or be nice to anyone else." Jessica suggests "having a council meeting, a pep talk or some sort of rally on why it's important to be nice to others." Wesley says "students could interact with people face-to-face instead of over phones or computers. Why don't we do that," he asks. Melissa feels "we should start out by teaching kids ways to be polite. A lot of people are rude without even realizing it." Angela thinks "it could help to have courtesy classes in schools." In her opinion, politeness is decreasing drastically. On the blog, we only read comments with first names; no initials, no schools. Please stick to first names only. Teachers' Lounge Promo . AZUZ: We've been asking for your thoughts about bullying on our blog. Teachers, we want to hear what you have to say, too. Go to CNNStudentNews.com, scroll down to the CNN Teachers' Lounge. That's where you can sound off on education issues. This week's question: What do you think schools should do about bullying? Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go today, we've all heard that story about the tortoise beating the hare. But now we get to see what happens when that tell-tale tortoise takes on someone its own size. Not much. What these speed demons lack in speed, they make up for in -- I don't know -- determination? Well, there is something that's sort of interesting: last year's winner lost. Goodbye . AZUZ: We guess he's just a shell of his former self. See? You see? Even the pun possibilities contort us into bad jokes. You guys have a good weekend. Please join us back on Monday when we return. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.

Find out what a stop-gap measure is and why Congress just passed one . Explore the history of tension surrounding a religious site in India . Consider the debate over engineering an environmentally-friendly pig . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- June 3, 2011 . Download a PDF map related to today's show: . • Massachusetts . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hey! I'm Carl Azuz, and you're watching CNN Student News! This is our last show of the school year, and we're gonna get things started with a little help from our friends. (BEGIN VIDEO) ROBERT ALLEN, TERRA LINDA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT [RAPPING]: One, two, three...hit it! MRS. LONG'S STUDENTS: Start your tractor, Carl! CARMEN SMITH (DOROTHY), CARSYN WHITEHEAD (TIN MAN), ALLYSON BROWN (COWARDLY LION), STEPHANI PAYNE (SCARECROW): You are about to enter the wonderful world of the wizard. ALLEN: Ladies, fellows, girls and boys... join me please and make some noise. CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: [DRUMMING ON DESKS] . CLAIRE BALDACCI, IREPORTER: Hi, I'm Claire. I might not be Carl Azuz, but this is an exciting edition of CNN Student News. BRYAN GARCIA, IREPORTER: [Swish]...and you're watching CNN Student News. VAL AND HALLIE, IREPORTERS: Take it away, Carl! Hey, wait up! LESTER STO. NINO, IREPORTER: You are watching CNN Student News! (END VIDEO) First Up: Northeast Tornadoes . AZUZ: First up, we're looking at some of today's headlines, starting with tornadoes in Massachusetts. Several twisters hit the state on Wednesday, and Springfield -- one of the largest cities in Massachusetts -- was hit badly. At least two tornadoes touched down there. You can see some of the damage that was left behind. At least four people were killed. Dozens of other people were injured. Rescue workers were going door-to-door early Thursday looking for survivors. This could be a record year for tornadoes, but you don't see too many of them up in Massachusetts. That's part of the reason why these storms made such an impact. SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: And magnitude, when you see those houses flattened, really hits you. In 45 years of public service, I have never seen this kind of damage or devastation in Massachusetts. And as many of the residents said to me, "This is Massachusetts, this is not supposed to happen here." And it never has to our recollection. New Food Plate . AZUZ: For a while now, U.S. nutrition standards have been based off different versions of the food pyramid. A lot of people say the pyramid was too confusing. So yesterday, officials ditched the pyramid for a plate. It's called "MyPlate," and it's the government's new standard for nutrition. About half of the plate, half of what the government says people should be eating, is made up of fruits and vegetables. Whole grains and lean protein make up the other half, with a side of dairy. Officials hope that simplifying the standards this way will help Americans eat better. A lot of health experts agree it's better than the old pyramid. But some say that the new MyPlate doesn't give people enough information to make the best choices. Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to all of the students and teachers who watch CNN Student News! Which of these headlines came first? Here we go! Was it: A) Earthquake strikes Japan, B) Revolution in Egypt, C) Chilean miners rescued or D) U.S. holds Midterm Elections? Three seconds on the clock -- GO! The Chilean miners were rescued before any of these other stories happened. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Top Stories of the School Year . AZUZ: Those were some of the biggest stories that made headlines during this school year. We're going to take a look back now at the top stories from 2010- 2011, and we're including some of your comments along the way. Set your clocks back to August, and here we go. (BEGIN VIDEO) AZUZ: From Grace: Being a military child myself, I know that many families across America have been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is really hard to go through a deployment when you have a loved one fighting in the war. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy! U.S. VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Our goal, our goal is not just a physically secure Iraq, but an economically and prosperous and stable one as well. AZUZ: From Megan: The rescue of the Chilean miners was one of the most touching stories reported during the whole year. The rescue was so breathtaking and the reactions of everyone were so sincere. TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: August 5th; 2 in the afternoon; 2,300 feet underground, a shaft collapses in the San Jose copper and gold mine. 33 miners are somewhere behind the rubble, their condition unknown. The Chilean president promises every effort to rescue them. Finally, after more than 2 months buried alive, salvation. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Never has a man been underground so long and gotten out alive. GROUP: Chi! Le! Chi Chi Chi ...Le Le Le! Viva Chile! AZUZ: From Ryan: During the U.S. midterm elections, I started to wish I could vote. I got excited to see who would win or lose the elections. REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) OHIO, HOUSE SPEAKER: Let me just say this: It's clear tonight who the winners really are, and that's the American people. SEN. HARRY REID, (D) NEVADA, MAJORITY LEADER: This race has been called, but the fight is far from over. The bell that just rang isn't the end of the fight, it's the start of the next round. AZUZ: From Danielle: In my honest opinion, I think that our country has not improved in the economy. Gas prices have continued to rise, and your everyday tools prices are soaring. Many prices on things are unbelievable. From Mo's class: We believe that the upheaval in Arab nations was a top story because it affected the whole world. After these events, our class started to pay more attention to the news. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will die for our freedom! MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER: We will be victorious in this fight. AZUZ: From Kazumi: I live in Tokyo, so the tsunami was really shocking to me. Japan is getting over the damage. We are so grateful for the help and prayers from all over the world. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God! AZUZ: From Lexi: Every night I pray that the people whose lives have been impacted from the natural disasters get better. COOPER: We're talking about the deadliest tornado season since 1953, that's what we're experiencing right now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's something you don't want to experience. You don't want to experience nothing like this. It ain't a good feeling, it ain't nothing you can do about it. AZUZ: From Juliana: When Osama bin Laden died, I thought it was probably the biggest story reported this year. Considering he was the starter of a terrorist group and the cause of 9/11, I do think justice was done. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Okay, before we go, you know we always like to have a little pun at the end of our show. I've chosen my top 5 favorite puns of the school year. And right now, you get to sit through every punful one of them again. Let's goose this up! When a bird joined a couple canines on their walk through the park, we had to give it wings on the air. After all, what's good for a goose is good for a gander. Okay, then, there was this zip-line over a reptile pit. To protect the people, you'd think they'd have a gate or something. To protect the reptiles, you'd need a little gator aid! When a retriever took some ducklings under her wing -- or paw -- you could see she didn't duck any responsibility. It wouldn't fit the bill. And as far as duck puns go, you've got to admit they quack you up. And after a group of presidential mascots took off running -- that's running a race, not 'running a race' -- you want a clean match. Anything less elects a commander-in-cheat. My favorite had to be this one, though. Back in August, we showed a butterfly causing a bunch of penguins to flip out. Now, we could've talked about the butterfly effect, said this was frightless versus flightless, said the butterfly ruled them like a monarch. But instead, we settled on this: the pupa becomes the master. Goodbye . AZUZ: Sure, they might bug you from time to time, but you know we larva good pun here at CNN Student News. All right. As we sign off for the summer, we want to thank all of you who watch and use our show. Especially those of you who have sent us iReports, Shoutout requests; those of you who've posted on our blog; those of you who've visited our Facebook page. We hope you'll check out CNNStudentNews.com over the summer. We'll be putting some special shows up every week while we're on break. From all of us here at CNN Student News, have an amazingly awesome summer, and take care.

Hear about the impact of deadly tornadoes that hit Massachusetts . Find out why U.S. nutrition guidelines are getting a new icon . Look back at some of the biggest stories from this school year . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN) -- He is arguably the most well-known American general since MacArthur, and perhaps the most effective since Eisenhower. Now Gen. David Petraeus takes on what many believe will be his biggest challenge yet: reversing the momentum of the Taliban in Afghanistan and helping to stabilize the rickety regime of Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. Petraeus faced far more daunting challenges in Iraq when he assumed command there in early 2007. Those challenges, and how they were overcome, are worth recalling as he assumes command in Afghanistan, as they may provide some indicators of the way forward there. First, Iraq was embroiled in a vicious civil war in which Shia and Sunni civilians were showing up dead on the streets of Iraq's cities at the rate of 90 a day, some tortured in the most unspeakable manner, their heads drilled open. Iraq's Ministry of the Interior, which was nominally in charge of the country's security, itself had taken been taken over by Shia death squads. This was further complicated by the industrial-strength Sunni insurgency led by al Qaeda's vicious Iraqi affiliate. It recruited fighters from around the Middle East, who were largely responsible for an epic campaign of suicide attacks that killed thousands of Iraqis. Indeed, more suicide attacks were conducted in Iraq between 2003 and 2007 than had taken place in every other country of the world combined since 1981. The war was so violent that almost five million Iraqis -- around a fifth of the population --fled their homes for the safety of other countries or internal exile. Relatively few of those refugees have since returned. Despite the widespread perception that Afghanistan is today going to hell in a handbasket, more than five million Afghan refugees have returned home since the fall of the Taliban. Last year some 2,400 Afghan civilians died in the war -- too many, of course, but in Iraq when Petraeus took command, 3,200 civilians were dying every month, making Iraq around 15 times more violent than Afghanistan is today, when adjusted for relative population size. And contrary to the old saw that Afghans are virulently opposed to foreign forces on their soil, a BBC/ABC poll taken earlier this year -- almost a decade after the fall of the Taliban -- found that 62 percent of Afghans support international forces in their country. Contrast that with Iraq, where a BBC/ABC poll taken just two years after the U.S.-led invasion found that only one in three Iraqis supported the foreign soldiers in their country. This is a critical point in Afghanistan, as the center of gravity in a counterinsurgency is the protection of the population itself, a theory of counterinsurgency warfare that Petraeus enshrined in U.S. military doctrine, when he oversaw the work on the unglamorously named Counterinsurgency Field Manual 3-24 in 2006 at the Army's training center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When the final version of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual was published in December 2006, it was downloaded 1.5 million times within a month of its posting. The New York Times gave it a serious review, something of a first for a dense military tome that weighed in at some 400 pages. The doctrines in that counterinsurgency manual have driven the subsequent actions of the U.S. military both in Iraq and Afghanistan. The following points from the manual summarize its central message: "Unsuccessful practices: overemphasize killing and capturing the enemy rather than securing and engaging the populace; conduct large-scale operations as the norm and concentrate military forces in large bases for protection." Successful practices, according to the manual: Focus on the population, its needs, and its security, and provide amnesty and rehabilitation for those willing to support the new government. In a section titled "Paradoxes," the manual made a number of recommendations that were hardly typical of prevailing U.S. military doctrine: "Sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction" and "the host nation doing something tolerably is normally better than U.S. doing it well." These commonsense prescriptions would, in time, help to change the course of the Iraq War. Petraeus, an intensely competitive officer with a Ph.D. in international relations from Princeton, assembled a brilliant staff to reassess and redirect the Iraq War. When he arrived in Baghdad, Petraeus brought with him a sense that there was a plan. And he also had the full support of President George W. Bush, with whom he held a weekly private videoconference, which was unprecedented since the president was circumventing several levels in the chain of command to speak to his field commander. Watching Petraeus's Battlefield Update Assessment, held every morning at "Camp Victory" in Baghdad, was to see a master at work, cajoling and cheerleading his commanders across the country via video link as they reported on every variable of the Iraqi body politic from the grandest of political issues to the minutest of water projects. The new team and new approach got American soldiers out of their bases and into the neighborhoods. It was amplified by the arrival of what would eventually become the 30,000 soldiers of the "surge" authorized by Bush as Petraeus took command in Iraq. Petraeus outlined his "population-centric" strategy in a three-page letter he distributed to all of the soldiers under his command. "You can't commute to this fight. ... Living among the people is essential to securing them and defeating the insurgents. ... [P]atrol on foot and engage the population. Situational awareness can only be guaranteed by interacting with people face-to-face, not separated by ballistic glass." There were also shifting dynamics on the ground in Iraq that would make the additional combat brigades of the surge a force multiplier rather than simply more cannon fodder for Iraq's insurgents. Those changes included: . • The rise of the "Awakening" movements -- former Sunni insurgents who signed up for security jobs paid for by the U.S. military. • Previous sectarian cleansing that forced millions of Iraqis to flee their homes, and which made it harder for the death squads to find their victims. In Baghdad, half the Sunni population had fled the city by the end of 2006. • Around the same time, efforts to register all military-age Iraqi males using biometrics such as retina scans, which created a useful database of that population. • Walls built around vulnerable neighborhoods that kept insurgents out. • Better bomb detection devices, such as drones equipped to spot subtle anomalies in roads indicating the presence of bombs; the increasing deployment of hulking armored vehicles with V-shaped hulls known as MRAPs, which are largely immune from roadside bombs; and an aggressive effort to map and target the networks of Iraq's bomb makers. All these things led to a decline in the number of deaths caused by the leading killer of U.S. soldiers -- the improvised explosive device. The number of IED attacks in Iraq dropped from almost 5,000 in 2006 to around 3,000 two years later. The PowerPoint briefing slides so beloved of the U.S. military showed the violence in Iraq peaking in almost every category in the first months of 2007 and steadily dropping after that. That decline was true across the board, including attacks by insurgents, civilian deaths, U.S. soldiers killed, Iraq security forces killed, car-bomb attacks, and IED explosions. The number of Iraqi civilians dying in sectarian violence began a sharp decline from its high of around 90 every day in December 2006, to single digits two years later. Can Petraeus and his team pull off something similar in Afghanistan? The strategy that Petraeus will pursue there will not differ in any substantial way from that pursued by outgoing Gen. Stanley McChrystal. After all, Petraeus is the principal theorist and practitioner of counterinsurgency in the U.S. military and was one of the small group of Pentagon leaders who pushed for McChrystal to be installed as the commander in Afghanistan a year ago. As Petraeus himself has sometimes said, Afghanistan could be harder than Iraq. And indeed it may be, for while the country is certainly not in the grip of a full-blown civil war as Iraq was in early 2007, it is still reeling from the effects of more than three decades of war. Also, the Taliban in Afghanistan are not a bunch of foreigners with foreign ideas as al Qaeda was in Iraq. In the rural Pashtun South of Afghanistan, the Taliban are the guys you grew up with and are much savvier about how to win, if not the support, at least the acquiescence of a sizable part of the population. The insurgents in Iraq had nothing on the scale of Pakistan's tribal regions as a safe haven, as the Taliban do now, nor did they have the world's largest supply of opium and heroin to help finance their insurgency. In Iraq, Petraeus helped stanch a terrible bloodbath and bring the country up to the level where it is a state perpetually on the edge of conflict between Kurds and Arabs or between Shias and Sunnis, but it has at least achieved some kind of tenuous peace. In Afghanistan, Petraeus must convince all sorts of constituencies, from the Afghan people, to the Pakistani military and political establishment, to the White House, to the American public, that some plausible progress is being made; that the Americans are not going to "cut and run" before a semi-stable Afghan government and military are in place. And he must do that all on a timetable in which some kind of American drawdown begins in July 2011. It's as big a challenge as plugging the BP oil spill, and to do it right might take as long as reversing the environmental catastrophe that is already in progress in the Gulf -- a very long time, measured more in decades than in years. No one is better equipped to handle the challenge than Gen. David Petraeus. But as a student of history, the general is surely aware that what worked on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates in 2007 could still crash on the shoals of reality on the banks of the Kabul and Helmand rivers several years later. As the philosopher pointed out: You can't step twice into the same river. Not even someone as talented as David Petraeus. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.

Gen. David Petraeus, who has a Ph.D. from Princeton, wrote the book on counterinsurgency . Peter Bergen says Petraeus accomplished a huge turnaround in Iraq . The general took many steps to gain public support for U.S. efforts in Iraq, Bergen says . He notes Petraeus has said Afghanistan will be harder .

(CNN Student News) -- April 30, 2010 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Gulf of Mexico • Santa Clara, California . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Arbor Day is awesome! Especially when it falls on a Friday. To celebrate, we are branching out into a bunch of topics in today's show. I'm Carl Azuz. Let's get to it. First Up: Oil Update . AZUZ: The federal government will use "every single available resource" to help contain that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The secretary of Homeland Security declared it an incident of "national significance." What that means is that resources from other parts of the country can be used to try and control the spill. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal already declared a state of emergency to help free up resources for the effort. Yesterday afternoon, the oil was about 16 miles off the Louisiana coast and headed toward shore. When it does start hitting the coast, it could threaten hundreds of species of wildlife: birds, shrimp, crabs, otters. In fact, the entire Gulf Coast fishing industry could be affected. Yesterday, we told you that the Coast Guard was going to try and contain part of the spill by setting it on fire. They did; you can see the smoke from that fire right here. They were hoping to set another controlled burn yesterday, but the weather wasn't cooperating. Some authorities think this spill is getting worse, much worse. At first, the estimate was that the spill was leaking out about a thousand barrels of oil per day. Now, the Coast Guard is saying that's increased to as many as 5,000 barrels. That's more than 200,000 gallons per day. Financial Reform . AZUZ: The Senate is ready to debate a financial reform bill. When you hear the word debate, you mighty think of people being on opposite sides of something. This time, everyone agrees! They all want to debate. Republicans and Democrats had been working on this bill in private sessions. They disagreed on some parts of it, and the Republicans -- plus a few Democrats -- blocked it from moving forward until those differences could be worked out. Late Wednesday, they changed their minds. Every senator, Republican and Democrat, voted to start debate. Immigration Reform . AZUZ: The Senate's looking at taking up another controversial issue: immigration reform. Some Democratic senators were planning to release a new proposal late yesterday. It would increase the number of border patrol officers and make it tougher to hire illegal workers. Plus, it outlines a process to legalize the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. One Republican leader says the proposal is just an attempt to get voters out for November's midterm elections. He says there's no chance that immigration reform will move through Congress. Some Democratic sources say the same thing, that the odds of this passing the Senate this year are pretty slim. Word to the Wise . MATT CHERRY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise... calorie (noun) a unit of energy or heat that is often associated with food . Fast Food . AZUZ: Your body needs calories for energy; they fuel everything you do. But if you get too many of them or don't burn them off with exercise, those calories can turn to fat. Lawmakers in part of California say that some fast food kids' meals have too many calories. They believe one way to discourage kids from wanting those meals is to ban the toys that come with them. So, the new rule in Santa Clara, California: kids' meals with more than 485 calories get no toy. Kids' meals with less calories can still include the toy. There are also limits on fat and sodium, or salt. One lawmaker says this will help fight childhood obesity and "breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes." But the California Restaurant Association thinks the rule goes too far, and some critics say parents should be responsible for what their children eat. Blog Promo . AZUZ: This led us to consider a question that's kind of like the video game question we asked the other day: Who's responsible here? Who should decide on calories? Is it the government? Should restaurants be responsible? Should parents be responsible? Go to our blog, tell us your opinion. The address: CNNStudentNews.com. This Day in History . (ON SCREEN GRAPHIC) April 30, 1789 - George Washington is inaugurated as first president of the United States . April 30, 1803 - Negotiations conclude on Louisiana Purchase, which doubles the size of the United States . April 30, 1975 - South Vietnam surrenders to the North, ending the Vietnam War; remaining Americans are evacuated from Saigon . Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to everyone whose parents serve in the U.S. Armed Forces! What branch of the U.S. military was founded first? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it the: A) Army, B) Navy, C) Air Force or D) Marines? You've got three seconds -- GO! The U.S. Army was established first, way back in June of 1775. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Military Child . AZUZ: The Month of the Military Child pays tribute to people whose parents serve in all branches of the military. 1.7 million American kids have a parent who serves, and this month recognizes their sacrifices; for example, when your mom or dad is away for months at a time. Sandra Endo shows us how the military is helping families stay in touch. (BEGIN VIDEO) SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: So, where's your daddy at? AMARI LUNN, MILITARY CHILD: On a ship. ENDO: On a ship? ENDO: Three-year-old Amari Lunn can't wait for daddy to come home. FAINA LUNN, MARRIED TO U.S. NAVAL OFFICER: I have to explain to him that daddy's working. But he's like, "But when is daddy coming home?" ENDO: Daddy is Navy Chief Gary Lunn, currently on the USS Dwight Eisenhower, deployed in the North Arabian Sea. Lunn has been deployed for six months; his family eagerly awaits his return. F. LUNN: Where do you see daddy? Do you see daddy on the TV? A. LUNN: Yeah. ENDO: This is Lunn's 9th deployment. But this one is different thanks to a program his kids affectionately call the "Daddy Show." F. LUNN: Press play. Back up so you can see daddy. ENDO: Through a non-profit program called United Through Reading, deployed service members can choose a book and record videos from their base to read aloud to their children. CHIEF GARY LUNN, U.S. NAVY: Today, I'm going to read, the book is called "The Ear Book." A. LUNN: "The Ear Book!" ENDO: Programs like this one that help keep families connected are becoming increasingly popular in the military. When service members with kids are deployed for long stretches, psychologists say it's the children who feel it the most. LYNETTE FRAGA, ZERO TO THREE: Some children may withdraw and you have a difficult time talking about their experience. Or some children are very aggressive and you might see them crying a lot or having trouble sleeping. ENDO: But with these videos, smiles often replace tears, especially for the Lunn family. ROMELLO LOVINSKY, MILITARY CHILD: It's, like, better because I get to see him and he'll get to talk with me and stuff on the videos. ENDO: Do you see a difference in your kids? F. LUNN: Yes, yes. Now, he thinks daddy's around more. ENDO: It's also a major morale boost for the parent serving far away. G. LUNN: I know it's helping me out a lot, especially knowing the response that's coming from it. Just mentally, calming me down and enabling me to stay focused at my job. I love you. I love all of you. Muah! A. LUNN: Muah! ENDO: With the country engaged in two wars and many service members facing multiple deployments, the military is expanding and promoting programs which help ease the strain on families. Sandra Endo, CNN, Norfolk, Virginia. (END VIDEO) Comments . AZUZ: Okay, at Facebook.com/CNNStudentNews, a student named Adrian called our attention to the Month of the Military Child. He told us about his experience as one -- the service and the sacrifice -- and we asked for your experiences as well. Cory described it as an adventure, just by moving around and making new friends along the way. Ryan says it can be hard to keep friendships with the frequent moves, but that he's grown up learning respect and flexibility. Nate says the hardest part is the time his dad spends away from home, but that he couldn't be any more proud as his son. And Kevin says it's hard because his family makes sacrifices, but it's for a big cause. We thank and salute all of you military kids out there for your sacrifices. Before We Go . AZUZ: And before we leave you today, you've heard of electronic music. This would be the literal version: a mechanical marimba player. He's not just banging out some pre-planned tune, either. This is jazz, and he's improvising, learning what his fellow musicians are doing and then adapting to it. At least, that's what they claim. Now, before any of you get worried about robots ruling the music industry, the point here is the interaction: man and machine working together. Goodbye . AZUZ: And that sounds just fine to us, because do you really think a robots-only band would play jazz? There's no chance. They'd totally be metal. Sunday starts National Teacher Appreciation Week. So, while you've got some time over the weekend, why not send us an iReport with a Shoutout to your favorite teacher? You, and I mean you, could be featured on our show! Find out how to send us an iReport at CNNStudentNews.com. We'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Learn why an oil spill is being called an incident of national significance . Hear the details of a debate over removing toys from fast food kids' meals . See how the U.S. military helps keep troops in touch with their families . Use the weekly Newsquiz to test your knowledge of stories you saw on CNN Student News .

(CNN Student News) -- April 20, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Gulf of Mexico • Littleton, Colorado • Afghanistan . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz. It is the worst oil spill in U.S. history, and it happened exactly one year ago. That story leads off this Wednesday edition of CNN Student News. First Up: A Year Later . AZUZ: Blowout preventer, top kill, containment dome. A year ago, most of us had never heard of those terms. But they became part of our everyday lives as we watched the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico unfold. It started on April 20, 2010, with this explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. 11 of the 126 workers on the rig were killed in the explosion. The situation got worse when officials realized that oil was leaking directly out of the well and into the Gulf. Several early attempts to plug that leak completely failed. That left this: a sheen that stretched across parts of the Gulf of Mexico. When a reporter dipped his glove into the water, as you see on your screen right there, you can see just how thick the oil was. Two weeks after the explosion on the rig, the oil reached shore, coating miles of beaches all along the U.S. Gulf Coast and having a devastating impact on local wildlife. Eventually, engineers were able to seal the well and stop the leak, but not before more than 200 million gallons of oil got out. Check out what David Mattingly found when he journeyed back to the Gulf Coast one year after the spill. (BEGIN VIDEO) DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Louisiana officials are watching their worst predictions come true. BP oil spill damage to some sensitive marshes may be permanent. Are these marshes done for? GARRET GRAVES, COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION: This area is likely going to be open water in a few years. MATTINGLY: This is what this 40-acre section of marsh looked like when the oil hit last May. The syrupy crude I saw floating on the water then was just the beginning of the problem. GRAVES: It's wiped out the birds that used to be here. It's wiped out the fish, the shellfish, everything in this area. MATTINGLY: Returning 10 months later, the Louisiana governor's office gave me an exclusive and disturbing look inside this damaged ecosystem. I could still see oil everywhere, sticking to the plants. It's like tar. So sticky. Look at that. It's also saturated the fragile soil. You can find it a foot below the surface. Right down here. Yes, it's down into the roots. Look at that. It's like a paste. And Louisiana officials still look at all this oily black and see red. This confrontation was in December as parish President Billy Nungesser accused the Coast Guard of not doing enough to speed the clean up. After months of study, the Coast Guard now tells me digging out the oil in some areas will do more harm than good. CAPTAIN JAMES HANZALIK, U.S. COAST GUARD: You can actually go in, you can trample oil into the marsh, where it would make it even worse than what it would have been if you would have just left it alone. MATTINGLY: But letting nature take its course could mean watching more of these vanishing marshes wash away. GRAVES: We're losing and trying to prevent the loss of... MATTINGLY: Wait a minute. The wind just shifted. Do you know what I smell? It smells like freshly poured asphalt. GRAVES: It does. MATTINGLY: And there's fear that the oil we see in the marshes is only a fraction of what's here. There's oil underwater, too. This is how most people find submerged oil out here. It looks clean right now, but not for long. Hit it. Watch what happens as a couple of quick spins from our airboat churns up the sediment below and releases the hidden oil. That's not mud we're looking at, is it? Within seconds, a telltale sheen begins to form, a reminder that the losses suffered in this spill are far from over. So, as long as this oil is here, it's just going to keep killing anything that tries to live here. GRAVES: It's going to keep killing, and you're going to have the birds who are going to come back and get re-oiled and they'll go fly somewhere else. And so, yes, the impacts are going to continue. MATTINGLY: And that, officials say, could go on for decades. (END VIDEO) Columbine Remembered . AZUZ: This day in history also marks the anniversary of a tragic event that took place in Littleton, Colorado. On April 20, 1999, a shooting happened at Columbine High School. 13 people were killed; 23 others were wounded. The two shooters eventually killed themselves as well. The attack shocked the country. Former President Bill Clinton described it as "a day that changed us forever." This memorial to the victims of the shooting was unveiled at a park near Columbine High School in 2007. Just the Facts . STAN CASE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Just the Facts! The war in Afghanistan started in 2001 following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S. A U.S.-led coalition removed Afghanistan's Taliban leaders from power. Taliban fighters eventually regrouped and are battling coalition forces to this day. There are currently around 100,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan. Threat of Insurgents . AZUZ: The U.S. is scheduled to start pulling some of those troops out of Afghanistan later this year. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that the pace of the withdrawal will depend on the conditions in Afghanistan. Right now, coalition forces are facing a new threat in their fight against the Taliban. Barbara Starr explains. (BEGIN VIDEO) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. and Afghan forces in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Six U.S. troops lost their lives here trying to dislodge the Taliban and protect local citizens. But it's the threat of insurgents wearing Afghan uniforms and attacking once secure areas that is increasingly worrisome. Former Afghan war commander, retired Lieutenant General David Barno, says the Taliban are getting ready for a U.S. withdrawal. LIEUTENANT GENERAL DAVID BARNO, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Their approach is not only to try and find ways to get inside the wire, as it were, to kill Americans, but also to suddenly undermine psychologically American confidence in their Afghan counterparts. STARR: On Monday, a man wearing an Afghan army uniform entered the secure compound of the Defense Ministry and opened fire, killing two. Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan military uniform struck a military base. On Friday, the Kandahar police chief was killed by a suicide bomber wearing a military uniform. U.S. military officials say civilians still suffer most from the suicide attacks. In February and March of 2010, insurgents killed or injured 82 Afghan civilians. This year it was 353, a 330% jump. But Barno warns U.S. troops shouldn't feel too secure. BARNO: We have felt in the past if we were inside of our bases and if we were working with our Afghan counterparts, that we were relatively secure. And I think that this whole strategy now puts that into question. STARR: The U.S. military is now training Afghan units in basic counterintelligence so they can try to find infiltrators in army and police units before they attack. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon. (END VIDEO) Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! The word "volunteer" can be traced back to what language? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Greek, B) Farsi, C) German or D) Latin? You've got three seconds -- GO! We'll volunteer that the correct answer is Latin. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Volunteer Month . AZUZ: April is Volunteer Month, a time when many Americans help others out without asking for a thing in return. Last year, more than 60 million Americans donated their time and efforts to a variety of causes. Many of you wrote on our blog that your schools are raising money for Japan. But you can find ways to make a difference right in your home town as well! CNN's "Impact Your World" program has a challenge for you. For 2011, they're looking for 11 hours of volunteer time, hoping to get a total of 111,000 hours by the end of the year. Impact Your World . AZUZ: There are lots of ways to volunteer, and the "Impact Your World" site can help you find some of them. If you do volunteer, we'd love to hear about it. Take along a video camera; shoot an iReport for us. You can find a link to the "Impact Your World" page and one that explains how to submit an iReport at CNNStudentNews.com. Before We Go . AZUZ: The finish line is almost in sight. So, on your mark... get set... ... sit down! It's the annual office chair race in a town in Germany. Organizers say all you need to compete are strong legs and a good chair. A helmet's probably a good idea, too, especially since you'll be navigating ramps and jumps on your way downhill. More than 60 people took part in the races. Sure, it's kinda popular now. But the first guy to try steering a work chair down a hill? Goodbye . AZUZ: He was totally office rocker. If you get money for finishing first, we hope the winner donates it to chair-ity. That just kinda seems right for this kind of sit-uation. We hope you can stand more puns, because there are more coming tomorrow. See you then.

Look back at a devastating oil spill that started exactly one year ago . Examine a new threat facing coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan . Consider a challenge from CNN to volunteer 11 hours of your time in 2011 . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, according to unpublished photographs and video viewed by CNN. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group for transport to another rebel area. Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute a "war crime" under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law and could endanger humanitarian workers in the future, according to international legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association. "It is clear that the conventions are very strict regarding use of the symbol because of what it represents: impartiality, neutrality. The fear is that any misuse of the symbol would weaken that neutrality and would weaken the [Red Cross]," Ellis said. Watch possible misuse of emblem » . "If you use the emblem in a deceitful way, generally the conventions say it would be a breach. [Based on the information as explained to me,] the way that the images show the Red Cross emblem being used could be distinguished as a war crime, " he added. The unpublished video and photos of the mission, hailed internationally as a daring success, were shown to CNN by a military source looking to sell the material. CNN declined to buy the material at the price being asked; it was therefore unable to verify the authenticity of the images. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his top generals have categorically denied that international humanitarian symbols were used in the July 2 rescue mission that freed the prized hostages, who included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors and 11 Colombian police and soldiers. The hostages had endured years of harsh captivity and deprivation in jungle camps since being captured or kidnapped. Some were held for as long as 10 years. The rescue ruse also included bogus communications, sent electronically and by human couriers, to convince FARC rebels that superiors were ordering them to hand over hostages to the group posing as aid workers for transfer to another rebel camp. On Monday, government and military spokesmen reiterated that all logos and emblems used in the operation had been invented and that no genuine symbols had been used. Misuse of the Red Cross emblem is governed by articles 37, 38 and 85 of Additional Protocol One to the Geneva Conventions, the international rules of war. The articles prohibit "feigning of protected status by the use of ... emblems" of neutral parties and say that such misuses are considered breaches of international humanitarian law that qualify as a "war crime." Colombia signed the Geneva Conventions in 1949. That prohibition was put in place to protect the neutrality of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations in an armed conflict and to guarantee their access to all sides. Use of those emblems by one side of a conflict, for example, could endanger aid workers because those on another side might no longer trust that symbols they see really represent those humanitarian organizations. An ICRC spokesman in Bogota said the organization had been in "an ongoing confidential dialogue" with the Colombian government about the report that the emblem may have been used in the operation. Among the photos shown to CNN are some bearing a date stamp of July 2, taken at an unidentified landing site in the jungle alongside a farm house. In one of those photographs, about 15 members of a Colombian military intelligence-led team pose for a photo alongside a helicopter. One of the members, dressed in a dark red T-shirt or polo shirt, khaki cargo pants and a black-and-white Arab-style scarf, also wears a bib of the type worn by Red Cross workers. The bib bears the Red Cross symbol in the center of two black circles on a white background. In the space between the two black circles appear in capital letters the French words "Comite International Geneve" (International Committee Geneva). The same man is standing in the doorway of the helicopter, a Russian-made MI-17 painted white and orange, in another photo. In a third photo, he is pictured walking near the helicopter still wearing the bib. The same man pictured in the photos can be seen fleetingly in a heavily edited video of the rescue mission issued to the media by the Defense Ministry two days after the hostages were freed. In one frame, part of what appears to be the Red Cross bib is visible as the man wearing it stands in a jungle clearing alongside guerrilla commanders Gerardo Antonio Aguilar, alias Cesar, and Alexander Farfan, known as Enrique Gafas, who were captured in the operation. The red blur of a Red Cross can be seen and part of the two black circles of the emblem and the capital letters "EVE". Those are also the last three letters of word Geneve (Geneva), which appears on the official ICRC emblem and bib. In two other frames of the officially released video, the same man, dressed in the same clothes as in the pre-departure photos, can be seen still wearing the predominantly white bib tied at the sides. In those shots the ICRC logo is not visible. The unpublished video also reveals an emblem that bears the Spanish words "Mision Internacional Humanitaria" (International Humanitarian Mission) and a stylized red bird made up of wavy red lines above two curved branches of blue leaves. In the 3½-minute video of the operation issued by the military, emblems pasted on the side of the rescue helicopter cannot be seen. But in the unpublished video and photos shown to CNN, emblems measuring about one square meter (one square yard) are pasted onto the outside of the chopper. The same emblem appears on the Web site for Mision Internacional Humanitaria, which describes itself as a non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, that "works to improve the processes of development to guarantee equality of opportunity for individuals and peoples." Although the site says the group is registered with the Spanish Interior Ministry and the regional Department of Justice, the site is littered with misspellings, and the telephone number that's listed is 000000000. CNN was unable to contact the group to verify its existence. The group's Web site could not be accessed early Tuesday. Additional video clips show how the emblems on the side of the helicopter were stripped off and burned once the rescue mission had been completed. The fate of the bib is not clear from the clips. In a brief statement Monday, the media spokesman for the Red Cross mission in Bogota reiterated that the group had not been officially involved in the rescue operation. "The International Committee of the Red Cross cannot confirm that its logo and/or the Red Cross emblem were used," the spokesman said. "The ICRC maintains an ongoing confidential dialogue with the Colombian authorities on a variety of humanitarian issues, including news reports that the Red Cross emblem may have been used in this operation." Uribe, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla and army chief Gen. Mario Montoya all categorically stated immediately after the rescue operation that no genuine international humanitarian emblems had been used or misused. In a nationally televised news conference, Uribe asked Betancourt whether she had seen any emblems on the helicopter that came to pick her and the other hostages up. She replied that she had not and that the lack of markings had puzzled her. "After all these years of guerrilla war, we have become experts in identifying who is before us," she answered. "That's why I said it was very strange to me. I said, 'Well, what is this? A helicopter, a white helicopter. Red Cross? No. France? No.' There was no flag. There was nothing; there was no sign anywhere." In the official video released by the military, the man wearing what appeared to be a Red Cross bib is standing alongside Betancourt and another rescued hostage just before they board the rescue helicopter. That is in the part of the video in which the logo is blurred and not readily identifiable. Both of Colombia's two main guerrilla armies, the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army, have been known to misuse the Red Cross symbol, sometimes transporting fighters in ambulances. The Colombian government frequently makes international denunciations of rebel violations of international humanitarian law. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world are highly respected international and national organizations, especially for their work in combat zones. Their statutes establish a position of strict neutrality in a conflict, which guarantees their ability to bring humanitarian aid to all sides in a conflict. Other national and international aid organizations do not have such strict rules on neutrality and operating procedures. International humanitarian law, partly enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, is seen as a systematic attempt to establish certain rules of war and limit the savagery of conflict. The laws seek to set clear distinctions between warring factions, neutral parties and civilians and what rights and responsibilities each of these has in a combat zone. Additional Protocol One and the articles referring to the misuse of international emblems technically refers to international armed conflicts. But signatory nations as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross also consider it a benchmark for internal conflicts, such as the four-decade-old war in Colombia. Other photos shown to CNN indicate how little was done to disguise equipment used in the rescue. The two military MI-17 helicopters used in the rescue were repainted white and orange without removing armor-plated panels positioned around the outside of the cockpit. Another shot shows the pilots wearing what appear to be military pilots' helmets that have been repainted white with orange or red V-shaped stripes. The helmets still have prominent mounts on the front used for attaching night vision goggles. One other video clip shows the two guerrilla commanders, who had boarded the helicopter with their hostages, carried out of the chopper over the shoulders of two men the CNN source identified as plain-clothes military personnel. The rebels were blindfolded and partially stripped. As they were dumped on the ground, they appeared groggy and stunned. Before the departure of the operation, two soldiers in camouflage uniforms can be seen on the farm where the helicopters were staged, chasing a chicken and stunning it with a stun gun.

Photos from miltary source show man wearing bib with Red Cross logo . Such misuse of symbol could be violation of Geneva Conventions . Expert says misuse of Red Cross emblem could endanger real aid workers . Colombia has denied using international symbols in its July 2 rescue ruse .

(CNN) -- European intelligence agencies are on alert for new al Qaeda terrorist plots following the arrest of two men at an Italian port and investigations into the activities of an alleged al Qaeda network based in Brussels. Bassam Ayachi officiated at the wedding of Malika el Aroud (pictured), who became an al Qaeda "icon." The two are closely tied to a Brussels-based al Qaeda recruiting network, Belgian counter-terrorism officials have told CNN. They are Bassam Ayachi, 62, and Raphael Gendron, 33 -- and they were detained in the port of Bari on November 11 last year after allegedly trying to smuggle three Palestinians and two Syrians into Italy in the false bottom of a camper van they were driving. Now they face much more serious allegations following a counter-terrorism investigation by Italian, French and Belgian police. Italian authorities have officially charged them with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda. A bug planted by Italian police in the suspects' detention facility picked up snatches of conversation about an alleged scheme to attack Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. A partial transcript of one of their alleged conversations has now been released. "I'll hit de Gaulle," Gendron tells Ayachi. "We'll hit it there," Ayachi replies. "At night when there will be a lot of people." Later in the conversation they appear to discuss buying grenades off contacts in the Middle East. French authorities have said that they were never aware of a concrete plot to attack the airport. Italy suspects well known to Belgian Security Services . Ayachi and Gendron were detained after Italian authorities allegedly found Jihadist propaganda in their possession when they arrived on a ferry from Greece. Belgian police say they alerted Italian authorities that the pair were known extremists. Ayachi is a naturalized French cleric of Syrian descent, and in the early 1990s had founded the Centre Islamique Belge (CIB), an organization Belgian authorities say espoused hard-line Salafist and pro al Qaeda views. Gendron, described by Italian police as a computer expert, was the main administrator of the CIB's Web site in Belgium. In 2006 Gendron and Ayachi's son Abdel Rahman Ayachi were convicted in Belgium for posting threatening anti-Semitic messages on the site. Their prison sentences were later reduced to a fine by an Appeals court. A Belgian counter-terrorism source tells CNN that the CIB has clandestinely continued its operations in Belgium. When CNN reporters visited its headquarters on the Rue Memling in Brussels in February, Islamists appeared to still occupy the premises. In previous interviews with Belgian journalists, Avachi said his organization concentrated on pastoral care for Muslims in Brussels and did not promote pro-al Qaeda views. In April 1999 Ayachi officiated at the wedding of two protégés at CIB, Abdessattar Dahmane and Malika el Aroud. The couple would later become "icons" of the al Qaeda movement, according to Belgian counter-terrorism officials. Two days before 9/11, Dahmane assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, in a suicide bombing operation in Afghanistan. After his death Malika el Aroud, a Belgian citizen of Moroccan descent who had accompanied him to Afghanistan, returned to Europe and founded Minbar.SOS -- a Web site promoting Bin Laden's Jihad. She also remarried. In a CNN interview in 2006 el Aroud demonstrated how she and her new husband Moez Garsallaoui ran the site, which contained postings of attacks on coalition troops in Iraq and translations of the speeches of al Qaeda leaders. Alleged recruitment for training in Pakistan . According to Belgian police el Aroud and Garsallaoui moved to Brussels in 2007 and worked in tandem to recruit operatives to train in the tribal areas of Pakistan. El Aroud, it is alleged, inspired young men to volunteer for Jihad through her incendiary Web postings. Garsallaoui, the police say, went out to the streets to recruit people. El Aroud was arrested last December in Brussels and charged along with five others with participation in a terrorist group. She denies the charge. El Aroud and Garsallaoui allegedly recruited six individuals in all, four from Belgium and two from France, according to legal documents obtained by CNN. Those documents include the interrogation report of one of the French recruits who traveled to Pakistan and was arrested when he returned to Europe. The recruit, who can only be named by his initials W.O., told French authorities that several members of their traveling group including Garsallaoui, were given explosives training by al Qaeda trainers in Pakistan's Federally Administered tribal areas early in 2008. During the two-week course, according to the legal documents, W.O. alleged that Egyptian and Syrian instructors taught them how to assemble weapons, fire rocket launchers, and how to handle explosives. One trainer even set off a small charge of TNT in demonstration, telling them that the explosive was used to attack U.S. convoys in Afghanistan and in suicide vests. Belgian security services went on high alert after members of the group started to return from the tribal areas in late 2008, concerned they might have been tasked to launch attacks in Europe. According to [Belgian] counter-terrorism sources, the trigger for the Brussels arrests was an intercepted e-mail sent by one of the alleged recruits, Hicham Beyayo, in early December shortly after he returned to Belgium. The e-mail allegedly suggested that Beyayo had been given the green light to launch an attack in Belgium. However no explosives were recovered by Belgian police, and some terrorism analysts are skeptical that an attack was imminent. Beyayo's lawyer Christophe Marchand told CNN the email was merely "tough talk" to impress an ex-girlfriend. Belgian authorities continue to insist that the alleged cell was a potential national security threat. The alleged role of Ayachi and Gendron . A senior Belgian intelligence source told CNN that Ayachi and Gendron -- the two men detained in Italy -- were known to provide ideological support for members of the alleged Brussels terrorism network, but at this time were not suspected of having played a direct role in recruiting young European Muslims for training in Pakistan. Questions on their role, however, have been raised by a new revelation by Italian investigators, who allege that when they were arrested, Ayachi and Gendron were carrying the last will and testament of Beyayo, whose e-mail had caused such alarm. In the alleged will Beyayo made clear he was ready for martyrdom. "When you hear of my death...don't wear black and most importantly don't display my photo," Beyayo purportedly wrote. "I will emigrate to the field of Jihad to triumph for the religion of God, to defend the Muslim countries and to protect the sacred lands of the Muslims. And I will be a great help to the Mujahedeen brothers." Marchand told CNN that such a document in no way indicated that his client was preparing an attack in Europe. [He said Beyayo had traveled to the tribal areas of Pakistan to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, not to become an al Qaeda operative]. "Writing a will was hardly unusual behavior for somebody whose aim was to go and fight jihad in Afghanistan," Marchand said. According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, Ayachi's CIB and Malika el Aroud's Web site served as focal points for many of those linked to the alleged Brussels network. The officials say that, Ayachi, Gendron, el Aroud, Garsallaoui and Beyayo belonged to a tight-knit 20-30 strong community of militants in Brussels. CNN, through its own investigation and through Belgian legal and police sources, has identified the user names under which several of these individuals, including Gendron, Garsallaoui and Beyayo posted messages on El Aroud's site Minbar SOS. Continued security concerns . According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, three of the seven individuals who traveled to the Afghan-Pakistan border region in 2008 for training are still at large in the area. Some European counter-terrorism officials believe this is a significant security concern, given the Brussels network's track record In smuggling people into Europe. In an interview with CNN, Alain Winants, the director of Belgian Intelligence said: "Every secret service will tell you that individuals who are already radicalized and who are in addition are being specialized in some fighting techniques or techniques of propaganda are representing a big risk when they come back." Those still at large, Belgian counter-terrorism sources say, include Moez Garsallaoui, (Malika el Aroud's husband) who they believe has developed close ties with the top leadership of al Qaeda in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Belgian counter-terrorism officials told CNN that Garsallaoui was in regular email contact from the region with his wife before her arrest last December. According to a lawyer briefed on the legal dossier in the Belgian case, in June 2008 Garsallaoui allegedly sent el Aroud an e-mail claiming to have killed five Americans in Afghanistan. His wife congratulated him, according to the legal source. Garsallaoui also purportedly posted messages on el Aroud's radical Web site from the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a message posted last September urging militants in Europe to launch attacks. "The solution my brothers and sisters is not fatwas but boooooooms," the posting stated. The posting was discovered by CNN under Garsallaoui's purported user name on the Minbar SOS Web site. Earlier this week Garsallaoui purportedly posted a new statement on Minbar.SOS. In the message which was entitled "We Need You" he said he had joined up with Taliban forces who were making raids against American troops in Afghanistan from the tribal areas of Pakistan. "The Jihad is going well and the Taliban are stronger than ever, they are gaining territory every day and more important than that they are winning the trust of the local population," he claimed. But Garsallaoui purportedly also had this sobering message for Belgian authorities: . "If you thought that you could pressure me to slow down through the arrest of my wife you were wrong. It won't stop me fulfilling my objectives...those who laugh last, laugh more."

Italy arrests of two men spurs European terror alert . Pair closely tied to a Brussels-based al Qaeda recruiting network, officials say . Italy charged them with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda .

(CNN) -- If you're taking a strict view on the world's most bike-friendly cities, the eventual list would mainly take in a smallish patch of northwest Europe. One such rating table, produced by the Denmark-based cycling advocacy group Copenhagnize, has more than half its top 20 bike-friendly places clustered around the Netherlands, France, Germany and Denmark. Instead, we'll spread our net more widely, rewarding aspiration, ambition and progress, as well as just endless ranks of smiling cyclists pedaling sensible bikes on segregated paths. Utrecht, Netherlands . Lists such as this one traditionally begin with Amsterdam, but while the Netherlands' most populous city is definitely bike friendly, we're marking it down for the hordes of wobbling tourists on bright-red rental machines. Instead we're heading southeast to Utrecht, a city that has a fair claim to being the globe's most pro-two-wheel destination. In its center, up to 50% of all journeys take place in the saddle and local authorities are building a 12,500-space cycle parking facility billed as the world's biggest. As in all Dutch cities, visitors from places with a more belligerent traffic culture might be struck at how normal it all feels. Cycling in Utrecht is treated on par with walking, with helmets and high-visibility garments rarely used, not least because of the protection offered by segregated cycle lanes. One well known English cycle blogger, Mark Treasure, was struck by the range in ages on a visit to Utrecht. "I find it hard to imagine children this young cycling into the center of any UK city at all, let alone cycling in and looking so happy and relaxed, and so ordinary," he writes. "Yet in Utrecht, families cycling around together is commonplace." Seville, Spain . Seville is the answer to those who say promoting urban bike use is too ambitious and takes decades. In 2006, the Andalusian capital's government, vexed by the city's four daily rush hours (yes, four! This is siesta-taking southern Spain) decided to take action. There was plenty of naysaying. Critics pointed out Spain has scant tradition of commuter cycling. Some questioned who would ride in midsummer through Europe's hottest regions and risk arriving at work as damp as if they'd just pedaled through a mechanical car wash. Undaunted, the city established about 50 miles of cycle lanes within a year (there's now about 80 miles) and commissioned a municipal bike rental plan called Sevici. The result? Within about six years, journeys made by bike shot from less than 0.5% to about 7%, and city transportation chiefs from around the world suddenly had the perfect excuse to arrange week-long fact-finding trips in the sun. Montreal . By long tradition one of the few North American cities in these sort of lists, Montreal began constructing bike paths in the 1980s and now has almost 400 miles of them. The addition of its popular and pioneering Bixi municipal bike-share plan, the model for those later rolled out in Paris and London, has meant a remarkable amount of cycle use, especially for a place where daytime winter temperature above 10 C (50 F) is viewed as dangerously tropical. Cycling stats for Montreal indicate the city still has work to do and cycle groups say too many riders are nudged onto busy roads. One survey says nearly half the city's adult population rides a bike at least once a week, yet little more than 2% of commutes are made on two wheels. "The challenge is that we have asked people to start using their bicycles and they've done it so much faster than we've been able to change the city," Aref Salem, the person in charge of mass transit on Montreal's executive committee, told the Toronto Star recently. Copenhagen, Denmark . Much like ignoring France on a roster of great cheese countries, a list of top cycling cities excluding Copenhagen just wouldn't be right. More than half the locals in the Danish capital cycle to work or school, and with an estimated bike population of 650,000 there are slightly more cycles than people. Enough of these are available to rent to tourists, and Copenhagen's compact dimensions and tolerant traffic make it perfect to explore by bike. City leaders are intent not just on increasing bike use further, but exporting the Copenhagen doctrine of a segregated and safe bike infrastructure that features bike lanes of up to three meters (about 10 feet) in width. There's an official Cycling Embassy of Denmark to spread the word, while the founder of the aforementioned Copenhagenize group, Mikael Colville-Andersen, spends much of his working life telling other cities how to copy the Danish model. Berlin . Less shouted about than the Dutch or Danish examples, Germany has nonetheless been quietly getting on with boosting bike use in many of its cities. Berlin is the standout example. About 13% of all trips in the city are made by bike, nearly twice the rate of 20 years ago. In some inner suburbs this hits 20%. This is particularly impressive given the city's long, freezing winters, abundant public transport and status as capital of a nation with a long tradition of manufacturing cars and driving them at absurd speeds on autobahns. Aside from clever and consistent public policy designed to boost bike use, Berlin has a number of inbuilt advantages. Streets are often hugely wide, in part a consequence of the devastation of World War II and grandiose postwar Soviet planning, and the terrain is largely flat. While many Berliners live in apartments, often a difficulty for those using bikes, the city's traditional Mietskaserne tenement blocks tend to be built around a central courtyard, giving space for secure storage. What's most impressive is the sheer scale -- Berlin has a population of about 3.5 million people, far bigger than the relatively small likes of Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Portland, Oregon . "The groundwork for the city's bike infrastructure was laid over 20 years ago," says Brian Zeck, bike manager of Portland's River City Bicycles. "It has built upon itself over the years and bicycling has become somewhat ingrained in the culture of the city. "In some ways, Portland now has the feel of a European city." That infrastructure includes more than 65 miles of bike paths, 30 miles of low-traffic bike boulevards and 175 miles of bike lanes, all of which are used with gusto by the 8% of citizens who claim that biking is their primary form of transportation, and 10% who say a bike is their secondary vehicle. All of those numbers are climbing annually, thanks to the city's grand Bicycle Plan for 2030, unanimously adopted by the City Council in 2010. The plan calls for attracting new riders by forming a denser bike network, reducing vehicle speed limits on designated streets (thus increasing safety for riders) and increasing bicycle parking, among other measures. The most exciting development for Portland bikers is the planned 2015 opening of the Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People spanning the Willamette River, which divides the east and west sides of the city. The first span built over the river since 1973, "the bridge will be distinctive in the United States, designed to carry light rail trains, buses, cyclists, pedestrians and streetcars, but not private vehicles," according to TriMet, the local public agency that operates mass transit. The bridge will feature two 14-foot-wide pedestrian and bike lanes. According to the League of American Bicyclists, an estimated 2,100 races, rides and other biking events are held in Portland each year. Tokyo . Wait, Tokyo? The one with more than 13 million inhabitants covering 800-plus square miles. That Tokyo? Correct. In this vast, crammed capital city, an amazing 14% of all trips are made by bike. There are practical reasons many Tokyo residents prefer a bike to a car for shorter journeys. Before you can even buy a car in the city you must prove you possess a (rare and usually expensive) off-street parking spot. Cycling here is different. Few people cycle to work -- distances tend to be long and the mass transit system is hugely efficient. Instead, rides tend to be around the countless neighborhoods that make up the city. Also, a lot of cycling takes place -- legally -- on footpaths and sidewalks. These aren't the Lycra-clad speedsters of London or New York. Tokyo cyclists use practical "mamachari" bikes with sturdy frames, baskets for shopping and seats containing one or two small children. They pedal about the pavement on these weighty behemoths, rarely reaching the pace of a jog, keeping out of the way of each other and pedestrians with ample use of the so-called "gaman" attitude, a sort of stoic tolerance for others which makes life in such a vast, packed city more or less work. Bogota, Colombia . Call this one an honorable mention. Colombia's capital is by no means as obviously cycle-friendly as others on this list, with fewer than 5% of Bogota's journeys involving bikes, increasing car numbers and choking smog. Nonetheless, it merits its place for effort, not least for tempting so many citizens of an often deprived and hugely packed city -- the population is fast nearing 9 million -- onto two wheels. Did we mention it's located 2,600 meters (8,500 feet) above sea level? Anyone thinking of pedaling around as a tourist should be prepared for some undignified wheezing the first day or so. Credit is due to the city's former mayor, Enrique Penalosa, who on taking office in 1998 canceled a planned highway through the city center and kick-started a process that's seen Bogota acquire nearly 200 miles of protected bike lanes and, soon, its own bike-rental plan. The best way to try two-wheeled life in Bogota is a weekly Sunday ritual known as Ciclovia that sees 70 miles of streets closed to vehicles and given over to bikes and pedestrians. Peter Walker is a journalist based in the UK who regularly contributes to cycling publications. He once rode a bike most of the way from Sydney to London. CNN Travel's series often carries sponsorship originating from the countries and regions we profile. However CNN retains full editorial control over all of its reports. Read the policy.

Netherlands city of Utrecht is building the world's biggest bike parking facility . Bogota may be cursed by smog and heavy traffic, but the city's mayor is credited with dramatically boosting bike use . In Tokyo, nearly 14% of all journeys are made by bicycle .

(CNN) -- It's no Super Bowl. Heck, it's no Monday Night Football, but for an American audience, Monday's Manchester derby -- that is, the English club soccer game between Manchester's two Premier League teams -- is about as big as it gets stateside. Sure, many American sports fans call the sport boring and complain there's not enough scoring. It moves too slowly, they say, and is marred by prima donnas who flop to the ground if you breathe on them. Haters aside, the United States is taking notice. ESPN moved the game from ESPN 2 to its flagship station, a first for a weekday Premiership game. Pubs across the nation are anticipating big crowds, and some Americans are doing something very British for match day: skipping out of work early. "You'll definitely want to see this. It's as high a stakes game as you'll see in any soccer league in the world," said Sports Illustrated senior writer and soccer guru, Grant Wahl. Wahl likened the match between No. 1 Manchester United and No. 2 Manchester City to the New York Jets and New York Giants playing in the Super Bowl, or perhaps the Iron Bowl, which pits cross-state rivals Auburn and Alabama against each other at the end of the college football season. Ferguson experience key to Manchester derby . He's never seen a Manchester derby this important in the 15 years he's been covering soccer, said Wahl, who authored the book, "The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America." ESPN announced this week it moved the game to take advantage of the live edition of "SportsCenter" that will lead into the game, which begins at 3 p.m. ET. In an e-mail, spokesman Mac Nwulu said the paid programming on ESPN2 prior to the game typically draws about 221,000 viewers, where "SportsCenter" will have an expected audience of 482,000. The live lead-in is key to sports programming, he said. The network's English Premier League offerings on ESPN2 this year are 50% percent higher than last year's games, so English soccer's popularity is increasing in the U.S., Nwulu said. "Best matchup of the season," Nwulu said of Monday's game. "So far, 20 teams have each played an average of 36 matches. And with two match-days to go, EPL has one game that is akin to a title game in a league series not decided by knockouts." We've come a long way . British sports commentator Ian Darke, who will be calling the game for ESPN, predicts a "turbo-charged occasion" and said he has noticed America's growing interest in soccer since ABC hired him to call games for the U.S.-hosted World Cup in 1994. "Producers (back then) said to explain what offsides was and explain the laws of the game as we went along," he recalled. "Now, there's been a complete change of emphasis." Today, more Americans -- many of whom played the sport in school and youth leagues -- have a better grasp on the basics, and commentators cover games in a more "authentic way, as if it were being broadcast for a European audience." ESPN isn't the only one sensing the game taking off in the states. Hugh Folkerth, a bartender at Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon, said that not so long ago Horse Brass was the premier place to watch English soccer in the city. As the game has become more popular, more bars carry the matches and more people get the games at home, so the number of patrons coming to watch soccer at Horse Brass has taken a hit. Of the derby Monday, Folkerth said he's received calls from people asking if he's showing it, and he expects a few more patrons than usual during the lunchtime rush. A CNN Facebook page asking if fans were planning to skip work or school Monday drew plenty of the aforementioned haters, but a handful of fans said they'd be playing hooky. "Will be skipping class at University and have already re-scheduled couple meetings already," wrote Tejash Patel, a United fan. "Work? School? Bills? Life? All of it stops when the Derby is in play!" wrote fellow Red Devil Parker Smith. Added Oladeji Thompson, "I'm coming home very early from work." Continue the conversation on Facebook here . Fado Irish pubs in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta say they're expecting plenty of people to forsake their professors and employers. Both are tripling their staff. Austin general manager John O'Brien is expecting about 200 people for the game, which airs there at 2 p.m. In Atlanta, general manager Brian Russell said he is expecting a similar crowd. Though he's bringing in the doorman who generally works only on weekends, he's not anticipating any problems with the crowd, he said. "We'll just make sure the volume is loud, the TVs are on and we have enough staff to get everyone food and drinks," Russell said. What's the big deal anyway? So, the uninitiated may be asking, why all the fuss over this particular game? Well, there are many storylines. The first is that it's a derby, so there's the longstanding city rivalry in addition to the championship implications. United's Old Trafford and City's Etihad Stadium are separated by about five miles, so you can imagine how the game divides friends, family, coworkers and neighbors. Sara Tomkins, assistant chief executive for the Manchester City Council, called it "one of the most anticipated derbies this city has seen for a decade" and said those not lucky enough to get tickets, which are commanding £1,300 ($2,115) online, will be filling up the city's pubs or gathering around the TV at home. Police aren't expecting problems, according to a statement from Superintendent John O'Hare, but they've asked local businesses to "take extra safety measures such as using plastic glasses, employing more door staff and keeping an eye on the front of house. ... People will see extra patrols. This is not because we are expecting trouble; it is to make sure people feel safe to come and watch the match." ESPN's Darke, who has been covering English derbies for almost 40 years, said he is expecting a rowdy and raucous atmosphere. "Manchester's going to be quite a lively place, no matter the outcome. I might bring a tin helmet like the soldiers wear," he said with a chuckle. Another reason for the hullabaloo is that both teams are insanely wealthy. For United, the reigning English champs, this is nothing new. Founded in 1878, the team boasts 19 English championships and three European crowns. City, on the other hand, hasn't won the English title since 1968 and played unremarkably for the better part of four decades until Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family bought the team in 2008. United has always been the "glamour team" with the big players, where City have been the forgettable step-relatives, and "City fans are wearily philosophical about it," Darke said. "City fans are sick to death of United ruling their roost, and here's their chance," he said. "They will celebrate like there's no tomorrow if they pull it off." Both teams are now among the most loaded clubs in the world. The professional services firm, Deloitte, reported that with €367 million ($487 million), United was No. 3 in revenues last year, behind Spanish powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona. City came in at 11th with €170 million ($225 million). To give you an idea what these figures mean, Forbes reported that average revenue among NFL teams in 2010 was $261 million. City and United have used their fortunes to acquire some of the biggest soccer names in the world: Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Rio Ferdinand among them. The five dozen players on the two teams represent stars from 23 countries. "(City) bought a lot of talent," said Sports Illustrated's Wahl. "The question is whether they bought a great team. The questions are going to remain until they win a title." Topsy-turvy . Also stoking interest in the match is soap-opera-like drama surrounding it. Not only has the injection of Middle Eastern cash made City more competitive, but the Blues thrashed the American-owned United 6-1 during their first meeting, a result Wahl called "the most shocking result we've seen all year." City stood atop the Premier League for months until March, when United seemed to find its form and took the lead. From there, it seemed a United repeat was inevitable, but in recent weeks, the tables have turned again. United has a win, loss and tie in its last three matches, while City has three wins. Each team's coach has engaged in a bit of psychological banter ahead of the fixture. United's Alex Ferguson has prohibited his team from making statements about the game, calling it the most important derby since he took over the club in 1986. City's Roberto Mancini cheekily fired back that the 6-1 drubbing earlier this year was more important. In a strange twist, he also said his team has no chance of winning the title and went so far as to congratulate United on its championship with three games remaining. Mancini simply knows his team performed better as underdogs this season than they did when they sat atop the table, Darke said. "He knows how big this game is. Everything he's been saying in the last few days, he's trying to take pressure off his players," he said. "It's the lousiest piece of psychological warfare ever." United will have to go into Etihad, where City hasn't lost all season, and snatch three points to ensure their second championship in as many years. City is three points behind United, but with a win, can take the Premiership lead. They'll be tied with United in the points column but will take first place because they have scored one more goal than United and given up five fewer than the Reds this season. Though City is the favorite in the betting houses, no one seemed comfortable offering a prediction. Darke said his thoughts on the outcome were meaningless. "Anything could happen. I'd just urge people to watch it," he said.

ESPN moves English club soccer game to flagship station for first time in history . Manchester derby pits city rivals against each other for national championship . Pubs bolster staffs, as Americans plan to skip school, work for Monday match . ESPN announcer expecting lively crowd, "might bring a tin helmet," he jokes .

Gaza City (CNN) -- Explosions rumbled through Gaza City all night into Friday, and shortly after sunup, two detonations landed just 500 to 600 yards away from CNN's team sending it running for cover inside the hotel. A litany of bombardments provided for a sleepless night of hearing and feel incoming ordinance exploding and watching rockets leaving Gaza for Israel. Falling bombs made doors clatter and sometimes even one's bones. Clouds of smoke sprouted into the sky paralleling the repetition of thunderous booms. New destruction will await Egypt's new Prime Minister Hesham Kandil, when he arrives Friday morning in Gaza to meet with Palestinian officials. Israel reported three people were killed, and Palestinians reported 19 deaths, including at least three killed late Thursday. Hamas gave conflicting information as to how many of them were Hamas militants. At least 422 rockets from Gaza have been fired into Israel since "Operation Pillar of Defense" began Wednesday, the Israeli military said. Israel's Iron Dome defense system has intercepted 130, the Israel Defense Forces said. The al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas' military arm, said on its Twitter feed that it had shot 527 projectiles at Israel in that time. Q&A: Gaza strikes could be beginning of ground attack . One rocket struck an open area near Rishon LeZion, an Israeli city with more than 200,000 residents just south of Tel Aviv, the IDF said. Also, air sirens went off inside and outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. The building was evacuated briefly, and employees were allowed back in when the sirens stopped. An explosion was heard far off in the distance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the building at the time of the evacuation, ministry officials said. Israel has targeted more than 300 "terror sites" in Gaza, the IDF said. The military said it targeted scores of "medium and long range rocket launch and infrastructure sites across the Gaza Strip." The Israeli navy has taken aim at targets along Gaza's shoreline, the IDF said. Airstrikes continued overnight, with planes striking sites in Gaza City. Sources with Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that more than 140 strikes had hit Gaza. The al-Qassam Brigade said its operatives downed a military drone east of Gaza. An Israeli military spokeswoman told CNN that no IDF aircraft was shot down. At least three Israelis were killed and four were wounded when a rocket struck an apartment building in the town of Kiryat Malakhi on Thursday, an Israeli police spokesman said. Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich tweeted a photo that she said was a baby wounded from a rocket attack in Israel. The baby's face is blurred, but the child appears to be spattered with blood. The al-Qassam Brigade tweeted a screen shot from Hamas-run al Aqsa TV, showing the mangled body of a child. "Israel's military kills Palestinian children in cold blood in #Gaza," the tweet said. Al-Aqsa TV quoted the health ministry as saying 19 people had been killed, among them six children and two "elderly." The channel said more than 180 people have been wounded since the Israeli strikes began this week in Gaza. Israel has reported several people wounded, including another three soldiers injured Thursday morning by rockets from Gaza. Israel denies attacks linked to upcoming election . Hamdan insisted that Israel "started the war." "We are defending ourselves," he said, arguing that Netanyahu was looking to cement support in advance of an election in two months. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak denied that any politics are involved in the decision. Speaking to CNN, Barak said Israel has destroyed most of the "heavy long-range rockets" used by militants in Gaza and is working to "systematically destroy" installations in which other rockets are produced. "It will take some time," he said. Israeli forces are going after Hamas weapons, storage bunkers, weapons labs and workshops, an Israeli official told CNN. The official has direct knowledge of Israeli plans but declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. The Israeli army moved nearly a division's worth of troops -- perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 -- to the border, the official said. While multiple militant groups are behind the rocket attacks, Israel holds Hamas responsible ever since it took control of Gaza, Barak said. Hamas' military wing has claimed responsibility for numerous operations in the past. The U.S. government and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Photos: Deadly attacks in Gaza and Israel . Netanyahu issued a statement Thursday saying, "In recent days and weeks, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza have made normal life impossible for over 1 million Israelis. No government would tolerate a situation where nearly a fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire." He added, "The terrorists are committing a double war crime. They fire at Israeli civilians, and they hide behind Palestinian civilians. And by contrast, Israel takes every measure to avoid civilian casualties." Ghazi Hamad, Hamas' deputy foreign minister, told CNN that Hamas was sending rockets toward Israel's population because Israel thinks "that it is easy to kill people in Gaza," enter the area and "do everything" it wants in Gaza. "We send a message to them that Gaza is not an easy bone. ... You can't eat Gaza in one minute. If you do something, we will react." Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said the Israeli government has "proven that it is a government of war and not peace." Israel is "the oppressor," not the victim, he said. Concern over possibility of a ground assault . The sudden increase in violence has raised fears of a widening conflict that could lead to an Israeli ground assault. Tony Blair, envoy for the Middle East Quartet, which is working to bring about a peace agreement, said on Thursday: "I don't think we should be of any doubt at all that if this situation continues and it escalates, it's going to be really serious and tragic -- not just for Israelis and Palestinians, but actually it will cause a huge amount of upheaval right across the region, and this is a region, as you know, that doesn't require more upheaval right now." British Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement saying he is "gravely concerned" and calling on all sides to avoid civilian casualties. "Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis. I utterly condemn rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups. This creates an intolerable situation for Israeli civilians in southern Israel, who have the right to live without fear of attack from Gaza. The rocket attacks also risk worsening the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is already precarious." Read more: Palestinians: 13-year-old boy killed in Gaza . Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the Palestinian Fatah movement based in the West Bank, is cutting short a visit to Europe to follow developments of "the Israeli aggression on the Gaza strip," PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erakat said. Israel says it has called thousands of residents in Gaza to warn them of strikes and dropped leaflets in Gaza warning Palestinian civilians to "avoid being present in the vicinity of Hamas operatives," the IDF said. It also uses "roof knocking" -- targeting a building "with a loud but nonlethal bomb that warns civilians that they are in the vicinity of a weapons cache or other target. This method is used to allow all residents to leave the area before the IDF targets the site with live ammunition." Read more: Israel: 'All options on the table in Gaza' Roar of planes followed by 'kaboom' At one point Thursday morning, 13 rockets were fired in quick succession from Gaza into Israel. A CNN crew could see trails of smoke as they reported from the Israeli side of the Erez Crossing on Gaza's northern border. The crew was forced to take cover after rockets struck near the border crossing. Later, reporting from Gaza City, the crew witnessed airstrikes and plumes of black smoke in many parts of the city. Read more: Violence flares as Israelis, Palestinians trade fire . Watch: Israel's deputy PM on Gaza strikes . Watch: Senior Hamas member on strikes in Gaza . Egypt watches with interest . The escalating violence is likely to further erode Israel's fragile relationship with Egypt, which recalled its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday in protest over the ongoing strikes. It also delivered a formal protest to the Israeli government. On Thursday, when asked by CNN's Hala Gorani if treaties between Egypt and Israel are in danger, the chief of the Egyptian presidential cabinet said no. "Not at all. Because we have declared several times, repeatedly, that we abide by our international commitments," Mohamed Refa'a al-Tahtawi said. "But respecting a peace treaty does not mean to stay idle or indifferent to what is going on along our borders. A spokesman for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy said the Arab League will meet Saturday in emergency session to discuss the violence. "Egypt is taking all diplomatic measures with all parties involved to reach some sort of immediate truce or cease fire," Yaser Ali added. A senior official in U.S. President Obama's administration told CNN that the White House is asking Egypt and Turkey -- two nations that have influence with Hamas -- to urge the group to de-escalate the rocket attacks. But a Hamas deputy foreign minister told CNN: "I am in touch with the Egyptians they are very angry and very upset because they feel that Israel put a knife in their back" by attacking sites in Gaza. Egypt's Prime Minister Hesham Kandil will travel on Friday morning to Gaza with a team of presidential advisers and ministers to meet with Palestinian officials. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon also will go to Egypt and Israel next week, because of the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas, a Western diplomat told CNN. The diplomat said the Secretary General has canceled a trip to Mozambique, Botswana, Seychelles and Mauritius to go to the Middle East. CNN's Sara Sidner and Talal Abu-Rahma reported from southern Israel and Gaza City; CNN's Josh Levs and Chelsea Carter reported from Atlanta; CNN's Jessica Yellin, Saad Abedine and Joe Vaccarello as well as journalists Per Nyberg and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

Israel says 422 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel in past two days . Warplanes bomb sites in Gaza City overnight . Both sides tweet photos of children struck by the violence . Egyptian PM, delegation head to Gaza on Friday morning .

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Diplomatic wheels turned Tuesday as much of the international community prepared to welcome -- and help support -- a new government in Ukraine. "The United Nations is committed to assist a Ukrainian-led, accountable and inclusive governance process, in a spirit of non-violence and upholding the key principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, thereby creating a conducive environment for free and fair elections," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a senior adviser, Robert Serry, to Kiev, where he met with senior officials and pledged the world body's commitment. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said U.S. officials were "deeply engaged in trying to help this extraordinary transition that is taking place in Ukraine." In a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry said Ukraine's alliances should not necessarily determine what happens to its people. "It is not a Russia or the United States or other choices," he said. "This is about people of Ukraine and Ukrainians making their choice about their future. And we want to work with Russia, with other countries, with everybody available to make sure this is peaceful from this day forward." Their comments came as Acting President Oleksandr Turchinov told parliament Tuesday that an interim unity government in Ukraine would be appointed Thursday, raising the specter of continued instability here in the wake of the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. At the same session, parliament voted to ask the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to investigate the "illegal actions of the main members of the government" -- including Yanukovych. But the ICC public affairs unit said in an e-mail that it had received no communication regarding Ukraine and that the ICC has no jurisdiction over that country, because it is not a state party to the Rome Statute, the court's founding treaty. In addition, it said, a state cannot ask the ICC to investigate specific individuals. In the parliamentary session Tuesday, lawmakers also voted to hold mayoral and city council elections on May 25, concurrent with presidential elections. One candidate has already been announced. Opposition leader and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko will run for the presidency, his press secretary Oksana Zinovyeva told CNN. A dramatic sequence of political upheaval has unfolded in Ukraine in recent days after months of anti-government protests. Last week, bloody street clashes between demonstrators and security forces left more than 80 dead, the deadliest violence in the country since it gained independence when the Soviet Union collapsed 22 years ago. The violence continued Tuesday, when an ex-presidential aide, Andriy Klyuev, was hospitalized after being shot in the leg, his press secretary, Artem Petrenko, told CNN. Amid the unrest, the United States has sent a team of Marines to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to beef up security, an American official said. The request was made by the State Department and approved by the Pentagon. Last week, parliament ousted Yanukovych, the focus of protesters' anger, and authorities issued a warrant for his arrest over civilian deaths. But his whereabouts were unknown. Lawmakers appointed Turchinov to serve as acting President and fired several of Yanukovych's ministers. On Monday, parliament named a new chief prosecutor, security service chief and central bank head. Those now in power in the capital face a raft of challenges: the division between the country's east and west; protesters eager for bigger changes in government; an economy riddled with corruption; and how to handle the intentions of Russia, a vital supplier of natural gas and a key backer of Yanukovych. 'We were trapped': Eyewitness to massacre in Kiev . Leadership change . The head of Ukraine's electoral commission, Konstantin Khivrenko, said the campaign to elect a new president would begin Tuesday, three months before the May 25 election date set by authorities. But Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized those elections Monday, saying Ukraine's parliament was acting rashly, and accused lawmakers of discriminating against ethnic Russians, most of whom live in the eastern part of the country -- near the border with Russia -- by excluding them from the reform process. "A course has been set for suppressing those who disagree in different regions of Ukraine with methods of dictatorship and terror," the Foreign Ministry said. Russia -- which pried Ukraine away from the European Union with a $15 billion loan in November -- has withdrawn that offer, and President Vladimir Putin's role in the formation of a new government was uncertain. Russia contends that Yanukovych was driven out by an "armed mutiny" of extremists and terrorists. "We have not only the internal enemies, but we have the external enemies, like Russia," member of parliament Lesya Orobets told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday from Kiev. "We are afraid of military intervention, and Putin is trying to find a pretext for that." Russia's foreign minister has vowed not to intervene militarily, but tension is high between pro-Russian and pro-European Ukrainians. Clashes have broken out in the Crimea region on the Black Sea. Orobets said one of Ukraine's biggest challenges is getting its financial house in order. "We have to make unpopular steps, and we have to have this government taking those steps," Orobets said. "Not just to have financial aid, but to have the plan of reforms to get outside of this economic crisis." "This is not just the issue of Ukraine. This is the issue of the whole region's stability." Winners and losers . East-west divide . Yanukovych's decision to scrap a European Union trade deal in favor of one with Russia prompted the protests, which began in November. The country's new leaders have said Kiev's return to European integration will be a priority. But in doing so, they risk an end to the aid that the Kremlin had bestowed on Yanukovych. Interim Finance Minister Yury Kolobov proposed Monday that an international donor conference be held within two weeks. Ukraine, he said, will need $35 billion in foreign assistance by the end of 2015. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew spoke Sunday with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivschina, or Fatherland, party, and told him that once a transitional government has been established, an International Monetary Fund-centered international aid package would have broad support, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev said in a posting on its website. "Secretary Lew expressed that the United States, together with Europe and others in the international community, are ready to supplement an IMF program to cushion the impact of reforms on low-income Ukrainians," it said. "However, Secretary Lew underscored the need to implement reforms that could be supported by an IMF program." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Tuesday warned the United States and European Union against turning Ukraine against its neighbor. "The relationship is not always developing in constructive ways. We have confirmed our position of not intervening in Ukraine politics," he said. "We hope all channels will be used to calm the situation in Ukraine." Lavrov said Russia was working with EU officials in Brussels, Belgium. "It is not a good position to impose to Ukraine that 'either you are with us or without us.' But we hope it will become our full partner in the near future," he added. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appealed Tuesday "to all our international partners, in particular Russia, to work constructively with us to guarantee a united Ukraine that can be a factor for stability in the European continent; a Ukraine that will have good relations both with its western as with its eastern partners." 'People want to be united' Yanukovych's base of support is in eastern Ukraine, where Russian culture and language predominate and where many people are suspicious of the Europe-leaning views of their counterparts in western Ukraine, who were at the heart of the protests against Yanukovych that filled central Kiev for months. Yanukovych insisted in a televised address over the weekend that he was still the legitimate President. But many senior Ukrainian officials appeared to be turning their backs on their former leader. Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.N. Yuriy Sergeyev told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that Yanukovych and his government had "betrayed" the Ukrainian people. But Sergeyev said the country is not as divided as some observers suggest. "They don't want any civil war; people want to be united," he said. The old guard . Yanukovych's ouster was followed by the release over the weekend of Tymoshenko, one of his most bitter political foes. She spent 2½ years in prison, most of it in a detention hospital. She met Tuesday with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Kiev. On Monday, Ashton spoke with Ukraine's three main opposition party leaders: Yatsenyuk; Klitschko of the UDAR party; and Oleg Tyahnybok, of the nationalist right-wing party Svoboda, or Freedom. Tymoshenko, 53, a longtime opposition leader and ally of Turchinov, has hinted she may be interested in running for the presidency. She is considered a hero of the 2004 "Orange Revolution," which successfully challenged the results of an election won by Yanukovych. But she is less well regarded for her performance as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, when she was ousted after losing to Yanukovych in elections. "She was a very corrupt leader," said Julia Ioffe, senior editor at The New Republic. "She was part of the reason the 'Orange Revolution' failed." Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of abuse of authority over a natural gas deal negotiated with Russia. Western governments said the case against her was politically motivated. Amid the changes now under way, those involved in the recent street protests have expressed a desire for a new, untainted generation of leaders to step forward. "A lot of people who made this revolution feel like this movement has created a lot of new leaders, a lot of young leaders -- that now it's their turn," Ioffe told "CNN Newsroom" over the weekend. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from Kiev, and Tom Watkins reported and wrote with Jethro Mullen from Hong Kong. Mick Krever, Karen Smith, Ralph Ellis, Azad Safarov, Khushbu Shah and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.

NEW: Putin "is trying to find a pretext" to intervene, member of parliament says . Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko says he will run for president . Acting President Turchinov delays appointing an interim unity government until Thursday . Russian foreign minister warns EU not to try to turn Ukraine against Russia .

(CNN)Marathon peace talks aimed at ending the bloody crisis in eastern Ukraine concluded Thursday in a breakthrough: A ceasefire that's due to start Sunday and an agreement for both sides to pull back heavy weapons. If the ceasefire holds -- which is far from certain -- it could end a 10-month conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives, many of them civilians, and plunged East-West relations to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. "We had just two options: bad, and worse. So we decided at this particular period of time to get the bad option. Probably this option will save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, and I hope this option will save lives of Ukrainian civilians, of innocent people, who are under a constant shelling of Russian-led terrorists," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. "It's better to have this new deal rather than not to have (it). But we do not trust any words or any papers. We are to trust only actions and deeds," he said. The White House issued a statement with a tone of guarded optimism. "The United States welcomes the agreement reached today in Minsk. ..." it said. "The agreement represents a potentially significant step toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict and the restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty." The statement urged that all parties take "immediate, concrete steps" to fulfill their commitments. "Heavy weapons must be withdrawn from the conflict zone, and Russia must end its support for the separatists and withdraw its soldiers and military equipment from eastern Ukraine," the statement said. Addressing reporters after the four-way overnight talks in Minsk, Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said all parties had agreed to the ceasefire starting February 15 and called for restraint in the interim. "I call on both sides to end the bloodshed as soon as possible" and come to a real political solution to the conflict, he said. Putin said both sides have agreed to pull back heavy weapons. The talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany took so long, he said, because authorities in Kiev still refuse to have direct contact with separatists. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking alongside French President Francois Hollande, said more work remained to be done, but "what we have on the table gives us great hope." The agreement may not be perfect, she said, but it has provided a chance to improve matters in eastern Ukraine and is "clearly preferable to the situation if we had done nothing." Merkel said Putin would be talking to separatist leaders about the deal. They were expected to travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with Russian lawmakers. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko headed to Brussels, Belgium, to brief European leaders on the situation. Both Hollande and Merkel paid tribute to his efforts on behalf of Ukraine in the talks. European Council President Donald Tusk said the agreement was "welcome news and gives hope" but that hope was not enough. "The real test is the respect of the ceasefire on the ground," he said. He added that after speaking with Merkel, his feeling was "that we should remain extremely cautious." Said one young man in Kiev, who recently signed up to fight pro-Russian rebels: "I don't believe in the agreement at all. We've signed agreements in the past and all of them were breached." In a televised statement, two separatist leaders, Igor Plotnitsky, of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, and Alexander Zakharchenko, of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, indicated they supported the deal. "We must give Ukraine this chance," said Plotnitsky, adding that the peace plan envisages constitutional reforms that will protect the rights of people in eastern Ukraine and change Kiev's approach. Zakharchenko said any violations of the terms agreed to so far, with further talks still needed on some points, would mean no more deals. "All responsibility for any violation of the agreement is on Petro Poroshenko," he said. A previous ceasefire deal, agreed to on September 19, also in Minsk, broke down amid continued fighting. It called for a drawback of heavy weapons, greater autonomy in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and a buffer zone along the Russia-Ukraine border. The Kremlin released details of the new agreement, which is similar in part to the September deal, on its website, but it's still unclear how elements of it will work. The points include: . • An immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk starting at midnight on February 15. • The withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both parties at equal distances in order to create a security zone width of at least 50 kilometers (31 miles) from each other for artillery systems and more for longer-range weapons. The ceasefire line for the Ukrainians is the current front line and for the separatists it's the front line as it was at the time of the previous deal on September 19. • This process should begin no later than the next day after the ceasefire and should be over within 14 days. • The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a monitoring team in Ukraine, will monitor the ceasefire line and withdrawal of heavy weapons. • A dialogue on new local elections and the special status of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will begin the day after the withdrawal. • A law will be created to give amnesty to people involved in events in Luhansk and Donetsk. • Both sides must ensure the release and exchange of all hostages and illegally held prisoners by no later than the fifth day after the withdrawal. • Social payments such as pensions should be restored, and Ukrainian authorities should regain full control of the banking system in conflict-affected areas. • Full control of the border will be restored to the Ukrainian government, beginning the day after local elections are held. • Withdrawal of all foreign troops and military equipment from Ukraine, including mercenaries, and the disarmament of militia groups. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier voiced cautious optimism after Thursday's deal, which came after 17 hours of talks. "We have not achieved everything, but at least there is a ceasefire. This also includes agreements on securing the eastern borders of Ukraine, elections and the exchange of prisoners," he said in a statement. "It is a chance to move away from escalation and towards political momentum." In a joint declaration, released by the German government, the four leaders stated "their full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and that they "firmly believe that there is no alternative to an exclusively peaceful settlement." The leaders "will use their influence on relevant parties" to ensure the package of measures are put in place, the declaration said. "Leaders share the conviction that improved cooperation between the EU, Ukraine and Russia will be conducive to the crisis settlement," it added. To that end, the three parties will hold further talks on energy supply and a possible free trade deal between Ukraine and the European Union, which is of concern to Russia, it said. The question of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty was a key issue going into the talks. Russia annexed its southeastern Crimea region last spring, shortly before separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared their independence from Kiev, triggering months of conflict. "Ukraine will always be a unitary state. No federalization whatsoever! #UnitedForUkraine," Poroshenko tweeted after the deal was announced. In a post on his Facebook page, he said that "we did not agree to a single ultimatum" and that the ceasefire would be implemented regardless of any previous agreements. "For the successful reform we need just one precondition: peace. And we tried to do our best to make Ukraine a successful state, peaceful, reliable with a very strong European aspiration," the Ukrainian president later told reporters in Brussels. The German- and French-led peace initiative was prompted by worsening fighting between separatists and Ukrainian government forces in recent weeks, threatening not only the lives of more civilians, but the stability of the region. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in the Donetsk region said separatist fighters that his team spoke to had learned of the ceasefire deal from CNN -- and were highly skeptical of any promises made. The noise of shelling could still be heard Thursday, and there was no obvious change in the tempo of the combat, he said. A separatist fighter who spoke to CNN in Dukuchayevsk, not far from Donetsk city, said: "Ukrainians won't have a ceasefire. Ukraine armed forces, I mean. We can resolve this conflict only one way: Ukraine withdraws its armed forces from the territory of the Donetsk Republic. That's the only possible way." "How can we talk to them?" asked another fighter. "Only with this," he said, slapping his weapon. It's possible the separatists may seek to seize further territory before Sunday. Since the Ukrainian forces have to withdraw their weapons from the current front line as the ceasefire comes into effect, the separatists stand to keep hold of significant territory they've won in recent weeks. A spokesman for the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine told CNN on Thursday that two Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 21 injured in the past 24 hours. Russian tanks, rocket launchers and armored personnel carriers had also crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine overnight, he said. Russia has steadfastly denied accusations that it is sending forces and weapons into Ukraine. But top Western and Ukrainian leaders have said there isn't any doubt that Russia is behind surging violence and separatists' efforts to take over territory in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde on Thursday announced a new IMF bailout package that's worth $17.5 billion over the next four years. It has still to be approved by the board of directors. "Over the past year, despite the challenging environment, the Ukrainian authorities have clearly shown their commitment to ambitious reform on several key fronts," Lagarde said. These include strong fiscal discipline and moves to strengthen anti-corruption measures. The deal replaces a separate $17 billion bailout agreed to last year by the IMF. Only $4.5 billion of those funds were distributed, bringing the IMF's total commitment to $22 billion. The crisis in Ukraine, which stemmed from a trade agreement, has forced more than 1.5 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations. CNN's Khushbu Shah, Matthew Chance, Frederik Pleitgen, Emma Burrows, Alla Eshchenko, Brian Walker and Tatyana Drotenko contributed to this report.

"We had just two options: bad, and worse," the Ukrainian PM tells CNN . A German government spokesman says the deal, reached after 17-hour talks, is a "reason for hope" The deal includes a ceasefire to begin Sunday and the withdrawal of heavy weapons .

(CNN) -- It's the season of brackets, beer and, of course, basketball. Duke Blue Devils fans cheer on their team at the ACC Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. Come mid-March, the country falls sick with college basketball fever, and the NCAA Tournament is all the talk. As men's college basketball comes to a close with the last game April 6, fans are anxiously watching to see who will claim victory in this year's national championship game. More than a century after James Naismith invented basketball at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts, the sport continues to captivate millions of fans. Over the years, college basketball has sparked great dedication among its fans, from those who camp out for three months for a ticket to those who attended games before they could read. CNN, with the help of experts at the NCAA, chose a handful of basketball towns filled with great fans, rich traditions and history that make these places worth a visit. 1. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill . College basketball is deeply rooted in North Carolina culture, thanks to the success of the men's teams at the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The epic rivalry between Duke's Blue Devils and North Carolina's Tar Heels draws in so many fans that some sports experts say it is partly responsible for reviving the waning college basketball viewership in the first half of this decade. Visitors will find that Duke basketball fans don't shower their support only on game day. At Duke University -- seeded No. 2 in the East -- student fans, dubbed the Cameron Crazies, are so eager to snare one of the 1,200 first-come-first-serve spots in the Cameron Stadium student section that they camp out for up to three months for the infamous North Carolina-Duke matchup. The grassy tenting area outside the basketball arena, known as Krzyzewskiville, is named after Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has been named National Coach of the Year 12 times. "It's so easy to become enthralled with the culture of Duke basketball," said Joel Burrill, a senior who headed up the tenting efforts this year. Outside the stadium, visitors will discover plenty of Blue Devil spirit off-campus in Durham, a former tobacco town. Satisfaction Restaurant and Charlie's Pub & Grille are among the favorite hot spots where visitors will discover student and local fans watching the games. About a 20-minute drive from Durham is the historic town of Chapel Hill, home to the University of North Carolina, which was seeded No. 1 in the South this year. The school has a strong record of basketball success, appearing in more than 40 NCAA tournaments. It is also the college team of professional basketball legend Michael Jordan. Adam Lucas, publisher of Tar Heel Monthly, has been decked in baby blue Carolina gear since he was a child. He even skipped school so he could attend the games with his parents, both Tar Heel alums. "It's not just a sport," he explained. "It's the number one thing talked about during this part of the year. You'll have trouble holding a conversation in Chapel Hill in March if you don't know the basics of Carolina basketball." If visitors can't get one of the coveted tickets to watch the game in the Dean E. Smith Center, aka the Dean Dome, there is plenty to do in the quaint city of Chapel Hill. Visitors can walk to Franklin Street, the heart of town, where eateries, shops and sports bars are ready to embrace UNC fans. They can also visit the 8,000-square-foot Carolina Basketball Museum, located on campus, which holds more than 450 interactive displays, memorabilia and photos documenting a basketball program that began more than a century ago. 2. The University of Kansas in Lawrence . To understand the fan devotion for the defending national champions and a Midwest No. 3-seeded team this year, one must make a trip to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks' indoor arena is old-school -- smaller than most college basketball stadiums -- built in the 1950s and named in honor of revered former Coach Forrest C. "Phog" Allen. In 1952, "Phog" led the men's basketball team to its first NCAA victory. The energy from thousands of fans in Allen Field House is contagious. In addition to the "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" chant, KU students are famous for their clever antics against the other teams, particularly their longstanding rivals at the University of Missouri. But if you can't get a ticket during the regular season, check out the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, a 26,000-square-foot museum adjacent to the stadium. The museum, which opened about three years ago, houses artifacts and information about the history of KU athletics, including the men's basketball team. Visitors can head to colorful Massachusetts Street, the main drag in downtown Lawrence. The street is lined with plenty of restaurants and bars catering to Jayhawks followers on game day. When Kansas beat Memphis to clinch the national championship last year, more than 100,000 fans poured into the street, university officials say. "People who come [to Lawrence] never want to leave," said Jennifer Sanner, a 1981 alumna and editor of Kansas Alumni magazine. "And if you're a basketball fan, that's all the better." 3. Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana . Sure, the Hoosiers didn't have a stellar season after going 6-25, and they didn't make it to the NCAA Tournament. After Kelvin Sampson resigned as coach in February over allegations that he had violated NCAA recruiting standards, the team lost many of its top players. Despite this, college basketball in Bloomington, Indiana, remains sacred, devout Hoosiers fans say, and they believe that the men's team will be back in full force over the next few years. Indiana University has one of the top basketball programs in the country, winning five NCAA championships. The team was led for many years by hot-tempered but incredibly successful coach Bobby Knight. If you are lucky enough to get a ticket to see the Hoosiers play at their stadium, Assembly Hall, you will find droves of student fans. Assembly Hall holds one of the country's largest student sections, holding more than 8,000. Officials at Bloomington Indiana Visitors & Convention Bureau say basketball game days flood local restaurants and bars with students and local fans. The games tend to sell out, so be prepared to explore Bloomington. Most fans head to Kirkwood Avenue near campus and drop by Nick's English Hut, where the walls are covered with Hoosiers athletic photographs and gear, or Yogi's Grill and Bar to watch the game. "Basketball is a religion in this state," said Zach Osterman, the men's basketball columnist at the university's student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. "It goes way back before Bobby Knight. It's what people do up here." 4. Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . There is no football team at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That means students and alumni are even more dedicated to the men's basketball team, they say. Marquette may be a Jesuit university with just over 11,000 students, but it boasts one of the highest attendance rates at basketball games in the country. Students at Marquette don't pitch tents like at Duke, but the games are so popular, some will bring their sleeping bags 10 hours before the game to get the best seat in the house . "It's such a great feeling to know you can walk anywhere in the city when you have a Marquette shirt on a basketball day and people will talk to you about basketball," said Sarah Dembkowski, a sophomore at the university. "It gives this city a bonding feeling." Although the West region No. 6-seeded Golden Eagles lost to the University of Missouri in the tournament last week, a trip to the Bradley Center, where the Marquette men's basketball team plays (and where the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks play) is well worth the visit. Marquette students, called the Superfans, are famous for their peculiar behavior, dressing up in costumes to support their team and distracting opponents with oversized cutouts of celebrities' heads. On campus are several bars, including the Union Annex, that tout cheap beer pitchers and food specials for fans. Just several blocks from the university is downtown Milwaukee. On Water Street, where most of the fans crowd on game day, visitors can hang with the locals and enjoy a hub of sports bars, taverns and restaurants. 5. Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington . Gonzaga University officials call it the "Gonzaga Effect": This small private school in Spokane has qualified for the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight year. The Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team is an obscure team that seems to emerge from thin air each March. This year, the team entered the tournament seeded No. 4 in the South region. "There have been a lot of one-and-done schools, who make a splash and disappear, but we've been able to sustain it," said Dale Goodwin, a spokesman for the university. Fans in "the Kennel Club" at Gonzaga go wild for basketball despite the school's smaller size. For more than 17 years of the Kennel Club's existence, the Bulldogs have won more than 75 percent of their games, including over 90 percent during the past eight seasons, according to the Gonzaga athletic department. Visitors will be delighted to watch the games in the school's arena, the $25 million McCarthey Athletic Center, which opened in 2004. Before the opening, the basketball team was playing in a glorified high school gym, university officials said. On Hamilton Street near the university, visitors will want to head to Jack & Dan's Tavern, which belongs to John Stockton, a former NBA and Gonzaga player. The Bulldog, which claims to have the best burgers in town, is also a popular hangout during the games. Meanwhile, the school is preparing to host the NCAA first- and second-round men's basketball tournament next March. The town of Spokane, tucked into eastern Washington, is excited to welcome visitors. A single event will probably bring in $2.75 million, according to the Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Men's college basketball will end with NCAA championship game April 6 . Some Duke students camp out for three months to get a game ticket . Last year, 100,000 fans poured into downtown Lawrence, Kansas, after KU's victory . Games at these basketball towns are so popular that they usually sell out .

(CNN) -- Money's tight and gas prices are high, but a change of scenery is good for the soul. As much of the country tries to balance prices at the pump with the all-American summer vacation, we asked six reporters across the country to share easy road trip recommendations from their stomping grounds. CNN's Reynolds Wolf filled up a gas-guzzling Ford Expedition for $99 and traveled east from Waycross, Georgia, to the coastal islands and up to Spanish moss-draped Savannah in a day. Watch the video above to check out that adventure and read on for five more one-tank trip ideas. On a budget? Take a road trip . MINNESOTA . From: Minneapolis, Minnesota To: Brainerd, Minnesota Average price/gallon of regular gas in Minneapolis: *$3.52 ($2.73 a year ago) Miles, round-trip: about 250 miles Travel time: About 2½ hours each way . If you call the Twin Cities of Minnesota home, the chain of lakes up near Brainerd makes for a great change of pace, perfect for anyone who needs a little break from summer construction and traffic jams in the metro area. The Brainerd Lakes Area, home to more than 450 lakes, is about 125 miles from Minneapolis -- a doable one-tank trip. Skip the hotels or fancy lodges and try logging on to the website Vacation Rentals By Owner for a cabin tailored to your needs. These lakes are home to hundreds of cabins, suitable for families large and small. It can be very economical, not to mention convenient, to have a little house all to yourself. I found a little cabin on Upper Gull Lake with its own stretch of beach and free use of the owner's canoe. The cabin was essentially one large room with a nice queen-size bed, a sitting area with TV, a kitchenette and a bathroom. As for dining, if you want a fun family atmosphere where you can literally pull up your boat and order, check out Zorbaz on the Lake. It has a big kid-friendly menu and unique adult beverage concoctions, too. This spot can be a little touristy, so if quiet time is a priority for you, just bring something to throw on a grill or makeshift campfire by the beach. There's plenty of fishing in the area, as well as golf, trails and swimming, and at night you'll have no problem hearing the occasional call of the loon. Not a bad way to spend a night -- or even two. -- Chris Welch . WASHINGTON . From: Kingston, Washington To: Rialto Beach, Olympic Peninsula Average price/gallon of regular gas in Seattle: $3.83 (price a year ago $3.00) Miles, round-trip: About 260 Travel time: About three hours each way . When summer finally arrives in Seattle there's not a moment to spare to take full advantage of the long days and spectacular natural beauty. Everyone here knows how quickly the grey and drizzly weather can return. Luckily you can drive in any direction from Seattle and come across amazing scenery. My favorite trip is to head West to the Olympic Peninsula, which lies between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, and is home to towering snow-capped mountains and Olympic National Park. With temperate rainforests, mountains and amazing camping and fishing, there are more activities in the Olympics than one tank of gas can carry you to. I try to branch out when I go, but one spot I always come back to is Rialto Beach near the Peninsula's westernmost edge. The trip begins with a short car ferry ride across Puget Sound from Edmonds, just north of Seattle. Depending on the size of your gas tank, this trip might be a bit of a stretch on one tank, but it's worth it. You can fill up in Kingston, Washington, when you get off the ferry. From there it's about a 130-mile drive to Rialto Beach. Along the way, the town of Sequim offers lots of small-town charm and a few good options for food. I recommend the Alder Wood Bistro, which serves delicious locally caught seafood. If you plan on camping, stop along the way in Port Angeles at the Wilderness Information Center to pick up permits. National Park Service guides are happy to point out camping spots and explain the tide schedule to help with hiking along the beach. I also recommend picking up a bear canister to store your food in away from your tent. As you arrive at Rialto Beach, you'll forget you're only hours from a major metropolis. It's possible to spot bald eagles and the occasional seal along the wild coastline. Thick woods literally come to the ocean's edge. Rock towers that the wind and tides have carved over the centuries jut from the Pacific. Pitch a tent and make a fire at one of the small camping areas along the water's edge, and take in a truly beautiful sunset. -- Patrick Oppmann . GEORGIA . From: Atlanta To: Athens, Georgia Average price/gallon of regular gas in Atlanta: $3.49 ($2.68 a year ago) Miles, round-trip: 144 miles Travel time: An 1½ hours each way (two hours in heavy traffic) Athens is one of those must-see college towns. Home to the University of Georgia, Athens has a small-town feel with all the great, quirky college elements: endless live music, boutique shopping, delicious (and cheap) food and a thriving downtown scene. Drive down the cost of your next road trip . Athens has three main districts: Downtown, Five Points and Prince Avenue. Each has a unique flavor to its funky shops. Wuxtry Records and Heery's Clothes Closet are downtown mainstays, while Prince Avenue's vintage shop Ohh, Boy! and Five Points' antique stores also beckon with unique finds. Stroll through the university's expansive campus to soak up some Athens lore and see Sanford Stadium (home of the Georgia Bulldogs football team), or enjoy a walk through the nearby State Botanical Gardens. A Classic City tour of downtown reveals Athens' intriguing history. Forgo seeing a summer blockbuster and take in an independent film at Ciné downtown, live entertainment at historic Morton Theatre or an aerial trapeze show at Canopy Studio. A trip to the Classic City isn't complete without catching a concert at clubs like the 40 Watt, Caledonia Lounge or the Rialto Room. Sample some of the local flavor. Cali N' Tito's, the Last Resort, La Dolce Vita, Transmetropolitan, the Terrapin brewery and Farm 255 are a nice blend of the unique food culture in Athens. Plan your trip around an event like the Twilight Criterium bike race, a UGA football game or the annual AthFest celebration of local music. -- Ashley Strickland . PENNSYLVANIA . From: Philadelphia To: Doylestown, Pennsylvania Average price/gallon of regular gas in Philadelphia: $3.68 ($2.78 a year ago) Miles, round-trip: About 50 miles Travel time: Less than an hour each way . A short drive from Philadelphia, Doylestown is host to sites tied to two of the area's most famous native sons: author James Michener and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. Michener endowed the James A. Michener Art Museum dedicated to the art and heritage of Pennsylvania's Bucks County region. The museum opened in 1988. Currently on view are a Pennsylvania folk arts show and an exhibit dedicated to the museum's first two decades of collecting. The other notable figure is tile maker Mercer, an archaeologist, artist and writer and a leader in the Arts & Crafts movement. Mercer's legacy is reflected in three sites: the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, where the iconic Mercer tiles are made; his fanciful concrete castle, Fonthill; and the Mercer Museum, known for its collection of Early American artifacts. For more shopping, especially crafts, and entertainment check outPeddler's Village, roughly a 10-minute drive from Doylestown. The Colonial-style village features the Giggleberry Fair family entertainment center, charming stores and gardens and an array of restaurants. -- Sarah Hoye . FLORIDA . From: Orlando To: St. Augustine, Florida Average price/gallon of regular gas in Orlando: $3.40 ($2.63 a year ago) Miles, round-trip: About 200 miles Travel time: A little under two hours each way . Need a break from Orlando's castles and fairy princesses? Head to the oldest city in the United States. The city of St. Augustine is just a 90-minute drive from central Florida's amusement park mecca. Founded in 1565 under the orders of King Phillip II of Spain, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously settled city of European origin in the nation. One of Old Town's main attractions, St. George Street, was a thoroughfare in the old Spanish town and today is accessible only on foot. Shops line the street selling everything from shells, hats, kites and candles to crystals. Stop in at the Old School House near the city gates to see what's reputed to be the nation's oldest wooden schoolhouse, built more than 200 years ago. Explore the tight alleyways and stop at Denoel French Pastry Shop for incredible desserts and coffee before heading to the city's historic fort. Construction of the fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, started in 1672 to protect the Spanish city. Now the Castillo is managed by the National Park Service, which offers ranger talks and maps and brochures for self-guided tours . Cross over the ornate Bridge of Lions and head toward the St. Augustine Lighthouse. The eight-story, traditionally black-and-white-striped structure was completed in 1874. Be ready for the 219 steps that will carry visitors to the top of the structure. Once at the top, walk out for a spectacular view of the beach to the east and the city to the west. To end the day, head back to the old town center where restaurants wait to fill up hungry guests before the drive back to central Florida to see Harry, Mickey and Shamu. -- John Couwels . *All fuel prices are AAA average prices on Thursday, June 30, for a gallon of regular gas.

For a peaceful getaway in Minnesota, rent a cabin in the Brainerd Lakes Area . Take a break from Orlando's theme parks in St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city . Head to Doylestown for Pennsylvania arts, crafts and culture .

(CNN) -- When the winner of the women's singles at the U.S. Open picks up her check for $2.6 million -- buck for buck the same as the men's champion -- she might well reflect that, if not for Billie Jean King's pioneering efforts, those riches might not exist. Supreme champion on the court, battler for equality off it, King took on the male-dominated tennis establishment and won. She was the driving force behind the formation of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973, the same year she famously beat former men's grand slam champion Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" match in Houston. "Everybody should thank her and shake her hand," King's fellow tennis icon Chris Evert told CNN's Open Court. "She put money in our pockets and provided a living for hundreds and hundreds of female athletes. "Tennis is the frontrunner in all sports in equality, so she deserves all of the credit." 40th anniversary . Forty years on, King, who turns 70 in November, has been celebrating the WTA's anniversary in a series of events which defined the role of women not just in sport, but in society itself. The fledgling Virginia Slims tennis circuit for women professionals had been established at the start of the 1970s, but the leading players like King and Australian Margaret Court -- the all-time leading grand slam singles winner -- were still paid a fraction of the prize money available to their male counterparts. The men had formed their own union -- the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1972 -- and King was convinced it needed to be replicated for women. Using her famous powers of persuasion, and with help from other key figures such as Dutchwoman Betty Stove, compatriots Rosie Casals and Nancy Ritchey and Britain's Ann Jones, a meeting was convened at the Gloucester Hotel in London, just before the Wimbledon championships. Within a few short hours, the articles of the association were signed and the WTA was born. Player power . "We finally all came together as one voice and having the power of one -- you know just one group. It made such a difference," King told CNN. Martina Navratilova was then just starting out on her incredible career, and it was only later that she appreciated the significance of what had happened. "My first year playing -- 1973, my first Wimbledon -- I had no idea what the association was, but being American and being a bit older, Billie Jean again had the foresight to get us organized just in time," the Czechoslovakia-born Navratilova told CNN. Already an influential figure in the United States and helped by her then husband Larry, an astute lawyer, King had threatened to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open if equal prize money was not awarded. As defending champion, King had considerable leverage and the organizers gave in to her demands. When Court won the 1973 title she received the same prize purse -- $25,000 -- as the men's champion. Male chauvinism . But this concession was the exception rather than the rule in major sports. Such male chauvinism was personified by former Wimbledon champion Riggs, a shameless self publicist, who made a fortune from gambling on his own tennis matches. Seeing an opportunity to make more money, Riggs challenged both Court and King, claiming that even in middle age -- he was 55 -- he could beat the top women players. King ignored him at first, but Court took up the challenge and played him in a match in California on May 13, 1973. King had realized the significance of the occasion and had done her best to encourage the Australian to take it seriously. "I said, 'Margaret it's not a tennis match, it's about social change, it's about social justice, it's about all the things we're working for,' and she goes, 'I don't'. She wasn't politically orientated! Riggs match . "So Margaret played him Mother's Day in 1973 and lost (6-1 6-2). it's called the Mother's Day massacre and I just thought, 'Oh no!' " King needed no second bidding, and the famous "Battle of the Sexes" match came to fruition on September 20 in the Houston Astrodome. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," said King. "It would ruin the women's tour and affect the self esteem of all women." The entrances -- King on a gold litter in the style of Cleopatra, Riggs on a rickshaw pulled by women models in skimpy outfits -- added to the theater. Once the match started, King, at 29 and the peak of her powers, made her opponent eat his earlier words and boasts. With a winner-take-all $100,000 check riding on the outcome, Riggs lost his nerve and was beaten 6-4 6-3 6-3. Iconic moment . "The drop shot and volley heard around the world," said Britain's Times newspaper as an estimated global TV audience of 50 million watched the rout. King and Riggs embraced at the end, and became friends off the court until his death in 1995 of prostate cancer. Prior to the WTA's formation, King had realized the significance of legislation passed through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by President Richard Nixon in June 1972. Title IX made it a requirement under law for male and female students to be afforded equal federal funding in their high school and college studies. "Before that, young women were not getting anything, there was gender quotas -- like 5% in the medical school at Harvard -- there were really terrible gender quotas and also women could not get an athletic scholarship in the States," said King. "Now because of Title IX, women from all over the world can go to our American colleges on a scholarship and get grants. It's very powerful because it's about equality in education and activities, and sports comes under activities." Quantum leap . According to 18-time grand slam singles winner Navratilova, King took advantage of the mood of the moment to push through changes which were ahead of their time. "Billie Jean, she just pushed the clock forward, she sped up the process," Navratilova said. "Any progress is measured by jumps, and that was one of those jumps that pushed the clock forward and allowed us to move forward as women athletes and to make a career out of it so it wasn't just a hobby. " King was to play competitive singles for 10 more years after her 1973 heroics on and off the court, but injuries took their toll. Her final grand slam singles triumph came at Wimbledon in 1975, her sixth success on the grass at SW19, but victory in the women's doubles at the 1980 U.S. Open competed her set of 39 major titles overall. A firm believer in the team ethic, she played for and captained the U.S. in the Wightman and Federation Cup competitions, while King and her husband Larry were founding partners of World Team Tennis in 1974. Team ethic . The format of that competition sees men and women playing a five-set competition in a mix of singles, doubles and mixed doubles. It has proved a successful formula, with the franchises playing to big crowds across the United States. For King, the whole ethos of the event sums up her attitude to life and equality. "That's the way I want the world to look: men and women working together, championing each other, helping each other, promoting each other -- we're all in this world together," she said. The fight she started for equal prize money in the grand slams took 34 years to reach its fruition when Wimbledon became the last of the four to fall into line in 2007. "I remember the fight for prize money, I remember how many meetings were set, how many battles we had, and we all seemed to have stood by what we believed was right," Maria Sharapova told CNN when a unique meeting of former No. 1s gathered at Wimbledon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the WTA. Sharapova, who has become the highest earning female athlete in the world, acknowledged that she and the current leading players owe a lot to King. Grateful thanks . "She had a big role obviously, there is a lot to be grateful for," she said. King shows no sign of slowing up, with her commitments to World Team Tennis and various foundations. In 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and found out that President Barack Obama was a fan of hers from time she spent in Hawaii when he was young. "It's funny because he actually watched me practice at his high school. He told me when I met him for the first time," added King, who was honored for her work advocating for the rights of women and the lesbian and gay community. She was divorced from Larry King in 1987 and her current partner Ilana Kloss is a former professional on the WTA Tour. Life's goals . Even as a precocious teenager on the public courts of Long Beach in California in the late 1950s, King had decided her priorities. "I had an epiphany about our sport. I really wanted to spend the rest of my life fighting for equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls, men and women," said King. "I always knew if I could ever be No. 1 in tennis, I'd have a platform." King has used that platform to great effect and the current No. 1, Serena Williams, remains her biggest fan. "Billie Jean has been my ultimate inspiration," Williams, who will start the defense of her U.S. Open title in New York next week, told CNN. "I had the honor of playing when she was Fed Cup captain and I learned so much from her. "Not just women's tennis but women's sport would be greatly diminished if it wasn't for Billie Jean." But it's been a journey that has taken its toll even on someone as outwardly tough as King. "I've stood up but I'm scared a lot. I'm really scared a lot," she revealed. "I felt very alone, very isolated at times but you know what -- I always felt like we were trying to do the right thing then I didn't care so much what people thought."

Billie Jean King is a 12-time grand slam singles champion . American is a famed fighter for equality and women's rights . She was the driving force behind the women's WTA Tour . Founded the same year she beat Bobby Riggs in famous "Battle of the Sexes"

New York (CNN) -- The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, prompted the U.S. to take sensible security measures and launch a justified counterattack against al Qaeda, says analyst Fareed Zakaria. But he says they also led to an overreaction that continues today. Zakaria argues the organization behind the attacks, al Qaeda, has been greatly diminished by the U.S. response to 9/11 and by growing opposition to the group in the Muslim world: . "All these trends have worked to further diminish the threat al Qaeda poses to us. We're in a strange situation where the right doesn't want to acknowledge it because it would suggest we don't need to be in quite this much of a war footing and ... the left seems reluctant to accept some of this because it suggests that, God forbid, George W. Bush might have done something right. "As a result of our political dysfunction, we have lost the ability to have a rational conversation about 9/11," Zakaria said. The author and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" spoke to CNN on Wednesday. Here is an edited transcript: . CNN: Is the U.S. safer today than before 9/11? Fareed Zakaria: There's no question we're safer. Look, 9/11 changed the way in which we viewed the problem of terrorism and Islamic radicalism, and we've gotten attentive to both. First of all, there have been huge measures taken -- a series of very simple, sensible measures that decrease the likelihood of anything like 9/11 happening. Sealing the cockpit door, by itself, means that a plane can never be used as a missile and things like that ... the security measures have made it much more difficult for high-value targets to be vulnerable in quite the way they were. The second part is that we have gone after these al Qaeda and associated groups quite vigorously, chasing them around the mountains of Afghanistan of course but also tracking their money. And those things collectively have made a big difference, and there's no question in my mind, we're safer. Now we can begin to ask ourselves whether we have overdone the countermeasures, whether the tens of billions of dollars that have been added year after year to the intelligence budget, to the Homeland Security budget have been all necessary or are we on a kind of autopilot where no request for homeland security can ever be denied, and it has become part of the gargantuan pork barrel projects in Washington. CNN: You've written that we've overreacted to 9/11 and al Qaeda. In what way do you think that's the case? Zakaria: I mean it in two senses. We didn't spend a lot of time in the year after 9/11 -- once we had taken it on, once we had started chasing these people around the world, measures which I strongly supported then and still strongly support -- whether that had been effective and whether we had broken up the organization and made it far more difficult for them to operate. And therefore, what was the real nature of the threat going forward? I think it's clear that al Qaeda is a much-diminished force. It has the power to inspire a series of local organizations around the world, but it has very little power to direct these high-profile terrorist attacks itself. The reaction to my point that al Qaeda is weaker than we think has surprised me only because I've made this point since 2004, and I've made it repeatedly. CNN: Why do you think many people have not agreed with that point? Zakaria: I do think we have a tendency in the United States to underestimate the evil intentions of our enemies, but overestimate their capacity, their capabilities. What we now know, based on all the declassified documents we have available is that in the 1970s and '80s, the U.S. was massively overestimating the military capacity of the Soviet Union. CNN: In what way? Zakaria: If you look at every measure, from bombers to missiles, on almost every count, we massively overestimated their capacity to modernize, their capacity to build up, and as a result we had created a much, much larger military-industrial complex than would have been necessary to combat the actual Soviet threat rather than the one we perceived. Similarly with Saddam Hussein, the intelligence agencies were absolutely convinced that what we faced was a very powerful state that was acquiring nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, which proved to be largely untrue. When we look at al Qaeda, we have to ask ourselves: What is their actual capacity to inflict harm? The second sense in which I mean it is I do think there is a tendency within the American appropriations system for projects to become eternal and eternally expanding and this has clearly become true of homeland security. Nobody wants to deny the request for more security, more measures, more procedures, all of which come with more budgets, more bureaucrats ... CNN: So what should be done now? Zakaria: This would be the right time for us to take a look and ask ourselves, in order to combat the actual threat that al Qaeda poses, which is real but which is limited in some senses -- what kind of intelligence apparatus do we need, what kind of homeland security apparatus do we need and how much can we do in terms in reallocating, reorganizing and reinventing these national security agencies rather than constantly piling up layer upon layer. We now have 15 different intelligence agencies, we have 15 different organizations tracking the money that terrorists are moving around. It's almost as though we took the entire Cold War bureaucracy and rather than scaling it down and reconfiguring it to meet this new set of unconventional threats, we just layered on top of the mountains of Cold War bureaucracy another set of mountains of terrorism bureaucracy, never mind that the Cold War is over ... This is not a way to run a serious national security policy. And the greatest danger here of course is that unlike the Cold War, unlike World War II, this is not a war that has a clean ending, so you cannot set a point at which we would demobilize and therefore get rid of some of this apparatus. This is a kind of existential reality that the United States has to deal with, the possibility of terrorism, the possibility of radical groups being able to inflict harm on an open society, so we've got to ask ourselves is this the normal national security state we want to live with. CNN: Was the concept of a "war on terror" mistaken? Zakaria: I don't know if I would quibble with it that much. ... The problem of course is that terrorism is a tactic, you can't declare war against a tactic. But in general it conveyed the idea that we needed to go on the offense and we needed to chase these guys around the world, we needed to track their money. I have no problem with any of that ... the problem is you can fight a war but you also need to actively gauge the strength of your opponent, and if you think he's 25 feet tall vs. five feet tall, that's important. That's a huge misdiagnosis of the problem ... CNN: Why do you think people have missed the change in al Qaeda's capabilities? Zakaria: We're not looking at trends within the Islamic world where al Qaeda has been politically discredited, trends that are taking place within the jihadi community, where prominent jihadis have broken with al Qaeda. The reality is that al Qaeda has been unable to organize a single attack [against a major target in recent years], the reality is that when smaller local groups plan terrorist attacks all they can attack are local targets like cafes or train stations and thus kill locals, further alienating the local population and discrediting and delegitimizing al Qaeda and its associated groups. CNN: Nine years after 9/11, why is the debate about Islam and terrorism fiercer than it's ever been? Zakaria: What's more strange is that it feels as though it's a debate that's taking place without the intervening nine years. Sometimes the debate seems as though it could have been taking place in 2002, without noticing all these trends that I've been describing. 9/11 was a wake-up call for America, but it also was a wake-up call for a lot of people in the Muslim world. In the early months after 9/11, and I wrote about this at the time, there was a sense in the Muslim world that while they might not have approved of the attacks, they understood the anti-Americanism that lay behind it. That kind of totally irresponsible and pernicious implicit support for Islamic radicalism has worn very thin in the last nine years. CNN: Why has radicalism lost support? Zakaria: People who felt that way in Indonesia, in Jordan, even in Palestine have realized that these guys [al Qaeda] are as opposed to the secular regimes of Indonesia, Jordan and in the Palestinian Authority as they are to the United States and when they attack Indonesia and Jordan, they kill innocent Indonesians and Jordanians, innocent Muslims by the way. That reality has also produced a kind of rethinking about Islamic extremism that has been very important. I should emphasize that it is not enough and there needs to be more persistent condemnation of radicalism and violence but there's no question, and the polling data make this clear, the number of fatwas issued against al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden make this clear -- there has been a huge shift in the Muslim world over the last nine years. CNN: Finally, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is reaffirming his plans to proceed with Cordoba House, the controversial Islamic center near ground zero. What do you think of that? Zakaria: This is to be a community center that will have a swimming pool, meeting rooms, athletic facilities, modeled after the 92nd Street Y. It will have Jews and Christians and Muslims on its board, it will have prayer rooms for Jews and Christians as well as Muslims. It will have both physical spaces and programs to encourage interfaith dialogue. Now to me that sounds like precisely the American answer to Muslim radicalism, to affirm a Muslim-led process of interfaith dialogue, of tolerance for other religions ... the plan here is to build a center that is really trying to bring people together, this is such an American response to intolerance, extremism and violence. It is about inclusion, dialogue and respect for other faiths.

9/11 led U.S. to strike back at al Qaeda and take smart measures, says Fareed Zakaria . He says in the years after attacks, U.S. has overestimated threat from al Qaeda . He says group is on the run and widely discredited in the Muslim world . Zakaria: U.S. needs to scale its security policies and bureaucracy to the actual threat .

(CNN)A picture and audio posted online Saturday purport to show that one of two Japanese hostages held by ISIS has been killed after a deadline for ransom passed. It also appears to relay the group's new demand for the other's freedom: a prisoner exchange. The static image, shown in a video file posted by a known ISIS supporter, shows surviving Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, alone, in handcuffs and dressed in orange, holding a photo of what appears to be beheaded compatriot Haruna Yukawa. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that the video is "highly credible." U.S. authorities said they had no reason to doubt its authenticity. Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK that the killing was "abominable" and "unforgivable," demanding the immediate release of Goto. NHK also reported comments from Yukawa's father. "I still don't want to believe it," Shoichi Yukawa said, his face not shown in the report. "If I can see him again, I'd like to hold him in my arms." Saturday's posting came four days after an ISIS video demanded that the Japanese government pay $200 million within 72 hours for the two hostages' release. In the video released Saturday, the voice of a person claiming to be Goto says in English that Abe is to blame for Yukawa's death. "You were given a deadline," he says. The voice then relays the apparent new demand from ISIS -- the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, a woman arrested in Jordan in 2005 on suspicion of trying to take part in an attack in which others killed dozens at Jordanian hotels. "They no longer want money, so you don't need to worry about funding terrorists," the voice says. "They are just demanding the release of their imprisoned sister Sajida al-Rishawi." Jordan's King Abdullah II and Abe talked by phone on Saturday, according Jordanian state news agency Petra. The news agency did not detail what the two discussed beyond saying they "reviewed the latest developments in the Middle East." President Barack Obama condemned the purported murder of Yukawa by ISIS. In a White House statement, the President expressed condolences to the people of Japan and said the United States will work with its ally "to bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice and will continue to take decisive action to degrade and ultimately defeat" ISIS. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said Japan was right not to bow to the terrorists' demand for ransom. "Britain strongly supports the firm stance Prime Minister Abe and his Government have taken and we will continue to work with Japan and other partners around the world to promote peace and to build a safer, more secure future for our citizens," Cameron said in a statement. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. is grieving with Yukawa's family. "America has known this pain and horror ourselves, and we stand with Japan not just in sadness, but in solidarity and strength," he said in a statement. The U.S. National Security Council has seen Saturday's post, and the "intelligence community is working to confirm its authenticity," NSC deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. Opinion: Should nations pay ISIS ransom? Goto, 47, and Yukawa, 42, had gone to the Middle East for different reasons, the former an experienced freelance journalist covering the conflict in Iraq and Syria, and the latter an aspiring security contractor who felt at home in the war-torn region. They ended up in the hands of ISIS in recent months. On Tuesday, ISIS released a photo showing a black-clad masked man standing over Goto and Yukawa. The man made a demand: Either Japan pay $200 million -- the same amount that Abe has proposed to help those affected by the ISIS campaign, money his government says is for humanitarian rather than military purposes -- within 72 hours, or both men would die. Japanese officials estimated that ultimatum expired at 2:50 p.m. Friday, Tokyo time (12:50 a.m. ET Friday) with no immediate news on the hostages. Saturday's video is dissimilar in some ways to last year's ISIS videos announcing the executions of Western hostages. In five ISIS videos last year -- announcing the beheadings of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig -- a masked man is shown making a statement and sometimes putting a knife to the hostages' necks. The videos then transition to a still photo of the victims' severed heads. Al-Rishawi, the woman named in the allegedly proposed swap for Goto, was arrested by Jordanian authorities more than nine years ago. In November 2005, she said in a televised confession that she tried to take part in a string of terror attacks at Jordanian hotels that month that killed at least 57 people. She said her explosives failed to go off at a large wedding reception she was targeting, but that her husband's explosives did go off there. Japan isn't part of the international military coalition that, for months, has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. Its post-World War II constitution forbids the use of Japanese military forces for any purpose besides self-defense. But Tokyo is allied with the United States and others leading this military campaign. And Japanese officials are offering help related to the ongoing unrest, though they insist those millions of dollars would go toward things like helping refugees, not killing ISIS militants. ISIS wasn't swayed. In Tuesday's video demanding ransom, a masked man holding a knife stood over the kneeling Goto and Yukawa, and said that Abe "willingly volunteered to take part in this crusade" against ISIS. A spokesman for the terror group, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, wouldn't comment this week on whether his group has been in touch with the Japanese government, something that officials in Tokyo had said they were trying to arrange. He said he was aware that Japan said it wasn't involved militarily and called the Japanese infidels for fighting with the coalition. Japanese officials had said they would not yield to threats, but they would do everything they could to secure the hostages' safe release. Would that mean paying ransom? Officials weren't saying, at least directly, though Abe did call ISIS' demand "unacceptable" this week. Leading Japanese news organizations reported, citing unidentified government sources, that Goto's wife received an e-mail in December from someone demanding $8 million to $16 million for her husband's return. The government was trying to confirm if that e-mail came from ISIS, the reports said. If so, it could indicate the militant group was willing to accept a smaller ransom than the $200 million it had publicly demanded. Japanese citizens have been taken hostage before. Some have been released. But what Japan hasn't done is advertise whether it has ever paid ransom, lest it encourage more kidnappings in bad-guy fundraising schemes. It's not clear whether paying would have mattered. ISIS doesn't have representatives or go-betweens everywhere who could solicit such a deal. Nor does it have a reputation for morality and trustworthiness, so there's no telling if it would have taken the money and killed anyway. And the fact the group publicly asked for $200 million, a figure well above other ransom demands, raised the prospect that it was never serious about negotiating. While there are certainly geopolitical implications, this story is also about two men and the families they've left behind. As the apparent deadline approached, Goto's mother begged for her son's life. "To all members of ISIS, Kenji is not the enemy of ISIS. Please release him," the mother, Junko Ishido, said Friday. "... I have been just crying for the last three days, filled with sadness. Words fail to describe how I feel. Kenji always has been a kind person ever since he was little. He was always saying, 'I want to save the lives of children in war zones.'" Her son had been a journalist for years, contributing to NHK and other Japanese news organizations. Goto covered big stories, hoping that by telling them, he could make a difference. That's what spurred him to go to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria, as he explained in an October video shot shortly before he ventured over the Turkish border. "Syrian people suffering three years and a half. It's enough," said Goto, 47. "So I would like to get the story of what ISIS wants to do." Alaaeddin Al Zaim, who had worked with Goto in Syria previously, says he warned him not to enter the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. "I tell him it's not safe for you," Al Zaim told CNN. But Goto went anyway. He said, according to Al Zaim, "I am not American, I am not British. I'm Japanese. I can go." The aims and activities of Yukawa, a 42-year-old unemployed widower, are murkier. He originally headed to the war-ravaged country early last year to gain combat and survival experience to bolster his plans to set up a private security company, said his friend Nobuo Kimoto. There, Yukawa met Goto, who gave him insights on how to survive there, Kimoto said. Goto also introduced him to rebel fighters, who are distinct from ISIS, though both are fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Some of the rebels talked about their need for ambulances to shuttle the wounded. That plea spurred Yukawa to start raising money for this cause after returning to Japan, according to Kimoto. Kimoto said he advised his friend to focus on building up his private security company. Before he went back to Syria in July -- a month before his reported capture -- Yukawa told his friend about his clear sense of purpose when he was in that tumultuous Middle Eastern nation, despite all its violence and other travails. "I felt a chill when he said, after returning home, (that) he felt in Syria he was really living a life," Kimoto said. "He seems to have felt satisfaction being there and living together with the locals." CNN's Ali Younes, Yoko Wakatsuki, Junko Ogura, Jethro Mullen and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.

Japanese and U.S. authorities say the video seems authentic . Hostage Kenji Goto holds a photo of what appears to be beheaded compatriot Haruna Yukawa . ISIS is now demanding the release of a prisoner in Jordan in exchange for Goto .

(CNN) -- In 2013, events such as the U.S. government shutdown, hot-button issues such as marriage equality and ramped-up debates about privacy and surveillance made headlines and caught readers' attention. Many of the perspectives published by CNN Opinion were shared widely on social media. Here are some of the most shared op-eds from the year. Dan Riffle: Marijuana is safer than alcohol . For more than 80 years, our government has spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars fighting a war against marijuana. We arrest three-quarters of a million adults every year, 87% for simple possession rather than production or sales of marijuana. Courtrooms turn into assembly lines churning out probationers -- mostly minorities -- with convictions that will make it almost impossible to find employment. The result? Marijuana is universally available, used by almost half of Americans at some point in their lives, and we've enriched murderous drug cartels fueling violence in Mexico that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Read more... Dan Riffle is a former assistant prosecutor and the director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, the primary financial backer of the 2012 campaign to regulate marijuana in Colorado. (Note: On the subject of marijuana, Dr. Sanjay Gupta's opinion piece in the CNN Health section was hugely popular:) Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed . I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis. Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse." They didn't have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. Read more... Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, is the multiple Emmy®-award winning chief medical correspondent for CNN. LZ Granderson: The courage of teachers . Each day more than 55 million students attend the country's 130,000 schools. Each day, parents and guardians entrust some 7 million teachers with the education of our children. And on a normal day, that is all we expect teachers to do -- teach. But on those not-so normal days, we are reminded that for six hours a day and more, five days a week, teaching is not the only thing teachers are charged with doing. On those not-so-normal days, we are reminded that teachers are also asked to be surrogate parents, protectors, heroes. Read more... LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and was a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @locs_n_laughs. Bruce Schneier: The Internet is a surveillance state . Welcome to a world where Google knows exactly what sort of porn you all like, and more about your interests than your spouse does. Welcome to a world where your cell phone company knows exactly where you are all the time. Welcome to the end of private conversations, because increasingly your conversations are conducted by e-mail, text or social networking sites. And welcome to a world where all of this, and everything else that you do or is done on a computer, is saved, correlated, studied, passed around from company to company without your knowledge or consent; and where the government accesses it at will without a warrant. Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we've ended up here with hardly a fight. Read more... Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive." Hanna Rosin: Men dither while women lead in the world . The pictures in the news, day after day, tell the story: House Speaker John Boehner looks like he hasn't slept in weeks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks like he swallowed a lemon. Sen. Ted Cruz looks bizarrely smug while the world crumbles around him, and President Barack Obama can only shake his head and loosen his collar. The only Washington type who was smiling on the front page of the newspaper this week was Janet Yellen, newly nominated by Obama to be the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, and anointed by one observer as the most powerful woman in world history. Oh, and there was one other person smiling in Washington: Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, who was in the U.S. capital for the organization's annual meeting and who said just about the only sensible thing anyone in town has said all week on the debt ceiling crisis: "I hope that in a few weeks' time, we will look back and say, 'What a waste of time that was.' " Read more... Hanna Rosin is the author of "The End of Men: And the Rise of Women," now out in paperback. She is co-founder of Slate's DoubleX, a Web magazine about women issues. John Sutter: The most unequal place in America . Many people in Lake Providence, Louisiana, never will climb out of poverty. The tools simply aren't available. Only 9% of kids from the bottom fifth of the earners in Lake Providence will make it into the top fifth, according to research from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. America has tried to create systems that are designed to ferry people from one side of the lake to the other, or to at least stop them from sinking further. Government programs help pay for health insurance and day care. Food stamps have kept families from going hungry. And public schools have proved to be one of the best routes out of poverty. In Lake Providence, however, the education system seems to underscore class divisions. Kids from the north side of the lake go to Briarfield Academy. Mascot: the Rebels. Graduation rate: 100%. It has no formal scholarship program, its principal said. On the south, there's only one public high school. Mascot: the Panthers. Graduation rate: 72.5%. Read more... John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion and head of CNN's Change the List project. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. E-mail him at [email protected]. Matt Bors: The generation we love to dump . Can we stop worrying about Millennials yet? Can we? Maybe? I know it's very scary to be reminded that you are aging, but older people can probably stop pretending young people are going to destroy the planet. We got this. (By the way, thanks for leaving it in tip-top shape.) Those of us born between 1980 and 2000 are not nearly as God-awful as the writers who constantly profile our tech-addled, be-hipstered people would have you believe. Read more... Matt Bors was born in 1983 and was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist in editorial cartooning. He regularly tweets stuff on Twitter and has a new book out: "Life Begins at Incorporation." David Rothkopf: President Hillary Clinton? If she wants it . Hillary Clinton is likely to be the next Democratic presidential nominee because she is the best-known active Democratic politician, because she has repeatedly triumphed over adversity and because she has made herself well-liked at a time that politicians are typically viewed with contempt. But she is likely to be the next president, the first woman to be president of the United States, because of the quality of her character and her work on behalf of the American people. With some luck, she will use the next two years to restore her energy and prepare for what lies ahead. Because regardless of what political party in which you may find yourself, it is hard to deny that she elevates our political discourse in ways that few, if any, others do on the contemporary stage. Read more... David Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com. He is CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow him on Twitter at @djrothkopf. Suze Orman: Gay Americans pay more taxes for fewer rights . We all have 83-year-old Edith Windsor to thank for in pushing the issue of same-sex marriage equality on to the national front. Edie and her partner, Thea, were together for 40 years. How many marriages do you know that have lasted that long? But when Thea died in 2009, Edie was hit with a $363,000 federal estate tax bill because as a same-sex couple, they were not eligible for the unlimited marital deduction. Are we really a nation that says it is fair and just to demand Edie pay a $363,000 penalty because she is gay? Read more... Suze Orman is a personal finance expert and hosts "The Suze Orman Show" on CNBC. She is a best-selling author of ten books, including "The Money Class." Bob Greene: Taxpayers, you deserve your money back . We pay federal income tax with one solitary and bedrock expectation: We are handing our money over so that the federal government will run. Some people may not like how the government operates; some may not care for a particular president or a particular member of Congress or a particular government program. We accept that, as we pay our taxes. We pay those taxes because we have to. We know that we don't get to withhold those taxes just because we may dislike some of the people or programs the taxes are funding. But when we are told that the government has been shut down-- that it has been closed for business -- that's different. We paid for that service. We had no choice. Read more... CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.

CNN Opinion rounds up ten of the most shared pieces of 2013 . LZ Granderson: On not-so normal days, teachers are also asked to be heroes . Bruce Schneier: Welcome to an Internet without privacy; we're here with hardly a fight . David Rothkopf: Hillary Clinton is likely to be the next president of the U.S.

Moscow (CNN)Crowds of people, some with tears in their eyes, flocked Saturday to the spot on a bridge in the shadow of the Kremlin where prominent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov was shot dead hours earlier, in what appeared to be a targeted killing. The fatal shooting of the former Russian deputy prime minister sparked outrage among fellow opposition figures, and many questions over who could be behind it. Nemtsov, who served in the late 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, was one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics. An ever-growing mound of flowers left by mourners marked the place where he fell late Friday night. The mood in the Russian capital is one of shock, among Putin supporters as well as those who back the opposition, one man told CNN. Investigators are combing through surveillance footage and questioning witnesses in the shooting, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement Saturday. "There is no doubt that the crime was carefully planned," it said. "It is obvious that the organizers and perpetrators of this crime were aware of the proposed route." The weapon used appeared to be a Makarov pistol, it added. State-run Russia 24 reported that Nemtsov had received threats related to his stance on the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, citing Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin. Meanwhile, Nemtsov's former press secretary and close friend Alexander Kotyusov told the official Tass news agency that Nemtsov would be buried in Moscow. Opposition activists told CNN they believed the funeral would be held Tuesday. Putin quickly condemned the killing and expressed his condolences to his family. He also ordered three law enforcement agencies to investigate the shooting, Tass reported. According to the Kremlin website, Putin has written to Nemtsov's mother saying he shared her grief and promising to bring those behind the killing to justice. "He always openly and honestly stated his position, defended his point of view," he said of his erstwhile critic. Nemtsov was a top official with the Republican Party of Russia/Party of People's Freedom, a liberal opposition group. He had most recently been critical of the Kremlin's handling of the Ukraine crisis. Opposition leader Ilya Yashin said his friend had been working on a report about Russian troops and their involvement in Ukraine. In a statement released by the U.N. on Saturday, Secretary-General Ban ki-moon expressed his deepest condolences to Mr. Nemtsov's family, friends and supporters while affirming an investigation into Nemtsov's murder has been announced through which he "expects the perpetrators to be brought to justice swiftly." His death comes two days before a large opposition rally was set to take place in Moscow. Hours before his death Friday, Nemtsov had done a radio interview urging people to attend the rally Sunday. After his death, party leaders decided to instead hold a mourning march Sunday in downtown Moscow. Russian authorities have reversed their earlier decision not to issue a permit for the march and will now allow the procession Sunday afternoon, leader of the People's Freedom Party Mikhail Kasyanov said. The organizers of the march claim that so far some 1,200 people have confirmed they will join. Moscow police said they would tighten security for the march, with up to 50,000 participants allowed to take part. The route will lead just over a mile from Kitay Gorod in downtown Moscow to the bridge near the Kremlin where Nemtsov was killed. Nemtsov was walking with a companion, Anna Duritskaya, 23, at the time of the shooting. A political colleague and friend of Nemtsov's, Ilya Yashin, said Duritskaya called him and told him that just before midnight a car with "several men" pulled up and someone in the car then opened fire on Nemtsov. Investigators interviewed Duritskaya on details surrounding the shooting, she wasn't wounded. Russian broadcasters Life News and Russia 24 said the car used in the attack had been found in downtown Moscow and was being examined by police. Life News earlier posted video of what it said could be the vehicle, a white car captured by a CCTV camera near the bridge. Police have not commented on the video. The area in the center city is normally busy on a Friday night, though the weather was cold and wet. Putin said he suspected it was a contract hit meant to cause political discord, according to the President's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. The leader of Russia's Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, told Tass the killing should be investigated fast to avoid it being exploited by Russia's enemies, potentially leading to "far-reaching consequences." He added that "all Russia's foes will use this murder to the maximum." A man like Nemtsov had many enemies, experts said. Nemtsov, 55, had been arrested several times for speaking against Putin's government. The most recent arrests were in 2011 when he protested the results of parliamentary elections and in 2012 when tens of thousands protested against Putin. In a restaurant interview with CNN's Anthony Bourdain last year, he lamented the situation for business owners. "This is a country of corruption. And if you have business, you are in a very unsafe situation. Everybody can press you and destroy your business. That's it," Nemtsov said. Nemtsov was also a vocal critic of the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, calling them one of the most "outrageous swindles" in recent Russian history. World chess champion-turned opposition activist Garry Kasparov tweeted extensively about Nemtsov's death. "When we argued, Boris would tell me I was too hasty, that in Russia you had to live a long time to see change. Now he'll never see it. RIP," he wrote in one. Nemtsov's lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told Russian media that Nemtsov's life had been threatened on social media in recent weeks. Critics like Yashin and Kasparov pointed fingers in the direction of Putin or a supporter of the Russian President. "It's clearly a political murder. It's definitely a contract one," Yashin said. "I don't know who killed Boris, but I know that it's the government and personally Putin who are responsible for it. They've been constantly promoting a hatred towards everyone who doesn't support their course and thinks different." It's something even Nemtsov himself had said he had thought about, acknowledging in an interview with Russian newspaper Sobesednik this month that he was "a little bit" afraid his mother's fears Putin would have him killed would come true. But, he added, "I'm not afraid of him that much. If I was afraid I wouldn't be heading an opposition party and do what I'm doing." Opinion: Nemtsov killing: A chilling historical parallel? Kasparov said the Russian President is to blame even if not directly involved. "If Putin gave order to murder Boris Nemtsov is not the point. It is Putin's dictatorship. His 24/7 propaganda about enemies of the state," Kasparov tweeted. "In Putin's atmosphere of hatred & violence, abroad & in Russia, bloodshed is the prerequisite to show loyalty, that you are on the team," he added. New footage released by a Moscow city government owned TV station, TVCenter, on Saturday aired low resolution surveillance video which the TV station claims captured two people they believe to be Boris Nemstov and his friend Anna Duritskaya, just seconds before the shooting. Critics of Putin have in the past suffered miserable fates. Last year, a Moscow court sentenced five men to prison for the 2006 killing of Russian journalist and fierce Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya. Business magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky accused Putin of corruption and wound up spending 10 years in prison and labor camps. Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko accused state security services of organizing a coup to put Putin in power. He was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium and died in London in 2006. No killer has been caught. "It's the latest in a series of high-profile killings of people who have been critics of authorities in Russia over the last few years," said Peter Baker, the author of "Kremlin Rising" and a New York Times reporter. "We don't know yet, of course, who did this or why, but it will certainly send a terrible message to people who are fighting this cause Nemtsov has been fighting." Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, described Nemtsov as a "real patriot" who had been his loyal friend for 20 years. "I hope a real investigation will tell us who committed this heinous crime," he tweeted, pointing out that it happened only 100 meters from the heavily guarded Kremlin. "You teach people to hate. You encourage people to hate. You push messages of hate. They then do hateful things." U.S. President Barack Obama called for an impartial investigation and praised the deceased leader. "Nemtsov was a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled. I admired Nemtsov's courageous dedication to the struggle against corruption in Russia and appreciated his willingness to share his candid views with me when we met in Moscow in 2009," Obama said in a written statement from the White House. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was saddened by the death of Nemtsov, who "committed his life to a more democratic, prosperous, open Russia, and to strong relationships between Russia and its neighbors and partners, including the United States." Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Saturday "it is hard to believe" that Nemtsov was killed. "I have no doubt that the murderers will be brought to justice. Sooner or later. Rest in peace," Poroshenko said via Twitter. French President Francois Hollande condemned the murder of the man he described as "a courageous and tireless defender of democracy and a fierce fighter against corruption." Who was Boris Nemtsov? CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London. CNN's Steve Almasy, Radina Gigova, Gena Somra, Ralph Ellis, Brian Walker, Azadeh Ansari and Jo Shelley contributed to this report.

Nemtsov was accompanied by a friend when shots were fired from car . Crowds flock to lay flowers at the spot on the bridge where Boris Nemtsov was shot dead . Investigative Committee says killing of Nemtsov was "carefully planned"

(CNN) -- On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate a series of recent leaks that critics charge are designed to bolster the national security credentials of the Obama administration. Investigations by special prosecutors can take on a life of their own. Recall that the investigation of the Whitewater real estate deal in Arkansas -- in which Bill and Hillary Clinton actually lost money -- morphed into the scandal of the Monica Lewinsky affair. During the George W. Bush administration, Scooter Libby, a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted not of leaking the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame but of making false statements to the FBI during its investigation of the leak and also perjuring himself. The recent leaks involve stories in The New York Times, Newsweek and the Associated Press that range from the hitherto undisclosed role of the United States in cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear facilities to details about the president's decision-making surrounding the selection of the targets of the CIA drone program in Pakistan and Yemen and the penetration by a spy of al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate. Earlier this month, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two senior Department of Justice prosecutors to investigate the leaks, and the FBI is also investigating the matter. Have those leaks, as Romney claimed on Monday, "put American interests and our people in jeopardy"? It is not only Republicans making these charges. Well-regarded Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I think what we're seeing, Wolf, is an avalanche of leaks, and it is very, very disturbing. It's dismayed our allies. It puts American lives in jeopardy. It puts our nation's security in jeopardy." The story that sparked these claims was David Sanger's piece in The New York Times earlier this month about the U.S. role in cyberattacks against Iran's key nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz, revelations that also appear in Sanger's fascinating new book, "Confront and Conceal." Sanger goes into rich detail about how computer viruses were introduced into the Natanz plant and how they then took over the controls of the finely calibrated centrifuges that the Iranians use to enrich their uranium, causing the centrifuges to spin wildly out of control. But did this really hurt U.S. national security? After all, the Iranians know that their problems with the centrifuges at Natanz are caused by cyberattacks and have publicly said so for the past two years. On November 29, 2010, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters in Tehran, "They succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts." Computer experts around the world who examined the Stuxnet virus, the first computer virus that was introduced into the Iranian nuclear program, concluded two years ago that this was a virus that was so complex that it could only have been generated by a state, and the only two states with the technical know-how and motive to write the code for such a virus were Israel and the United States. Last year, German computer security expert Ralph Langner, who had discovered the Stuxnet virus when it had first broken out of the Natanz plant, told a conference in California, "My opinion is that the Mossad is involved. ... But, the leading source is not Israel. ... There is only one leading source, and that is the United States." Sanger's reporting about the cyberattacks on Iran revealed that the code name for the series of computer viruses unleashed on Iran's nuclear program is "Olympic Games" and also laid out some of the modus operandi of the viruses themselves, but since much of this was generally known by the Iranian regime, it is unlikely U.S. national security was really harmed by the disclosures. In fact, open discussion of the cyberattacks against Iran is in the public interest because three questions about the attacks quickly present themselves: . -- What are the downsides of cyberattacks in a world that is so interconnected by the Internet? -- Since it is the Pentagon's official position that a serious cyberattack against the United States is a form of warfare, is the U.S. therefore already at war with Iran? -- When does a covert action against an American enemy rise to a form of warfare that it merits a broader public discussion? According to Sanger, his sources about Olympic Games included "current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts." So it is fair to assume that Sanger's reporting was hardly dependent on a particular Obama administration official (or officials) but rather, as all good reporters do, Sanger put together a myriad of sources to arrive at the composite picture of Olympic Games that he paints for his readers. It is therefore quite unlikely that prosecutors will find particular officials behind the leaking but rather that Obama officials gave Sanger some small fragments of the Olympic Games story that he was then also able to piece together with the help of his Israeli and European sources, as well as experts on cybersecurity. Another story that has critics of the Obama administration steamed is that it has allowed to become public that the president personally approves "kill lists" for CIA drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, a story reported both by Jo Becker and Scott Shane in The New York Times and by Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek and in his excellent new book about Obama's counterterrorism policies, "Kill or Capture." No such criticism attended the Bush administration's decision to turn over to Bob Woodward the highly classified notes from "50 National Security Council and other meetings" that became the basis for Woodward's hagiographic book, "Bush at War," about the campaign to overthrow the Taliban during the fall of 2001. There is nothing of substance to the criticism that discussion of the "kill lists" endangers national security. After all, drone attacks are an entirely public form of supposedly secret warfare. A drone strike -- when a bomb or missile appears out of nowhere and incinerates some people in Pakistan's tribal areas or in Yemen -- is a public event. And it's a form of warfare that is, of course, well known to al Qaeda. The documents recovered at Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in Pakistan demonstrate how worried al Qaeda's leaders were about the CIA drone strikes. Incidentally, the president's being involved in making these life-or-death decisions about the fates of many hundreds of people in any given year is desirable. Is it a preferable alternative that he shouldn't be involved at all? Also, discussion of the drone program is in the public interest as it's a form of warfare that is unlikely to remain an American monopoly for much longer. After all, the U.S. has only had the ability to arm its own drones for the past decade, and many other countries now possess unarmed drones of their own. It won't be long before the Russians and the Chinese will be arming their own drones and precedents created by the Obama administration will surely be invoked by them. The one story that may be genuinely troubling from a national security perspective is the one written by the deeply sourced Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo at the AP, who made public in May that a plot to destroy a U.S. bound airliner using a souped-up new version of an "underwear bomb" developed by al Qaeda's Yemeni branch had had been thwarted by the CIA. As this story could have revealed "sources and methods" that might affect the future ability of the CIA or of "liaison services" working with the agency to penetrate al Qaeda in Yemen again, the precise source of this leak seems to be the most legitimate avenue of inquiry for the Justice Department and the FBI. Finally, is there any merit to the notion that the Obama administration is spilling secrets to burnish its national security record? To help answer that question, let's quickly recall some of that record: . -- In the first two years of his presidency, Obama quintupled the number of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, as a result more or less destroying al Qaeda there. -- Obama has conducted around 40 drone strikes and airstrikes in Yemen, compared with the Bush administration's single drone strike there. -- One of those Obama drone strikes killed the New Mexico-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, which appears to be the first time an American president has authorized the assassination of a U.S. citizen. -- According to reliable news reports of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, Obama has authorized strikes that led to the killing of at least 1,900 people, most of whom were militants but around 5% of whom were civilians. (The toll of 1,900 is more than double the total number of detainees who have passed through Guantanamo). -- And, of course, Obama ordered the raid that killed bin Laden, a decision that was made against the advice of two of his most senior advisers, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who had served every president going back to Richard Nixon, and Vice President Joe Biden, who was elected to the Senate when Obama was 11. This does not seem to be the record of a president who needs to bolster his national security credentials, something that seems to be well-understood by the American public. In a variety of recent polls, Obama and Romney are now running neck and neck, but a poll released this month by Fox News shows that Obama beats Romney by 11 points on foreign policy issues and by 13 points on terrorism. The irony of all the ruckus about the recent leaks is that the Obama administration, which came to power promising more government transparency, has been the most aggressive administration in U.S. history in its prosecution of alleged leaks to the press. It has invoked in six cases the rarely used 1917 Espionage Act to go after Americans not working for foreign intelligence services but who have leaked to the media. By and large, the leaks are a Washington pseudoscandal that hasn't really harmed national security but have instead helped to foster a legitimate debate about the future of drone warfare and of cyberattacks that promise to transform warfare as much as fast-moving tanks changed the face of war in the mid-20th century.

Mitt Romney, others have called for special prosecutor on national security leaks . Peter Bergen: Most of the info about drones, Stuxnet were known by adversaries . He says argument that the leaks put U.S. interests and people in jeopardy doesn't hold up . Bergen: Public discussion of the implications of drones, computer wars is beneficial .

(CNN) -- Violent protests erupted Friday in Syria, with dozens of people killed in and around the restive city of Daraa and a boy slain in the coastal town of Latakia, reports said. "The situation in Syria has worsened considerably over the past week, with the use of live ammunition and tear gas by the authorities having resulted in a total of at least 37 people being killed in Daraa , including two children," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Among the dead were 15 people who tried to march to Daraa, sources said, and nine others who died when security forces fired on demonstrators in Daraa's main square, said Wissam Tarif, a human rights activist. There were many casualties in Daraa, said Abdullah, who asked that his full name not be reported due to security concerns. He said he saw Friday's events in the city, where deadly clashes have taken place in recent days between security forces and protesters. "Thousands gathered and moved to the governor's building in Daraa, and there they burned a large picture of Bashar al-Assad, and then they toppled a statue of Hafez al-Assad in the center of the square," Abdullah said, referring to the current president and his late father, the former president. "After that, armed men came out from the roof of the officers' club in front of the governor's office and started firing at the crowd," he said. Aman al Aswad, a political dissident, said dozens of people appeared to have been killed or wounded in clashes with security forces in the square, but he could not be precise on the totals. CNN could not independently confirm the accounts as the Syrian government has yet to grant access to the network. Earlier, more than 100,000 people attended an anti-government demonstration in the town, according to Kamal Aswad, a political activist in Daraa. There, people ridiculed recent government pronouncements for reforms and an assertion by government spokeswoman and adviser Bouthaina Shabaan that the country's president had ordered "no live bullets" would be used against demonstrators. One witness said the people chanted, "Bouthaina we do not want your bread, we want dignity!" He said an "overwhelming number" of protesters showed up in Daraa to support "martyrs," people killed in recent clashes. "The whole of the city was out in the street to bury the dead and demand that those responsible be tried for their crimes against the people of Daraa," the witness said. "We broke the barrier of fear today and the security forces could not touch us." The witness said the security forces had withdrawn from the center of the city and didn't interfere with the demonstrations, which are stoked by a range of political and economic grievances. This week, a video made by a lawyer who describes himself as secretary general of the Association of Arab tribes and Clans in southern Syria has been circulating on the Internet. In it, Ali Isa al-Obaidi says the tribes that make up the organization have "declared revolution against the regime, the dictator and his supporters." It is dated March 21. "Dear brave Syrian people, the winds of freedom and change have erupted," he says. "After 41 years of the non-legitimate Assad family rule, which included killing, imprisonment, displacement, stealing of money... the victims of the criminal system number more than 100,000. The displaced number the same and there are 3 million displaced... Your duty today is to stand with your country's people and the revolution." He says the revolution opposes no particular group, sect, religion or race. "It is against corruption and the corrupt, no matter what their background," he says, adding that he represents tribes and clans in Syria that together make up more than half of Syrians. The speaker calls on: . -- members of the Baath party -- in which Assad plays a leadership role -- to quit the party; . -- Syria's military to "stand by the people and its revolution;" -- scholars and religious leaders from all sects "to stand by the revolution and support it;" -- the nation's youth "to demonstrate against the dictator and his supporters and stand by the revolution;" -- Syrians everywhere to unite in peaceful protest. It was not clear how much influence al-Obaidi holds in the country. The situation in Syria has drawn concern from the international community. The United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke by phone with President Assad. And in Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday that the U.S. government condemns the outbreak of violence in Syria. "We are making clear from here and from other places what our position is," he said. Human Rights Watch, among other groups, said Thursday that around three dozen people were killed in clashes in a 48-hour period. "Syria's security forces are showing the same cruel disregard for protesters' lives as their counterparts in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "President Bashar al-Assad's talk about reforms doesn't mean anything when his security forces are mowing down people who want to talk about them." The government announced a number of measures that apparently addressed protesters' demands. Among them are decrees to cut taxes and raise government workers' salaries by 1,500 Syrian pounds ($32.60 US) a month and pledges to provide more press freedoms, increased job opportunities and curbs on government corruption. The government said it will form a committee "to contact and listen to citizens in Daraa." It also said it would study lifting the country's emergency law and adopting new legislation that would license political parties. Syria's emergency law, which has been in effect since 1963, allows the government to make preventive arrests and override constitutional and penal code statutes. It also bars detainees who haven't been charged from filing court complaints or from having a lawyer present during interrogations. There were pockets of smaller turnouts in Syria on Friday. State TV showed what it said were pro-government demonstrations in Aleppo and Damascus. The state-run Arab News Agency said its correspondent in Daraa "reported that the crowds in the spontaneous popular rallies chanted national slogans highly lauding President Assad's generous decrees and decisions, pledging their loyalty to his excellency and their unity under his leadership in the face of any conspiracy against Syria." But video also emerged of protests in Hama, where the government violently suppressed an uprising in 1982. And the state news agency reported that an armed gang attacked security forces in the southern city of Sanamen, which "resulted in the deaths of several attackers." Video was posted on YouTube purporting to show the scene of the shooting. It shows hundreds of young men and boys walking down a street, then turning around and running back as gunfire breaks out. Over the course of the 5-minute video, they regroup several times and head down the street only to reverse course at each burst of fresh gunfire. Some of the demonstrators are clumped into groups of about five men each. As they approach the camera, the lens reveals their broken cargo -- some eight gunshot victims in all. One of them holds his fist aloft, another's limp arm points downward, jostling as he is carried away. Several of them appear drenched in red. Other videos showed young men defacing billboards of the Syrian president and pulling down a statue of the leader. Haytham Manna, a Syrian rights activist from Daraa who lives in France, reported demonstrations in the cities of Raqqa, where there were reports of arrests and injuries, Latakia, and Homs. Tarif said a 13-year-old boy was killed in Latakia after he was beaten by security forces when they tried to break up a demonstration. The teen was from the neighboring village of Jabla. Haitham Maleh, a Syrian human rights lawyer in Damascus, said demonstrators turned out in Deir Al-Zour and were roughed up in Damascus. "Syria today is like a barrel of gunpowder, and may explode at any moment," Maleh said. "What is happening in Syria cannot be tolerated anymore. We have been subjected to oppression, domination and suppression by the security authorities and we have unemployment exceeding 30%, while 60% of us live below the poverty line." Maleh's son, Iyas, said a legal group asked the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed by Syrian forces. The group is the Haitham Maleh Foundation for the Defense of Syrian Human Rights Defenders. Because Syria is not a "state party to the Rome statute," which established the International Criminal Court, it can't typically act on allegations of crimes in Syria. There are two exceptions, however. One would be if the Syrian authorities were to accept the jurisdiction of the court, and the other would be if the U.N. Security Council were to refer the situation to the court. Iyas Maleh said he hopes the Security Council will act. "If not, then I guess we will have to wait until there is a recognized Syrian transitional government who can sign the Rome statute." Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000, succeeding his father, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for nearly 30 years. The 45-year-old Assad studied to be an ophthalmologist, but became Syria's heir apparent after the death of his older brother. Assad was elected to a second term as president in 2007, with 97% of the vote. When he took office, Assad initially loosened some government restrictions on Syria's people, but analysts say that he has since slowed -- even reversed -- that move toward political reform. Assad is an Alawite, as are many of Syria's political elite, while Sunnis make up nearly three quarters of the population. The Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Ben Wedeman, Amir Ahmed, Saad Abedine, Mustafa Al-Arab, Christine Theodorou, and Joe Sterling contributed to this report .

Video purports to show shooting site . Accounts surface of at least 37 dead, including 2 children, during past week . State-run news agency reports spontaneous pro-government rallies in Daraa . Activist says 9 were killed in Daraa's main square .

(CNN) -- Do you know the mascot for South Dakota State? Can you come up with the all-time record for No. 16 seeds? How about the starting backcourt for the Michigan Wolverines? No? Well, to prepare you for Selection Sunday and the three weeks of March Madness, here is an A to Z primer on the NCAA Tournament that will cap a wildly unpredictable season in college basketball. A is for Anyone, which is pretty much who can claim the NCAA title. That doesn't mean you should pick Liberty -- which brings a 15-20 record into the tournament -- in your office pool. But unlike one year ago, when Kentucky was heavily favored from the start of the season, there are a dozen teams that can legitimately say they have a chance to clip the nets in Atlanta in three weeks. B is for Big East, which is splitting into three directions next year. The seven Catholic members are retaining the name and plan to add a few other top basketball schools. Syracuse and Pittsburgh are joining the Atlantic Coast Conference next season. And the remaining schools are combining with several newcomers to form a yet-to-be-named conference. Will the league that gave us Patrick Ewing and Villanova's upset and the three Connecticut championships go out with one last hoorah? As usual, it will have a lot of chances, with as many as eight members in the field of 68. C is for Creighton, and if you're looking for a reason to pick the Bluejays in your office pool, look no further than Doug McDermott. The junior forward is the second leading scorer in the nation with 23.1 points a game. D is for Duke, which will be looking for its fifth national title under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski -- and might be favored to get it. The Blue Devils went 27-4 despite missing center Ryan Kelly for seven weeks. Kelly scored a career-high 36 points in his return against Miami, the league's regular season champion. If the Blue Devils were good without him, imagine what they might do with him. E is for Eagles, which is the mascot for a lot of teams, of course, including NCAA Tournament newcomer Florida Gulf Coast. The Fort Myers, Florida, school was established in 1991 and had its first classes in 1997. The Eagles didn't make the full transition to Division 1 athletics until 2011, in fact, so their arrival on the national stage this soon might be most surprising. F is for Fuller, and that's what the F in Stephen F. Austin stands for. Austin was known as the "Father of Texas," and the college that bears his name is back in the tournament for the second time after winning the Southland Conference with a 26-3 record. Bleacher Report: NCAA Bracket 2013 Predictions . G is for Golden Eagles, the nickname for Marquette. They tend to fly under the radar in the Big East, but once again colorful head coach Buzz Williams had them tied for the regular-season title. It seems like a matter of time before he takes this program back to the Final Four. Is this the year? H is for Harvard, and after ending a 65-year NCAA Tournament drought last season, the Crimson is back in the field again. "I just feel like the basketball gods have been on our side," Crimson player Christian Webster said, and Harvard might need them: The Ivy League has a 31-59 record in the tournament since 1957. I is for Indiana, and this year, the mighty Hoosiers have stormed back on the national stage under head coach Tom Crean. They are the second in the nation in scoring at 80.8 points a game, led by sophomore forward Cody Zeller at 16.8 points and 8.1 rebounds. Will that mean a Final Four trip? If so, it'll end an a long drought for one of the most loyal fan bases in the sport: The Hoosiers have just one Final Four appearance (2002) in the past 20 years. J is for Jackrabbits, and while they do not normally inspire fear, if the matchup is right, they could make noise as a higher seed. South Dakota State is in the tournament for the second straight year. K is for Kentucky, the defending national champs and most prominent bubble team in years. Are the Wildcats in? Or are the Wildcats out? Unless they win the SEC Tournament this weekend, they'll be sweating out the selection show in Lexington. (Our guess: They're in -- barely.) L is for Louisville, that other national power in the Bluegrass State. Can the Cardinals keep the NCAA title in-state? They're certainly on a roll. They entered the Big East Tournament with wins in 10 of their last 11 games, and that single loss was to Notre Dame -- in five overtimes. Bleacher Report: Projecting Cinderella Teams That Will Make a Deep Run . M is for Michigan, and if you're wondering why the Wolverines are back in contention for a national title, look no further than the backcourt. Trey Burke is a national player of the year candidate averaging 19.2 points and 6.8 assists a game, while Tim Hardaway Jr. adds 14.8 points and 4.7 rebounds. N is for Notre Dame, and if you see the Fighting Irish in the tournament field, you're probably going to wonder: What are they wearing? Adidas has provided several teams, including Cincinnati, Kansas and UCLA, with outfits that the Wall Street Journal described as "the wrong kind of crazy." You'll have to see for yourselves. Just don't stare for long. O is for Orange, and Syracuse is back in the field under head coach Jim Boeheim, as usual. But how many more years will the 68-year-old Boeheim, who won his 900th game, keep coaching? "I never think about the next season until after the season," he said at the Big East Tournament, "because during the season I want to quit every single game, even when we win." P is for Porter, as in Georgetown forward Otto Porter, the Big East Player of the Year. Porter is one of the best stories in college basketball, a 6'8" forward from a small Missouri town who had never stepped on an airplane before visiting the school's Washington campus. Can he lead the Hoyas their first title since 1984? Q is for Quixotic, which has been the quest for Quinnipiac to take its quintessential place as the Q in the A to Z. Come on, Bobcats. Get it done! R is for Rameses, the horned mascot for North Carolina, who will be making an appearance this tournament after all. It didn't look good for the perennial power Tar Heels for much of the season, but a six-game winning streak late in the season should ensure that head coach Roy Williams' team is back in the field. S is for Sixteen, and if you're an amateur bracketologist, you know that no No. 16 seed has ever won a game in the NCAA Tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Is this the year of the upset to end all upsets? "I think this is the year that a 16 could possibly beat a 1 for the first time," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. Before you make that pick in your office pool, remember: The 16s are 0-112 all-time in the tournament. T is for triple digits, and if you're wondering how a James Madison team that is 234th in scoring, 254th in rebounds, 253rd in assists and 240th in field-goal percentage made the tournament field, well, that's March. The Dukes got hot and won the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. U is for UCLA, which will be back in the field during the 75th anniversary of the NCAA Tournament. Sports Illustrated recently ranked the top 75 players in tournament history, and Nos. 1 and 2 belonged to the greatest dynasty in its history: Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton. V is for Valparaiso, a Cinderella of old that's back in the tournament for the first time since 2004. The Crusaders are coached by Bryce Drew, who hit the remarkable buzzer-beater to stun Ole Miss in the 1998 tournament. His father, Homer Drew, was the coach that year, and his brother, Scott Drew, coaches Baylor. Bleacher Report: Breaking Down Top Sleeper Teams to Watch . W is for Western Kentucky, back in the NCAA Tournament field, and while its stay might not last long, its lovable amorphous mascot Big Red will have a chance to make One Shining Moment montage that airs after the national title game. And that is where he belongs. X is for Xavier, which is in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament after reaching the field in 11 of the last 12 seasons. The Musketeers, who reached the Sweet 16 a year ago, are 17-13 this season in the Atlantic 10. Y is for Youth, and as usual, plenty of young stars are on the top teams. Marcus Smart was voted Associated Press freshman of the year for leading Oklahoma State back to the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence. Shabazz Muhammad (UCLA) and Ben McLemore (Kansas) are two other talented rookies to watch this year. Z is for Zags, the unofficial nickname of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, and that won't be a typo in your bracket. Once a plucky underdog, they are expected to be one of the No. 1 seeds when the field is revealed. Will they prove the selection committee was right with a run to their first Final Four? That will be determined over the next three weeks. That's what makes this tournament so much fun.

The NCAA Tournament brackets will be revealed on Selection Sunday, March 17 . Need help ushering in March Madness 2013? This primer explains your brackets . WSJ on Notre Dame, Cincinnati, UCLA, Kansas' Adidas uniforms: "Wrong kind of crazy" No. 16 seed hasn't won a game in NCAA Tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985 .

London (CNN) -- It was a rare sight for media watchers on Wednesday: Rupert Murdoch, the indomitable head of the News Corp. empire, called before a judicial inquiry to explain how his influence has shaped Britain's media and political landscape. Still, it's not the first time the 81-year-old chairman of News Corp. has been grilled in the United Kingdom. He also appeared before lawmakers last summer to answer questions on alleged phone hacking at the News of the World. But the focus in the Leveson Inquiry hearing was on Murdoch's dealings with a succession of British prime ministers going back decades and whether these cozy relationships worked to his personal advantage. The awkward questions come as News Corp. also faces investigation in the United States over alleged phone hacking and increased scrutiny in Australia following an inquiry into media standards. On the stand in London, Murdoch insisted that his newspapers did not lobby for his commercial interests and he had "never asked a prime minister for anything." "You would wish to point out that no express favors were offered to you by Mrs. Thatcher; is that right?" he was asked by Leveson Inquiry lawyer Robert Jay, referring to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. "And none asked," responded Murdoch. Murdoch denies political influence . The question of influence is key because of the concerns raised over the impartiality of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt in considering a takeover bid by News Corp. for British satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Hunt's aide resigned Wednesday over communications with News Corp. that suggested the global media giant was getting inside information, although Hunt denied any improper dealings on his own part. 'This is a man who has held power ...' And it's significant in part because of the sheer scale of News Corp.'s operations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. With some 48,000 employees worldwide, the company "had total assets of approximately U.S. $60 billion, total annual revenues of approximately U.S. $34 billion and in excess of 260,000 shareholders" as of the end of last year, Murdoch said in written testimony. "This is a man who has held power far greater and far longer than anyone else in our time," said Michael Wolff, a media commentator, founder of Newser.com and author of "The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch." For 60 years, Murdoch has been both a powerful private citizen in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, and a businessman wielding huge influence, Wolff said. "He is so powerful that he doesn't have to ask for anything ... it just comes to him," he said. News Corp., through its British arm News International, commands some 37% of national newspaper circulation in Britain. It publishes the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and Sun on Sunday newspapers . Given that about 60% of the UK population reads a national newspaper, Murdoch's influence is hard to overstate, said Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster in London. His attitudes on issues including the Europe Union, opposition to a single currency, taxation and immigration have percolated down to the UK population through his titles, as they shape the news agenda, Barnett said. And the Sun readership matters more than most in political terms because it has six to seven million readers, Barnett said, and polling shows many of these are floating voters. Murdoch critic: Publisher's claims are 'pretty ludicrous' Against this backdrop, Murdoch's claims never to have sought to capitalize on that reach for his own benefit are disingenuous at best, Barnett said. "Time after time, Murdoch insisted on denying that he ever used his newspapers either for commercial advantage or for political advantage, which is quite extraordinary -- and frankly as a claim is pretty ludicrous," said Barnett, who attended the hearing in London. "When you look at the history of the way in which he increased his empire and the legislative and regulatory decisions that have been made in his favor, it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny." In his role as chief executive of a multinational media giant, it would have been remiss of Murdoch not to seek the ear of power if it would benefit his shareholders, Barnett said, and his claim that he never did is "frankly beyond belief." At the same time as Murdoch was testifying, Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons: "I think we all, on both sides of this house, did a bit too much cozying up to Mr. Murdoch." Going back to the Thatcher era, Barnett points to the government's decision not to refer Murdoch's acquisition of the Times and Sunday Times to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, despite his ownership of other titles, as a prime example of things working in the press baron's favor. Secret lunch with Margaret Thatcher . The Leveson Inquiry heard how Murdoch had a secret lunch with Thatcher -- revealed in March this year -- before his successful bid for the Times newspapers. Questioned over his relations with other British leaders, Murdoch recounted falling out with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown after he told Brown his papers would not support Labour in the 2010 election. But he insisted strongly that there had been no quid pro quo with Tony Blair as Murdoch's papers switched support from the Conservative Party to Blair's Labour Party in 1997 -- not long before Blair swept into power as prime minister. "I, in 10 years in his power there, never asked Tony Blair for any favors and never received any," Murdoch said. Nonetheless, the relationship with News Corp. has been key to Britain's politicians, Barnett said. "It was incredibly important for Tony Blair when they decided to support Labour, Blair in 1997, and also when they supported David Cameron and the Conservatives." While News Corp.'s dominance in the UK media market is indisputable, it accounts for only 8% of the company's overall revenue. Murdoch owns 70% of the newspapers in his native Australia, Wolff said, where his News Ltd. division owns the only national daily paper and daily titles in several big cities. "He has an overwhelming share of power there. It became such an easy game there that he left, it was a boring game," Wolff said. United States -- where the real money is . But the real money is in the United States, where News Corp. controls The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Fox News and Harper Collins publishers, among other interests. "He has more power than any other private citizen in the United States," said Wolff. News Corp.'s outlets in America are a kind of throwback to the 19th century, when nearly every newspaper had an overt political affiliation, Harvard University sociologist Theda Skocpol said. When the tea party movement began to coalesce in opposition to President Barack Obama in 2009, Murdoch's Fox News in particular helped boost it to national prominence, she said. "Fox was overtly orchestrating enthusiasm for big events and passing along information along with bloggers and radio hosts," said Skocpol, co-author of a 2011 book on the movement. "They didn't create the tea party -- the people who were upset about Obama and Democrats and not happy with the Republican Party, either, were out there. But you can have people out there who don't necessarily get that much help that quickly." The network drew fire from the Obama administration in 2009, when then-communications director Anita Dunn called it "the communications arm of the Republican Party." Fox shot back that it keeps its conservative-leaning opinion programming separate from its "fair and balanced" news coverage. While News Corp.'s American organs have a more consistently conservative conservative cast than in Britain, Skocpol said, "They're a commercial entity, and they're trying to do things that sell." "We're in an era now where flamboyant commentators, particularly on the right, have a great deal of leverage in American politics, and sometimes you wonder whether they're in politics or they're just selling themselves," Skocpol said. Their only weakness, she said, is that Fox News viewers tend to be older -- a minus for advertisers. Andrew Neil, a former editor of the Sunday Times under Murdoch, said the media baron -- who became a U.S. citizen in 1985 -- had been heavily coached by his New York lawyers on how not to jeopardize those vital American interests through intemperate outbursts in London. "He mustn't do anything in the United States, where his real money is and where he is under investigation by the FBI, Department of Justice and SEC," Neil said. As a result, little new came out of the Leveson Inquiry hearing, Neil said, only a kind of "false modesty" as Murdoch sought to downplay his influence. 'I don't think they laid a glove on him' For Wolff, the only surprise from the Leveson Inquiry was that "at 81 years old, (Murdoch) can still be as indominable as ever" under questioning. "I don't think they laid a glove on him. At the end of the day, they looked like schoolchildren, and he looked like the master." That said, the fact Murdoch was before the Leveson Inquiry at all reveals a significant lessening of his power in Britain, Wolff said. "His UK enterprise is imploding. It is over for Rupert Murdoch in the United Kingdom. I think he knows that he can salvage nothing, but he would like his son not to go to jail." The son in question, James Murdoch, a senior News Corp. executive who was chairman of News International at the time of the alleged phone hacking but has since resigned from that role, testified before the inquiry Tuesday. He denies knowing about the extent of wrongdoing at the News of the World. As for his father, he will be back on the stand Thursday. No doubt every media watcher will be glued to Rupert Murdoch's words once again, waiting to see if the man synonymous with ruthless journalism and tough business practice lets his guard drop and tells all. CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.

Rupert Murdoch denies giving politicians favorable coverage in return for commercial advantage . He has "never asked a prime minister for anything," he told a British inquiry into press ethics . Murdoch owns huge chunks of the British, American and Australian media markets . Murdoch's News Corp. also faces tough questions in the United States and Australia .

Northern Syria (CNN) -- Undeterred by a wave of casualties, Syrian rebels say they will not back down in their quest to seize Aleppo, the country's commercial hub and its second-largest city. After six days of fighting, the battle with government forces raged again Thursday as helicopter gunships flew over the city, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least one rebel fighter was killed, the group said. "They don't seem to have the kind of weapons necessary," New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson told CNNI's "Amanpour" from Aleppo about the rebels who, he said, believe the battle to be a decisive one. "If Bashar al-Assad can't dislodge them from Aleppo, then it's over for him. So they have to fight to the death." A rebel commander north of Aleppo told CNN he was sending 300 more fighters to bolster forces in Aleppo. The commander said the rebels were on the offensive in Aleppo, where 18 of 22 rebel brigades were located. In preparation for a fresh onslaught expected after Friday prayers, rebels were setting up medical clinics in apartments and homes throughout the city, he said. The seat of al-Assad's power also saw renewed violence Thursday as explosions rocked Damascus, another opposition group said. Read more: Does U.S. have plan for post-Assad Syria? Regime forces battled rebels in several Damascus neighborhoods, and the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk came under "fierce helicopter shelling with machine guns," the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The LCC reported dozens of dead and wounded in shelling by regime forces in the capital city's suburb of Yalda, and in bomb attacks in the Mashtal district of Damascus. The death toll for Thursday across Syria reached 200, including a number of children, women and defectors, the LCC said. Forty-eight died in Aleppo, 46 in Damascus and its suburbs; 30 in Daraa; 27 in Idlib; 21 in Homs; 14 in Deir Ezzor; six in Hama; four in Raqqa, two in Latakia, one in Qunaitera and one in Hasaka, it said. The LCC said Thursday marks the first time since the start of the uprising in March 2011 that Aleppo has led in the number of deaths in a single day across Syria. Some of those killed in the Al-A'ajamy Valley were defected soldiers seeking "to save civilians fleeing from shelling," the group said. Video posted on YouTube appears to show youths demonstrating in the central Damascus neighborhood of Qanawat. "The people united, will never be divided," they chant in English. "The Syrians united, will never be defeated." And, "Hey Bashar, damn your soul. Hey Bashar, damn your soul." Rebel militias are composed largely of soldiers who have defected from the Syrian military. But there are also many civilians -- including students, shopkeepers, real-estate agents and even members of the president's ruling Ba'ath party -- all trying to end four decades of al-Assad family rule. Read more: Faces of the Free Syrian Army . A Sunni cleric in the village of Injara, about six miles west of Aleppo, showed CNN craters and gaping holes in at least six homes, the result of what he and other residents said were rockets and artillery from a Syrian army base a couple of miles away. "They hit us every night," Sheikh Ali Bukhro said. Other residents said they had had neither electricity nor running water in more than a month. Some men said they had sent their families to refugee camps in Turkey, where more than 40,000 Syrian refugees have taken shelter. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials had "grave concerns" about the situation in and around Aleppo and Damascus. "This is the concern: That we will see a massacre in Aleppo -- and that's what the regime appears to be lining up for," she told reporters. Given that China and Russia have vetoed attempts by the Security Council to act, "we have to double our efforts with like-minded nations outside of the U.N. system," she said. "This is a horrific situation, this is abhorrent what this regime is willing to do against its own people. We have to call it out, we have to do what we can to strengthen the opposition for the day after. We have to do what we can in coordination with others in the international community." The British ambassador to the United Nations said reports of warplanes over Aleppo were especially concerning. "The reports now of attacks by regime fighter jets in Aleppo mark yet a further dangerous escalation and underlines that there are no boundaries that the Assad regime will not cross in the misguided hope that it can resist the will of its people and hang on to power," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. Thursday's front page of Syria's pro-regime newspaper al Watan carried the headline "Aleppo ... the Mother of all Battles." WMD threat 'demands a response' For his part, al-Assad sent a congratulatory message Tuesday to Kim Jong Un, the recently installed supreme leader of North Korea, the state-run KCNA news agency reported Thursday. "I would like to express my deep thanks to Your Excellency, the leadership of the DPRK and the friendly Korean people for having rendered support and encouragement to our just cause against the moves of the world powers to interfere in our internal affairs," it said. Meanwhile, Herve Ladsous, the under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, told reporters Thursday in Damascus that half of the 300 U.N. observers sent to Syria in April have been sent home, but are prepared to return should circumstances change. "And that is our sincere hope," Ladous told reporters. The decision was made after "we found ourselves with too many people with not enough to do," he said. The monitors' mission was suspended in June, when officials deemed it too dangerous for them to continue their work. They remained in Syria prepared to resume their efforts to monitor compliance with a six-point peace plan brokered by U.N. and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan once the conditions changed. Ladsous was not optimistic that would happen soon. "Unfortunately, as of today, I cannot say that we see many indications that a decrease in violence will happen overnight. I say again, Syrians killing Syrians is something that should not continue." As the violence spirals, many civilians have become internally displaced or fled over the border and fears of sectarian conflict have grown. Asked Thursday if Ankara was considering establishing safe zones in northern Syria to counter any threat to Turkey's security from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was noncommittal but said officials were discussing their options. "It is out of question that we would allow a terrorist organization to be based in northern Syria and become a threat to our country," he said in televised remarks. "All of these are among alternatives -- safe zone, buffer zone or camps such as the ones we have now -- all of these are among alternatives," he said. "Our Foreign Ministry, armed forces, intelligence organizations are working on this, and decisions or steps that will need to be taken will be taken when the time comes." Turkey and the United States consider the PKK a terrorist group. Speaking Thursday at a memorial to those who died in the Srebrenica massacre in the Balkans in the 1990s, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Syrian government and the opposition forces to cooperate with the United Nations in ending the conflict. The U.N observer mission in Syria has been unable to do its job "because of the noncompliance of the parties -- the government parties and also opposition forces," he said. The six-point peace plan must also be implemented "without further delay," he said. Waving the 'red flag' on arming Syria's opposition . "At this time again I am urging all the parties: They must stop fighting and killing people now. They have to begin political dialogue for a political resolution of this crisis," Ban said. After 16 months of chaos, more officials from al-Assad's regime have resigned. The opposition Syrian National Council said Wednesday that two senior Syrian diplomats were the latest to defect. One was the Syrian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Al Dabbagh, SNC spokesman George Sabra said. The second is Al Dabbagh's wife, Lamia Al Harriri, who was a Syrian envoy to Cyprus. She defected to Qatar, SNC member Najy Tayyarah said. Al Harriri is also the niece of Syrian Vice President Farouq Al Sharea. But on Thursday, a Syrian official downplayed the reports of recent defections. Read more: A Syrian town's 'Street of Death' Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Dabbagh "was called to Damascus for consultations with the minister and has been off duty ... since June 4." In addition, Makdissi said, Al Harriri has never been a Syrian ambassador. "She is a diplomat who was tasked with managing affairs on behalf of the embassy charge d'affaires pending the appointment of an ambassador." Read more: Amid violence, Syrians race to borders . The Syrian crisis started in March 2011, when a government crackdown on peaceful protesters morphed into a nationwide uprising against the regime. The LCC says more than 16,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The U.N. secretary-general said this week that almost 17,000 people have died. The United Nations refugee agency says it has registered more than 120,000 refugees in neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. CNN's Ivan Watson reported from northern Syria; Holly Yan reported from Atlanta. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Yesim Comert, Yousef Rafayah and Richard Roth also contributed to this report.

200 people have been killed across Syria on Thursday, an opposition group says . Turkey's prime minister says it is considering plans for a buffer zone in northern Syria . Helicopter gunships flew over Aleppo and Damascus, opposition activists say . "They must stop fighting and killing people now," U.N. secretary-general says .

(CNN) -- Waking to another cloudless morning, you dive off your houseboat into the wild blue of Lake Powell in southern Utah. The water takes the edge off the heat, and you float along, contemplating a lazy day of navigating spectacular red-rock gorges and flooded canyons. Brian Raub, founder of Lakelubbers.com, says lakes have an inherent advantage over the ocean when it comes to vacations. "You'll probably prefer the feel of freshwater over salt, and you probably won't miss seasickness, seaweed or sharks. You can choose your outdoor temperatures; lakes exist at elevations from below sea level to 13,000 feet above." See more of America's best lakes . And temperature isn't your only choice: America offers a lake vacation for every season and activity, and no matter where you live, even in the Southwest desert, chances are there's one near you. Satellite mapping has yet to yield a precise answer, but the best guess is that there are between 3 and 4 million lakes across the U.S., ranging from duck ponds to wonders like Oregon's Crater Lake. While Lake Tahoe is most popular for winter sports and Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago reaches its windsurfing peak in fall, we associate most lakes with summer, as places to cool off and chill out. A recent study by ResortsandLodges.com named lake vacations the most popular summer travel trend of 2012, ahead of beach vacations, romantic getaways, and family trips. So spend your Labor Day weekend, or one of the few remaining warm weekends of the season, on the lake. Travel + Leisure: Weigh in on the America's Favorite Cities survey . Lake Superior: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin . Best for fishing: Lake Superior is so vast it could easily hold all of the water from all of the other Great Lakes. That means there's plenty of room for fish to thrive: salmon, trout, walleye, smelt, whitefish, herring, northern pike, smallmouth bass and many other game species can be caught in abundance along the lake's tristate shores. No matter what time of year, some sort of fishing is in season; Duluth (MN) and Bayfield (WI) are among the charter hubs. Stay: Lutsen Resort, MN; lutsenresort.com. Play: Duluth Charter Fishing Captains; fishduluth.com. Travel + Leisure: Best of the Italian lakes . Crater Lake: Oregon . Best for scuba diving: Other lakes have shipwrecks or sunken towns, but only Crater Lake offers the bragging rights of diving in a flooded volcano that also happens to be the deepest lake in the U.S. (and ninth deepest in the world). Without a deep-sea submersible you won't be able to reach the absolute bottom (1,943 feet). But there's plenty to explore in the crystal-clear shallows: lava formations, wildlife (trout and salmon), and underwater moss meadows. The catch is that you have to schlep your own scuba equipment up and down the Cleetwood Cove Trail -- 700 vertical feet. If that's not your idea of vacation, try the Wizard Island boat cruises around the crater's island on that clear, calm blue water. Stay: Crater Lake Lodge; craterlakelodges.com. Play: Wizard Island Boats; (888) 774-2728. Photos: What you did on your summer vacation . Lake Winnebago: Wisconsin . Best for windsurfing: Steady wind and easy launch make Winnebago the lake of choice for Wisconsin windsurfers and kite surfers -- especially in summer, when the shallow, sandy bottom creates water temperatures that are downright tropical (75-85ºF). The annual Wind Power Championships in September brings the nation's top wind-sport racers to Winnebago to face gusts of up to 40 mph. In winter, the lake converts to sail-powered ice racing. travelthelakes.com . Stay: Plaza Hotel (Fond du Lac); ramadafdl.com. Play: Wind Power Windsurfing & Kiting Center; windpowerwindsurfing.com. Travel + Leisure: Beautiful U.S. skylines . Lake Kabetogama: Minnesota . Best for kayak or canoe camping: Paddle along the same routes as early French trappers, traders and explorers on Lake Kabetogama in northern Minnesota. Part of the warren of waterways that make up Voyageurs National Park, the lake offers more than two dozen wilderness campsites that can be reached only by boat, including gorgeous spots along Lost Bay and among the Chief Wooden Frog Islands. Keep an eye out for wildlife along the shore, from bear and bald eagles to otters, wolves and moose. Stay: Northern Lights Resort; nlro.com. Play: Anderson's Canoe Outfitters, which offers shuttle service between Crane and Kabetogama lakes and customizable canoe trips; anderson-outfitters.com/index.php. Five guys take same photo for 30 years . Lake Clark: Alaska . Best for wilderness adventure: The only way to reach super-secluded Lake Clark is trekking overland through the Alaska bush, getting dragged by a dogsled team or flying in by a floatplane. Flanked by snowcapped peaks, thick boreal forest and whitewater rivers, the 50-mile-long lake is quintessential Alaska. Fishing, kayaking and wildlife-watching are the main aquatic activities, while the lakeshore lends itself to weeklong hikes and backwoods camping. Tiny Port Alsworth (pop. 159) offers a visitor center, kayak rental, guide services and outfitters, post office and lodging. nps.gov/lacl/ . Stay: Island Lodge, Lake Clark; islandlodge.com. Play: Lake Clark Air, Port Alsworth; lakeclarkair.com. Chain of Lakes: Florida . Best for waterskiing: Sixteen lakes form a deep-blue chain around the west side of Winter Haven, the Water Skiing Capital of the World. The craze started in 1936 with the debut of Cypress Garden, the nation's first aquatic theme park, and its celebrated water-ski shows. "If it's being done on the water, chances are somebody tried it in Winter Haven first," wrote Waterski magazine's Tony Smith. Try barefoot waterskiing, for instance, taught by the Footer's Edge Training Center, one of half a dozen local waterski and wakeboard schools. Stay: The Stanford Inn, Bartow; thestanfordinn.com. Play: Lucky Lowe Ski School; luckylowe.com. Lake Tahoe: California/Nevada . Best for snow sports: High-altitude Tahoe (6,225 feet) is nirvana for skiing, snowboarding and other cold-weather sports. Seven major winter resorts ring the shore, including Squaw Valley, where the 1960 Winter Olympics took place. Hike along snowy forest trails, snuggle up beside a fire in a lakeshore café or ride the Sky Express to the top of Heavenly's highest peak for a snow-mantled panorama of the entire lake basin. Or go now, and enjoy the striking scenery without the snow. skilaketahoe.com . Stay: The Shore House; shorehouselaketahoe.com. Play: Heavenly Ski Resort; skiheavenly.com. Lake Michigan: Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois . Best for beaches: With more than 1,600 miles of shoreline, Lake Michigan offers more beaches than any other American lake. But it's not just quantity: there's a beach for nearly every taste. The big-city strands that front Chicago, the wild rolling dunes of northern Indiana, the pastoral shores of Wisconsin's Door Peninsula and the carnival-like atmosphere along the Traverse City Boardwalk offer totally different sun-and-sand experiences on the same lake. You'll pass that boardwalk on the scenic drive from Bay Harbor to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Stay: The Inn at Bay Harbor; innatbayharbor.com . Play: Sleeping Bear Dunes; nps.gov/slbe/. Finger Lakes: New York . Best for wine tastings: With more than a hundred vintners, the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York is the prime wine region of the Eastern U.S. The largest concentration of tasting rooms is along Highway 414 on the east side of Lake Seneca. Wineries with spectacular waterfront locations include Belhurst Estate in Geneva and Thirsty Owl in Ovid. Riesling is the most popular plonk, but the lakes region also produces fine Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer. Stay: Belhurst Castle; belhurst.com. Play: Thirsty Owl Winery; thirstyowl.com/. Lake Powell: Utah/Arizona . Best for desert houseboating: From the original "Planet of the Apes" to "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," more than three dozen movies have been filmed in and around drop-dead-gorgeous Lake Powell. Spin your own high-adventure tale on a houseboat cruise through the red-rock desert wilderness. Created by Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, the vast lake stretches for nearly 200 miles into uninhabited southern Utah and includes more than 80 side canyons where yours will often be the only boat. nps.gov/glca/ . Stay: Bullfrog Marina Houseboats; lakepowell.com/houseboating.aspx. Travel + Leisure: See more of America's best lakes . Planning a getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to the World's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Lake Superior is heaven for anglers . Wine tasting provides a pleasant diversion in the Finger Lakes region . Crater Lake's depth makes it perfect for scuba divers . Windsurf on Lake Winnebago to usher autumn in .

(CNN) -- Friends and strangers across the country gathered on the streets and in schools, churches, bars and auditoriums to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. A diverse crowd in Los Angeles, California, cheers as Barack Obama takes the oath of office Tuesday. "It's a great day to be an American," iReporter Roger Germann said at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where revelers watched the inauguration on television monitors among exhibits of sharks and otters. Tuesday's inauguration brought together Americans from different walks of life, united in their hope that Obama will deliver on his promise to change the nation's course. Click the links to read views on President Obama's inauguration from people across the country. Reaction to speech What Obama means to Americans Hopes for Obama . Reaction to speech . Public inauguration-viewing parties were held in auditoriums, schools and arenas across the country, where the atmosphere mirrored the excitement in Washington. Watch people react at viewing parties » . "People are cheering here as if they were there," Irene Koehler of Fremont, California, said of the atmosphere in Oakland's Oracle Arena. More than 200 parishioners from the First AME Church, the largest African-American Church in Los Angeles, gathered in the recreation hall to pray together and share in the excitement of an historic moment . Dressed in Obama shirts and hats, the level of audience participation had the effect of transporting the crowd to Washington. They stood when Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the crowd to "please stand" and bowed their heads in prayer. They sang along with Aretha Franklin and even took pictures of the screen when Obama appeared. A handful of viewers had tears in their eyes, but most were filled with "pure joy." "On Election Night, I was full of tears. I am all cried out -- it is all about joy now," said 72-year-old Shirley Turner-Haymer, the granddaughter of a former slave. Even young parishioners derived some significance from the event. "It's really inspirational that we have a black president now ... because now I could see I can do whatever I want," said David Colvin, 10. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, far right, says she is watching the inauguration in honor of her father. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, daughter of Tuskegee Airman Daniel Moore, was one of about 300 people who crammed into the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena, California, to watch the inauguration. "My father would be so thrilled to see this, Barack Obama being sworn in." Thomas said. "He loved parades, and he hated crowds. I'm here for him." Across the country in New York's Bronx borough, students huddled in the halls of a school to watch the ceremony on a projection screen. "They were cheering; they were clapping; they were in awe because everything we had talked about they were able to see," teacher Marta Rendon said. "When they heard Obama's speech, they were right there clapping and screaming with the rest of us. It was really something. It was really amazing. Watch Obama promise hope over fear » . More than 100 people gathered at the central library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, to watch the ceremony. "It was really exciting to see people being excited about the country and really happy about there being a new president. And it was great to see such a collective sense of community ... hope and happiness," said Jessica Namakkal, a 29-year-old graduate student from Minneapolis. "I think Obama's speech was great and that he really addressed the past eight years in a diplomatic and fair way, while also sort of pushing forward in a good way." The unusually bitter cold affected the turnout at Daytona Beach, Florida's, outdoor inauguration celebration, forcing people to take shelter at a local bar. Sean Mingo and his mother, Joan, watched the inauguration in Daytona Beach, Florida. More than 50 people packed into Mai Tai to watch the inauguration on television. Among them were Joan Mingo and her 13-year-old son, Sean, who stayed home from school to watch Obama take the oath of office. "This is very historical," said Sean, who followed Obama's campaign and watched every debate. "Obama is inspiring. I want to work in politics." Sean said his favorite line of Obama's speech was "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." As Obama was sworn in, the coffee-drinking bar patrons laughed, applauded and wiped tears from their eyes. "Obama gives us hope, son, that you can be whatever you want," Joan Mingo said to her son. What Obama means to Americans . Obama's rise holds special meaning for Solas B. Lalgee, who was in New York's Times Square for the inauguration. View images from the inauguration » . "I'm ecstatic," said Lalgee, 30, whose father is from the West Indies. "It's the first time in my life I've ever had someone to look up to. I'm a mixed, multi-ethnic, multinational person, and I've never had someone I could look up to politically and say, 'That's somebody who can represent me. That's somebody who I can relate to. That's somebody that my family can relate to,' and the fact that he actually made it into office is just ... it gives me hope that I can do whatever I want to do in my life and not have a glass ceiling above me." "To me, as an immigrant, it really means a lot to see a son of immigrants -- not only an African American but a son of immigrants -- come to the highest office in the land," she added. "There's hope. And I hope to transmit that to my children." Chinoise Noble and her mother, Yolanda Lee-Singleton, watched the inauguration in Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza. In California at downtown Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza, 23-year-old Chinoise Noble clutched a photograph of her grandmother as tears streamed down her face. She said she brought the photo so her late grandmother could be with her on a day though that her grandmother never believed would come. She "would never in a million years have thought there'd be a black president!" Noble said. In Birmingham, Alabama, the site of racial turmoil during the Civil Rights era, Fred Jemison had high hopes for the Obama administration. "The biggest thing that I look forward to, that I anticipate from this, is unity throughout the country, racially and politically," Jemison told CNN affiliate WBMA at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium. At the Jewish Home, a senior living facility in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, about 70 residents and staff members watched the inauguration. "This is wonderful and exciting," said 92-year-old Sylvia Segal, wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt. "There's never been an inauguration like this one, with so many millions giving respect to the United States and an extraordinary man." Shelly Balzac, 81, said that he voted for Obama and that when he was a teenager, his father took him to Chicago's Soldier Field to witness Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigning. "It's momentous when you look at the conglomeration of all citizens of all colors and all creeds," said Balzac, a World War II veteran who said he witnessed the "dehumanizing of blacks" during those years and fought against it within the U.S. military. "It is an emotional day for me," Balzac said. "I realize the tremendous stride in making this a more unified country." Stan Keller and his daughter, Nancy, watch the inauguration at the Jewish Home in Los Angeles. "I was crying inside all day," said Stan Keller, 88. He said Obama has inspired him to try to make a difference in the world. "I came on Earth to make it a better place to live. I get that inspiration from this man," he said. iReporter Lee Ann Schmidt of Danbury, Connecticut, watched at home with her husband and two dogs. "Just to be alive in this time to witness this, it means more to me than anything," she said. "I'm 35. My generation has never really seen the entire country come together in a positive way like this. It really does give me hope for our country." In Raleigh, North Carolina, iReporter Sam Shaber watched the events with his parents at their house. "We are all snowed in and have a bottle of champagne ready," he said. "I am gay, and to have just any minority be elected is such a milestone in so many ways." Hopes for Obama . Jeff Teasley, a 49 year-old Navy veteran from Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been disabled since he hurt his back in 1990. Jeff Teasley, in his home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, hopes Obama is "the best thing since running water." Teasley, a Republican who did not vote for Obama, was less enthusiastic over Obama's inauguration. Like many here in Wyoming, he fears that President Obama will expand the government and pass the cost onto people like him. "With bigger government comes bigger taxes and with bigger taxes comes more strain on everybody's households." But Teasley said he is still rooting for the new president. "I hope he pulls it off. I hope he's the best thing since running water because we need a leader, we need someone to direct these people in Washington." Others were more optimistic. In downtown Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of people huddled together in freezing weather in Centennial Olympic Park to watch on two screens. Watch kids from Atlanta sing for Obama » . "There's hope for a change," said Sonita Horn, a homemaker whose husband lost his job as an electrician in Atlanta and now travels three weeks out of four to Virginia for work. She said she hoped not only that Republicans and Democrats would find a way to work together but that the races would, too. "Everyone will be treated equally," she predicted. "We're now a United States of America, not a black America or a white America." CNN's Chris Welch, Michael Cary, Paul Vercammen, Lindy Hall and Jim Spellman contributed to this report.

NEW: Man says Obama inspires him to make Earth "a better place to live" NEW: Republican hopes Obama turns out to be "best thing since running water" Teen who took off school to watch speech with mom calls Obama inspiring . "It's a brand new day for the country," man in New York says .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Jurors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor Tuesday heard dramatic opening statements and a startling recording of the pop singer, his words slow and slurred as he talks about his planned comeback concerts. Prosecutors portrayed Dr. Conrad Murray as motivated by money, while the defense contended Murray's superstar client self-administered a fatal mix of drugs. Witnesses gave varying accounts of Jackson's condition as he prepared for the shows in London. Murray abandoned "all principles of medical care" in attending to Jackson, prosecutor David Walgren said in his opening statement. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff countered, saying Jackson's death was "tragic, but the evidence will not show that Dr. Murray did it." Murray acquired massive quantities of the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol to help Jackson sleep, giving him a final dose of the drug after a long, restless night when the singer begged for help sleeping, according to recordings played by prosecutors. Murray gave in to Jackson's demands not because it was the right medical decision, but because he was motivated by a $150,000 a month contract to serve as Jackson's doctor, Walgren said. "The evidence in this case will show that Michael Jackson trusted his life to the medical skills of Conrad Murray, unequivocally that that misplaced trust had far too high a price to pay," Walgren said. "That misplaced trust in the hands of Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life." Jackson fans create bizarre scene outside courthouse . Jurors heard a May 10, 2009, recording, captured by Murray's iPhone, of Jackson "highly under the influences of unknown agents," as he talked about his planned comeback concert, according to Walgren. "We have to be phenomenal," Jackson said in a low voice, his speech slurred. "When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world.' I'm taking that money, a million children, children's hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson's Children's Hospital." The tape, prosecutors say, is evidence that Murray knew about Jackson's health problems weeks before his death. Jurors also saw a video of the superstar rehearsing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles the night before he died. Jackson sang and danced to "Earth Song," the last song he would rehearse on stage. Prosecutors also presented a photo of Jackson's lifeless body on a hospital gurney, about 12 hours later. If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray, who wiped away tears during his lawyer's opening statement, could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license. Chernoff blamed Jackson's death on drugs that he said Murray had neither given to Jackson nor known about. Scientific evidence will show that, on the morning Jackson died, he swallowed a sedative without his doctor's knowledge, "enough to put six of you to sleep and he did this when Dr. Murray was not around," Chernoff said. Jackson, desperate for sleep, then ingested a dose of propofol on his own, creating "a perfect storm that killed him instantly," Chernoff said. "When Dr. Murray came into the room and found Michael Jackson, there was no CPR, no paramedic, no machine that was going to revive Michael Jackson," he said. "He died so rapidly, so instantly that he didn't have time to close his eyes," Chernoff said. Chernoff told jurors that Murray was trying to wean Jackson off propofol when Jackson died. Jackson was addicted to Demerol, prescribed by another doctor, and his insomnia was at least in part related to that, according to Chernoff. Jackson's inability to sleep on the morning he died was "one of the insidious effects" of Demerol addiction withdrawal, Chernoff said. Since Murray did not know about the Demerol, he could not understand why Jackson was unable to fall asleep that morning, Chernoff said. Jackson told Murray a day before he died that he needed to fall asleep in order to be able to rehearse for upcoming concerts, Chernoff said. "I have to sleep, I have to get some sleep. They will cancel my rehearsals. I will lose that performance," Chernoff quoted Jackson as saying. Chernoff said Tuesday that he will challenge prosecution assertions that greed factored into Murray's treatment of Jackson. "If the prosecution is going to tell you he is greedy, callous and reckless, you need to hear the full story," he told jurors, adding that Jackson was the only celebrity Murray had ever met. Jackson died June 25, 2009. "Just make me sleep. It doesn't matter what time I get up," Murray quoted Jackson as telling him, according to a recording of a police interview played in court. He agreed to administer the drug and Jackson fell asleep. After he left to go to the bathroom, he discovered Jackson was no longer breathing. Walgren argued Murray was not a specialist with anesthetics and misused the drug, which he said can suppress proper function of the heart and lungs. "It is not a sleep aid, it is not a sleep agent," Walgren told jurors. "It is a general anesthetic." Between April 6, 2009, and the time of Michael Jackson's death, Murray ordered enough propofol to give Jackson 1,937 milligrams a day, Walgren said. Murray told police he gave the entertainer doses of propofol virtually every night for two months, according to a recording played in court. Murray also used a cheap instrument to monitor oxygen levels in Jackson's blood, Walgren said. The device was "utterly useless" unless Murray constantly monitored it because it lacked an alarm that would go off if Jackson was not getting enough oxygen into his lungs, Walgren said. Murray "repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied care, appropriate care, to his patient, Michael Jackson, and it was Dr. Murray's repeated incompetent and unskilled acts that led to Michael Jackson's death," Walgren told jurors. Prosecutors contend that Murray used a makeshift intravenous drip to administer propofol, a practice they argue violated the standard of care and led to the pop star's death. But Chernoff said Murray did not use a makeshift intravenous drip to administer the drug. Chernoff added that an expert on propofol will testify that Murray was not responsible for Jackson's death. Murray never told emergency responders or emergency room doctors trying to save Jackson's life that the musician had been dosed with the propofol, Walgren said. Producer Kenny Ortega, the first prosecution witness, said he was jolted by Michael Jackson's appearance when the latter arrived at a rehearsal, on June 19, less than a week before he died. "He appeared lost and a little incoherent," said Ortega. "I did not feel he was well." Ortega said he gave the pop singer food and wrapped him in a blanket to ward off chill. Jackson watched the rehearsal and did not participate. Ortega was helping Jackson prepare for the "This Is It" world tour scheduled for London's O2 Arena in autumn 2009. In an e-mail written early June 20, Ortega wrote, in part, to AEG president Randy Phillips, "My concern is, now that we've brought the Doctor in to the fold and have played the tough love, now or never card, is that the Artist may be unable to rise to the occasion due to real emotional stuff. He appeared quite week and fatigued this evening. He had a terrible case of the chills, was trembling, rambling and obsessing. Everything in me says he should be psychologically evaluated. If we have any chance at all to get him back in the light. It's going to take a strong Therapist to (get) him through this as well as immediate physical nurturing. ... Tonight I was feeding him, wrapping him in blankets to warm his chills, massaging his feet to calm him and calling his doctor. "I believe that he really wants this ... it would shatter him, break his heart if we pulled the plug," Ortega wrote. "He's terribly frightened it's all going to go away. He asked me repeatedly tonight if I was going to leave him. He was practically begging for my confidence. It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy. There still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if get him the help he needs." AEG was the concert promoter. Murray was unhappy that Jackson did not rehearse and told Ortega not to try to be the singer's physician, Ortega testified, adding Jackson insisted the next day he was capable of doing the rehearsals. Jackson was a full rehearsal participant in the days before he died, the producer said. AEG executive Paul Gongaware testified that after the 50 London shows sold out instantly, there were still 250,000 buyers wanting tickets. Gongaware said he negotiated with Murray, at Jackson's request, to work as the singer's personal doctor. Murray initially asked for $5 million a year, explaining that he would have to close four clinics and lay off employees. Gongaware rejected that deal, but later offered him $150,000 a month, an amount recommended by Jackson. The physician agreed. Both Gongaware and Ortega testified that Jackson on many occasions appeared fully engaged and excited about the impending concerts. The trial has attracted widespread attention. On Tuesday, a woman rushed toward Murray as he was walking to the courtroom, but she was stopped by three deputies guarding him. The woman said she just wanted to talk to Murray. Jackson's parents, brothers Tito, Jermaine and Randy, and sisters La Toya, Janet and Rebe filled a row in the courtroom for opening statements and the first witness Tuesday. Jackson's three children are not expected to attend the trial or testify, according to a source close to their grandmother, Katherine Jackson. CNN's Alan Duke contributed to this report.

NEW: Murray originally wanted $5 million a year, promoter says . Jurors see video of Jackson in his last rehearsal . Jackson's death was "tragic, but the evidence will not show that Dr. Murray did it," lawyer says . Conrad Murray "abandoned all principles of medical care," prosecutor says .

(CNN) -- In a written statement provided to police just after her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was reported missing, Casey Anthony told authorities she had looked for the little girl every day for a month, and "after 31 days, I know that the only thing that matters is getting my daughter back," according to testimony in her murder trial Wednesday. "I have lied and stolen from friends and family to do whatever I could, by any means, to find my daughter," Anthony said in a written statement to the Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. "I avoided calling the police or notifying my family out of fear. I have been, and still am, afraid of what has, or may happen to Caylee." Caylee was last seen June 16, 2008, according to testimony. She was not reported missing until July 15, 2008. Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. If convicted, she could face the death penalty. She has pleaded not guilty and denied harming her daughter or having anything to do with the little girl's disappearance or death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent. Yuri Melich, who was the lead investigator assigned to the case from the sheriff's office, testified Wednesday that he reviewed the written statement and interviewed Anthony in the early morning hours of July 16. A recording of that interview was played for jurors Wednesday. Anthony told him that Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, Caylee's nanny for the past year and a half to two years, had kidnapped the child. She told Melich she had met Gonzalez through a friend, Jeffrey Hopkins, and that Gonzalez had also watched Hopkins' son. Asked who she had told about the kidnapping, Anthony said she had told no one besides Hopkins and a co-worker at Universal Studios, Juliette Lewis. Testimony in her trial has shown that Hopkins and Lewis apparently do not exist and that Anthony apparently did not return to her job at Universal Studios after giving birth to Caylee in 2005, although she led her family and friends to think she still worked there. Asked for phone numbers of Hopkins and Lewis, Anthony told Melich she didn't have them at present but could find them. Authorities were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who claimed she had never met Caylee or Casey Anthony and later sued for defamation. Asked by Melich during the interview why she hadn't notified authorities for the 31 days Caylee had been missing, Anthony said, "I think part of me was naive enough to think that I could handle this myself, which obviously I couldn't. And I was scared that something would happen to her if I did notify the authorities or got the media involved, or my parents, which I know would have done the same thing. Just the fear of the unknown. Fear of the potential of Caylee getting hurt, of not seeing my daughter again." She denied injuring Caylee or leaving her anywhere, and raised her right hand at the end of the interview to swear she was telling the truth. "Every day I have gone to malls, parks, any place I could remember Zenaida taking Caylee," she said in the written statement. "I have gone out and tried to find out any information about Caylee, or Zenaida ... going to a popular bar, or restaurant." Prosecutors allege Anthony was not looking for her daughter during the month she was missing. Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony. Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor. Anthony told police she had received a call from her daughter July 15 but does not say in her statement what conversation the two had. Earlier Wednesday, her brother, Lee Anthony, testified she had told him about the phone call when she admitted Caylee was missing and that she said she had told Caylee to put an adult on the phone. Following the interview, Melich testified that Anthony directed him to several residences in Orlando where she said Gonzalez lived or had previously lived. He testified he learned later that one of the residences was across the street from where Anthony's former boyfriend, Ricardo Morales, lived, but she did not mention that at the time. On cross-examination, Baez tried to get Melich to say that he considered Anthony a suspect and her story untrue from the outset, but Melich denied that. After arguing the issue outside the presence of the jury, Baez agreed not to question Melich at this time on whether he was a blogger, "Dick Tracy Orlando," who had written about the Anthony case after Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. appeared disinclined to allow it. Earlier Wednesday, the first police officer to arrive at the Anthony home on July 15 after Caylee was reported missing testified that Casey Anthony was initially reluctant to provide him with information regarding the little girl's whereabouts. Orange County, Florida, sheriff's Cpl. Rendon Fletcher told jurors that he asked Anthony about her daughter, but "she really didn't say much. ... She wasn't very forthcoming with anything, any type of information, initially." But, he said, eventually Anthony told him that "her daughter had been missing for a period of time," about a month, and that the last time she had seen Caylee was in the custody of the nanny, Gonzalez. She agreed to show the deputies where Gonzalez's apartment was, rode with them to the Sawgrass Apartments and pointed out a second-floor apartment, Fletcher testified. When he approached the apartment, he said, he could see the blinds were open but saw no furniture inside, and "it appeared to be vacant." He knocked, he said, but got no answer. Amanda Macklin, community manager for the Sawgrass Apartments, testified Wednesday afternoon that the apartment in question, number 210, was vacant at the time Anthony led deputies there. She said she researched the last occupant of the apartment, but that person was not named Zenaida Gonzalez -- and, in fact, a Zenaida Gonzalez had never lived in any apartment at the complex. Caylee's skeletal remains were found in December 2008 in a wooded field not far from the home of Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony. Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth. Anthony's defense has claimed that the little girl drowned in her grandparents' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Casey Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony. Casey Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain. George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony. Neither side asked Casey Anthony's brother about sexual abuse allegations during his testimony on Wednesday. Cross-examining the officers who were at the Anthony home the night of July 15, 2008, Casey Anthony's defense attorneys managed to establish that George Anthony appeared calm, compared to his upset wife. Lee Anthony did testify Wednesday about a confrontation between his mother and sister on the night of July 15, just before Cindy Anthony called police. The two were arguing about Caylee's whereabouts, he said. At that point, according to Cindy Anthony's previous testimony, she had not seen her daughter or granddaughter for weeks. Casey Anthony kept insisting the little girl was with her nanny, Lee Anthony said, and could be picked up the next day. She maintained Caylee was already asleep by that point and she didn't want to disturb her or disrupt her routine. Lee Anthony told jurors he offered to go get Caylee or have his roommate do it. He said he was becoming frustrated with his sister, as "nothing was making sense to me. Why couldn't we or anybody just go get Caylee and bring her home? There's no reason to fight with Mom at this point." He said his sister told him that their mother had told her she was an unfit mother, adding, "Maybe I am." When he asked her why she wasn't allowing her family to see Caylee, however, Casey Anthony said something to the effect of, "Because maybe I'm a spiteful bitch," he recalled. But Lee Anthony said as he questioned her, a crying Casey Anthony eventually told him the little girl was missing and that the nanny had kidnapped her, he testified. On Tuesday, a former friend of Casey Anthony's testified that Anthony was growing more frustrated with her parents around the time Caylee was last seen. Amy Huizenga said Anthony complained frequently about her parents, particularly her mother. "I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother. She was extremely upset about that," she said. Huizenga said Anthony had to cancel plans "fairly frequently" because she had no one to watch her daughter. It was happening more frequently during the spring of 2008, Huizenga said, and the "frustration was greater." Lee Anthony and Huizenga also referenced a bad odor regarding Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire. The odor has been the subject of testimony by several witnesses. Prosecutors allege it could have stemmed from human decomposition. During cross-examination, Fletcher, the deputy, told Baez the garage door was open when he arrived and he walked through the garage, but did not notice a foul odor coming from the car. Other officers said they did notice the odor.

NEW: Detective denies he considered Casey Anthony a suspect from the outset . Anthony told authorities she didn't report the girl missing out of "fear" She says she has looked for her daughter every day . Casey Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008 .

Cairo (CNN) -- Mona Seif is deep in a crowd of thousands, her cell phone camera held high overhead. She is streaming live video and pushing for a better shot of a protest in Tahrir Square, the spiritual heart of the Egyptian revolution. It is Friday in downtown Cairo, and people are shouting and screaming across the square, waving signs and chanting in unison. A fever for change pulses through the land of the Pharaohs. It is weeks after the revolution -- yet the fever here still has not broken. Nearly every Friday across much of Egypt, crowds take to the streets, their passion and push for change still visible. Seif, a soft-spoken, petite brunette with big brown eyes, is on the lookout for human rights abuses or beatings of protesters -- her specialty and personal crusade. Before the day is over, she will send dozens of tweets, post online pictures and video, and record her observations and interviews with people in the streets. And this is not even her day job. Seif is a cancer research lab worker. But she is also a blogger and internet activist, one of Egypt's many prominent internet revolutionaries who helped topple former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February. Though their revolution is officially over, they consider the fight ongoing and any sort of real democracy but a far-off dream. They continue to tweet and upload photos and live-streaming video for all the world to see. A similar network of online bloggers and activists stretches across the entire Middle East and North Africa, from Yemen in the east to Morocco in the west, many of them friends and in constant contact with one another. Mostly in their mid-20s, the young i-revolutionaries have various motivations and backgrounds. For Seif, the mission is personal and, in many ways, an inherited mantle. She comes from a well-known and respected family of Egyptian human rights activists, dissidents and protesters who have helped shape her view of the world and prepare her and her siblings to take a place on the front lines of Egypt's revolution, using the latest technological and digital weapons. She was born into the fight, literally. On the day of her birth, her father was in prison because of his activism. Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad is an internationally known human rights attorney in Cairo who was arrested in 1983 and held five years for his work with the country's socialist movement. During his detention, he was tortured, which he has spoken about publicly. After his release, he dedicated himself to fighting torture and injustice, becoming central to some of Egypt's most celebrated human rights cases. A decade after he was freed, Ahmed Seif helped found one of Egypt's top human rights centers. Much of his work at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre has put him in direct conflict with the Mubarak regime. Mona Seif's mother, Laila Soueif, is a math professor at Cairo University who helped organize many of the country's most important demonstrations against the Mubarak regime during the last two decades. At the height of the last big pro-democracy push, known in part for the "Kefayah" movement in 2005, Soueif was among a group of women assaulted by Mubarak thugs on the streets. In that attack, Mona's older brother, Alaa, protected his mother by repelling blows with his arm, which was broken in the attack. Soueif is widely known on the streets as brash and courageous, and has on numerous occasions faced down baton-wielding policemen with nothing but her scolding, scathing, booming voice and steely eyes. "She is unbelievable," Mona said of her mother. "The joke with all of our friends is, if you see Laila Soueif in a protest, then you stick to her and you will be safe." "People always assume, (because) she is a woman and she has white hair, so they want to protect her. But really she doesn't fear anything. She never fears state security. I have one photo of her in a protest where she is literally pushing against this line of state security policemen. She's amazing in this sense." With their parents so involved in politics and dissent, Mona and her siblings grew up hearing about torture, repression, injustice and the law. The Mubarak dictatorship and police brutality were typical subjects of dinner-table conversation. Seif's oldest brother, Alaa Abd El Fattah, is a computer programmer who has become one of the most widely known internet revolutionaries in Egypt. He and his wife, Manal, created the Egyptian blog aggregator site Manalaa. Shortly after the incident with his mother in 2005, Alaa's insightful, analytical blogs, in which he documented and analyzed the growing abuses by the Mubarak regime, captured attention. As his voice grew, Alaa, too, became a threat to the regime. He was arrested at a demonstration in 2006 and imprisoned for some 45 days. Mona and Manal helped organize a successful worldwide online campaign to free Alaa. Upon his release, he and his wife moved to South Africa, where they continue their campaigns and criticism. Mona's younger sister, Sanaa, is also already involved in helping organize rallies and groups of young activists. Mona, the middle child, always knew this was her path. "I've always known I'll be politically active. It's sort of, I don't know, part of my heritage I guess," she said. "But I needed to find my own space," a way to make her own mark. "Using Twitter, using social networks, and with my phone, working on cases of military detentions, tribunals and torture -- this has become my own space. I've found my own way of being part of all of this now." In 2010, as events began to heat up, leading to the revolution, Mona began regularly attending demonstrations and working to help the cause. "I actually celebrated my 25th birthday at a demonstration, in front of the ministry of prosecution. My friends were all there and it was very funny." During the revolution, between January 25 and February 5, when President Mubarak finally stepped down, Mona's entire family was together in the square, night and day. Aunts and uncles and cousins came from afar -- one from London -- to join them. "We actually had our first family reunion in a long time in Tahrir Square, during the revolution," Mona said. Facing down the Mubarak regime is something she will never forget. "It was a life-changing moment for most of the people in Tahrir Square. You could see the gunshots at people, and you could see how people were just going to face the thugs that were attacking us, with nothing to protect themselves. ... "This was the important moment when everyone realized that everyone in Tahrir Square is willing to take this to the end, no matter what. From that moment on, for me and a lot of others, we had this blind faith that we really will win in the end." Today, Mona's main political focus is on individuals who have been detained by the military and are denied due process or fair representation. Many detainees have been held with virtually no legal representation, she said, and many of the trials of protesters by the military have been conducted en masse. "We have evidence that the military right now is targeting protesters. ... They selected known figures of the Tahrir protest. They selected people who were known and they tortured and beat them up," she said. "And if you read or listen to the testimonies of those who were released, which are a few, we still have a lot of people detained unconstitutionally. And you see that it's not just that they're getting tortured or beaten up, but there's an element of the Army trying to break the revolutionary spirit." CNN's request for an interview with the Egyptian military leaders was denied. CNN was instead given a statement denying these allegations. "These cases of torture are false rumors. None of these accounts are true. We are in unstable times in Egypt. There are thugs loose," said the statement from the Egyptian military spokesman. Mona Seif said the military used different tactics against male revolutionaries than they did the women. "For the guys, they said the officer told them that they won't stop beating them up until they say 'Long live Mubarak.' In another testimony, they told them to raise their hands up high, and when they would do this they would get beat, kicked in their faces and their heads. ... "And for the girls, they line them up and ask them who is a virgin and who is not, and whoever says she's a virgin, they got someone, an officer wearing a white coat, so they assume he's a doctor, to check whether they are virgins or not with the threat that those who lied about their virginity would probably face prostitution charges. ... You could see it was just to break their spirit. Because in Egypt, in this culture, nothing would break their spirits far more than this." The Army has admitted they did the virginity tests, saying it was a way to prevent women from making false claims of rape while they were in prison. Mona works closely with many other online activists, including her friends Gigi Ibrahim and Ramy Raoof. They say the number of those who have been denied justice is not small. "When we started following some of the cases of the protesters, we realized that since January 28 there are thousands of Egyptian citizens who have gone through this. ... They try at least 100 people per one trial. They don't care about investigations; they don't care about the presence of a lawyer. So far we have 500 names of people who were tried before a military court." The detainees who get released are asked to record what happened to them. "They write it down. Some of them we managed to get their video testimonies right after they were released, so it actually shows bruises and burn marks." The testimonies are now online, as a common blog, called the Tahrir Diaries. "Especially with the army violations and the army torture cases," she said, "the Internet is really our only means of fighting this." CNN's Taryn Fixel and Leon Jobe contributed to this report.

Young bloggers playing critical roles in revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain . Mona Seif's parents are prominent, longtime human rights activists in Egypt . Seif still documenting abuses, following plight of detainees .

(CNN) -- The U.N. peacekeeping chief says Syria is now in a civil war. Some experts agree with U.N. official Herve Ladsous that the war-torn country has reached that chilling milestone. Others say the country is hurtling in that direction. The conflict began in March 2011 when a fierce Syrian government crackdown on peaceful protesters morphed into a bloody government uprising. Stephen Biddle, Roger Hertog Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said popular conversation about civil war tends to be dominated by images of the U.S. Civil War, and it conjures a vague picture of a "really bad conflict." But the rigorously defined scholarly meaning of civil war fits Syria now, just as it applied to Iraq last decade, he said. U.N. report: Syrian children tortured, used as human shields . "A civil war is a conflict in which at least one side is a non-state actor, with at least 1,000 total battle deaths and at least 100 on each side," he said. Anuradha Chakravarty, assistant professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, cites a similar threshold and notes that the estimates of 10,000 to 14,000 battle-related deaths so far in Syria fulfills the definition. She said the definition has "little to do with the growing use recently of attack helicopters" to wage war. "Syria did not start out as a case of civil war because the opposition to the government mainly took the form of a popular uprising in March 2011," she said. "However, later that year, the Free Syrian Army and its organization of an armed rebellion against the government (in defense of the civilian uprising) fulfilled at least the most basic criterion of a civil war -- the armed confrontation between a rebel group and the government. Thus, Syria turned into a civil war situation much earlier than recent observations by the U.N. would suggest." Like other civil wars, she said the situation has "notable international dimensions," with reports of Russian military support for the regime and reports of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey backing the rebels. Syria's government on Thursday rejected the claim, saying "Syria is not witnessing a 'civil war' but rather a struggle to uproot the plague of terrorism." But Chakravarty said an "important difference that the 'civil war' label makes is that the Assad regime cannot credibly claim that it is only a sectarian conflict or that this is a terrorist struggle against the people of Syria. It is squarely an armed attempt by non-state groups (who define themselves mostly in a non-sectarian manner, and claim to speak in the name of the people) to overthrow the government, and fight for territorial control." James Fearon, a professor of political science at Stanford University, defines a civil war as "an armed conflict within a country between organized groups who are fighting to control the central government or over control of a region." The Syrian conflict "has qualified as a civil war for a while now," he said. He cited the same academic thresholds that political scientists and sociologists use for a civil war: 1,000 killed in a conflict's duration or 1,000 killed per year, but added: "How many is enough to qualify is matter of opinion, and this arbitrariness might be the source of some of the disagreement about whether Syria, etc, is having a civil war or not. " It doesn't matter how much of the country is in conflict for unrest to be defined as a civil war, he said. "For instance, we call the conflict in the U.S. in the first part of the 1860s a civil war, even though things were entirely peaceful in almost all of the North," he said. Syria: Battle for the cities . Two organized forces facing off against each other is also a necessary part of the definition, said Joseph Holliday, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of War. In Syria, there have been sectarian tensions between the Sunnis and the Alawites, with the opposition overwhelmingly Sunni and the pro-government Alawites, who dominate the regime of Bashar al-Assad, also an Alawite. "When you let the sectarian genie out of the bottle, it's hard to put back in," Fearson said. He said the opposition fighters are becoming an organized militia force. The pro-regime Shabiha militias, dominated also by Alawites, are becoming more significant, signaling an erosion in the government's chain of command. "I think Syria is a civil war or has all of the components to become one in the future." Michael Weiss, a Syria expert at the Henry Jackson Society, said parts of Syria are in civil war. "Civil war suggests the previous state that exists all but failed and collapsed," he said. In some regions, the government lacks control and there is a "growing equalization" of forces, he said. Steven Heydemann, senior adviser for Middle East initiatives at the U.S. Institute for Peace, said the regime's tactics, the escalation in violence and a growing supply of weapons to the opposition indicate the conflict is moving closer to a civil war. While there are "some isolated areas in Syria where conditions have crossed the threshold for civil war," Syria has not yet "crossed that threshold with respect to the conflict as a whole." He used Lebanon and Libya as the model for civil war. In Lebanon during the 1980s, the state collapsed and "we saw a proliferation of armed groups across society in multiple directions" in a society with no controlling authority, Heydemann said. During last year's civil war in Libya, there were two competing armed forces, with the quality of weapons and the scale of the units largely comparable on each side. "Neither of those conditions exist in Syria," he said. The regime commands armed forces totaling about 200,000 troops and has ample resources such as tanks and helicopters, he said. The armed opposition is basically a "localized insurgency," much smaller, poorly equipped and trained and "not integrated into any coherent command and control structure." So while the conflict between these forces does not constitute a civil war at the moment, said Heydemann, the pace and intensity of opposition activity could change that. Jeff White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Syria is edging toward civil war, but is not there yet. "My definition of civil war is a situation which is characterized by conflict between two, or more, segments of society. I still see the situation in Syria as one of fundamentally an armed and unarmed insurrection against the government. That is, the people are fighting the state, not each other." That said, the elements of civil war are taking hold. "The regime is heavily, perhaps increasingly reliant on Alawite fighters both within the regular military and in its irregular forces. The regime has also begun using Alawite villagers in attacks on neighboring Sunni towns and villages. There are also reports of Sunni retaliation for attacks. This is the kind of activity that creates its own dynamic and can spread easily," he said. The tipping point could be a "tipping period." That would be when "communal violence increases in scope and intensity until it dominates the situation," White said. "We will know it when we see it; but things to look for would include: organized and directed violence by one sect against another (as opposed to spontaneous actions), declarations by community political and religious leaders that the enemy is the other sect (as opposed to 'Bashar's dogs/pigs' and 'terrorists'), cleansing of areas, organization of irregular forces along sectarian lines, regime arming of Alawite villages for 'defense' against Sunnis, breakdown of Syrian military forces along sectarian lines. We have bits and pieces of this now, and the bits and pieces seem to be accumulating." The rhetoric used to describe the conflict has important meaning. The term "civil war" can change the dynamics of a conflict. "In the Iraq war, the Bush administration didn't want the conflict described as a civil war because it feared that this would increase public opposition -- if it's a civil war, then it's their business and we shouldn't bother with it, or expect to be able to fix it," Fearon said. "In the Syria case, it is the advocates of greater intervention (and/or greater pressure on Russia) who are saying 'It may be soon be a civil war,' by which they mean 'This is really bad and we have to do something about it,'" he said. White said defining a conflict as a civil war has political implications. "There is always reluctance to get involved in a civil war. So defining it so supports non-intervention. It also tends to spread the blame for violence more or less evenly across the parties. It is much easier to get behind an insurrection than take sides in a civil war." Chakravarty said once a conflict is deemed a civil war, it can compel "more assertive forms of actions from various international actors concerned about their interests in the country." This could be in the form of international intervention and heightened diplomatic efforts at negotiation, she said. Heydemann said the specter of a civil war could increase pressure on policy makers to act so decisively that incremental measures to deal with the conflict might be "left by the wayside." Also, he said, the international community has been reluctant to support the opposition because it would contribute to instability, international spillover, the presence of jihadists, and the militarization of the opposition. Now that all of those factors have emerged, they might determine that "some form of engaging" would be the response to a civil war. Holliday said labeling a conflict as a civil war matters politically, but he doesn't know how much it alone would make a difference. He cited the slaughter of civilians in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which helped prompt international involvement in that civil conflict in the 1990s. "The instances of sectarian violence against civilians will make a difference," he said. "That type of thing is the biggest factor to push toward U.S. involvement." U.S. says Russian attack helicopters on way to Syria . Syrian opposition cites indiscriminate firing from helicopters .

Scholars say Syrian conflict fits definition of a civil war . Some analysts believe the trajectory is pushing Syria toward civil war . Syria is unlike Libya last year and Lebanon in the 1980s, an analyst said . President Bush didn't want "civil war" used to describe Iraq, one professor said .

Tune in to CNN on Sunday morning at 9 ET for live coverage of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial dedication, 48 years after the March on Washington and his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Coverage continues Sunday night at 7 ET with a special look at King's writings in the CNN documentary "MLK Papers: Words that Changed a Nation." (CNN Student News) -- Program Overview Through rare access to the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, CNN's Soledad O'Brien examines the personal determination and private courage and concerns of the preacher and civil rights leader. Objectives . The CNN special: MLK Papers - Words That Changed a Nation and its discussion questions and research activity challenge students to: . Research and interpret the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a historical and modern-day context; . Discuss the relevance and significance of the King papers collection; . Examine Dr. King's leadership through primary documents and eyewitness accounts; . Analyze the ideology and goals of Dr. King and the civil rights movement; . Evaluate the legacy of Dr. King. Discussion Questions . 1. What was the civil rights movement? Who was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and what was his role in the civil rights movement? What goals did Dr. King and other civil rights activists hope to achieve during the 1950s and 1960s? 2. Throughout the program, friends and colleagues refer to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a poet. What evidence did they use to support this characterization? How would you describe the delivery and tone of MLK's speeches and sermons? For whom do you think that Dr. King wrote his speeches and sermons? How did Dr. King use his words and his pulpit in his efforts to further the goals of the civil rights movement? 3. Other than delivering speeches, what methods did Dr. King and his followers use to further their cause? What was Project "C"? What did King's personal papers reveal about his strategies for achieving his goals? Why do you think that Dr. King encouraged his followers to practice non-violence and passive resistance? What role did India's Mahatma Gandhi have in shaping Dr. King's ideologies and strategies for social change? 4. How do those interviewed for this program describe the leadership style and qualities of Dr. King? Why do you think that Soledad O'Brien describes Dr. King as "an accidental leader"? Based on what you learned in this program, how would you describe Dr. King's leadership style? Provide examples. 5. What do Dr. King's personal writings reveal about his private concerns and fears? How did Dr. King respond to the challenges and dangers he and other activists faced during their civil rights struggle? Do you think that courage is a necessary trait for leadership? Why or why not? What evidence of courage can be drawn from Dr. King's private papers? 6. What was the Montgomery Bus Boycott? What event provided the catalyst for the boycott? According to friends and colleagues, why was Dr. King chosen as the "consensus candidate" to lead the boycott? What was the main goal of the boycott? Did the bus boycott achieve this goal? Explain. 7. Why was Dr. King arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963? How was he able to secure the paper on which he would write "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"? According to the program, what messages did Dr. King hope to convey in this document? Why do you think that this document has had such a lasting significance? 8. According to the program, why did Dr. King and other activists encourage teenagers to participate in the civil rights struggle? What roles did teens play in the fight for civil rights? Do you think that the strategy of using teenagers was effective at furthering the civil rights cause? Explain. 9. According to Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, why did Dr. King's "inner circle" want to revise the "I Have a Dream" theme for his speech at the March on Washington? Why do you think that Dr. King chose to deliver the "I Have a Dream" portion of the speech rather than the revised version? Why do you think that some refer to this speech as one of the most important speeches in human history? Do you find personal meaning in this speech? Explain. 10. What did the King papers reveal about Dr. King's personal reaction to the church bombing deaths of four young girls on September 15, 1963, in Birmingham? Why was this event significant for Dr. King, for the civil rights movement and for the nation? 11. How was Dr. King publicly recognized for his work towards achieving civil rights? What do eyewitnesses and Dr. King's private papers reveal about the significance of these awards for Dr. King and for the civil rights movement? 12. What was "Bloody Sunday"? What impact did this event have on Dr. King and the movement he led? 13. What events brought Dr. King and his colleagues to Memphis, Tennessee, in early 1968? According to eyewitnesses, how did these events refocus Dr. King's efforts towards addressing the connections between poverty and bigotry? 14. How and where was Dr. King murdered? How old was he when he was killed? What was he able to accomplish in his short life? How does his death continue to impact his friends and colleagues like Andrew Young? 15. How does this program's treatment of Dr. King compare with other sources of information on the civil rights movement? In your opinion, what is the value of examining historical figures through their personal papers and through the eyes of those who knew them well? Why do you think that there has been such a huge effort to preserve Dr. King's personal papers? What, if anything, did you learn about Dr. King from this program?16. The producers of this program organized it around select speeches and sermons from the Morehouse College MLK collection. From what speech, sermon or document did each of the following quotations come? • "There is a new Negro in the South." • "I am not afraid of the word tension." • "I have a dream." • "We must substitute courage for caution." • "I still believe that we shall overcome." • "The door that slams shut." How do these quotations shed light on Dr. King's hopes and fears? 17. The title of this CNN Special Investigations Unit program is MLK Papers -- The Words That Changed a Nation. Based on what you learned in the program, to what extent, if at all, do you think that Dr. King's words changed the nation? What do you think is the legacy of Dr. King? In your view, what civil rights issues, if any, exist in the United States today? What historical lessons explored in this program, if any, could be applied to modern-day civil rights issues? Suggested Activity . Examining the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Inform students that, in 1985, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, initiated a massive research effort to gather and share historical information about her late husband. This research endeavor, called the King Papers Project, seeks to publish a 14-volume series of Dr. King's most significant letters, sermons, speeches, published works and unpublished manuscripts. Ask students: Why do you think that historians and researchers have engaged in this effort? Who else might find such a definitive collection valuable? Organize students into pairs, and have each pair consult print and online resources to select a different work either written or spoken by Dr. King. Instruct students to assume the roles of historians as they answer the following questions about their chosen documents: . • When was the work written or spoken? • Who do you think was the primary audience for the work, and why? Do you think that there might have been a secondary audience? If so, who was that audience? • What do you think was the intended goal or message of the work? • What is the tone or mood of the work? What techniques, if any, did Dr. King use in the work to convey his message? • What does the work reveal about life in the U.S. at the time when it was written or spoken? • How might different groups of people have interpreted this work at the time when it was first written or spoken? • If you had the opportunity, what questions would you have asked Dr. King about the work? As students present their research, post each work along a civil rights timeline. Discuss each work in the historical, social and political context in which it was originally presented. Then, encourage students to examine the philosophies of Dr. King over the course of his lifetime. Pose the following questions for discussion: . • What is the historical significance of Dr. King's works? • Do you see any patterns or changes in Dr. King's ideology as expressed in works as time passed? If so, how might those changes be reflective of the changes in society or in the civil rights movement? • What significance do they have today? • Do you think that the study of historical documents can provide lessons for addressing modern-day social, economic or political struggles? If so, how? If not, why not? Curriculum Connections . Grade Level: 6 - 12, College . Subject Areas: U.S. History, Civics, Government, Current Issues . Historical Thinking . Standard 4 - Historical Research . Formulate historical questions from encounters with historical documents, eyewitness accounts, letters, diaries, artifacts, photos, historical sites, art, architecture, and other records from the past. Interrogate historical data by uncovering the social, political, and economic context in which it was created; testing the data source for its credibility, authority, authenticity, internal consistency and completeness; and detecting and evaluating bias, distortion, and propaganda by omission, suppression, or invention of facts. U.S. History Standards . Standard 4: The struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties. Standard 4A: The student understands the "Second Reconstruction" and its advancement of civil rights. Analyze the leadership and ideology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the civil rights movement and evaluate their legacies. The National Standards for History (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/) are published by the National Center for History in the Schools (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/).

Students will discuss the historical significance of the King papers collection . Students will analyze the goals of Dr. King and the civil rights movement . Students will evaluate the legacy of Dr. King .

(CNN) -- Is Pfc. Bradley Manning an idealist who became disillusioned by what was being done in Iraq and elsewhere in the name of U.S. national interests, as the attorney for the former Army intelligence analyst has argued? Or is he, as the prosecution contends, a traitor who leaked classified material to WikiLeaks that he knew could assist terrorists? The formal answers to those questions, at least, will come in the anticipated verdict by a military judge, who will decide Manning's guilt or innocence in a case that has been described as the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history. Authorities have accused Manning of delivering three-quarters of million pages of classified documents and videos to WikiLeaks -- which has never confirmed the soldier was the source of its information -- about everything from the U.S. military strategy in Iraq to U.S. State Department cables detailing its foreign relationships. There is little debate over the basics of the case: Manning pleaded guilty in February to 10 lesser charges related to the leaks, and spent more than an hour in court reading a statement that detailed why and how he sent classified material to WikiLeaks -- a group that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information through its website. But Manning refused to plead guilty to the most serious allegations, including that of aiding enemies of the United States -- a charge that falls under the Espionage Act and carries a sentence of life in prison, if convicted. As the soldier sits in a military prison cell at Maryland's Fort Meade awaiting word of his fate, questions remain about what damage his actions caused to U.S. intelligence gathering. The answer depends on who is doing in the talking. "Osama bin Laden asked for some of the information himself," the prosecutor, Army Maj. Ashden Fein, said during his closing argument Thursday, referring to the documents provided to WikiLeaks by Manning. But Manning's attorney, David Coombs, told the court Friday that despite claims that the leaks harmed national security, the Army did not make any major changes to its operation. It's a sentiment that has been echoed publicly by his supporters. "They really have not reported any great impact. More embarrassment than anything else," Kevin Zeese of the Bradley Manning Support Network, an online group that supports the soldier's actions and has been raising funds for his legal defense. Embarrassing or not, the publication of the leaks rocked the U.S. government, with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the release of the material threatened the lives of Americans and damaged foreign relationships. Prosecution witnesses have testified Manning downloaded and leaked 400,000 Pentagon field reports from Iraq and 90,0000 similar documents from Afghanistan. There evidence also was presented that he downloaded and leaked more than 250,000 State Department cables. 'Collateral Murder' video . For most people, the story began on April 5, 2010, when WikiLeaks released a video that it called "Collateral Murder." The video was shot from a U.S. Apache helicopter as it opened fire on a group of people in Baghdad in 2007, killing a dozen people. Among the dead were a Reuters TV news cameraman and his driver. The video showed Reuters' Saeed Chmagh survived an initial strafing by the helicopter, but apparently died when it opened fire again -- this time on people attempting to get him off the sidewalk where he lay and into a van. The footage quickly made news, elevating what was once a virtually unknown WikiLeaks to a globally recognized name. Later, a U.S. investigation into the attack found that the crew mistook the journalists' cameras for weapons while seeking out insurgents who had been firing at American troops in the area. But, according to court documents and testimony, by the time the world saw the video, Manning had already downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents and videos. Within months, Manning was behind bars, accused of using his computer skills to commit what the government called treason. From Oklahoma to Iraq . It was a far cry from his beginnings. Hailing from the small Oklahoma town of Crescent, population less than 1,300, he was a gearhead with a love of computer games and a passion for current events, his friends and family told CNN in 2011. After working a series of part-time jobs and, at one point, living out of his car, he joined the Army in 2007. But it was a tough acclimation, his friends later said, in large part because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. According to friends and his own writings on the Internet, Manning is openly gay. Then, in 2009, Manning deployed to Iraq. He was at Forward Operating Base Hammer in southeast Baghdad, where he worked as an analyst reviewing possible threats to U.S. troops. According to Fein, the prosecutor, within two weeks of his arrival in Iraq, Manning began working with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over what to leak and how to do it. Assange has taken refuge at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning in sex-crimes allegations, charges he claims are a ruse by allies of Washington to arrest him and then extradite him to the United States to face charges. Manning spent hours at work during off-hours downloading documents, Fein said. Manning, the prosecutor said, was well aware of the military's policy about divulging classified material and the repercussions of doing it. The soldier had even taught classes about protecting the material, Fein said. "Manning had no allegiance to the United States," Fein told the court last week, adding that he was "not a whistle-blower; he was a traitor." But Manning's attorney offered another picture, one in which the war deeply affected his client. It began, his attorney told the court, after an attack on a convoy with his comrades. A roadside bomb exploded beneath a car full of civilians that had pulled aside to let the military vehicles pass. Although members of his 305th Military Intelligence Battalion were not hurt, Coombs said, at least one civilian was killed. That changed Manning's outlook on the war, his lawyer said. He "struggled." He was further disturbed by the "Collateral Murder" video, the attorney said. "Did they all deserve to die? That is what Pfc. Manning is seeing when he watches this," Coombs told the judge after playing the video in court. It was for those reasons, according to Coombs, that Manning then started selecting information to reveal, believing that it would be better if it were public. Coombs said his client was selective in the information he diverted from a controlled-access computer system where he worked as an "all source" intelligence analyst. What would you do? Manning came to the attention of authorities in May 2010 after a confidential informant, later identified as ex-hacker Adrian Lamo of Sacramento, California, came forward with a stunning story. It began with a message said to be posted by Manning, using the instant message handle "bradass87." "If you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?" it read. According to testimony, that was purportedly part of a string of instant messages that a person sent to Lamo, who was convicted in 2004 for hacking The New York Times, Microsoft and Lexis-Nexis computer systems. Over a period of days beginning on May 22, 2010, Lamo testified, he and the man identified as Manning instant-messaged about the release of the documents and videos. Lamo has said he reported Manning to authorities. Army Criminal Investigation Command Special Agent David Shaver has testified that the chat logs that Lamo provided to the Army largely matched chat logs found on Manning's computer in Iraq. Solitary confinement . Manning was arrested in Iraq on May 27, 2010, and then transferred to Kuwait before being returned to the United States two months later. He was formally charged on July 6, 2010, with violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Espionage Act. In March 2011, the military revised the alleged violations and filed 22 charges against Manning. He was held for months by the military in solitary confinement, a move that drew sharp criticism from Amnesty International and other human rights groups. It even cost P.J. Crowley his job as State Department spokesman after he said in March 2011 that the conditions of the soldier's detention were "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." Crowley resigned just days later amid reports that the Obama administration was furious over his suggestion that Manning was being treated badly. President Barack Obama publicly defended the conditions of the soldier's detention, telling reporters that he had been assured by the Pentagon that the conditions were appropriate and met basic standards. Even so, the outcry grew, with academics, medical professionals and others weighing in as Manning's attorney filed motions to move the soldier from the Marine Corps prison at Quantico. After 11 months in solitary confinement, Manning was transferred to Fort Leavenworth. He has since been moved to a jail at Fort Meade. Dueling portraits . During closing statements last week, attorneys on both sides pointed to a picture of a smiling Manning. Each had their own take on the man in the cross-dressing image that was taken in 2010 while he was on leave -- just weeks before his arrest. "This is a gleeful, grinning Pfc. Manning," who had little regard for his allegiance to the United States, Fein told the court. But Coombs told the judge that picture showed a situation in which Manning could "be himself." The only question now is what portrait of Manning the judge will offer with a verdict. CNN's Barbara Starr, Larry Shaughnessy, Ashley Fantz and Dana Ford contributed to this report.

Bradley Manning, 25, is charged with violations of the Espionage Act . His case is in the hands of a military judge who will decide his guilt or innocence . Manning was arrested on May 27, 2010 . He is accused of releasing upwards of three-quarters of a million classified documents .

(CNN) -- What will Narendra Modi's India look like? The country's prime minister-in-waiting -- a staunch Hindu nationalist and the Chief Minister of the western state of Gujarat since 2001 -- is a deeply polarizing figure and an unproven commodity on the international stage. Analysts predict his arrival in the country's top office will bring a marked change in direction for the world's most populous democracy, a nation whose modern character has been defined by the inclusive, secular and liberal approach of the Congress Party, which has governed for most of the post-independence era. The only question, they say, is how great a departure Modi's premiership will be from what has come before. "There will be a big change," analyst and journalist Arati Jerath told CNN ahead of his Bharatiya Janata Party's (Indian People's Party) crushing victory at the polls. The BJP finished with 282 of 543 parliamentary seats, giving it a clear majority -- something no other Indian political party has achieved in three decades. "The desire for change very clearly (is there)... I think people are looking for another kind of government," said Jerath. "His vision for India is not the kind of inclusive, secularist vision that we have been used to -- it is a much more right-wing, pro-Hindu vision," she said. "I ... see an increase in social tension with groups that are not included in his vision." Administrator-in-chief . The 63-year-old former tea seller's immense popularity -- a Pew survey ahead of the elections found nearly 80% of respondents held a positive view of him -- stems in large part from his reputation as a tough, "can-do" administrator, the man with the medicine to kickstart India's stuttering economy. "Modi is a good administrator," said Ramesh Menon, author of an unauthorized biography of the politician. "He is very strict, gets things done. There is a fear element." His popularity comes in spite of a lack of strong personal charisma. Seen as a hardworking and conservative technocrat, Modi had failed to establish an "emotional connect" with voters during campaigning, said Jerath. Instead, his claim to the nation's top office has largely rested on his track record since 2001 in charge of Gujarat, a state of some 60 million people whose China-like rates of growth in recent years have been eyed enviously by the rest of the country. 'The Gujarat model' The so-called "Gujarat model" of development means a focus on infrastructure, urbanization and eradicating red tape -- seen as a much-needed tonic for a country ranked 179th in the world by the World Bank in terms of ease of starting a business. A sharp contrast to the traditional approach of the outgoing Congress Party -- which has focused on promoting inclusive growth involving a raft of welfare schemes -- it's proven highly attractive to business. India stocks have risen almost 18% this year at the prospect of a Modi-led government. India's largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, relocated a car plant into the state four years ago, a move the company's former chairman Ratan Tata credits in part to Modi's involvement. "In effect, (Modi) delivered in three days what other states which were also trying to woo us could only offer their best endeavors to do," he told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "No side deals, no quid pro quos." The promise of economic development is just as enticing to the public, and resonates particularly with the increasingly strident aspirations of the 100 million young voters who were eligible to cast their ballots for the first time in 2014, said Dilip Dutta, director of the South Asian Studies Group at the University of Sydney. "These young voters are exposed through electronic media to the whole world, and have a dream of moving forward -- not lagging behind as their fathers and grandfathers have for decades." Greater inequality? But not everyone is convinced about Modi's economic prescription. Mohan Guruswamy, a political analyst at Delhi's Center for Policy Alternatives, told CNN that Modi's record in Gujarat has been overhyped. "There is no 'Gujarat model,' and there are other states with faster economic growth," he said during an interview in the build-up to the election. Moreover, many feel that economic development in the state has been unequally distributed, and not matched with corresponding gains in human development. "It really is a model that favors people who already have access to things like education and business possibilities," said Jerath. "He offers very little to the poor, to the weaker section and I think that this is a major weakness." While she believed Modi's leadership would see an increase in foreign and domestic investment, his corporate agenda would also likely lead to conflict with India's vocal civil society groups. "I see a rise in social tension because people have become much more conscious and they don't want to to give up their land so easily just because Modi wants to clear the way forward for business," she said. "There will be tension over forest land, there will be tension over agricultural land... It will be a very interesting thing to see how he manages the challenges." Too autocratic? Modi's hard-nosed, occasionally abrasive leadership style will also present a marked departure for a country accustomed to a more consensus-driven approach, analysts believe. "I see Modi as an extraordinarily ambitious man, quite ruthless in the pursuit of his ambition," said Jerath. Guruswamy, who knows Modi personally, likens his vision of a "right-wing, authoritarian corporate state" as closer to the model in China, and questions whether his divisive, autocratic tendencies will translate well in a country as boisterously democratic as India. "It's not a place where you can press buttons -- you have to work with people," he said. "The prime minister of India has to be the supreme conciliator, reconciling the aspirations and demands of thousands of groups. It's not like China where you can turn off Weibo one day -- you can't be autocratic or they'll cut you out." Journalist and blogger Sunny Hundal also sees Modi as a challenge to the country's established liberal, secular order, writing in a CNN opinion piece that the signs were there that his government would "be much less tolerant of criticism, hostile towards press freedom, and further polarize the country along religious lines." OPINION: Does Modi threaten secular and liberal India? Modi and Muslims . The greatest concerns about a Modi premiership revolve around his ability, as a hardline Hindu nationalist, to lead a country as culturally and religiously diverse as India. Since he was a boy -- the third of six children born to a family of grocers in the city of Vadnagar -- Modi has been a supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing pro-Hindu social movement. His track record with India's 180 million-strong Muslim community, the country's second largest religious group, has come under intense scrutiny. Less than a year after Modi assumed office in Gujarat in late 2001, the state was wracked with anti-Muslim violence, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. Modi was criticized for not doing enough to halt the violence, but a Supreme Court-ordered investigation absolved him of blame last year. Modi subsequently expressed regret over the riots but was criticized for not apologizing. The U.S. State Department denied Modi a visa in 2005 over the issue, but after his win, U.S. President Barack Obama called Modi to congratulate him and invite him to Washington, according to the White House. The tensions are not merely a relic of the past. As recently as September last year, more than 60 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced in religious riots in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh state. Most of the affected were Muslims. Hundal notes that during the election campaign, Modi appeared alongside associates including a Gujarati politician who made inflammatory speeches speaking of "revenge" for the 2002 riots and called on voters to reject parties with Muslim candidates. Amid what many see as a rising tide of intolerance drummed up by Hindu nationalist groups, some Muslims fear what a Modi-led government means for their community. "We all remember what he did in Gujarat," one unnamed Muslim man told CNN. "For Muslims, Modi represents death." Jerath said she saw religious tensions becoming more inflamed under Modi's leadership. "I see these Hindu groups getting much more active; I think there will be renewed agitation to build the temple at Ayodhya." Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, is the site of plot of land that has been the subject of a longstanding dispute between Hindus and Muslims. Hindu hardliners destroyed an historic mosque on the site during a political rally in 1992, triggering riots across the country in which more than 2,000 people were killed. Noisy neighborhood . Modi's nationalist outlook -- informed by "a sense of victimhood, that we've been victimized by foreigners" -- would also likely be reflected in India's foreign policy, Guruswamy told CNN. "Internationally, he would be a little more hardline on everything -- Pakistan, China, America. Indian interests would be aggressively asserted," he said. Jerath said Modi's foreign policy focus would be on India's neighborhood, which had been "in a lot of turmoil." It's politically quite unstable and a lot of India's internal terrorist problems stem from the fact that our borders are so porous," she said. "That has to be the primary challenge for anybody who comes to power." READ MORE: What India can learn from China . CNN's Mallika Kapur contributed to this report.

India's Prime Minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi is a polarizing figure . Critics say the pro-business Hindu nationalist is a threat to secular, liberal traditions . He led the state of Gujarat through a period of strong economic growth . But his relationship with the country's huge Muslim minority has come under scrutiny .

Indianapolis (CNN) -- Let's just come out and say what a lot of people are thinking this Super Bowl weekend: Indianapolis? Really? Hard-core fans who blow wads of cash every season to get their championship tickets punched want to know: Has the NFL reached a point when this iconic face-off between our national gladiators can be hosted by any team city? Even a cold-weather, landlocked, midsize burg surrounded by corn and guided by a mysterious force called "Hoosier Hospitality"? Because, sorry sports fans, let's be real: This ain't New Orleans, Miami or Southern California -- or any of the sunshiny February playgrounds that have dominated location choices for 45 years. This is smack in the heart of "flyover country," where many fans of the New England Patriots and New York Giants have never before dared to venture. You can picture them trying to locate the home of the Indianapolis Colts on a map, saying, "It's in one of those 'I' states, like Iowa, Idaho or Illinois." There's no need to mince words. Indy natives have heard it all before: "Nap-town," "India-no-place." "Hoosiers," as Indiana residents call themselves, are used to being underestimated, and they often take advantage of the benefits of low expectations. (Full disclosure: The author is an Indiana native, but, like many of his kind, he is unable to explain the origin of the word "Hoosier.") After decades of strategizing, planning and selling the city to NFL team owners, Indy says it's ready to host Super Bowl XLVI. "It's the pinnacle," said former Mayor Bill Hudnut, who started the campaign rolling in the early '80s. Without a doubt, preparations have transformed the town's look and feel. The community has poured hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and corporate coin to build new hotels, spruce up landscaping and resurface miles of streets. As a result, a sea of Patriots blue, Giants blue and Colts blue has been flowing through the downtown area -- now dubbed Super Bowl Village. More than 300,000 have walked through the neighborhood in the past week, officials said. Former Colts head coach Tony Dungy told CNN affiliate WRTV-TV that the city is putting "its best foot forward." The fans are "going to be pleasantly surprised," he said. There's more to Indy than the Super Bowl . Restaurants, hotels and the village all surround Lucas Oil Stadium -- creating a compact, walkable Super Bowl district that veterans say is unique to almost all previous venues except perhaps New Orleans. "I think the setup here is fantastic," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told WRTV. Streets have been renamed Raiders Road, Chiefs Avenue -- one for each NFL squad. "Mike Epps and Snoop Dogg are coming in tonight!" a fan shouted to a friend wearing a Giants jersey. Buildings are draped with majestic, gigantic multistory banners, and the street signs are adorned with the ubiquitous face of Madonna, the Super Bowl halftime headliner . Parlor games? "Oh no, here we go," say local skeptics -- eyes rolling. "This is the part where the media elite play that tired parlor game that comes up every time Indiana takes the national stage." Does Indianapolis have to prove anything by hosting the game? Is this about some kind of cornfed inferiority complex that Hoosiers have been trying to shake for decades? "We're not about that," said Dianna Boyce of Indianapolis' Super Bowl host committee. "We let our actions speak louder than our words." It's all a little shocking for those who remember what this neighborhood was like 30 years ago. There wasn't much here. For workers at the old brick-walled Hurst's HamBeens building on McCarty Street -- a stone's throw from the stadium -- there were no bars or nightspots for hanging out after quittin' time. "You could count the number of restaurants on one hand," Boyce said. "You just didn't come downtown to have fun back then." In the old days, Indianapolis meant the "brickyard" -- the Indianapolis 500, said Tom Griswold, longtime co-host of the Indy-based syndicated radio program "The Bob & Tom Show." "But after the arrival of Peyton Manning, now they say 'the Indianapolis Colts.' " The image of Manning's face looms large on a building-size Papa John's banner in Super Bowl Village. Fourteen years after Manning joined the Colts, Americans are indeed talking about the $90 million quarterback. Specifically, they're talking about his neck. Manning's recovery from neck surgery -- perhaps the most talked about neck in the history of sports -- threatens to overshadow Sunday's game, which will feature Manning's brother Eli as quarterback for the Giants. Most people know the injury forced Peyton Manning to sit out the Colts' entire season, resulting in two wins and 14 losses -- a stinking record after 2010's 10-6 season. Now the Colts face an epic decision about whether to pay Manning a $28 million bonus to stay on the team or to cut him loose as a free agent. Has Manning played his last game with the Colts? Indianapolis had its own epic decision to make in the early '80s. At the time, the city had no NFL team. Yet Hudnut, then the mayor, greenlit construction of a $77 million-domed football stadium. Indy was putting out bait to lure the NFL. "Stones of steel," said a fan who recalled the story while walking through Super Bowl Village on Tuesday. "It took guts." Before the stadium was finished, the Colts had agreed to move from Baltimore to Indy, triggering a generation of hatred among the Maryland city's fans over the "theft" of their storied franchise. It was a major step toward using sports to crank up Indy's status and economic standing. Soon the city was hosting NCAA basketball's Final Four and the NBA All-Star Game. "Gradually in the '80s and '90s people who knew the city regarded Indianapolis as quite a town -- even though people who didn't know Indy still thought of it as a brickyard and a cornfield," Hudnut said. Fast-forward to Sunday when perhaps more than 112 million people will watch the NFL world championship "taking place in little old Indianapolis," said Griswold, the radio host. Mission accomplished. The hosting seems to be going well so far -- thanks in part to unusually warm temperatures in the low 50s at a time when it's usually a few degrees above freezing. "We're loving it. I had to get out here in the village and see everybody!" Boyce said. "Outstanding" was how Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne described the weather for WRTV. "Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves," Wayne said, a year after a freak cold snap put a damper on events surrounding the Dallas Super Bowl. "I haven't heard one bad complaint." In 1982, Detroit opened the door to cold-weather Super Bowl hosting. New York is scheduled for 2014. "Our plan was to eventually get into the rotation for future Super Bowls," Hudnut said. "Let's get through the first one, first," the NFL's Goodell told WRTV. "I think the hospitality and the way they have done this will reflect very well on Indianapolis going forward." Talk of the town . The village -- a $12 million, three-block, "family-friendly festival" with shops and restaurants -- has been built not just for Sunday, but for the future. "After the fans have long gone, other people are going to be able to come in and use this space for decades," Boyce said. Meantime, Boyce said she expects Indy to demonstrate the spirit of "Hoosier Hospitality." "We're a friendly folk," she said. "People say hi to you when you walk down the street. It's all the time, not just when the Super Bowl is here." What's getting the most attention? The zip line is the talk of the town. For $10, you can climb the zip line's 95-foot tower, attach yourself to a metal cable and fly 80 feet above the crowd to another tower 650 feet down the street. "It's the new version of the bungee jump," one woman said. Fans reported the wait last Sunday for the zip line was seven hours. That's almost as long as TV's Super Bowl pregame show. Homeless complaints . But not everyone in Indianapolis is awaiting the big game. Justin Baranowski, 33, a homeless man from California, said, "Starting at the end of last week the police started pushing us away from certain areas that we're allowed to be in," including the Super Bowl Village. Authorities insist officers aren't cracking down because of the game, but they said police are working with private organizations to help get the homeless into shelters. "We're not moving anyone against their will," said Marc Lotter, spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. The city is sharing its Super Bowl gravy with needy segments of the community. A neighborhood without a grocery store now has a food cooperative thanks to private and NFL funds, Boyce said. Another area received a 20,000-square-foot community youth center, including a gym, classrooms and weekly programs such as cooking, fitness and finance. Hosting this game is "a step of a higher level than we've ever taken before," Hudnut said. "We had to prove that we could be major league." So what's next for Indy? A Democratic or Republican national convention may not be out of the question, he said. And what about Sunday? "The best sign of success will be that the city doesn't become the story," Griswold said. "The story needs to be about the game. I honestly think the best report would be people saying that 'the game was great and -- oh yeah by the way Indianapolis was really nice. I had a really good time.' "

Indianapolis is hosting its first Super Bowl as the Giants take on the Patriots . City officials set Super Bowl goal almost 30 years ago . More than 300,000 are visiting downtown area dubbed Super Bowl Village . Initial NFL hosting reviews are positive a year after cold snap marred Dallas Super Bowl .

Denver (CNN) -- Iraq war veteran Sean Azzariti described his purchase of recreational marijuana -- legally -- as a historic moment Wednesday. "It's huge," he said at a marijuana store along a light industrial corridor outside downtown Denver. "It hasn't even sunk in how big this is yet." Indeed, before the 3D Cannabis Center opened at 8 a.m. MT, more than 100 people were waiting in snowfall and cold under gray skies to be the next buyers of recreational pot under a landmark law voters approved in 2012. The dispensary was one of a handful that opened to lines of waiting people on New Year's Day, with scores more expected statewide in coming months. Do you smoke pot? Tell us about it . Azzariti was selected to be the first buyer at the 3D Cannabis Center because he was a Marine from 2000 to 2006 who now suffers post-traumatic stress disorder after two tours in Iraq. He can't obtain medical marijuana in Colorado because PTSD isn't a qualifying condition for that treatment, he said. "This is what we worked so hard for the last few years," he said of the voter-approved constitutional amendment that led Colorado to become the first state in the nation to open recreational pot stores to anyone age 21 and older. "It's mind-blowing." Azzariti, 32, bought an eighth of an ounce of pot, plus chocolate truffles laced with marijuana. Those treats are called "edibles" at the store. The price: $59.50. The marijuana alleviates the anxiety and stress that come from PTSD, he said, adding that he'll smoke the pot Wednesday evening. At several recreational weed stores, buyers waited in line for three or four hours to be a part of opening-day history. Despite the hundreds of people queuing on public sidewalks, no significant problems emerged Wednesday, Denver officials said. "I want to thank the businesses and consumers alike for acting responsibly and with great accountability today," Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock said in a statement. "Denver is a progressive city, a vibrant city, and it's incumbent on all of us to continue getting this right." Long lines . Even three hours after the stores opened, one downtown Denver dispensary had a line of about 100 people outside the front door to the corner. The snow had stopped falling by then, and the gray skies were clearing to blue. While patrons -- young and the old, men and women -- waited patiently in line, the demographic at the downtown dispensary tilted more toward 20- and 30-somethings. When many buyers emerged from the store and nudged through the line, they raised their bags of newly purchased pot above their heads. People waiting on the sidewalk cheered them. Even though recreational weed is now legal, some purchasers declined to disclose their last names. One woman, Dee, who didn't want to use her surname, said she waited in line for almost three hours to buy her cannabis. She and a male companion bought a small amount, she said, just to commemorate the occasion. "We voted for it, and now it's here," Dee said of the recreational marijuana law. "We just went in and celebrated the new law. It's a new day." She didn't mind the long wait at the LoDo's Dispensary. "Everybody is cool and mellow and nice. So it's all good," she said. Some motorists passing the pot shop honked and cheered the queue of buyers, who whooped in return. One motorist, however, shouted a disparaging remark about the "potheads," and the crowd muttered raspberries in response. Buyers whiled away the hours in line by talking aloud about the benefits of marijuana as a remedy for hangovers, headaches, sleeplessness and low appetite. Then a young woman in a passing SUV slowed and interrupted them by asking, "What's going on, guys?" "Legal pot sale!" a man in line shouted. "Oh, I need an eighth!" the young woman shouted back excitedly. The car drove on. In fact, around 11:30 a.m. MT, Don Andrews, whose family owns and runs the dispensary, announced to the waiting people on the sidewalk that he was being forced to limit sales to an eighth of an ounce to each person, though under the new state law, a resident can buy up to an ounce. The dispensary will close at 7 p.m. MT, but Andrews said he may have to start turning people away at 4 p.m. The line had gone out the front door, down the street and around the corner by 2 p.m. MT, when more than 400 people had made purchases. In all, Andrews counted buyers from several states and countries. Buyers showed IDs from Vermont, Arizona, Georgia, Oregon, Wyoming, Louisiana -- and even Alaska and Hawaii. Other prospective weed buyers came from Canada, Australia and Italy, though the Italian man, 21, walked away because he had to catch a bus for his tour of America. South of downtown, the Evergreen Apothecary was encountering the same phenomenon: 700 people in line took numbers, but employees said they might not be able to serve all of them by the close of business. The atmosphere at the dispensaries was clearly celebratory and cheerful. For example, about 10 miles outside of downtown, one man said he had waited in the snow since 2:30 a.m. for the Medicine Man dispensary to open at 8 a.m. When asked how he felt after making the first sale there, he responded: "I'll feel better in an hour." Applauding, criticizing the new law . Even before the weed went on sale, enthusiasts were anticipating the end of an era. "Prohibition is over," blared a flier for New Year's Eve festivities at Casselman's Bar in Denver. "Celebrate Cannabis freedom in style." As many as 30 stores throughout Colorado will sell recreational weed. Of the estimated 30 stores, 18 are in Denver. "With Washington state next to implement marijuana legalization and other states strongly considering enacting similar laws, we believe this marks the beginning of the end of the nation's decades-long war on marijuana and its harmful human and fiscal toll," Ezekiel Edwards, a director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a prepared statement. But not everyone was applauding. "Legalization -- with all of the American-style promotion that will accompany it -- is the last thing people in recovery, parents, communities -- and even our nation -- need right now," Smart Approaches to Marijuana said on its website. A total of 136 stores received state licenses last week, but most apparently had not obtained approval yet from their local governments to open on January 1. In 2012, Colorado voters approved the sale of recreational marijuana, as did voters in Washington state. But Colorado is the first to have the pot shops up and running under regulations recently established by state and local governments. Colorado voters' approval in effect amended the state's constitution to allow for the retail sale of recreational pot. The state already allows medical marijuana. Limits to marijuana consumption . Not all of the state is participating in the new law. A community can decide not to allow the shops, and in fact, most of the state geographically hasn't, including communities such as Greeley and Colorado Springs. Proponents of the new law were dealt a setback last week when Denver and state officials threatened to shut down a private party at a dance club scheduled for January 1 celebrating the end of the prohibition against cannabis -- an event billed as "Cannabition." The organizers canceled the party because officials said it would violate a Denver ordinance prohibiting the public consumption of marijuana. Cannabis can only be smoked on private property with the owner's permission. Under the new state law, residents are now able to buy marijuana like alcohol. The cannabis purchase is limited to an ounce, which is substantial enough to cost about $200 or more. People from out of state can buy up to a quarter-ounce. In a vivid example of how recreational pot is a new reality for the state, Denver officials posted public signs in the tourist-populated corridor known as the 16th Street Mall. The street signs read, "Know the Law about Marijuana Use in Denver." "You must be 21 or older to have or use retail marijuana," says one bulletin on the sign. But further below it, the sign warns readers that "it is illegal to use, display or transfer marijuana on the 16th Street Mall." One of Colorado's main media outlets, The Denver Post, has even devoted a website to the history-making moment and its ongoing impact. "The culture of cannabis, that's what we're here to talk about," says the newspaper's "The Cannabist" page. "As marijuana's coming-out continues, we'll report journalistically from our homebase in Denver, Colo. -- the site of recreational marijuana's first legal sale in the modern world on Jan. 1, 2014." This week, Denver International Airport authorities banned all marijuana on the airport grounds. Medical marijuana had been legal to bring to the airport as long as it didn't go through security checkpoints, said airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. But a total ban was implemented to avoid confusion as the recreational pot law rolls out, she said. Officials are concerned that a large influx of people may take marijuana to the airport and transport it across state lines. So if a visitor brings marijuana to the airport and leaves it in the car to pick up a relative at the terminal, that visitor will be breaking the law and could face a fine of up to $999, Stegman said. Colorado becomes the first place in the world where marijuana will be regulated from seed to sale. Pot is the third most popular recreational drug in America, after alcohol and tobacco, according to the marijuana reform group NORML. CNN's Miguel Marquez and Casey Wian contributed to this report.

NEW: Denver mayor says pot shops, buyers behaved "responsibly and with great accountability" Pot buyers at one shop come from Canada, Australia, Italy, Hawaii, Alaska . 700 people in line take numbers at another pot shop, but can it serve so many? "What's going on?" a curious passenger asks; "Legal pot sale!" a man in line replies .

(CNN Student News) -- January 12, 2011 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . • Arizona • Gulf of Mexico • Haiti . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's a pleasure to welcome you to this midweek edition of CNN Student News. We're bringing the world, without commercials, to your classroom. And I'm your captain, Carl Azuz. First Up: Arizona Discourse . AZUZ: Doctors are keeping a close watch on Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Three days after a gunman tried to assassinate her at an event in Tucson, Giffords was responding to doctors' commands and giving hopeful signs, though her condition remained critical. Experts say if she survives, her recovery could take anywhere from several months to a year and a half. Meantime, President Obama was scheduled to fly to Tucson today. The White House says he'll probably attend a memorial service and meet with some families of the shooting victims. Six people were killed and 14 wounded in the attack. There's a national conversation building around part of this story, and we're gonna include you in it. Here's what's going on: This man you're about to see here, an Arizona sheriff named Clarence Dupnik, has been talking about the Arizona shooter, and what might have influenced him to attack. Here's part of the sheriff's opinion: . CLARENCE DUPNIK, SHERIFF OF PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: When the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates, and to try to inflame the public on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with. AZUZ: The sheriff, who's a Democrat, is suggesting that conservative talk show hosts and media coverage of people who are angry at the government somehow influenced the Arizona shooter. But police have not discussed an official motive for the attack. And another sheriff, Joe Arpaio, another Arizona sheriff, says all the evidence so far suggests the gunman had no clear political motives -- that he's just a deeply troubled and mentally unstable person. What do Americans think? Well, a new national poll by CBS shows most Americans, 57 percent, don't think angry political speech contributed to the shooting. 32 percent think it did. Here's where you come into the conversation. What are your thoughts on the Arizona shooting? Are there any lessons to be learned from it? Our blog is always open at CNNStudentNews.com! What's the Word . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: What's the Word? a type of storm with extremely strong winds that blow from the northeast . NOR'EASTER . That's the word! Winter Storm Update . AZUZ: Chances are, if you live on America's East coast and haven't yet been socked in by snow and ice, your turn is coming. The storm that smacked the Southeast is now heading north. Forecasters expect it to merge with another system from the Midwest. What does all that mean? Another foot of snow possible for New York City. You see New York here, earlier this year, reeling from storms then. Another foot of snow is possible for Boston, Massachusetts. At least 30 states were under some sort of winter storm watch or warning yesterday. And the South? Still crippled by chaotic conditions. The snow that covered the streets froze into a hard sheet of ice Monday night. Driving was out -- even walking was dangerous in some spots. Rob Marciano stepped outside CNN Center to show us why this is such a big deal for the Southeast. Rob? (BEGIN VIDEO) ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Check it out, Carl. Snow and ice on the sidealks of downtown Atlanta. Yeah, it's happened before but not sticking around for days at a time. What an amazing, incredible ice storm this was, and snow storm, across the South, especially for Atlanta. We seem to have been right in the core of the heaviest snow. And then, bam! The freezing temperatures and the freezing rain coming on top of that just really crippling this entire metropolitan area. From downtown to the interstates we had jack-knifed tractor trailers all over the place. On that 285 loop which is designed to take the tractor trailers out of the downtown area, well, that didn't help entirely too much. So, the other thing that's not helping is the storm cranking up the Northeastern seaboard. That's bringing in even more cold air. Even though we get times where it gets above freezing during the day. At night the temperatures drop well below freezing. You got to look at this and say to yourself, Atlanta's mentality for snow removal is let it melt. Well, we may have to wait for quite some time, Carl? (END VIDEO) Oil Spill Report . AZUZ: Thanks, Rob. If we don't take drastic action to prevent this in the future, it could happen again. That's the word from a final report on last summer's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It started with this, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. That later sank and caused the worst oil spill in American history. The clean-up is still going on for this! The "National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling" says the government and the oil industry need to research more, invest more money, and keep better tabs on safety and knowledge of how to contain oil spills. Shoutout . JOHN LISK, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Huber's exploratory class at Loveland Middle School in Loveland, Ohio! Port-au-Prince is the capital of what country? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Cuba, B) Dominican Republic, C) Haiti or D) Venezuela? You've got three seconds -- GO! Port-au-Prince is the capital of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Haiti Then & Now . AZUZ: It's been exactly one year since that capital -- and much of Haiti -- were violently shaken to the ground by a tremendous earthquake. Flooding and disease outbreaks have further slowed down Haiti's recovery. Still needed there: safe water and sewage systems, training for health workers, money to help get rid of diseases. Moni Basu describes how one year after the quake, not much has changed. (BEGIN VIDEO) MONI BASU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: My name is Moni Basu. I'm a journalist for CNN. When I came to Haiti last January my heart broke. I've covered difficult stories before but this one was particularly difficult for me. And I had hoped that when I came back a year later I would see a lot more progress than this. I'm sitting here in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. As you can see it pretty much looks like it did last January 12. Every Sunday thousands of people come here still for services There's no building left here so the priest preaches outside in a small park. The building was shattered but their faith was not shattered. Their faith is stronger than it ever was. I think the most iconic image that came out in the days after the earthquake was the national palace. It was destroyed to the point where it had been slated for demolition. But very little work has been done on it since last January. And it's a constant reminder to the people of what happened here. This is the Champs de Mars Plaza in Port-au-Prince, the central plaza in the city. Slowly in the days and weeks after the earthquake, a tent city sprung up here, and the more the time went by people realized, "We're not going anywhere, we're going have to make new homes, new lives for ourselves right here." There's a grocery store, there's a cyber cafe, even. The tent city has become a little city within the larger city of Port-au-Prince. It's pretty shocking to see that a year later people are still living like this. I'm always amazed when I come back to Haiti to see how much strength the people here have. It's just incredible to me how they are able to go on. I just can't imagine having to live through something like this day after day after day. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Remarkable images in that report. We want you to intro our show! And at CNNStudentNews.com, we have a video that explains how you can send us a video! You just scroll down our home page, which you see right here. Find the "How Do I" box -- it's on the left side. And click on "How do I send CNN Student News my iReport?" Yours truly will pop up with a totally different haircut, and give you step-by-step instructions on sending your footage to us. Before We Go . AZUZ: Well, I used to read Jack London in high school, maybe that's why I picture sled dogs as huskies, dragging wood and steel through the Yukon. This is a different kind of animal. A slack dog, not a pack dog. A coaster, not a boaster. A chiller, not a thriller! He and his owner show the other side of Atlanta's icy conditions: The fun shared by man and beast, when you've got nowhere to go but downhill. Goodbye . AZUZ: Just hope he stayed warm. Without a sweater, a hot dog can quickly turn into a pup-sicle. Please join us again tomorrow -- CNN Student News only has ice for you. Bye bye!

A national conversation builds in the aftermath of an Arizona shooting . The storm system that paralyzed the Southeast now threatens the Northeast . Haiti is still reeling one year after a devastating earthquake . Use the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .

Tuscaloosa, Alabama (CNN) -- It was around by 5 p.m. Wednesday when residents first saw the monster tornado heading toward the heart of this proud Southern university town. Many prayed. Others grabbed video phones. Some fled for their lives. The winds hissed. The destructive force of Mother Nature that day won't ever be forgotten by the 93,000 people who call Tuscaloosa home. That day has united them, through horror and hope, tears and prayers. Michael Zutell, a manager at a CVS, rushed a family of three into the pharmacy's breakroom, where they huddled with employees. Their car had screeched to a halt at the door, the tornado just across the street. Not too far away, Lenora Bolden saw it from her front porch and cuddled with her 5-year-old daughter and husband. Her daughter sang out, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" Bolden chimed in with "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you." Janet Puckett buried her head in clothes in an alcove of her house a few blocks away. "Oh God," she said as her house trembled. Gar Blume had a different reaction. "Oh s---," he screamed. Blume was in his law office in a Tuscaloosa neighborhood known as Alberta or Alberta City -- a working-class residential area east of downtown that's predominantly African-American and Hispanic. Blume would owe his life to five people who pulled him from rubble -- one of whom he said was a known drug dealer. In a one-block radius around Blume's office, he said, at least 15 people were killed. Sharon Burns had no way of knowing at the time, but Alberta Baptist Church -- the house of worship where three generations of family have attended, the church where her grandfather laid the cornerstone in 1922 -- was about to get pummeled. Just up the road, Alberta Elementary had stood as a beacon of hope for low-income children here. Built in recent years, the school was a state-of-art facility, complete with a computer lab, gym, library and plush rooms. Luckily, it was empty Wednesday afternoon. One of the few things still standing at the school is a doorway. Above it, the sign reads, "School is cool." As bad as the destruction is across Tuscaloosa, Ground Zero lies in Alberta, where homes and anything else in the tornado's path were demolished for blocks on end. "I've never seen devastation like this," President Obama said as he toured Alberta during a visit to Tuscaloosa on Friday. Front yard a trash can . Janet Puckett stands outside what's left of her home on 30th Avenue in Alberta. Its walls crumbled under the force of the storm. Her living room and a front bedroom disappeared. The roof of the house got sucked up, too. "A war zone," she says of the mountains of broken 2-by-4s and other debris all around. See hi-res photos of the devastation . She raised her three boys in that home, lived there for 30 years. She points across the road, three homes up, to where her truck landed in an oak tree. "It's buried in a twisted part of the tree," she says. Her other vehicle got tossed across the yard, its windows smashed in. The tornado picked up a neighbor's home and dropped it across the street. The woman inside was killed. Puckett is glad to be alive, she says, "but I've lost everything really." She laughs, smiles and chuckles as she surveys the damage, her family all around. The only thing intact in her home is the deep freeze, which sits where it always has in the kitchen. "You have to laugh to keep from crying, I guess." When the tornado hit, she simply hung on tight and kept her head buried. Walls shook, dust fell everywhere. "When I looked up, all I could see is sky," she says. "It was still daylight. You see the pictures on TV of these war zones. That's what I was thinking of. "My nerves were shaking all over my body." Her youngest son, Tommy, was killed seven years ago at age 23 in a car accident. Her husband has been hospitalized for the last six months with an array of health problems. Now this. "They say the Lord can't put on you more than you can take," she says. "But how much more can I take?" Amid the debris, she's found some photos of her youngest son, "but not all." "I don't know where they are," she says. "Under all that mess, I guess." She tosses an empty french fry container on the debris heap. Her front yard is now a trash can. The family has planted an American flag out front, a ray of hope that they will rebuild. A few houses up, amid the twisted piles of former homes, someone's walker stands in a front yard. Resting against it is a young woman's wedding photo, a wide smile on her face. Roger Davis stands outside a cousin's home. He raises his hand and points up and down the road. "This is Ground Zero," he says. Many people here are renters. "Do you think most these people have insurance? This is just ridiculous." "Just take a walk through, it's a mess. It's a mess." "But I'm hopeful. There is some hope in this," he says. "All I can say is God Bless America." 'The woman with the baby is screaming' The CVS lies in the heart of Tuscaloosa's commercial district, next to the city's main mall and the Wood Square Shopping Center, just west of Alberta. CVS manager Michael Zutell herded workers into a windowless breakroom after news of a tornado was confirmed. He and shift supervisor Devin McAnnally then walked to the front of the store to lock the door. They couldn't believe their eyes. The tornado was across the road, above a Chipotle restaurant. A 4-door Dodge Stratus sped into their parking lot and stopped right outside the front door. A husband and his wife jumped out, the woman clutching their young baby. Zutell ushered the family into the breakroom. "I've always heard the story of the train sound, and that is what it was," Zutell says. "It was just loud as can be." About 12 people were hunched in the breakroom. "You're just hearing glass breaking, the woman with the baby is screaming." Standing outside of what is now a shell of a building, he says, "I thank God." "Absolutely blessed," McAnnally adds. "It's mindboggling to think you walked away OK." Zutell said. The day after the tornado, the two men were handing out water to strangers. Proof of how lucky they are lies next door inside the shopping center. Not a single wall is left of Big Lots. The Krispy Kreme and Full Moon BBQ are gone too. Cars tossed like toys sit on top of each other. 'We heard a freight train and we just cuddled' Lenora Bolden walks around to the back of her house where one of Tuscaloosa's classic druid oaks fell between three homes, only scraping one. Its trunk juts 15 feet into the sky. "We're all safe," she says. "That's why I can tell you God is good." She lives at the edge of Alberta City. She's lived at the modest home for 10 years. "My husband and I were standing on the porch and we seen the funnel coming across," she says. "We heard a freight train and we just cuddled." She was heartened by the community's resolve. As soon as the storm cleared and the sun shone, neighbors helped neighbors. Strangers pitched in, too. Anything to help. As she talks, about eight members of Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue stroll down the street carrying axes and other chopping equipment. They've been conducting a street-by-street search of the city. Jim Ray, one of the firefighters, pitched in along the Gulf Coast after Katrina. "This damage is much more devastating than what we saw in Katrina." He keeps walking. There are more homes to search. 'It's just a building' "Let's just say he's a self-employed pharmaceutical salesmen," the lawyer says. "A drug dealer." "He gets free legal services for the rest of his life." How anyone survived in Blume's law office is one of those freaks of nature. Nothing remains but a pile of twisted wood, smashed cinder blocks and wrecked bookshelves. "We're grateful and fortunate to be alive," he says. "Fifteen bodies were found in a one-block radius of my building." He and his wife, Nettie, were inside when the tornado hit. The lights had flickered and he'd gone into the server room to cut off all computer systems. His wife followed. Then the walls crashed in. He got buried, she got slammed by an 8-foot-tall bookcase. "Are you alive?" Nettie screamed. "Yes," he said. Her legs were pinned. Blume gently tried to make his way out. He heard voices and waved his arms. "Help!" The drug dealer and four other people, he says, "dug me out and dug my wife out." "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have gotten out." Across the street, the sun shines through the roof of Alberta Baptist Church, many of its stained-glass windows smashed. Soft notes from a baby grand piano waft through the tattered area, a girl at the keyboard, surrounded by about 10 friends and family. The church has been here for 89 years. It had just gone through a $3 million renovation. Inside, the piano -- and faith -- is about the only thing still holding together. Sharon Burns, the granddaughter of the man who founded the church, sheds gentle tears. "It's just a building," she says softly. "But with lots of great memories," her close friend, Jeanne Silliman, adds.

Area east of downtown Tuscaloosa known as Alberta was Ground Zero for tornado . President Obama toured the area on a visit to the Alabama university town on Friday . Survivors' stories tell of the horror of the deadly tornado and the tears left in its wake .

(CNN) -- From a 2-0 defeat at Oxford United on November 6, 1986 to a English Premier League coronation party through the streets of Manchester on May 13. Alex Ferguson's 26-year reign at Manchester United has seen the club transformed from a sleeping giant to a relentless, trophy-winning juggernaut in both the football arena and the sports business world. Following Wednesday's announcement that the Scot, the most successful coach in English football history, will end his Old Trafford tenure, CNN marks seven moments which have defined Ferguson's career. Sacked by St Mirren . Ferguson's managerial career has been littered with glorious highs, but it has not been without its lows, none more so than in 1978 when Ferguson was in charge of Scottish team St Mirren. He oversaw a remarkable upturn in St MIrren's fortunes which saw the unheralded club win the second-tier of Scottish football in 1977 with a squad which bore classic hallmarks of a Ferguson team, notably his faith in young players. That St Mirren side had an average age of just 19. But he was unceremoniously sacked by then St Mirren chairman Willie Todd for what he described as "breaches of contract" relating to the manager's decision to join Aberdeen. ''I regret the fact Alex did not stay longer at St Mirren and I regret the circumstances of his departure, but I still believe that the club had no alternative," Todd told Scottish newspaper the Herald in May 1999. "There were no grudges. I've met him several times at football matches since then and our relationship is quite amicable." Aberdeen roll over Real Madrid . Ferguson was finally appointed as Aberdeen manager in June 1978 and unprecedented success followed for the Scottish club. He broke the duopoly of Glasgow Rangers and Celtic, guiding Aberdeen to three Scottish League titles in 1980, 1984 and 1985. However, arguably Ferguson's finest moment with Aberdeen was on the European stage. Following a Scottish Cup triumph in 1982, Aberdeen qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup. Ferguson's team reached the final, with a 3-2 quarterfinal second-leg victory over Bayern Munich one of the many highlights of an impressive campaign. In the final, held in Gothenberg on May 11, 1983, Aberdeen faced Spanish giants Real Madrid, managed by the great Alfredo Di Stefano. The match finished in a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes, before striker John Hewitt scored the winner for Aberdeen in extra-time. Jock Stein's death . One of the most poignant moments of Ferguson's career arrived just over a year before he was appointed to the United job. Ferguson was part of Jock Stein's coaching staff with the Scottish national team ahead of a crucial 1986 World Cup qualifying match against Wales in Cardiff. Scotland needed a point to reach the tournament in Mexico, which they duly acquired following a 1-1 draw. But the match was overshadowed when Stein, the first British coach to win the European Cup with Celtic in 1967, collapsed after the final whistle. "I grabbed for him as he started to fall," Ferguson recalled, when talking to the Daily Mail in 2012. "The medics came out of the tunnel. I held him until he was helped inside. "When I left to speak to the press I saw Graeme Souness and he was crying. 'I think he's gone,' Graeme said. I couldn't believe it. "When we filed on to the bus there were thousands standing outside and the quiet sadness of the atmosphere was unforgettable. The abiding memory is of a solemn silence. It was as if the king had died. "In football terms, the king had died." Ferguson coached Scotland at the 1986 World Cup, but the team headed home after the first round following a group phase campaign which yielded just one point. After watching the pressures of football get the better of his mentor, it raises the question of whether Stein's death played a role in Ferguson's decision to bow out on his own terms. FA Cup redemption . After a trophy-laden spell at Pittodrie with Aberdeen, Ferguson headed south to join United in 1986, but his early days at Old Trafford were a world away from the glorious success he enjoyed in the 1990s and 2000s. Two seasons passed without a trophy and after eight league games without a win, it was suggested Ferguson would be sacked if United lost an FA Cup replay against Nottingham Forest on January 7 1990 . Substitute Mark Robins scored the winner to send United into the next round and, allegedly, save Fergie's job. Ferguson went on to mastermind a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace in an FA Cup final replay after the first match finished 3-3 to secure the Scot's first trophy at Old Trafford. The silverware continued to flow, with an English Premier League title -- the club's first in 26 years -- arriving in 1993. Deja vu? Ferguson's retirement was originally scheduled for 11 years ago. The Scot announced in 2001 that the forthcoming season would be his last, hoping his decision to break the news in advance would allow the club to make suitable succession plans. But it had the opposite effect and, by November 2001, defending champions United sat ninth in the Premier League table. By January 2002, after an eight-match winning run, United had risen to the top of the table and the next month Ferguson reversed his decision to retire from the game by signing a new three-year contract at Old Trafford. The rest, as they say, is history. Six further English titles have followed, along with an FA Cup triumph and the Champions League in 2008. The Flying Boot . In addition to the trophies and the accolades, there have been plenty of spats, with numerous star players feeling the heat of Ferguson's infamous "hairdryer" treatment. Notably when a "one in a million" flying boot caught David Beckham above the left eye, an incident which dominated the headlines like no other flare up between Ferguson and one of his charges. Following a 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Arsenal in February 2003, Ferguson launched a tirade at his star midfielder which, according to Beckham's autobiography, went along the lines of "David, what about the second goal? What were you doing? . . . We told you about it before the game. The problem with you is you don't let anyone talk to you. You don't listen'. "I felt like I was being bullied in public," explained Beckham, who now plays for Paris Saint-Germain. "I was being backed into a corner for no other reason than spite. I was trapped." Beckham swore at Ferguson and bedlam ensued. "The boss took a step or two towards me," Beckham continued. "There was a boot on the floor. He swung his leg and kicked it. At me? At the wall? It could have been anywhere, he was that angry now. "I went for the gaffer. I don't know if I've ever lost control like that before. Suddenly it was like some mad scene out of a gangster movie." Beckham's teammates held him back, but after the incident, the then England captain appeared with a medical dressing over the cut above his eye. "It was a freakish incident," Ferguson reportedly said. "If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again. If I could I would have carried on playing!" An increasingly tempestuous relationship between the two personalities came to an end on 1 July 2003, when Beckham left Manchester United to join Real Madrid. Treble . May 26, 1999, was a night which simultaneously defied belief and defined Ferguson's Manchester United reign. United were chasing history. The league title had been wrapped up, beating Arsene Wenger's Arsenal to the Premier League title by just one point. FA Cup success followed. Goals from striker Teddy Sheringham and midfielder Paul Scholes secured a straight-forward 2-0 win over Newcastle United in the final at Wembley. Ferguson's team were one step away from securing an unprecedented Premier League, FA Cup and European Champions League treble. United's opponents in the European Cup final at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium were Bayern Munich and the Germans looked set to win the showpiece match after Mario Basler's first-half free-kick put them 1-0 ahead. In search of a way back into the match, Ferguson threw on substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. As the game ticked into extra-time, United earned a corner. Goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel raced forward in a desperate attempt to force an equalizer. The initial cross was cleared, but the ball fell to Ryan Giggs whose low shot from the edge of the box was turned into the net by Sheringham. Cue jubilant celebrations among United players, fans and coaching staff, but uncontained joy was to follow seconds later. United earned another corner kick in the final seconds of injury time. Sheringham flicked on Beckham's cross at the near post and Solskjaer flung his right leg at the header to send the ball flying into the back of the net. Bayern were beaten, United had completed an historic treble. As Ferguson remarked to ITV after the incredible climax, "football, bloody hell."

Alex Ferguson will retire as Manchester United manager at the end of the season . The Scot has been in charge of the Old Trafford club since 1986 . Ferguson has led the club to 13 English Premier League titles and five FA Cup wins . United have also twice won the European Champions League under Ferguson .

London (CNN) -- The widening phone-hacking scandal that brought down one of Britain's biggest newspapers claimed two more casualties Sunday as authorities arrested the paper's former editor, Rebekah Brooks, and London's police chief announced plans to resign. "As commissioner, I carry ultimately responsibility for the position we find ourselves in. With hindsight, I wish we had juggled some matters involved in this affair differently. I didn't and that's it," Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson told reporters. His announcement came hours after authorities arrested former News of the World editor Brooks in connection with British police investigations into phone hacking and police bribery, her spokesman said. Brooks was released around midnight, but it remained unclear whether she would testify as scheduled Tuesday at a House of Commons hearing on the scandal. Stephenson stressed Sunday that he had behaved ethically, but said he decided to resign because increased scrutiny connected to the case would burden his department and detract from its accomplishments. "I have taken this decision as a consequence of the ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the Met's links with News International at a senior level," said Stephenson, who became commissioner in 2009 of the Metropolitan Police, which also is known as Scotland Yard. Stephenson's announcement came a day before British Home Secretary Theresa May is scheduled to make a statement to British lawmakers about relations between the Metropolitan Police and a former executive editor of the News of the World who was arrested last week in connection with the phone-hacking scandal. The former editor, Neil Wallis, became a communications consultant to the Met after leaving the paper. On Sunday, Stephenson denied accusations that the department suspected Wallis' involvement in phone-hacking when they hired him as a consultant. "I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice and the repugnant nature of the selection of victims that is now emerging, nor of its apparent reach into senior levels," Stephenson said. "I saw senior figures from News International providing evidence that the misbehavior was confined to a rogue few and not known about at the top." The Scotland Yard chief also denied that his free stay at an expensive spa earlier this year had anything to do with Wallis' connection with the resort, Champneys. In a statement earlier Sunday, the Met said Stephenson's stay was arranged by the resort's managing director, who is a personal family friend. "There has been no impropriety and I am extremely happy with what I did and the reasons for it. ... The attempt to represent this in a negative way is both cynical and disappointing," Stephenson said. British Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement Sunday praising Stephenson for his "long and distinguished career." "While I know that today must be a very sad occasion for him, I respect and understand his decision to leave the Met, and I wish him well for the future," he said. He added that Metropolitan Police investigators must "do everything possible to ensure the investigations into phone hacking and alleged police corruption proceed with all speed, with full public confidence and with all the necessary leadership and resources to bring them to an effective conclusion." Earlier Sunday, authorities arrested Brooks. She was being quizzed by police in London after having come in by appointment, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said. Brooks did not know she was going to be arrested when she arrived, her spokesman Dave Wilson said. The police agency does not release names of suspects arrested and police officials referred CNN to a statement describing an unnamed 43-year-old woman's release when asked whether Brooks remained in custody. Brooks' spokesman told CNN she was released shortly before midnight and was at home early Monday morning. Scotland Yard said the woman was released on bail and is scheduled to return to a London police station in October. Brooks resigned on Friday as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, which published the News of the World. The company also did not know she was about to be arrested when it accepted her resignation, a News International source told CNN Sunday, asking not to be named discussing internal corporate affairs. It was not clear how her arrest will affect the hearing Tuesday in the House of Commons. Committee member Louise Mensch, a Conservative member of Parliament, said the committee chair was "taking legal advice" on the situation. Wilson said that over the next 24 to 36 hours Brooks' attorneys will be in discussion with the select committee to see whether her appearance at the hearing is still appropriate. Mark Stephens, a prominent British media lawyer, told CNN the arrest was "somewhat theatrical," given that Brooks has apparently not been charged with a crime. Brooks had asked police since January whether they wanted to speak with her, but was told that was not needed, Wilson said. While she received a call Friday to come in Sunday and answer questions, she was not told she would be arrested on arrival, Wilson said, adding that it came as a shock to Brooks. Brooks is adamant that she is innocent of any wrongdoing, Wilson said. Brooks is the eighth person arrested in connection with the phone-hacking probe and the fourth arrested in the bribery investigation, police said Sunday. Two people, including Brooks, have been detained over both probes, meaning a total of 10 people have been arrested. News International said Sunday before the arrest that it would "not tolerate wrongdoing" and was determined to rebuild its reputation. News International said it would compensate those affected by its illegal phone hacking, cooperate fully with the police and had hired a law firm to "examine past failings" and recommend new procedures to make sure they are not repeated. The promise comes in national newspaper advertisements in all the major Sunday British newspapers -- a group that this week does not include the News of the World for the first time in 168 years. Murdoch closed the paper last week, less than a week after it came out that reporters working for him had illegally eavesdropped on the phone of a missing girl, Milly Dowler, and deleted some of her messages to make room for more. She was later found dead. Closing the paper has not put an end to the scandal, which has exposed the close links the British press has with both politicians and the police. Media baron Murdoch apologized to the British public with full-page advertisements in seven national newspapers Saturday. "We are sorry," says Saturday's ad, which was signed by Murdoch. He did not sign Sunday's ad. "The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected." Murdoch's apology comes after his media empire lost two top executives Friday. Brooks on Friday resigned from her post as chief executive at News International, the British arm of Murdoch's News Corp. Hours later, her predecessor, Les Hinton resigned. Murdoch also visited Milly Dowler's family on Friday. Police in the United Kingdom have identified almost 4,000 potential targets of phone hacking in documents recovered from a private investigator working for the paper. There were also allegations that News Corp. reporters may have bribed police officers. Murdoch's campaign of contrition started 12 days after the scandal first broke and barely a week after the News of the World, Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid, was shut down by News International in the face of public outrage. Murdoch, his son, James, and Brooks are to appear before British politicians Tuesday to answer questions over the phone hacking scandal. Some of the claims Brooks faces relate to the News of the World's alleged hacking, while she was editor, into Dowler's mobile phone account. She has warned that her answers may be limited by ongoing police and judicial inquiries. "As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt, and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place," she said in a statement Friday. Hinton, who most recently served as chief executive of Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, wrote to Murdoch to say that although he had been unaware of alleged misconduct when he was executive chairman of News International, which operated the now-defunct News of the World, he had to take responsibility. "The pain caused to innocent people is unimaginable," he said in a letter provided by Dow Jones. Cameron has been among those publicly decrying the hacking, blasting Murdoch's company Wednesday as he launched a high-powered judge-led investigation into the nation's press. Yet he has his own ties to the scandal, given his relationship with Andy Coulson. Coulson resigned as News of the World editor in 2007 after his former royal editor and a private detective were convicted of conspiracy to hack into royals' voice mails. But while offering his resignation, he insisted he had been unaware of the crimes and he was not charged at the time. After last year's election, Cameron became prime minister -- and appointed Coulson as his communications director. Coulson resigned as Cameron's spokesman in January when the scandal blew up afresh. Cameron hosted Coulson overnight in March at Chequers, the prime minister's country estate, a Downing Street source said Friday. The aim of the invite, added the source, was to thank his former communications director for his work on Cameron's behalf. Earlier this month, Coulson was arrested in connection with claims of phone hacking and corruption dating to his days as the News of the World editor. After the arrest, the prime minister took full responsibility for hiring Coulson. But while not denying this personal connection, Cameron has maintained public pressure against News Corp. Meanwhile, the FBI is also investigating News Corp. after a report that employees or associates may have tried to hack into phone conversations and voice mail of September 11 survivors, victims and their families. Murdoch's News Corp. encompasses Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Harper Collins publishers in the United States. News International -- a British subsidiary of News Corp. -- owns the Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times in Britain. CNN's Andreena Narayan, Atika Shubert, Anna Stewart and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

NEW: Rebekah Brooks' spokesman says she has been released and is at home . NEW: Police say she is scheduled to return to a London police station in October . Police chief: "I wish we had juggled some matters involved in this affair differently" The commissioner says he behaved ethically but is responsible for the department .

(CNN) -- This is the time of the year when everyone can channel their inner Dick Vitale. Just make sure not to startle your co-workers if you start yelling, "Awesome, baby!" Everyone in the entire country, starting on Selection Sunday when the NCAA Tournament brackets are revealed, becomes a college basketball expert. From President Obama to that annoying woman in accounting who lets her corgie make the picks (and still somehow wins the office pool), we're all about to pretend we know more about Cinderella than the prince himself. So if you're just now beginning to pay attention, here is an A-to-Z primer of what you're going to find in your brackets. A is for Antonio, which is the real first name for dynamic Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine. He averages 4.9 assists for the Orange, which went 30-1 in the regular season to become one of the favorites this month. B is for Bourbon Street, which is where a few thousand fans will converge during the Final Four (the games are March 31 and April 2). This is the fifth time New Orleans has hosted the event, and if you believe geography has anything to do with a team's success, you might pick North Carolina (the winners there in 1982 and 1993), Indiana (1987) or Syracuse (2003). C is for Connecticut, the defending national champions who have had anything but a smooth season wearing the crown. The Huskies underachieved to start the season, then watched their iconic head coach, Jim Calhoun, sidelined with back problems. But now Calhoun is back, and there's no doubting his team has talent. "It's been a different kind of season," he said at the Big East Tournament. "But through it all, somewhat by separation, I realized how much I care about these kids." D is for Draymond, and if you like watching college basketball to see a player develop, you like Draymond Green. The forward averaged just 3.3 points and 3.3 rebounds as a freshman at Michigan State, but four years later, he was named Big Ten Player of the Year in leading the Spartans to a share of the league title. E is for emergency room, which is where Seton Hall center Herb Pope was rushed on April 28, 2010, after his heart stopped. His condition was so serious the school prepared a press release to announce his death, but two years later with Pope as the key player up front, the Pirates are potentially one of 10 Big East teams that could make the tournament field. F is for Frank Haith, the head coach at Missouri. You want a successful first season on the job? Try Haith leading the Tigers to a 27-4 record in the regular season. But now comes the real goal: Getting Missouri, which will be making its 25th NCAA Tournament appearance, into its first Final Four. SI.com: See where your team stands for March Madness . G is for Gaels, the nickname for West Coast Conference champion St. Mary's. If you're from Down Under (or just enjoy Foster's beer), you'll like the Gaels: They've built their program on a pipeline from Australia that now includes conference player of the year Matthew Dellavedova. As fans chant during their games, "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" H is for Harvard, which is getting as much attention for its basketball team these days as its business school. Not only are the Crimson back in the tournament for the first time since the Truman administration (that's 1946), but their former star Jeremy Lin has quickly become a worldwide superstar for his surprising play for the Knicks. I is for Indiana, back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. If that doesn't seem like a long drought, consider: The Hoosiers were a tournament fixture every year from 1986 to 2003 and have won five titles (1940, 1953, 1976, 1981 and 1987). J is for Jackrabbits, the unique mascot for first-time tournament participant South Dakota State. The origin is believed to be an early 1900s newspaper article that described the team "as quick as jackrabbits." And they better be, since they're likely headed to a first-round matchup with one of the top programs in the country. K is for Krzyzewski -- or, if you prefer, Coach K. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has won this tournament four times, more than any coach in the tournament (just one man in the history of college basketball, John Wooden with 10, has more). Do the Blue Devils have what it takes to deliver No. 5? They'll have to count on emerging freshman star Austin Rivers if they do. L is for Loyola (Maryland), where the colorful Jimmy Patsos is the head coach. When Patsos was a graduate assistant at Maryland, he worked a side job as a bartender in the Georgetown section of D.C. -- and his reputation for courtside theatrics means the TV cameras will spend plenty of time watching him during the Greyhounds' first-round game. M is for Murray State, which is the best team most casual college fans have never heard of. Only a four-point loss to Tennessee State kept the Racers from rural Murray, Kentucky, from entering the tournament at a perfect 31-0, and with junior guard Isaiah Canaan (19.2 points per game), there's no telling how far they'll go this month. N is for Northwestern, and that'll be one of the biggest questions heading into Selection Sunday: Will the Wildcats finally earn their first ever berth in the NCAA Tournament? "The stats are out there," is all head coach Bill Carmody would say when asked if his team belonged this week, so don't expect much lobbying from Chicago. O is for office pools, on which the FBI estimates more than $2.5 billion is gambled each year. That's a lot of people who think they know which No. 12 seed is going to advance to the Sweet 16. Take the CNN bracket challenge . P is for proud papa, which is how Detroit Mercy coach Ray McCallum is feeling this week. Not only are his Titans back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999, but they're in the field because his son, Ray Jr., carried them there. Ray Jr., who scored 21 points in the Horizon League championship game, could have played on a bigger stage but decided to stick with dad. "This is the greatest feeling in world!" he said. Q is for Quinnipiac, which did not make the tournament. But doing an A to Z would be much easier if it finally did. R is for regionals, or the round of the tournament that determines which teams reach the Final Four. If you live in Boston, Phoenix, St. Louis or Atlanta, you might notice some folks wearing their team colors and milling around downtown bars and restaurants in a few weeks. S is for Shockers, the nickname for Wichita State. Looking for the next George Mason, that unexpected team to make a run to the Final Four? The Shockers are deep and talented enough, with point guard Joe Ragland and 7-foot center Garrett Stutz, that it wouldn't be, uh, shocking if they went on a run. T is for Tinkle, as in Montana coach Wayne Tinkle, who has the Grizzlies back in the tournament with their best record in 20 years. Can they pull off a first-round upset? "We have achieved our No. 1 goal now and that was winning the tournament championship to go to the NCAAs," Tinkle said. "We are not out of our goals yet." U is for UCLA, and don't bother looking for them in your brackets. The team with more NCAA Tournament victories than any other is not in the field. Neither is Butler, the surprising team from Indianapolis that reached back-to-back national championship games. V is for VCU, back in the tournament field after pulling off perhaps the most unlikely Final Four run in history last season. The Rams went all the way from the "First Four" -- the matchups played in Dayton, Ohio, on the Tuesday before the full tournament gets under way -- to the Final Four under head coach Shaka Smart. Can they do it again? It's unlikely, of course, but the Rams are one of the hottest teams in the nation, winning 17 of their last 18 games. W is for Western Kentucky, which started the season at 5-14 but managed to win the Sun Belt Tournament to lock up its automatic bid. Do the 15-18 Hilltoppers belong in the field? As long as that means their cuddly amorphous mascot Big Red gets a chance to dance in the Dance, who cares? X is for Xavier, which has reached 10 of the last 11 tournaments but is sitting squarely on the tournament bubble this year. Will the Musketeers and senior guard Tu Holloway make it? It'll be one of the biggest questions when the field is revealed. Y is for youth, and Kentucky is among the favorites to win the national title because of it. Two freshmen have led the way for the Wildcats -- Anthony Davis, the 6-10 shot-blocking specialist from Chicago, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the intense forward from New Jersey. Enjoy them while you can: Both are likely NBA lottery picks if they enter the draft at the end of the season. Z is for Zeller, as in Tyler Zeller, the ACC Player of Year at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are arguably the most talented team in the country, but do they have what it takes to win six games in the tournament? Of course, if anyone could answer that question, it wouldn't be March Madness.

NCAA Tournament brackets revealed on Selection Sunday, March 11 . To kickoff March Madness 2012, this primer will explain what you'll find in your brackets . The Indiana Hoosiers are back in the tournament for the first time since 2008 . Reigning UConn Huskies hope to defend their title despite a rocky season .

Washington (CNN) -- Voting on strictly partisan lines, a House committee recommended Wednesday that Attorney General Eric Holder be cited for contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to the botched Fast and Furious weapons sting operation. The vote ended an extraordinary daylong hearing that took place after President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over some documents sought by the panel investigating Fast and Furious. The White House move means the Department of Justice can withhold some of the documents. The committee measure now goes to the full House for consideration, expected next week, of what would be an unprecedented action -- Congress holding a sitting attorney general in contempt. What happens if panel cites Holder for contempt? "Unless the attorney general re-evaluates his choice and supplies the promised documents, the House will vote to hold him in contempt next week," said a statement by the chamber's Republican leaders. "If, however, Attorney General Holder produces these documents prior to the scheduled vote, we will give the (committee) an opportunity to review in hopes of resolving this issue." All 23 Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee supported the contempt measure, while the 17 Democrats opposed it, reflecting the deep political divide on the issue. Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, refused to put off consideration of the measure, saying the White House assertion of executive privilege "falls short" of any reason to delay the hearing. Executive privilege: A rocky legal and political road in U.S. history . However, Issa said after the hearing that he believes a settlement to avoid an unprecedented contempt vote in the House is "in the best interest of the Justice Department, Congress and those most directly affected by Operation Fast and Furious." In a statement later Wednesday, Holder called Issa's decision to hold the vote "an election-year tactic" and "an extraordinary, unprecedented and entirely unnecessary action, intended to provoke an avoidable conflict between Congress and the executive branch." The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, accused Issa of setting an "impossible standard" for Holder by initially demanding documents the attorney general is legally prohibited from providing. Now Issa has "no interest in resolving" the dispute with Holder, Cummings said. Wednesday's developments further heightened the drama of a high-profile showdown between Issa and Holder over the Fast and Furious program that dates back to subpoenas issued by the House committee last year. What do you think of the controversy? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched Operation Fast and Furious out of Arizona to track weapon purchases by Mexican drug cartels. However, it lost track of more than 1,000 firearms that the agency had allowed straw buyers to carry across the border, and two of the lost weapons turned up at the scene of the 2010 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Issa's committee is specifically seeking documents that show why the Department of Justice decided to withdraw as inaccurate a February 2011 letter sent to Congress that said top officials had only recently learned about Fast and Furious. The stalemate over the documents escalated dramatically Wednesday. CNN senior political analyst and former presidential adviser David Gergen said such dusts-ups are usually resolved by political negotiations.That's not been the case here. "For a lot of Americans who don't understand the complexities and really don't care about the complexity of this, it is one more illustration ... that Washington is broken," Gergen said. But the impasse also shows something about Holder's resolve, he told "John King USA." "He's stiffened his spine," Gergen said. "He has been under pressure to resign from some quarters in the Republican Party. He ain't going anywhere." Now the question is whether a settlement can be reached before the House vote. If the House finds Holder in contempt, it is unlikely he will be prosecuted for criminal contempt, according to Alan Morrison, associated dean at George Washington University Law School. "It would look like terrible overreaching to go for criminal contempt," Morrison said, which carries a penalty of $1,000 and up to one year in prison. Instead, Morrison said, it is more likely the House would pursue civil prosecution in federal court. The House committee vote came more than six hours after notice that Obama had asserted executive privilege. In a letter to Obama seeking that action, Holder said the documents involved related to the Justice Department's "response to congressional oversight and related media inquiries," and that release of internal executive branch documents would have "significant, damaging consequences." Holder contempt vote could come next week . Holder also said releasing the documents would "inhibit the candor of executive branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the ability of the executive branch to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight." Holder said he offered to turn over some of the documents sought by Issa when they met Tuesday in a final effort to resolve the dispute before Wednesday's hearing. Issa, however, said Holder put unreasonable conditions on his offer. In a letter to Issa after Tuesday's meeting, Deputy Attorney General James Cole reiterated Holder's position that the documents would show Holder had nothing to hide about his role in Fast and Furious. Cole noted that the lone point of dispute was whether the February 4, 2011, letter was part of a broader effort to obstruct a congressional investigation. "The answer to that question is an emphatic 'no,' and we have offered the committee the opportunity to satisfy itself that that is so," Cole wrote. The department says it already has handed over more than 7,000 pages of records to House investigators and that the remaining material Issa wants could jeopardize criminal prosecutions. Issa and other Republicans on the panel mentioned Brian Terry's death by name in accusing Holder and the Justice Department of trying to stonewall the investigation of what happened. "The Department of Justice has fought this investigation every step of the way," Issa said. "At the heart of the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious are disastrous consequences: a murdered Border Patrol Agent, his grieving family seeking answers, countless deaths in Mexico, and the souring effect on our relationship with Mexico," Issa said in a statement. "Congress has not just a right but an obligation to do all that it can to uncover exactly what happened and ensure that it never occurs again. " See letter to Issa from deputy attorney general (.PDF) Terry's family issued a statement Wednesday that called for all of the documents sought by the committee to be turned over. "Our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious," the statement said. The mother of another federal agent said Wednesday she wants to know the "full truth" about his death. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, who was working for the United States in Mexico, was murdered in February 2011 when his vehicle was ambushed on a highway between Mexico City and Monterrey. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, last year said he wanted to know if a Texas-based "gun walking" program may have played a role in Zapata's murder. He said one of the weapons used in the slaying was allegedly purchased in Texas and trafficked to Mexico. "Unfortunately, the situation regarding Fast and Furious as well as other gun-walking operations has been something that has damaged the lives of many," Zapata's mother, Mary, said in a statement. "I would have hoped that transparency would have been a priority so that we, like so many others, could get some answers." Holder floats 'Fast and Furious' deal with Congress . The Tuesday meeting between Issa and Holder amounted to little more than a reiteration of the positions the two staked out in an exchange of letters the previous week. "Any claims that the Justice Department has been unresponsive to requests for information are untrue," Holder said, noting he shut Fast and Furious down. The subpoenas issued last year originally cited a broad array of documents, including wiretap requests and other materials involving confidential sources that Holder argued he was prevented by law from supplying. Issa narrowed the request in negotiations with Holder in recent weeks. Holder rejects resignation call at heated Senate hearing . Democrats argued the documents demanded by Issa related to internal discussions about responding to the Fast and Furious investigation, rather than the committee's intended purpose of finding out who authorized the failed program. The party-line division in the panel extended to the portrayal of the Tuesday meeting attended by Holder, Issa, Cummings and others. Issa and Republicans rejected the conditions of Holder's offer, while Cummings and Democrats said the panel should work with Holder to seek a resolution. Issa said he was surprised by Obama's action and questioned whether the White House's role in Fast and Furious "has been greater than previously acknowledged." On the border: Guns, drugs -- and a betrayal of trust . Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN he previously traced the program only up to the level of an assistant attorney general. "Now it raises the question of what does the president know and when did he know it by the claim of executive privilege," said Grassley, who participated in Tuesday's meeting. But Carl Tobias, professor at the University of Richmond's School of Law, said it does not appear Obama was involved with the Fast and Furious program. "He is trying to protect the prerogatives of the department and the people who work for him," Tobias said of the executive privilege. CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that while Holder may be embarrassed, he won't ultimately be found in contempt. "This is going to be just another political dispute," Toobin told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "If people remember at all, they'll remember 23 Republicans were for it, 17 Democrats were against it." CNN's Terry Frieden, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett , Allison Brennan and Phil Gast contributed to this report.

House leaders say the full chamber could vote on contempt next week . A House committee recommends a contempt citation against Attorney General Holder . Democrats call the contempt measure unfair and an election year witch hunt . At issue are documents the panel seeks on the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting .

(CNN) -- ABC is calling on a few heroes. After the monster box office success of "Marvel's The Avengers" and other superhero movies in the franchise, the network is hoping some of that same magic can translate to the small screen. "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," co-created by "Avengers" writer/director Joss Whedon -- who also directed the series premiere -- is kicking off a brand new Tuesday night lineup for ABC this fall, a night which used to be anchored by the "Dancing with the Stars" results show. Clark Gregg is back as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) Agent Coulson -- one of the main links between the various Marvel movies -- who is tasked with leading a new team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to handle the various strange occurrences that happen once aliens invade and a team of heroes battle them in New York City. (Think "Men in Black" or "The X-Files" with superheroes.) Of course, Coulson's return comes as something of a surprise because (SPOILER ALERT) he was killed by Loki in "The Avengers." The premiere contains an explaination of how Coulson survived -- at least, the explanation as far as Coulson knows. It's just the first of what's sure to be several plot twists to be part of the series, in typical Whedon fashion. While Whedon prepares to direct "Avengers: Age of Ultron," he brought in some trusted people to run the show day to day. You might just say he trusts them like family: his brother Jed Whedon and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen ("Dollhouse," "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"). Jed Whedon, Tancharoen and, separately, Gregg spoke with CNN on the cusp of the show's premiere. CNN: So how much fun is it to play in the Marvel sandbox? Tancharoen: We've always been fans of the Marvel universe, and we're big fans of the Marvel movies. To be able to play in a universe with such a long history is something we're very excited about doing. Whedon: You have these really human emotions and predicaments amplified by superhero elements, for us it's a perfect fit. CNN: It seems like Coulson is darn near immortal now. How surprising was it to learn of his resurrection? Gregg: He's like a cockroach; you can't kill him off. When it came to do that "Avengers" [death] scene, it was an emotional day. I had played this part for four movies, and I loved so much what Joss had written for that. I wasn't sad, but I found I was really emotional about it. At the end they were saying, "It's a comic book, so [he might come back]," but I thought, "Oh they're just being nice. Just trying to smooth my path to the next world." Soon after I thought,"Well, I guess I need to start dealing with this, don't I?" Then I get a call from ["Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." executive producers] Jeph Loeb and Joss. They say "OK, you might not be so dead. Here's what we're thinking ..." It was such a spectacular take on why I might not be dead. And the idea of doing a TV show created by Joss -- who created "Firefly" and "Buffy," which I love -- was exciting to me. CNN: How do you best describe the show? Whedon: The show takes place within the Marvel cinematic universe, but it's about being a regular person living in that world. Tancharoen: Our tag line is "Not all heroes are super." At its core, it is about being human. That human experience is amplified because these regular people are coming up against extraordinary things. The themes that we've dealt with on other shows like feeling less than, and wanting to be greater. All those things we can explore and dig in even deeper because of what we come up against from week to week. CNN: What special Whedon touches will we see? Whedon: One of the things Joss has always done and we like to do -- and a big part of the Marvel brand -- is humor throughout. We think that one of the reasons the films have been successful is humor brings everyone to the table. We love that and we want our characters to be not just interesting, complicated and screwed up -- but funny. Tancharoen: We think that will marry both audiences. Marvel and ABC have distinctly different audiences and we think we can bring those audiences together with humor. CNN: Did you set out to comment humorously on the action as it happens? Whedon: There's an expectation with it being a spy show -- and there's certain superhero movies that take themselves very seriously -- there's nothing better than being able to subvert that expectation and comment on it. And there's nothing better to do that than with Clark Gregg, whose delivery is perfect and whose sense of humor is dry and calm as ever. Tancharoen: We have a running joke in the room that we will write the worst lines for him, but he'll pull it off and sound as classy and cool as he is. CNN: So do you sit back and say, "Well, I guess I'm an action star now?" Gregg: I sit in a hot tub, trying to heal my muscles, saying 'Well I guess I'm an action star now,' with an ice pack next to me. It's really fun. CNN: How do you get along with your team on the show? Gregg: Joss has a knack for finding amazing actors who are also really joyful and fun to work with. So you think, "Here come these young guys, let's see what they're like," and if anything, they couldn't be more down for whatever. They're ready to jump in and see what happens. I couldn't be more impressed with them. I think the audience will flip for them. CNN: What were you looking for in your cast? Whedon: We were looking for ugly faces. Tancharoen: We wanted really ugly people. It wasn't a conscious thing for us to cast all new faces, honestly. We scoured the globe for these people, literally. The people we cast were the ones who nailed it and won the part basically. Whedon: And brought something we were looking for, as well as things we didn't know we were looking for. CNN: The thing people remember from the trailer the most is Coulson's vintage car, Lola. Tancharoen: Lola's gotten so much play! Whedon: Lola travels with the [S.H.I.E.L.D.] plane, so Lola will be in the show. Lola is an old model, so fuel for Lola is very expensive. Gregg: It's not the only thing Coulson has a passion about that is a relic of super-high-tech covert ops. He's a bit of a collector that way. CNN: Agent Maria Hill ("How I Met Your Mother's" Cobie Smulders) shows up in the pilot. Do you hope to work with other familiar faces from "The Avengers?" Gregg: I am hoping to see that. Every time I think "Boy, as a fan of Marvel, wouldn't it be cool if they exploited the connection between these two things?," they've done it. I'd be a little disappointed if some of our friends from the comics and the movies didn't cross-pollinate into the show, and I've got a feeling Marvel's not gonna disappoint the fans in that way. Tancharoen: We are very open to the opportunity to bring in familiar faces, but at the same time we want the show to exist on its own. We are in the same universe as all the movies, so being a part of that universe means bringing in people. If they want to come play with us, our door is wide open. Whedon: Samuel L. Jackson has expressed an interest in doing the show, so at some point, we're gonna call him on it. Tancharoen: And say, "Hey, do you really wanna do this?" I think he said he wanted to be like Charlie's voice in "Charlie's Angels." CNN: Will there be season-long story arcs as we saw on shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and will they connect to the greater Marvel cinematic universe? Whedon: We're in contact with features at all times, and we think our job is to stay out of their way, between the films, and tee up the things they want us to tee up and deal with the fallout. But in terms of our storytelling, we're gonna have a lot of standalone, episodic stories. Tancharoen: With our mythology woven through. Whedon: We don't want people to have to have seen every episode to be able to understand what's happening, but we also to reward those who do watch. CNN: What can we look forward to as the season plays out? Gregg: There's more to the story of how Agent Coulson lives than even Agent Coulson knows, and you can't walk away from that secret. Tancharoen: It's definitely a question at the heart of the show that we'll play out over time, and we hope the journey to the answer will be as satisfying as the answer. Whedon: We want to earn it and spend our time with it, because we feel like there's a lot of fun to be had there, but we won't go so slowly that people... Tancharoen: ...Pull their hair out and curse our names on the Internet. Whedon: Everyone knows how much time and money goes into a pilot. Tancharoen: If they think the pilot is big... Whedon: They will not be disappointed in the episodes that follow.

Joss Whedon is co-creator of the "Marvel's Avengers" a spinoff TV series . Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, leads the new S.H.I.E.L.D. team . Executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen carry out his vision . Gregg says more familiar faces from the big screen and Marvel comics may show up .

(CNN) -- "Can you possibly let me have, at any rate, five hundred dollars to keep us out of the poor house?" These are not the words you expect to hear from a man who designed one of the world's most famous golf courses. Dr. Alister MacKenzie, the brains behind Augusta National's revered contours and curves -- elegantly showcased each year by the Masters -- died pleading poverty in 1934 and begging for his fee. He never even saw his finished work before his death, which came less than three months before the first Masters tournament was held. "I have been reduced to playing golf with four clubs," he wrote in a letter to Augusta National, recorded in "The Making of the Masters," a book by David Owen commissioned by the club. "I am at the end of my tether, no-one has paid me a cent since last June, we have mortgaged everything we have and have not yet been able to pay the nursing expenses of my wife's operation." MacKenzie, a physician turned golf architect, had embarked on a pilgrimage that had taken him from a modest town in northern England to the pacific coast in California. His journey incorporated a stint in the Boer War, which influenced his underpinning principles of course design, and saw his work evolve during the boom and bust years of the 1920s. By the time he was enlisted to build a championship course for all of America by its biggest sports star of the age, MacKenzie was the preeminent golf architect of his time. Bobby Jones had won the grand slam as an amateur in 1930 -- capturing all four major tournaments in the calendar year -- before he stunned the public by announcing his retirement aged just 28. He determined to construct an exclusive golf course in the sun-blushed south of the United States that would offer him twin benefits: sanctuary from his fame and a healthy stream of income. But though Jones declared himself delighted with the finished product, and its architect trumpeted Augusta as his finest creation, MacKenzie was almost destitute by the time he died. He halved his fee to $5,000 in a bid to be paid quickly, but clawed back just $2,000, with several other golf courses also slow to settle their debts. It was symptomatic of the financial difficulties Augusta encountered in its fledgling years, exacerbated by the Great Depression, a fact that seems inconceivable given the club's towering strength in the present day. "Augusta struggled a lot in the early years and found it very hard to attract members they wanted," Adam Lawrence, editor of Golf Course Architecture magazine, told CNN. "They were really struggling for money. MacKenzie didn't get full payment paid for his work at Augusta -- until he died he was writing letters asking perhaps they could send part of the fee. "MacKenzie divorced his first wife and was living what would appear to be an expensive lifestyle in California. He was basically bankrupt when he died. "There were a lot of golf architects from that time who were the same. Most seemed to be terrible businessmen and there were a few bad habits like too much booze flying around." Humble beginnings . MacKenzie's portrait still watches over the course where his maverick design ideas were first put into practice over 100 years ago. Despite the odd tweak, Alwoodley Golf Club -- just outside the city of Leeds in the north of England -- still boasts many of the original characteristics conceived by the Scot. As Nick Leefe, secretary of the Alister MacKenzie Society, told CNN, the physician's long-held affection for the game even permeated some of his diagnoses. "How frequently have I, with great difficulty, persuaded patients who were never off my doorstep to take up golf, and how rarely, if ever, have I seen them in my consulting rooms again!" MacKenzie is reported to have proclaimed. This love of golf sparked an interest in course architecture after a period serving during the Second Boer War, between the British and the South African Republic, at the turn of the 20th century. "The attitude of the Boers towards camouflage got him interested in disguise and trickery," Leefe explains. "People suggest this is the reason he came back after the war and took an interest in golf design." When a group of businessman joined together in 1907 to build Alwoodley, MacKenzie presented his designs and had them rubber-stamped by Harry Colt -- another famed architect of the age who worked as a consultant on the project. MacKenzie's fundamental belief was that a good golf course should provide a stern test for a good player but not prove impossible for average players. Also included in his manifesto was an insistence that a player should be required to utilize a variety of shots to prosper and that every hole should have a different character where possible. Among the more eccentric attributes listed was the suggestion that though the course should be sufficiently undulating, there should be no hill climbing, and that a complete absence of irritation caused by looking for lost balls was preferable. "Alwoodley is very proud indeed because we have the original MacKenzie design and we are very proud to introduce people to it," Leefe says. "MacKenzie was a pioneer and went on to become one of the best known architects of his time. He's become much more famous after his death and the golfing public have realized what great courses he's made. "There are a lot of the original MacKenzie characteristics on show at Alwoodley. We try our best when we restore the course or renovate course to keep to the original design of which we have a copy." Augusta National . MacKenzie had carved a formidable reputation for himself by the time he left for the United States in 1926. But it was his work on the Californian coast that would pique the interest of Bobby Jones and lead to his most memorable tender -- designing Augusta National. Many believe MacKenzie's true masterpiece to be Cypress Point, which he designed to complement its proximity to the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline. By the time Jones had completed his first round on the Monterey Peninsula he vowed to employ MacKenzie to build his very own course. It seemed the logical choice, given how closely their vision for the ideal golf course was. "We believe that no good golf hole exists that does not afford a proper and convenient solution to the average golfer and the short player, as well as to the more powerful and accurate expert," Jones was reported as saying. But by the time $100,000 had been spent transforming an Augusta fruit plantation into a golf course, the political and financial landscape had changed dramatically thanks to the stock market crash of 1929. The exuberant flourishes on show via a series of elaborate bunkers at Cypress Point and another of MacKenzie's fabled courses -- Royal Melbourne in Australia -- gave way to a more modest design in which contour was king. "Originally, Augusta was light on bunkers -- it has many more today than it used to have," says Lawrence. "Augusta was one of the very last things MacKenzie did before he died and it seems he was moving away from those flashy bunkers. "He was working in a style that was appropriate of the era of depression when Augusta was built. It wasn't about sand or water -- what defined it were the contours of the land. "You can take a flag stick and put in a flat area and it's a very easy golf hole; you can put it behind a little hump and it's an almost impossible golf hole." The genius of Augusta . In those early years of struggle, the notion of Augusta preparing to host the 78th installment of the Masters in 2014 would have seemed quite fanciful. As Owen reports in "The Making of the Masters," let alone having the funds to pay MacKenzie for his design, the club could barely cover its staff's $200 weekly wage bill in the early 1930s. The idea to create a yearly tournament, initially called the Augusta National Invitational Tournament, helped stave off the threat of financial ruin and generated plenty of interest when Jones came out of retirement to play in the first one. But what really catapulted the club into the public's consciousness was Gene Sarazen's "shot heard around the world" during the 1935 event. The American was trailing the leaders by three shots when his double eagle on the par-five 15th hole helped him cut the deficit with one stroke, paving the way for his eventual win in a playoff. That landmark moment is testament to the principals upon which MacKenzie's design was built. Various tweaks over the years have stripped many of his original features from the course, most of them dictated by the modern player's ability to hit the ball over a hundred yards further than their predecessors. But as Owen wrote: "MacKenzie's and Jones' ideas about golf course design continue to define the Masters in ways that modern golf fans may not fully appreciate." The pair's commitment to break from the culture of golf design at the time -- which penalized poor shots harshly -- has engendered some of the greatest finishes in major golf. As Owen makes clear, the plentiful birdie and eagle opportunities down the closing stretch discourage any conservatism, as anyone in with a sniff of winning charges for the finish line. But it's not just at Augusta that MacKenzie's legacy is felt -- an estimated 100 clubs as far afield as Buenos Aires and Blackpool have been touch by his hand. "MacKenzie is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in terms of the evolution of golf course design," Lawrence says. "Augusta, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne are three courses that would typically be in the top 10 in the world in most rankings, and the fact all three courses have MacKenzie's footprint is pretty impressive." MacKenzie may be long gone, but he lives on in the soul of golf courses the world over. Explore: Augusta interactive .

Alister MacKenzie, a physician turned golf architect, designed famed Augusta National course . The Scot was enlisted to help by Bobby Jones, a multiple golf champion of the 1920s . MacKenzie never received full payment for his work and died before first Masters was held . Many of his design principles still permeate the course despite many changes over the years .

Boston (CNN) -- After seven weeks of colorful witnesses and rancorous testimony, the jury began deliberations Tuesday in the trial of alleged crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger. Eight men and four women on the federal court panel have the monumental task of processing testimony from drug traffickers, extortion victims, gangsters, families of alleged victims and shooting victims, along with more than six hours of closing arguments. Bulger is accused of 19 killings and 13 counts of extortion and money laundering during a 20-year "reign of terror" that defined South Boston from the early '70s through 1995, when Bulger fled Boston. Jurors deliberated for six hours Tuesday before court was suspended for the day shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET. Deliberations are scheduled to resume Wednesday at 9 a.m. Jurors will have to decide if the government has proven its case and if Bulger is guilty of the alleged crimes "beyond a reasonable doubt." "You must decide which evidence to believe and which witnesses are true. You can believe some, or all, or none," U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper told the jurors Tuesday, adding a cautionary instruction for government witnesses who have entered into plea deals for immunity and lesser sentences. Casper advised that jurors weigh the potential that these witnesses "may have a motive to make up stories." Simultaneously, jurors are advised not to draw inferences from a witness's guilty plea. Plea deals for gangsters . In their closing arguments Monday, defense attorneys attacked the credibility of gangsters who became star witnesses for the prosecution, testifying under immunity after they learned Bulger was an informant for the FBI for nearly two decades. Prosecuting attorney Fred Wyshak on Monday defended the government's unsavory plea deals with those gangsters, three of whom implicated Bulger in the 19 murders and various acts of extortion. "The government didn't choose them, Bulger chose them," Wyshak said. "The only thing worse than making a deal with (former hit man) John Martorano would have been not making a deal with John Martorano." Wyshak said the government "held its nose and made the deal." Prosecutors called 63 witnesses during the course of the trial, with the defense bringing only 10 to the stand. Martorano testified for both sides, making a total of 72 witnesses over 35 days. As he presented his closing argument Monday, Wyshak called Bulger one of the most "vicious, violent and calculating criminals to ever walk the streets of Boston." The prosecution took close to three and a half hours for its closing. The defense took over two and a half hours to make its case, then the prosecution had the final word in a rebuttal. Defense attorney J.W. Carney summed up his case by questioning the credibility of prosecution witnesses, some of whom came to court with extensive criminal resumes and who had worked out deals with the government in exchange for testifying against Bulger. "If you cannot say in your deliberation that I personally can believe (prosecution witnesses) beyond a reasonable doubt, then the government cannot prove its case about the alleged murders," Carney told the jury. "The government is buying the testimony of these witnesses. The currency used here (is) how much freedom someone is going to get. What the government can pay the individual is the individual's freedom," Carney continued. Earlier, Wyshak said Bulger and his partner "plotted, they schemed, they robbed they murdered together, they were also informants together." Prosecutors contend Bulger was an FBI informant who used protection from rogue agents as he continued his life of crime. Defense attorneys have argued Bulger was not an informant, and that FBI bungling was key in the case. "If there is one thing you heard during this trial, it's how secretive that relationship is," Wyshak said to the jury Monday. "The last thing a criminal wants ... is for people to know he's an informant." But he also said that it "doesn't matter whether or not Bulger is an FBI informant when he put the gun to the head of Arthur Barrett and pulled the trigger." Arthur "Bucky" Barrett died after being shot in the head in 1983. "It's not about whether or not the FBI in Boston was a mess," he said. "... It's about whether or not the defendant is guilty of crimes charged in the indictment." Families of the victims were in court every day of the trial. The wife of one of the victims shouted "You're a coward!" The defense rested its case Friday with no rebuttal from the government. In its weeklong presentation, Bulger's lawyers tried to cast doubt on who killed two of the 19 victims, both of them women. The defense also attempted to shift the blame onto the FBI, specifically agents who either did nothing or did too little to prevent several killings. Defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that Bulger was not an FBI informant, a notion prosecutors called "ludicrous" in light of his FBI informant card and a 700-page file loaded with "tips" on rival gang members. In closing arguments, defense attorney Hank Brennan told jurors why he thinks the government has made Bulger's informant status the crux of its case. "Think about why it's so important. If it's not an issue, why do they keep bringing it up?" Brennan asked. Brennan explained that other than to "embarrass" his client, the government using its claim that Bulger was an informant to cover up years of corruption. "If he's not an informant, think of the liability," he said, recounting instance after instance in which government officials as high as strike-force attorneys in the Justice Department protected Bulger throughout his criminal career. A number of retired FBI agents and supervisors took the stand during the trial, many testifying that they believed Bulger should have been shut down as an informant because he wasn't providing any useful information. The agents said they never pressed the issue because apparently FBI headquarters felt Bulger was useful in taking down the New England Mafia. Grisly murders . It took prosecutors 90 minutes to detail the 19 murders Bulger is accused of, showing photos of each of the victims and the crime scenes. Bulger is not charged with delivering the fatal blow in all of the murders, but is charged with participating as part of a racketeering conspiracy. Wyshak called Bulger "the leader of a very wide-ranging, broad organization," who is culpable for his co-conspirator's crimes. But Wyshak made clear Bulger was the alleged triggerman in some cases, recalling testimony from Bulger's partner, Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi, about the murder of John McIntyre, whose remains were exhumed from a shallow makeshift grave in 2000. McIntyre had begun cooperating with the government on the shipment of weapons to the Irish Republican Army and 36 tons of marijuana imported into Boston Harbor. "It's Arthur Barrett all over again, held at gunpoint, chained to the kitchen chair, interrogated," Wyshak said. Flemmi said he was holding McIntyre's body while Bulger was trying to strangle him with a rope, but the rope was too thick. After that didn't work, McIntyre practically begged for a bullet after Bulger asked him if he would "like one in the head," according to Flemmi. Flemmi testified as one of the government's star witnesses, and he said that he saw Bulger strangle the two women. The defense team, however, presented evidence that Flemmi had the greater motive to kill the women -- his girlfriend and his stepdaughter. Bulger's attorneys release photos designed to show his softer side . The girlfriend, Debra Davis, was about to leave him for another man. The defense recalled Martorano, who testified that Flemmi admitted he "accidentally strangled" the 26-year-old woman. Flemmi acknowledged he lured Davis to a home but says Bulger strangled her because she was talking too much and had become a liability. Wyshak recalled testimony that Bulger always needed to take a nap after strangling or shooting his victims to death. In talking about the murder of Paul McGonagle, Wyshak said Bulger's former cohorts testified that whenever they passed the Neponset River, where McGonagle's remains were exhumed in 2000, Bulger said, "'Drink up, Paulie.' That's the level of humanity that this defendant is operating at. ... And every time he goes by there it's 'Drink up, Paulie.'" Victim's mother warned FBI about an impending murder . 'Bulger: I didn't get a fair trial' Bulger was a fugitive for more than 16 years, after a crooked FBI agent told him in December 1994 he was about to be indicted on federal racketeering charges. The FBI tracked him down and arrested him 2011 in Santa Monica, California, where he had been living with his girlfriend under an alias. Bulger never took the stand, despite repeated hints from his lawyers throughout trial he would testify. In fact, Bulger seemed to want to testify, and when questioned about it by the judge, Bulger called his decision a "choice made involuntarily." He claimed he had been given immunity for his crimes by the former head of New England's Organized-Crime Strike Force, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, now deceased. Bulger, who lost his temper several times during the trial, appeared angry, shaking his finger at the judge and claiming he was "choked off from making an adequate defense." "I didn't get a fair trial. This is a sham. Do what ya's want with me," Bulger said. Man arrested in death of alleged Bulger extortion victim .

NEW: Deliberations will continue Wednesday in the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger . Defense: "All our government cared about -- get the mafia at all costs" Prosecution: "It's not about whether or not the FBI in Boston was a mess" Bulger is accused of 19 killings during a 20-year "reign of terror"

Paris (CNN)At least a dozen people have been detained in the Paris region in connection with last week's shootings, the city prosecutor's office said Friday. The people arrested are suspected of providing logistical support for the attacks. The arrests were made in the Grigny and Fleury-Merogis neighborhoods, and those arrested were in Amedy Coulibaly's entourage, the Paris prosecutor's representative said. Coulibaly was killed last Friday in a police siege to end a hostage taking at a kosher supermarket in Paris. He had killed four hostages and is believed to have shot a policewoman to death in the city a day earlier. Two days before Coulibaly was killed, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi had attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and injuring 11. They died the same day as Coulibaly as police moved in to end a separate siege. There does not appear to be a command-and-control element to the Paris attacks other than a general "go forward and do something," a Western official with direct knowledge told CNN, describing the attack as "highly franchised terrorism with general instructions." The Kouachi brothers "legitimately aligned with AQAP" and Cherif Kouachi was associated with networks that brought him to Yemen to train with the terror group, but Coulibaly's alleged connection with ISIS is still unclear, the official said. AQAP refers to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Investigators are still trying to determine whether Coulibaly coordinated with the Kouachi brothers in the execution of the attacks or launched his own attack after learning of their actions, said the Western official. Who were the victims? France's frayed nerves will not be eased by the Belgian authorities' operation Thursday to dismantle a suspected terror cell believed to be on the brink of carrying out attacks on police. However, investigators have so far found no links with events in Paris, Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said. Meanwhile, in the French city of Reims, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Paris, the City Hall confirmed Friday that a police operation had taken place and that there had been gunfire. It's not clear whether this is related to the investigation of the Paris attacks. However, Reims was the hometown of Said Kouachi. At the same time, a man with a handgun entered a post office in Colombes, a northwestern suburb of Paris, according to the local police department. Police said the man might be mentally unstable and that they did not know yet if this was terror-related. According to French media, there are up to five hostages inside the post office. In his first visit to France since last week's terror attacks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he "really wanted to come here and share a hug with all of Paris and all of France." Standing alongside Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Kerry added that he "wanted to express to you personally the sheer horror and revulsion" over what he called a "living nightmare." American singer James Taylor also appeared, crooning a customized version of his 1971 hit song, "You've Got a Friend." Kerry met earlier with President Francois Hollande, when he voiced the "full and heartfelt condolences" of Americans. "We watched the people of France come together with a great sense of purpose and unity. It was a great lesson to the world that once again, France's commitment to freedom and passion of ideas has made an important statement to the world," Kerry said. Kerry laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial at the site of the kosher supermarket attack Friday, accompanied by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Kerry and Fabius spoke there for several minutes with Joel Mergui, the president of Consistoire du Paris, a national Jewish organization. Kerry and Fabius also paid their respects at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Francois Vauglin, the mayor of Paris' 11th district, where the offices are located, told CNN that Kerry's visit was very welcome. "It's so important for us to feel supported at this time," he said. The street is still cordoned off as investigators continue to comb the area for clues, adding to the sense of disquiet for local residents, he said. "We know that the threat is still very high, and we don't know how long we will be able to withstand this threat," he said. President Barack Obama's administration has admitted it erred by not sending a senior figure to a huge unity march held Sunday in Paris. More than 40 world leaders, including the British, German and Israeli heads of state and Russia's foreign minister, joined at least 1.5 million people on the French capital's streets. The goodbyes continue after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices. Funerals are being held for magazine editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, illustrator Philippe Honore and Algerian-born copy editor Mustapha Ourrad. The question of where to bury their killers is more contentious. Cherif Kouachi's widow, Izzana Kouachi, has requested that both he and his brother Said Kouachi be buried in Gennevilliers, on the outskirts of Paris. The Gennevilliers mayor's office told CNN that the city was obliged by law to bury Cherif Kouachi there, as he was a resident of the city. But a spokesman for the mayor, Jean-Francois Boye, said that it would not do the same for Said because he lived in Reims. "That's for sure, he's not from Gennevilliers, we won't let him get a funeral here," Boye said. A "survivors' issue" of Charlie Hebdo was published Wednesday -- the first since the attack. Copies have flown off the racks of newsstands despite a print run of more than 4 million. However, the magazine's decision to run a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on the front cover -- not for the first time -- has been criticized by a number of Muslim leaders, since this is deeply offensive to many Muslims. Anger over the cartoon boiled over into violence Friday in Pakistan, where police resorted to using tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters outside the French Consulate in Karachi. A Pakistani photographer for AFP was shot and injured at the protest, the French news agency reported. He is "doing better," it said via Twitter. Ahmed Chinoy, chief of Karachi's Citizen Police Liaison Committee, told CNN that investigations were underway to determine who shot the journalist. At least 200 protesters were involved in the violence, which broke out after religious parties called supporters out to condemn the cartoon following afternoon prayers, Chinoy said. The protests come a day after Pakistan's Parliament unanimously passed a resolution condemning the caricatures printed in Charlie Hebdo. Several French media outlets' websites went down Friday morning, including those of radio station France Inter, newspapers Le Parisien and 20 Minutes, weekly magazines L'Express and Marianne, and investigative publication Mediapart. This prompted speculation that the outage could be the result of a hack linked to publication of the Charlie Hebdo cover. But Internet service provider Oxalide said it was not the result of a cyberattack. With France on its highest level of alert, 10,000 troops have deployed across the country. Thousands of police officers are on patrol, including hundreds assigned to protect Jewish schools. As France still reels from the shock of the Paris attacks, authorities in neighboring Belgium swooped in on an alleged terror cell in an operation that left two suspects dead. Prosecutor Van Der Sypt said weapons and police uniforms were recovered as part of raids on a dozen properties in Belgium, in which 13 people were arrested. The plan was to kill police officers on public roads or in police offices, he said. Two people were also arrested in France, he said, and Belgium will be asking for them to be extradited. They are Belgian nationals who belong to the alleged cell but were found in France, he said. A Western intelligence source told CNN that the ongoing terror threat appears to involve up to 20 sleeper cells of between 120 and 180 people ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility Wednesday for the Charlie Hebdo shooting. The attack was years in the making, AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi said in a video, claiming U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was the mastermind behind it. In the days since last week's attacks, security services have been working to track those associated with the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly. Neetin Karasular, a suspected Belgian trafficker in weapons who met Coulibaly's widow, Hayat Boumeddiene, is in custody, Karasular's attorney, Michel Bouchat, told CNN on Friday. Karasular has been charged with association with wrongdoers and offenses relating to firearms, in a case handled by the local public prosecutor's office in Charleroi, Belgium. According to Bouchat, police didn't find any weapons at Karasular's house. However, the police investigation revealed that Karasular used to spend time in a garage in Charleroi where documents were found that mentioned weapons. According to multiple Belgian media accounts, these included documents about the type of gun used by Coulibaly in the attack on the supermarket a week ago. Bouchat told CNN that his client was not at all connected to Thursday's police raids in Belgium. According to the attorney, Karasular wasn't involved in any jihadi group. Bouchat confirmed that Karasular had previous convictions. How the Kouachi brothers were radicalized . CNN's Sandrine Amiel and Margot Haddad reported from Paris, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. CNN's Ray Sanchez, Pamela Brown and Tim Lister contributed to this report.

At least a dozen people are detained in Paris in connection with last week's shootings . U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pays respects to the victims of the attacks .

Atlanta (CNN) -- Hussein Shafei prepared Saturday for a journey back to a place of darkness in Libya. Soon, he plans to stand again in Cell 14, Block 2 at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Only this time, the metal door will not slam behind him, caging him in a bathroom-size cell. He will be a free man within the confines of what became a potent symbol of Moammar Gadhafi's repression -- Libya's Abu Ghraib. Shafei wants to return to the place where he witnessed a massacre that fuels his nightmares. Sometimes, he said, his wife would wake him up in the middle of the night, saying, "Hussein. You are screaming. You are scaring the kids." As many as 1,200 prisoners were killed at Abu Salim in the summer of 1996, according to Human Rights Watch. Without justice, the infamous event festered in Libya's national psyche and eventually acted as tinder to spark the flame of revolt in February of this year. Rebels stormed the prison a few days ago, freeing those held inside, including an American journalist. "I am so excited about Tripoli," Shafei said of the distinct possibility of the capital falling under rebel control. "This is the moment I have been waiting for for so many years." Since his release in 2000, Shafei had thought about Abu Salim's dead. Where were their bodies? What was it like for their children to grow up without their fathers? For a wife to not know what happened to her husband? He vowed to expose the carnage of that June day. Then this week in Benghazi, he watched a video posted on YouTube that purportedly showed the storming of Abu Salim. Shafei, now working with the opposition in Benghazi, knew he had to return there. He was waiting to board a plane to Tripoli. Or perhaps, with the fighting still raging in places like Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, he will have to go by boat. With the Libyan regime on the brink of collapse, Shafei hopes the truth about Abu Salim will finally be known. He is hardly alone in his wish. The shooting went on for almost three hours . Shafei was a teenage college student when he was arrested for offending the regime. Inspired by perestroika reforms in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, he spoke out in favor of greater freedoms in his own country. Shafei's mother, Najia, clearly remembers that day in 1988 when she returned to her home in Benghazi to find her daughters wailing. Her son was gone. "We had no idea where he was," she said from her home in Atlanta. "Whether he was alive or dead." Nineteen months passed before Najia Shafei learned, through contacts, her son's whereabouts. After that, she occasionally made the long trek west from Benghazi to the prison in Tripoli. The guards would drag her son out of his cell and into a warehouse at the entrance of the jail, where mother and son met. If she was lucky, she got 20 minutes with him, she said. She could never ask him about his situation. There were always guards listening in. He could never tell her about what he knew was going on in that jail -- beatings, torture, deaths. Shafei spent eight years that way, in a cramped cell, without his family or the education he should have finished. His father died in 1994 and he was released for three days to attend the funeral. That was the extent of his freedom. Then, on June 28, 1996, prisoners rioting over poor conditions and restricted family visits seized a guard and escaped from their cells. "Five or seven minutes after it started, the guards on the roofs shot at the prisoners who were in the open areas," Shafei said in an interview with Human Rights Watch many years later. Security officials ordered the shooting to stop and feigned negotiations. But Shafei told Human Rights Watch that the officials instead called in firing squads to gun down about 1,200 people. He said a grenade was thrown into the courtyards where the prisoners were gathered. "I heard an explosion, and right after, a constant shooting started from heavy weapons and Kalashnikovs from the top of the roofs," he said. "The shooting continued from 11 until 1:35." Much later, while buying lamb at a slaughterhouse in the United States, Shafei commented to his brother Nabil: Not even here can they kill at the rate Gadhafi's men did that day. "I could not see the dead prisoners who were shot, but I could see those who were shooting," Shafei told Human Rights Watch. "They were a special unit and wearing khaki military hats. Six were using Kalashnikovs. I saw them -- at least six men -- on the roofs of the cellblocks." The next day, Shafei was ordered to clean the blood-smeared watches taken off the wrists of the dead. Human Rights Watch said it had no way to verify Shafei's story but another description of the incident from a report by the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya corroborated Shafei's account. Gadhafi's government did not acknowledge the killings and denied any crime had taken place. More than a decade after the Abu Salim incident, the United Nations Human Rights Council noted that the Libyan government was unable to provide any information on its investigation of the allegations. But the families, mostly from Benghazi, now the de facto rebel capital, did not abandon their longing for answers. Some of them filed a complaint in a Libyan court in 2007. The Gadhafi regime offered them compensation in exchange for their silence, according to Human Rights Watch. But the families refused the money, considering it a bribe. Instead, they boldly began to protest each Saturday in Benghazi, an action unprecedented in Gadhafi's four decades of rule. "It was radical," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and Africa division at Human Rights Watch. The government began informing some of the families that their loved ones were dead. But no bodies was ever returned nor a cause of death given. Among those waiting to find out more are three brothers in Atlanta whose father, opposition activist Izzat Almegaryaf, was plucked from his home 20 years ago. The Almegaryaf brothers know their father was detained at Abu Salim -- they received letters from him in the early 1990s. But the letters stopped a few years into Izzat Almegaryaf's imprisonment. His sons do not know whether their father was among the massacre victims. Tasbeeh Herwees, a Libyan-American journalism student in California, recalled in a blog post the funerals for the Abu Salim victims held in the summer of 2009 when she visited Benghazi. "Inna lillahi wa ilayhi rajioon," each family said. Verily, we belong to God, and to God we return. Herwees tripped over the words in Arabic, but by the end of her stay she had repeated the phrase so many times that she was fluent. "I spent more time in tents that summer than in my own home, the cloth of my black abaya sticking irritatingly to my skin from the Saharan humidity," she wrote. "In the faces of the family of the dead, I detected relief in the sea of sadness. 'At least now we know,' they said." Then in February of this year, the regime arrested Fathi Terbil, a human rights lawyer who represented some of the Abu Salim families. Hundreds of people jammed the streets of Benghazi to protest. Terbil was released but the demonstrations did not stop. A revolution took root. "The memories of that summer come rushing back as I watch the present events in Libya unfold from my home in Cypress, California," Herwees wrote. "It was, after all, the Abu Salim families who kick-started this revolution. It was they who initiated protests in Benghazi in front of police headquarters when their lawyer, Fathi Terbil, was mysteriously detained by security officials." Exposing the carnage . After 12 years at Abu Salim, Shafei was released in 2000. He often cried openly, with flashbacks triggered by something as small as macaroni reminiscent of Abu Salim chow, said his older brother, Nabil Shafei. He eventually made his way to the United States, where Nabil lived. "Hussein came here and had a mission," Nabil Shafei said. "He wanted to expose the massacre of Abu Salim." Hussein Shafei told Human Rights Watch about the carnage he witnessed. He even approached the State Department, which includes the Abu Salim massacre in its statements on human rights abuses in Libya. As the civil war raged this year and Benghazi blossomed as a city free of Gadhafi's grip, Shafei, now 42, returned there from Charlotte, North Carolina. He took his wife and three children with him. He has been working with the opposition television station and telling the world about the dark secrets of Abu Salim. Now, as the newly freed prisoners began returning home to Benghazi, Shafei knew the time had come for him to go back to the prison. It is part of his own healing. The nation must heal, too, he believes. The first step will be to hold Libyan leaders accountable for what happened at the prison. Najia Shafei is wary of her son's trip to Tripoli. She remains fearful about what might happen to him as long as Gadhafi is still alive. But Hussein Shafei is determined to complete his mission. He owes it to all those who survived Abu Salim. But mostly, he owes it to the souls of the dead.

Hussein Shafei says he witnessed the 1996 killings of 1,200 prisoners at Abu Salim . The Libyan government has never acknowledged a crime . After his release, Shafei spoke to Human Rights Watch about the carnage . The incident served as a trigger for the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi .

(CNN) -- What does it take to become the CEO of India's biggest biotech company and the richest woman in India? Mazumdar Shaw with Shah Rukh Khan. India's richest woman is ready to answer your questions. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of biotech pharaceutical company Biotech answers your questions, below. Yours is a very inspiring story. Could you tell us more about what challenges you had to overcome to bring Biocon to a global level? Vishala Vasandani . Mazumdar Shaw: My journey started 30 years ago at a time when I had to face credibility challenges that pertained to my gender, my inexperience as a business entrepreneur and my unfamiliar biotechnology-based business model. My business evolved in tandem with challenges. Once I overcame these credibility challenges, I faced technological challenges of trying to build a Biotech business in a country that had infrastructure that was too primitive to support a high tech industry that demanded uninterrupted power supply, high quality water, sterile labs, imported research equipment, advanced scientific skills etc. Over the next 10 years, we systematically addressed these challenges and built a self contained enterprise that had captive power and water supply, state of the art labs and facilities and a team of highly experienced scientists and engineers capable of delivering world class research and technologies. Today, our challenges address those posed by new medical wisdom: addressing unmet medical needs, researching new drugs, new drug delivery systems and new therapies. Overcoming each of these phases has been a rich learning experience that has helped us to develop world class expertise in biotechnology. Innovation and quality have been integral to our business ethos. Can Biocon's oral insulin IN-105 replace traditional and painful needle based insulin delivery system for type1 diabetics? Can a diabetic who is taking insulin by needle based delivery system hope for change in near future? Ajay Kumar Singh . Mazumdar-Shaw: Oral Insulin is not just about delivering Insulin in a tablet. It is about delivering Insulin very rapidly to the liver (hepato-delivery) which is the main organ responsible for glycemic control in our body. Injectable Insulin takes approximately 30 minutes to act. Oral Insulin takes approximately 5 minutes to act which mimics how non-diabetics respond to glucose uptake when food is consumed. This will help both Type I and Type II diabetics to manage their diabetes better. We hope that early intervention with Oral Insulin will help to manage Diabetes especially in Type II diabetics much more effectively than is being done by oral diabetic agents like Metformin, Sulphonyl Ureas and Glitazones which stimulate the pancreas to produce Insulin. This is unlike oral Insulin which will allow a poorly functioning pancreas to rest and hopefully help to revive Insulin secreting beta cells. Should our Oral Insulin program succeed, this will revolutionize Diabetes therapy in the future. If you had to do the IPO again what would you do differently and when can we see Biocon listed in NASDAQ? Harish Swaminathan . Mazumdar-Shaw: I don't believe so. I think we got the valuation we were expecting through an Indian listing. A NASDAQ listing is only something we will address when one of our branded drugs are close to commercialization in either the U.S. or European markets. Today NASDAQ is risk averse and not valuing biotech companies any better than the BSE or NSE. I am so humbled by your story. What does it take as a woman to get to where you are today? What obstacles did you have to overcome, especially in an industry that is deemed to be a "man's world"? Would women setting up business in India today find it easier than you did? Irene Gonza, Uganda . Mazumdar-Shaw: I believe that women need to believe in themselves. I set up Biocon with a spirit of challenge and a deep sense of purpose. The challenge was to break the gender bias in the business world. My sense of purpose was to create a Biotech business in a country like India which had a very poor research culture with limited opportunities for scientists and engineers to pursue a career. It was about stopping the "brain drain" from India. It was about providing exciting career opportunities to young scientists and engineers. It was about encouraging young women to pursue careers. When one is passionate about a mission that is about change, it enables you to persevere and endure. I do believe that if I could achieve success, any woman can overcome obstacles with a sense of determination! When you set up Biocon did you aim to make it one of the biggest and most successful in the world? Do you need ambition like that be a success in any kind of business or does it take luck, too? David James, London . Mazumdar-Shaw: When I set up Biocon, I certainly did not have such a big ambition! I basically wanted to run a successful and profitable business to start with. Ambition is evolutionary and one does not see the big picture until you reach a certain critical mass. It was only a few years ago that we developed a global ambition and built global scale in our operations. Whilst luck can be described as "being at the right place at the right time" or "being prepared to address an opportunity," I personally believe that it is about being able to seize opportunities by leveraging existing capabilities to reach new levels. In our case, we leveraged our enzyme capabilities to pursue bio-pharmaceuticals; it was also about picking the right products (statins & Insulin) that had large markets. We chose to partner with innovative companies and in-license innovative technologies which spearheaded our new drug development programs. We have always chosen to differentiate ourselves from the market and this has allowed us to "think out of the box" and stand apart. How do you think the global economic downturn will affect Biocon and Indian companies in general? Alicia van Waveren, The Hague . Mazumdar-Shaw: The economic meltdown will certainly bring tremendous pricing pressure and we expect to see our margins shrink. We also expect payment terms that involve extended credits. However, we also see a silver lining amidst this gloomy scenario as R&D and manufacturing are likely to shift to countries like India in order to bring down costs. We have two subsidiaries that offer research and clinical services, Syngene and Clinigene that are likely to see their businesses increase. We also expect generic drugs to become a larger part of healthcare budgets in western economies. Finally, new drug development costs are under tremendous pressure both in terms of funding and development. India and companies like Biocon provide very effective co-development partnership opportunities to bring these costs down. The differences between wealth and poverty in India are starker than anywhere else in the world. Do you think the poverty gap will ever be closed? Richard Ng, Hong Kong . Mazumdar-Shaw: Poverty poses a huge challenge. Education and employment are the only answers. India is striving to address these two areas through various education and vocational training initiatives. What we also need is employment generation through a myriad of projects that span infrastructure development, co-operative agriculture to entrepreneurship. India needs to provide rural connectivity both in terms of roads and tale/IT connectivity. This will unleash inclusive growth in a huge way. Today we are caught between a political ethos that finds it convenient to keep its vote bank ignorant and unemployed and a civic India that wants to educate and harness the potential of its human capital. It seems that Indian biotech and pharmaceutical industry is relying more on being the outsourced resource of the U.S. and EU companies rather than creating their own intellectual property.Do you think this a culture in India to not be active in creating IP or is it related to the inadequacies in the patent law? Dipanjan Nag . Mazumdar-Shaw: A very correct observation. The risks associated with proprietary products are high and Indian businesses and more importantly Indian investors and banks are extremely risk averse. Hopefully, the rapid commoditization of generics and services will force companies to differentiate on the basis of IP. At Biocon we strongly believe that our proprietary programs will help us sustain growth in the future. It is a challenge to convince our investors of this but we think they will understand this in the near future. In hindsight, what is the one piece of advice you wish you'd been given when you were starting out in business? Karl Malone, Winchester . Risk is not about taking but about managing. I took a huge risk when I started a Biotech company in 1978 and I soon realized that I had to manage the risk by addressing very serious challenges of a very primitive infrastructure at the time. It took me a lot longer than I thought to build the company but in hindsight it was still worth the effort! What drives you to achieve what you have and to keep going when times are tough? Melinda Cook, Melbourne . The belief that we can deliver the world's first Oral Insulin and other life saving drugs for cancer and auto-immune diseases. I am driven by my desire to see novel drugs being developed by Biocon for global markets with a "Made in India" label. I am determined to see India earn a strong reputation in innovation. At a time when most Biotech companies in the western world are challenged with funding, I believe we can forge ahead and succeed. About Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw . Mazumdar-Shaw is founder of Biocon, the biotech and pharmaceutical company that made her India's richest self-made businesswoman. She was named as one of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in 2007 and was instrumental in forging India's biotechnology industry. Living and working in Bangalore, she set up Biocon in 1978 and has developed it into a global biopharmaceutical player with highly developed research and development facilities focusing on cancer and diabetes treatments. Biocon was bought first by Unilever in 1989 and then sold to ICI in 1997, but Mazumdar-Shaw remains the company's Chair and Managing Director and has been part of the Indian government's Council on Trade & Industry.

India's richest woman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is founder and CEO of Biocon . Email her your questions on business and secrets of her success . Her answers will appear here on Friday, November 28 .

(CNN) -- The Ottawa gunman had "connections" to jihadists in Canada who shared a radical Islamist ideology, including at least one who went overseas to fight in Syria, multiple U.S. sources told CNN on Thursday. However, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that there is "no evidence at this stage" that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was linked to a wider group, or network, of jihadists. "There's no evidence at this stage for us to know that. Obviously there's an investigation going on, and we hope to learn more in the ... coming days. It was clear that, police authorities now have announced, that he was acting alone yesterday," he said. According to two U.S. counterterrorism officials, Zehaf-Bibeau was connected to Hasibullah Yusufzai through social media. Yusufzai is wanted by Canadian authorities for traveling overseas to fight alongside Islamist fighters in Syria, The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, reported. The sources said the two communicated via social media and the Internet, but it does not appear they were close. Early indications are that Zehaf-Bibeau's connections to other extremists were "interactions" online, including extremist sites, a different U.S. source said. The activity was "attenuated," or limited, the source said, noting it appears, so far, that Zehaf-Bibeau had a low profile. There is no evidence so far that he had any "operational links" to other jihadists, according to the source, who drew a distinction between interacting online and plotting an attack. American officials are reportedly scouring databases and communications for possible links to American-based jihadists. Other radicalized people connected to Zehaf-Bibeau are still believed to be living in Canada, U.S. law enforcement officials said. "The investigation is ongoing and will rapidly determine if Zehaf-Bibeau received any support in the planning of his attack," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson told reporters Thursday. Officials now have "information that suggests an association with some individuals who may have shared his radical views," he said. Paulson didn't say who these people are or how Zehaf-Bibeau may have interacted with them. The gunman . Authorities are still in the early stages of their investigation, but they are beginning to piece together the puzzle. They released surveillance video Thursday that shows events on Wednesday. In the footage, a vehicle pulls up near Parliament, and a man exits, running with a large gun as people run from him. In other footage, this same man then gets into another vehicle, drives to a nearby building, gets out and runs armed into the building pursued by law enforcement. Baird, in a Thursday night interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, described the chaos inside the building, saying Zehaf-Bibeau "ran right by the room where the entire government caucus was. We could hear the ringing out of rifle fire and then the huge amount of semiautomatic noise. "We didn't know if the door would be banged open and that we'd all be sprayed," he said. Baird said the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons shot and killed Zehaf-Bibeau at the door to the library, which contained a tourist group as well as employees. "You could have seen more than a dozen killed if he (the sergeant-at-arms) hadn't taken such quick action," Baird said. Zehaf-Bibeau was a Canadian citizen who may have had dual Libyan-Canadian citizenship, said Paulson. The police commissioner said Zehaf-Bibeau was born in Montreal and lived in Calgary and most recently Vancouver. Zehaf-Bibeau had been in the Canadian capital since at least October 2 "to deal with a passport issue and ... he was also hoping to leave for Syria," Paulson said. Paulson also said of Zehaf-Bibeau: "According to some accounts, he was an individual who may have held extremist beliefs." Zehaf-Bibeau was applying for a passport -- an application that was under investigation -- at the time of the attack, but had not had his passport revoked, as has been previously reported, Paulson said. "I think the passport figured prominently in his motives," said the police commissioner. "However, we have not come to ground completely on his motivations for this attack. But clearly, it's linked to his radicalization. Clearly, it's linked to his difficult circumstances." According to Paulson, investigators thus far have not found any connection between Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Rouleau Couture -- who authorities say ran down and killed a Canadian soldier in Quebec on Monday. Police later killed Couture. Who was Ottawa shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau? Zehaf-Bibeau was born as Michael Joseph Hall in 1982. He had criminal records indicating infractions related to drugs and violence and other criminal activities, Paulson said. In a pre-trial psychiatric evaluation performed in 2011, a doctor noted Zehaf-Bibeau at that time had been "a devoted Muslim for seven years." The gunman's mother, Susan Bibeau, spoke to The Associated Press by phone. She struggled to hold back tears and said she didn't know what to say to those hurt in the attack. "If I'm crying, it's for the people," Bibeau reportedly said. "Not for my son." "I'm mad at my son," she said in a separate email to the AP. Harper: "We will not run scared' Canadian lawmakers returned to work Thursday, giving a standing ovation to the ceremonial Parliament official credited with taking down the gunman who killed a soldier and shook the Parliament area. "We'll be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent, but we will not panic. And as for the business of government, well, here we are -- in our seats, in our chamber, in the very heart of our democracy," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons in Ottawa. Lawmakers stood and cheered Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who officials say took down the suspect in the halls of Parliament minutes after the killing of Canadian army reservist Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at a war memorial nearby. Vickers, who regularly leads a procession into the House as sessions begin, stood with his ceremonial mace and appeared to be emotional during the ovation. He later released a statement saying he is touched by the attention. "However, I have the support of a remarkable security team that is committed to ensuring the safety of Members, employees and visitors to the Hill," Vickers said. It was a step toward normalcy for a government district that was widely locked down for hours after the shootings at Canada's National War Memorial and Parliament Hill. Authorities say Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cirillo, who was standing guard at the war memorial on Wednesday morning. The gunman then entered the nearby main Parliament building in downtown Ottawa, where witnesses say shots were fired -- many by security officers -- before he was shot dead. A plainclothes constable who was working security at Parliament was shot in the leg, according to a House of Commons official briefed on the investigation. The injury is not life-threatening, and the constable was treated at a hospital and released, the official said on condition of anonymity. The shootings left government workers and others locked inside offices for a large portion of the day while police searched buildings to ensure that no other culprit was loose. Wednesday's deadly attack was the second on Canadian soldiers this week. On Monday, Couture, a convert to Islam who Canadian authorities said was "radicalized" hit two soldiers with a car in Quebec, killing one of them, before he was killed. Lawmakers pay respects to soldier . There was an incident Thursday morning as the Prime Minister and his wife were laying a wreath, in memory of Cirillo. An eyewitness said a man began yelling. He reached into his jacket, then pulled out a white scarf, and wrapped it around his face. About a dozen police ran towards him, the eyewitness said. The Prime Minister and his wife had intended to stay longer, but his security team surrounded them and quickly ushered them out. "He's lucky he wasn't shot," the eyewitness said of the man. The man was apprehended at the scene. Jim Cirillo, Nathan Cirillo's uncle, told CBC News that Cirillo's father is in Costa Rica and might not yet know about his son's death. "I don't know if life is fair," Jim Cirillo, said his voice breaking with emotion. "He didn't deserve that. I don't know how someone could have picked him out and just did that." Before Parliament reopened, lawmakers gathered outside the memorial -- some holding flowers -- for a moment of silence for Cirillo. "This was very off the cuff," lawmaker Charlie Angus told CNN on Thursday morning. "I think parliamentarians really just felt that before we walked into the Parliament buildings, we had to pay respect to a young man who gave his life for his country." Angus said the soldiers' killings this week left the government with plenty of questions. "The questions we need to ask ourselves (include), 'How are these people getting this crazy ideology that's inspiring them to do these copycat killings?' " he said. Another question, he said: What can society do to deal with people who find themselves on the fringes? Issues of mental health, he said, need to be addressed. "We cannot let people like this fall through the cracks and end up doing deranged killings," Angus said. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Josh Levs, Catherine E. Shoichet, John Newsome, Pamela Brown, Greg Botelho, Elise Labott, Jim Sciutto, Pam Brown, Andrea Lewis, Ana Cabrera and Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had not had his passport revoked, as previously reported . He was applying for one and police believe the issue could have figured into motive . The gunman's interactions with extremists were limited, a source says . There is no evidence so far that he had any "operational links" to jihadists, source says .

(CNN) -- When EMS workers arrived at the Pleasant Grove, Utah, home of Michele and Dr. Martin MacNeill, they found a tragedy. Michele MacNeill, a mother of eight children, was unresponsive in her bathtub, and Martin MacNeill, according to law enforcement at the scene, was hysterical and angry, cursing his wife for having had a recent face-lift. Michele MacNeill was pronounced dead later on April 11, 2007. The autopsy report determined she died of natural causes due to cardiovascular disease. But three years later, at the urging of her children, there was a new analysis of a toxicology report that changed everything. Combinations of medications found in Michele MacNeill's system were determined to have contributed to her death. Diazepam, Oxycodone, Promethazine and Zolpidem were all found in her system. Although none of the drugs alone was at toxic levels, Dr. Todd Grey, chief medical examiner of the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office, determined that, in combination, the drugs could have led to sedation and heart arrhythmia, resulting in cardiac death. On October 6, 2010, Michele MacNeill's cause of death was changed to "combined effects of heart disease and drug toxicity." The manner of death was changed from natural to undetermined. As investigators began to reopen the case, they realized they had a suspect: Michele MacNeill's husband. Prosecutors paint picture of a double life . Michele and Martin MacNeill seemed to live the American dream. He a doctor and lawyer, she a former beauty queen, had raised their family in Utah. Four of their eight children were adopted. Devoted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Martin MacNeill also had taught Sunday school. Deadly remedy: Notorious doctors accused of murder . But prosecutors say that behind closed doors, what seemed to be the perfect union was anything but. Martin MacNeill, they say, led a double life, seeing women on the side. Legal documents state he announced to his wife and family several times in the years preceding his wife's death that he wanted out of the marriage. He never took that step, but prosecutors say that his affection for one woman in particular, Gypsy Willis, was the root of his motive for murder. Willis will be a star witness for the prosecution as Martin's trial begins in Provo, Utah. He is charged with the murder of his wife and obstruction of justice. Martin MacNeill case: The key players . Michele MacNeill had turned 50 in 2007. She and Martin had been married nearly 30 years. Legal documents state that it was Martin MacNeill's idea in March of that year that she undergo a face-lift. Family members say Michele MacNeill pushed back, not because she was refusing, but because she wanted to lose some extra weight and wanted to control her high blood pressure. But prosecutors say Martin MacNeill was relentless, even finding a plastic surgeon who was new to town and had advertised in the local paper. Martin MacNeill accompanied his wife on every presurgical visit to Dr. Scott Thompson. According to the affidavit for an arrest warrant, the last consultation with the plastic surgeon before the procedure took place was on April 1, 2007. Martin gave Thompson a list of medications he wanted for Michele. They included Lortab (Hydrocodone) in liquid form, Zolpidem, Valium (Diazepam), Phenergan (Promethazine) and Percocet (Oxycodone). Martin MacNeill: Suspicious or not? Documents state Thompson admitted that the Valium and Oxycodone "were out of my usual routine." After the cosmetic surgery on April 3, 2007, Thompson required Michele MacNeill to spend the night at the hospital. According to prosecutors, Martin MacNeill exchanged 24 text messages with Willis on the day of Michele's surgery. On April 4, Michele MacNeill was released to go home. Her daughter Alexis MacNeill was on spring break from medical school and attended to her mother at home. Martin told the daughter to get some sleep, and he would look after his wife through the night. The next morning, Alexis MacNeill told investigators she found her mother unresponsive. Martin MacNeill allegedly told his daughter he may have overmedicated his wife through the night. Alexis MacNeill then took over keeping a notebook of what medications she gave to her mother and when. Messages and medicines add to mystery . On April 5, legal documents state that Michele MacNeill told Alexis MacNeill that she believed her husband was trying to overmedicate her. Because her eyes were still bandaged from the surgery, she asked her daughter for help in identifying pills by feel. The daughter later told authorities her mother had told her that Martin MacNeill kept giving her pills, telling her to swallow. In an important pretrial ruling, Judge Derek Pullan determined that jurors will not be allowed to hear what Michele allegedly told her daughter that night: "if anything happens to me, make sure it wasn't your dad." Prosecutors intend to show jurors the numerous text messages Martin MacNeill exchanged with Willis in the days preceding his wife's death. On April 6, Michele MacNeill confronted her husband about phone records her daughter had researched, which showed one phone number repeatedly called day after day and night after night. Prosecutors say that number belonged to Willis. On April 10, Alexis MacNeill returned to medical school in Nevada, feeling her mother was now well enough. The next day, April 11, her mother was dead. The defense says that Michele MacNeill's death was an accident and that she died of natural causes. Conflicting timelines . Martin MacNeill says he has an alibi because he was at work the morning of his wife's death. According to an affidavit, Martin MacNeill dropped his youngest daughter, Ada, off at school at 8:30 a.m. on April 11. At 8:41 a.m., Alexis MacNeill called the home phone. Three minutes later, Michele MacNeill called Alexis MacNeill from her cell phone. According to Alexis MacNeill, her mother was in good spirits and optimistic about her future with Martin MacNeill. Martin said he went back to work around 9 or 9:30 a.m. He says he left his wife alone for approximately two hours. At 9:10 a.m., Alexis MacNeill received a phone call from her father, who called from his office phone. He asked his daughter to check in with her mother because "Michele was not listening to him and getting out of bed." Starting at 9:14 a.m., Martin MacNeill called his wife's cell phone with no answer. Several subsequent calls were made with the same result. Did doctor use medical know-how to kill wife? Legal documents state that Martin MacNeill was supposed to be working at a booth that day for the Developmental Center Safety Fair associated with his work, but he did not show up when he was supposed to. Employees say they do not know where he was from approximately 9:30 to 11 a.m. At 11 a.m., Martin MacNeill arrived at the safety fair. According to legal documents, witnesses say he was intent on getting his photograph taken there and appeared "short tempered" and "belligerent." Martin MacNeill left to pick up Ada at about 11:35 a.m. According to documents, they arrived home between 11:35 and 11:46 a.m. Martin MacNeill went to the kitchen, and Ada went to find her mother. Ada said she found her mother fully clothed in the tub with her head next to the tub's faucet, above reddish-brown water. She estimated the water was about one-quarter of the way up the tub. Her mother's hair was floating toward the drain. Ada went to get her father. Martin MacNeill's recounting of how he found his wife is strikingly different from Ada's and will be something prosecutors focus on to show MacNeill's alleged lack of veracity. He told authorities his wife was draped over the side of the tub, head first, with her head in the water. Autopsy results later showed Michele MacNeill's blood had pooled after death toward her lower extremities, which gives credence to Ada's version and discounts Martin MacNeill's. According to legal documents, Martin MacNeill told paramedic Marc Sanderson that his wife overdosed on medication and that was the cause of her death. In an interview, the girlfriend of Martin MacNeill's son Damian, Eileen Hang, told authorities that Martin MacNeill directed her to discard all of his wife's medications upon returning home from the hospital the day Michele MacNeill died. Additionally, the journal that Alexis MacNeill had used to keep a running tally of her mother's medications after surgery mysteriously disappeared. The trial begins with jury selection on Tuesday, and although prosecutors have laid their case out with numerous legal filings and a 2012 preliminary hearing, the defense has won many pretrial arguments keeping out statements and actions by Martin they feel are prejudicial and irrelevant. Critical rulings handed down in MacNeill case . What the defense has in its back pocket are the determinations of several experts set to testify in the trial. According to filed documents, not one conclusively states that Michele MacNeill's manner of death was by homicide. Forensic pathologists will only conclude to a degree of medical certainty that the manner of death is undetermined. Now, it will be up to a Utah jury of Martin MacNeill's peers to determine if his wife died at the hands of another -- specifically at the hands of her husband, who is now on trial for his life.

Jury selection begins Tuesday for Dr. Martin MacNeill's murder trial . MacNeill is charged with the murder of his wife and obstruction of justice . Prosecutors point to another woman as a motive . Trial could pit daughters against father .

Tampa (CNN) -- On the night vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan made his debut on the national stage, the GOP turned its attention to America's influence abroad and what the party sees as President Barack Obama's failed economic policies. The roster of speakers at the Republican National Convention boasted two of the party's foreign policy heavy hitters and rhetoric designed to appeal to voters who are still undecided. Here are five things we learned from the convention's second night: . 1. Romney's enforcer comes to play . On Tuesday, the GOP convention was about love (Ann Romney) and respect (Chris Christie). But to the chagrin of head-scratching Republicans eager to take the fight to President Barack Obama, there wasn't much talk in the Tampa Bay Times Forum about the current administration in Washington. Paul Ryan put those anxieties to rest on Wednesday with a lengthy, aggressive and systematic attack on Obama's record in office, with one question as the thesis: "Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?" Ryan, criticized by Democrats as the architect of a budget plan that would gut Medicare, went on offense on the issue in the heart of retiree-heavy Florida. "The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we are going to stop it," he said. There were also flashes of biography as the Wisconsin congressman tried to introduce himself to a country still learning about Mitt Romney's running mate. But it was clear from his sharpened rhetoric that the Romney campaign sent Ryan onstage to make the case against Obama. He described Obamacare as a cold "power play," condemned Solyndra as "cronyism at its worst" and said the president is "forever shifting blame." Then there was this line, sure to be remembered for its trenchant appeal to younger voters who had hoped for more from Obama: "College graduates should not have to live out their 20's in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life." Responding in a statement, Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Ryan "offered Americans 40 minutes of vitriol and a half-dozen previously debunked attacks, but not one tangible idea to move this country forward." Ryan: White House leadership missing . 2. On weak spots, let surrogates shine . Republicans' nearly singular focus on the economy took a back seat Wednesday when Sen. John McCain and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took the stage to talk foreign policy, a topic Mitt Romney makes little mention of on the stump and that has been largely absent from the national political debate. Romney faces a solid foreign policy record from the current president, who voters consistently say in polls would better handle America's relationships with other countries if re-elected. In the latest CNN/ORC International survey released earlier this week, President Barack Obama had a 51%-44% advantage over Romney on foreign policy. Facing those facts, the Romney campaign chose Wednesday to use conservatives with well-established foreign policy credentials to make the case that Obama has failed a test of leadership in key international hot spots, including in Syria and Iran. "Unfortunately, for four years, we've drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership, traditions that are truly bipartisan," McCain said. "We've let the challenges we face, both at home and abroad, become harder to solve. We can't afford to stay on that course any longer." Rice echoed many of the same themes. The former secretary of state said Romney and Ryan "know that our friends and allies must again be able to trust us," what she said was Obama's weakness on the international stage. Yet even Rice turned back to the economy, saying when the world looks at the United States, "they see an American government that cannot live within its means." Rice and McCain's remarks were a brief side track to a convention overwhelmingly focused on blaming Obama for the weak economy and how Romney plans to fix it. As Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos noted, neither campaign thinks foreign policy will make a big difference to voters struggling with high unemployment and stagnant wages. "It's not going to matter at the end," Castellanos said. "Both campaigns, I think, but especially the [Romney] campaign, wants to move on to the economy. And Barack Obama now has the experience, four years as commander-in-chief. So I put that is a plus for the Democrats in the fall." McCain: Can't have security threatened . 3. Faith does matter . Four years ago, as they were battling for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee questioned Romney's Mormon faith. Four years later, as he addressed the Republican convention in prime time, the former Arkansas governor had a very different message. "I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country," said Huckabee, who still wields influence among social conservatives. Some in that key component of the Republican base still harbor suspicions of Romney 's faith. While this convention is supposed to focus mostly on the economy, and while Huckabee did attack Obama over his handling of the issue, he did made the case for why social conservatives need to rally around their party's presidential nominee. "Let me clear the air about whether guys like me would only support an evangelical. Of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama, and he supports changing the definition of marriage, believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the womb or even beyond the womb, and tells people of faith that they must bow their knees to the god of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls health care," he said. Republican strategist John Branbender said that social conservatives are extremely committed to beating Obama. "The important thing Mitt Romney needs to do is moving them from being voters in November to being activists." "And the difference is showing and voting and making phone calls, putting bumper stickers on their cars, and frankly that's where a Mike Huckabee, a Rick Santorum, and others, make it so vital, because they're out there on the front lines with social conservatives saying 'the war is now. This is the most important election in our lifetime. We have to win and we have to get active behind Mitt Romney.'" How faith will matter at the RNC . 4. Condi Rice: A star Is born . Romney advisers gave Condoleezza Rice rave reviews earlier this summer after she addressed a room of Republican donors and GOP officials at a closed-door campaign confab in Park City, Utah. On Wednesday, the country got a glimpse of the political skills and stage presence that may have prompted Romneyland to float Rice as a potential running mate in a buzzed-about leak to the Drudge Report in July. The former secretary of state under George W. Bush and current Stanford professor showed off her foreign policy acumen with a fluent (if somewhat predictable) defense of America's role in the world. "My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice," she said. "We cannot be reluctant to lead, and one cannot lead from behind. But it was Rice's tribute the American dream, the second half of her speech was laced with nods to her personal story and difficult upbringing in segregated Alabama, that had the convention crowd and political watchers mesmerized. "America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect," she said. "But of course it has never been inevitable. It has taken leadership, courage and an unwavering faith in our values." Her speech set Twitter alight. "Lump in throat," said Florida GOP operative Ryan Duffy. "The birth of a candidate," tweeted Roll Call editor David Drucker. "A memorable speech," political analyst Stuart Rothenberg wrote. "Wow." Rice: America can't lead from behind . 5. Romney and Ryan don't see iPod to iPod . If you thought that Romney and his running mate are always on the same page, they're not. Ryan highlighted where the GOP ticket splits: on their playlists. The first member of Generation X on a presidential ticket pointed out one of the biggest differences in his vice presidential acceptance speech. "We're a full generation apart, Gov. Romney and I," Ryan said. "And, in some ways, we're a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I've heard on the campaign bus. And on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it's not a deal-breaker, Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC and ends with Zeppelin," said Ryan. Ryan was obviously having some fun, but there's a serious side to his comments. By highlighting their differences over music, Ryan also emphasized his youth. It was accentuated by the 42-year-old congressman's wife and young children joining him on the stage following his speech. And that infusion of youth on a ticket headed by someone in his mid-60s could help. Ryan spoke the word "generation" a number of times in his address, at one point saying "I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old, and I know that we are ready." With national and state polling indicating that Obama holds a large advantage among younger voters over Romney, Ryan can only help. "We've got our first rock 'n' roll Republican on a national ticket. And that's something Mitt Romney lacked," Castellanos said. "Mitt Romney hadn't made the case yet about taking this campaign into the future. Obama's saying that Mitt Romney wants to go back. Paul Ryan is evidence that this party wants to move forward." 'Gen Xer' Paul Ryan takes up GOP torch, makes case to young voters .

McCain and Rice took to stage to underscore GOP foreign policy . Mike Huckabee, who once questioned Romney's Mormon faith, sang his praises . Condoleezza Rice's speech won raves both in the forum and on Twitter .

(CNN) -- Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus resigned from his CIA director post last week after an FBI investigation revealed he had an extramarital affair, an investigation that also prompted questions about whether his paramour had inappropriate access to classified information. The scandal also has sparked an investigation into whether Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, sent inappropriate messages to a different woman, leading President Obama to put Allen's nomination to become NATO's supreme allied chief on hold. The FBI uncovered the Petraeus affair while it investigated e-mails that his paramour, Paula Broadwell, allegedly sent to a Petraeus family friend, Jill Kelley, according to a U.S. official. Kelley, meanwhile, is the woman to whom Allen allegedly sent inappropriate e-mails, according to the Defense Department. Below is a summary of what we know about the situation. Timeline of the Petraeus affair . New developments . -- Despite his resignation as CIA director last week, Petraeus is scheduled to testify Friday before the House Intelligence Committee about the September 11 attack that killed four Americans at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, the committee said in a news release. -- Petraeus has not been following media reports about his resignation, a former aide said Wednesday. "He wants to maintain a distance and focus on his family at this time," said retired Col. Peter Mansoor, who added that he had spoken earlier in the day with Petraeus. "He realizes it was a severe and morally reprehensible action, but he violated no laws." -- A senior law enforcement official close to the Broadwell investigation said Wednesday night that it appeared unlikely she would be prosecuted for any unauthorized release of classified information. The official told CNN National Security Contributor Fran Townsend that investigators were reviewing materials taken Monday from Broadwell's home, but that the information in question did not appear to be substantial. The official stressed the decision whether to prosecute rests with the Justice Department. Opinion: 5 things we've learned from Petraeus scandal . The Petraeus affair . -- The FBI uncovered the affair between Petraeus, 60, and his biographer, Broadwell, 40, after Broadwell allegedly sent anonymous, harassing e-mails to Kelley in May, a U.S. official says. A senior official close to Allen says Allen received an anonymous e-mail about Kelley, and tipped Kelley off that someone was threatening her. -- A source familiar with Kelley's version of events said the anonymous e-mails later traced to Broadwell -- which led to the discovery of Petraeus' affair -- began in June. It wasn't until two months later that the FBI told Kelley who had sent the e-mails, said the source, adding that Kelley does not know Broadwell and has never met her. -- Kelley, 37, says she and her husband are friends of Petraeus and his family. Media reports have described her as a liaison at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the U.S. Central Command is headquartered. Petraeus and Allen were previously stationed there. A Central Command spokesman said she is a volunteer with no official position. -- Investigators eventually traced the e-mails to Broadwell, a U.S. official said. The messages were along the lines of "stay away from my guy," but not explicitly threatening, according to a U.S. official. -- During the investigation, other communications surfaced between Petraeus and Broadwell, a married mother of two living in North Carolina, an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. CIA vs. FBI in Petraeus scandal . -- Broadwell, a West Point graduate, had written a biography of Petraeus, published in January, called "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus." Having met Petraeus in 2006 when he spoke at Harvard, where she was a graduate student, she wrote the book after researching Petraeus for her Ph.D. dissertation on his leadership skills and visiting him and his team in Afghanistan, where he became top U.S. commander in 2010. -- Petraeus and Broadwell began their affair in fall 2011, a few months after he returned to the United States, retired from the Army and took over at the CIA, according to a Petraeus friend. They ended it in summer 2012, Petraeus' friend said. -- FBI investigators, following up on the anonymous e-mails to Kelley, discovered on Broadwell's computer e-mails that turned out to be from Petraeus, a U.S. official said. -- On Election Day, November 6, Petraeus told Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the affair, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official. Clapper advised Petraeus to resign, the official said. -- On November 9, Petraeus quit the CIA, admitting to the affair. The House and Senate intelligence committees were informed of the FBI investigation the same day. -- Petraeus' resignation came just days before he was scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the September 11 attack that killed four Americans at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Will national security scandal create national security risk? The Allen allegations . -- The Defense Department's inspector general is investigating allegations that Allen sent inappropriate messages to Kelley, the department said on Tuesday. The FBI told the department about the allegations on Sunday. -- Allen has denied wrongdoing, a senior defense official said. Sources familiar with Kelley have said the relationship between the two was not sexual. Authorities are looking at the e-mails. -- "There is no affair" between Allen and Kelley, a senior official close to Kelley said. "She is a bored rich socialite involved with every single senior commander at CENTCOM, because she worked as an honorary ambassador." -- A U.S. official familiar with the e-mails Allen sent to Kelley described them as warranting the investigation. "If they got out, John Allen would be very embarrassed by them," said the official, who added that there was no evidence of physical contact between the two. A second U.S. official, who has had the e-mails described to him, characterized their content as "sexy," but could not say whether they "crossed the line." Investigations and fallout . -- Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer, has had her government security clearance suspended pending the outcome of ongoing investigations, two U.S. officials with direct knowledge told CNN's Barbara Starr on Wednesday. -- Broadwell's affair with Petraeus has raised questions about whether the affair gave her access to national security information that she shouldn't have. The allegedly harassing e-mails that the FBI allegedly tracked to Broadwell detailed the "comings and goings of the generals and Ms. Kelley," according to a source. Among those believed to be referenced in the e-mails was Petraeus. Because parts of Petraeus' schedule were not public, the e-mails raised questions about whether the sender had access to sensitive information. -- In a speech at the University of Denver at the end of October, Broadwell suggested the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi took place because the United States was housing Libyan prisoners there -- a theory, she noted, that had not been vetted yet. The claim has since been discounted by administration officials. Broadwell's source for that previously unpublished information remains unclear, and there's no evidence that it came from Petraeus. -- Investigators have found classified information on a computer belonging to Broadwell, a law enforcement source told CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend on Wednesday. It was not clear if this was a computer seized at her home Monday night or one she had previously given to authorities when she cooperated in September. -- On Tuesday, John Nagl, a retired military officer who worked for Petraeus for years, said that Petraeus insists he never shared classified information with Broadwell. He spoke to him via e-mail on Monday and is authorized by Petraeus to talk. -- Obama said Wednesday that he has seen no evidence of a potentially damaging breach in national security stemming from the affair involving Petraeus. No sex required for unfaithfulness to begin . -- Obama also said Wednesday that Petraeus served his country with "great distinction," and he hoped that Petraeus' affair and resignation are "a single side note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career." "By his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary as director of the CIA with respect to his personal matter that he is dealing with. ... It was on that basis that he tendered his resignation, and it was on that basis that I accepted it," Obama said. -- Kelley's access to Florida's MacDill Air Force Base without an escort has been suspended, a Defense Department official said Wednesday. Kelley had been given special access to the base because of her position as a booster and promoter of programs to help U.S. troops, the official said. -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she would investigate why the FBI did not notify congressional oversight committees about its investigation into Petraeus after the bureau determined he was having a secret extramarital affair. -- While the nature of the relationship between Allen and Kelley, if any, is unclear, evidence of an affair could subject the general to military prosecution. Adultery is a violation of military law. -- Obama has put Allen's nomination to become NATO's supreme allied commander on hold pending the outcome of the investigation, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.

NEW: Petraeus to testify Friday before congressional panel about Benghazi attack . David Petraeus resigned as CIA chief last week after an investigation revealed an affair . The scandal also sparked a probe into whether Gen. John Allen sent inappropriate e-mails . Obama: I've seen no evidence of a potentially damaging national security breach .

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Friday traded sharp criticism over health care reforms and Medicare, with each telling a leading advocacy group for senior citizens that the other was being untruthful. "Contrary to what you've heard and what you may hear from subsequent speakers, Obamacare actually strengthened Medicare," the president told the AARP Liffe@50+ event, using the nickname for the 2010 Affordable Care Act that passed with no Republican support. In particular, he called the claim by Ryan and other Republicans that $716 billion is being cut from Medicare to fund the health care bill "simply not true." Ryan spoke to the same event shortly afterward, saying that Obama's contention that the health care law strengthened Medicare was "just not true," adding that the legislation "turned Medicare into a piggy bank for Obamacare." The debate over Medicare is a major issue in the November election campaign, especially in the vital battleground state of Florida with its large population of senior citizens. Ryan headed to Florida later Friday, while Obama campaigned in Virginia, Vice President Joe Biden spoke in New Hampshire and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney headed to Las Vegas. All four states are considered up-for-grabs in the election less than seven weeks away. In a separate development, Romney released details of his 2011 income tax return that showed he made $13.7 million last year and paid $1.94 million in federal taxes, giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1%, his campaign said. The majority of the candidate's income last year came from his investments, Brad Malt, the trustee of Romney's blind trust, said in a blog post. The Romneys gave just over $4 million to charity. In addition, the Romney campaign said his tax filings from 1990 to 2009 show that he and his wife paid 100% of the federal and state income taxes they owed and that their overall average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2%. Romney has been criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans for not releasing more than two years worth of taxes. His wealth and investment industry background, as well as his father's decision to release a dozen years of tax records during his presidential run four decades ago, have only raised interest in Romney's returns. Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said in a statement the disclosure "continues to mask Romney's true wealth" and income from the private equity firm he once led, leaving the American people in the dark about critical details of his finances. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called the new tax information insufficient. "What we don't know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he's made in his financial life," according to a statement from Reid, who previously created a stir when he alleged Romney paid no taxes in some years but refused to divulge the source of his accusation. "When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president?" Reid asked. Obama responds to health care attacks . In his appearance by satellite at the AARP event in New Orleans, Obama responded to specific attacks on the health care law by Ryan and other Republicans, declaring the 2010 measure cuts waste and fraud in Medicare, provides preventive care to keep people healthier and reduces prescription drug costs for seniors. Romney pivots after controversies distract campaign . Savings come from "using the purchasing power of Medicare to say to doctors and hospitals and insurance companies: 'You guys need to work smarter,'" Obama said to applause. "Instead of having five different tests that each of you is charging for, do one test and email it to everybody." Ryan, the conservative House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, has proposed a partial privatization of the entitlement that would provide government subsidies to help senior citizens pay for coverage they would choose from a list of options. He defended the plan Friday in the face of a mixed reception. "The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare because it represents the worst of both worlds," Ryan said to loud booing. He added: "I had a feeling there'd be mixed reaction so let me get into it ." "It weakens Medicare for today's seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation," Ryan said, repeating the factually challenged claim of $716 billion in Medicare cuts and also targeting a panel created under the health care law charged with recommending ways to reach targeted savings starting in 2014. Ryan also took a swipe at Obama's re-election slogan of "Forward," saying it means "Forward into a future where seniors are denied the care they earned because a bureaucrat decided it wasn't worth the money." In his remarks, Obama argued that Medicare savings come from "using the purchasing power of Medicare to say to doctors and hospitals and insurance companies: 'You guys need to work smarter." "Instead of having five different tests that each of you is charging for, do one test and email it to everybody," he said to applause. With polls showing Romney unable to overtake Obama with less than seven weeks to go until the November election, GOP infighting is showing a rising frustration over the candidate's campaign against a president saddled by high unemployment and a sluggish economy. New figures show Obama and his allies raised nearly $85 million in August, outpacing Romney's haul in the month that included both parties' national conventions. Obama defends record on immigration at Univision forum . In Wisconsin, conservative candidate Tommy Thompson put some of the blame for his slipping poll numbers on the Romney campaign and conservative commentators, including former GOP speechwriter Peggy Noonan, have depicted the Romney team as floundering. "Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring," Ann Romney said of her husband's critics in an interview on Thursday with Radio Iowa. Romney tweaked his campaign strategy twice this week in response to controversies that distracted from his main message challenging Obama's record as president. On Thursday, he kept up attacks on Obama over a 1998 comment regarding redistribution of wealth, and also claimed the president had given up on changing Washington. The Obama camp fired back that the criticism was off base. At the AARP event Friday, Obama said the Ryan proposal to reform Medicare would make it a voucher program that shifts health care costs to senior citizens. He noted that AARP supported the 2010 health care reform act and opposed Ryan's Medicare proposal. "They know that a voucher program is not going to be a good deal," Obama said. Ryan, however, denied it was a voucher program and insisted that the idea originated in Democratic proposals of the past. "This financial support system is designed to guarantee that seniors can always afford Medicare coverage -- no exceptions," he said to some applause. Members of AARP -- a nonprofit organization and a powerful lobbying group that boasts of having more than 37 million members -- submitted questions to the nominees on their website. Tough stretch for Romney . Romney is coming off a tough stretch in the weeks before the three presidential debates in October. Last week, the Romney campaign struggled in its initial response to anti-American violence in Libya and Egypt. Then a left-leaning magazine released secretly recorded clips of Romney speaking at a May fund-raiser in which he said 47% of Americans depended on government help, saw themselves as victims and won't support him. Under criticism for the comments at the fund-raiser, Romney stuck by them and rallied some conservative commentators to his side by emphasizing his message on his allegation that Obama's polices increased public dependency on government. Clinton on the '47 percent' comments and the debates . In particular, they accused Obama of favoring wealth redistribution -- code for socialism among conservatives -- based on the 1998 video of the president when he was a state senator in Illinois. "I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution -- because I actually believe in some redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot," Obama says in the clip, posted Tuesday on the conservative Drudge Report website. The White House on Wednesday characterized the GOP attacks over the redistribution comment as an effort to divert attention from Romney's remarks at the May fundraiser. Romney also took aim at Obama's comment on Thursday at a Univision "Meet the Candidates" forum in which the president said he was unable to change Washington from within. House Speaker John Boehner continued the Romney attack line on Friday, saying Obama and congressional Democrats lacked the leadership qualities necessary to change the culture of partisan divide and legislative gridlock. "It takes courage, it takes determination and it takes sincerity, and it's called leadership," Boehner told reporters. Asked about the inability to work out compromises with Republicans on deficit reduction and other major issues, Obama blamed GOP intransigence and said he was being a leader by rejecting what he called "bad ideas." He noted that his proposals, including the health care reform measure opposed by every Republican, included some ideas with GOP origins. "Obamacare owes a debt to what was done in Massachusetts by my opponent, Mr. Romney, even though sometimes he denies it," the president said in a jab at his challenger, who passed a similar plan while governor of the state but now vows to repeal the federal version. "The one thing I won't do though is go along with bad ideas that are not helping the middle class," Obama said to applause, adding: "If I hear the only way Republicans in Congress are willing to move forward is to voucherize Medicare, I'll say no." Polls: GOP Senate takeover might be tougher . CNN's Shawna Shepherd, Paul Steinhauser, Dana Davidsen, Peter Hamby and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.

NEW: Sen. Reid says Romney still isn't coming clean on taxes . Paul Ryan gets mixed reception at AARP event . Ryan and President Obama accuse each other of being untruthful . Obama says leadership means rejecting bad ideas .

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Did a Russian fire the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17? That depends on who you ask. A top Ukrainian official says he has no doubt. Vitaly Nayda, Ukraine's director of informational security, told CNN the person who shot down the flight was "absolutely" a Russian. "A Russian-trained, well-equipped, well-educated officer ... pushed that button deliberately," he said. "We taped conversations" between a Russian officer and his office in Moscow, Nayda said. "We know for sure that several minutes before the missile was launched, there was a report" to a Russian officer that the plane was coming, he said. "They knew the plane was coming with constant speed, in constant direction," and should have known it was not a fighter jet but "a big civilian plane," he said. U.S. officials say pro-Russian rebels were responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they now believe it's likely the rebels didn't know the plane was a commercial airliner when they opened fire, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday. The officials have determined that Russia bears some responsibility for the incident because of its support for the rebels, but they haven't been able to determine exactly who fired the missile, whether Russian military were at the site or whether the Russians were directly responsible for launching the missile. Moscow has denied claims that it pulled the trigger. And Russian Army Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov suggested a Ukrainian jet fighter may have shot the plane down. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rejected that in an exclusive interview with CNN, saying that all Ukrainian aircraft were on the ground at the time. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, was asked Monday about different intercepted recordings, purportedly of pro-Russian rebels talking about shooting down a plane. Churkin suggested that if they did, it was an accident. "According to them, the people from the east were saying that they shot down a military jet," he said. "If they think they shot down a military jet, it was confusion. If it was confusion, it was not an act of terrorism." Pro-Russian rebels have repeatedly denied responsibility for the attack. At crash site, an eerie calm . Now that rebels have handed over the black boxes and the bodies of victims killed when Flight 17 went down, the crash site in eastern Ukraine was eerily quiet on Tuesday, a spokesman for observers in the area said. There were no more local emergency workers or teams combing the wreckage -- even though Dutch officials said they weren't sure whether the remains of all the victims had been recovered. "They had even taken down the tents," said Michael Buciurkiew, spokesman for the monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "There was no activity whatsoever. ... We had an internal discussion today on whether to say it's already trending towards a cleanup operation. There's no active recovery of remains going on right now." As investigators arrive at the scene, it's unclear what evidence they'll find. Before activity died down at the site, Buciurkiew said, observers saw emergency workers moving around wreckage. "Major pieces of the fuselage have been moved," he said. At one point, he said, observers witnessed teams at the scene "taking out diesel-powered saws and sawing quite invasively into the cockpit." Dutch PM: Identifying bodies could take months . A train carrying the remains of crash victims arrived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Investigators were going through the train cars and transferring bodies to a factory, where a facility was set up to transfer them to coffins and get them on a military plane to the Netherlands for forensic investigation. But officials offered conflicting reports about how many bodies were on the train, with a top Dutch official expressing concern that the remains of more victims could still be at the crash site. Malaysian official Mohd Sakri, who traveled on the train with the remains, said there were 282 corpses and 87 body parts aboard -- the same tally Ukrainian officials earlier gave to describe the remains recovered from the crash site. But Dutch investigators only confirmed there were at least 200 bodies transported from the crash site, Jan Tuinder, head of the Dutch delegation, told reporters. Another Dutch official said investigators were still going through the train cars and it was possible all the crash victims were on the train. There were 298 people aboard the plane when it crashed. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he expects the first plane carrying the remains to arrive Wednesday in Eindhoven. As soon as the remains are identified, families of the victims will be informed. In some cases, that could happen quickly, Rutte said, but in other cases, identification could take weeks or even months. Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, said bringing the victims' remains home is his country's top priority. "To my dying day, I will not understand that it took so much time for the rescue workers to be allowed to do their difficult jobs," he told the U.N. Security Council on Monday, "and that human remains should be used in a political game." What's next in the investigation? Ukrainian rebels handed over the so-called black boxes Tuesday after what Malaysian officials said were repeated attempts to negotiate with the rebels. "In recent days, we have been working behind the scenes to establish contact with those in charge of the MH17 crash site," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday. But the handover is only the beginning. British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that Britain agreed to a Dutch request for accident investigators at Farnborough, southwest of London, to retrieve data from the boxes for international analysis. And the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said one of its experts will help retrieve information from the black boxes. The voice recorder could include audio from the cockpit, which would show whether the pilots knew the plane had been hit, said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. And the flight data recorders will give investigators information about engine settings, pressurization and electronic communications, among other details, she said. But even the black boxes might not answer the two most pressing questions: who shot down the plane and why. U.S. and other officials have said it appears the plane was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile in rebel-held territory. Evidence supporting that conclusion includes telephone intercepts and video of a Buk missile launcher traveling into Russia with at least one missile missing. U.S. President Barack Obama, Cameron and others have said the pro-Russian rebels could not have shot down such a high-flying jet without weapons and training from Russia. Obama called on Russia to rein in the rebel fighters, who he said had treated remains poorly and removed evidence from the site. "What exactly are they trying to hide?" he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his country would use its influence with Ukrainian rebels to push for a full investigation, the Reuters news agency reported. But those assurances did little to stem efforts to crack down on the rebels and their supporters. The European Union's Foreign Affairs Council agreed Tuesday to establish a new list of entitles and individuals, including some from Russia, to face EU sanctions. Timmermans said the Netherlands would seek sanctions involving various fields, including defense, high technology, the energy sector and financial services. A brawl broke out Tuesday in Ukraine's parliament, where fighting takes place frequently, as lawmakers voted to increase the number of troops battling pro-Russian rebels. Nikolai Levchenko, who is from the Donetsk region and has been noticed at separatist rallies, accused the government of killing its own people. A nationalist lawmaker then ran up to him. Soon many lawmakers swarmed around them, with some apparently trying to break up the fight. Ukraine opens criminal case . The U.S. government has released a map of what it says was the flight's path and the site from which the missile was fired. It also released images that it said showed a weapons buildup at a Russian training facility near the Ukraine border. As Ukraine ratcheted up accusations that Moscow was involved in downing the plane, it also opened criminal cases against Russia's defense minister and a Russian businessman, calling both "accomplices of terrorists." The Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry accused Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu of helping form "illegal military groups" in the Donetsk region, where pro-Russian rebels have declared their own government. "The illegal military groups, which are led by citizens of the Russian Federation, make regular attacks on government institutions and other organizations that have led to multiple human deaths, destruction and other consequences," the ministry said in a statement. And the ministry accused Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeev of financing the "illegal military units." Russian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in fomenting violence in the region. A June profile on Malofeev by Bloomberg News noted that the "self-proclaimed head of the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic and its rebel army leader have both worked for Malofeev, though the financier denies any role in the unrest." Earlier this month, Ukraine opened a criminal case against the head of Russia's Border Service. The ministry's statement Tuesday contained no specific references to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Who are Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels? Ukrainian President: The world must choose sides . So much we don't know -- five unanswered questions . Who were the victims? Should jet have flown over Ukraine? CNN's Kyung Lah reported from Kiev; Josh Levs and Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta; and CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Holly Yan, Carol Jordan, Pamela Boykoff, Phil Black, Gul Tuysuz, Elizabeth Joseph, Stephanie Halasz, Antonia Mortensen, Barbara Starr and journalist Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.

NEW: It's unclear how much of a role Russia played, U.S. intelligence says . The European Union agrees on a plan for new sanctions to include Russia . Ukraine opens criminal cases against Russian defense minister and businessman . Dutch official: At least 200 bodies were on the train; more could be at crash site .

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The coalition air effort to halt the Libyan government's attacks on civilians continued into Thursday for a sixth day, with an airstrike in the Tripoli suburb of Tajura, a government official said. On Wednesday night, the government reported that military and civilian locations in the neighborhood of Al-Jfara and in the Tagora district of the capital had been struck by "crusading colonial" bombardment. In response, Joint Task Force Operation Odyssey Dawn Lt. Cmdr. Jim Hoeft said in an e-mail to CNN, "It is not likely that civilians were a part of any airstrike today." He said coalition forces "have been using all necessary measures to protect the citizens of Libya from the violence and killing inflicted upon them by Colonel Gadhafi." An opposition activist in Tripoli accused state media of lying about civilian victims of the coalition airstrikes. For example, she said, she was accompanying a cousin to a hospital for medical care when she saw a TV producer asking some people to close their eyes and play dead and others to pretend they were wounded. Some of the "wounded," she said, were soldiers in civilian garb. On Wednesday, government officials invited CNN and other journalists to visit a house in Tripoli that had been damaged in an air raid, but -- after driving around for more than half an hour -- were apparently unable to find it and so returned the journalists to their hotel. The drive revealed a city quieter than normal -- about half the stores were closed. People appeared apprehensive, anxious. Opponents of Gadhafi were afraid to speak publicly. In Ajdabiya, parts of the city fell to opposition forces even though Gadhafi's men, who had been pounding the area with artillery and heavy tank bombardments, retained control of the northern and western gates, opposition fighters and witnesses told CNN. A hospital staffer and opposition fighters said nine people were killed Wednesday in fighting near the northern gate. So far, the coalition has crippled the Libyan air force, and established a no-fly zone that spans Libya from east to west along its coastline, said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gerard Hueber. Hueber, the chief of staff for U.S. operations said Wednesday that coalition planes had flown 175 sorties over Libya -- 113 of them by U.S. planes. But the coalition had no indication that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was complying with a United Nations mandate to stop attacks against civilians. On Wednesday, troops loyal to Gadhafi terrorized residents of the besieged rebel-held city of Misrata. One witness said Gadhafi's forces had attacked the city's main hospital, where 400 people -- about half of them patients -- were located. The push began at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET), when "heavy tanks for Gadhafi troops start attacking the hospital -- the bombs falling here 20 meters (66 feet) around us," said one person inside the hospital. He said two deaths had occurred "around the hospital." At one point, shelling occurred without respite for 40 minutes, he said. "Now, fortunately, no more shelling, but the situation is so serious that all the teams here -- the doctors, the patients -- are paralyzed, scared." He called for international intervention to protect the civilians inside the institution. "Nobody can work here," he said. Ambulances were not able to leave the hospital, which had lost its electricity and was using generator power, he said. Coalition jets are using smart bombs to target mechanized forces and mobile surface-to-air missile sites and impede supply lines for their "beans and bullets," Hueber said. The targets include Libya's premier 32nd Brigade, commanded by one of Gadhafi's sons and fully engaged in the fighting. "It's an extremely complex and difficult environment," Hueber said about going after forces in populated areas. "And our primary focus is to interdict those forces before they enter the city ... cut off their lines of communication and cut off their command and control," he said. "There have been no reports of civilian casualties. Our mission here is to protect the civilian populace and we choose our targets and plan our actions with that as our top priority." Wednesday night's outbreak of violence broke a respite that began earlier in the day with the coalition attacks -- the first calm in a week, Misrata residents reported. "We would like to express our gratitude to the international community since there were airstrikes this morning," said Mohammed, an opposition spokesman in the city who would identify himself only by his first name. Gadhafi's forces had been stationed on the outskirts of the city, where they were providing support and supplies to loyalists fighting rebels in Misrata proper. Earlier in the day, grocery stores and other shops opened in the city, which is located two hours east of Tripoli and has been inaccessible to journalists. One person inside the hospital told CNN that five more people were killed in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to at least 95 in the last seven days. A man who died Wednesday morning was shot by a sniper, the person said. Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis, a former interior minister who quit to lead opposition forces, said rebels have requested weapons from several nations to help the embattled city. "Misrata is destroyed and they need weapons," Younis told CNN. "We try to send them weapons, but of course they were all light weapons. There were no heavy weapons." Asked about the situation in Misrata, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes said, "We're concerned about it, but I think you're actually seeing some indications that the effort of the coalition is ... focused on Misrata and is having an effect there." The rapid advance of Libyan forces had been halted, particularly their move toward the nation's second-largest city, Benghazi, Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One. Libya's elite forces are drawn from tribes loyal to Gadhafi. Though they comprise no more than 10,000 men, those forces are on the offense, Hueber said. "Those forces are fully-engaged in this conflict, that are attacking those civilian populations," he added. Though the rebels are in a better position than they were a few days ago, the Gadhafi forces have the upper edge, a U.S. official said. They remain capable of carrying out attacks on the opposition, are relatively well-organized and continue to fight effectively, the official said. Rhodes predicted the transition of command and control to another entity would be effected in "a matter of days." NATO will likely play a key role in the command and control, he said, adding that he would not describe the conflict as "an open-ended war, a land invasion in Libya." The international airstrikes against Libyan military positions began over the weekend after Gadhafi defied a United Nations-mandated cease-fire in attacks against civilians. The strikes are intended to help establish a no-fly zone. Sweden announced Wednesday it has frozen more than $1.53 billion in Libyan assets in response to EU sanctions imposed on the northern African country. France launched the air campaign in Libya and Britain and the United States followed. Germany is not participating in the military action, though it agrees with the United Nations resolution in principle, and moved Wednesday to ensure that its ships were far removed from the Libyan campaign. A German navy spokesman said Wednesday that all German ships previously under NATO command in the Mediterranean Sea were reassigned to operate under national command and are returning to previously scheduled port stops in Europe to await further instructions. German crew members of NATO fighter jets were also under German command. Britain has announced an international meeting for next Tuesday to assess the situation in Libya. The war was sparked in February by protests demanding an end to Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule. The Libyan strongman responded with force against civilians, prompting the international community to take action. However, a Johns Hopkins University professor said the coalition can achieve only so much through aerial strikes. "We have to understand the limits of what air power can do," Fouad Ajami told CNN's "AC360." "This is a recipe for a stalemate," he said. Criticism and questions persist about the international campaign, with no clear answer on who will take over command of the mission and what the exit strategy will be. U.S. President Barack Obama said the timetable for a transition of military leadership will be coming in days, not weeks. NATO said Wednesday it will decide shortly what its role in the operation will be. A spokesman added the alliance is well prepared. "This is the bread and butter of NATO," an official said. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has voiced his opposition to NATO taking political leadership over the Libya campaign. He suggested that a commission composed of foreign ministers from the participating states play that role. Ajami, however, said the Arab world would welcome NATO involvement. "They know that the calamity is unfolding in Libya, and they know that no help is going to come other than from the West and from the United States." British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that Kuwait and Jordan have agreed to provide logistical support to the Libyan effort. Jordanian government spokesman Taher Edwan told CNN that Jordan's role will be limited to a humanitarian one. "Jordan did not and will not have any military participation in Libya, neither in planes or on the ground at all in Libya," he said. Qatar has already contributed planes to mission. The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will participate -- but only in providing humanitarian assistance. Toward that end, the country has sent a ship and two planes with basic relief supplies, the country's news agency said. CNN's Nic Robertson, Ben Brumfield, Jennifer Rizzo, Arwa Damon, Amir Ahmed, Barbara Starr and Diana Magnay contributed to this report .

NEW: Officials invite journalists to tour damaged house, but can't find it . Tripoli suburb of Tajura is struck, a government official says . Coalition effort is not "a land invasion," according to U.S. official . Hospital patients and doctors paralyzed by fear .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Southern California faces another water-logged day Wednesday with renewed threats of flash flooding, especially in San Diego county. The National Weather Service is forecasting rainfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour, which could prompt flooding in the San Bernardino, Santa Ana and Palomar Mountains, and along the Orange County coastal plains. On Tuesday, storm-weary Californians slogged through another day of record-breaking snow, rain and flooding from a series of storms that prompted an emergency declaration from the state's governor. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proclamation covers Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Tulare counties in southern California. The declaration warns that the forecast calls for "extraordinary and continuing rainfall" that is likely to cause more flooding and landslides in the region and authorizes state assistance to local authorities. The five-day rain total has topped 10 inches in many areas, with much heavier amounts in some locales. More than 21 inches has fallen on Twin Peaks in San Bernardino county, with Twin Creek receiving nearly 20 inches. In Orange County, authorities were on the scene after a mudslide affecting homes in the Silverado Canyon area, the county's Fire Authority said on Twitter. Rescues were needed, and evacuations were underway, according to the Fire Authority. In Los Angeles County, meanwhile, authorities ordered the evacuation of more than 230 homes in two neighborhoods out of fear of debris flows. Of the 232 homes ordered evacuated in the La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta areas, however, only one family evacuated, said Nicole Nishida, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The area is a concern because it is below an area burned in the 2009 Station fire. Fires burn vegetation holding the soil in place, leaving the soil more likely to dislodge after heavy rains. One resident wary of the potential for mudslides was Donna McLaughlin of La Canada Flintridge who lost her home last year when a 10-foot wall of mud came barreling down a hillside. She just moved back in October. "Here we go again," she told CNN affiliate KABC. But this time, the city has bolted down protective concrete barriers and attached them to each other in the area in an effort to guard against mudslides. McLaughlin said the barriers were not bolted down or attached last year. "Had they done that, our house would have at least been saved," she told KABC. Streets in downtown Laguna Beach were closed Wednesday because of extensive flooding, KABC reported. In southwestern Utah, a dam that authorities had feared was in imminent danger of giving way to floodwaters was found to be in stronger condition than previously believed, said Marc Mortensen, a spokesman for Washington County. The roughly 800 residents of the towns of Virgin and Rockville were allowed to return to their homes Tuesday night, Mortensen said. Engineers will monitor the dam, located on the Virgin River, and conduct more tests Wednesday, when high water flows are expected again, he said. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said he was prepared to declare a state of emergency in the south, where floodwaters also washed out at least one bridge. But as of Tuesday afternoon, Utah officials said the required benchmarks for an emergency declaration had not been reached, and Herbert hadn't received a request from local authorities to issue one. "We are closely monitoring the activity in southern Utah, and praying for the safety of all of the area's residents," Herbert said in a statement from his office. Flash flood warnings were also in effect for western Arizona. In Southern California, where the car is king, a record number of motorists called their local auto club to report dead batteries, a need for emergency tows and crashed vehicles, said spokesman Jeffrey Spring of the Automobile Club of Southern California. More than 25,000 distraught motorists made calls for help on Monday, the largest number ever in a 24-hour period for the AAA's largest U.S. affiliate, Spring said. "We're in Southern California, and we don't have a lot of experience driving in the rain, and some people drive through high puddles not realizing what kind of effect it can have on a car," Spring said. "If the engine gets splashed and gets wet, it can stop the car right there." Spring said AAA was "able to serve the majority of members in 30 minutes," although he added, "I'm sure there were a number of people who had to wait longer than that." Monday's call volume surpassed the prior record of about 22,000 on October 9, 2008, when a heat wave and the scorching Santa Ana winds disabled many automobiles, Spring said. Monday's weather -- torrential rains -- had opposite conditions, he said. "Batteries are fickle things if they're not at full strength," Spring said. "Hot weather can affect them and weather like this." In the southern Sierra Nevada, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were effectively shut down Monday and Tuesday because flooding, mudslides and rockslides closed the two roads into the parks, said Brandy Frederich, assistant general manager of Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia National Park. In fact, the 102-room lodge was vacant Tuesday after the last couple of guests departed Monday, Frederich said. "Well, we're all up here," Frederich said of the hotel staff. "We would be open if the road is open. It's gorgeous right now. Up here, it finally turned to snow." But the rain at lower elevations washed out the two roads, she said. Deborah Craigo, 39, who lives in the Mojave Desert community of Hesperia, California, said monsoon conditions have inundated the arid landscape. Fire stations are even offering sandbags to residents who want to shore up defenses to their homes, said Craigo, who is also a CNN iReporter. "It's been raining from two days ago and it just has not stopped. They closed a lot of the roads down," said Craigo, a mother and college student. "It's pretty bad now. We have a riverbed in back of our house, and two days ago it was completely bone dry. And then within two days the riverbed is completely full." In Orange County, California, four hikers whose truck was stranded by floodwater between two canyon roads were airlifted out Tuesday morning and were reported to be doing well, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. The four had been stranded overnight. Five other people were rescued in the same area Monday evening, the station said. A bulldozer was used to help get them to safety, it said. Elsewhere, 40 horses were rescued from Riverside County as water rose to heights of about 4 feet, affiliate KCAL reported. The storm is actually a series of storms originating in the Pacific, known as the "Pineapple Express" because of their origin near the Hawaiian Islands. They have brought heavy snow to the higher elevations, with torrential rainfall in lower spots, and high winds. Total rainfall has approached 10 inches in some areas. Numerous roads were closed because of mudslides or flooding. And as much as 13 feet of snow had fallen in the Sierra Nevada as of Tuesday, according to CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano. "We get a lot of snow here, but not usually this much in a 24-hour period," said CNN iReporter Sarah Butner, who is visiting family in Mammoth Lakes, California. The area has received about 9 feet of snow, she said Monday. "The decks have a good 5 feet of snow on them," she said. One area of the neighborhood was also flooded, she said. In Arvin, California, near Lamont, Caliente Creek washed away land near one home. Hugo Figueroa, who lives there, said he and his family were told to evacuate, CNN affiliate KBAK reported. Flooding washed out several roads near Lamont and Arvin, the station reported. High winds also whipped much of the state, particularly at high elevations. Peak wind gusts reached 152 mph in Alpine Meadows summit in northern California, the weather service reported. Mudslides forced officials to close a portion of State Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, in Ventura County from just north of the Los Angeles County line to Oxnard, according to the California Department of Transportation. The Pacific Coast Highway was also closed north of Santa Barbara due to flooding. A mudslide also closed a portion of State Route 41 in San Luis Obispo County. A stretch of State Route 34 in the Oxnard area was closed because of flooding. The danger of mudslides will probably intensify, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said. "A serious situation will develop now with the mudslide danger that will continue over the next several days," Cabrera said Monday. Another danger: Falling trees. Erik Budzinski of Orange told KABC he is heartsick after his vintage 1970 Ford F-150 truck was crushed by a large tree Monday night. "It was my baby," he said. Budzinski said he was inside his home and heard the wood cracking and popping as the tree fell. "I just knew it," he said. Still, many southern Californians were not deterred from holiday shopping by the rain, although the rain-slicked roads had led to thousands of accidents. "It's a little scary to be driving with this much rain, but I'm going to deal with it," Adriena Young told KABC. "It's better than a drought." CNN's Jeremy Ryan, Sara Pratley, Nick Valencia, Michael Martinez, Ed Payne, Sara Weisfeldt and Daphne Sashin contributed to this report.

NEW: Reported mudslide affects homes in Orange County . Of 232 homes evacuated, only 1 family leaves, officials say . Rockville, Utah, residents allowed to return . Roads into two national parks are shut down, a park lodge manager says .

LONDON, England (CNN) -- They first met in the autumn of 1979; she playing the role of the lovelorn terrorist, he dressed as a rather sloppy Ayatollah Khomeini. Pamela Stephenson first met Billy Connolly on the set of a comedy show in 1979. They married in Fiji in 1990. It may not have been love at first sight on the set of British comedy show "Not the Nine O'Clock News," but love, marriage and children eventually followed. Australian comedienne, now psychotherapist, Pamela Stephenson, describes being captivated by Billy Connolly's wildman looks, his mane of grey hair and devil-may-care demeanor. She tells CNN's Revealed about her first impressions of her husband, his unique ability to keep audiences entertained and what she learnt about his addictions and childhood abuse while writing his best-selling biography, "Billy." CNN: Take us back to the beginning. How did you meet Billy Connolly? Pamela Stephenson: I'm not quite sure what Billy's version of how we met is like because he was very drunk. I met him when I was a performer on "Not The Nine O'Clock News" and he was a guest. He was just shaggy and some kind of terrible beastie. But I was attracted to him immediately, maybe because he was so unusual. I think what I picked up on was his dichotomy -- that beastiness and the underlying sensitivity that he has. I think that's something that audiences relate to, you're aware of all the toughness, but underneath you just know that there's philosophy and this poetic, Celtic nature that speaks to people. Also his pain, his underlying sadness and the pain of his childhood ... when I first met him I think I connected with that. He played the Ayatollah Khomeini in a scene on "Not The Nine O'Clock News" and I played a demented fan singing a love song to him, it was in days when you could do stuff like that, I suppose. And then we did an interview, I pretending to be British TV personality Janet Street-Porter, with giant fake teeth which kept falling out. Of course, he could never keep a straight face; I thought he was dreadfully unprofessional because he just kept laughing, especially when my teeth fell out -- my fake teeth -- fell out. CNN: What's it like being married to him? PS: People always think that being married to Billy means that I get non-stop Billy Connolly concerts. It's not nearly as exciting as that, although he's adorable. But it's boring sometimes and he would say the same. There are moments when I wish he would go and make me a cup of tea, which he does very often. Actually, Billy is quite a quiet person. He's a little reclusive and I don't think it's necessarily his personality. With the highs he experiences on stage he needs to be very quiet when he's not. Billy Connolly takes CNN's Revealed on a tour of his home » . CNN: What made you write a biography of his life? Was it the first time he opened up about his childhood? PS: When I wrote "Billy," it was the first time that Billy really looked at his childhood in a chronological order and with depth. It was a painful process, but cathartic. The book gave me the opportunity to understand a lot more about him. Just putting some of this together, the sexual abuse, for example, that he received from his father, the physical abuse he received from his aunts, helped me understand why there's a part of him that's very closed off. Watch Billy recall his troubled childhood » . His learning disability was never understood. Now we'd call it an attention disorder. In those days, he had difficulty concentrating, for which he was beaten and taunted at school. People told him he was stupid and to this day there's a part of him that thinks that's he's not as clever as other people and yet he is absolutely brilliant. He's incredibly well-read and very erudite. CNN: Can you tell us about Billy's problems with alcohol and drugs and how you helped him? PS: Billy was extremely famous in Scotland, and you know what happens, especially with people who don't think they are very worthy. As with Billy, they don't handle fame because they don't feel they deserve it and they'll turn to alcohol and drugs. It became very serious and by the time I met him he was on a very self-destructive path. At first, that was appealing to me, but later I realized I can't be with somebody like that because I don't want to watch him destroy himself. I didn't tell him, "You've gotta clean up your act," I just said I can't deal with this. I discovered you can't make anyone stop drinking or stop taking drugs, you have to just protect yourself and if they want to jump on the good train, they will. Fortunately it worked. CNN: How would you describe Billy's style of comedy? PS: Billy doesn't have a style, because to have a style it would mean that there have to be other people with a similar way of working. He goes on stage and it's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear. He makes this extraordinary connection with the audience, and of course he's very astute and funny about politics. He sees the funny side of all kinds of things -- human nature, human behavior, world events, politicians. He'll talk about that with such passion. It's what many of us think but don't want to say. Billy will see something on television or notice something on the street or he'll just think something and it'll go into his computer of a brain and it'll stumble out when he's on stage. See Billy Connolly perform on a recent tour of Ireland » . CNN: Is he the same person on and off stage? PS: He's honest and real. He's a man of the people, a working class hero. It's a cliché, but people know that he has struggled; they know he's come from the tough part of Glasgow. Billy just loves an audience, he loves speaking to people if they're nice to him, and they usually are. When he's finished his show, he doesn't go home. He stays in his dressing room and people will come and see him and he'll talk to them for another hour. CNN: He says he's getting more and more nervous when he goes on stage -- have you noticed a change? PS: I don't think he's getting more nervous. At his age, maybe he thinks that it should have become easier -- well, it's not going to become easier. It's incredibly tough to go on stage in front of four or five thousand people and sustain [their interest] by yourself. And one thing that really impresses me, again as a psychologist, is that I think he is really healing. I think that people really have the opportunity to just laugh like that and it's so good for you. I feel fantastic when I go to one of his shows and come out and I'm just sick with laughter. CNN: How does he feel when he comes off stage? He says it can be tough and envies the audience. They can go home and forget about it. PS: Most performers struggle with the letdown after a show, and Billy's no exception. It's tough because it takes time for adrenalin to leave the system. That's actually one reason why a lot of comedians turn to alcohol, because it's a depressant and takes you down. Now that Billy doesn't drink he's found another way -- he goes back to his hotel and stays quiet. Sometimes he likes to eat after the show but not very often. He will just want to veg out, watch TV. Playing his banjo is a great way for him to relax. Watch a rare performance of Billy on banjo » . He doesn't like me being around when he's touring because he just likes to do his thing. I want to have some food or go and do something. He becomes a bit of a hermit, and that's appropriate for someone who expends that amount of energy and brainpower on stage. CNN: Billy says he finds the routine of touring increasingly tough -- do you think he will stop soon? PS: When Billy's touring, he'll say, "Oh I don't want to tour anymore, I've had enough it's too hard on the road." But the truth is, when he's not touring, he wants to go back. It's probably his happiest time. I have been a comedian so I know a little bit about what it's like to be on stage and know that when things are working fantastically, and you're getting that appreciation from the audience. It is an incredible high. It's pretty hard for me as a wife or us as a family or any of his fans or friends to match up to that kind of adulation and so, you know, he deserves it and I have to remind him that it is a lot of fun for him. CNN: How would you describe his dress sense? PS: Billy is a fashion maven. He spends most of his time in New York now so, you know, the New York "Black is the new black" is ... that's got to him a bit. He's influenced by Rock 'n' Roll and Vivienne Westwood and edgy stuff. But he just puts it together in his own unique way. He also takes great pride in his body. His closet is still extremely fun. It's far more colorful than mine. I have grey and black suits and things for work -- he loves colorful shirts. It will be a shame if he tones himself down, but I don't think that will happen. He borrows my clothes sometimes, if he sees something particularly mad. We used to say, "First up, best dressed," which is the Glasgow expression for a particularly fun brooch or hat.

Pamela Stephenson talks about marriage to Scottish comedian Billy Connelly . They met on the set of British comedy show "Not the Nine O'Clock News" She says writing his biography, "Billy," helped her understand him better . Stephenson: "It's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear"

Washington (CNN) -- Congressional negotiators reached a tentative deal Tuesday to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits while avoiding a fee cut for Medicare doctors, according to Republican legislators and aides. The framework deal followed a key Republican concession Monday and could receive the endorsement of a House-Senate conference committee on Wednesday. Reps. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Fred Upton of Michigan, both Republicans who were part of the conference committee negotiations, called it a tentative agreement, while a top House Democratic aide said Democratic leaders would discuss the proposal with their members on Wednesday morning. Ellmers and Upton said they expected the conference committee to sign off on the measure Wednesday if no objections arise. In that case, the House would vote on the agreement, in the form of the conference committee report, as soon as Friday. However, some conservative House Republicans expressed concerns about the potential agreement and said they were unsure if they would support it. Other GOP House legislators said they expected it to pass with support from a majority of Republicans, as well as Democrats. "It's the art of a deal. I mean, it's a compromise," said Rep. Steve Latourette, R-Ohio. "So you have people that didn't get a 100% of what they wanted." Under the agreement that would cover the rest of 2012, the nearly $100 billion payroll tax cut would not be paid for -- a consequence of the parties' inability to compromise on either new taxes or offsetting spending cuts, said top congressional aides from both parties. It would be coupled, however, with measures extending unemployment benefits and preventing a fee cut to Medicare doctors -- known in Washington as the "doc fix." The latter two measures -- costing a combined $50 billion -- would be paid for, the aides said. Possible funding sources to pay for the measure include saving from broadband spectrum sales of about $13 billion, increased pension contributions by federal employees of about $16 billion and cuts to Medicare hospital and specialist fees that would not impact patients, according to the congressional aides. "I think they have to work out all the details, but I think the big scope has been agreed to," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters. However, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, was less enthusiastic, saying "this is not our preferred way" to deal with the issues and adding that details were still being studied. Congressional aides differed by party on details of extending the unemployment benefits, particularly the maximum number of weeks that will be funded. While a Democratic aide said the maximum for states with high unemployment would continue at the current 99 weeks, a Republican aide said the maximum would be 89 weeks and most states would have a maximum of 63 weeks of benefits by the end of the year. Some Republicans wanted unemployed individuals to pass drug tests and meet certain education standards before getting benefits -- an idea generally opposed by Democrats. A top Republican aide said the tentative agreement would allow for states to conduct drug testing when the unemployment benefits applicant was seeking a job that required drug testing or lost a job due to a failed drug test. News of the tentative deal came hours after President Barack Obama publicly urged Congress to extend the payroll tax cut, which is currently set to expire at the end of February. Failure to do so, Obama warned, could derail the economic recovery. "This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class," the president said. "The last thing we need is for Washington to stand in the way of America's comeback." White House Press Secretary Jay Carney later told reporters that the payroll tax cut, extension of unemployment benefits and "doc fix" provision all were "important to the economy in different ways." "It is of vital importance that Congress not muck up the recovery that we're seeing under way," Carney said of the need for a broad agreement. The payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and enhanced "doc fix" payments are set to expire at the end of February under a short-term agreement reached by Congress in December. That agreement also set up the conference committee that resumed negotiations last month on a longer-term deal. Final negotiations have been hammered out by the two committee chairman, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana and Republican Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, in conjunction with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Boehner. The payroll tax cut, a key part of Obama's economic recovery plan, has reduced how much 160 million American workers pay into Social Security on their first $110,100 in wages. Instead of paying in 6.2%, they've been paying 4.2% for the past year and two months. The break is worth about $83 a month for someone making $50,000. On Monday, House GOP leaders dropped their demand that any extension of the tax cut be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. The decision was a sharp turnaround for House Republicans, who previously argued that a failure to fully pay for the tax break would be financially reckless. The debate over whether and how to extend the tax cut has been a political loser so far for the Republicans, who had publicly questioned its value last year. Democrats have gleefully highlighted the GOP's reluctance, using the issue to portray Republicans as defenders of the rich who are indifferent to the plight of the middle class. Political analysts believe the showdown over the payroll holiday has eroded GOP strength on the party's core issue of lower taxes. Fearing negative repercussions, Republican leaders have now backtracked on the issue twice: dropping their opposition to the two-month extension last December and dropping their insistence on paying for a longer extension on Monday. "I think the GOP has read the writing on the wall when it comes to the payroll tax cut," said Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller. "Americans are benefiting from it, and to take it away at this juncture leaves them open to charges of raising taxes. ... It would severely hamper the GOP presidential nominee's effort to defeat Obama." Johns Hopkins University political scientist Adam Sheingate called the GOP's latest move "a subtle shift in strategy precipitated by the improving economic outlook of the past few weeks." "By agreeing to a deal, the GOP can claim some credit for extending the holiday," Sheingate said. "Failing to extend the payroll tax would not only be unpopular, it would shift some of the responsibility for the economy back on the Republicans. This is to be avoided at all costs since the GOP (election) strategy rests almost entirely on Obama's handling of the economy." In announcing their shift on the payroll tax issue Monday, Boehner and two other top House GOP leaders said they wanted separate the matter from legislation dealing with unemployment benefits and the doc fix. Doing so would "protect small businesses and our economy from the consequences of Washington Democrats' political games," said Boehner, Cantor and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-California. Schiller told CNN the idea of divorcing the payroll tax cut from an unemployment benefits extension and the doc fix was a "clever" idea on the part of the House GOP leadership. Doing so would have removed the Democrats' "leverage on the other issues of unemployment and Medicare payments," she said. "Also, as the unemployment numbers get better, the rationale for a lengthy extension of benefits diminishes. The longer the GOP can stall on the unemployment extension, the more likely it is they win in terms of authorizing a much shorter extension than the Democrats would like." Democrats, however, quickly pushed back hard against the idea. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, on Tuesday urged Republicans to allow Congress to quickly complete its work on all three issues -- the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance, and the doc fix. Pelosi said Congress should cancel a recess currently scheduled for next week if it fails to complete work on all of them by Friday. "These crucial policies affect millions of middle class families and seniors and must not expire at the end of this month," Pelosi said. Instead of a separate measure involving only the payroll tax cut extension, the tentative agreement Tuesday was a more comprehensive package worked out by the conference committee negotiators . It remains unclear if the increasingly conservative House GOP caucus will be willing to go along with the tentative deal. House Republican freshmen, elected on a tidal wave of tea party support in 2010, have made deficit reduction their top priority and repeatedly insisted that any new initiatives be fully paid for. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Florida, said discussion Tuesday night in the House Republican caucus was "heated" over not paying for the payroll tax cut extension, which he called "bad policy," while fellow Floridian Rep. Allen West, a tea party conservative, said "this doesn't look like a good deal to me." Meanwhile, two New York Republicans, Reps. Tom Reed and Peter King, sounded more supportive, with King saying he expected the measure to pass. One key conservative, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, indicated Tuesday he's prepared to back Boehner and the other House GOP leaders. Jordan's "view is anytime we're letting people keep more of their money, that's a good thing," said Brian Straessle, a spokesman for the Republican congressman. Veteran political analyst Norm Ornstein warned that the GOP leadership's repeated maneuvering on the issue could end up backfiring. House Republican leaders have been "trying to make the best of crummy situation," Ornstein told CNN. But tea party Republicans "don't care" if fighting the tax cut extension is "a political loser. They don't like the payroll tax cut and now the (leadership's) sin is being compounded by saying they won't pay for it." This "could play out in ways that make the life of Boehner (and other Republican leaders) a little less comfortable," he predicted. CNNMoney's Jeanne Sahadi and CNN's Tom Cohen and Rebecca Stewart contributed to this report .

NEW: Some Republican congressmen question the tentative agreement . Progress is made after Republicans back down on payroll tax cut . Political analyst Norm Ornstein warns new GOP strategy could backfire . President Obama warns that failing to act could hurt the economic recovery .

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama spoke separately Friday with Speaker John Boehner and the top Senate Democrat to try to salvage a fiscal cliff deal by the end of year, after Republican disarray in the U.S. House put the negotiations in limbo. In a previously unscheduled statement to reporters, Obama outlined a possible agreement that he said would include protecting middle-class Americans from a tax hike, extending unemployment benefits and setting a framework for future deficit reduction steps. He called on Congress to pass the agreement after a Christmas break so he can sign it before the end of the year, when the fiscal cliff arrives in the form of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts. "Laws can only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans," Obama said in urging both sides to compromise. The president planned to fly with his family to Hawaii on Friday night for the holiday and return to Washington after Christmas, while House and Senate members also headed home with plans to return on December 27 if needed. Boehner's spokesman said the speaker will be "ready to find a solution that can pass both houses of Congress" when he returns to Washington. What failure on fiscal deal means for troubled Boehner . While congressional leaders continued to bicker Friday over the next step, the president's phone discussion with Boehner and a White House meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled an attempt to provide the nation and investors with hope that an agreement can be reached. An aide to Reid said the short-term proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff should include extending tax cuts for middle-class families and unemployment insurance while delaying the automatic spending cuts set to take effect in the new year. Obama acknowledged what had become obvious: the broader deficit reduction deal he seeks will likely come in stages, rather than in the so-called grand bargain he and Boehner have been negotiating. The main issue of disagreement continued to be taxes, specifically whether rates should go up on top income brackets for the wealthiest Americans as part of an agreement to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt. Without a deal, the fiscal cliff could trigger a recession, economists warn. Stocks closed down sharply on Friday over the latest impasse in the deficit talks, a sign of investor fears of a slowdown as the nation slowly continued to emerge from recession. Before leaving town, Boehner puts fiscal cliff onus on Obama . Earlier Friday, Reid called for House Republicans to quickly approve a Senate plan championed by Obama that would extend tax cuts for family income up to $250,000 while allowing rates to return to higher levels of the 1990s above that threshold. His Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, responded that the Senate should instead take up a House Republican measure extending the tax cuts for everyone as a temporary move before negotiations next year on broader tax reform. The GOP revulsion over any kind of tax rate increase has stymied deficit negotiations for two years and led to unusual political drama, such as McConnell recently filibustering his own proposal and Thursday night's rebuff by House Republicans of an alternative tax plan pushed by Boehner, their leader. Boehner said at a news conference Friday that his Republican colleagues refused to back his plan, which would have extended all tax cuts except for income over $1 million, because of fears of being blamed for a tax increase. "They weren't taking it out on me," he said. "They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes." The lack of backing by his own caucus was a political blow to Boehner and raised more questions than answers about what happens next in the tough negotiations with Obama on either a broad deficit reduction agreement or a smaller step to avoid the fiscal cliff. A breakdown of Boehner's miscalculation on Plan B . A senior Democratic Senate source said scenarios under consideration by the party include trying to work out short-term or comprehensive agreements now, or going into next year -- and over the fiscal cliff -- without a deal to quickly pass a compromise plan in the new Congress that convenes on January 3. Waiting until next year would make the vote a tax cut from the automatic higher rates that will take effect under the fiscal cliff, instead of the current situation of extending some cuts and having top rates go up, the source noted. In addition, Democrats will have two more seats in the new Senate and a stronger House minority, as well as increased pressure on Republicans to keep taxes low on middle class Americans, according to the source. Three possible scenarios Democrats may pursue . Trying to hammer out a deal now means working with limited time and stronger Republican contingents in both chambers, the source said. Boehner made clear Friday that the negotiations with Obama on a broad deficit reduction agreement hit an impasse this week when both sides offered their "bottom line" positions that included major concessions -- but remained a few hundred billion dollars apart. With his alternative plan torpedoed by his own party, Boehner said it now is time for Obama and Senate Democrats to come up with a solution. Boehner also denied a reporter's suggestion that he is walking away from further talks, but he offered no timetable or mechanism for resuming discussions. In the Senate, Reid said all House measures on the fiscal cliff so far have failed to meet the minimum demands of Obama, such as wealthy Americans paying more to prevent an increased burden on middle-class families. "I like John Boehner, but gee whiz, this is a pretty big political battering that he has taken," Reid said, calling on the speaker to allow a vote on the Senate-passed Obama plan. "It will pass. Democrats will vote for it. Some Republicans will vote for it. That is what we are supposed to do." On Thursday night, the House passed a measure that would reduce the impact of the fiscal cliff's automatic spending cuts on the military. However, the chamber then went into recess when it was clear Boehner lacked the votes for his separate tax plan that maintained cut rates on income up to $1 million. Conservatives opposed to any kind of increase in tax rates refused to sign on, and with Democrats unified in their opposition, the measure had no chance of passing. Fallout from fiscal cliff inaction . "There was a perception created that that vote last night was going to increase taxes. I disagree with that characterization," Boehner said Friday by way of explanation, adding that "the perception was out there, and a lot of our members did not want to have to deal with it." Reid had said the Senate would spurn the Boehner plan if it passed the House, and Obama promised to veto it if it reached his desk. According to Republican sources, the zero chance for Boehner's Plan B to actually become law influenced some wavering House members to reject it. Obama campaigned for re-election on extending the tax cuts that date back to his predecessor's administration on income up to $250,000 for families, but returning to higher rates on amounts above that threshold. Some House Republicans have said they would join Democrats in supporting the president's proposal in hopes of moving past the volatile issue to focus on the spending cuts and entitlement reforms they seek. The Plan B was significant because Republican leaders previously insisted they wouldn't raise rates on anyone. Boehner had complained Thursday that in making that concession, he expected but never got significant concessions from Obama. He elaborated on the negotiations Friday, saying he told Obama that his latest proposal made over the weekend was his bottom line. Boehner said Obama told him the White House counterproposal Monday was the president's bottom line. Boehner also repeated his complaint that Obama and Democrats were unwilling to address the spending cuts and entitlement reforms that he considers necessary to properly address the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt. "What the president has proposed so far simply won't do anything to solve our spending problems," Boehner said, noting that "because of the political divide in the country, because of the divide here in Washington, trying to bridge these differences has been difficult." CNN Poll: Are GOP policies too extreme? In his statement Friday, Obama said he had compromised at least halfway on major issues, and that both sides have to accept they will not get all they want. The possibility of a fiscal cliff was set in motion over the past two years as a way to force action on mounting government debt. Now legislators risk looking politically cynical by seeking to weaken the measures enacted to try to force them to confront tough questions regarding deficit reduction, such as reforms to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Polling has consistently shown most Americans back the president, who insists wealthy Americans must pay more, rather than Boehner and his Republican colleagues, who have balked at tax rate hikes and demanded spending cuts and entitlement program reforms. A new CNN/ORC International survey released Thursday showed that just over half of respondents believe Republicans should give up more in any solution and consider the party's policies too extreme. Opinion: Boehner leading GOP to the apocalypse . The two sides seemingly had made progress earlier this week on forging a $2 trillion deficit reduction deal that included new revenue sought by Obama and spending cuts and entitlement changes desired by Boehner. The president's latest offer set $400,000 as the income threshold for a tax rate increase, up from his original plan of $250,000. It also included a new formula for the consumer price index applied to some entitlement benefits, much to the chagrin of liberals. Called chained CPI, the new formula includes assumptions on consumer habits in response to rising prices, such as seeking cheaper alternatives, and would result in smaller benefit increases in future years. Statistics supplied by opponents say the change would mean Social Security recipients would get $6,000 less in benefits over the first 15 years of chained CPI. Liberal groups sought to mount a pressure campaign against including the chained CPI after news emerged this week that Obama was willing to include it, calling the plan a betrayal of senior citizens who had contributed throughout their lives for their benefits. Poll: Americans view economy as poor, split on future . CNN's Greg Botelho, Jessica Yellin and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

NEW: President Obama spoke with congressional leaders about a possible deal . A Democratic source lays out possible scenarios . House Republicans reject Speaker Boehner's tax alternative . Everyone's taxes go up in 11 days without an agreement .

(CNN) -- Five years ago Sunday, the water rushed in, the lights went out and for thousands of Gulf Coast residents nothing was ever the same. The milestone was marked by vigils, tears and reflection on what was, what came after, what still remains to be done and what, if anything, we have learned from Hurricane Katrina. A number of events were planned in New Orleans, Louisiana, and elsewhere to commemorate the anniversary of the landfall of Katrina, the costliest and one of the five deadliest storms ever to strike the United States. President Barack Obama visited New Orleans on Sunday and spoke at Xavier University of Louisiana, where he said that the construction of a fortified levee system to protect the city is under way. "We should not be playing Russian roulette every hurricane season," he said. Obama also vowed that reforms are being put into place "so that never again in America is somebody left behind in a disaster because they're living with a disability or because they're elderly or because they're infirm. That will not happen again." The hard-hit parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard were holding commemorative community events, and a third commemoration was planned in New Orleans' Jackson Square. Katrina left more than 1,800 dead in its wake. It slammed into the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line early on August 29, 2005. Most of the dead were in and around New Orleans, where more than three-quarters of the city flooded after its protective levees failed. Nearly 300,000 people were displaced. After the storm, "We were a city that had no people in it," Ray Nagin, who was mayor of New Orleans when Katrina struck. "Now, we're a city that has over 80 percent of its population back. Lowest unemployment in the country. Construction everywhere. I think we're on our way to success," Nagin told CNN's Don Lemon as the storm's anniversary approached. Still, it is widely agreed that more work remains to bring New Orleans and the Gulf Coast back from Katrina's devastating blow. Some say that little has improved, and entire neighborhoods in Louisiana and beyond have not rebounded. "Nothing's really changed," said Conrad Wyre III, 35, of New Orleans. Some regions are still "in shambles," he said, and some residents still feel helpless and without support, as if they are "floating in the wind." About 6,000 families own homes that cannot be rebuilt. One-third of New Orleanians say their lives are still disrupted by the storm, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation Poll. In New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood -- seen as ground zero for Katrina's wrath -- only 4,000 of 18,000 residents have returned. "I don't have to tell you that there are still too many vacant and overgrown lots," Obama said Sunday. "There are still too many students attending classes in trailers. There are still too many people unable to find work. And there's still too many New Orleans folks who haven't been able to come home." "So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you -- and fight alongside you -- until the job is done, until New Orleans is all the way back." "This is the place ... where I think the American people witnessed a real loss of faith in their federal government," Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "I have really been moved by the spirit of the people in New Orleans in the Gulf, and their rebuilding, and the optimism in progress that I have seen. More than 90 percent of the population is back in the New Orleans area, and there is still much ahead of us." When Obama took office, 40,000 families remained in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers or were using emergency housing vouchers, "and literally tens of thousands of them were at risk of losing their homes within weeks of us coming in," Donovan said. "Today, 98 percent of the families are in permanent housing." Katrina made its initial landfall in Florida, where 14 people were killed. But fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf, the storm had grown into a monster Category 5 hurricane, although experts later said its intensity had decreased and it was a strong Category 3 storm when it the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana. The storm cut a wide swath of destruction, wiping out whole sections of Mississippi's Gulf Coast and swamping downtown Mobile, Alabama, with a 20-foot storm surge. Despite the attention focused on New Orleans, it was Waveland, Mississippi that was the hardest hit. Ninety-five percent of the town's homes were destroyed, along with 100 percent of its businesses. Nearly every road was broken up or left under piles of debris. Waveland began rebuilding almost immediately. Bolstered by $100 million in federal aid, it has repaired utilities, roads, schools, community centers and parks, and has recovered 65 percent of its businesses. About two-thirds of residents have returned. Ironically, the city of New Orleans initially breathed a sigh of relief in those early hours, as it was spared a direct hit from the hurricane and at first seemed to have weathered the wind and rain. But Katrina's worst havoc was yet to come, as reports of levee breaches began to surface and entire neighborhoods flooded. Katrina also dealt a black eye to the government, which scrambled to launch a delayed relief effort after the storm as New Orleans residents suffered and reports of crime and looting were widespread. Nagin in a famous expletive-laced interview lashed out, telling federal authorities to "get off your asses." Then-President George W. Bush traveled to New Orleans, delivering a speech from Jackson Square as he promised, "We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives." But that "turned out to be a hollow promise," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "... Because the federal government didn't stay and do everything it could. The federal government didn't make it easy. They made it very, very difficult." Mayors of New Orleans and other areas, when they requested money to rebuild, were offered loans of $5 million, she said. New Orleans' operating budget, she said, is $460 million, and $5 million "wouldn't buy them a loaf of bread for the week." Nagin told CNN recently that he has been reflecting on his own response as the storm approached. He acknowledged the mandatory evacuations could have been issued about eight hours sooner than they were. Asked how FEMA can combat its still-suffering reputation in the region, agency chief Craig Fugate told CNN Saturday he believes responding quickly is the key. "Speed is going to be critical," said Fugate, who distinguished himself as the head of the Florida Emergency Management Agency before being appointed to the federal post. "We cannot wait for a full assessment. We have to respond as if it's bad, bring the things together, and focus on the most immediate [goal] of keeping it safe, getting to the injured, trapped, and recovering the lost lives, getting supplies in here." "The big lesson from Katrina is, you can't wait to find out how bad it is," he said. "You've got to respond, as a team, as [if] it is bad." Obama said Sunday a group led by Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is examining disaster recovery nationwide. "We're improving coordination on the ground, modernizing emergency communications and helping families plan for a crisis," Obama said. "...Together we are helping to make New Orleans a place that stands for what we can do in America -- not just for what we can't do," he said. "And ultimately, that must be the legacy of Katrina: not one of neglect, but of action; not one of indifference, but of empathy; not of abandonment, but of a community working together to meet shared challenges." The head of FEMA at the time, Michael Brown, resigned two weeks after Katrina made landfall amid criticism of the federal response -- and 10 days after Bush's famous compliment to him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Brown told CNN on Thursday the talking points he and other federal officials used at the time did not tell the whole story, calling it a "fatal mistake." "They were factually correct, but weren't in context," Brown said. "We're moving all of this stuff in. We have teams here. Rescue teams are doing this. But we never explained to the people that it's not coming as fast as we want it to, and it's not enough, because of the number of people that were left behind in the aftermath of the storm." "Had I said that at the time, I probably would have gotten the old hook and been pulled off the stage anyway, but the truth would have been out," he said. He criticized former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's handling of the situation. Chertoff attended an avian flu convention in the midst of the disaster. "Here is why that's so important. In the middle of any crisis," Brown said, "whether it's a natural disaster or man-made disaster, you need to have one person in charge. And that person needs to be on the ground with the team, understanding what's going on." On Bush's infamous compliment, he said, "I knew the minute he said that, the media and everybody else would see a disconnect between what he was saying and what I was witnessing on the ground. That's the president's style. His attitude and demeanor is always one of being a cheerleader and trying to encourage people to keep moving. It was just the wrong time and the wrong place."

NEW: Obama speaks at Xavier University in New Orleans . Commemorations are planned across the Gulf Coast to mark the Katrina anniversary . Officials reflect on lessons learned from the storm .

(CNNGo) -- What? A best-markets-of-the-world lineup without Marrakesh, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar and Cairo's Khan el-Khalili in the mix? But you already know about those, and anyway we just mentioned them. If you're still searching for that elusive knockoff, that priceless $20 trinket, that vintage earthenware goblet -- above all, that authentic bazaar experience -- you can bet your top and bottom dollar you'll score big at one of the following, one-of-a-kind markets around the world. 1. FLEA . Rose Bowl Flea Market: Los Angeles . Every second Sunday of the month, 2,500 vendors and 20,000 hagglers gather outside Pasadena's storied Rose Bowl to barter over Eames chairs, Richard Pryor memorabilia, antique dental tools, art deco glassware and that autographed Aerosmith bootleg you've been hunting for. Never mind Hollywood or Venice Beach, here's the definitive L.A. Experience. A tradition since 1969. Best buys: Locals flock here for anti-IKEA home furnishing deals they can stuff into a friend's borrowed pickup. Travelers come for vintage clothing and accessories, cheap 502 Levi's owned by former B-list celebrities and the best people-watching in Southern California. Know B4 u go: Regular admission, starting at 9 a.m., costs $8, but you can pay more to get in earlier, starting from 5 a.m. Rose Bowl Flea Market: 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, +1 323 560 7469; www.rgcshows.com . Also on CNNGo: Quirkiest Souvenirs . 2. FLOATING . Tha Kha Floating Market: Ratchaburi, Thailand . Every beige-pants-wearing Southeast Asian traveler and their posse of touts flock to the far better known Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. A more authentic option: hiding out with your Canon at this far less touristed aqua-bazaar just ten kilometers away -- where the same colorful chaos of flat boats captained by tough-as-nails Thai women awaits, with rather fewer Rough Guide-reading riffraff. Best buys: Go ahead and score that ripe mangosteen or choice bunch of Malacca grapes. The prime takeaway experience is a hired boat ride along the canals -- and an overnight in one of several homestays in the area. Know B4 u go: Consult the heavens before you arrive. The market is only open six days a month (6 a.m.-noon) in accordance with the Thai lunar calendar. 10 kilometers from Damnoen Saduak market, your best bet is to hire a taxi. Open 6 a.m.-noon weekends only. Also on CNNGo: Most sinful cities in Asia . 3. FISH . Tsukiji Central Fish Market: Tokyo . "Lost in Translation" is an I-Can-Read book compared to the incomprehensible scene inside Japan's biggest seafood market -- a 1,200-stall, hangar-style building on Tokyo Bay packed to the gills with frenzied fishmongers and wholesalers bartering over 2,000-plus tons of marine meat every day. Can a single ocean actually support this place? Best buys: If you're a local buyer, choose from more than 450 kinds of seafood. Visitors can feast their eyes on these proceedings (after 9 a.m. when tourists are permitted inside the "inner" market) and then sample the goods in the "outer" market's lineup of top sushi bars. Know B4 u go: The early-morning tuna auction is legendary, and currently restricted to 140 first-come-first-served spectators per day -- who line up at the market's main info center by 5 a.m. Above Tsukiji Shijo Station on the Oedo Subway Line, or a five-minute walk from Tsukiji Station on the Hibiya Subway Line. The closest rail station is Shimbashi, about 15 minutes' walk from the market. www.tsukiji-market.or.jp . Also on CNNGo: Insider's guide to Tsukiji fish market . 4. FRENZIED . Chandni Chowk: Delhi . It's saying something when a shopping district is routinely called "incomparable" even by Indian standards. The swarm of spice sellers, masala merchants, paneer pushers, Vishnu figurine hawkers and every other imaginable purveyor and shopkeeper buried in the rickshaw and oxcart traffic of Old Delhi's timeless commercial artery, Chandni Chowk, erases all doubt that roads like New York's Canal Streetor L.A.'s Santee Alley are relatively young and tame. Best buys: Pick your specialized alley for clothes, fabrics, jewelry, leather goods or electronics and let the haggling begin. The real headliner here is Delhi street food -- beginning (and ending) with a deep-fried jalebi at the institutional Old and Famous Jalebi Wala on Dariba Kalan Road. Know B4 u go: Duck into the adjacent Red Fort (a palatial-style stronghold and UNESCO World Heritage Site) or the Jama Masjid (India's largest mosque) to decompress and view two of the subcontinent's most outstanding architectural achievements. Any rickshaw wallah in the city will take you to Chandni Chowk in north New Delhi for less than $5. Also on CNNGo: 50 reasons why Tokyo is the greatest city . 5. FLOWER . Aalsmeer Flower Auction: Aalsmeer, The Netherlands . The most only-in-Holland-experience that doesn't involve a "coffeeshop" takes place 16 miles southwest of Amsterdam in the small lakeside town of Aalsmeer -- home of the world's largest flower auction. About 20 million flowers and more than 13,000 varieties are bartered off in a visitor-friendly warehouse that's reckoned -- at 990,000 square meters -- to be the third largest in the world. Best buys: If you're shopping for a cheap spring bouquet, stick with Amsterdam's Bloemenmarkt. Aalsmeer's more of a spectator sport where visitors can watch pros bid on football field-size quantities of tulips, gardenias, roses, lilies and gerber daisies before ending up in the site's souvenir shop for floriculture tchotchkes. Know B4 u go: Get here early. Technically the auction runs until 11 a.m., but the flower bidding wars hit their stride at around 7 a.m. Take bus 172 from outside Centraal Station, near the Victoria Hotel, which stops right outside the auction warehouse. www.floraholland.com/en/AboutFloraHolland . Also on CNNGo: 15 unusual places to spend a night . 6. FESTIVE . San Pedro Telmo Antiques Fair: Buenos Aires . Officially, this Sunday proceeding -- about 270 stalls and 10,000 pedestrians -- held in the main plaza of historic San Telmo is billed as an antiques fair. Fair enough. But it's a Buenos Aires-styled antiques fair -- replete with carnivalesque street performers, musicians and impromptu tango performances. Best buys: Old gaucho bolos and bridles, classic tango art and recordings and other Argentine gems you won't find elsewhere are for sale in Plaza Dorrego and along the Crafts Walk on Calle Defensa. Know B4 u go: After the vendors start packing up at around 4 p.m., stick around for the outdoor Milonga, the city's best free, Sunday evening open-air tango dance party. Dorrego Square, Defensa and Humberto, 1 Buenos Aires; every Sunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Also on CNNGo: 10 islands for every type of traveler . 7. FREAKISH . Sonora Witchcraft Market: Mexico City . These three had been dying to come to this market for years. You can only browse through so many buckets of chilies, cactus paddles and piñata stalls at Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City's top farmers' market, before it's time for a jolt of the occult at the neighboring Mercado de Sonora -- a maze of ritualistic, remedy-filled booths that's collectively been called "the Walmart of the witch world." Best buys: It all depends on what you're trying to attract or repel by spiritual means. The range of healing herbs, love potions, Santería charms, voodoo dolls, tarot-reading luminaries, unorthodox dandruff cures and dried critters is staggering. Know B4 u go: Mercado Sonora is held in sacred regard by a loyal local following. While browsing for snake blood, be respectful with your comments and camera. Avenida Fray Servando Teresa, Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City. Also on CNNGo: Worlds coolest nationalities . © 2011 Cable News Network Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved .

These one-of-a-kind markets around the world offer unique buys and bargains . 2,500 vendors gather every month at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in L.A. The Aalsmeer Flower Auction is the world's largest with 20 million flowers . The Mercado de Sonora has been called "the Walmart of the witch world"

(CNN)Long distance trails inspire contradictory tales of solitude and camaraderie, deserted river beds and mountain plateaus, pleasure and pain. The idea of covering thousands of miles on foot is itself barely believable. Perhaps that's what makes these adventures so memorable. Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her 1,000-mile trek along the U.S. Pacific Crest Trail was so enthralling it made it to Hollywood. "Wild," a film based on her account and starring Reese Witherspoon, was one of the most talked about releases at the end of 2014, with Witherspoon even nominated for a best actress award at the 2015 Golden Globes. If you'd like a piece of that action, or simply crave dehydrated food, days without washing and multiple, life-threatening encounters, then here are 10 other epic hikes ripe for big screen treatment. Who would play you? The Appalachian (United States) Distance: 3,510 kilometers (2,180 miles) The Appalachian is the grand dame of long-distance trails. One third of North America's holy hiking trinity, the Triple Crown -- the others being the Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails -- it's the most iconic, famed for its "thru hikers" who attempt to complete it in a single season. Its 5 million steps follow the Appalachian Mountains from Mount Springer, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine. The range was once a natural border to the 13 colonies held by powerful Native American tribes like the Iroquois and Cherokee, before independence gave rise to westward expansion. Among the highlights: the idyllic, overgrown tracks through Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina, North America's most diverse forest. More information at: Appalachiantrail.org . The South West Coast Path (UK) Distance: 1,016 kilometers (630 miles) The UK's longest National Trail is a stroll in the park compared to some of the other walks on our list, but what it lacks in longevity it makes up for in history. This dramatic coastal route from Minehead, Somerset, to Poole Harbour in Dorset, takes hikers around the tip of Cornwall, crisscrossing two World Heritage Sites including the famed Jurassic Coast. Nicknamed for its 240-million-year-old rocks, these prehistoric cliffs feature spectacular formations like Durdle Door and Ladram Bay. And while it may be shorter you'll still have to climb a total of 114,931 feet (35,031 meters or four times the height of Everest) to finish it. More information: Southwestcoastpath.com . Te Araroa (New Zealand) Distance: 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) With a backdrop straight out of Middle Earth -- glacial ridges, windswept headlands, shires -- New Zealand's landscape doesn't disappoint. Te Araroa (Maori for "The long pathway") covers most of it; all the way from Cape Regina in the North to Bluff on the southern tip. "Tramping" the length of it, as the Kiwis would say, from the gentle bays of Queen Charlotte to the volcanic Mount Tongariro, takes about three months. Still, even at a fast pace you could be overtaken be overtaken. Ultramarathon runner Jezz Bragg completed it in a fantastical time of 53 days. More information: Teararoa.org.nz . Continental Divide Trail (United States) Distance: 4,990 kilometers (3,100 miles) The third and longest installment of The Triple Crown is really a director's cut -- loved by serious trail enthusiasts but not for everyone. Spanning 3,100 miles from Mexico to Canada along the Rocky Mountain spine of North America, it takes hikers across some arduous but spectacular terrain including the Red Desert dunes of Wyoming and the heights of Grays Peak (14,270 feet/4,350 meters) in Colorado. The standout feature is Triple Divide Peak in Montana, where the rain runs three ways to the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic via Hudson Bay. Only 150 people attempt to thru-hike the trail each year. The youngest to complete it was 13-year-old Reed Gjonnes. More information: Continentaldividetrail.org . Sir Samuel and Lady Florence Baker Historical Trail (Sudan-Uganda) Distance: 805 kilometers (500 miles) Trail blazers have recaptured the spirit of discovery with this historic route, which retraces the expedition of Sir Samuel and Lady Florence Baker's -- the first Europeans to set eyes on Lake Albert and name it after Queen Victoria's late husband -- to that great African lake, 150 years ago. Starting near Juba, in South Sudan, the greater part runs through Uganda to Baker's View, over Lake Albert, and takes in natural wonders like Murchison Falls, which break the Nile with a 141-foot (43 meter) drop as it flows to Lake Victoria. More info: Thebakertrail.com . Oregon Desert Trail (United States) Distance: 1,287 kilometers (800 miles) The Oregon High Desert is a thrilling, stark arena in which to test your mettle. The route is a moveable feast of shorter trails, historic wagon roads and swathes of wilderness to pioneer as you desire, or "bushwhack," as hiking enthusiasts call it. Not for the inexperienced, the isolation and scarcity of water over long sections pose a serious challenge, requiring significant backup resources. But it's not all desolation. There's a quiet beauty to the landscape, which blooms wherever there's moisture. The truly remote, red-rock Owyhee Canyonlands seem to crumble away as you wander through. More information: Onda.org . Grand Italian Trail, Sentiero Italia (Italy) Distance: 6,166 kilometers (3,830 miles) There are "Great" trails and even "Greater" trails. The Sentiero is best described as "Grand." It's an indulgent, convalescent tour traversing the entire Alpine arc before shimmying down the Apennine chain to Sicily and finally drifting west across the Tyrrhenian to Sardinia and Santa Teresa Gallura -- site of the ancient city of Tibula. The route was forged in 1995 by the first Walk Italy event and gives not so much a taste but a full five courses of La Dolce Vita: from the majestic Dolomites, via rich Tuscan vineyards, to the jaw-dropping splendor of the Amalfi Coast. With such varied terrain and the sheer distances involved a thru-hike takes considerable planning and roughly eight months to complete. More information: Traildino.com . Great Himalayan Trail (Nepal) Distance: 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) In a word: ambitious. Still being put together, when finished, this 4,500 kilometer (2,796 mile) skyscraping traverse will be the longest and highest mountain trail in the world, crossing the entire Himalaya range from Kashmir to Tibet, via India, Nepal and Bhutan. Nepal's section is the most complete and it alone offers one of the great trekking challenges. It's split into Low and High routes that run near parallel, beginning either side of Kanchenjunga Base Camp and ending on the Tibetan border in Humla. For high culture, the low route (still averaging 2,000 meters in height) passes through remote Nepali villages dotted along the hills and valleys. Only those with mountaineering experience should attempt the high route -- it peaks at a breathless 6,146 meters (20,164 feet). More information: Thegreathimalayatrail.org . Hokkaido Nature Trail (Japan) Distance: 4,585 kilometers (2,849 miles) Japan is something of a distance-walking paradise, home to five of the world's 10 longest trails. At 2,849 miles and growing, this is the longest and last of them all, exploring the glaciers, forests and steaming, volcanic mountains of Hokkaido. Japan's northernmost island is roughly the size of Austria, with short balmy summers and long, cold winters. A complete tour takes seven months and is best divided by either side of winter. More information: Walkjapan.com . Trans Panama Trail (Panama) Distance: 800 kilometers (497 miles) Anyone who has hiked in the tropics will testify to the difficult conditions. Sweaty, dense jungles, swarms of mosquitoes and numerous other bloodsucking creatures await and that's before you even begin this 500-mile journey. But the rewards are greater for those challenges. This cross-Panama route takes hikers from the border in Colombia to Costa Rica, and promises encounters with remote indigenous tribes like the Kuna and Embera. Hikers have a chance to canoe backwaters banked with lush rainforest and explore paths carved by conquistadors 600 years ago. Half complete in 2009, the whole route has now been mapped by Rick Morales, who himself completed it in just more than three months. More information: Transpanama.org .

At 4,500 kilometers, Nepal's Great Himalayan Trail is the longest and highest mountain trail in the world . The Grand Italian Trail takes considerable planning and roughly eight months to complete . Only 150 people attempt to thru-hike the Continental Divide Trail each year .

(CNN)If there were an obvious takeaway for the 2016 hopefuls this year, it might as well have been the motto for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton: "It's the economy, stupid." So it is no wonder that many of Hillary Clinton's touchstones on the campaign trail this year have come straight from her husband's 1992 playbook — at times almost verbatim — a focus on rebuilding the middle class, addressing income inequality, and reviving the American promise that each generation should fare better than the last. The echoes of the early 1990s in Clinton's speeches as she weighs a run for the presidency are no accident. In what amounted to her first major foray on the campaign trail in September at retiring Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin's steak fry, she spoke of restoring "the basic bargain of America" -- one her husband had proposed in the 1992 campaign -- that "no matter who you are or where you come from, if you work hard and you play by the rules, you deserve the opportunity, the same opportunity as anyone else, to build a good life for yourself and your family." Flash back to Bill Clinton's speech in struggling Johnstown, Pa., in April of 1992. The American dream that he grew up with, Clinton said in a typical line from his stump speech, had been shattered for millions of Americans. "The idea," he said, "that if you worked hard and played by the rules you'd be rewarded, you'd do a little better next year than you do last year, and your kids will do better than you — that idea has been devastated." If she runs for president, pundits will invariably argue for the next two years over whether a Hillary Clinton White House would look more like a third term of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton — and Democrats face a difficult challenge holding on to the White House given that it often flips to the opposing party after eight years of one-party control. But when it comes to voter frustration and unease, Hillary Clinton may be on strikingly similar terrain to what she and her husband navigated in 1991 and 1992. "You just look at the statistics now and they really do match up with 1992," said Chris Lehane, a White House adviser to Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Given that the Clintons left the White House in the midst of an economic boom with unemployment at about 4%, Lehane argues that there are only upsides for the former Secretary of State in associating herself with her husband's tenure. "She benefits enormously from connecting herself to that time period, but it also requires putting out a vision that matches with today's challenges," Lehane said. "It really gets down to the basic idea of what needs to be in place in this day and age so that if you're a middle class family, your kids are actually going to have the opportunity to do better than you." Heading into 2016, the economy has been steadily recovering with unemployment dropping below 6%; as Bill Clinton campaigned in 1991, the economy was in a backward slide (unemployment rose from 6.8% in 1991 to 7.5%). But the pessimism many Americans feel is eerily comparable to when Hillary Clinton first stepped out on the national stage. Only about 23% of Americans said they were satisfied with the direction of the country in the 2014 Gallup survey, just a shade higher than what the polling firm measured in 1991 and 1992. In an August NBC News/WSJ poll, 60% of voters said they believed America was in a state of decline, compared with 63% who said that in December of 1991. There has been even greater erosion in the sense of hopefulness about the prospects of the younger generation. In December of 1991 and 1992, the number of Americans who said they were confident that life for the next generation would be better than their own was between 41% and 44%. This August that number sank to 21%. Aligning with Bill Clinton's early '90s riff on the fading American dream, the December 2014 New York Times/CBS poll found that only 64% of Americans believe it is possible to start poor in this country, work hard and become rich -- an even lower percentage than in the mid-1990s (70%). Republican Pollster Whit Ayres noted that Bill Clinton won in 1992 by wrapping his middle-class focused message around a policy agenda with conservative elements that appealed to a broader audience. "Bill Clinton in 1992 was running as a center-left Democrat who wanted to end welfare as we know it, he was for the death penalty, he ripped into Sister Souljah for saying we ought to have a week where we kill white people," Ayres said. By contrast, Hillary Clinton "is for all the touchstones of the left today," he said, and has yet to show how she would win over more moderate voters. While Clinton ran as the candidate of strength and experience in 2008, Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who advised former President George W. Bush and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, said Clinton has yet to clearly outline a justification for her candidacy in 2016. "I don't think it's readily apparent to anybody, including most every Democrat, what Hillary Clinton is running for president to do or to be, which was not ever the issue with Bill Clinton," Schmidt said. "There are change elections and there are 'more of the same' elections, and there was a lot of economic anxiety in the 1992 election and (Bill Clinton) was able to drive a change narrative." "After eight years of Barack Obama, it's very difficult to understand what kind of change it is that Hillary Clinton's candidacy could represent," he said. To the extent that Hillary Clinton has hinted at her policy agenda, she has not been shy about suggesting that she would build on her husband's legacy, which she took part in shaping as his informal strategist, sounding board and speech editor. The central thread through many of Clinton's political speeches in recent months has once again been the idea of championing the middle class — the "invisible Americans" as she called them in 2008 — or "fighting for the forgotten middle class" as her husband's 1992 campaign brochure framed his version of that message. When talking about expanding paid family leave, for example, she often notes that the Family and Medical Leave Act was the first bill her husband signed in the White House. She has also reminded audiences that he signed legislation that raised the minimum wage in 1996, as she makes the case for another increase. When addressing economic angst while campaigning for Democratic hopeful Bruce Braley in Iowa in late October, she alluded to the Clinton White House years as a kind of golden era: "Millions of new jobs were created, more families made it into the middle class, and more families got lifted out of poverty," she said. Moving beyond nostalgia, she has also tried out variations of the 1992 campaign lines. In seeking to connect, she has echoed the motto that her husband used in his 1992 convention speech: "I am a product of the middle class and when I am president, you will be forgotten no more." "I am a product of the American middle class," she said at the Women in the World Conference in April, adding that she wanted other American children to have the opportunities she had. At the Harkin Steak Fry, she lamented that American families "are working harder than ever" but finding that maintaining a middle class lifestyle is like "rolling a boulder uphill." Cue the tape again to Bill Clinton's 1992 convention speech: "People are working harder than ever," he said, "and their incomes are still going down." When she was by his side during a 1992 bus tour from New York to St. Louis, Bill Clinton sought to strengthen his connection with working class voters by saying he was "tired of the dignity being stripped from blue collar work in America." When Hillary Clinton went to Pennsylvania in October, she carried that theme forward while campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf. "There is nothing but dignity in hard work," she said in that speech, calling for greater respect for the jobs held by her own generation and that of her parents. If the winning strategy for any candidate in 2016 is to show an understanding of the economic angst that voters are feeling — and policies to address it — Republican strategists point out that Clinton's other hurdle will be that her husband was far more natural in showing his empathy for others as he delivered that message. In anticipation of her run, Republicans have pounced on every opportunity to argue that it has been a long time since the Clintons were a struggling young couple in Arkansas — focusing on their wealth and her hefty speech fees. "She has lived a pretty gilded life for the last couple of decades," said Republican strategist Katie Packer Gage, referring to the trappings of Clinton's various roles as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State like her security detail. "When's the last time that she got into a cold car?" Clinton's most notable stumble in that arena was when she told ABC's Diane Sawyer during her book tour that she and her husband were "not only dead broke, but in debt" when they left the White House, as they struggled to pay mortgages on several homes and their daughter's private school education. She quickly sought to clarify her remarks on "Good Morning America." "I fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans today," she said. "It's an issue that I've worked on and cared about my entire life." In 2016, Republicans will be looking for every opportunity to make her prove it.

Clinton's economic rhetoric is straight from husband's 1992 playbook . She has spoken of restoring "the basic bargain of America" Voter frustration is reminiscent of what the Clintons navigated in 1991 and 1992 .

(CNN) -- The final two teams left standing at Euro 2012 should come as no surprise, and nor should another painful exit for perennial underachievers England. A heart-breaking defeat on penalties in their quarterfinal was preceded by 120 minutes which saw the style of finalists Italy overwhelm English pragmatism and conquer their heart-on-sleeve spirit. So why does England continue to employ this bulldog style? And why can't the country who gave birth to the game reinvent itself like the all-conquering Spain team, who will be gunning for a third consecutive major title against Italy in Kiev on Sunday, or the dynamic Germans, young pretenders who fell at the semifinal stage? The answer, according to two respected authors, is history, and how the nation's deep-rooted view of masculinity has molded its soccer style. Until that changes, this relentless cycle of disappointment will continue. David Winner, who wrote "Brilliant Orange," a study of how Dutch culture and psyche contributed to the influence their football visionaries have had on the game, argues England's approach to football has not changed for over half a century. "The English were very true to their strengths and weaknesses at Euro 2012," Winner told CNN. "They've been losing in that way for 60 years. "Every time it comes as surprise when English heart, commitment and valor and all these old Victorian values come unstuck against much more skilful opponents." Italy reach semifinals after penalty kicks drama . The breeding ground for this English style of football has its roots in the boisterous games of the medieval period, Winner argues, and the intrinsic love for "testosterone festivals" like rugby, which was invented around the same time as soccer. For him, the attritional modus operandi showcased by England during Sunday's morale-sapping defeat to a far more fluent Italy side shows the national game is still weighed down by this regressive approach. "The game is profoundly rooted in old English stuff and we never lost that," he adds. "We love the battlers like (former England players) Terry Butcher, Stuart Pearce and Tony Adams." "The idea the game is all about skill and you express your manliness not by fighting but by your skill in being able to do very delicate things -- that affronts something deep in the English male psyche and I don't see any change to it." Winner's view is shared by Simon Kuper, journalist and co-author of "Soccernomics," a book about football's truths, who subscribes to the view that England's methodology was spawned from a notion that the soldier was society's greatest role model. This then infiltrated the nation's best-loved game, reinforcing the idea of a "warrior" culture, when grit and determination were valued over technical skill. The stats from Euro 2012 back this theory up, with England blocking more shots on goal and putting in more tackles than any other nation upon their exit. "In northern Europe, in general, we tend to value discipline and sticking to your task highly," said Kuper. "The collective discipline is important and England and Germany are examples of that. We live in countries where that is valued. You don't lose yourself in personal creativity, you do your job. "The model for the British man is the soldier, maybe even still is. The tabloids talk about our players as soldiers, so the values that are very highly praised in English football are bravery, passion, obedience, hard work and you don't tend to hear that much talk about creativity and inspiration, which are not soldierly virtues." But it isn't all gloom and doom for England. Hope can be extracted from two titans of Europe, Spain and Germany, both of whom radically revamped their approach to the game in the last 15 years. For decades, Spain were one of soccer's greatest underachievers, entrenched in a style that emerged from what General Franco termed "La Furia Española," or the Spanish fury. Like England, Spain's values were immersed in hard work and fight. Time and time again Spain promised much but failed to deliver on the biggest stage. It was not until after the turn of the century their traditional tactics were abandoned, and a new style executed by a generation of emerging players started to yield unprecedented results. Winner insists the revolution was brought about by Spanish giants Barcelona, and their modern interpretation on the Netherlands teams of the 1970s, led by Johan Cruyff, who were said to play "total football." During his stint as manager of Barcelona, Cruyff's doctrine permeated the club, and he played a key role in the establishment of its "La Masia" youth academy that has produced so many gifted players that now make up the backbone for the national team. "Look at how the Spanish used to play and the way they play now," Winner explains. "There's almost no point of contact between the two styles." Reinventing the wheel: How Guardiola revolutionized football . Germany have also undergone a relatively recent transformation, shedding their traditional, battling, hardworking approach after poor returns at the 1998 World Cup in France and the European Championships two years later. Their past triumphs in both competitions -- Germany can boast three titles in each tournament -- were conducted in a manner far removed from the way the current side operate, with skilful and exciting players like Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller at their forefront. German football expert Raphael Honigstein told CNN an insistence on better technical development for young players, instigated in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a result of an under-performing national side, are now starting to pay dividends. "Those changes are apparent now -- this is the first generation to benefit," he said. "If you have those technical players at your disposal then that will affect they way you play. "There was a realization that the Bundesliga's power and success saw an increase in foreigners and that young German players weren't coming through. One of the reasons they identified was the coaching wasn't up to scratch anymore. "They invested lots of money into coaching and youth development and they produced better players. As a result better all-round players were being produced. They gave someone like coach Joachim Low many more options." Germany knock Greece out of Euros . England's quarterfinal defeat has prompted a familiar round of introspection as journalists, pundits, players and managers put forward their blueprint for a bright new future. Yet the national team's malaise is at odds with the global success enjoyed by its domestic competition. The English Premier League is regularly described as the best, most exciting league in the world, borne out by the record amounts of money broadcasters pay to televise it. The next slab of TV rights in the UK was recently sold for £3 billion. But would the Premier League punters welcome a move away from traditional values, which often provide open and frenetic matches, if it meant England were able to re-establish themselves as an international force? "People would like England to be a winning team but they aren't willing to go through the changes to make it possible," Winner added. "If English clubs team were good enough to play the way Spain do -- get a one goal lead and close it out by keeping the ball -- no club crowd would tolerate that for more than 20 minutes. They'd scream 'Get it upfield.' "We'd find that boring and the crowds would stay away, and they'd also find it unmanly." There are changes afoot though. The English Football Association told CNN its new National Football Center, which will act as a development hub for young players and coaches, is due to be handed over next week. Prior to England's humiliating 4-1 defeat to Germany in the second round of the 2010 World Cup, the FA embarked on a process to develop a new philosophy for how the national game should be played, and it has subsequently made changes to the way youngsters are coached. Andy Hilton, a development officer at the coalface of grassroots football in Manchester, says coaching methods and the attitude of parents who would perpetuate the "win at all costs mentality" are also starting to change. He and his colleagues are trying to mesh the traditional English "warrior" style with the more cultured flavor of Spain and Germany, in order to produce players who are comfortable in any type of match situation. "With the older age groups of 15 and over, the English 'warrior' is still the dominant football force. Players love street football moves to beat and humiliate an opponent but the game is high tempo, high octane power and speed with an edge of violence," Hilton said. "Conversely with the younger players many coaches are concentrating on manipulating the ball, being comfortable with it, and not being afraid to dribble or pass it when the situation dictates. "I suppose the question is how do we keep the tiki-taka with young adulthood from childhood? Testosterone, body changes and finding their niche in society forces players to conform to the warrior or look lesser in others' eyes." Both Winner and Kuper agree that England needs a new model, and beginning with a detailed look at how Spain and Germany transformed their fortunes would be a productive starting point. In the meantime, until any of these changes take hold, perhaps the best thing for English fans to do is lower expectations and prepare for an immediate future laden with modest returns. "The future is only bleak in terms of winning tournaments -- England are not going to do that," said Winner. "But they'll bring the nation some pleasure and get out of their group most years. They qualify for tournaments almost always. "We have to change our expectations as a nation, stop having this post-imperial sense that we are entitled to win because we invented the game, and be a bit realistic."

Perennial underachievers England last won a major international tournament in 1966 . Journalists, pundits, players and managers put forward their blueprint for a bright new future . England blocked the most shots on goal and made the most tackles while at Euro 2012 . Over the last decade both Spain and Germany have reinvented the way their national teams play .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The unfolding saga of the Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling touches upon big, explosive issues in American society: Racism. Money. Sports. Secret recordings. And an estranged marriage. Sterling, an attorney and billionaire real estate mogul, is now fighting to keep his co-ownership of the NBA franchise after the league said it would ban him forever in the wake of allegations that he disparaged African-Americans in an audio recording. The Sterling controversy contains as many surprises and exchanges as the ongoing NBA playoffs, which, by the way, still include the Clippers in contention for the league title. In fact, on Thursday, the attorney for Sterling's wife, the other co-owner, told CNN that she's distancing herself from her husband and has informed the NBA she wants the team in her name. How the scandal began . Last month, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the league was imposing a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine against Donald Sterling, co-owner of the Clippers since 1981, for "offensive and disturbing" remarks he made about blacks. Those remarks were uttered in an audio recording published by the celebrity news outlet TMZ, which asserted the two people talking on the tape were Sterling and his "girlfriend," V. Stiviano. TMZ hasn't stated who made the recording or how it was obtained. But Silver said the Clippers owner "acknowledged it was his voice on the tape." CNN hasn't independently confirmed the audio recording. Sterling and Stiviano haven't returned CNN's calls for comment. In a recent interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, however, Stiviano tacitly confirmed the authenticity of the recording when she stated she and Sterling often discussed race: "There's been a number of occasions where Mr. Sterling and I had conversations just like this one." In the recording, Sterling argues with Stiviano about how she posted to Instagram a photo with legendary NBA player Earvin "Magic" Johnson. "In your lousy f**ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with -- walking with black people," Sterling says. "If it's white people, it's OK?" the woman responds. "If it was Larry Bird, would it make a difference?" Bird was also a NBA star who played with the Boston Celtics and a storied rival of Johnson, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers. "I've known [Magic] well and he should be admired .... I'm just saying that it's too bad you can't admire him privately," the man on the recording says. "Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don't put [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games." When the woman says she doesn't share the man's views about race, he tells her: "Well, then, if you don't feel -- don't come to my games. Don't bring black people, and don't come." Stiviano's response . In her only substantial interview, Stiviano, 31, told ABC that Sterling, 80, is now hurting. "Tormented. Emotionally traumatized," Stiviano said. About her relationship with Sterling, Stiviano said she plays a big role in his life, but they are not romantically involved. "I love him just like a father figure," she told ABC. She also described herself as his "right-hand man," "confidant," and "best friend." They also have a financial arrangement, she said. "He at first started paying me as an employee, and then he started paying me off the books," she said. Her attorney, Mac E. Nehoray, said Stiviano was a platonic friend of Sterling's and not his "girlfriend" or, as some media outlets, including CNN, put it, his "mistress." "They were more like friends. Platonic," Nehoray told CNN. Stiviano is writing about book about her life, but she doesn't have a book deal connected to the Sterling controversy, Nehoray said. Even before the racial controversy erupted, Sterling's wife, Shelly, was well aware of Stiviano. In fact, in March, Shelly Sterling sued Stiviano, accusing her of having an affair with her husband and targeting extremely wealthy older men. Stiviano's attorney dismissed as "absolutely false" any description of Stiviano as a "gold digger" and a "con artist." Shelly Sterling's suit claims that her husband used the couple's money to buy Stiviano a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover. Stiviano also took over a $1.8 million duplex through fraud and received about $250,000 in cash from Sterling, the court document claims. Stiviano is fighting back, saying in another court document that there was nothing wrong with Donald Sterling giving her gifts. She also says she never took advantage of him. Donald Sterling's response . Sterling had largely been silent on the controversy. The only significant comment he made was published last week on DuJour.com, which quoted Sterling as saying "I wish I had just paid her off" in reference to Stiviano. The website specified that Sterling was referring to Stiviano in a discussion with one of its writers, but the publication didn't state when the remark was made. CNN couldn't independently confirm the remark. On Thursday, however, another celebrity news outlet, RadarOnline.com, published a new audio recording of Sterling conversing with an unknown man about allegations of Sterling being a racist. Sterling emphatically denies being a racist in the conversation. "You think I'm a racist?" Sterling tells a person Radar Online calls "a long-time friend in the recorded phone conversation." "You think I have anything in the world but love for everybody? You don't think that! You know I'm not a racist!" Sterling says on the recording. "I grew up in East L.A. ..." Sterling continues. "I was the president of the high school there. I mean, and I'm a Jew! And 50% of the people there were black and 40% were Hispanic. ... So I mean, people must have a good feeling for me." CNN couldn't independently confirm the new audio recording. Radar Online said it obtained "a secret audio recording" from an unidentified source who also provided an affidavit confirming the phone call was made by Sterling. Sterling also declares in the recording that he won't sell his co-ownership in the Clippers as the NBA is now demanding. "You can't force people to sell property in America," Sterling says. At one point in the conversation, Sterling sounds bewildered when the friend tells him that rapper-producer Sean "Diddy" Combs is among the celebrities seeking to buy the Clippers. Friend: "I'm just saying they got Sean Combs Diddy... Sterling: "Who?" Friend: "Sean Combs and Oprah." What's next for the Clippers . The "Oprah" cited on the recording is Oprah Winfrey, who is among a long list of public figures reportedly seeking to buy the Clippers, one of 30 teams in the NBA. Other interested celebrities include Floyd Mayweather Jr., ranked by Forbes as one of the highest-paid athletes in the world; former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya; basketball great Magic Johnson; producer-musician Dr. Dre; rapper Rick Ross; music mogul David Geffen; Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison; Rick Caruso, a real estate developer and Los Angeles civic leader; and actors Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg and Frankie Muniz. Meanwhile, Shelly Sterling has no intention of surrendering her stake in the team and has been in touch with the NBA about keeping the team, according to her attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, who spoke Thursday to CNN. Shelly Sterling owns 50% of the team, and her husband the other 50%, through a family trust, O'Donnell said. O'Donnell asserted that as of now, "she's the owner in charge." The couple continue to share properties, he added. But the Sterlings have been estranged and not living together for more than a year, O'Donnell said. Moreover, Shelly Sterling is now distancing herself from the racist comments attributed to her husband, O'Donnell said. "Mrs. Sterling has denounced in the strongest terms possible terms her husband's racist comments," O'Donnell said. Whether Shelly Sterling can keep the team in her name is being robustly discussed by analysts. Complicating the matter is how Donald Sterling intends to fight the forced sale, according to the RadarOnline.com recording. Donald Sterling could be forced to sell his team if three-quarters of the NBA team owners agree, NBA Commissioner Silver said. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that for all practical purposes, the NBA effort to make Donald Sterling sell the team also applies to his wife. "They're the same ownership group. That is not separate ownership," Toobin said. As for the Clippers' more immediate prospects, the team is now tied 1-1 with the Oklahoma City Thunder in a best-of-seven-games playoff series. Both teams are vying to advance to the Western Conference playoffs, whose winner will play for the league title against the Eastern Conference winner. The Clipper's next game is Friday night at home, though the team's off-court drama is proving to be equally compelling. CNN's Stephanie Elam and Rosalina Nieves contributed to this report.

The saga of Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling involves secret recordings . CNN hasn't been able to confirm new audio recording . Attorney for Sterling's wife tells CNN the couple has been estranged for over a year . Sterling's wife is now seeking full ownership of the Clippers, attorney says .

(CNN) -- It's been one week since the streets of Ferguson boiled over after protesters learned the officer who shot teenager Michael Brown won't face criminal charges. And tensions are still simmering. Pockets of protests continue to erupt across the country, including a demonstration that interrupted a speech Attorney General Eric Holder gave in Atlanta Monday night. Here's what to know to get up to speed on the Ferguson fallout: . THE POLITICS . Attorney general responds to protesters: . A group of chanting protesters interrupted a speech by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church on Monday, but Holder said the group shouldn't be criticized. "There will be a tendency on the part of some to condemn what we just saw, but we should not," Holder said. "What we saw there was a genuine expression of concern and involvement. And it is through that level of involvement, that level of concern and I hope a level of perseverance and commitment, that change ultimately will come. And so let me be clear, let me be clear, I ain't mad atcha, all right?" Demonstrators were escorted out of the church after about 30 seconds and continued to protest outside. They pumped their fists in the air, chanting, "No justice, no peace" and "We have nothing to lose but our chains." Holder's response drew a standing ovation from many in the crowd. In the speech, Holder also said he plans to announce "rigorous new standards" for federal law enforcement "to help end racial profiling, once and for all." The new guidance will be released in the coming days, Holder said. Holder is in Atlanta as he launches a series of nationwide conversations following the upheaval in Ferguson, Missouri. Details of Holder's next stops have not been released. "This presents this nation with, I think, a unique opportunity," Holder said. "And I think it's incumbent on all of us to seize this opportunity to deal with issues that for too long have been ignored." Holder has opened two civil rights investigations in Missouri -- one into whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights, the other into the police department's overall track record with minorities. Audience members applauded and cheered as he told the crowd Monday night that those investigations were ongoing. "These twin investigations have been rigorous and they have been independent from the beginning. Now, while federal civil rights law imposes an extremely high legal bar in these types of cases, we have resisted prejudging the evidence or forming premature conclusions," Holder said. "And as these investigations proceed, I want to assure the American people that they will continue to be conducted thoroughly and in a timely manner, following the facts and the law wherever they may lead." Obama vows 'this time will be different': . President Barack Obama held a series of meetings Monday stemming from the Ferguson unrest, calling for a "sustained conversation" surrounding the relationship between police and the communities they serve after a series of meetings with Cabinet members, law enforcement officials, young activists and others on Monday. "In the two years I have remaining as President, I'm going to make sure that we follow through," Obama said. During his remarks Monday afternoon, Obama admitted that past task forces have fallen short, but said that "this time will be different because the President of the United States is deeply vested in making it different." THE PROTESTS . Demonstrations across the country: . The looting and arson that marred last week's protests are over. But the demonstrations continued in Missouri and across the country. After activists called for students to walk out of school and employees to walk off the job nationwide Monday, pockets of protesters nationwide spoke out against police violence. James Villalobos, a student at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst, shared a photo with CNN's iReport showing a large crowd at the school protesting the Ferguson decision. At Yale University, student demonstrators raised their palms in the air, demonstrating the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture that protesters in Ferguson have been using for months. At least two protesters were arrested at a New York City demonstration Monday, police said. Protesters snarled traffic throughout Washington Monday by blocking main roadways across the city, police said. St. Louis Rams players speak out: . Several St. Louis Rams players sent a silent but strong message before they took the field Sunday against the Oakland Raiders. The players raised their palms in the air, repeating the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture that protesters in Ferguson have been using for months. But the move infuriated the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which issued a statement saying it was "profoundly disappointed" with the group of Rams "who chose to ignore the mountains of evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury this week." "The gesture has become synonymous with assertions that Michael Brown was innocent of any wrongdoing and attempting to surrender peacefully when Wilson, according to some now-discredited witnesses, gunned him down in cold blood," the police association wrote. Jeff Fisher, the Rams' coach, told reporters Monday that the players would not be disciplined. "They are exercising their right to free speech," he said. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar sent an e-mail to his staff saying Rams Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff called Monday to apologize. "I received a very nice call this morning from Mr. Kevin Demoff of the St. Louis Rams who wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to our department on behalf of the Rams for the "Hands Up" gesture that some players took the field with yesterday," Belmar wrote in the e-mail, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But the Rams characterized the conversation differently. "We did not apologize," Rams spokesman Artis Twyman told CNN. The team issued a statement saying the organization had "positive discussions" Monday with Belmar and other police officials "during which we expressed our respect for their concerns surrounding yesterday's game." "The Rams will continue to build on what have always been strong and valued relationships with local law enforcement and the greater St. Louis community as we come together to help heal our region," the statement added. THE OFFICER . What's next for Wilson? He's been in hiding for most of the 3 1/2 months since the shooting. And now Darren Wilson is no longer a Ferguson police officer. But what's next? "That's a million dollar question," said Greg Kloeppel, one of Wilson's attorneys. "He's probably going to go back to school. He's probably going to have to pursue other areas of employment, because I think it's quite obvious a job in law enforcement is highly unlikely at this point in time," Kloeepel told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday. Wilson is considering possibly studying business, finance or accounting, attorney Danielle Thompson said. He made the decision to resign, his attorneys said, to put a stop to threats targeting other police officers in Ferguson. "I have been told that my continued employment may put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance that I cannot allow," Wilson, 28, wrote in his resignation letter. "For obvious reasons, I wanted to wait until the grand jury made their decision before I officially made my decision to resign. It was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me. It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal." Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said there will be no severance pay for Wilson's resignation. THE CITY . New initiatives: . Ferguson's mayor outlined new initiatives in an attempt to forge a better relationship between the city's police department and the community. Knowles announced a new civilian review board to provide input on police efforts as well as a scholarship program to try to recruit more African-American officers. Even though the majority of Ferguson is black, only about four of the 50-some officers on Ferguson's police force are black. THE BRIGHT SPOT . A touching sight: . After all the images of screaming, burning and anguish over the past week, one poignant image has been shared more than 150,000 times: a picture of a young black boy and a white police officer hugging. The photo, taken in Portland, Oregon, came after 12-year-old Devonte Hart was holding a sign offering "Free Hugs" at a protest against a grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson. The boy had tears streaming down his face. Portland police Sgt. Bret Barnum said he approached Devonte "not as a police officer, but just a human being" when he saw him crying. Devonte seemed hesitant to talk at first, but Barnum said he broke the ice by talking about life, travel and summer vacations before asking for a hug. "The situation itself is something police officers do every day when they go out on the street and make citizen contacts," Barnum told CNN. The Oregonian newspaper was the first media outlet to publish the photo by 20-year-old freelance photographer Johnny Nguyen. Nguyen told CNN he attended the rally just to take pictures for himself. Then he saw the exchange between the officer and the boy. "I thought, what a great scene," Nguyen said. "A powerful scene. A scene with a message that needed to be communicated. A scene of coming together." Complete coverage of what's happening in Ferguson . CNN's Martin Savidge, Emanuella Grinberg, Wayne Sterling, Dave Alsup, AnneClaire Stapleton, Brian Todd, Justin Lear, Ashley Fantz, Alexandra Jaffe, Brian Vitagliano, Lawrence Crook and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.

NEW: St. Louis County police say a Rams official apologized; the Rams deny . St. Louis Rams coach says players were exercising free speech rights . Attorney General Eric Holder says he'll announce new guidance on racial profiling . He praises protesters who interrupted his speech .

(CNN) -- Need a break from shopping and celebrating the holidays? There will be lots of offerings at your local cinema as Hollywood is releasing a crop of new films through the end of the year. NOW PLAYING . "Burlesque" Plot summary: A small-town girl goes to California to perform in a burlesque musical revue. Starring: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci and Kristen Bell . "Faster" Plot summary: An ex-con out to avenge his brother's murder must also deal with a hit man and a police officer hunting him. Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton and Maggie Grace . "Love and Other Drugs" Plot summary: A pharmaceutical salesman begins a relationship with a woman who has Parkinson's disease. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and Judy Greer . "Tangled" Plot summary: Love inspires the long-haired Princess Rapunzel to leave her tower in this reboot of a beloved fairy tale. Starring: Voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy . "The Legend of Pale Male" * Limited release in New York . Plot summary: Documentary about a red-tailed hawk who becomes a famous resident of New York. Starring: N/A . "The Nutcracker in 3D" * Limited release; wide release December 3 . Plot summary: The classic story of girl whose gift comes to life one Christmas Eve gets a modern, 3-D twist. Starring: Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane and John Turturro . FRIDAY . "The King's Speech" Plot summary: An Australian speech therapist tries to help King George VI of Britain overcome a speech impediment. Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter . "London Boulevard" Plot summary: A parolee battles with a gangster for the affections of a movie star. Starring: Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell and Jamie Campbell Bower . DECEMBER 3 . "All Good Things" * Limited release in New York . Plot summary: Inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crime cases in New York history, the film is part murder mystery, part love story. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Wiig and Frank Langella . "The Assistants" * Limited release in Los Angeles. Plot summary: A group of Hollywood assistants struggle to get a film made. Starring: Joe Mantegna, Jane Seymour, Stacy Keach and Chris Conner . "Black Swan" Plot summary: A thriller in which a ballet dancer finds herself pitted against a newcomer as they both compete for the ultimate role. Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel . "I Love You Phillip Morris" Plot summary: A con man meets the love of his life behind bars. Starring: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor and Leslie Mann . "Dead Awake" Plot summary: A young man attempts to unravel a past that is haunting him. Starring: Nick Stahl, Rose McGowan and Amy Smart . "Meskada" * Limited release . Plot summary: A detective's investigation of a boy's murder leads him back to his hometown. Starring: Nick Stahl, Rachel Nichols, Kellan Lutz and Jonathan Tucker . "Night Catches Us" * Limited release in New York; New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and West Hollywood, California . Plot summary: In 1976, a young man returns after years of being away to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up. Starring: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamie Hector and Wendell Pierce . "The Warrior's Way" Plot summary: A master swordsman seeks sanctuary in an American town after refusing a mission. Starring: Jang Dong-gun, Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush . DECEMBER 10 . "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" Plot summary: Lucy, Edmund and their cousin Eustace are drawn to Narnia again. Starring: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes . "The Company Men" Plot summary: Three men try to survive during a year in which their company undergoes corporate downsizing. Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper . "The Fighter" Plot summary: The story of the early years of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his brother before the former went pro in the mid-1980s. Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams . "Garden of Eden" Plot summary: Promising American novelist David Bourne travels across Europe with his wife and her Italian girlfriend. Starring: Jack Huston, Mena Suvari and Richard E. Grant . "The Tourist" Plot summary: An Interpol agent draws a tourist into a web of intrigue. Starring: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Paul Bettany . "You Won't Miss Me" Plot Summary: A troubled young woman is released from a psychiatric hospital and lashes out at the world with a series of self-destructive acts. Starring: Stella Schnabel, Simon O'Connor, Zachary Tucker and Borden Capalino . "The Tempest" Plot summary: Based on Shakespeare's play, a vengeful sorceress unleashes her powers against shipwrecked enemies. Starring: Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou and Alfred Molina . DECEMBER 17 . "And Soon the Darkness" Plot summary: Two American girls bike in a remote part of Argentina when one disappears and the other must find her before it's too late. Starring: Odette Yustman, Amber Heard, Karl Urban and Adriana Barraza. "How Do You Know" Plot summary: A woman is caught in a love triangle involving a baseball player and an old acquaintance. Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson . "Rabbit Hole" * Limited release; wide release January 14 . Plot Summary: A man and his wife struggle to come to terms with the accidental death of their 4-year-old son. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Sandra Oh and Dianne Wiest . "Yogi Bear" Plot summary: A documentary filmmaker travels to Jellystone Park where he discovers Yogi and Boo-Boo. Starring: Voices of Anna Faris, Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake . "Tron: Legacy" Plot summary: A man is haunted by the disappearance of his father, a world-renowned video game developer. Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde . DECEMBER 22 . "Little Fockers" Plot summary: The Focker family prepares for the arrival of a baby. Starring: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller and Teri Polo . "Somewhere" Plot summary: A Hollywood bad-boy re-examines his life after an unexpected visit from his young daughter. Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning and Chris Pontius . "True Grit" Plot summary: A teenager enlists the aid of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to find her father's killer. Starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfeld . "Gulliver's Travels" Plot summary: A shipwrecked travel writer is a giant in Lilliput, land of little people. Starring: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Billy Connolly . DECEMBER 25 . "The Illusionist" Plot summary: An aging magician bonds with a young fan who believes his tricks are real magic. Starring: Voices of Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin and Didier Gustin . DECEMBER 29 . "Another Year" Plot summary: A happy middle-aged couple are hit with life's highs and lows over the span of four seasons, including embracing their son's newly discovered partner and enduring an unexpected death in the family. Starring: David Bradley, Jim Broadbent, Karina Fernandez and Oliver Maltman . "Biutiful" Plot summary: A crook with a terminal illness tries to set his affairs in order. Starring: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Hanaa Bouchaib and Diarytou Daff . "Casino Jack" Plot summary: Kevin Spacey stars as Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose greed and corruption get him in a heap of legal hot water. Starring: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Jon Lovitz and Kelly Preston . "The Debt" Plot summary: Past events haunt a former Mossad agent when she returns to Eastern Europe to investigate the apparent reappearance of a Nazi war criminal she thought was long dead. Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Jesper Christensen . "The Way Back" Plot summary: This drama follows a group of soldiers who escaped from a Siberian gulag in 1940. Starring: Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan and Ed Harris . "Wild Target" * Limited release . Plot summary: A respected hit man is thinking about retirement and starting a family when he meets a beautiful thief who may shake up his plans. Starring: Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint . DECEMBER 31 . "Blue Valentine" Plot summary: A love story centered on a couple who try to save their marriage amidst the romantic memories of their past. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams and John Doman .

With a crop of new releases, Hollywood hopes 2010 will go out with a bang . Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp tangle in "The Tourist" Garrett Hedlund gets pulled into the cyberworld of Tron in "Tron: Legacy"